Revelation of Stephen

STEPHEN, REVELATION OF, an apocryphal apocalypse mentioned by some of the post-Nicene apologetes as a text popular among the Manichean heretics. No known text of the work is now extant; however, it has been often assumed that it was a recitation or narrative about the reappearance of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. A somewhat similar tale is known from several VSS. The older is that related by a Christian priest, Lucian (c. a.d. 400) who lived in a town near Jerusalem. He is supposed to have had three visitations of Gamaliel which led to the discovery of the bodies of Stephen, Nicodemus and Gamaliel. A number of trs. have been made of the extant fragments of this work (ANF, viii, 575-586; ix, 141-174). A Medieval romance of St. Stephen known only from an Old Church Slavonic VS is also known, but not apparently related to the Manichean text. (See M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament [1924], 564-568; M. S. Enslin, “Stephen, Revelation of,” IDB, vol. 4, 442, 443.)