The ''Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles'', also known as the Sonnini Manuscript, is a short text purporting to be the translation of a manuscript containing the 29th chapter of the
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its messag ...
, detailing
Paul the Apostle
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
's journey to
Britannia
Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Grea ...
, where he preached to a
tribe of Israelites on "Mount Lud" (
Ludgate Hill
Ludgate Hill is a street and surrounding area, on a small hill in the City of London. The street passes through the former site of Ludgate, a city gate that was demolished – along with a gaol attached to it – in 1760.
The area include ...
), later the site of
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...
, and met with Druids, who proved to him that they were descended from Jews. Thereafter, Paul preached in Gaul and Belgium, and then to Switzerland (Helvetia), where a miraculous earthquake occurred at the site of Pontius Pilate's supposed suicide.
The canonical book of Acts ends rather abruptly with Paul kept under house arrest in chapter 28, which has led to various theories about the history of the text.
This "Lost Chapter" does not explain how Paul escaped or was released from arrest to take up new travels.
History
The text made its first appearance in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1871.
According to the editor, it was translated in the late 18th century by the French
naturalist Sonnini de Manoncourt from a "Greek manuscript discovered in the archives at
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
and presented to him by the
Sultan Abdoul Achmet". It was found hidden in an English translation of Sonnini's ''Voyage en Grèce et en Turquie'' in the library of
Sir John Newport, MP (1756–1843) after his death. However, no trace of any such manuscript has been found, and from internal evidence, mainstream philology considers it to most likely be a fraud, thus it is classed among the
modern pseudepigrapha.
It is available in a 1982 edition by E. Raymond Capt () from Artisan Publishers, Muskogee, which is a publisher specializing in
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
fringe subjects.
Purpose and influence
The purpose of the book was likely to support
Anglo-Israelism.
[Goodspeed, ''op.cit''.] The book has not found attention in recent mainstream publications and is not mentioned on the website of the
British-Israel-World Federation. The influence of that movement has declined.
See also
* ''
St. Paul in Britain
''St. Paul in Britain; or, The origin of British as opposed to papal Christianity'' is a book written by Richard Williams Morgan and published in 1861. The book and others by Morgan had an influencing effect on the development of Neo-Celtic Christi ...
''
References
External links
"Strange New Gospels"by Edgar Godspeed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, The
1871 books
19th-century Christian texts
Apocryphal Acts
British Israelism
Literary forgeries
Modern pseudepigrapha
English-language books