Apocryphicity

Apocrypha (Journal) vol. 23

July 25, 2013 by Tony

Volume 23 of the journal Apocrypha is now available. The volume contains:

Els Rose, “Virtutes apostolorum: Editorial Problems and Principles”

Maximilian Diesenberger, “Reworking the Virtutes apostolorum in the Salzburg Sermon-Collection (1st quarter of the ninth century)”

Marieke van Acker, “A (Socio)linguistic Approach to Hagiographic Text Transmission: the Torino Collection Biblioteca Nazionale D.v.3. (8th/9th c.)”

Rémi Gounelle, “Editing a Fluid and Unstable Text: The Example of the Acts of Pilate (or Gospel of Nicodemus)”

Zbigniew Izydorczyk, “On the Evangelium Nicodemi before Print: Towards a New Edition”

Rota Beyers, “The Transmission of Marian Apocrypha in the Latin Middle Ages”

Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh, “Homiletic Texts and the Transmission of Eschatological Apocrypha in a Medieval Irish Context”

Mariken Teeuwen, “The Digital Edition: New Possibilities and Challenges”

Jean-Marie Duchemin, “Un réexamen des notices de Théodore Bar Konaï sur les mandéens”

André Gagné, “Jésus, la lumière et le Père vivant. Principe de gémellité dans l’Évangile selon Thomas”

Tedros Abraha, “Some Philological Notes on the Mäúéüäfä ‘Éräfétä läMaryam ‘Liber Requiei’”

Philip Jenkins has contributed a post ("James the Great") to the blog The Anxious Bench on his appreciation of CA scholar Montague Rhodes James, known for, among other things, his collection The Apocryphal New Testament (1924; corrected edition in 1953 and completed updated by J. K. Elliott in 1993) as well as the editing of a number of apocryphal texts in the volumes of Apocrypha anecdota (vol. 1; vol. 2). Jenkins notes several of his other important works in his post. Via Paleojudaica.

More Secret Scriptures 5: Pseudo-Memoirs of the Apostles

July 23, 2013 by Tony

(The latest in a series of posts about little-known Christian Apocrypha that could not be included in my recent book, Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the the Christian Apocrypha, now available in Europe and to be released in North America in November, 2013. My own copies, alas, are on a very slow boat from the UK to Canada.)

Alin Suciu, administer of his self-titled blog, recently completed his PhD. at University Laval in Quebec. His dissertation—“Apocryphon Berolinense/Argentoratense (Previously Known as the Gospel of the Savior). Reedition of P. Berol. 22220, Strasbourg Copte 5-7 and Qasr el-Wizz Codex ff. 12v-17r with Introduction and Commentary”—is available, at lest temporarily, on his blog (HERE). Though I am interested in Suciu’s work on the so-called “Gospel of the Savior,” it is a particular section of his dissertation that attracted my attention. In a chapter entitled, “The Place of the Apocryphon Berolinense/Argentoratense in Coptic Literature” (p. 71-129), Suciu situates the gospel within the genre of what he calls “Pseudo-Memoirs of the Apostles.” The texts are usually found embedded in homilies attributed to such recognized Church Fathers as Cyril of Jeusalem, John Chrysostom, and Basil of Caesarea; the author pauses in his address to quote from a book found, typically, in the home of the mother of John Mark in Jerusalem (mentioned in Acts 12:12), and which contains first-hand testimonies recounting the words and deeds of Jesus. These books are ascribed to particular apostles (e.g., Peter, Bartholomew, and James …

2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Brent Landau

July 26, 2013 by Tony

This year's York Christian Apocrypha Symposium, “Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha in North American Perspectives,” is only a few months away (September 26–28, 2013; mark your calendars). In the weeks leading up to the event, I will be posting here and on the the Symposium web page short profiles of the conference participants. For more information, see the Symposium web page (HERE).

Brent Landau, “The ‘Harvard School’ of the Christian Apocrypha”

The Revelation of the Magi (for Brepols’ Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum) expands upon his earlier popular work on the text for Harper Collins (2010). Landau, whose dissertation provided the first annotated English translation of this third-century apocryphal text, has theorized the Revelation is actually a first-person account of early Christian visionary experiences.

“The Revelation of the Magi is absolutely fascinating,” Landau says, “because it claims something that no other early Christian text does: that the Star of Bethlehem was actually Jesus himself, who is able to change his form at will. It also has a very strange story about the star producing some ‘food’ for the Magi that allows them and the people of their country to see visions of Jesus’ life on earth. I wonder whether some early Christians might have taken their own visionary experiences (possibly involving the ingesting of some hallucinogenic substance) and wrote them down as if they were the Magi themselves.”

