Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2022
The 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature runs from November 19 to 22 in Denver, Colorado. The following is a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha.
1. Christian Apocrypha Section Sessions
S20-113 Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University, Presiding
Thomas J. Kraus, Universität Zürich / Beyond Canon (Regensburg): “‘The Resurrection of the Flesh’ and What the Apocalypse of Paul Has to Say about It.”
Mari Mamyan, Regensburg University: “Shifts in Title: What Does the Evolution of Titles Imply about the Transmission of the Arm Inf Gsp?”
Rikki Wenxin Liu, Yale Divinity School: “The First and the Last: Scholarly and Popular Reception of The Thunder, Perfect Mind.”
Michael T. Zeddies, Chicago, IL: “More Misunderstandings about Mar Saba 65.”
Cristian Cardozo, Universidad Adventista del Plata: “What Is a Name? Author-Function in the 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John.”
S20-333 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism / Christian Apocrypha (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Theme: Coptic Apocryphal Literature in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods
This session showcases the ongoing work of the APOCRYPHA research project at the University of Oslo. This is a project that analyzes the production and circulation of apocryphal literature in Egypt throughout the entire period of Coptic literary production.
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia, Presiding
Hugo Lundhaug, Universitetet i Oslo: “Adapting the Storyworld: Coptic Apocrypha as Blueprints and Building-Blocks.”
Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin, Universitetet i Oslo:“‘Eloi Eloi Lema Sabachtani’: Crucifixion Narratives in Coptic Apocrypha and Magic.”
Florian Graz, Universitetet i Oslo: “Frame-Narratives in Coptic Apocrypha.”
Samuel Cook, University of Oslo: “Apocrypha in the Monastery of Saint Macarius: A Study in the Materiality of Manuscripts.”
Lasse Løvlund Toft, University of Oslo: “The Creation of Man in the Copto-Arabic Literature: Canonical and Apocryphal Strains until the Thirteenth Century.”
S21-210 Christian Apocrypha (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Apocryphal Acts
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia, Presiding
Jacob A. Lollar, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Universität Regensburg): “Canonizing Thekla: The Acts of Thekla and Her Legacy in the Syriac Tradition.”
Dr. Thomas Tops, Universität Regensburg: “A Social-Historical Study of Truth-Telling in the Acts of Andrew.”
Michael Scott Robertson, Florida State University: “Church and Empire in the Acts of Titus.”
S22-113 Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti / Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Please Recycle: Repetition among Apocryphal Traditions
Trevor Thompson, University of Chicago, Presiding
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia: “Proper Nouns in the Letter of Jesus Christ That Fell from Heaven.”
Acacia Chan, University of Texas at Austin: “Mary Sues and Rebellious Apostles: A Fan Fiction Theory Reading of the Acts of Andrew and Matthias.”
Clare Rothschild, Lewis University: “Early Christian Dynasty in the Apocrypha.”
Jonathan Holste, University of Virginia: “On This Day, St. Thomas: The Hagiographical Reception of the Acts of Thomas and His Wonderworking Skin.”
Tobias Nicklas, Universität Regensburg: “Recycling of Apocryphal Literature in Late Antiquity.”
2. Additional Sessions
S19-234 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Pamela Reaves, Colorado College, Presiding
Kimberley Fowler, University of Glasgow: “Titular Genre Claims and Early Christian Identity in the Nag Hammadi Codices.”
Eric Crégheur, Université Laval: “Apelles Gnosticus? “Gnostic” Motifs in the Fragments of Marcion’s Disciple.”
Philip Abbott, Stanford University: “The Sethian Voice of Light.”
Tuomas Rasimus, University of Helsinki: “Sethian Doctrine of Individual Souls”
S20-130 Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Contesting Authority
Sarah Griffis, Hamilton College, Presiding
Robert Edwards, University of Göttingen: “Between Scripture and Tradition: The Place of Pre-Nicene Christians in Late Ancient Lists of Church Fathers.”
Rob Heaton, University of Denver: “‘Transmitted to the Fathers’: The New Testament Canon as Ancient Invention.”
Lydia Bremer-McCollum, Harvard University: “The Christian Codex Addiction: Exploring the Form-al (Material-Discursive) Becoming of Early Christian Textual Practice(s).”
Carl Johan Berglund, Åbo Akademi University: “The Ascetic Subculture of the Acts of Thomas and His Wonderworking Skin.”
Jeremiah Bailey, Baylor University: “The Shepherd of Adulterers: Tertullian, Hermas, Prophecy, and Authority.”
S20-205 Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Apocryphal Acts
Nicholas Elder, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, Presiding
Kylie Crabbe, Australian Catholic University: “Sexual Violence in the Acts of John: Conflations of Violence and Desire in a Portrait of Celibacy.”
