Apocryphicity

New Books on Fallen Angels Traditions

October 31, 2014 by Tony

Kelley Coblentz Bautch passed along to me some information about two recent books on Fallen Angels traditions that may be of interest to readers of Christian Apocrypha:

Available only since September, Fallen Angels Traditions: Second Temple Developments and Reception History (ed. A. K. Harkins, K. Coblentz Bautch and J. Endres; CBQMS 53) is a collection of essays that takes up new areas of research in fallen angels traditions. Essays in this volume treat traditions of the rebellious angels in the Hodayot, Book of Jubilees, Book of Revelation, and Apocryphon of John. The fallen angels motif is explored also in the work of Mani, Origen and Justin, as well as in Muslim traditions and Medieval Scholastic theology. Contributors include James VanderKam, Pheme Perkins, John C. Reeve, Angela Kim Harkins, Kelley Coblentz Bautch, Todd Hanneken, and Franklin Harkins.

The second, published this Spring, is The Watchers in Jewish and Christian Traditions (ed. A. K. Harkins; K. Coblentz Bautch and J. Endres; Fortress). This sourcebook systematically examines fallen angels traditions for non-specialists and students. Essays examine watchers traditions in Mesopotamian contexts, biblical texts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, pseudepigraphical literature, and Patristic and Rabbinic literature. Contributors include: Ida Fröhlich, John Endres, S.J., Randall Chesnutt, Anathea Portier-Young, Scott M. Lewis, S.J., Jeremy Corley, Eric Mason, Karina Hogan, Samuel Thomas, Leslie Baynes, Chris Seeman, Silviu Bunta, Kevin Sullivan and Joshua Burns.

Simon Gathercole on the Differences Between Canonical and Noncanonical Gospels

October 23, 2014 by Tony

Steve Walton, administrator of the Acts and More blog, provides a summary of Simon Gathercole’s plenary paper from the British New Testament Conference (Sept. 4-6, 2014): “Jesus, the Apostolic Gospel and the Gospels.” I can’t say much about the paper without reading it for myself, but it does strike me as presumptuous to start with the determination that the four canonical gospels are distinct as a group from other gospels simply because they are in the canon. Indeed, there are probably more differences (not just in content but in theology) between the Synoptics and John than there is between the Synoptics and some noncanonical texts. The pool of noncanonical texts selected by Gathercole is also somewhat arbitrary: the Gospels of Peter, Truth, Thomas, Philip, Mary, the Egyptians, and Judas. In all, Gathercole’s approach seems to be a throwback to the type of discussion seen in the nineteenth century (e.g., C. E. Stowe, “The Four Gospels: State of the Question in 1851,” Journal of Sacred Literature [Jan. 1886]: 283-314).

Call for Papers: CSBS/CSPS Christian Apocrypha Session 2015

October 23, 2014 by Tony

For the past three years I have been organizing a session of Christian Apocrypha at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. Last year we began a partnership with the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies to create a joint session. Normally there is no particular theme to the session, but this year we are looking for papers that tie in to the theme of the York Christian Apocrypha Symposium to be held in September 2015. Papers on other topics are also welcome.

CALL FOR PAPERS: JOINT SESSION ON “CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHA”
The theme for the session this year is Re-write, Re-use and Recycle: Transformations in the Writing of Christian Apocrypha. We are looking for papers that examine the transformation of Christian and non-Christian texts and traditions into apocryphal Christian texts – such as the Christianization of Jewish Pseudepigrapha, the Gnosticization of Jewish and Greco-Roman texts into gnostic Christian texts, elaborations and harmonizations of canonical Christian texts, and other possibilities. We welcome also papers that do not fit this theme. The session will be mounted if there are sufficient proposals (at least five). For further information on the session, contact Tim Pettipiece (tpettipi@gmail.com) or Tony Burke (tburke@yorku.ca).

Proposed titles, an abstract of approximately 100 words, and an indication of audio-visual requirements and accessibility requirements should be submitted by 31 January 2015 by email to the CSPS programme coordinator, Theodore de Bruyn (tdebruyn@uottawa.ca). Please write “CSPS Proposal” in the subject line of your email. Proposals may also be sent to …

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 14: Acts of Timothy

November 13, 2017 by Tony

[This is the latest in a series of posts on texts to be featured in New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures edited by Brent Landau and I. The material here is incorporated also into the information on the texts provided on my More Christian Apocrypha page].