Landau received his Doctor of Theology from Harvard University in 2008. The program, often dubbed “the …

More Secret Scriptures 4: The Martyrdom of Pilate and the Lament of the Virgin

November 13, 2017 by Tony

Many readers of the Christian Apocrypha are aware of the large corpus of texts known as the Pilate Cycle—most prominent among these is the Acts of Pilate (also known as the Gospel of Nicodemus). There is one other text that describes Pilate's involvement in Jesus’ death, though this one is not discussed in connection to the Pilate Cycle, likely because so few scholars are aware of it. The text is the Martyrdom of Pilate, and it forms the second of two interrelated homilies ascribed to a certain Cyriacus, bishop of Behnesa (known earlier as Oxyrhynchus), though we have no other records of such a bishop.The two homilies—today available only in Ethiopic, Garshuni, Arabic, and Coptic fragments—seem to draw upon an apocryphal text in which Gamiliel, the first-century rabbi featured in Acts 5:34–40, is the narrator. Some scholars have called this source the Gospel of Gamiliel.

In the first homily, called the Lament of the Virgin, Jesus’ mother is stricken by grief at the suffering of her son. She weeps for him, first at the foot of the cross as in John 19:25–27, and then at the tomb, where she sees Jesus raised. The Virgin Mary thus replaces Mary Magdalene as …

Hugoye article on Syriac Infancy Gospel of Thomas now available

July 10, 2013 by Tony

My article on the Syriac tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (titled, "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas from an Unpublished Syriac Manuscript. Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes") can now be seen in preview at the Hugoye site (HERE). Here (once again) is the abstract:

The Syriac tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) has been published from three manuscripts, two of which hail from the 5th or 6th centuries. Unfortunately, all three sources lack large sections of the text. In 1914, Paul Peeters discussed a fourth Ms (Vat. Syr. 159 from the 17th century) preserving the entire text, but until now, that Ms has not been published. This article presents a diplomatic edition of Peeters’ Ms, comparing its readings with those previously published, and with another Ms very similar to Peeters’. Also included are a comprehensive overview of other Syriac sources for IGT, and a discussion of Peeters’ theory of Syriac composition for IGT.

Now that this article is in print, I can continue work on a full critical edition of the Syriac Infancy Gospel of Thomas to be published by Gorgias Press.

More Secret Scriptures 3: The Apocryphal Apocalypses of John

November 13, 2017 by Tony

The earliest Christian apocalypse is the canonical Book of Revelation ascribed to John. The focus of this text is the end-time battle between cosmic powers of good and evil, with Jesus leading the heavenly host against the forces of Satan and the Beast. With the victory of Jesus, Satan and his minions are thrown into a lake of fire, and the faithful are raised from death to live forever in a new heaven and earth ruled by God. But the story does not end there for John; he is called on again to receive new visions in several other apocalypses in his name.

The Apocalypse of Saint John the Theologian (commonly known as 2 Apocalypse of John), available in Greek and Arabic and perhaps composed in Syria in the fourth century, is written as a supplement to the canonical text with John asking Jesus for additional information, such as a more detailed physical description of the Beast and details about the conditions of life after the second coming. The righteous dead, whether children or senior citizens, will “rise as thirty-year-olds” (10), Jesus says, and physical divisions will be no more: “Just as the bees do not differ one from another, but are all of the same appearance and size, so every …

More Secret Scriptures 2: Letters from Jesus to Peter and Paul

November 13, 2017 by Tony

(The second in a series of posts about little-known Christian Apocrypha that could not be included in my recent book, Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the the Christian Apocrypha, to be released later this month)

While reading Bart Ehrman's latest book, Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics (Oxford 2013), I came across a reference to, apparently, lost letters of Jesus to Peter and Paul. These letters are not typically mentioned in studies of the Christian Apocrypha, though they should be part of the discussion of apocryphal letters of Jesus (particularly the Abgar Correspondence).

The reference is found in Augustine's Harmony of the Gospels (De cons. Evang.). Augustine is refuting claims that Jesus composed texts of magic. It's interesting that Augustine's method of refutation is to point out that Jesus could not have written to Paul since Paul was not a Christian until after Jesus' death. Here is the relevant excerpt (1.14-16; translated by S.D.F. Salmond, from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6. Edited by Philip Schaff. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888):

14. But, indeed, these persons rise to such a pitch of folly as to allege that the books which they consider to have been written by Him contain the arts by which they think He wrought those miracles, the fame of which has become prevalent in all quarters. And this fancy

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New Article on Secret Mark by Viklund and Paananen

June 7, 2013 by Tony

Roger Viklund's online article, "Tremors or Just an Optical Illusion?A Further Evaluation of Stephen Carlson's Handwriting Analysis" (see HERE; and expanded upon in Timo Paananen's blog HERE and HERE), has now appeared in a peer-reviewed journal. The complete bibliographical details are: Roger Viklund and Timo S. Paananen, "Distortion of the Scribal Hand in the Images of Clement's Letter to Theodore," Vigiliae Christianae 67 (2013): 235-247. Their conclusion:

In sum: all the signs of forgery Carlson unearthed in his analysis of the handwriting in Clement’s Letter to Theodore disappear once we replace the printed images Carlson used with the original photographs. Looking at the artefacts, Carlson concluded that the “apparently hurried cursive was executed more slowly than it purports to be” and that the “writer had not fully mastered the style of handwriting”. An opposite conclusion has recently been reached (independently of us) by Venetia Anastasopoulou, who had access to the high-quality images of the manuscript, and possesses professional training, degrees, and experience in the field of forensic document examination. For Anastasopoulou, the script in Clement’s Letter to Theodore is “written spontaneously with an excellent rhythm”, while the “movement of the writing indicates a hand used to writing in this manner”.

