The Apocalypse of Paul (, literally "Revelation of Paul"; more commonly known in the Latin tradition as the or ) is a fourth-century non-canonical apocalypse and part of the New Testament apocrypha. The full original Greek version of the Apocalypse of Paul is lost, although fragmentary versions still exist. Using later versions and translations, the text has been reconstructed, notably from Latin and Syriac translations of the work.
The text, which is pseudepigraphal, purports to present a detailed account of a vision of Heaven and Hell experienced by Paul the Apostle. While the work was not accepted among Church leaders, it was quite commonly read in the Middle Ages and helped to shape the beliefs of many Christians concerning the nature of the afterlife. Numerous surviving manuscripts in many languages attest to its popularity. In particular, Dante likely was familiar with the work, and it influenced The Divine Comedy.
According to the Apocalypse, Christians will be judged immediately after their death and sent to either heaven or hell based on a report of their deeds from a guardian angel. Monastics such as monks and ascetics receive special attention, with the possibility of both much better and much worse fates than the average Christian based on whether they kept the correct theology, kept to their appointed fasts, practiced what they preached, and so on. At the end of the text, Paul or the Virgin Mary (depending on the manuscript) manages to persuade God to give everyone in Hell a day off every Sunday.
Authorship and date
The author of the work is unknown. The work opens with a discovery narrative that explains that while the Apostle Paul wrote it, the book was then buried beneath the foundations of a house in Tarsus (Paul's hometown) for centuries until an angel ordered the compiler to dig it up. The work claims this discovery happened during the reign of Emperor Theodosius I (reigned 379–395), giving a good estimate of roughly when the narrative appeared. (The Christian author Sozomen wrote that he investigated this claim, and an elderly priest of Tarsus had no recollection of such a bizarre event occurring; rather, it was transparently an attempt to explain how a "new" work of Paul could be published.) The author may have been familiar with 2 Corinthians Chapter 12, where Paul discusses how he knew of a person who visited the third heaven; the work implies that person was Paul himself.
The author of the Apocalypse of Paul was probably Egyptian. Some scholars such as Emiliano Fiori have argued that it was more specifically composed at a Pachomian monastery in Egypt, although other scholars think the evidence is insufficient. Constantin von Tischendorf, M. R. James, Bart Ehrman, Jan N. Bremmer, and others all date it to the late 4th century, perhaps . The text had to exist by 415, as Augustine of Hippo makes a disparaging comment about it in his Tractates on the Gospel of John. A few scholars date the book earlier, to the middle of the 3rd century, and suggest that only the introduction was written in the late 4th century in a "second edition" of the work.
Earlier influences The author seems to be familiar with the "Book of the Watchers" in the Book of Enoch, the Apocalypse of Zephaniah, and the Apocalypse of Peter as influences on the work. Nevertheless, the accounts of Heaven and Hell in the Apocalypse of Paul differ from its predecessors in some major ways. The Apocalypse of Peter was written during a period when Christians were a minority struggling to gain adherents, and tensions with pagans and Jews were a major issue. The Apocalypse of Paul was written much later when Christianity had become the accepted and majority religion of the Roman Empire. As such, much of its focus is not on external issues, but rather issues internal to Christianity. More devout and ascetic Christians will be rewarded additionally in heaven beyond what is given to more passive Christians; Christians who err in some manner, whether by heresy, or a failure to uphold ascetic vows, will be condemned to hell. The text gives little to no discussion to non-Christians, seemingly considering them irrelevant; its Hell is one of punishment for faulty Christians.
As a work written in Greek, the author was likely influenced by the general cultural milieu of Hellenistic philosophy of the era. The world's structure as described seemingly implies that heaven is across a vast ocean at the edges of the world, and similar ideas are seen in other Greek works. More generally, fantastic tales involving Greek gods were often set across the seas as places where difficult-to-verify wild tales could occur, such as the works of Homer (the Odyssey), Plato's Timaeus (featuring the story of Atlantis), and the 2nd-century Lucian of Samosata's satirical A True Story. The Apocalypse of Paul can be seen as something of a Christian update to the trope, although it is far more confident in the truth of its revelations than the less-certain stance of the Greek predecessor works.
The author was likely familiar with the Pauline epistles, most clearly 2 Corinthians due to its mention of someone visiting the third heaven, but also other letters of Paul. Some of the ideas, such as Paul's idea of a purified "body" (soma) for the righteous, clearly influence the Apocalypse. However, the Apocalypse of Paul's theology does not always entirely align with the 1st-century epistles, notably its angelology. Paul's work says nothing of angels being custodians of souls in the afterlife, and indicates instead that believers will be the future judges of angels themselves. The Apocalypse of Paul's names for angels were likely influenced by the Apocalypse of Peter, including Temeluchus and the tartaruchi.
