Apocryphicity

This is the twelfth in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Just over a week away! Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance (and many of them are available now), thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

The publisher of the 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium proceedings (Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha From North American Perspectives) has made available an excerpt from the book. The excerpt covers roughly the first 50 pages and includes the foreword by Christophe Markschies and my introduction. Remember that copies of the book will be available at this year’s symposium at a significant discount (40% off the cover price). The excerpt can be downloaded using THIS LINK.

The final schedule for the 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium has been posted to the YCAS web site (HERE) and is reproduced below. The symposium is just a few weeks away, but it is not too late to register: either send an inquiry to Tony Burke (tburke@yorku.ca) or register at the door on either day of the event.

Thursday, September 24:
Evening reception for presenters

Friday, September 25:
9:00-9:15 Introductions: Tony Burke (York University) and Brent Landau (University of Texas in Austin)

9:15-12:00 – Session 1: Composing Apocrypha in Antiquity
Chair: Tony Burke (York University)

• Stanley E. Porter (McMaster Divinity College, Hamilton, Ontario), “Lessons from the Papyri: What Apocryphal Gospel Fragments Reveal about the Textual Development of Early Christianity.”
• Ross Ponder (University of Texas in Austin), “Reconsidering P. Oxy. 5072: Creation and Reception, Visual and Physical Features”

10:15-10:45 Break

• Brent Landau (University of Texas in Austin), “Under the Influence (of the Magi): Did Hallucinogens Play a Role in the Inspired Composition of the Pseudepigraphic Revelation of the Magi?”
• Pierluigi Piovanelli (University of Ottawa), “What Has Pseudepigraphy To Do with Forgery? Reflections on the Cases of the Acts of Paul, the Visio Pauli, and the Zohar.”

11:45-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:00 – Session 2: Reusing and Recycling Christian Apocrypha
Chair: Janet Spittler (University of Virginia)

• Brandon W. Hawk (University of Tennessee), “‘Cherries at command’: Preaching the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew in Anglo-Saxon England”
• Tim Pettipiece (University of Ottawa), “Manichaean Redaction of the Secret Book of John”

2:00-2:30 …

This is the eleventh in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Only a few weeks away! Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance (and many of them are available now), thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

Eric Vanden Eykel received his Ph.D. in Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity from Marquette University in 2014. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Religion at Ferrum College in Virginia, where he teaches biblical studies and world religions.Eric’s research centers on the reception history of canonical and apocryphal narratives, especially infancy narratives, as well as postmodern literary criticism and its application to biblical studies. His doctoral dissertation is an intertextual analysis of the Protevangelium of James that, in terms of method, draws from the semiotic theory of Umberto Eco. A revised version of this study has been accepted for publication in a new Bloomsbury T&T Clark monograph series, The Reception of the Jesus Tradition in the First Three Centuries (eds., Chris Keith, Helen Bond, and Jens Schröter).

Eric is currently at work on a project that will trace the development of the Matthean Magi tradition in literature and art from its appearance in the first century until the present day.

Abstract

“Expanding the Apocryphal Corpus: Some ‘Novel’

This is the tenth in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Only a few weeks away! Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance (and many of them are available now), thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

Scott Brown is a recent addition to the program. Annette Yoshiko Reed had to pull out of the symposium and Scott graciously accepted out invitation to take her place. Scott studied both psychology and religion at the University of Toronto, where he focused on early Christian gospels and wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Secret Gospel of Mark. He has since published a book (Mark’s Other Gospel) and sixteen papers on this subject, as well as the student resource A Guide to Writing Academic Essays in Religious Studies (London: Continuum, 2008). His areas of research include the literary interrelationships among the gospels, Bethany beyond the Jordan, ritual impurity, narrative criticism, Markan literary techniques, Philo of Alexandria, early Christian mysticism, and questioned document examination. At this 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium he will present the sequel to the paper that he presented during the inaugural 2011 symposium dedicated to the debate on Secret Mark.

Abstract
“Behind the Seven Veils, II: Assessing Clement of …

This is the ninth in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Only a few weeks away! Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance, thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

Bradley Rice is the third of our doctoral students presenting at this year’s Symposium. He is a doctoral candidate in New Testament/Early Christianity at McGill University in Montréal. After working for nearly 10 years as associate editor of the Contexticon of New Testament Language (Oxford University Press), he has now shifted his primary research focus to Christian Apocrypha, and has recently contributed a translation of the Dialogue of the Paralytic with Christ for the first volume of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (Eerdmans).Rice became interested in Notovitch’s Life of Saint Issa after discovering that the Dialogue of the Paralytic—an early medieval apocryphon extant only in Georgian and Armenian—contains what may well be the earliest mention of Jesus’ travels to India. “These few lines were tantalizing in the extreme,” he says, “and led me to explore the mass of esoteric nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature that locates Jesus in India prior to his public ministry and/or after his crucifixion.” He further remarks that “historically speaking, it is highly unlikely that Jesus ever left Palestine.

This is the eighth in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance, thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

This is the seventh in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance, thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

Pamela Mullins Reaves is Assistant Professor of Religion at Colorado College, where she teaches courses in biblical studies, early Judaism, and early Christianity. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Ancient Mediterranean Religions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2013). Reaves’ research focuses on late second-century Christian traditions, primarily those that reveal diverse perspectives and related rifts among early Christians, especially regarding martyrdom.

