Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2021
The 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, which runs from November 20 to 23, is a combination of in-person (in sunny San Antonio) and virtual sessions. Apocryphicity continues its tradition of aiding readers plan their SBL schedules by compiling a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha.
1. Christian Apocrypha Section Sessions
S20-209 Christian Apocrypha (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Apocalypses and Christian Apocrypha
Brent Landau, University of Texas at Austin, Presiding
John Ladouceur, Princeton University: “‘At What Time Was This Revelation Made?’ The Apocalypse of Paul and Theodosian Religious Politics”
The relationship between the preface and the visionary narrative of the Apocalypse of Paul has been a fraught one in the history of scholarship. Since R.P. Casey’s contention in 1933 that the preface, which recounts the miraculous discovery of the lost work during the reign of Theodosius I, likely postdated the text’s original edition by a century or more, scholars have vigorously debated the preface’s redactional nature and the implications of this question for dating and analyzing the apocalypse itself. While Casey’s view became the majority opinion for much of the 20th century, serious challenges to his thesis have been levied in the past thirty years, most notably by Piovanelli and Copeland. These debates over the integrity of the preface have coincided with a new wave of research on the social context that produced the narrative as a whole, with a wide base of scholarship situating it firmly in the milieu of late-fourth or early-fifth century Egyptian monasticism. This paper seeks to bring these two developments into conversation by addressing a question provoked by both of them: namely, the ideological function of the apocalypse for the community that wrote its preface in the late-fourth century environment it reflects. I propose that this function may be clarified by taking the preface itself as a hermeneutic key to the interpretation of the text’s narrative details. The first part of the paper maps the apocalypse’s preface alongside other Christian discovery narratives of the Theodosian era, in which purportedly lost texts and relics of the apostolic period are miraculously uncovered and brought to the attention of public authorities. I examine how rhetorical strategies of authorization incorporated by these texts were often used to promote and legitimate novel political interests by apostolicizing the animosities they entail, serving in turn as a kind of petitionary literature that was taken seriously by imperial and ecclesial officials. The second section utilizes the historical details provided by the apocalypse’s preface to engage in a further exploration of its own context than has yet been undertaken. It traces the relationship between the preface’s self-designated chronology, its choice of reference to specific imperial officials, and the narrative’s larger monastic background. Prosopographical analysis indicates a close connection between members of the Theodosian court, the culture of relic and text discovery, and specifically Egyptian monastic interests. The prominence of issues of special relevance to Egyptian monastic ideology in the political climate of the late fourth and early fifth centuries suggests a strong incentive to monastic investment in political developments and the utilization of imperial connections to influence policy. After detailing the precedents for reading text discovery literature as political commentary and establishing the close proximity of the Apocalypse of Paul’s world to the centers of imperial power, in the third section I examine the apocalypse’s visionary narrative in search of echoes of contemporary religio-political controversies. I offer several exploratory proposals regarding specific interests reflected in the text, in the hope of opening up particular avenues of inquiry to more detailed investigation.
Daniel Maier, Universität Zürich: “Lost in Transmission: The Apocalypse of Peter in Its Different Traditions and Their Chances for a Better Understanding of Early Christian Paradise Conceptions”
The exact content of the Apocalypse of Peter still puzzles researchers today. Especially the fascinating descriptions of the topography of paradise and its inhabitants were transmitted in significantly different ways in the Greek and Ethiopic versions of the text. By focusing on a tradition of transmission of the text other than the Greek and Ethiopic versions, I would like to contribute to the determination of an early form of the Apocalypse of Peter. Thereby, I take advantage of the fact that an essential source for an early stratum of the text has been largely overlooked in previous research. While the Greek and Ethiopic texts have been the objects of illuminating studies, the Pseudo-Clementine narrative framework in which the Ethiopic work was transmitted remains neglected by most scholars. In my paper, I want to exemplify that this approach is unjustified. Instead, the Pseudo-Clementine narrative functions as an early commentary on the Revelation to Peter and is, therefore, a valuable resource for further information about a more original redaction of the text than we find today in the Ethiopic form or the Greek fragments. The full utilization of all three transmission carriers allows us to place statements about the text’s original form, which were previously inconceivable in this way, on a secure foundation. I want to use this mainly for analyzing the paradise passages in Apoc. Pet. 15–17, since this part of the text has been largely overlooked by biblical scholars for the analysis of the early Christian understanding of the afterlife. Such an approach makes it possible to situate the unique concepts concerning the fate of the deceased in a larger context. Overall, an innovative methodology can thus be developed and applied directly to an early second-century theological issue, which in turn sheds fresh light on New Testament conceptions of paradise.
Ryan Austin Fitzgerald, St. Edward’s University: “The ‘Third Race’ in the Preaching of Peter: An Argument for Removal”
The early 2nd century Preaching of Peter is often considered one of the earliest examples of Christian apologetic literature. Its claim for the “Christian third race” has become a standard benchmark for scholars to trace the development of early Christian self-consciousness (particularly “racial” self-consciousness). Not only is the Preaching of Peter considered one of the earliest texts which proclaims itself to be explicitly “Christian,” but the unequivocal threefold division of humanity into “Greeks,” “Jews,” and “Christians” would be the earliest clear statement of the paradigm that became standard in later centuries. I argue that this famous passage of the “Christian third race” is not actually contained in the Preaching of Peter. Since the text itself is not extant, scholars must reconstruct it out of citations from later Christians, primarily Clement of Alexandria. I demonstrate the unlikelihood that the passage is Clement’s citation of the Preaching of Peter; it is more plausible that Clement was adding his own interpretation influenced by Justin Martyr. Furthermore, I show how the current standard text of the Preaching of Peter was largely cemented through the efforts of Adolf Harnack, who had theological motive for the passage’s inclusion. By recognizing that the “Christian third race” is Clement’s contribution, we push the Christian worldview which delineates three types of humanity to later in the second century. This alters our timeline of Christian self-consciousness and its mutual exclusivity with either Jews or non-Christian Gentiles (the “parting of the ways”). Three important alterations of our reading of 2nd century Christianity are the result of my argument. First, the nature of the Preaching of Peter must be reassessed, as it can no longer be assumed to be a self-consciously “Christian” text. Second, Clement of Alexandria becomes a pioneer rather than a parrot, whose interpretation of the Preaching of Peter would have to be re-examined. Third, we would need to rethink our view on literary dependencies among the Greek apologists. Clement clearly knew the Preaching of Peter, but without the anchor of the “Christian third race,” the dependency of Aristides of Athens on the Preaching of Peter is heavily eroded. Along with recent scholarship which has demonstrated the priority of our Syriac version of Aristides’s Apology, we are justified in asking whether Aristides knew the Preaching of Peter at all. Finally, it has been periodically suggested that Justin Martyr knew the Preaching of Peter on the basis of such “racial” terminology, but by removing this passage from the Preaching of Peter, verbal similarities between Justin and Clement become bolder to the extent that it is reasonable to conclude that Clement knew Justin’s work, if only his Dialogue with Trypho. If Clement knew Justin’s work, this opens new lines of questions about Clements relationship with Justin, particularly given Clement’s polemics against Tatian, whom Irenaeus calls a student of Justin. In short, when we see the “Christian third race” as Clement’s innovation a century after the Preaching of Peter, our overall picture of 2nd century Greek apologetics is shifted.
