Prologue

1This book is the account of the apostles after our Lord and God, Christ, ascended: the synod that they prescribed, which Clement wrote concerning the apostles, and how they established the order of the holy church, which was purchased with his precious blood. They gave it to those who followed them, entered into their calling, and believed in God through their hands, from all the Gentiles and also from the Jews.

2They also instructed their successors after them, the bishops who lived before the Council of Nicaea. These established the law of God, overcame the rebels who opposed righteousness, and gave commandments from the Gospel and from the other books of God. At all times God displayed righteousness through victory and through a manifest word, and he put the rebels to shame with an eternal curse.

3After he rose from the dead, his disciples were scattered through the land of Galilee and the city of Nazareth, where he had commanded them to be. On the fortieth day after his resurrection, they gathered at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Christ was among them, but they did not recognize him in their midst. He appeared to them that day and laid his hand upon the head of each one of his eleven disciples. He blessed them and made them priests in place of the rejected priests of the children of Israel.

4For thus the Lord said by the mouth of the prophet Micah: “O children of Aaron, behold, I have rejected the priesthood of Levi your father, and they shall no longer remember the priesthood of Aaron, for a priest is an angel of the Lord.” And he said in the Gospel: “Behold, I send my angel before your face, who will make straight your way.”

5Then a bright cloud carried him and lifted him from their midst. They watched him intently until he was taken up to heaven before their eyes. They worshiped God because they had seen him ascending into heaven, just as he had told them. They rejoiced with great joy because he had laid his hand upon them and appointed them priests.

6When he was hidden from them, they entered the upper room where they had eaten the Passover with him. They remained there, praying and fasting for ten days. They considered where they should go to call people to faith, but they did not know those people’s languages or understand their speech.

7Peter, who was the head in Christ’s place over all the apostles, and whom Christ had named Simon Peter, said to them: “This work does not belong to us, but to our Lord, who promised us that he would send us the Paraclete, who is the Holy Spirit. He will make us understand everything that we ought to proclaim and do.”

8While Peter was telling them this, behold, they heard a sound like the sound of a violent wind, and they smelled a sweet fragrance unlike any they knew in the world. Tongues of fire appeared among them, descending upon each one of them. They began to speak in a new language for wherever they would go to call people to faith. They were given understanding of what they needed to do and of how they should teach people prayer, worship, law, and order.

9They praised God for what he had enabled them to understand, and they fasted forty days in praise of him. Then they dispersed on journeys to distant places to call people to faith, as Christ had commanded them.

10James, the brother of our Lord, was first in the priesthood and became a preacher, baptizer, and ordainer of priests. He brought to faith all the Jews and the people dwelling in Jerusalem, the land of Palestine and its territories, all the regions of Homs, Caesarea, Samaria, and Arabia. He was appointed over the apostolic church, which is Zion.

11Mark the Evangelist went to Alexandria, Egypt, Nubia, and the land of Ethiopia as far as its extremity. Thomas the Apostle went to India, Sind, and the surrounding regions as far as the Red Sea.

12Simon Kepha, that is, Peter, went to Syria, Antioch, Galatia, as far as Crete, and Pontus. While he was on his mission, news reached him about Simon the magician, who was in the city of Rome and was leading the people astray through his magic and rebellion. Peter went there, and all the people believed through his hand. He baptized them all, and also the people of Antioch and Spain, the countries surrounding them, and all Rome. The Lord destroyed Simon the magician through the supplication and prayer of the holy one. Faith was manifested throughout that whole land through his holiness, purity, and patience.

13John the Evangelist went to Ephesus, Thessalonica, Asia, Tyre, Achaea, and the whole land of Phrygia. Andrew, Simon’s brother, went to Nicaea, Nicomedia, the whole land of [Dinunya], and the territories along its border.

14Luke, the writer of the Gospel, went to [Zanṭiya], [Barqiya], Phrygia, and the surrounding regions, as far as the western lands and the Great Sea.

15Marmari, one of the seventy disciples, went to the island, Persia, the land of Babylon, all the black peoples and those surrounding them, the land of Teman, the islands, and the land of Arabia, among those who dwell in tents, as far as the Sea of Yemen. Akkai, Marmari’s assistant, went through the land of mountains and rivers and through Tarsus, as far as the land of Sind and as far as Gog and Magog.

16The other apostles were sent to the sheep that had been left behind. They called people to faith and baptized them, as our Lord Christ had commanded them, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, until they departed from the world and entered into rest and joy forever.

17Before they separated into the different regions, they established an order and a canon. They commanded those who believed, taught it to them, and strengthened them in it while they were gathered in Zion. Then they separated and taught everywhere those who believed through their hands, from every people, on the journeys wherever they went.