The Acts of Timothy recounts Timothy’s tenure as bishop of Ephesus. The Latin version of the text attributes its authorship to a certain presbyter named Polycrates. Timothy is said to have been born to a Greek father and a Jewish mother in Lystra. He was converted by Paul and traveled with him until he settled in Ephesus. After Paul’s martyrdom under Nero, the apostle John, equated here with John of Patmos, arrives in Ephesus. Followers of the disciples bring to John various traditions about Jesus on loose sheets of paper, which he organizes into three gospels and assigns to them their traditional names. Then he composes his own to fill in details missing in the other three. John is then exiled to the island of Patmos by Domitian. Timothy, who is still ruling as bishop, publicly attacks a local pagan festival called the Katagogia. In response, the revelers use their clubs and stones to kill Timothy. The local Christians take the bishop and bury him outside of the city in a place called Pion. Some Greek manuscripts add that his body was later removed to Constantinople. Under the reign of Nerva John returns from exile and becomes bishop in Ephesus until the reign of …

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 13: Life of John the Baptist by Serapion

November 13, 2017 by Tony

The Life of John the Baptist is told through the voice of Serapion, an Egyptian bishop of the fourth century, on the occasion of an unspecified feast day for John. It begins with a harmony of details about John’s birth taken from the Gospel of Luke and the Infancy Gospel of James, finishing with the death of Zechariah and Elizabeth fleeing from Herod’s soldiers into the desert. After five years, when John is seven years and six months old, Elizabeth dies, portentously on the same day as Herod the Great. Jesus, “whose eyes sees heaven and earth” (7:3), sees John grieving and spirits himself and Mary to the desert on a cloud. They bury Elizabeth and then Jesus and Mary remain with John for seven days, teaching him how to live in the desert. Then Mary and Jesus return to Nazareth, leaving John under the protection of Gabriel and watched by the souls of his parents. The text then shifts to John’s adult career and the story of Herod Antipas and his affair with Philip’s wife Herodias. The gospel account is expanded with a prologue to the story of John’s death revealing that Herodias and Herod worked together to obtain Philip’s land and …

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 12: Gospel Fragments

November 13, 2017 by Tony

Gospel fragments are an ubiquitous feature of Christian Apocrypha collections. These untitled, often mystifying fragmentary manuscripts tease the possibility of lost known or unknown gospels, but they can instead be extracts from harmonies or homilies, or evidence for the phenomenon of secondary orality (canonical gospel stories remembered from oral performance before secondarily attaining written form). The fragments included in MNTA rarely appear in Christian Apocrypha collections.

The first of these fragments is Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 210, a single leaf from a third-century papyrus codex. One side of the leaf contains what appears to be an infancy story in which Joseph receives instructions about Mary from an angel. The other side appears to contain at least two episodes, one with similarities to the saying of Jesus on good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bad fruit (Matt 7:17-18//Luke 6:43-44), and the other has Jesus begin a Johannine “I am” statement with the declaration “I am an image [of his goodness].” A reconstruction and analysis of P. Oxy. 210 has been provided to us by Brent Landau and Stanley Porter. Porter previously wrote on the text for the Markschies-Schröter German collection. The fragment also appears, in Greek (without English translation) and in photographs, in Thomas A. …

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 11: Acts of Titus

November 13, 2017 by Tony

The Acts of Titus has three parts: his early life (chs. 1-3), his time as a companion of Paul, (chs. 4-6), and his time in office as bishop of Gortyna (chs. 7-12). The text is attributed to a certain “Zenas the lawyer” (from Titus 3:13). The author reveals that Titus grew up in a noble home in Crete (indeed, he is said to be of the lineage of Minos, king of Crete). At the age of 20, a voice tells him that his classical education is of no benefit to him, so he turns to reading Hebrew scripture. His uncle, the proconsul, sends Titus to Jerusalem to investigate the activity of Jesus. There he witnesses the miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus and becomes a believer. Titus receives ordination from the apostles and becomes Paul’s companion in his missionary endeavours. The two journey to Crete, where Titus encounters his brother-in-law Rustillus who tells Titus not to preach against the pagan gods but becomes a believer after Paul restores his deceased son to life. Together with Luke and Timothy, Titus remains with Paul until the apostle’s execution under Nero. Then Titus returns to Crete, where he destroys pagan temples and establishes churches. Titus dies …

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 10: The Life and Martyrdom of John the Baptist

November 13, 2017 by Tony

[This is the latest in a series of posts on texts to be featured in New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures edited by Brent Landau and I. The material here is incorporated also into the information on the texts provided on my More Christian Apocrypha page].