Jordan Ryan, Wheaton College (Illinois): “The Burial of Adam at Golgotha and Jewish-Christian Relations”
The extra-canonical tradition of the burial of Adam at Golgotha is widely attested in Christian literature as early as the third and fourth centuries. This paper will analyze the extant instances of this tradition in both patristic and Christian apocryphal literature in order to better understand the development of the Adam-Golgotha tradition, the ways in which it was transmitted, and its role within Jewish-Christian relations. Although some Christian sources claim that the connection between Adam and Golgotha stems from Jewish tradition, the burial of Adam at Golgotha is not attested outside of Christian texts. By comparing the instantiations of the Adam-Golgotha tradition in Christian texts to Jewish sources that discuss Adam’s burial and resting place, we will be better suited to understand the origins of the various traditions concerning Adam’s burial in light of competitive exegesis and localization. Although previous scholarship has suggested that the Christian tradition of Adam’s burial at Golgotha arose as a polemical response to the Jewish tradition of the burial of Adam at Mount Moriah, close examination of the evidence suggests the converse. This paper will suggest that the earliest Jewish traditions located Adam’s burial in Paradise, but that a shift to localize Adam’s resting place at either Mount Moriah or Kiryat Arba occurred in response to the increasing popularization of the Christian tradition of Adam’s burial at Golgotha, likely spurred on by the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the fourth century.
Michael Scott Robertson, Florida State University: “Titus, Descendant of Minos, Son of Zeus: The Acts of Titus, Pagan Mythology, and Hybrid Identity”
The Acts of Titus (AT) begins by stating that the “apostle” Titus was a descendant of a demi-god—“Minos, king of Crete” (1.2) In this statement, the document brings together two foundation mythologies for Crete—the “Christian” foundation through Titus (cf. Titus 1:1–5) and pagan mythological traditions of Minos, the son of Zeus (cf. Iliad 13.450; Odyssey 17.520). In this paper, I will argue that through this melding of Cretan mythology with Christian tradition AT projects a hybrid, third-space identity (e.g., Bhabha, Location of Culture, 53–55) such that Christians can be both “Cretan” and Christian. Scholars frequently mention the use of Cretan mythological traditions in AT. However, only one study has developed the question of how AT uses the mythology (Rouquette, Étude comparée sur la construction des origenes apostoliques des Églises de Crète et de Chypre à travers les figures de Tite et de Barnabé, 2017). This situation is intriguing given the large number of allusions to Cretan myths in AT, including mentioning the “poems and dramas of Homer” (1.3), paralleling Titus’s interactions with his god with Minos’s interactions with Zeus (1.5), mentioning the governor of Crete (5.1) only known from a “Cretan” retelling of the Trojan war (Dictys of Crete, Chronicle of the Trojan War), among others. This gap in research on AT is also curious in light of the anxiety early Christians had concerning the entanglement of Greek myth with the NT letter to Titus and the “hybrid” identity I am arguing AT projects. Jerome mentions in his Commentary on Titus that many readers of Titus think that when “Paul” quotes Epimenides saying that “Cretans are always liars” (Titus 1:12) that “Paul” affirms his belief that Zeus was alive and that “Paul” should be rebuked (PL 26:608). Jerome goes to lengths to “correct” this “misunderstanding” (PL 26:608); however, he still views the letter as invoking these Cretan foundation narratives (e.g. PL 26:595–96). Nevertheless, Jerome further indicates that in his view the founding of Cretan Christianity through Titus should displace the pagan founding mythology (PL 26:595–96). Thus, although these two sides of the conversation in Jerome’s commentary take different stances vis-à-vis “Paul’s” belief in Zeus, they both hold that the pagan mythology is out of step with the “Christian” narrative. In this paper, I will argue that the author(s) of AT takes a different track from other conceptions of the role Cretan mythological traditions should play in Cretan Christian identity. Rather than attempt to suppress the rival myths, AT enmeshes Titus with the son of Zeus—Minos. I will argue that this maneuver projects a hybrid identity such that Cretan Christians can be both “Cretan” and Christian. I will develop this argument by first showing the tight entanglement between the story of Titus and Cretan mythology. I will then show how Cretan mythological traditions were problematic in the reception of Titus and the conception of Cretan Christianity. I will end by showing that AT takes a different approach to Cretan identity—a hybrid, third-space identity.
SV22-109a Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
This session will be virtual.
Theme: Hagiography and Christian Apocrypha
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia, Presiding
Jacob A. Lollar, Abilene Christian University: “Between History and Myth: Stories of Edessa’s Christianization in Apocrypha and Hagiography: The Case of B.L. Add. MS 14,644”
The methods of the new philology have increasingly directed scholarly attention to the immediate material and cultural contexts in which early texts are preserved before turning to the construction of a hypothetical earlier form of the text. In many cases, this early material context comes in the form of manuscripts, some of which contain many texts whose relationship to one another and to the scribe(s) who included them in the manuscript deserve attention. This paper draws attention to these such relationships in a particular Syriac manuscript from the British Library: Add. MS 14,644. This manuscript, which was probably copied in the late fifth or early sixth century, contains a fascinating hommage to the city of Edessa: the Doctrine of Addai, the Teaching of Apostles, the Doctrine of Simeon Cephas at Rome, the Invention of the True Cross by Helene, the Martyrdom of Judas Kyriakos, the Martyrdom of Sharbel, and the History of the Man of God with whom Bishop Rabbula (411-435) interacted. In other words, the manuscript is a collection of apocryphal and hagiographical narratives. When studied individually, the texts appear to have little to do with one another, set in different times, places, and containing different characters. When read as a collection, however, some connections reveal themselves. I argue that this collection of apocryphal and hagiographic narratives, taken in situ in the manuscript, offers a story of the Christianization of Edessa and the “Blessed City’s” place within the wider story of Christianity. The texts are arranged in a loose chronological order and share some important thematic elements, including the patronage of Edessa’s nobility and the reoccurring insistence that the texts themselves come from the city’s archives. The narratives have been edited to provide continuity between the different times, locations, and characters. The manuscript begins with the coming of Christianity to Edessa by Addai and ends with the figure most responsible for Christianity’s solidification in the city, Bishop Rabbula. The result is, I suggest, a history of Christian Edessa told through the medium of stories. The use of apocrypha and hagiography as mediums for telling history is indicative of how myths function for the construction and reinforcement of cultural identity (e.g., Bruce Lincoln), but is also instructive of how scribes sought to forget connections between a present community and a constructed, imagined past (e.g., Elizabeth Castelli). B.L. 14,644 may be representative of an alternative form of historiography, one that explicitly employed apocryphal and hagiographic narratives, that continues to problematize scholarly generic categories.
