Primary source · Koine Greek / Latin acta
The Letter of Phileas · The Acts of Phileas
Phileas, bishop of Thmuis · c. AD 305–306
What this text is
A lawyer-bishop's eyewitness letter from prison describing the tortures of the Alexandrian martyrs — quoted by Eusebius — with his own trial before Culcianus surviving on an early papyrus.
Profile of Phileas of Thmuis →
Public-domain translations
A. C. McGiffert (NPNF, 1890)
All the martyrs, fixing their eyes upon the grace of Christ, despised the world's tortures, purchasing eternal life at the cost of an hour's pain… scourged, racked, and given at last to the sword, they went to their death as to a victory.
Manuscript witnesses
Papyrus Bodmer XX (Apology of Phileas)
4th c.The trial of Phileas on papyrus within decades of his death — among the oldest martyr-literature manuscripts extant.
Eusebius, Church History VIII.10 (carrier)
c. 325 (medieval copies)Eusebius preserves the letter to the church of Thmuis whole.
P. Chester Beatty XV
4th c.An independent early copy of the Apology, differing tellingly from Bodmer.
Provenance
The prison of Alexandria, c. AD 306 — a bishop's last letter
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- The Acts of Phileas Bishop of ThmuisAlbert Pietersma, 1984Edition of both papyri with translation.
- The Acts of the Christian MartyrsHerbert Musurillo, 1972The Phileas dossier in the standard collection.