Life Mart. Bapt. draws heavily on the New Testament Gospel information about John but adds some details. No details are given of his birth and childhood; after a bare mention of his birth, the action moves right to his adulthood when Gabriel instructs him on his mission of baptism and particularly the baptism of Jesus. He goes to the Jordan and gains forty disciples. This draws the interest of Herod Antipas and he orders the prophet to be brought to him. John refuses to go with Herod’s envoy and indicts Herod for sleeping with his brother’s wife. Herod now seeks an opportunity to kill him. After baptizing Jesus, John appears before Herod and formally accuses him. He is imprisoned but John is able to bring in his disciples and leads them in prayer. He tells them of his coming death and tells them to keep to his commandments, which are reminiscent of some of Jesus’ teachings. Herod’s nobles want him to release John or behead him. Herod sends Julian to talk to him but John is unrepentant. The famous feast happens and John is beheaded. One of Herod’s guests is a secret disciple of John and asks for the head and he gives it …

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 9: The Legend of the Thirty Silver Pieces

November 13, 2017 by Tony

LTPS exists in two main forms: an Eastern recension in Syriac, Garshuni, and Armenian, and a Western recension in Latin and European vernaculars. Both forms relate the origin and transmission of the silver pieces paid to Judas to betray Christ. The story begins with the minting of the coins by Terah, then they are passed on to Abraham, to Solomon, to Nebuchadnezzar, to the Magi, to Jesus, who deposits them in the temple, and then to Judas. The two recensions diverge in the passing of the coins from the Magi to Jesus. In the Eastern version the Magi lose the coins in Edessa, merchants find them and give them to King Abgar, and he sends them, along with the Seamless Robe, to Jesus as a reward for healing him. In the Western version the coins pass directly from the Magi to Mary (as part of the gifts to the newborn Messiah), who loses them while the Holy Family is in Egypt; they come into the hands of a shepherd and he gives them to Jesus. Some of the Western versions include an epilogue describing the Judas penny relics that remained in circulation and elaborate descriptions of the potters’ field purchased with the coins returned …

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 8: The Qasr el-Wizz Codex

November 13, 2017 by Tony

The tenth/eleventh-century Coptic Qasr el-Wizz codex contains two texts: the Discourse of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior. The first of these is a post-resurrection dialogue between Jesus and the apostles set four days before his ascension. Peter begins the dialogue by asking Jesus about the "mystery of the cross." Jesus responds that he will bring the cross with him upon his return to judge the living and the dead. This is to "reveal the shame" of the "law-breaking Jews" who crucified him. The cross will stand beside him in the valley of Josaphat and all those who have performed acts of piety (e.g., feeding the hungry, and notably, writing books in praise of the cross) will stand under its shadow. After Jesus has judged everyone, the righteous will follow the cross as it rises into the heavens. Jesus then tells the apostles to proclaim the cross to the whole world.

The second text, the Dance of the Savior, also takes place on the Mount of Olives, but this time before the crucifixion (perhaps as an expansion of Mark 14:26//Matt 26:30). Jesus gathers the apostles around him and sings a hymn in four parts. The cross again takes center-stage, with …

2012 ISCAL Proceedings: Latin Apocryphal Acts

September 14, 2014 by Tony

NEW IN PRINT: Els Rose, ed., The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in Latin Christianity: Proceedings of the First International Summer School on Christian Apocryphal Literature (ISCAL), Strasbourg, 24-27 June 2012 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014). Visit http://brepols.metapress.com/content/x282t7/ for a list of contents and instant online access (some sections are open access). From the press:

The lives of the apostles after Pentecost are described in the books of the New Testament only in part. Details of their missionary wanderings to the remote corners of the world are found in writings not included in the biblical canon, known as the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. In the early Middle Ages these originally Greek writings were translated and rewritten in Latin and circulated under the title Virtutes apostolorum. These texts became immensely popular. They were copied in numerous manuscripts, both as a comprehensive collection with a chapter for each apostle and as individual texts, echoing the needs of monastic and other religious communities that used these texts to celebrate the apostles as saints.

The First International Summer School on Christian Apocryphal Literature (Strasbourg, 2012) concentrated on the transmission of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in the Latin world. This volume also highlights the use of the Bible in the apocryphal Acts, the imagination of the apostles in early Christian art and poetry, and the apocryphal Acts in early medieval print. Other contributions concern the study of Christian apocryphal literature in general and in the context of the Strasbourg Summer School in particular.