Jeannie Sellick, University of Virginia: “Temptresses, Tongues, and Titillation: The Legacy of the Acts of John in Jerome’s Hagiography”
In a 1995 essay, Tamás Adamik persuasively argues that the 2nd century Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles influenced the hagiographical writings of the 4th century monk & church Father, Jerome. Adamik bases his argument on several parallels between the Acts and Jerome’s work – namely the existence of talking animals, the presence of self-mutilation, and a hostility towards marriage. Through drawing out these parallels and citing Jerome’s general knowledge of Christian apocrypha, Adamik persuasively argues that Jerome was not only familiar with apocryphal literature, but drew themes, motifs, and stories from the Apocryphal Acts when writing his saint’s lives. Yet one aspect that Adamik’s groundbreaking essay overlooked was the influence that the Apocryphal Acts had on not only Jerome’s view of marriage, but also on male chastity. While Jerome only wrote three official saints lives over the course of his career – the Life of Paul, the First Hermit, the Life of Malchus the Captive Monk, and the Life of St. Hilarion – each story packs a memorable punch in its presentation of male chastity as under threat. Jerome’s saint’s lives, particularly Life of Paul & Life of Malchus, are remarkable in that they both include depictions of sexual violence perpetrated against men. From attempted rape to biting off a “tongue” to forced marriage, Jerome uses the threat of sexual violence against men as a means for his saints to exhibit their militant dedication to remaining pure for the sake of Christ. While the presence sexual violence is no surprise to readers of early Christian literature, having that violence turned against the male body, let alone the male sexual body, is rare. Yet if we turn to the apocryphal acts of the apostles, specifically the Acts of John, we can better see a clear precedent for the rhetorical use of male sexual violence. The Acts of John is unique itself in its focus on male sexual purity and the tradition depicts several parallel instances of sexualized violence perpetrated against the male body. In this presentation, I argue that Jerome’s hagiographical presentation of male chastity under threat is heavily influenced by the Apocryphal Acts, particularly the Acts of John. Furthermore, I argue that not only does the Acts of John impact Jerome’s hagiographical writings, but also influences Jerome’s overarching theory of the importance of male sexual purity and virginity. Through unpacking Jerome’s use of the Acts of John, we can begin to better understand the afterlives of apocrypha in later hagiography, patristic thought, and Christian social formation.
Kelly Holob, University of Chicago: “Looking the Part: Body Type and Criminality in Two Early Christian Narratives”
Robbers are not an uncommon feature in both stories about biblical figures (apocrypha) and stories about later holy people (hagiography). For example, there are stories about the robber crucified next to Jesus and narratives about brigands who try to rob and are sometimes converted by the Desert Fathers. However, besides acknowledging their sinful nature, scholars rarely examine robbers themselves, though they may increase our understanding of conventions that govern narratives featuring these figures. In this paper I compare the portrayal of robbers in John and the Robber, a relatively understudied apocryphal text despite its composition by Clement of Alexandria and presence in Eusebius’s Church History, and Sozomen’s account of Moses the Robber in his Church History, about a holy man who converts from banditry to monasticism. I argue that in these texts, the robber and his body take center stage. My analysis of these narratives demonstrates that both characters’ particular body type predisposes them to crime. The problem these narratives pose is how to overcome this predisposition, and their bodily nature, through Christian practice. How could paying attention to bodily features in both genres help us further our understanding of how characters work in both apocrypha and hagiographies? What narrative problems are produced by their bodies, and how do they overcome them? The presence of such tropes across these texts and time periods suggests that apocryphal texts and hagiographies both participate in a common discourse of criminality. In John and the Robber, the apostle John places a certain youth in the care of a bishop, but the bishop eventually grows lax, allowing the youth little by little to become a bandit chief, from which station John later saves him. Though previous scholarship argues that the youth’s turn to robbery was due to greed, the narrative makes clear that John first became concerned about him because of the youth’s “fit” (??????) and “handsome” (???????) body and “hot” (??????) soul, which predisposed him toward a life that exploits his physical qualities. John diagnosed that problem when he first saw him and helped him finally overcome his propensity at the end of the narrative, with fasts among other methods. The youth’s bodily qualities, furthermore, fit in with what an ancient reader would expect of a violent criminal, especially a bandit chief, as is evidenced from Apuleius’s Metamorphoses. Moses also fits this stereotype. However, Sozomen, rather than portraying the former robber as simply overcoming it, instead cleverly shows him using his robber-body in monastic tasks. Like a robber, he sneaks around houses at night, though it is to fill up the water pitchers of his fellow monks. Like Clement’s robber, Moses is very strong in body, so much so that painstaking askesis could barely make a dent in his strength. He even displays his amazing strength against robbers, capturing and delivering them to his follow monks. This observation allows us moreover to nuance the scholarly claim that in other accounts of Moses his black skin contributes to his natural inclination toward sin and crime.
Elizabeth Schrader, Duke University: “Subsuming Sophia: Thecla’s Legacy as a Means of Gnostic Erasure”
In a fifth- or sixth-century homily attributed to Pseudo-Chrysostom, the panegyrist describes the plight of Thecla as she is persecuted by a demonic suitor. “As the noble woman continued on her way, the suitor, with the lewdness of a horse, lying in wait behind her, shouted for joy at the thought of seizing her…The maiden’s help was quick; immediately she became invisible and the suitor went away…The bride presents herself to the Bridegroom, perhaps singing: ‘Truly my help is from the God who saves the upright in heart’ (Ps 7:10).” Of course, nowhere in the second-century Acts of Paul and Thecla does Thecla become invisible, nor does she sing psalms. Such references in the Pseudo-Chrystostom homily have puzzled commentators. Yet there is a clear intertext with this scene: the vastly understudied gnostic treatise known as the Pistis Sophia. Like Thecla, the heroine Pistis Sophia must escape a demonic force who is likened to both a horse and a lion; like Thecla, Pistis Sophia cries out for help in the words of Psalm 7; like Thecla, Pistis Sophia is saved and then able to escape her persecutors by becoming invisible. Rhetorical connections between Thecla and Pistis Sophia seem to abound in the Pseudo-Chrysostom homily and other early Christian literature, suggesting patristic familiarity with the gnostic Sophia myth. For example, although Thecla’s status as “bride” is rejected in the second-century Acts of Thecla, Methodius’ late third-century Symposium presents her as the head virginal “bride of Christ” who leads the way to the “bridal chamber.” Thecla even becomes the mouthpiece for Methodius’ condemnation of Valentinus. Was the eventual orthodox embrace of Thecla partly a response to the popularity of the gnostic Sophia myth? This paper explores whether the legacy of an early Christian saint may have been utilized to help subsume and erase the pervasive Sophia myth in early Christianity.
