Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2023
The 2023 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature runs from November 18 to 21 in San Antonio, Texas. The following is a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha
1. Christian Apocrypha Sessions
S19-114 Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University, Presiding
Benjamin Lensink, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen: “Look at These Two Ugly Men, Whose Teeth Are like Milk and Their Lips Are like Soot: Demons in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas.”
Benjamin M.J. De Vos, Ghent University: “A Disabled Saint and True Beauty: The Voice of Mattidia in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies.”
Franz Gilbert Hetroza Biantan, University of Texas at Austin: “Acts of Thomas and Slavery in the Silk Road.”
Eric Cregheur, Université Laval: “The Acts of Thomas and of Peter? A Close Look at an Intriguing Text.”
Thomas Tops, Universität Regensburg: “Apostleship and Mission in the Acts of Andrew and the Acts of John.”
S19-311 Christian Apocrypha (4:00 PM to 6:00 PM)
Theme: Translating Christian Apocrypha
Tony Burke, York University: “What More Do You Need? The Next Wave in Christian Apocrypha Texts and Translations.”
David Calabro, Brigham Young University: “The Arabic History of Elijah in Deep Translation.”
Jacob A. Lollar, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Universität Regensburg): “Thekla in the Syriac Traditions: Critical Edition in Light of ‘New Philology.’”
Respondent: Janet Spittler, University of Virginia
S20-109 Christian Apocrypha (Joint Session with Syriac Studies) (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Syriac Apocrypha
Kristian Heal, Brigham Young University, Presiding
Jacob A. Lollar, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Universität Regensburg): “Ancient Syriac Documents: Apocrypha and History in Antiquity and Modern Scholarship.”
Philip A Lindia, Wheaton College (Illinois): “The Protevangelium of James and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs: Temple Loyalty in Early Syrian Christian Culture.”
Brent Landau, University of Texas at Austin: “The Syriac Revelation of the Magi: Current Research and Future Prospects.”
Stephen J Shoemaker, University of Oregon: “Introducing an Apocryphon to the Syriac Tradition: The Case of the Six Books Dormition Apocryphon.”
Briana Grenert, Duke University: “Is There Anything Christian about the Iconography of Syriac Incantation Bowls?”
Respondent: Matthew Monger, MF Norwegian School of Theology
S21-112 Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti / Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Texts and Paratexts
Troy Martin, Saint Xavier University, Presiding
Thomas J. Kraus, Universität Zürich/Beyond Canon Regensburg: “Well Begun Is Half Done: The Incipits and Endings of the Major Manuscripts of the Visio Pauli (Latin Apocalypse of Paul) and Their Effect on the Text.”
Mina Monier, MF Norwegian School of Theology: “More than a Summary: Gospels’ Argumenta as Sources for Historical and Textual Information.”
Allison L. Gray, Saint Mary’s University (San Antonio): “Lightning Rods and Lesson Plans: Women Who Partner with the Divine.”
Danny Praet, Universiteit Gent: “Miracle and the Mysteries of Eleusis in the Life of Apollonius of Tyana.”
2. Additional Sessions
S18-105 Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Enslavement in Ancient Fiction
Nicholas Elder, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, Presiding
Chance Bonar, Harvard University: “Dorotheus the Enslaved Doorkeeper in the Vision of Dorotheus.”
Joshua King, Loyola University of Chicago and Jonathan J. Hatter, Loyola University of Chicago: “Who Should Serve Whom? Power Dynamics and Slavery in Pseudo-Clementine Homilies 12.5–7”
Katie Kleinkopf, University of Louisville: “Hagiography and Sexual Slavery: Men in Lives of Holy Harlots.”
Christy Cobb, University of Denver: “Enslavement and Christian Families in the Apocryphal Acts.”
George Oliver, King’s College London: “Slave Hero: The Acts of Thomas, Chariton’s Callirhoe, and the Subversion of Novelistic Trope.”
S19-228 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Open Session
Tuomas Rasimus, University of Helsinki, Presiding
René Falkenberg, Aarhus Universitet: “Thomas Unnumbered.”
David Brakke, Ohio State University: “Rethinking the Thought of Norea.”
Claire Koen, Fordham University: “Demons Speaking in the Language of the Blemmyes.”
Paul Dilley, University of Iowa: “The Manichaean Story of Adam and Eve between Gnostic and Zoroastrian Traditions.”
Sarah Parkhouse, University of Manchester: “’Therefore I say, Mary’: P.Oxy.5577 and the Gospel of Mary.”
S18-229a Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Oxyrhynchus and Its Papyri
AnneMarie Luijendijk, Princeton University, Presiding
Evan Axel Andersson, University of California-Santa Barbara: “Reframing the Archive: Towards a Social History of Oxyrhynchus.”
Adeline Harrington, University of Texas at Austin: “Before Nag Hammadi: The ‘Gnostic’ Oxyrhynchus Papyri in Context.”
