Armenian Apocrypha
While at the AELAC meeting in Dole I picked up a book on Armenian Apocrypha (Calzolari Bouvier, V., J-D. Kaestli, and B. Outtier, eds. Apocryphes arménians: Transmission, traduction, création, iconographie. Actes du colloque international sur la literature apocryphe en langue arménienne [Genève, 18-20 septembre 1997]. PIRSB 1. Lausanne 1999). The book contains some interesting essays. Here is the table of contents:
V. Calzolari Bouvier, “En guise d’introduction: quelques réflexions sur le role de la literature apocryphe dans l’Arménie chrètienne ancienne (9-18)
M. E. Stone, “Two Armenian Manuscripts and the Historia sacra” (21-36)
A. Orengo, “Frammenti di testi apocrifi nei primi libri armeni a stampa” (37-52)
V. Calzolari Bouvier, “Un projet de répertoire des manuscrits arméniens contenant les texts apocryphes chrétiens” (53-70)
Ch. Burchard, “Character and Origin of the Armenian Version of Joseph and Aseneth” (73-90)
S. P. Cowe, “Text Critical Investigation of the Armenian Version of Third Corinthians” (91-102)
Th. M. van Lint, “Grigor Narekac‘i’s Tal Yarut‘ean. The Throne Vision of Ezekiel in Armenian Art and Literature I” (105-127)
B. Outtier, “Une forme enrichie de la Légende d’Abgar en arménien” (129-145)
A. Hultgård, “The Vision of Enoch the Just and Medieval Apocalypses” (147-158)
N. Stone, “Apocryphal Stories in Armenian Manuscripts” (161-169)
L. Zakarian, “La miniature du Vaspourakan et les apocryphes” (171-178)
N. Thierry, “Images cappadociennes atypiques du procès du Christ. L’intervention de la femme de Pilate – Le Christ en gloire – Caïphe deicide” (179-187)
Of particular interest is the piece by Calzolari Bouvier describing the difficulties working with the poorly catalogued material. It provides also a preliminary list of Armenian apocrypha including two curiously titled unedited (well, unpublished as of 1999) texts: “The Infancy of John the Baptist” and the “History of Mary Magdalene.” Outtier’s article on the Abgar Correspondence is also interesting because it provides the text and translation of an expanded Abgar letter with the story of the 30 pieces of silver given to Judas (mentioned in a previous post HERE).
Armenian material is generally a problem, isn’t it? I think we could really do with some mechanism to bring to light what exists in that language.
I know that I don’t have a clear idea of where manuscripts might be found in Armenian (outside the Matenadaran in Yerevan).
We could really do with something to tell us just what exists. Catalogues would be a good start, I think.
It would be nice if someone would actually translate this material into a modern language , preferably in an interlineal text so we could be certain that it is an honest translation.
The traditions out side the Latin and Greek seem to have been deliberately ignored, are the religiously orthodox “scholars’ afraid of making something heretical available to the general unwashed public?
I for one would like to be able to see if the Armenian and Coptic stories about John have any similarities.
I’ve started my own website featuring hard-to-find Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. I feature almost 200 texts. And yes, I have posted The Armenian Seventh Vision of Daniel and Vision of Enoch the Just. As far as I know, my site is the only site with those translations. Check it out at: http://rejectedscriptures.weebly.com/index.html. Spread the word. Also, I do take solicited manuscripts and photos through my e-mail. I have also translated a few texts like The Book of Raziel and Book of Veles. Maybe we can all work together in getting these texts out there whether they are legitimate or not.
LATE NOTICE: I also have a few Slavonic Apocrypha on my site. Documents like : ADAM OCTIPARTITE, LIFE OF MOSES, HOMILY OF ADAM IN HADES and many others. If you are interested in such documents, you can study the English versions on my site. They’re not perfect because I had to translate them from Russian and Ukrainian.