Category: Member Publications

Tobias Nicklas, Candida R. Moss, Christopher Tuckett, and Joseph Verheyden, eds. The Other Side: Apocryphal Perspectives on Ancient Christian “Orthodoxies.”  NTOA 117. Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 2017.

This collection of papers from a conference held in London on 3–5 July 2014 includes contributions by NASSCAL members Christoph Markschies and Reidar Aasgaard. For more information (including an excerpt), visit the V &R web site.

Abstract: Anyone who wishes to manage their sources adequately must work with categories that help to bring order to the transcribed material. In many cases, such categories simultaneously shape the way in which we evaluate our sources. Critical reflection of the chosen categories is therefore crucial for robust historical study. This rings especially true when certain categories are not viewed through neutral eyes, but through polemically judgemental eyes. One extreme case would be the category of “apocryphalness”. In some areas, associations like “fraudulent” versus and “secret” – interlinked to this term in Antiquity – are still shaping the way Christian apocrypha are considered to this day. Closely associated with this is the use of the adjectival categories like “(proto)-orthodox”, “majority church” versus those like “heretical” (again polemically pejorative). In their chapters, the contributors demonstrate not only how the set limits – as referred to the categories above – do indeed play a role, but more importantly, where these limits have been exceeded and where we must therefore work with new and different categories to understand the meaning of “apocryphal” writings and/or writings that have “become apocryphal” in terms of the history of an ancient Christianity perceived as multi-dimensional and dynamic. The following questions play a significant role in our understanding of this: In which contexts and by which groups are “newly apocryphal” writings used? Where do apocryphal writings or those “newly apocryphal” play a contextual role that would, nowadays, be perceived as “orthodox“? Which functions are assign thereto?

Contents:

Christoph Markschies, “Models of the relation between ‘Apocrypha’ and ‘Orthodoxy’: From Antiquity to Modern Scholarship.”

Tobias Nicklas, “Beyond ‘Canon’: Christian Apocrypha and Pilgrimage.”

Ismo Dunderberg, “Recognizing the Valentinians–Now and Then.”

Petri Luomanen, “The Nazarenes: Orthodox Heretics with an Apocryphal Canonical Gospel?”

Reidar Aasgaard, “The Protevangelium of James and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas: Orthodoxy from Above or Heterodoxy from Below?”

Meghan Henning, “Lacerated Lips and Lush Landscapes: Constructing This-Worldly Theological identities in the Otherworld.”

Judith Hartenstein, “Wie ‘apocryph’ is das Evangelium nach Maria? Über die Schwierigkeiten einer Verortung.”

Jens Schöter, “The Figure of Seth in jewish and Early Christian Writings. Was There a ‘Sethian Gnosticism’?”

Christopher Tuckett, “What’s in a name? How ‘apocryphal’ are the ‘apocryphal gospels’?”

Candida R. Moss, “Notions of Orthodoxy in Early Christian Martyrdom Literature.”

Jacques van der Vliet, “The Embroidered Garment: Egyptian Perspectives on ‘apocryphicity’ and ‘orthodoxy’.”

Jan Dochhorn, “Menschenschöfung und urzeitlicher Teufelsfall in Überlieferungen der Falascha. Der erste Teil von Teezaza Sanbat in der von Halevy veröoofentlich Version.”

Basil Lourié, “Slavonic Pseudepigrapha, Nubia, and the Syrians.”

John Carey, “The reception of Apocryphal Texts in Medieval Ireland.”

Christopher A. Frilingos, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph: Family Trouble in the Infancy Gospels. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.

Abstract: When Jesus was five he killed a boy, or so reports the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. A little boy had run into Jesus by accident, bumping him on the shoulder, and Jesus took offense: “Jesus was angry and said to him, ‘You shall go no further on your way,’ and instantly the boy fell down and died.” A second story recounts how Jesus transformed mud into living birds, while yet another has Joseph telling Mary to keep Jesus in the house so that no one else gets hurt. What was life really like in the household of Joseph, Mary, and little Jesus? The canon of the New Testament provides few details, but ancient Christians, wanting to know more, would turn to the texts we know as the “Infancy Gospels.”

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a collection of stories from the mid-second century C.E. describing events in the life of Jesus between the ages of five and twelve. The Proto-gospel of James, also dating from the second century, focuses on Mary and likewise includes episodes from her childhood. These gospels are often cast aside as marginal character sketches, designed to assure the faithful that signs of divine grace cropped up in the early years of both Mary and Jesus. Christopher A. Frilingos contends instead that the accounts are best viewed as meditations on family. Both gospels offer rich portrayals of household relationships at a time when ancient Christians were locked in a fierce debate about family—not only on the question of what a Christian family ought to look like but also on whether Christians should pursue family life at all.

