Dance of the Savior

Chorea salvatoris

Standard abbreviation: Dance Sav.

Other titles: Hymn to the Cross

Clavis numbers: ECCA 592

Category: Pseudo-Apostolic Memoirs

Related literature: Discourse of the Savior, Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon, Acts of John

Compiled by: Paul Dilley, University of Iowa ([email protected])

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Dilley, Paul. “Dance of the Savior.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/dance-of-the-savior/.

Created October 2016.

1. SUMMARY

The Dance of the Savior takes place on the Mount of Olives 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 Jesus singing such lines as “I will give my light to you, O Cross” and “Receive me to you, O Cross,” to which the apostles respond with “Amen.” Dance Sav. appears to be an excerpt from the Gospel of the Savior (aka the Apocryphon Berolinense/Argentoratense). 

Named historical figures and characters: “Holy Members” (the Apostles), Jesus Christ.

Geographical locations: Mount of Olives.

2. RESOURCES

online-bulletPaul Dilley, “Jesus as Lord of the Dance: From early Christianity to medieval Nubia,” Bible History Daily (posted 15 August 2016). Online: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/post-biblical-period/jesus-as-lord-of-the-dance/.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

ma-bulletCoptic Qasr el-Wizz Codex (Aswan, Nubian Museum, Special Number 168; formerly Cairo, Coptic Museum inv. 6566; ca. 1000)

Hubai, Péter. Koptische Apokryphen aus Nubien. Der Qasr el-Wizz Kodex. TUGAL 163. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. Translation by Angelika Balog of A Megváltó a keresztr?l: Kopt apokrifek Núbiából (A Kasr El-Wizz kódex). Cahiers Patristiques, Textes Coptes. Budapest: Szent István Társulat, 2006. (editio princeps of the Qasr el-Wizz texts).

Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strausbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017 (pp. 165–69).

Tsakos, online-bulletAlexandros, Christian Bull, Lloyd Abercrombie, and Einar Thomassen. “Miscellanea Epigraphica Nubica IV: A New Edition of the Wizz Codex with an English Translation.” Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 10 (2013): 193–209.

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Dilley, Paul C. “The Discourse of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior.” Pages 184–96 in vol. 1 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Edited by Tony Burke and Brent Landau. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016.

Ehrman, Bart D. and Zlatko Pleše. The Other Gospels: Accounts of Jesus from Outside the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014 (pp. 226–30).

Hughes, George R. “A Coptic Liturgical Book from Qasr el-Wizz in Nubia.” Pages 10–13 in Oriental Institute Report 1965/1966. Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1966.

Piovanelli, Pierluigi. “Thursday Night Fever: Dancing and Singing with Jesus in the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior Around the Cross.” Early Christianity 3 (2012): 229–48 (translation pp. 240–41).

Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strausbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017 (translation pp. 180–81).

3.2.2 German

Nagel, Peter. “Koptischer Kreuzhymnus aus Nubien (6.–8. Jh.).” Pages 320–22 in Christliche Frömmigkeit. Studen und Texte zu ihrer Geschichte. Vol. 1: Von den Aufängen bis zum 15. Jahrhundert. Edited by Bernd Jaspert. Norhausen: Traugott Bautz, 2013.

3.3 General Works

Dilley, Paul C. “Christus Saltans as Dionysos and David: The Dance of the Savior in its Late-Antique Cultural Context.” Apocrypha 24 (2013): 237–53.

Piovanelli, Pierluigi. “Thursday Night Fever: Dancing and Singing with Jesus in the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior Around the Cross.” Early Christianity 3 (2012): 229–48.

Scanlon, George T. “Excavations at Kasr el-Wizz: A Preliminary Report. II.” JEA 58 (1972): 7–42 (esp. 18).

Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strausbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.