Clare K. Rothschild, Lewis University: “Acts of Timothy: The Latin Tradition”
This short essay provides an overview of the Latin version of the Christian apocryphal text known as the Acts of Timothy (AT). It includes a history-of-research focusing on critical editions and the present state of the manuscripts, tentatively postulating groups of Latin texts and highlighting differences in the Latin and Greek versions that shed light on recent examinations of this text. A short sample text based on approximately half of the known Latin witnesses demonstrates preliminary manuscript affiliations. All known Latin manuscripts are listed in an appendix with a new English translation of the entire (Latin) work.
SV22-212 Christian Apocrypha (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
This session will be virtual.
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University, Presiding
Tony Burke, York University: “What Has Apocrypha to Do with Hagiographa? A Reconsideration of the ‘Editing’ of Apocryphal Acts”
The five ancient apocryphal acts (Peter, Paul, John, Andrew, and Thomas) appear in a variety of forms in the manuscript tradition: sometimes abbreviated, occasionally expanded, but most often, truncated, reduced only to the account of the apostle’s demise. It has become common to think of the acts as victims of orthodoxy’s dislike for the texts’ advocacy of universal asceticism and for their somewhat unorthodox Christology, presented typically in the apostles’ sermons and prayers. As a result, the apocryphal acts were mutilated and thereby transformed into hagiographical martyrdoms. But that is not the complete story. For one, the survival of the entire Acts of Thomas indicates that some copyists, at least, found little offensive in that text. And other acts composed, perhaps, as replacements of the ancient acts, contain many of the same themes as their predecessors. Given that apocryphal texts were copied and read in monasteries, it is difficult to maintain the position that the teachings and activities of their protagonists would be unwelcome. The prevailing theories reflect more what previous scholars imagined would be problematic about the ancient texts and are influenced by an artificial distinction between the proclivities of apocrypha and the interests of hagiographa. This paper focuses on the evidence, with an examination of the various manuscript contexts for the transmission of the ancient acts—whether as complete texts, as martyrdoms only, or separated into independently circulating stories—and a reconsideration of why these texts faced such struggles to survive.
Julia D. Lindenlaub, University of Edinburgh: “Apocryphal Tradition in Gospel Transmission: The Reception of John the Evangelist from Apocryphal Acts and Hagiography to Gospel Prefaces”
This paper assesses the mutually informative influences of traditions from apocryphal acts of the apostles and hagiography concerning John the Evangelist on the textual transmission of the Gospel of John in medieval gospel books. As an illustrative case study, this paper examines the Memorial of John (BHG 919fb) preface to the Gospel of John in the thirteenth-century Georgius Gospels (Chicago, University of Chicago, MS 727 [Goodspeed], GA 2266). This gospel preface presents a helpful microcosm for understanding the continuity of apocryphal acts and hagiography in their traditions concerning John the Evangelist. The Memorial of John here follows such literature in expanding upon the biography of the evangelist, in notable contrast to the same manuscript’s shorter synoptic gospel prefaces, which rather focus on summarising gospel contents. Most notably, the Memorial of John reimagines the dictation of the Gospel of John by the evangelist to Prochorus amid thunderous revelation on a mountain in Patmos. This tradition most obviously corresponds to the Acts of John by Prochorus, but it can also be compared with the example of an eleventh-century hagiographic manuscript, Commentary on John by Pseudo-Symeon Metaphrastes (London, British Library, Add. 11870), which features an artistic representation of this same scene of John and Prochorus together with its title. Using these examples, this paper aims to illustrate the continuity of apocryphal traditions concerning John the Evangelist in apocryphal acts of the apostles and hagiography, as both can be seen reflected in the Gospel of John’s own textual transmission.
Jonathan D. Holste, University of Virginia: “Desire without Mercy: Sexual Renunciation in the Acts of Thomas and His Wonderworking Skin”
The Acts of Thomas and His Wonderworking Skin (Acts Thom. Skin) follows the Apostle’s missionary activities in India. The core of the narrative centers on Thomas’s founding of two churches—the first in the household of Arsenoë, the second in the former temple of Kentera. In both episodes, sexual renunciation features prominently. In the first, Arsenoë’s newfound Christian faith leads her to reject her husband’s sexual advances. This begins a sequence of events that include Thomas’s flaying, Arsenoë’s suicide, and the Apostle’s use of his flayed skin to restore her miraculously to life. This use of Thomas’s skin to raise the dead also plays a key role in the second episode, and so too does sexual renunciation. Thomas’s work in Kentera begins with the Apostle bringing six brothers (and several others) back to life. The governor had killed them all because the oldest had backed out of his engagement to the governor’s daughter. All of the events of this episode are set in motion by the oldest brother’s vision in which Jesus exhorts him to avoid marriage and remain chaste. In both episodes sexual renunciation serves to advance the plot of Acts Thom. Skin, and this paper examines this narrative function. The significance of sexual renunciation, however, extends beyond a few central characters and key moments in the narrative. Rather, in this paper I argue that sexual renunciation is part and parcel of Christian conversion in Acts Thom. Skin.
Emily Gathergood, University of Nottingham: “Deus misereatur mei: Childbearing, Salvation, and Religious Competition for Women’s Devotion in the Acts of Andrew”
Recent interest in women, gender and asceticism in the Acts of Andrew centres on the author’s subversive theological anthropology—how his Pythagorean-Platonic spirit/matter dualism yields portraits of salvation framed as a return to pre-lapsarian asexual states of being. This paper broadens our understanding of the relationship between childbearing and salvation in the Acts of Andrew, and early Christianity more generally, by attending to the hitherto neglected story of a certain Calliope, transmitted in Gregory of Tour’s epitome (Liber de miraculis beati Andreae apostoli 25). First, I argue that this intriguing tale of a pregnant woman’s miraculous physiological salvation from life-threatening labour seeks to disincentivise illicit sexual activity by identifying this as the cause of her predicament. Second, I argue that the author casts the apostle Andrew in the role of spiritual midwife, which puts him in opposition to the cult of Diana/Artemis, goddess of childbirth, as the sole mediator of divine mercy. The depiction of Andrew’s midwifery as superior to the idolatrous, demonic alternative bears witness to the underlying socio-historical reality that childbirth was a context of religious competition for women’s devotion. It models for readers an exclusively Christocentric response to the health hazards of childbearing in the ancient world. However, there is a tension between the depiction of Andrew as a divinely authorised procurer of physical healing and the wider notion of salvation as liberation from the body. This is mitigated by the death of Calliope’s fetus at the imprecatory word of the apostle, which liberates her from a future of motherhood, thereby enabling her to live according to the author’s ideal, masculinised form discipleship, which ultimately culminates in liberation from the body and the world.