Describing the conflicts of family life, the gospels present Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in moments of weakness and strength, reminding early Christians of the canyon separating human ignorance and divine knowledge. According to Frilingos, the depicted acts of love and courage performed in the face of great uncertainty taught early Christian readers the worth of human relationships.

Further information, including an excerpt, available at University of Pennsylvania Press.

Stephen Hüller and Daniel Gullota, “Quentin Quesnell’s Secret Mark Secret: A Report on Quentin Quesnell’s 1983 trip to Jerusalem and his inspection of the Mar Saba Document.” Vigiliae Christianae 71.4 (2017): 353–78.

Abstract: Unbeknownst to most, in June of 1983, Quentin Quesnell made a visit to Jerusalem in order to personally inspect the Mar Saba document known as the Letter to Theodore. This is significant because it adds Quesnell to a small group of people who have testified to have seen the Letter to Theodore in person, and an even smaller group who have commented on its appearance and contents first-hand. Following Quesnell’s death in 2012 many of his personal belongings were acquired by Smith College (Northampton) and recently released to the public for viewing. Among Quesnell’s belongings was a journal full of notes, along with photos and letters to his wife Jean Higgins, all relating to Morton Smith’s discovery of the Letter to Theodore at Mar Saba and to Quesnell’s 1983 visit to Jerusalem. On the basis of these documents the following article offers a summary of Quesnell’s part in the debate over Smith’s discovery and a report of his inspection of the manuscript.

 

Tony Burke, ed. and trans. The Syriac Tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas: A Critical Edition and English Translation. Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 48. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2017.

Abstract: The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, like many apocryphal gospels, has been much transformed over the course of its transmission. Though composed in Greek in the second century, the gospel is extant in a number of other languages and a myriad of forms. The most well-known form is a 19-chapter version in Greek based on late manuscripts (none earlier than the fourteenth century); but it is now widely-believed among scholars of the text that a shorter 16-chapter version preserved in Syriac, Latin, Ethiopic, and Georgian manuscripts is closer to the gospel’s original form. Of these manuscripts, those in Syriac are by far the most important: two of them are very early (fifth/sixth centuries) and thus their text has undergone fewer changes than the texts of the other witnesses. The study of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas will benefit greatly from a critical edition of the Syriac tradition.  Syriac studies would also benefit as the gospel was very popular in the Syrian milieu where it generated a number of further translations (an Arabic Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and sections incorporated into the Arabic Infancy Gospel and the Armenian Infancy Gospel) and became incorporated into two popular Life of Mary collections. The present volume includes a history of scholarship on the Syriac Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a description of the extant manuscripts (now numbering over twenty and divided into three recensions), and editions and translations of each recension of the text.

See the catalog page at Gorgias Press and download this preview of the table of contents and introduction.

Tony Burke, ed. Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions: Writing Ancient and Modern Christian Apocrypha. Proceedings from the 2015 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017.

The York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium ran from 2011 to 2015. It was at the final session of the 2013 event that the creation of NASSCAL was first discussed, and the close of 2015 when it was officially announced. Future gatherings like the York Symposia will now take place under the NASSCAL banner (and watch for news on the 2018 conference soon). Virtually everyone involved with Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions is a NASSCAL member. See below for a list of its contents.

Abstract:

Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions examines the possible motivations behind the production of apocryphal Christian texts. Did the authors of Christian apocrypha intend to deceive others about the true origins of their writings? Did they do so in a way that is distinctly different from New Testament scriptural writings? What would phrases like “intended to deceive” or “true origins” even mean in various historical and cultural contexts? The papers in this volume, presented in September 2015 at York University in Toronto, discuss texts from as early as second-century papyrus fragments to modern apocrypha, such as tales of Jesus in India in the nineteenth-century Life of Saint Issa. The highlights of the collection include a keynote address by Bart Ehrman (“Apocryphal Forgeries: The Logic of Literary Deceit”) and a panel discussion on the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife reflecting on what reactions to this particular text—primarily on biblioblogs—can tell us about the creation, transmission, and reception of apocryphal Christian literature. The eye-opening papers presented at  the panel caution and enlighten readers about the ethics of studying unprovenanced texts, the challenges facing female scholars both in the academy and online, and the shifting dynamics between online and traditional print scholarship. Read more at the Wipf & Stock web site.

