Philip

Philip the Apostle was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. The principal New Testament witness to his life is the Gospel of John, which states that he came from Bethsaida, a town on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee that was also the home of Andrew and Peter. According to John 1:43–46, Jesus found Philip and called him to follow. Philip then sought out Nathanael, announcing that they had found the one of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets had written, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph. When Nathanael doubted that anything good could come from Nazareth, Philip answered, Come and see. The Synoptic Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles list Philip among the Twelve but add no further narrative about him. Precise years of birth and death are unknown; he belongs to the first century.

In John’s Gospel Philip appears at several theologically significant moments. Before the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus asked him where bread might be bought for the crowd; Philip replied that two hundred denarii would not buy enough for each to have a little (John 6:5–7). When some Greeks who had come to worship at Passover wished to see Jesus, they approached Philip, who in turn told Andrew, and the two went to Jesus (John 12:20–22). At the Last Supper Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied, and Jesus answered that whoever had seen him had seen the Father (John 14:8–9). These episodes present Philip as a practical, somewhat literal-minded disciple through whom the evangelist develops themes of revelation and faith. The New Testament is silent about his later career, his death, and any family he may have had.

Later Christian tradition located Philip’s missionary work and death in Asia Minor, especially at Hierapolis in Phrygia. Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in the early fourth century, quoted a letter of Polycrates of Ephesus (late second century) that placed the grave of Philip, one of the twelve apostles, at Hierapolis and mentioned daughters of Philip buried there and at Ephesus. Acts 21:8–9, however, describes Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven deacons, as living at Caesarea with four unmarried daughters who prophesied. Most modern historians conclude that Polycrates or his informants conflated the apostle with the evangelist, and that the Hierapolis tradition cannot be treated as a secure biography of the apostle. Apocryphal texts such as the Acts of Philip, generally dated to the fourth or fifth century, recount journeys, miracles, and a martyrdom at Hierapolis—sometimes by crucifixion, in some versions inverted—but they are legendary in character and are not used as historical sources for his life.

The liturgical cult of the Apostle Philip is ancient. In the Roman rite he has for many centuries been celebrated jointly with James the Less; their feast, long kept on 1 May, is now observed on 3 May. The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates him on 14 November. He is honored as a patron of Luxembourg and of Uruguay and is invoked by hatters and pastry chefs, among other local and occupational dedications. Excavations at Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale in Turkey) have revealed a martyrion and church complex associated in Byzantine and later tradition with Saint Philip, yet the identification of any tomb as that of the apostle remains a matter of piety rather than demonstrated fact. He was not bishop of Rome, nor patriarch of an Eastern see, and he belonged to no later religious order. Because he belongs to the apostolic age, veneration of Philip arose by ancient cult rather than by a medieval or modern process of beatification or canonization.