Caroline Crews, University of Texas at Austin: “Wisdom for Women: A Reader-Response Interpretation of the Berlin Codex (P. Berol. 8502)”
Dated to the 5th-7th centuries CE, the “Berlin Codex” (Codex Papyrus Berolinensis 8502) may have been used in a setting similar to that of the Nag Hammadi Codices (NHC). Hugo Lundhaug and Lance Jenott have convincingly argued that the NHC originated in Egyptian monastic settings and have suggested the same for the Berlin Codex. In this paper, I employ reader-response criticism to argue that themes within the Berlin Codex might appeal to a monastic audience. More specifically, I consider how the roles of women throughout the codex’s four Coptic tractates (Gospel of Mary, Apocryphon of John, Wisdom of Jesus Christ, and Act of Peter) might resonate with women within monasteries like those overseen by Shenoute of Atripe. I demonstrate that female characters within the Berlin Codex have elevated roles in their narratives, while they also remain firmly situated within androcentric environments. In this way, I increase the plausibility that the Berlin Codex was read and utilized within an Egyptian monastic context, perhaps even a female monastic context.
2. Additional Sessions
S21-126 Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Celebrating the Work of Professor Judith Lieu
Paul Middleton, University of Chester, Presiding
Dieter Roth, Boston College: “Expecto quid intellegas (Marc. 3.19.1): Difficulties in Understanding Tertullian’s Understanding of Marcion”
In the introduction to her masterful tome Marcion and the Making of a Heretic, Judith Lieu observes that when scholarship engages with Marcion, “the Marcion who is encountered is the Marcion transmitted by those who wrote against him” (p. 7). She also rightly notes that the Marcion “who has had the most impact on modern perceptions is undoubtedly the Marcion who emerges from Tertullian’s lengthy polemics against him, particularly the five books comprising Against Marcion” (p. 50). It is striking, however, that the renewed scholarly interest in Marcion over the past decade and a half has included notably different readings and understandings of Tertullian’s work against Marcion, resulting in fundamentally different presentations of both Marcion and Marcion’s “scriptures.” This paper, therefore, considers the difficulties in understanding Tertullian’s understanding of Marcion and, with particular attention given to the novel interpretations of Markus Vinzent, reflects upon the significance of the modern, scholarly understanding of Tertullian for the modern, scholarly understanding of Marcion.
Rebecca Lyman, Church Divinity School of the Pacific: “Heresiological Identities: Marcion and ‘Lived Religion’ in the Second Century”
Professor Lieu’s work on deconstructing Christian heresiologies has been foundational to reframing the narrative of the second century from her work on religious identity to her recent monograph on Marcion. As a historian who has been working on Arius, I especially share her vision in the final section in which she uses the broader social and religious context as essential to recovering and organizing what little we may reconstruct with plausibility about an erased and demonized Christian. However, in spite of her magisterial sifting of the textual and polemical layers which preserve and obscure the life and work of Marcion, Lieu eventually locates him as a “Christian teacher” in second century Rome: “He belongs not to the ecclesiastical or liturgical settings with confessional formulae, but to the school with its debates and gifted teachers” (Marcion, p. 439). This conclusion, however sympathetic, still reflects our continuing struggle with the traditional “geo-centric” model of ancient Christianity that continues to distinguish, if not rank, teaching and worshiping communities and individuals in spite of evidence of the combination in Rome and the continuation of worshipping communities seemingly indebted to Valentinus and Marcion. Following the work of Jörge Rüpke and others on “lived ancient religion”, I want to explore the possible religious tones of Marcion’s theological “alchemy”. Rather than intellectual genealogies, this method emphasizes religion as a “precarious practice” recovered through individual appropriation and agency; individuation is precisely our source of tracing religious change and creativity in a solar system of varied communities and beliefs.
David Brakke, Ohio State University: “The Gospel of Judas and the Making of a Demiurge”
In her magisterial Marcion and the Making of a Heretic, Judith Lieu productively contextualized Marcion’s views on the creator of this world within the efforts of first- and second-century Jews and Christians to engage with, on the one hand, philosophical traditions, especially Platonism, and on the other hand, the characteristics of the creator in the Bible. She suggests that it was primarily scriptural imagery rather than philosophical concerns that shaped Marcion’s account of the demiurge (p. 337). Gnostic literature appears as a significant point of comparison in Lieu’s analysis, especially the Apocryphon of John. The Gospel of Judas, which is even more securely dated than the Apocryphon to the middle of the second century, provides significant additional evidence for the development of Christian ideas about the creator, especially their roots in Jewish apocalyptic eschatology and its stories of rebellious angels. It suggests that a gnostic account of the demiurge’s origin that did not involve a divine error existed as early as if not earlier than the familiar story of wisdom’s mistaken thought. The range of demiurgical thought in Marcion’s world was even wider than we have thought.
Karen King, Harvard University: “The Gospel of Mary in the Second Century”
Judith Lieu has taught us the importance of situating Marcion’s thought among Christian and non-Christians of the second century. This paper will take up the distinctive position of the Gospel of Mary regarding matter, pathos, and sin by comparison with Valentinian, Platonizing, and other Christian thinkers.
Judith Lieu, University of Cambridge, Respondent
SV21-237 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Tuomas Rasimus, Helsingin Yliopisto – Helsingfors Universitet, Presiding
This session will be virtual.
Elizabeth Schrader, Duke University: “The Pistis Sophia as an Influence on Patristic Depictions of Thecla”
“The attacker was strong, the attacked was frail. Where in a desert was there refuge for a shelter? But turning toward heaven, the virgin shouted with a loud wailing to the one who stands by all…The maiden’s help was quick; immediately she became invisible and the suitor went away having won only one thing, a horserace of licentiousness. The Bride presents herself to the Bridegroom, perhaps singing: ‘Truly my help is from the God who saves the upright in heart’ (Psalm. 7:10)” This passage from a fifth- or sixth-century panegyric to Thecla has puzzled commentators, since several of its details diverge from the known legends of Thecla. Some have suggested that the homilist draws on the legend of Daphne, who escaped her pursuer Apollo by transforming into a laurel tree; others have suggested that the homilist references an extension to the Acts of Paul and Thecla, where Thecla hides away from pagan worshippers in a cave. Yet a far clearer intertext is found in the little-discussed “gnostic miscellany” known as the Pistis Sophia. In its description of the “gnostic” legend, Sophia is pursued by Adamas but Jesus rescues her by whisking her away to the “thirteenth aeon”/“the region of the four-and-twenty invisibles.” Sophia then sings praises to Jesus in the manner of Psalm 7. Could Thecla’s panegyrist have drawn upon the story of Sophia’s rescue in the Pistis Sophia? In an exegetical move that is also reminiscent of Pistis Sophia, Severus of Antioch’s Homily 97 uses Psalm 45 to elevate Thecla as a type of the Church; in this homily she is robed entirely in gold and then produces light through her virtues. This paper considers the possibility that these depictions of Thecla in the later patristic imagination could show influence from Pistis Sophia’s striking portrayals of its embattled heroine.
