Réunion annuelle de l’AELAC 2008: A Report

This year’s AELAC (Association pour l’étude de la literature apocryphe chrétienne) réunion took place in Dole, France June 26-28. The association was formed by French and Swiss scholars in 1981 and is responsible for a well-regarded line of critical editions (Corpus Christianorum, Series Apocryphorum), the journal Apocrypha, the Pleiades Apocrypha Collection Études apocryphes chrétiens, and a series of French pocketbook editions of individual texts (La collection de poche apocryphes). The membership of the group has become increasingly international over the years and now includes scholars from across Europe, Russia, and North America. The annual meetings are wonderful opportunities to meet scholars in the field, engage in collaborative endeavours, and hear about new developments in the study of the texts.

Many of the presenters this year were North American, which was somewhat comforting to those of us who do not speak French. Several of the papers dealt with narratives of Jesus’ childhood and infancy, a topic of particular interest to me. Here are some of the highlights of the réunion.

Andrei Vinogradov presented a study of the Acts of Andrew and Matthaias. What was interesting from my perspective was that he informed me later of a Russian manuscript of the text which features a recital of events from Jesus’ life including four stories from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. He promised to send me a copy of his edition of the manuscript. I look forward to seeing where it fits into the Greek tradition of the text.

Reidar Aasgaard presented a summary of his stance on Infancy Thomas from his forthcoming monograph, The Childhood of Jesus: Decoding the Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The paper, called “Hearing With Children: The Infancy Gospel of Thomas as Evidence of Children’s Culture in Late Antique Rural Christianity”, argues “that the Infancy Gospel of Thomas had its Sitz em Leben within a rural middle/lower class village milieu…and that a main audience for the story was early Christian children.” Many of the participants of the reunion took issue with his two arguments, but his paper began a discussion of the text that continued for the next two days. In attendance also was Sever Voicu, who has contributed significantly to scholarship on Infancy Thomas.  He objected sternly to Reidar’s choice of manuscript base for his study: the unpublished 11th-century Sabaiticus 259, a Greek manuscript I also believe to be important.

My paper came next. I contributed a discussion, edition, and translation of Infancy Thomas from Vaticanus Syriacus 159, a manuscript used almost a century ago by Paul Peeters but never published. Again, a valuable discussion followed, though focused more on wider issues relating to Infancy Thomas than the Syriac text in particular.

Stephen Shoemaker followed with his paper, “A New Dormition Fragment in Coptic: P. Vindob K7589 and the Marian Apocryphal Tradition.” This fragment was published by Hans Förster in 2006, at which time he claimed it to be a witness to the earliest form of the Dormition (ca. mid to late second-century). This is a tantalizing prospect but, alas, Stephen proved convincingly that the ninth-century fragment instead “once belonged to an early medieval liturgy collection.”

Two additional papers continued the theme of apocryphal infancy traditions. Cornelia Horn presented on “Syriac and Arabic Perspectives on Jesus’ Childhood: The Book of Mary, the Arabic Apocryphal Gospel of John, and the Rise of Islam.” And Brent Landau shared with us a summary of his doctoral work on a text he calls The Revelation of the Magi which presents itself as the personal testimony of the Magi who visited Jesus in his infancy.

All-in-all, the réunion was fruitful both for the opportunity to discuss work with partners in our field and for the chance to gather with old and new friends.