Bailey Freeburn, Yale Divinity School: “Violated Visionary: On Voyeurism, Queerness, and Violence in Act 6 of the Acts of Thomas.”
Moona Kinnunen, University of Helsinki: “Queering Polymorphic Jesus in the Acts of John.”
Acacia Chan, University of Texas at Austin: “Mary Sues and Rebellious Apostles: A Fan Fiction Theory Reading of the Acts of Matthias and Andrew.”
S20-226 Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Innovative Approaches to Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Shannon Grimes, Meredith College, Presiding
Edward Creedy, King’s College London: “Harmonising the Secrets of the Gnostics: Clement of Alexandria’s Redemptive Approach to ‘Apocryphal’ Texts.”
April D. DeConick, Rice University: “Esoterizing Christians and Gnostic Remixes in the Third Century.”
Jason BeDuhn, Northern Arizona University: “Manichaean Texts as Early Witnesses to Jewish Mystical Traditions.”
Jaeda Calaway, Illinois College: “This Is My Glorified Body: Pauline Trans Models.”
S20-227 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Current State of Valentinian Studies
Tuomas Rasimus, University of Helsinki, Presiding
M. David Litwa, Australian Catholic University: “Deification and Defecation: Valentinus Fragment 3 and the Physiology of Jesus’s Digestion.”
Francis Watson, University of Durham: “How Valentinian Is the Gospel of Truth?”
Bas van Os, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam: “Heracleon and the Gospel of Philip.”
Elaine Pagels, Princeton University, and Einar Thomassen, Universitetet i Bergen, Panelists
S21-313 Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World (4:00 PM to 5:15 PM)
Review Panel of Meghan R. Henning, Hell Hath No Fury: Gender, Disability, and the Invention of Damned Bodies in Early Christian Literature (Yale University Press, 2021).
Chris de Wet, University of South Africa, Presiding
Panellists: Ben Dunning (Fordham University), Mark Letteney (University of Southern California), Candida Moss (University of Birmingham), Meghan Henning (University of Dayton), and Lynn Huber (Elon University)
3. Individual Papers of Interest in Other Sessions
P18-301 International Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA) (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Tugrul Kurt, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – Humboldt University of Berlin: “The Syriac-Christian Sources of the isr?’iliyy?t-narrations of Early Muslim Exegetes: Reception of the Syriac Cave of Treasures.”
S19-105 Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Joshua King, Loyola University of Chicago: “The Gender of Prophecy: Masculinity and the True Prophet in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies.”
S19-113a Book History and Biblical Literatures (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Gregory Fewster, University of Toronto: “Edition as Communication: David Wilkins’ 3 Corinthians in the Republic of Letters.”
S19-130 Interrelations of the Gospels / New Testament Textual Criticism (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Michael J. Kok, Morling College Perth: “The Gospel of the Ebionites and the Synoptic Gospels.”
S19-131 Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Patricia Duncan, Texas Christian University: “A Late Antique Pseudo-Clementine Prosopography.”
S19-218 Ethiopic Bible and Literature (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Nebeyou AT, Wycliffe Ethiopia and University of the Free State: “The Status of the Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.”
S19-310 Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Stephen J. Shoemaker, University of Oregon: “A New Arabic Biblical Apocryphon: The Qur’an.”
S20-236 The Historical Paul (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Gregory Fewster, University of Toronto: “Philosopher, Wonderworker, Letter Writer? Commemorative Resonances between the Philostratean Apollonius and an Apocryphal Paul in the Second Sophistic.”
S20-309 Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Carl Johan Berglund, Åbo Akademi University: “Apocryphal Acts among Greek Biographies and Paradoxographies: A Question of Genre.”
S21-138 Qur’an and Biblical Literature (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Rebecca Williams, University of South Alabama: “The Miracles of Jesus in Early Medieval Islamic Literature.”
Hadia Mubarak, Queens University of Charlotte: “The Biblical and Qur’anic Mary of Nazareth: Reading Scriptures Comparatively.”
S21-141 Redescribing Christian Origins (9:00 AM to 1:00 PM)
Jeremiah Coogan, University of Oxford: “Lists, Norms, and Canons: Rethinking the Historiography and Lexicography of kanon.”
Brandon Hawk, Rhode Island College: “What Did a Frenchman Want with Apocrypha? Voltaire and the Republic of Apocryphal Letters.”
S21-212 Connecting John: Intertextualities, Contexts, Reception Consultation (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
James W. Barker, Western Kentucky University: “Reading John without Canonical and Genre Prejudice.”
Julia Lindenlaub, Cambridge University Press: “Imagining the Evangelist: The Gospel Author in the Gospel of John and the Acts of John by Prochorus.”
Sarah Parkhouse, University of Manchester: “Mary and/or Mary: The Changing Traditions of the Marys in the Late Antique Reception of John 20.”