Her study of the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter (NHC VII,3) has encouraged her to examine competing claims of apostolic authority more closely. In this text, suffering on the physical level lacks value, exhibited through its revelatory report of the crucifixion. “I understand the association of this view with Petrine authorship as significant, reflecting a challenge to the emerging proto-orthodox traditions of Peter as a key martyr,” notes Reaves. Considering another Petrine apocryphal writing from Nag Hammadi, the Letter of Peter to Philip (NHC VIII,2; Cod. Tch.), alongside the Apocalypse of Peter, Reaves similarly understands its perspective on suffering as complicated, perhaps a counter to enthusiasm for martyrdom in the early Church.

Reaves’ interest …

This is the sixth in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance, thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

Greg Fewster is another of the three graduate students presenting at the Symposium. He is a doctoral student at the University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion, working in the collaborative program in Book History and Print Culture. He is the editor of Paul and Pseudepigraphy (Brill, 2013) with Stanley Porter and author of “Hermeneutical Issues in Canonical Pseudepigrapha,” in that volume and “Can I Have Your Autograph? On Thinking about Pauline Authorship and Pseudepigraphy,” published in the Bulletin for the Study of Religion (2014). These articles engage developments in critical authorship theory and their relevance to the question of Pauline authorship of the Pauline corpus.

Greg’s research focuses broadly on early Christian book culture, including literacy, book production and consumption, and social aspects of reading, which serves as a context for studying the composition and reception of pseudepigraphy. This year, Greg has and will be presenting papers on the production and reception of the letter of James, the collection of Paul’s letters, and the Euthalian apparatus of the Pauline corpus.

Abstract

“Paul as Letter Writer and …

This is the fifth in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance, thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

Brandon W. Hawk is Assistant Professor of English at Rhode Island College. He is currently working on his first book, Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England, which challenges normative assumptions about versions of parabiblical gospels, acts, and apocalypses in Old English sermons, suggesting that these apocrypha are a significant part of the apparatus of tradition inherited by Anglo-Saxons.

While earning his MA (2007) and PhD (2014) in the Medieval Studies Program at the University of Connecticut, Hawk learned the value of interdisciplinary scholarship. With this perspective, most of his interests in research and teaching encompass what might be called transmission studies: the afterlives of texts and ideas, including circulation, translations, adaptations, and representations in various cultures and media. About his research, he says, “Scholars have focused to a large extent on early Christian Apocrypha, but many apocrypha have yet to be studied from the medieval period—either created then, or transformed into new iterations.” One of these texts is the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, an expansive Latin adaptation of the earlier Protevangelium of James, which circulated widely in the …

This is the fourth in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance, thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

Ross Ponder is one of three student presenters at this year’s Symposium. Noting the high level of graduate student involvement in the previous symposia, we believed it would be beneficial to invite students to also present papers. Ponder is currently an advanced Ph.D. student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in in the cultural history and artifacts of early Judaism and Christianity. He holds a M.A. in Religious Studies from UT-Austin, a M.Div. in early Christian studies from Boston University, and a B.A. in Classics from UT-Austin.

Ponder’s research usually revolves around the textual and material evidence of ancient Christianity. His interests include papyrology, apocryphal narratives, and understanding ancient cultures with the help of modern social theory. Ponder continues work on several projects: an analysis of the rhetoric of divine benefaction and patronage in Paul’s letter to Philemon; an examination of the competing cultural memories for the martyr Vibia Perpetua in late antiquity; a queer reading of the reproduction process in the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20); and a reexamination …

This is the third in a series of profiles of the presenters at the upcoming 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held September 25-26 at York University in Toronto. Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance, thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

The Symposium begins Friday morning with  a presentation by Stanley E. Porter. Porter is Professor of New Testament, as well as President and Dean, and holder of the Roy A. Hope Chair in Christian Worldview, at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario. McMaster Divinity College is a free-standing theological seminary and graduate school located on the same campus as its sister university. Porter is the author of over twenty-five volumes, as well as editing well over ninety volumes of different types. His published scholarly works span the range of New Testament and related studies, from the Gospels to John to Acts to the Pauline letters and the rest. He is especially interested in Greek language and linguistics. Porter recently published a biography, Constantine Tischendorf: The Life and Work of a 19th Century Bible Hunter (Bloomsbury, 2015), and Linguistic Analysis of the Greek New Testament: Studies in Tools, Methods, and Practice (Baker, 2015), and he has a forthcoming commentary, The Letter to the Romans: A Linguistic and Literary Commentary (Sheffield Phoenix, 2015) and a forthcoming volume entitled When Paul Met …

The 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium is just six weeks away. As the event approaches, I will be posting information about the presenters along with abstracts of their papers. Remember, if you register for the symposium, you will receive drafts of the papers in advance, thus enabling you to participate more fully in the discussions that follow. For registration information, visit the YCAS 2015 web site (HERE).

We begin with Bart Ehrman, who has graciously accepted our invitation to deliver the symposium’s keynote address, which takes place the evening of September 25. Professor Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has taught since 1988. Professor Ehrman has written or edited thirty books, including monographs, editions and translations, and textbooks. Five of his trade books have been New York Times Bestsellers: Misquoting Jesus; God’s Problem; Jesus Interrupted; How Jesus Became God, and Forged: Why the Bible’s Authors are Not Who We Think They Are. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.

One of Ehrman’s primary research foci over the past seven years has been forgery in the early Christian tradition. In addition to the trade book, he has published a major scholarly study of the phenomenon, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics (New York: Oxford, 2013). Ehrman introduces his wide-ranging study with these words: “Arguably the most distinctive feature of the early …