Though Carlson is to be commended for his insight that the tools of forensic document examination could advance the debate, the execution of his project has left much to be desired. Based on the comparison of the images presented above we suggest that there is no “forger’s tremor”

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More Secret Scriptures: John and the Young Bishop of Ephesus

November 13, 2017 by Tony

In celebration of the release of my new book, Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha, I am running a series of posts on texts that could not be included in the book due to space considerations (so many texts, so little room). The first of these is a story about the apostle John transmitted by Clement of Alexandria in his Quis dives salvetur (42.1-15). I only recently came across the story and I am surprised that it is not featured in the popular Christian Apocrypha collections, nor is it mentioned in the standard introductions to the Acts of John. The translation below is taken from an online edition of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History 3.23, which excerpts the text from Clement's work (translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1).

1. At that time the apostle and evangelist John, the one whom Jesus loved, was still living in Asia, and governing the churches of that region, having returned after the death of Domitian from his exile on the island.

2. And that he was still alive at that time may be established by the testimony of two witnesses. They should be trustworthy who have maintained the orthodoxy of the Church; and such indeed were Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria.

3. The former in the second book of his work Against Heresies, writes as follows: And all the elders that associated with John the disciple of the Lord in Asia

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Review of “Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery?” by Roger Pearse

May 21, 2013 by Tony

Roger Pearse, writer/administrator of his eponymous blog, has written a lengthy review of Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate. These are the papers presented at the 2011 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. Read the review HERE. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on the book, Roger. I will offer a response to the review, but I'd be interested in reading other responses first.

Philip Jenkins on Jewish-Christian Gospels

May 9, 2013 by Tony

Philip Jenkins continues his posts on the Christian Apocrypha at Patheos. The latest focuses on Jewish-Christian Gospels.

One comment on a reading (perhaps) from the Gospel of the Ebionites stands out: Jenkins mentions two Latin manuscripts that share a reading with the Ebionite gospel "with no sense that they were drawing on any weird or marginal sect." Weird? Really?

Jenkins also raises an interesting point about how early copies of the gospels, which contained readings different from the canonical versions we have today, may have looked to medieval Christians: "At least in some cases, when scholars like Epiphanius talked about Jewish Christian gospels – when they gave these documents some name like the Gospel According to the Hebrews – were they actually dealing with nothing more heretical than very early drafts of what became our canonical texts?"

2013 Réunion de l’AELAC

May 1, 2013 by Tony

The Association pour l’étude de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne (AELAC) has announced its programme for the 2013 meeting, which will take place June 29-July 1 in Dole, France. Here are the titles of the papers which will be presented this year:

Christoph Markschies, "Überlegungen zum Begriff 'christliche apokryphe Literatur.'"

Caitríona O'Dochartaigh, "L’Histoire de Thècle en irlandais."

Andrey Vinogradov, "Les Actes d'André et de Matthias et leur place dans la tradition apocryphe."

Stephen J. Davis, "The Childhood Deeds of Jesus in Arabic Christian and Muslim Encounter."

Stefan Hagel, "Présentation du logiciel 'Classical Text Editor.'"

Els Rose, "Editing the Virtutes apostolorum: Lectio improbabilior and other editorial principles tried on the Virtutes Simonis et Iudae."

Enrico Norelli, "Un chapitre du commentaire sur l’Apocalypse de Pierre."

More from Philip Jenkins on Irish Apocrypha

April 28, 2013 by Tony

"The Three Wise Druids" at Patheos (brought to my attention by Paleojudaica). With a nice shout-out to the work of Martin McNamara (editor of the CCSA editions of the Irish Apocrypha) and others:

Successive conquests and cultural changes have taken a heavy toll of Irish libraries, but enough remains to show just how rich the apocryphal collections would have been. Modern scholars like Martin McNamara, Máire Herbert and David Dumville have painstakingly collected these records, discussing over a hundred items known in Ireland. Many are poetic elaborations of well-known stories, but we also find a full spectrum of widely known alternative texts. In many cases, the texts survive in the vernacular, in Irish Gaelic.

See also Jenkins' earlier post on "Canons of Scripture," which reflects the nuances of current discussion about the canon of the New Testament and the interplay of canonical and non-canonical texts over the centuries.

2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium

April 23, 2013 by Tony

I am pleased to announce, after some delay, the 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. The theme this year is “Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha in North American Perspectives.” The event takes place at York University September 26–28, 2013.

The planning for the 2013 Symposium was greatly helped by Brent Landau (University of Oklahoma). We have invited 22 Canadian and U.S. scholars to share their work and discuss present and future collaborative projects. Participants include David Eastman, Nicola Denzey Lewis, Mark Goodacre, Kristian Heal, Charles Hedrick, Cornelia Horn, F. Stanley Jones, and Stephen Patterson

Complete information about the Symposium is available at THIS LINK. We hope you can join us.