Apocryphicity
A Blog Devoted to the Study of Christian Apocrypha
Roger Pearse, writer/administrator of his eponymous blog, has written a lengthy review of Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate. These are the papers presented at the 2011 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. Read the review HERE. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on the book, Roger. I will offer a response to the review, but I'd be interested in reading other responses first.
Philip Jenkins continues his posts on the Christian Apocrypha at Patheos. The latest focuses on Jewish-Christian Gospels.
One comment on a reading (perhaps) from the Gospel of the Ebionites stands out: Jenkins mentions two Latin manuscripts that share a reading with the Ebionite gospel "with no sense that they were drawing on any weird or marginal sect." Weird? Really?
Jenkins also raises an interesting point about how early copies of the gospels, which contained readings different from the canonical versions we have today, may have looked to medieval Christians: "At least in some cases, when scholars like Epiphanius talked about Jewish Christian gospels – when they gave these documents some name like the Gospel According to the Hebrews – were they actually dealing with nothing more heretical than very early drafts of what became our canonical texts?"
The Association pour l’étude de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne (AELAC) has announced its programme for the 2013 meeting, which will take place June 29-July 1 in Dole, France. Here are the titles of the papers which will be presented this year:
Christoph Markschies, "Überlegungen zum Begriff 'christliche apokryphe Literatur.'"
Caitríona O'Dochartaigh, "L’Histoire de Thècle en irlandais."
Andrey Vinogradov, "Les Actes d'André et de Matthias et leur place dans la tradition apocryphe."
Stephen J. Davis, "The Childhood Deeds of Jesus in Arabic Christian and Muslim Encounter."
Stefan Hagel, "Présentation du logiciel 'Classical Text Editor.'"
Els Rose, "Editing the Virtutes apostolorum: Lectio improbabilior and other editorial principles tried on the Virtutes Simonis et Iudae."
Enrico Norelli, "Un chapitre du commentaire sur l’Apocalypse de Pierre."