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The last appearance of Andrew is before the Passover Festival in Jerusalem, after the triumphal entry on the first Palm Sunday. Some Greeks came up to Phillip with the request, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus”. Philip told his friend Andrew, and together they told Jesus. Andrew once again seems to have been the willing witness and missionary, introducing first his own brother, Peter, then the boy with the loaves and fishes, and finally a Gentile delegation to Jesus.

From this evidence alone, the Character of Andrew emerges with some clarity. He is identified as “the brother of Simon Peter”. Again, although he was called “the first called” and introduced his brother to Jesus, he was rarely included within the “inner circle”. Compared with his bombastic brother, Andrew emerges as a sensitive and approachable man who always had time and patience to listen to enquiries, even from children and foreigners. He was a selfless and considerate man who did not resent the leadership of his brother. Although himself a Jew, he enables Greeks to meet Jesus and he has been called the first “Home-Missionary” as well as the first “foreign” missionary of the Christian Church.

From the 2nd C, a whole series of apocryphal Acts concerning Andrew appear, most are pious fables and contribute little to the character found in the canonical Gospels. The “Acts of Andrew and Mattias”, probably a 6th c. work, describe his activities in “the town of cannibals”, also referred to as “the town of dogs”. There follow the “Acts of Paul and Andrew”, such diverse and numerous “Acts” may preserve the simple historian kernel of fact that Andrew and one other apostle preached the Gospel among people. There is at least a possibility that for part of Andrew’s mission, his companion was his brother Peter.

The early tradition of the scattering of the apostles and the allocation of their missionary fields, within the Eleona cave on the Mount of Olives, mentions Scythia as Andrew’s region of responsibility. The “Father of Church History”, Eusebius (270-339) confirms this.

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Now Scythia was the classical term for the wild steppelands beyond the Carpathians and the Caucasus, that is, the territory to the north-east of the Roman Empire, which is today part of South Russia – beyond the Danube and north of the Black Sea. The Scythians were colloquially the uncivilised “barbarians”; Josephus describes them as “little different from wild beasts” (Contra Apion 2.37).

Certainly in that area there were no Jewish colonies or synagogues to form a basis for a Christian mission and the savage populace might figuratively be described as a “town of cannibals” or “town of dogs”. Peter’s first letter within the New Testament is addressed to “Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” which together with Sinope, border on Scythia to the south of the Black Sea.

Perhaps it is not surprising that these crude and primitive should link the mission of the two brothers, and in the area indicated by Peter’s own correspondence, within the New Testament canon.

The second tradition places the sphere of Andrew’s mission in Greece. The anonymous 2nd “Acts of Andrew” relate his journey from Pontus, his landing in Achaia, his journey to Macedonia, his sailing to Byzantium, and his return through Thrace and Perinthus to Philippi and Thessalonica where, although thrown to wild beasts in the stadium, Andrew somehow survived.

There he had a vision of his brother Peter saying to him, “Draw near to me, stretch out thy hands so as to join them unto mine, and put thy head by my head. I am the word of the cross whereon thou shalt hang shortly, for his name’s sake”.

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…….”to such a man”, and say unto him …

18. My time is at hand, I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples.

19. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and they made ready the passover.

20. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.

21. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.

22. And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?

23. And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

25. Then Judas, which betrayed him.

To be sold as a collection ( ROL13-18) £5000 ono

ROL009 - Robert Lenkiewicz
Size is 75cm x 100cm
Price on application

ROL010 - Robert Lenkiewicz
Size is 75cm x 73cm
Price on application

By order of our client, this painting is now reduced to £11,000.
Fantastic bargain

ROL011 'Marc and Harriet' - by Robert Lenkiewicz
Oil on canvas
Size is 28" x 36"
Framed