Contents:

Foreword by Andrew Gregory

1. Introduction — Tony Burke
2. Apocryphal Forgeries: The Logic of Literary Deceit— Bart D. Ehrman
4. What Has Pseudepigraphy to Do with Forgery? Reflections on the Cases of the Acts of Paul, the Apocalypse of Paul, and the Zohar — Pierluigi Piovanelli
5. Lessons from the Papyri: What Apocryphal Gospel Fragments Reveal about the Textual Development of Early Christianity — Stanley E. Porter
6. Under the Influence (of the Magi): Did Hallucinogens Play a Role in the Inspired Composition of the Pseudepigraphic Revelation of the Magi? — Brent Landau
7. Behind the Seven Veils, II: Assessing Clement of Alexandria’s Knowledge of the Mystic Gospel of Mark— Scott G. Brown
8. Pseudo-Peter and Persecution: (Counter-) Evaluations of Suffering in the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter (NHC VII,3) and the Letter of Peter to Philip (NHC VIII,2) — Pamela Mullins Reaves
9. Paul as Letter Writer and the Success of Pseudepigraphy: Constructing an Authorial Paul in the Apocryphal Corinthian Correspondence — Gregory Peter Fewster
10. “Days of Our Lives”: Destructive Homemakers in the Passion of Andrew — Anne Moore
11. Manichaean Redaction of the Secret Book of John — Timothy Pettipiece
12. “Cherries at Command”: Preaching the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew in Anglo-Saxon England — Brandon W. Hawk
13. Apocrypha and Forgeries: Lessons from the “Lost Gospels” of the Nineteenth Century — Tony Burke
14. The Apocryphal Tale of Jesus’ Journey to India: Nicolas Notovitch and the Life of Saint Issa Revisited — Bradley N. Rice
15. Expanding the Apocryphal Corpus: Some “Novel” Suggestions — Eric M. Vanden Eykel

Gospel of Jesus’ Wife Panel

16. Gender and the Academy Online: The Authentic Revelations of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife — Caroline T. Schroeder
17. Slow Scholarship: Do Bloggers Rush in Where Jesus’ Wife Would Fear to Tread? — James F. McGrath
18. Jesus’ Wife, the Media and The Da Vinci Code — Mark Goodacre
19. Responses to Mark Goodacre, James McGrath, and Caroline Schroeder on the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife — Janet E. Spittler

 

Deane Galbraith, “Whence the Giant Jesus and his Talking Cross? The Resurrection in Gospel of Peter 10.39–42 as Prophetic Fulfillment of LXX Psalm 18.” New Testament Studies 63.3 (July 2017): 473–91.

Abstract:
The curious resurrection account in the Gospel of Peter (10.39–42) is not simply the author’s creative innovation, but is based on a Christocentric interpretation of LXX Ps 18.1–7. The Gospel of Peter’s unusual description of Jesus’ exit from the tomb, whereupon he expands gigantically so that his head enters heaven (GPet 10.39–40), derives from an early Christian interpretation of LXX Ps 18.5c–7. The following conversation between God and the glorified cosmic cross (GPet 10.41–2) derives from a Christocentric interpretation of LXX Ps 18.2. In addition, the cross’s verbal affirmation that it had preached to the dead (GPet 10.42) follows from a literalising yet Christocentric reading of LXX Ps 18.2b.

Slavomír Čéplö, “On Herod and John the Baptist: An Edition and Translation of a Previously Unknown New Testament Apocryphon.” Pages 295–319 in A Festschrift for Ján Pauliny on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Edited by Zuzana Gažáková and Jaroslav Drobný. Bratislava: FiF UK, 2016.

