Andrew the Apostle

ANDREW THE APOSTLE: One of the twelve apostles, brother of Peter; born, like him, in Bethsaida (John i. 40, 44), and a member of Peter’s family in Capernaum (Mark i. 29). According to John i. 35-42, Andrew was one of the first to follow Jesus in consequence of the testimony of the Baptist, and he brought Peter to the Lord. In Jesus’s later choice of disciples in Galilee Peter and Andrew were the first whom he called to follow him permanently and intimately (Matt. iv. 18-20; Mark i. 16-18). It is not therefore without good reason that the Greeks give to Andrew the epithet “the first called.” According to the Acta Andreæ (Tischendorf, Acta apostolarum apocrypha, Leipsic, 1851, pp. xl. sqq., 105 sqq.; R. A. Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten, i., Brunswick, 1883, 543 sqq.), he labored in Greece; according to Eusebius (Hist. eccl., iii. 1), in Scythia, whence the Russians worship him as their apostle. His day is Nov. 30, because, according to tradition, he was crucified on that day at Patræ in Achaia by the proconsul Ægeas upon a crux decussata (X, hence known as St. Andrew’s cross; cf. Fabricius, Codex apocryphus, Hamburg, 1703, pp. 456 sqq.). The name Andrew, although Greek, was common among Jews (Dio Cassius, lxviii. 32).

(K. Schmidt).

Bibliography: DB, i. (1898) 92-93, contains a résumé of the contents of apocryphal literature; the reference to Lipsius in the text points to the fullest discussion of this literature; Harnack, Litteratur, i. 127-128; DCB, i. 30.