The Companions

The later tradition gives Philip two companions in his Phrygian mission: Bartholomew, his fellow apostle (paired with Philip in three of the four lists of the Twelve and, by an old identification, the Nathanael Philip brought to Christ), and Mariamne, named as Philip’s sister, a prominent figure in the apocryphal Acts of Philip. This file sets out who these companions are, where the tradition of their company comes from, and how it must be graded against its (late and largely apocryphal) attestation.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

Bartholomew, the Fellow Apostle

The pairing of Philip and Bartholomew is the oldest of the companion-traditions, and it has a canonical root. In three of the four New Testament lists of the Twelve, the two names stand side by side: “Philip, and Bartholomew” (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; cf. Luke 6:14; KJV). Such pairings in the lists were taken by the early Church to reflect real association, and the missionary companionship of Philip and Bartholomew became a fixed feature of the tradition (see Philip of Bethsaida).

A second strand strengthens the bond. “Bartholomew” is a patronymic — bar-Tolmai, “son of Tolmai” — and the tradition has long identified Bartholomew with Nathanael, the seeker whom Philip himself brought to Christ in the Fourth Gospel with the words “Come and see” (John 1:45–46). Nathanael appears in John but not in the Synoptic lists; Bartholomew appears in the Synoptic lists but not in John; and the two are joined in John precisely to Philip — so the identification, while not stated in Scripture, is natural and ancient (see Come and See). [Disputed: the identification of Bartholomew with the Nathanael of John 1:45–46 is a traditional inference, widely held but not asserted by the biblical text; some scholars keep them distinct.] If the identification holds, then Philip’s companion in mission is the very man Philip first brought to the Lord — a fitting symmetry the tradition has cherished.

The fuller narrative of Bartholomew’s company with Philip at Hierapolis comes from the apocryphal Acts of Philip, where Bartholomew accompanies Philip and Mariamne to the city of the serpent-cult and shares in the apostle’s sufferings (see The Acts of Philip). In the synaxaria and the iconography, Bartholomew is regularly Philip’s fellow-laborer in Phrygia; in some forms of the martyrdom tradition he is crucified alongside Philip and then taken down alive (see The Martyrdom). The Church venerates Bartholomew in his own right as one of the Twelve, with his own mission and martyrdom traditions; the present collection treats him only as Philip’s companion and refers the reader to the dedicated treatment of his life.

Mariamne, Named the Sister of Philip

The second companion belongs almost entirely to the apocryphal record. In the Acts of Philip, the apostle travels with his sister Mariamne (also given as Mariamne/Mariamene), who is a prominent figure in her own right: she preaches and baptizes alongside the apostles, wears men’s clothing for the journey, and in some manuscripts is assigned an office in the encratite community of the text (Bovon and Matthews, The Acts of Philip, 2012, introduction; Acta Philippi, ed. Bovon, Bouvier, Amsler, 1999). Her role is one of the most distinctive features of the Acts, and it has drawn modern scholarly attention precisely as a witness to the prominence of women in the encratite circles that produced the text.

Mariamne must be handled with particular care, on two grounds. First, she is almost entirely apocryphal: she has no canonical existence whatever — Scripture nowhere names a sister of the Apostle Philip — and her portrait belongs to the fourth-century, encratite Acts of Philip, with its heterodox theology (see Assessing the Apocrypha). Second, the name “Mariamne” has been the occasion of modern confusion and sensationalism, being variously connected by some writers to Mary Magdalene and to the Gospel of Mary; these connections are speculative and are not part of the Church’s tradition. [Disputed: the identity and historicity of the Mariamne of the Acts of Philip are uncertain; she is an apocryphal figure with no canonical attestation, and modern attempts to identify her with Mary Magdalene (e.g. in connection with the so-called "Jesus Family Tomb") are speculative and rejected by most scholars (Bovon and Matthews, 2012).] The honest statement is that Mariamne is a figure of the apocryphal Philip-tradition, valuable as a witness to fourth-century encratite Christianity and its prominent women, but not a historically secured companion of the apostle.

Grading the Companion-Tradition

The two companions stand on very different footing, and the methodology requires saying so plainly (METHODOLOGY §3.5). Bartholomew has a canonical anchor — the repeated pairing in the lists of the Twelve, and the plausible identification with Nathanael whom Philip brought to Christ — so that his association with Philip, while developed and embellished in the apocrypha, rests on a genuine New Testament foundation. Mariamne has no such anchor: she is an apocryphal figure of the Acts of Philip, to be reported as a witness to the tradition that produced her but not asserted as a historical sister of the apostle. The Church’s veneration honors the apostolic companionship of Philip and Bartholomew; it does not canonize the narrative details of the Acts, whether the talking animals, the dragon-cult, or the particulars of Mariamne’s office.

Held with this discipline, the companion-tradition tells us something true and something to be weighed. The true thing is the ancient, canonically-rooted bond of Philip and Bartholomew, two of the Twelve associated in the lists and joined in the Fourth Gospel, remembered together as laborers and (in tradition) sufferers in Phrygia. The thing to be weighed is the apocryphal embroidery — Mariamne, the serpent-cult, the wonders — which belongs to the Acts of Philip and is taken up, reported and assessed, in the next section (see The Acts of Philip).

See Also

References

  • The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14; John 1:45–46.)
  • Bovon, François, and Christopher R. Matthews. The Acts of Philip: A New Translation. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2012. (Mariamne and Bartholomew in the Acts; the assessment of the Mariamne–Magdalene speculation.)
  • Bovon, François, Bertrand Bouvier, and Frédéric Amsler, eds. Acta Philippi: Textus. Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum 11. Turnhout: Brepols, 1999.
  • The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church: November. Buena Vista, CO: Holy Apostles Convent. (Philip and Bartholomew in the synaxarion.)