Sarah Parkhouse, University of Manchester: “Selling Mysteries in Roman Egypt: Christian Religious Entrepreneurship and the Pistis Sophia”
The Pistis Sophia, from the Coptic Askew Codex, is a lengthy esoteric text, in which the risen Jesus teaches his disciples things that he had not previously disclosed. Books I-II contain quotations from Matthew, Luke and Romans, as well as numerous Psalms, Isaiah and the Psalms and Odes of Solomon. This comprises a group of texts that the author quotes as authoritative, and one which goes beyond the usual Biblical scriptures. Pistis Sophia essentially presents a canon independent from other canons. However, Pistis Sophia also alludes to a number of non-scriptural texts, including the Apocryphon of John, the Gospel of Mary and the Ascension of Isaiah. These texts are not quoted as scriptural “proof-texts”, but the allusions suggest that they were in the author’s repertoire and seen to be inspirational for this new gospel text. This paper asks how Pistis Sophia uses these texts and what this tells us about “canon” and reading practices in Egyptian Christianity.
Eric Crégheur, Université Laval: “Irenaeus, the Cainites, and the ‘Gospel of Judas’”
In his “Against Heresies” (I, 31), Irenaeus is the first to report the existence of a group of Christians who, subverting the “traditional” interpretation of the book of Genesis, held the figure of Cain in high esteem. Without ever naming them, Irenaeus accuses the members of this group of exhibiting, in support of their beliefs, a “Gospel of Judas” which they had forged. The public unveiling of the Tchacos Codex in 2006 and of the “Gospel of Judas” it had preserved, apparently confirmed Irenaeus’ assertions, at least as far as the existence of such a text. Almost as soon as it was revealed, this newly discovered “Gospel of Judas” was quickly identified with the one invented by the so-called Cainites. But considering the fluidity of titles in Antiquity and the proliferation of writings with identical titles but very different content (for example the two “Revelations of James” of Nag Hammadi, or the “Gospel of Philip” of Nag Hammadi and the one cited by Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion XXVI), can we really be certain that we are before the same text? In this paper, we propose to compare what can be deduced of the positions of this group of Christians apparently favorable to Cain with what can be read in the “Gospel of Judas” in the Tchacos Codex, in order to establish whether Irenaeus refers to the text which has come down to us, or to a still unknown text.
Nathan Porter, Duke University: “A Newly Discovered Letter of Valentinus”
We are currently in possession of a handful of fragments of Valentinus, the original sources of which have so far gone unlocated. This paper shows that ep. 366 of Basil of Caesarea’s letter collection (long regarded as spurious) is the letter to Agathapous referred to in Völker fr. 8, the famous passage concerning Jesus’ digestive system. There is a nearly word-for-word correspondence between a section in the middle of the letter and the quotation offered in Clement (Strom. 3.59.3). The following is the text from Clement: But Valentinus, in his epistle to Agathopoda, says, “Bearing up under everything, he was self-controlled. Jesus worked divinely; he ate and drank in his own way, not expelling his food. So great was his power of self-control that his food did not become corrupt in him, since he himself was not able to become corrupt.” (Clement, Strom. 5.59.3) This is the text from pseudo-Basil: Jesus worked divinely, not mortally. He ate and drank in his own way, not expelling his food. Such a great power was the self-control in him that his food did not become corrupt in him, since he himself was not able to become corrupt. (Pseudo-Basil, ep. 366) There are several indications that ps.-Basil is not dependent on Clement. Several textual emendations made by the editors of the critical edition of Clement are already found in ep. 366, which accords well with Clement’s well-documented tendency to introduce strange and even incoherent modifications to his sources. Moreover, the correspondences between the text of ep. 366 and the passage in Clement far exceed the explicit quotation provided in the Stromateis. At least three other passages are either very similar or nearly identical between the two texts, though Clement does not cite a source for them. This, however, is precisely what we would expect of Clement’s unusual citation practices. Among other things, he sometimes quotes from long stretches of a text while only attributing part of it to the author (Van Den Hoek 1996). Moreover, there are several close correspondences between well-known features of early Valentinian thinking and this epistle, such the forsaking of the material body for a spiritual one and a desire to return to the eternities, and it is not obvious why a Valentinian would quote from Clement rather than from an established Valentinian text. Perhaps surprisingly, the original epistle appears to be largely intact, showing no obvious indication of orthodox redaction despite its evidently Valentinian theology. This remarkable discovery, then, provides scholars with the only extant full-length epistle of Valentinus–and, for those who do not regard the Gospel of Truth as the work of Valentinus, it is the first complete work of Valentinus in our possession apart from the short psalm preserved in Hippolytus.
Julia D. Lindenlaub, University of Edinburgh: “Egyptian Reading Culture from Papyri to Codex: Epistolary Features from Oxyrhynchus and Apocryphon of James (NHC I,2)”
A striking letter found at Oxyrhynchus and dated to the second century, P.Oxy. 2192 attests senders and recipients engaged as a social group in scholastic activity. These colleagues refer to the libraries of both individual and bookseller, specify texts for sending and copying, and demonstrate awareness of another literary circle seemingly engaged in the same enterprise. In parallel, Apocryphon of James (NHC I,2) features epistolary address from its fictive author to a lacunose recipient and also refers to a previously sent book (1.1–35). James furthermore admonishes his recipient to ensure that only a privileged few are entrusted with such texts. On the basis of these corresponding epistolary features, this paper aims to draw parallels between the ostensible second-century Egyptian provenance of the Apocryphon of James and its fourth-century manuscript preservation in Nag Hammadi Codex I. In both contexts, continuity can be identified between social circles demarcated by a scholastic reading culture. I suggest that the epistolary features of Apocryphon of James would appear recognisable in the text’s prospective second-century Egyptian provenance as a means of validating the reading culture of a social group unified by their engagement with chosen literature. Like the papyrological evidence from Oxyrhynchus, this text suggests a privileged circle of scholarly readers engaged in the possession and interpretation of prized texts. This assessment is supported by comparison with the text’s manuscript context in a fourth-century environment of educated study circles flourishing in Egyptian Christianity of the time. Such continuity between the sociological influences upon the text’s origin and its preservation highlights simultaneous evolution and stability in Egyptian reading culture from papyri to codex — seen through the lens of epistolary features in Apocryphon of James.
SV22-129 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Pamela Reaves, Colorado College, Presiding
This session will be virtual.
Review of The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries, vol. 2, edited by Chris Keith, Helen Bond, Christine Jacobi, and Jens Schröter
Pheme Perkins, Boston College, Panelist
Jens Schroeter, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – Humboldt University of Berlin, Respondent
Stephanie Janz, Universität Zürich: “‘I Am Your Disciple’ (Log. 61): Discipleship in the Gospel of Thomas”
This paper will examine the theme of discipleship in the Gospel of Thomas (G.Thom). In recent decades, research on the gospel has primarily focused on factors external to the text itself. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that its individual sayings have often been interpreted in comparison to other texts and in isolation from the overall context of the work. One such example is the scholarly discussion of Logion 61. This saying, in which Salome declares herself Jesus’ disciple, has been either examined against the background of its canonical parallels to demonstrate the otherness of the Thomasine Jesus or it has been taken as evidence for G.Thom drawing from the Gospel of the Egyptians. However, such an approach is insufficient, in as much as meaning rests first of all in the text rather than outside of it. Furthermore, it appears that Saying 61 is not isolated in G.Thom but linked to other sayings in this gospel through the use of catch words, literary forms, and not least through the theme of discipleship. By looking for these connections with other sayings this short paper will examine Saying 61 within the broader context of the work, paying particular attention to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus according to G.Thom. In this way, this paper will attempt to look at the text in its peculiarity and wholeness and in light of its hermeneutic principle to find the meaning of the “hidden words”.
