also a great deal of moralising - Andrew causes an embryo which was illegitimate to die, and also rescues a boy from his incestuous mother, an act resulting in her laying false charges against them, requiring God to send an earthquake to free Andrew and the boy. So much does the text venture into the realm of extreme supernatural events, that, while being crucified, Andrew is still able to give sermons for three days. Eusebius of Caesarea knew the work, which he dismissed as the production of a heretic and absurd. Gregory of Tours was delighted to find a copy and wrote a drastically reduced recension of it about 593, leaving out the parts for "which, because of its excessive verbosity, [it] was called by some apocryphal", for which he felt it had been condemned. His free version expunges the detail that the apostle's ascetic preaching induced the proconsul's wife to leave her husband—socially and morally unacceptable to a Merovingian audience— brings the narrative into conformity with catholic orthodoxy of his time, then adds new material. The Acts of Andrew was often classed as a gnostic work before the library of Nag Hammadi clarified modern understanding of Gnosticism. In his book, Christianizing Homer: The Odyssey, Plato, and the Acts of Andrew, Dennis MacDonald posits the theory that the non-canonical Acts of Andrew was a Christian retelling of Homer's Odyssey. Notes References External links Early Christian Writings: M.R. James, editor, 1924. Acts of Andrew The Acts of Andrew The Acts and Martyrdom of Andrew and The Acts of Andrew and Matthew Geoff Trowbridge, The "Whole" Bible Catholic Encyclopedia Andrew Andrew the Apostle 2nd-century Christian texts