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 7: The Death of Judas

November 13, 2017 by Tony

The fourth book of Papias's lost Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord contains a tradition about the death of Judas that is different from what we find in both Matt 27:3-10 and Acts 1:18-20. This tradition, preserved in a long version and a short version in Greek catenae (collections of extracts from biblical commentators), states that Judas was punished for his betrayal of Jesus by becoming "inflamed in the flesh"—so large that he could not through narrow streets, his eyes swollen shut, his genitals enlarged and filled with pus and worms. Death came to him "in his own land" and no one can pass through there without holding their nose.

Papias's account of the death of Judas, prepared for us by Geoffrey Smith, is one of two contributions in the MNTA collection that derive from non-biblical traditions transmitted by patristic writers. This material blurs the definition of "apocrypha"—does the fact that Papias knows this story make it more valued, perhaps more historical, more "orthodox," than if it were contained in an apocryphal text? A similar situation exists with sayings of Jesus contained in the Apostolic Fathers—the presence of a saying in, say, 1 Clement makes the saying orthodox and many would count it …

New in Print: Two books on Jewish Pseudepigrapha

August 28, 2014 by Tony

Susan Docherty, The Jewish Pseudepigrapha: An introduction to the literature of the Second Temple period (London: SPCK, 2014).This looks like a nice counterpart to my Secret Scriptures Revealed book (also from SPCK). Here is the publisher's blurb:

An understanding of the Jewish Pseudepigrapha forms an integral part of all courses on New Testament background and Christian origins This will be the first student introduction to appear for over thirty years Highlights the key theological themes and significance of each text Reviews the texts on their own merits as examples of early Jewish religious literature as well as looking at the light they shed on NT theology and scriptural interpretation This is a concise yet comprehensive guide to the Pseudepigrapha: the Jewish texts of the late Second Temple Period (circa 250BCE – 100CE) that are not included in the Hebrew Bible or standard collections of the Apocrypha. Each chapter deals with a specific literary genre (e.g. apocalyptic, testaments, rewritten Bible), encouraging readers to appreciate the texts as literature as well as furthering their understanding of the content and significance of the texts themselves. As well as providing helpful introductions to the different genres, the book surveys key issues such as: date, authorship, original language; purpose; overview of contents; key theological themes and significance.

Joel M. Hoffman, The Bible's Cutting Room Floor: The Holy Scriptures Missing From Your Bible (Macmillan, 2014). The book was recently reviewed on Patheos by James McGrath. Here is the publisher's blur:

The Bible you usually read is

…

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 6: Dialogue of the Paralytic

November 13, 2017 by Tony

Dial. Paralytic is an elaboration of the story of Jesus and the paralytic from John 5:1–15, though here the encounter is situated after the resurrection, perhaps as late as the fourth century if the paralytic's mention of Arius (d. 336) is original to the text. Christ descends to earth and sees the paralytic. His situation is grave: “disabled and helpless, paralyzed and deprived of the use of all his limbs; he was indeed blind, without strength in his hands, disabled of the two feet and covered with wounds.” He asks Jesus who he is, but Jesus is evasive about his identity. He says, “I am a man who walks a lot, a traveler.” At one point he says he has traveled from India. The two begin to discuss Christ, who was famed as a healer. The paralytic had heard of Christ but no one could carry him to the healer to be cured. Jesus then questions why the man is afflicted: “Whereas you have hopes at this point in Christ, why did he not cure you? Would you not be unbelieving and guilty of very serious sins?” Then follows a series of exchanges recalling the protests of Job to his friends who sought some …

More Christian Apocrypha Updates 5: On the Priesthood of Jesus

November 13, 2017 by Tony

On the Priesthood of Jesus (aka, Confession of Theodosius, Apology of Theodosius) is an example of an embedded apocryphon—meaning, the text comes with a framing story, in this case a dispute between Jews and Christians in the reign of the emperor Justinian I (527–565) during which an account is brought forward that is said to have come from an old codex in Tiberius saved from the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. It is unlikely, however, that this old account actually existed apart from the larger work. It reveals that, early in the career of Jesus, a position became vacant in the 22-member priesthood. Jesus is put forward as a candidate but the priests must establish that he is a descendant of one of the priestly families. Since Joseph is deceased, they summon his mother, who reveals that Joseph was not Jesus’ earthly father but Jesus is still a suitable candidate because she is descended from the families of Aaron and Judah. As proof of her claim, the priests summon midwives to see if she is still a virgin. Her post partum virginity is established and Jesus is considered worthy of the priesthood. This makes it possible for Jesus to be …