01 — Foundations
The ground on which everything else stands: who the Apostle Philip of Bethsaida was, the shape of his brief but theologically weighted Gospel portrait, and the single distinction without which the whole tradition collapses into confusion — the difference between Philip the Apostle, one of the Twelve, and Philip the Deacon and Evangelist of Acts 6, 8, and 21. Almost nothing of Philip’s biography survives apart from the Fourth Gospel and the apostle-lists; these files establish what can be said and how securely, and they set the boundary that the rest of the collection depends upon.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)
Philip belongs to the inner circle of the Twelve and to the first hours of the Gospel: he is among the earliest called, a man of Bethsaida by the Sea of Galilee, the townsman of Peter and Andrew (John 1:43–44). The Synoptics name him in their lists and say no more; it is the Gospel of John that gives him a voice, and that voice is consistently the voice of a man who reckons, weighs, and asks — and whose asking draws out the Lord’s deepest answers. This section introduces the Gospel Philip and then takes up, at the outset, the source-critical problem that shadows his entire later record: the confusion of the apostle with his deacon namesake, a confusion already at work in the second-century sources and never cleanly resolved in antiquity.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Philip of Bethsaida | Philip among the Twelve: his origin in Bethsaida (John 1:44), his place in the apostle-lists (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13), the consistent pairing with Bartholomew, the Greek name “Philip,” and the shape of the Johannine portrait — the apostle who calculates and questions and is answered. |
| The Two Philips | The indispensable distinction between Philip the Apostle and Philip the Deacon and Evangelist (Acts 6:5; 8:5–40; 21:8–9, with his four prophesying daughters); how the two were already conflated in antiquity (Polycrates and Papias in Eusebius, HE 3.31, 3.39, 5.24); and how to hold the boundary. |
See Also
- Come and See — the call of Philip and his calling of Nathanael
- Show Us the Father — the Supper-exchange, the dogmatic heart of the Gospel portrait
- The Conflation Problems — the two Philips and the daughters, handled in full
- Holy Scripture — the canonical boundary that distinguishes the apostle from the deacon
References
- The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version and Revised Standard Version. (John 1:43–46; 6:5–7; 12:20–22; 14:8–9; Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13; 6:5; 8; 21:8–9.)
- Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History. Trans. Arthur C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. 1890. (HE 3.30–31, 3.39, 5.24.)
- Bovon, François, and Christopher R. Matthews. The Acts of Philip: A New Translation. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2012.