For more on this text, see the e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha entry. The entry summarizes the text as follows:

This work combines various strands of tradition to recount the events surrounding the death of John the Baptist as a narrative embedded in a sermon delivered on the saint’s feast day. The extant text, incomplete at the beginning, starts in harmony with the respective portions of Life Bapt. Serap. describing an incident where John’s disembodied voice haunts Herod and Herodias in their bedchamber and Herodias vowing to kill John. The story then proceeds to describe John’s imprisonment and execution in much the same terms as the canonical Gospels, but interrupting the narrative by including a substantial homiletic portion with references to other apocryphal works (Martyrdom of Isaiah and the Protevangelium of James). The narrative resumes with the description of the fate of John’s remains where in contrast to Life Bapt. Serap., On Herod Bapt. devotes little attention to his body (only noting its internment in the tomb of Elisha). John’s head is delivered to Herodias who is intent on defiling it to carry out her revenge. As in Life Bapt. Serap., John’s head crosses her plans by flying into the air while just punishment is visited on Herodias and her daughter. Herodias’s hands fall off and her body is swallowed by the ground up to her neck and descends to hell. Her daughter goes mad and Herod (who, in contrast to Life Bapt. Serap., escapes the incident unscathed) beheads her. John’s head then takes off continuing to decry Herod’s sin and flies to the Mount of Olives where Jesus and Virgin Mary receive it. Jesus prophesies concerning his own death and commands John’s head to spend the next fifteen years preaching. When the time is up, the head arrives in heaven and meets John’s father Zechariah. The story concludes with a summary of the timeline of the described events and a blessing.

Michael T. Zeddies, “Did Origen Write the Letter to Thedore?” Journal of Early Christian Studies 25.1 (2017): 55–87.

For online access, visit the Project Muse site.

Abstract: In 1958 Morton Smith discovered, in the monastery of Mar Saba, a Greek copy of a letter attributed to Clement of Alexandria, addressed to one Theodore. The letter’s authenticity has been viewed with some skepticism, and since its publication in 1973, scholars have scrutinized it intensely, with some accusing Smith of forgery. Recent debate has suggested forgery is implausible; yet the letter does include non-Clementine elements, including the proposal that Christians should perjure themselves rather than reveal the authorship of a non-canonical Markan gospel that the letter describes. Since the misattribution of ancient texts is not uncommon, it is prudent to wonder if the letter has likewise been misattributed, rather than forged. Ancient testimony and recent scholarship suggest the letter’s author is Origen of Alexandria. Origen’s attitudes towards deception resemble those found in the letter, and many other features of the letter are demonstrably Origenian, including its theological attitudes and themes, its phrases and metaphors, and its biblical references. The letter is consistent with Origen’s use of Clement’s writings, and with Origen’s text-critical practices. It finds a plausible setting during Origen’s years in Caesarea Maritima, and a plausible recipient in Origen’s pupil Theodore.

 

 

 

Michael J. Kok, “Did Papias of Hierapolis Use the Gospel according to the Hebrews as a Source?” Journal of Early Christian Studies 25.1 (2017): 29–53.

For online access, visit the Project Muse site.

Abstract: There is a recurring patristic tradition that Matthew composed a gospel in the Hebrew language and that Jewish sects such as the Ebionites or the Nazoreans had access to it. A Papian fragment preserved by Eusebius (h.e. 3.39.17) credits a story about Jesus’s encounter with a sinful woman to the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Nevertheless, this paper will argue that Eusebius was responsible for this ascription and that Papias of Hierapolis was active before the Jewish Christian gospels that bore this title were composed. Instead, this anecdote was available to Papias and the evangelist Luke from a pool of oral traditions in circulation in Asia Minor

 

 

 

Mary Dzon, The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages. The Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.

From the publisher’s web site:

Beginning in the twelfth century, clergy and laity alike started wondering with intensity about the historical and developmental details of Jesus’ early life. Was the Christ Child like other children, whose characteristics and capabilities depended on their age? Was he sweet and tender, or formidable and powerful? Not finding sufficient information in the Gospels, which are almost completely silent about Jesus’ childhood, medieval Christians turned to centuries-old apocryphal texts for answers.

In The Quest for the Christ Child in the Later Middle Ages, Mary Dzon demonstrates how these apocryphal legends fostered a vibrant and creative medieval piety. Popular tales about the Christ Child entertained the laity and at the same time were reviled by some members of the intellectual elite of the church. In either case, such legends, so persistent, left their mark on theological, devotional, and literary texts. The Cistercian abbot Aelred of Rievaulx urged his monastic readers to imitate the Christ Child’s development through spiritual growth; Francis of Assisi encouraged his followers to emulate the Christ Child’s poverty and rusticity; Thomas Aquinas, for his part, believed that apocryphal stories about the Christ Child would encourage youths to be presumptuous, while Birgitta of Sweden provided pious alternatives in her many Marian revelations. Through close readings of such writings, Dzon explores the continued transmission and appeal of apocryphal legends throughout the Middle Ages and demonstrates the significant impact that the Christ Child had in shaping the medieval religious imagination.