The Two Philips

The New Testament knows two men named Philip, and the whole later tradition of the apostle depends on keeping them apart: Philip the Apostle, one of the Twelve (John 1:43–46; 6:5–7; 12:20–22; 14:8–9), and Philip the Deacon and Evangelist, one of the Seven, who preached in Samaria, baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, and settled at Caesarea with four prophesying daughters (Acts 6:5; 8:5–40; 21:8–9). This file sets out the distinction, shows why it matters, and exposes the confusion of the two that was already at work in the second-century sources — the collection’s central source-critical problem.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

Two Men, One Name

The first Philip is the apostle of the present collection: a Galilean of Bethsaida, called early by the Lord with “Follow me,” numbered among the Twelve in every list (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13), and given a voice only in the Gospel of John (see Philip of Bethsaida). After Pentecost the canonical record says nothing further of him; his later story is tradition.

The second Philip enters in Acts. When the Hellenist widows are neglected in the daily distribution, the Twelve direct the choosing of seven men to serve tables, and “they chose Stephen . . . and Philip” (Acts 6:5; KJV). This Philip is not one of the Twelve — he is appointed precisely so that the Twelve may continue in prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:2–4). After Stephen’s death and the scattering of the Jerusalem church, “Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them” (Acts 8:5), worked signs, and was the occasion of the episode of Simon Magus (Acts 8:9–24). An angel then sends him to the Gaza road, where he meets and baptizes the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26–39), after which “Philip was found at Azotus” and preached through the cities to Caesarea (Acts 8:40). Years later Paul lodges with him there: “we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy” (Acts 21:8–9; KJV).

So the canonical data are clear and clean. The apostle is one of the Twelve; the evangelist is one of the Seven. The apostle is from Bethsaida; the evangelist works in Samaria, on the Gaza road, and at Caesarea. The apostle has no daughters in Scripture; the evangelist has four prophesying daughters. Luke himself marks the second man with a title — “Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven” (Acts 21:8) — evidently to forestall confusion with the apostle.

Why the Distinction Matters

The distinction is not pedantry. It bears directly on the most important traditional claim about the apostle: his life and death at Hierapolis in Phrygia. The earliest patristic witnesses to a Philip at Hierapolis speak of a Philip with daughters — and daughters are precisely the mark of the evangelist in Acts, not of the apostle. If the early sources have silently transferred the evangelist’s daughters to the apostle, or have confused the two men outright, then the Hierapolis tradition rests on a tangle that must be carefully unpicked rather than simply accepted (see The Mission and, in full, The Conflation Problems).

The Confusion in the Early Sources

The confusion is not a modern discovery; it is built into the earliest evidence. The chief witnesses are gathered by Eusebius of Caesarea in the Ecclesiastical History, and they do not speak with one voice.

Polycrates of Ephesus, writing to Victor of Rome about the date of Pascha (c. 190), lists the great lights of Asia who “fell asleep” there, and names “Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis, and his two aged virgin daughters, and his other daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus” (Polycrates, in Eusebius, HE 3.31.3 and 5.24.2; trans. NPNF II/1). Polycrates plainly calls him “one of the twelve apostles” — yet gives him daughters, the mark of the evangelist. [Disputed: whether Polycrates' "Philip, one of the twelve apostles" with daughters at Hierapolis is the Apostle Philip (so the title), Philip the Evangelist of Acts 21:8–9 misremembered as an apostle (so the daughters; Lightfoot, *Colossians and Philemon*, 1875, and many moderns), or a figure in whom the two were already fused by the late second century (Bauckham, *Jesus and the Eyewitnesses*, 2006) is genuinely contested; Eusebius himself reproduces the notice without resolving it.]

Papias of Hierapolis (early second century), as Eusebius reports, “relates . . . a wonderful story which he had received from the daughters of Philip” — among them the raising of a dead man and the surviving of a draught of poison by Justus Barsabas (Papias, in Eusebius, HE 3.39.9; trans. NPNF II/1). Here again the daughters of “Philip” are at Hierapolis. Eusebius, just before, has himself written that “Philip the apostle dwelt at Hierapolis with his daughters” (HE 3.39.9), and elsewhere he carefully recalls that the Philip of the daughters in Acts was “Philip the evangelist . . . one of the seven” (HE 3.31.3, quoting Acts 21:8–9 alongside Caius’s mention of the four prophesying daughters at Hierapolis). Eusebius thus has both data before him and does not square them.

Clement of Alexandria, also in Eusebius, names Philip among the apostles who married and had children: “Peter and Philip begat children, and Philip also gave his daughters in marriage” (Clement, in Eusebius, HE 3.30.1; trans. NPNF II/1). Clement clearly means an apostle, since his point is that some of the apostles married — yet “gave his daughters in marriage” sits awkwardly against Polycrates’ “aged virgin daughters.”

Holding the Boundary

How, then, should an Orthodox reader hold the two Philips? The discipline is to keep the canonical boundary firm and to grade the rest. The canonical Philip the Apostle is the man of John’s Gospel, one of the Twelve, with no daughters in Scripture. The canonical Philip the Evangelist is the man of Acts, one of the Seven, with four prophesying daughters. The early tradition that a Philip — with daughters — lived and died at Hierapolis cannot be cleanly assigned to either: it may preserve a genuine memory of the apostle, or of the evangelist, or (most likely on the present evidence) of a figure in whom the two were already merged by the time of Papias and Polycrates. The liturgical and iconographic tradition of the Church venerates the Apostle Philip at Hierapolis on November 14, and venerates Philip the Deacon separately (commemorated October 11 among the Seven, and with the deacons); the present collection follows that liturgical identification while reporting the source-critical tangle honestly, neither concealing it nor letting it dissolve the apostle into his namesake. The full treatment, with the positions named and weighed, is in Section 09 (see The Conflation Problems).

See Also

References

  • The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version and Revised Standard Version. (Acts 6:2–5; 8:5–40; 21:8–9; John 1:43–46.)
  • Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History 3.30, 3.31, 3.39, 5.24. Trans. Arthur C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. 1890. (Clement on the married apostles; Polycrates on Philip at Hierapolis; Papias on the daughters of Philip; the Acts 21 distinction.)
  • Lightfoot, J. B. Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon. London: Macmillan, 1875. (The two Philips and the Hierapolis confusion.)
  • Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. (Papias, Polycrates, and the daughters of Philip.)