Stephan Witetschek, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München: “Who’s Speaking? The Inquit Formulae in the Gospel of Thomas”
Most of the sayings collected in the Gospel of Thomas begin with an inquit formula: “Jesus says/said: …”. Comparing the Coptic Text from NHC II with the Greek fragments found at Oxyrhynchus, however, one notes that these formulae are not identical in all versions. The aim of this paper is to interpret the specific forms of the inquit formulae as indications for the literary character and the degree of coherence of each of the versions as the sayings of Jesus became the Gospel of Thomas.
Konrad Schwarz, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – Humboldt University of Berlin: “The Parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas”
Parabolic stories make up a large portion of Jesus’ speech in the Gospel of Thomas. This paper intends to explore specific formal, narrative, and interpretative aspects of the parables in this early Christian gospel. In the first part of the paper, attention is given to the different ways of how parables are contextualized in various discourses and dialogues of the Gospel of Thomas. Subsequently, the second part will discuss how the literary and theological context of the parables influences their interpretation. The final part of then aims to outline what the parables contribute to the Gospel of Thomas’ religious outlook in general.
SV22-305 Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory / Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Theme: Gnostic Literature and the Study of Ancient Myth
This session will be virtual.
Kevin McGinnis, Stonehill College, Presiding
Grant W. Gasse, University of Notre Dame: “Rethinking Gnostic Myth: An Argument for the Recognition of a Heresiological Category”
Ever since his Rethinking Gnosticism was published in 1996, Michael A. William’s critique of the modern historiographical term “gnosticism” and the attendant use of “gnosis” and “gnostic” have become a necessary point of departure for all studies of the various forms of religious discourse and practice identified by early Christian heresiologists as gnostic and/or found within the Nag Hammadi corpus. Whether one subscribes to the specifics of William’s assessment or other, adjacent assessments like that of Karen King, the point has been cemented in the field: the term “gnosticism” is at the very least unhelpful, and may even constitute a recapitulation of early Christian heresiology. The purpose of this paper is to “rethink” the category of gnostic “myth,” and to ask whether and to what extent it is susceptible to similar critique. Of course, mythos and mythopoesis are variously assessed in ancient religious discourse, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively. Nevertheless, while it is now commonplace in the literature to reject the category “gnosticism,” it remains standard practice to refer to the narratives exhibited within the associated ancient texts as various forms of “myth.” Moreover, while early Christian heresiologists are quick to label (and decry) their rivals as “mythmakers,” little evidence suggests that “myth” and “mythmaking” were ever utilized for the sake of self-designation among these religious practitioners. Accordingly, we should ask if and to what extent mythos itself can be understood as a heresiological category. Toward this end, I consider, as a case study, the heresiological accounts of Valentinus and the Valentinians in Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria, alongside the fragments of Valentinus and the Gospel of Truth. In light of this consideration, I turn to a critical appraisal of the historiographical potential of “myth” as a heuristic category. To the extent that critical distance demands conscious anachronism, the early Christian heresiological deployment of “gnostic myth” necessitates a measured evaluation of its modern historiographical counterpart. Although my title refers to William’s classic “rethinking,” I do not ultimately contend that “myth,” itself a vital and broad literary, philosophical, and historiographical category, must be dismantled. Rather, in conversation with comparative religions scholarship, especially the methodological reflections of Jonathan Z. Smith, I unearth dimensions of its use which have not yet been critically assessed.
Austin Busch, SUNY Brockport: “Sexual Violence in Classic Gnostic Literature and Ovid”
This paper focuses on the Classic Gnostic myth of Eve’s violation by Yaldabaoth (cf. Reality of the Rulers 89.17ff.) and related episodes from Classic Gnostic writings as variants of the Greco-Roman myth-type of a god raping a nymph. A key comparandum would be the Ovidian account of Apollo and Daphne (though other parallels are relevant), as both violations are emblematized in a dehumanizing transformation of the victim into a tree. The commonality evinces conscious assimilation of Genesis to that myth type, with the revisionary tactic functioning at both a narrative and theological level to reduce tension between Greco-Roman literary and religious culture and the Jewish religious traditions Christian teachers invoked to define themselves. It represents an under-studied element of that acknowledged strategy of Gnostic revisionary biblical interpretation, with implications for understanding Gnostic conceptions of patriarchal authority, sexuality, and so on—especially when the discrete revision is viewed as a mundane reflection of the aeonic “sexual violation” other elements of the Gnostic myth writ large feature. Focus on the parallel potentially opens new avenues to Gnostic myth—or at least avenues that have not yet been fully explored. In particular, it invites application of the same sophisticated theoretical apparatus classicists at least since Amy Richlin have applied to Ovid’s accounts of mythological sexual violence.
Review of David Brakke, The Gnostic Scriptures
Lance Jenott, Washington University, M. David Litwa, Australian Catholic University, Sarah Parkhouse, University of Manchester (Panelists); David Brakke, Ohio State University (Respondent)
3. Individual Papers of Interest in Other Sessions
SV19-204a Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Joshua T. King, Loyola University of Chicago: “Baptism and Demonology in the Pseudo-Clementine Literature” (virtual session; 2nd paper)
Many early Christian texts thought about baptism in terms of purity. In the majority of cases, the ritual was understood as purifying a person from sin. Another perspective is provided by the pseudo-Clementine literature, two early fourth-century Syrian texts that has similar content. While the texts do not deny that baptism purifies a person of sin, they add that baptism washes away demons from the soul. They develop a detailed demonology that this paper will explore. According to the texts, demons enter the soul when a person engages in sin, be that idolatry, lust, or excess consumption of food or drink. Both texts assume that Gentiles have this demonic impurity by nature of their being Gentiles. While the texts disagree on the demons’ motivations and how they escort the soul to eternal punishment, they agree that the presence of demons causes a person to enter into the eternal fire. They describe ways to prevent the demons from taking hold on those who are not baptized, but because most of their audience is Gentile, they also address how to exorcize demons. This happens through baptism. Baptism cleanses a person of the demons that they have within their soul and provides a new garment for the soul that replaces the old polluted one. I conclude the presentation by discussing the effect that demonic impurity and its removal has on the relationship between the pseudo-Clementine community and Gentiles. While Peter, the representative of the pseudo-Clementine community, and Clement, a Gentile, touch and kiss often, Clement is forbidden from eating and praying with him. It is only after he is baptized—after he is purified of demons—that no longer poses a threat to the pseudo-Clementine community and he is fully admitted.
