04 — The Mission to Hierapolis
The earliest and best-attested element of Philip’s life after Pentecost: the tradition, running back to the second century, that he ended his days at Hierapolis in Phrygia — preserved by Polycrates of Ephesus and Clement of Alexandria in Eusebius — together with the later tradition of his missionary companions, Bartholomew and his sister Mariamne. These files separate the firm early notice of Hierapolis from the fuller (and more contested) narrative of the companions and the mission’s character, which comes largely from the apocryphal Acts of Philip.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)
That a Philip lived and died at Hierapolis is one of the oldest things the Church remembered about the apostle — older than the Acts of Philip, older than the developed martyrdom narrative — though it is also the very point at which the apostle and the deacon are first confused. The early witnesses (Polycrates, Papias, and Clement, all preserved by Eusebius) place a Philip and his daughters in the Roman province of Asia and at Hierapolis; whether they mean the apostle, the evangelist, or a blend of both is the question Section 09 handles in full. This section sets out the Hierapolis tradition itself and then turns to the companions whom the later tradition gave him — Bartholomew, his fellow apostle, and Mariamne, named his sister — figures who belong chiefly to the apocryphal and synaxarial record and are graded accordingly.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Mission | The earliest tradition of Philip’s apostolate and end at Hierapolis in Phrygia: Polycrates of Ephesus to Victor of Rome (in Eusebius, HE 3.31, 5.24) on “Philip, one of the twelve apostles,” who “sleeps in Hierapolis”; Clement of Alexandria on the married apostles (HE 3.30); the geography of Phrygia and the Lycus valley. |
| The Companions | The later tradition of Philip’s companions: Bartholomew, his fellow apostle, and Mariamne, named as his sister; their place in the synaxaria and the Acts of Philip; and the careful grading of these traditions against their (late) attestation. |
See Also
- The Acts of Philip — the apocryphon that supplies the fullest mission narrative
- The Martyrium Found 2011 — the archaeology of the very site this tradition names
- The Conflation Problems — the two Philips at Hierapolis
- Pre-Schism Church — the world of Roman Asia in which the tradition took shape
- St. Polycarp of Smyrna — the neighboring church of the same Asian world
References
- Eusebius of Caesarea. The Ecclesiastical History. Trans. Arthur C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. 1890. (HE 3.30–31; 5.24, the letter of Polycrates.)
- Bovon, François, and Christopher R. Matthews. The Acts of Philip: A New Translation. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2012.
- Huttner, Ulrich. Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley. Leiden: Brill, 2013. (Hierapolis, Phrygia, and the Philip tradition.)