The narrative recounts that
Jesus sent out a group of followers to spread his message. The followers were
Philip,
Bartholomew, and a woman named Mariamne, who is identified in the text as Philip's sister, and is a leading figure in the second half of the text. They form a community that seems to practice
vegetarianism and
celibacy, Mariamne
wears men's clothes and holds positions of authority comparable to men, serving as a
priest and a
deacon. with Mariamne's clothing reaffirming her resistance against the snake of
Eden's seduction of
Eve. The group travels through pagan lands spreading Christianity by performing powerful miracles, in a series of cycles that has been described to owe "as much to Christian doctrine, which they try to endorse, as they do to the raw material of Eastern and Mediterranean mythology, which they shamelessly exploit." Among their miraculous accomplishments were the conversion of a talking
leopard and a talking
goat into additional companions, 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. After their submission, Phillip turns them into
black men in order for them to build a church before disappearing. The temple and the monster are then sent to the abyss in a final miracle. Two episodes recounting events of Philip's commission (3 and 8) have survived in both shorter and longer versions. There is no commission narrative in the surviving texts: Philip's authority rests on the prayers and benediction of Peter and John and is explicitly bolstered by a divine epiphany, in which the voice of Jesus urges "Hurry Philip! Behold, my angel is with you, do not neglect your task" and "Jesus is secretly walking with him".(ch. 3). == Notes ==