P19-218 Institute for Biblical Research (3:30 PM to 5:30 PM)
Theme: Research Group – Early Christian Judaism
David B. Sloan, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School: “The ‘Partings of the Ways’ in Light of Patristic Use of the Gospel according to the Hebrews” (2nd paper)
S20-104a Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Jimmy Hoke, Luther College: “Beauty, Thrown to the Beasts: Thecla’s Lawless Asexuality” (3rd paper)
“And when Thecla said this, Tryphaena mourned, considering that such beauty was to be thrown to the beasts” (Thecla 29). Thecla’s refusal to have sex presents a problem throughout the Acts of Thecla: she is repeatedly threatened with death—and mourned—for her rejection of marriage to/sex with men, a byproduct of her profession to remain chaste. Although scholars usually frame Thecla’s refusal of sex as rooted in devotion to Christian celibacy, this paper assumes Thecla finds in Christianity a space where she can grow fully into her asexuality. Starting from this assumption, I analyze the asexual politics that Thecla’s actions—and others’ reactions to them—reveal. Thecla’s asexuality exposes political anxieties around the failure of Roman “compulsory sexuality” (applying the term coined/theorized by Emens 2014 and Gupta 2015). Tryphaena’s worries of throwing away beauty emphasize how compulsory sexuality renders asexuality wasteful. It is a failure to be (re)productive. Emotions and affect drive these reactions to Thecla’s asexuality. Anxieties around Thecla’s asexuality provoke fear and death threats. Theocleia remarks how her daughter is “gripped by a new desire and a fearful passion” (Thecla 9). Later, she howls, “Burn the lawless one!” (Thecla 20). Sentencing Thecla to death is an (unsuccessful) attempt to exterminate this “new” (kainos) and fearsome threat to Roman compulsory sexuality. These affective anxieties fray at the fantasy of the good life under Roman rule. The affective attachments to Rome’s compulsively sexual “good life” echo Lauren Berlant’s rendering of (cruel) optimism—echoes that are also prominent in Ela Pryzbylo’s summoning of “asexuality without optimism.” Unoptimistic asexuality abstains from queer happiness and “pride-full” identities that characterize LGBTIA2Q+ politics oriented toward inclusion. After unveiling the affective anxieties that Thecla’s asexuality reveals within Rome’s compulsory sexuality, I interpret the fictional narrative of Thecla’s near-martyrdom alongside Przybylo’s asexual reading of contemporary “lesbian bed death” tropes. In so doing, I align with feminist/queer work on Thecla (including that of Burrus, Kotrosits, and Matthews) and add ace politics, orientations, and resonances into the historical conversation. The “death drive” of unoptimistically asexual lesbian bed death, I argue, recalls the death threats toward which Thecla’s asexuality drives her. By letting Thecla embrace a “lawless asexuality” that refuses to back down in the face of tears and death threats, I accentuate the wasteful refusal of productivity that Thecla’s “asexual Christianity” signals. The narrative’s presentation of women-driven asexual Christianity stands in distinction to the compulsively sexual (hypermasculine) politics of second-century canonical Christianity (especially as found in 1 Timothy). Ultimately, I conclude, the Acts of Thecla musters a lawless asexuality without optimism attempts to shred both the promises of sex and asexual/Christian attachments to fantasies of the good life that are predicated on productivity, wealth, happiness, and successful martyrdom.
SV20-307 Art and Religions in Antiquity (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Theme: The Legacy and Scholarship of Dura-Europos 100 Years Later
Jason Robert Combs, Brigham Young University: “Christ the Young Shepherd and Baptism at Dura-Europos: Baptismal Christophanies as Ekphrasis in the Apocryphal Acts” (virtual session; 4th paper)
In the apocryphal Acts of Peter, Acts of Paul, and Acts of Thomas, the resurrected Christ appears in the form of a young man at several baptisms. Discussions of these narratives have focused on the christological implications of Jesus’s polymorphy, but have said little about the ritual context of these christophanies (e.g., Foster 2007, Lalleman 1995, Junod 1982, Klauck 2008, Garcia 1999). Reading these marginal narratives in the context of the Dura-baptistery, however, I show such narrative depictions of Christ function as ekphrasis. Building on the studies of baptism and art (e.g., Ferguson 2009; Jensen 2011, 2012; and Peppard 2016), I argue that the ritual experience of the baptisand and other participants at Dura-Europos would have included visual engagement with the images on the walls—images brought to life by the flickering light of oil-lamps and the dancing shadows cast upon the walls. In particular, during the baptism itself, witnesses would be fixated on the partial or full immersion of the baptisand directly under the image of a young shepherd—a common representation of Christ. Apocryphal acts give narrative form to this scene, depicting Christ as manifest in the form of a young man at baptisms to witness and validate the ritual. Reading these apocryphal acts in light of early Christian baptismal art—especially the depictions of Christ at Dura-Europos—sheds new light on the apocryphal narratives as well as on early Christian practice.
S21-337 Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Theme: Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Michael J. Kruger, Reformed Theological Seminary: “Exploring the Boundary between Miniature Codices and Amulets: Four Borderline Cases” (2nd paper).
When it comes to paratextual features of early Christian manuscripts, the category of miniature codex deserves more scholarly attention. At least by the third century, but reaching a peak in the fourth and fifth centuries, Christians began to utilize this tiny format for various types of writings. Although New Testament texts were produced in this format, it was a popular medium for non-canonical texts such as the Acts of Paul, the Acts of Peter, the Shepherd of Hermas, and even apocryphal gospels. One area of ongoing discussion is how to distinguish miniature codices from other small book formats such as amulets. How are these two literary categories different? And how are they similar? This paper will argue that these two formats, though distinct, occasionally overlap so that some books have the form of a miniature codex, but the content of an amulet. This overlap will be demonstrated by examining four “borderline” manuscripts: P.Ant. 54, P.Oxy. 2684 (P78), P.Vindob. G. 29831 (MPER N.S. 1710), and P.Yale 1.3 (P50). In the end, such overlap suggests early Christians sometimes used miniature books in “magical” ways, even if those books were not designed explicitly and intentionally as amulets.
S22-134 Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Adeline Harrington, University of Texas at Austin: “What Are Apocrypha Worth? The Cost of Books in Christian Oxyrhynchus” (3rd paper)
The reader valuation of early Christian texts is a highly contested topic in the field of ancient Christianity. To determine which texts Christians revered most in antiquity, researchers have typically considered which texts appear in ancient canon lists, which texts are most often cited, and which texts are most often copied. Rarely, however, have scholars taken into account the material and economic features of our Christian manuscript evidence when considering these issues. This paper considers the cost of the production of early Christian literature in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and the dynamic relationship between canonicity and the cost of manuscript production. Using database software in combination with a variety of other methods for assessing the monetary value of manuscripts in Roman and Late Antique Egypt (á la Bentley Layton and Anne Boud’hors), this paper presents a survey of the cost of Christian literary production in Oxyrhynchus from ca. 100-700 CE. In particular, this study compares the cost of apocryphal Christian literary manuscripts with so-called “canonical” Christian texts as well as non-Christian and para-Christian literary productions.