Geoffrey Smith, University of Texas at Austin: “The Archaeological Context of Thomas (P.Oxy. 1), Matthew (P.Oxy. 2), and the Other Papyri Discovered Near the Theater in Oxyrhynchus.”
Andrew Garbarino, Princeton Theological Seminary: “The So-Called ‘Doubled yod’ of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 7.1007 as Another tipi.”
Christopher B. Zeichmann, Toronto Metropolitan University: “Luke 21:25’s ‘Signs in the Stars’ in Light of P.Oxy. 4950.”
S19-302 Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Eric Vanden Eykel, Ferrum College, Presiding
Acacia Chan, The University of Texas at Austin: “A Shapeshifter in Hiatus: Polymorphic Jesus in the Acts of Andrew and Matthias.”
Allison Barbee, University of Chicago Divinity School: “Space, Time, and Magic: Bakhtin’s Theory of Chronotope in Acts.”
Shaily Shashikant Patel, Virginia Tech: “Miracles, Magic, and Making (a) Christianity: A longue durée of Literary Conversion.”
Emily J. Gathergood, University of Nottingham: “Mary’s Burning Bush: Divine Epiphany Meets Divine Midwifery in the Protevangelium of James.”
Katharine Fitzgerald, McMaster University: “Sexuality as Power: Feminine Agency in Greek Esther and Judith.”
S20-120 Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Domestic Place and Space in Early Christianity
David Eastman, The McCallie School, Presiding
Hermut Loehr, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn: “Hermas’ Home.”
Diane Lipsett, Salem College: “Matriarchs and Grief: Female-Led Households in the Apocryphal Acts of Peter and Paul.”
Jeremiah Bailey, Baylor University: “The Missing Slaves of First Clement’s Household Codes.”
Rachel Al Rubai, University of Toronto: “Father of the Fatherless: Widows and Orphans in Early Ascetic Communities.”
S20-226 Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Book Review: In Search of Truth in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, ed. Benjamin M.J. De Vos and Danny Praet
Jae Han, Brown University, Presiding
Panelists: Kelley Coblentz Bautch (St. Edward’s University), F. Stanley Jones (CSU Long Beach), Nicole Kelley (Florida State University), Benjamin De Vos (Universiteit Gent), Danny Praet (Universiteit Gent)
S20-320 Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Theme: Jewish Christian Apocrypha?
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University, Presiding
Rachel Sarah Slutsky, Seton Hall University: “Moshiach, Moshiach! Differing Notions of Messiah in Second Temple Judaism.”
Benjamin Kantor, University of Cambridge/Harvard University: “Christian ‘Vocalizations’ of Hebrew Scripture and ‘Messianic Midrash’ in Late Antique Palestine: Eusebius, Jerome, and Reading the Messiah in the Hebrew Consonantal Text.”
Giovanni DiRusso, Harvard University: “Memories of the Jewish Paul and Jewish Christianity in the Passion of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.”
Petri Luomanen, University of Helsinki: “To Include or Not to Include? The Case of Eusebius, Theoph. 4.22 as a Fragment from the Gospel of the Hebrews.”
Jamila Herman Gonzalez, University of California-Santa Barbara: “Exodus 15:17 in Midrash: A Proof Text for the Descent of a Heavenly Jerusalem.”
Robert G. Hall, Hampden-Sydney College: “Christianity in Jewish Sensibility: The Ascension of Isaiah.”
3. Individual Papers of Interest in Other Sessions
S18-134 Prayer in Antiquity (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Susanne Luther, Universität Göttingen: “nai Saba?th! Prayers for Revenge in the Apocryphal Acts of Philip.”
S18-139 Religious World of Late Antiquity (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Julia Nations-Quiroz, Yale University: “The Beginning of an End: An Analysis of an Iconographic Representation of Peter and Paul before Nero.”
S18-215 Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Thomas Tops, Universität Regensburg: “Oikonomia in the Early Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles.”
S18-328 Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
David Brakke, Ohio State University: “Managing Multiple Christian Books: The Muratorian Fragment and the Secret Book of James.”
S18-345 Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Amy Smith Carman, Brite Divinity School (TCU): “Violence in the Acts of Thecla.”
S19-131 Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
April DeConick, Rice University: “Authorizing Secrets: The Case of Eugnostos (NHC III,3 and V,1) and Its Adaptation in the Sophia of Jesus Christ (NHC III,4 and BG 8502,3).”
S19-236 Rhetoric and Early Christianity (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Benjamin M.J. De Vos, Ghent University: “Irony and Dissimulatio in the Pseudo-Clementines.”
S21-117 Historical Jesus (9:00 AM to 11:00 AM)
Tobias Ålöw, University of Gothenburg: “Be Approved (Torah-)Teachers: Reconceptualizing the Trapezites-Agraphon.”
S21-123 LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Jeannie Sellick (she/hers), Bowdoin College: “‘Resurrect Your Gays’: Issuing a Corrective for Queer Romance in the Acts of Andrew.”
Kristi Lee, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities: “Thecla’s Queer Futurity: The Reconfiguration of Desire in Acts of Thecla.”