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Authorship, Date, and Context
The Acts and Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (Acta et Martyrium Matthaei) is an anonymous Christian apocryphon originally composed in Greek. The text claims the authority of the apostle and evangelist Matthew, though critical scholarship identifies recurrent onomastic confusion in ancient manuscripts between Matthew and Matthias, presenting the narrative as a thematic and narrative sequel to the story of Andrew and Matthias among the cannibals.
The date of composition is not firmly established in the sources consulted.
Structure
The text survives in manuscript witnesses as a single uninterrupted narrative in 1 chapter, subdivided modernly into thirty-three sections in the critical editions of Tischendorf and Bonnet.
The plot progresses through four distinct dramatic phases: the initial mountaintop theophany, where Christ appears as a radiant singing child from paradise and commissions Matthew with a miraculous rod to enter the cannibal city of Myrna; the arrival at Myrna, where Matthew is received by Bishop Plato and plants the rod, which instantaneously develops into a towering tree pouring out sweet fruits and living waters that tame the man-eaters' bestial appetites; the confrontation with King Fulvanus, ignited by the healing and ascetical conversion of the queen, the prince, and his wife; and the fiery ordeal on the shore, wherein flames bypass Matthew to pursue the royal idols, culminating in Matthew's peaceful demise and Fulvanus's complete repentance, abdication, and elevation to the episcopate.
Themes and Key Passages
The dominant theological themes illustrate the regenerative power of baptism prefigured in the miraculous tree's cleansing streams and fruit, Christ's supreme victory over demonic forces represented by Asmodeus, the spiritual inviolability of the martyr's body against brutal state persecution, and the profound transformation of tyrannical pagan persecutors into humble ecclesiastical shepherds.
Notable episodes include Christ's appearance as an angelic child singing heavenly melodies to Matthew; the metamorphosis of the cannibals who eat of the paradisiacal tree and receive human discernment; the scene where the sulfurous pyre morphs into a dragon of fire that drives the king into terror and incinerates his golden idols; and Matthew's final prophecy to Bishop Plato that King Fulvanus, renamed Matthew, would succeed him in the see of Myrna, completing his earthly course on the sixteenth of November.
Summary by Parts
The paradise child and the tree of life at Myrna: Praying barefoot upon a mountain, Matthew encounters Jesus in the guise of a radiant child singing heavenly hymns. The child bestows upon him a rod, instructing him to plant it beside the church founded with Andrew in Myrna, the land of the man-eaters. Met by Bishop Plato and the clergy, Matthew plants the staff, which immediately springs up into the clouds, bearing honeyed fruits and sending forth rivers of sweet water. The famished cannibals partake of the nourishment and immerse themselves in the streams, losing their savage thirst for human flesh and embracing baptism and civilized life.
Royal deliverances, demon Asmodeus, and Fulvanus's anger: Matthew casts out the demon Asmodeus, who tormented Queen Fulvana, the king's son, and his daughter-in-law Erva. Restored and baptized, the royal family embraces chaste monastic devotion within the church. Enraged by his household's renunciation of marital cohabitation and denouncing Matthew as an impostor and sorcerer, King Fulvanus dispatches soldiers to apprehend him; however, successive imperial troops are struck blind or frightened by angelic phantoms. The king marches in person and orders Matthew pinned to the beach with iron spikes.
Apostolic martyrdom and the royal bishop of Myrna: Matthew is coated with paper steeped in oil, brimstone, and pitch, and set ablaze. The apostle prays unharmed while the fire coalesces into a terrible fiery serpent that chases the king to his palace and reduces the imperial gold and silver idols to ash. Matthew commendeth his spirit peacefully to God. Stricken with remorse, Fulvanus casts the apostolic remains into the sea inside a heavy lead coffin, pledging to believe if God retrieves it; the casket is miraculously brought ashore by ocean currents to the cathedral gates. Overwhelmed, Fulvanus is baptized as Matthew, abdicates his throne, and three years after Bishop Plato's death, is consecrated bishop of Myrna.
Reception
The Acts and Martyrdom of Matthew was never admitted into the New Testament canon, being classified by patristic and medieval authorities among the non-canonical apostolic legends intended for devotional reading. Although formally proscribed alongside other pseudo-apostolic romances by Western decrees such as the Decretum Gelasianum, the story circulated widely across the Byzantine sphere, supplying rich iconography for the Menologion of Basil II and later ecclesiastical chronicles by Nicephorus Callistus.
The manuscript transmission comprises dozens of medieval Greek copies, including Vaticanus Graecus 866 (11th century) and Vindobonensis Theologicus Graecus 34 (12th century). It enjoyed broad ecumenical popularity across Christian communities through ancient translations in Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic (in the Gadla Hawaryat), Armenian, and Church Slavonic. The editio princeps of the Greek text was published by Constantin von Tischendorf in 1851 (Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha), revised by Max Bonnet in 1898, and translated into English by Alexander Walker in 1870 for the Ante-Nicene Fathers collection.
Sources
- Alexander Walker; Alexander Roberts; James Donaldson, Acts and Martyrdom of St. Matthew the Apostle (1870).
- Tony Burke; Slavomír Čéplö; NASSCAL, Acts of Matthew (2023).
- StudyLight.org; Alexander Walker, Acts and Martyrdom of Matthew (2022).