Acts of Philip

The Acts of Philip is most completely represented by a text[3] discovered in 1974 by François Bovon and Bertrand Bouvier in the library of Xenophontos monastery on Mount Athos in Greece.

Writing in an open letter to the Society of Biblical Literature: I do not believe that Mariamne is the real name of Mary of Magdalene.

Mariamne is, besides Maria or Mariam, a possible Greek equivalent, attested by Josephus, Origen, and the Acts of Philip, for the Semitic Myriam.

[4] Due to this, the Acts have been proposed to be an Encratite text with Gnostic influences,[10] with Mariamne's clothing reaffirming her resistance against the snake of Eden's seduction of Eve.

[13] Phillip and his companions are sent by Jesus to preach in the city of the Ophianoi, pagans that worship a race of snakes and dragons.

[14] The group crosses various lands in route to the city while exorcizing monsters, which are revealed to be demons, as well as the offspring of the snakes into which the Pharaoh's sorcerers turned their staffs.

[13] Two episodes recounting events of Philip's commission (3 and 8) have survived in both shorter and longer versions.