More Christian Apocrypha vol. 1: Update

November 13, 2017 by Tony

As some of the readers of Apocryphicity are aware, Brent Landau (University of Texas) and I are working on assembling a new collection of Christian Apocrypha in English entitled New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. The project is a mirror of the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha volumes under preparation by Jim Davila and Richard Bauckham (University of St. Andrews). These volumes collect material that is not included in the edition of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha assembled by James Charlesworth in the 1980s. Where Charlesworth’s volumes focused on early texts of Jewish provenance, the MOTP project seeks to include also medieval and Christian works, as well as new texts and new sources for texts that have surfaced since Charlesworth’s day. The first volume of the MOTP was released just a few months ago; it is available for purchase from Eerdmans. To read more about the project, visit THIS PAGE and see this previous POST.

The MCA project (which has been initiated with Davila and Bauckham’s consent) similarly seeks to collect neglected apocryphal texts. Where MOTP is conceptualized as a supplement to Charlesworth, MCA is an enlargement of the most recent English-language CA collection (but now almost two decades old): J. K. Elliott’s The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford 1991). There is no need to duplicate Elliott’s work, nor is there utility in presenting texts that have been published in other collections (e.g., the Nag Hammadi Library) or recent editions (e.g., Abraham Terrian’s 2008 edition of the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy…

Bible Secrets Revealed Episode 3: The Forbidden Scriptures

December 18, 2013 by Tony

The third and fourth episodes of Bible Secrets Revealed finally saw broadcast in Canada over the weekend. I am particularly interested in these episodes as they focus their attention on non-canonical texts, including 1 Enoch, the Life of Adam and Eve, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and a few others. Though often the discussion of CA in television documentaries leaves much to be desired, BSR deserves credit for their informative and evocative presentation of the material. Of course, it wasn’t perfect.

Episode three, “Forbidden Texts” (a summary from Robert Cargill available HERE), concentrates on two interrelated themes: the political motivation for the selection of texts for the canon (both HB/OT and NT), and the suppression of feminine imagery and figures in early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism. The show opens with mention of the variety of canons (e.g., the 81 books of the Ethiopic church, the expanded OT of Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity); this is a favourite topic of mine and I am pleased to see it discussed. However, there was some imprecision in the delineation of “Apocrypha” (as the term for the Deutero-canonical texts but the narration and accompanying images roughly seguéd into Christian Apocrypha), and the repeated statement that texts were “removed” from the Bible, rather than not selected, was misleading (though perhaps the topic is even more nuanced than that—if a group valued …

Loren Rosson III: “Secret Mark Still Fools People”

December 17, 2013 by Tony

In a post on the Secret Gospel of Mark (HERE), Nashua librarian Loren Rosson III, administrator of The Busybody blog, offers some comments on Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery?, the collection of papers from the 2011 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. I appreciate the attention paid to the book and, though I try to resist responding to reviews (I don't want to be perceived as having thin skin), I wanted to correct a few misstatements in the post.

Rosson obviously supports the theory that Secret Mark is a forgery perpetrated by Morton Smith, the scholar who discovered the manuscript of the text in the Mar Saba monastery. To support his position, Rosson repeats many of the arguments offered by previous scholars–including, the text's apparent "seal of authenticity"; it promotes a "gay Jesus," which reflects Smith's own (unconfirmed) homosexuality; it supports theories Smith had about Jesus before the text's discovery; the so-called "Morton Salt Company" clue; and the connections between Smith's discovery and the James Hunter's 1940 novel, The Mystery of Mar Saba. Given the weight of these arguments, Rosson is surprised that people remain "fooled" by Smith's hoax; indeed, he concludes this section of the post with the comment, "only fools and the willfully obtuse maintain Smith's innocence."

Rosson then turns to his discussion of Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? He focuses most of his attention on Scott Brown's and Allan Pantuck's response to Craig Evans's overview of the theory of forgery, and picks out two rather …

2013 SBL Annual Meeting Diary

November 13, 2017 by Tony

Now that the teaching for this semester is dying down, I have some time, at last, to throw together some reflections on my activities at this year’s Annual Meeting of the SBL. Without further ado…

Day One (November 22):

Arrival in Baltimore via plane, train, and automobile—driving from home in Kitchener to the airport in Buffalo (cheaper than a flight from Toronto) with a transfer in Detroit (that’s right, Detroit) and touchdown in Baltimore, then LTR to my hotel. Nighttime in Baltimore is a little scary. I disembarked the LTR in a part of town that was mostly boarded up and the people on the street looked a bit desperate. My hotel (the Quality Inn) was actually quite nice, but the miniscule size of their sign made it difficult to find. I capped off the evening with a drink and a meal with my York University colleague and SBL roomie Tony Michael.

Day Two

I began my Annual Meeting experience as many of us do with a visit to the registration desk (for name tag) and then a spin around the book display. I had a lunch meeting lined up with Jim Davila, co-editor of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, and had to grab a copy of the book, now finally available after much delay. I also put my name down for the display copy of Roelof van den Broek’s Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, On The Life and the Passion of Christ: A Coptic Apocryphon (discussed previously HERE…

Guest post on Eerwords Blog on Secret Scriptures Revealed

December 5, 2013 by Tony

The North American edition of Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha was released just a few weeks ago by Eerdmans. As part of their marketing strategy, I was asked to contribute a guest post to their blog Eerdwords. So I did two (HERE and HERE). Readers of my own blog may notice that they are somewhat recycled from a series of posts on Apocryphicity about Writing for Non-Specialists (part 3 HERE with links to previous posts). While you are visiting Eerdwords, check out Jim Davila's post (HERE) on his newly-released volume Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Sciptures. It is really gratifying to read the testimonials included on the back cover and opening pages of Eerdmans' SSR. Thank you to Bart Ehrman, Brent Landau, Stephen Shoemaker, Charlie Hedrick, and Nicola Denzey Lewis for all of your support. The testimonials can be read in the catalogue entry for the book; here is what Bart Ehrman had to say:

"Tony Burke has long established himself as a master of the Christian apocrypha, writings that did not make it into the New Testament. With Secret Scriptures Revealed he has made his massive knowledge of the field available to a broad general audience in a readable, informed, and enjoyable overview that will be long cherished by both beginners and devotees."

Nice.

Bible Secrets Revealed: Does it do biblical scholarship more harm than good?

December 3, 2013 by Tony

The much-talked about (on certain biblio-blogs, at least) new documentary series Bible Secrets Revealed finally aired in Canada this past weekend. I may be a bit late to the party on this but, with an episode due December 15 on the Christian Apocrypha, I thought it would be helpful to my readers to bring some attention to the series. While such programs are helpful for bringing scholarship on biblical and nonbiblical texts to a broader audience, I worry, after watching the first episode, that these documentaries are now doing more harm than good.

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I am involved in a documentary that is due to air in November of next year. So I am fully aware that I may be part of the problem. However, my issues with BSR are not with the scholars involved in the program, but with the narrative imposed upon the scholars’ contributions by BSR’s producers.

Bible Secrets Revealed is the creation of Promethus Entertainment, a supplier of a host of docudramas (including Ancient Aliens and America’s Book of Secrets) to the History Channel and other providers. The titles and airdates of the six scheduled episodes of BSR are:

“Lost in Translation” – November 11, 2013 (re-airs in Canada December 13 and 14)“The Promised Land” – November 18, 2013 (December 6 and 7 in Canada)
“The Forbidden Scriptures” – November 25, 2013 (December 15 in Canada)
“The Real Jesus” – December 2, 2013 (December 15 and 16 in Canada)

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