Content The text is primarily focused on a detailed account of Heaven and Hell. The chapters of the Latin manuscript of the text found in Paris are roughly organized as:
1–2. Discovery of the revelation. 3–6. Prologue: Appeal of creation to God against the sin of man. 7–10. The report of the angels to God about the good and wicked deeds of humanity. 11–18. Deaths and judgements of the righteous and the wicked. 19–30. First vision of Paradise. 31–44. Hell. Paul obtains a day of rest on Sunday for the damned. 45–51. Second vision of Paradise.
Other manuscripts differ, such as not including the introductory explanation of the discovery, or omitting the second vision of Paradise.
Introduction: The sinfulness of man After a discovery narrative that explains the work was found under a house in Tarsus, Paul visits the third heaven. There, the sun, moon, stars, sea, and land complain to God of mankind's sinfulness. God has shown forbearance only to allow humanity to convert and repent. Guardian angels monitor men and describe to God these human activities every morning and every night. Paul watches as both a righteous man and a sinner die, and the reports of the dead sinner's watcher angel are used against him. Paul then turns to the gates and is led by the angel into the third heaven, where he meets the prophets Elijah and Enoch, and is given a tour.
Heaven The Apocalypse of Paul goes into considerably more detail than the Apocalypse of Peter on the nature of heaven. In chapters 20–30, heaven has three divisions. "Paradise" is the third heaven and where Paul arrives first, but it is not closely described. Paul then descends into the second heaven afterward, the "Land of Promise", a reinterpretation of the "land of milk and honey" (in heaven, rather than the land of Israel) which is seemingly a holding area for deceased saints who are waiting on the Second Coming of Jesus and the millennial kingdom of God. The Land of Promise is where Jesus will return at the end of time, and is said in some manuscripts to be nebulously to the "east". It is even nicer and more bountiful for ascetics and virgins.
Paul then finds a river or lake, the Acherusian Lake, where the Archangel Michael purifies repentant sinners before allowing them further along. Paul takes a richly decorated boat full of precious metals and stones across it to the first heaven, the "City of Christ". This is where the blessed will reside for eternity, presumably after the millennial age. The city is surrounded by four rivers: a river of honey, a river of milk, a river of wine, and a river of oil. Paul does find some dwelling in the City already, such as the Biblical prophets of Judaism and the patriarchs of the twelve tribes. Outside the city are wailing ascetics who were too proud of their asceticism, and are forced to wait for entry until Christ returns and their pride is appropriately chastened. The city itself is subdivided into twelve layers divided by twelve walls with twelve gates, with things becoming continually better and better the closer to the center inhabitants get. Those who deny themselves physical pleasure in the mortal world are rewarded wildly in the afterlife with better places in the City of Christ, closer to the center.
Finally, after the tour of hell (chapters 31–44), Paul returns to "Paradise" in chapters 45–51, but it is unclear if this means the third layer again, heaven in general, or a new fourth layer. It is identified with Eden, and four rivers flow from a tree in which the Spirit of God rests above the tree since the Creation. There Paul meets other Biblical figures, some of which were described as already being in other layers in the earlier passages. It is possible that this account was originally from a separate story that was combined into the Apocalypse of Paul, as it does not entirely cohere with the earlier vision of Heaven. It also includes an anti-Jewish element: Moses tells Paul that Paul was blessed by God as something of a "replacement" for Moses after the Jews betrayed God by murdering Jesus, one of the only times non-Christians are acknowledged explicitly.
Hell In hell, those punished are Christians who have erred. While some usual sins such as usury, adultery, and women having sex before marriage are condemned, the Apocalypse of Paul goes beyond this. Various "bad" Christians are made to stand in a river of fire, including Christians who left the church and argued; Christians who took the Eucharist but then fornicated; and Christians who "slandered" other Christians while in church. Christians who did not trust in the Lord are buried in deep pits. Christians who failed to pay attention as the word of God was read in Church are forced to gnaw on their tongues eternally. Christians who commit infanticide are torn to shreds by beasts eternally while also on fire. Church leaders and theologians who preached incorrect doctrine or were simply incompetent in their positions are punished with torture. For example, a church reader who failed to implement the word of God he read during church services in his own life is thrown into a river of fire while an angel slashes his lips and tongue with a razor. Unholy nuns are thrown into a furnace of fire along with a bishop as punishment (in one Latin manuscript, likely a later addition). Failed ascetics are also punished; those who ended their fasts before their appointed time are taunted by abundant food and water just out of reach as they lie parched and starving in hell. Those who wore the habit of a monk or nun while failing to show charity are given new habits of pitch and sulphur, serpents are wrapped around their necks, and fiery angels physically beat them. The worst punishments ("seven times worse" than those described so far) are reserved for theologically deviant Christians, such as those who believe that Jesus's Second Coming will be a "spiritual" resurrection rather than a "physical" resurrection, or who deny that Jesus came in the flesh (docetism). The exact nature of their punishment is left to the imagination; an awful stench rises from a sealed well that hints of their torment below.