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The ''Acts of John'' is a collection of narratives and traditions concerning John the Apostle inspired by the ''Gospel of John'', long known in fragmentary form. As a description of acts attributed to one of the major apostles who had put their words down into the New Testament, together with the Acts of Paul it is considered one of the most significant of the apostolic Acts in the New Testament apocrypha. ==History== The traditional author was said to be one Leucius Charinus, a companion of John, who was associated with several 2nd century "Acts." Conventionally, the Acts of John was ascribed to Prochorus, one of the Seven Deacons discussed in Acts of the Apostles. "It is difficult to know when the Acts of John was composed, but many scholars locate it to the second half of the second century." It may have originated as a Christianized wonder tale, designed for an urban Hellenic audience accustomed to such things as having one's portrait painted (the setting for one episode), living in that part of the province of Asia. "It is widely recognized that the surviving Acts of John derives from several sources; most scholars recognize that a large portion of the text (chaps. 87–105, or just 94–102) as we now have it was interpolated at a later time into the narrative." The Acts of John was eventually rejected by the orthodox church for its docetic overtones. After this decision made by the Second Council of Nicaea in AD 787, most of the existing copies of the apocryphal book were destroyed, undoubtedly destroying most of the copies in existence at the time. However, although the ''Acts of John'' was condemned as heretical, a large fragment survives in Greek manuscripts of widely varying date. In two medieval Greek versions, the magical survival of John when put to tortures will be familiar to any reader of hagiography: "He was brought before Domitian, and made to drink poison, which did not hurt him: the dregs of it killed a criminal on whom it was tried: and John revived him; he also raised a girl who was slain by an unclean spirit." (James 1924, Introduction). The surviving Latin fragments, by contrast, seem to have been purged of unorthodox content, according to their translator M. R. James: the Latin fragments contain episodes now missing in the Greek. The ''Stichometry of Nicephorus'' gives its length as 2500 lines. An on-line translation () presents the confrontation of John and Domitian during Domitian's persecution of Christians, described as instigated by a letter of complaint from the Jews. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Acts of John」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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