Apocryphicity
A Blog Devoted to the Study of Christian Apocrypha
VIA LARRY HURTADO'S BLOG: Larry comments on the second episode of BBC's The Bible Hunters (HERE). This episode focuses on discoveries of apocryphal texts (the Nag Hammadi Library and Oxyhrynchus). I'll make some comments on it as soon as I get my (virtual) hands on a copy.
Several years ago I came across a text described in a manuscript catalog as “On the Funeral of Jesus.” I worked up an edition and translation of the text for the 2010 workshop in Winnipeg on Acta Pilati traditions. At the time, several sentences in the text were difficult to reconstruct and translate; so I put it aside, expecting someday to get back to it. The years went by, but now I have finally returned to the text and solved most of the remaining problems.
The text is an untitled, two-page excerpt found in a fourteenth/fifteenth-century Greek manuscript. It appears to derive from a sermon that draws upon the Acta Pilati traditions, particularly the Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea. The text is difficult to read, due to scribal misspellings (itacisms), abbreviations, and manuscript damage. It begins midsentence with Pilate (it seems) granting Joseph the body of Jesus. Nicodemus hears of this and asks to join Joseph in preparing the body. Then Joseph and Nicodemus speak. Joseph remarks that a “counterfeit” appeared in the burial shroud of “the stranger.” Presumably this “stranger” is Jesus, but this counterfeit (perhaps “image”) is perplexing. Joseph says that he and the stranger (a ghostly Jesus?) appeared outside of the synagogue while the priests were asking why Jesus’ relatives were not burying him. They mention also “dead (dying?) strangers” coming in to Jerusalem at Jesus’ death (perhaps a reference to the resurrected saints of Matthew 27:52-53).
Nicodemus tells Joseph not to worry and that he …
Brandon Hawk, a student working on Anglo-Saxon apocrypha at the University of Connecticut, has posted to his blog this excellent review of my book Secret Scriptures Revealed (excellent because it's so positive!). Thanks Brandon.
VIA LARRY HURTADO'S BLOG: Larry Hurtado is among the scholars interviewed for BBC's two-part series "Bible Hunters." He offers some reflections on the first episode HERE. The home page for the series at BBC includes two clips from the first episode—one of these is about the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. The second episode apparently covers discoveries of apocryphal texts, such as the Nag Hammadi. Alas, no word yet on broadcast in North America.
VIA Paleojudaica: Egypt's Mysterious Monastery Hides Ancient Secrets by Teresa Levonian Cole in Spear's Magazine (made available here via AINA. Among the many finds at Deir al-Surian (the Monastery of the Syrians) is the earliest manuscript witness to the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (purchased by the British Library; catalogued as Add. 14484). The manuscript also contains portions of the Infancy Gospel of James and the Assumption of the Virgin.
The 2014 réunion de l'AELAC will take place August 29-31 at the Centre culturel Saint Thomas in Strasbourg. Traditionally (indeed for over 25 years) the réunion has taken place at Mont Roland in Dole. But the centre has closed its doors, so AELAC has found a new home for their annual gathering. Visit the AELAC site for news on the programme as it develops (www.aelac.org).
VIA LARRY HURTADO: "Jesus' Wife" Fragment: Latest Developments
Rumour has it that the ink is not modern. Of course, this won't silence those who want it to be a forgery.
As mentioned in my previous post, I will be appearing at University of Toronto on Monday as part of a series led by their Seminar for Culture and Religion in Antiquity. The title of the paper is, "What Do We Mean by ‘The Bible’? Re-imagining Canon for the Twenty-first Century." My interest in the canon has been developing over the last year through writing Secret Scriptures Revealed, reading several of Lee Martin McDonald’s books on canon (and working with Lee for last year’s York Christian Apocrypha Symposium), and in the development of the latest iteration of my class The History of the Bible.
This year the students were required to read two books on canon, McDonald’s The Origin of the Bible: A Guide for the Perplexed (London/New York: T & T Clark, 2011) and Michael J. Kruger’s Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 2011), and prepare a paper comparing the authors’ positions on the formation of the Bible. I wanted the students to be acquainted with two perspectives on canon formation: one historical-critical, one theological. This is a strategy I often use in my courses, so that students come away from the classes with more than just the general scholarly consensus found in their textbooks. Using Kruger also reflects my work on apologetic responses to the recent increase of interest in Christian Apocrypha (see, e.g., “Heresy Hunting in the New Millennium,” SBL Forum, 2008 and a number of Apocryphicity …