Category: Secret Scriptures Revealed

Christopher Skinner has published a review of my book Secret Scriptures Revealed on the Crux Sola blog (HERE). He concludes:

Several features of this book stand out in my mind. First, the material Burke covers is grouped by subject matter, an arrangement that will likely prove useful for non-specialists. Second, his writing style is clear, engaging, and at times, even humorous in places. Third, at the end of each major section there is a textbox providing information for further study. What I most appreciate about this book is that Burke writes with the skill of an expert and the communicative ability of a great teacher. He ably accomplishes the aim of writing an introductory text for the non-specialist. I definitely plan to require this textbook the next time I teach the non-canonical literature!

Thank you very much, Chris.

A few weeks ago James Allen, host of "Teachings of Enoch," a radio show on KKVV in Las Vegas, interviewed me on my book Secret Scriptures Revealed. You can listen to the two-part interview at James' archive site. Thanks again, James, for having me on the show.

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.

Last night we celebrated the North American release of my new book Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha with a small gathering at a local book store, Words Worth Books, in Waterloo, Ontario. I have a long history with the store; I worked there throughout grad school. I couldn't resist the idea of holding my first book launch there, and the staff were very accommodating.

Snow began to fall early in the evening and I worried that turnout would be dismal. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to see so many faces, including family, friends, and colleagues—some of whom traveled far just to celebrate with me—and a handful of new faces, there simply to find out more about the book. Also in attendance were retired professor Harold Remus, to whom I dedicated the book, and not-yet-retired professor Michel Desjardins, who served on the committee for my doctorate. Everyone listened intently as I read portions of the book, then we had a thought-provoking discussion, I signed some books, and thanked everyone profusely for coming. I think the bookstore was  surprised at the turnout and happy that they sold all of their copies of the book.

Once again, an enormous thank you to everyone who came to the event, and to those who wanted to come but were unable. 

My popular-audience introduction to the Christian Apocrypha is listed in the new SPCK catalog (see above) for release in June. For more on the project see the series of posts HERE (1) HERE (2) and HERE (3).

This is the third in a series of reflections on the writing of my latest project, Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha. The book, to be published later this year by SPCK, is intended for a popular readership. To read the two previous posts see HERE and HERE.

Chapters three to five of Secret Scriptures Revealed contain summaries of a wide variety of texts from the Christian Apocrypha. I intentionally wanted to broaden the scope of texts from what are typically found in surveys of the literature. These surveys normally focus on gospels, and primarily gospels dated to the first three centuries. My views of the field have been influenced by recent attempts at redefining “Christian Apocrypha” that call for abandoning the terminology “New Testament Apocrypha,” terminology which narrows the scope of inquiry to texts composed before the formation of the western canon and that are similar in form to New Testament texts. My survey, then, aims to include as broad a range of texts as possible, in particular to bring some attention to texts that have received little attention in the past.

This is easier said than done. Restricted to 55,000 words, I have little space for that kind of breadth. I need to keep my discussion to three chapters of 10,000 words each. But how do I divide the literature? By genre—gospels, acts/letters, and apocalypses? By theology—orthodox, Jewish-Christian, and gnostic? The first option again follows New Testament categories, and the second is …

The second chapter of Secret Scriptures Revealed covers additional introductory matter intended to form the basis for contextualizing the discussions of individual Christian Apocrypha texts that follow. The challenge here was to determine what new readers of these texts need to know to fully understand the texts, but again to do so in an economy of words. I considered what was confusing to me when I began my interest in the texts. Some of the scholarship on the CA assumes readers are knowledgeable in certain areas (the content of biblical texts, the lives of various Christian figures and writers, etc.), but that is not always the case. And since this is a book for non-specialists, I can assume nothing about their background. So I begin the chapter with a description of the various languages of the texts (focusing on Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Georgian, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Slavonic) and how these languages relate to one another. With this information readers can understand how a text can move from, say, Greek …

I have been asked by SPCK Publishing to write a book for non-specialists on the Christian Apocrypha. After some deliberation, we settled on the title, Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha. I think it has some flash, but avoids sensationalism (apocrypha, by definition are “secret” books, after all), and pulls away from the term “New Testament Apocrypha,” which places too many limits on the material (temporally and generically). The manuscript is due in September and I am relatively close to completion. I thought I would post an entry on the blog as I finish each chapter, offering some thoughts about the pains and pleasures involved in the writing process. I welcome any feedback.

First, because the book is aimed at a wide audience, it is relatively small (a limit of 55,000 words—around 200 pages, I think) and very inexpensive ($20). Unfortunately, this does not allow me a lot of space to discuss the texts. Other brief introductions to the CA limit themselves to gospels; but I wanted to discuss also letters, acts, apocalypses, and other types of literature. I also have a soft spot for texts that have been neglected in CA collections. So, if I want to cover a large number of texts, the introductory matter must be concise.

The first chapter sets the tone of the book with a whimsical interaction with Athanasius and his views on apocryphal texts (he says, “There should be no mention at all of apocryphal books created by …