Category: Member Publications

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

Abstract from the Mohr Siebeck web site: The present volume offers a new edition, English translation, and interpretation of the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon , previously known as the Gospel of the Savior . An apocryphal story about Jesus probably transpiring shortly before the Crucifixion, the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon claims to recount the narrative as told by the apostles themselves. The text also includes a long hymn sung by Christ to the cross on which he will soon be crucified. The Berlin Strasbourg-Apocryphon is exclusively preserved in Coptic by two fragmentary manuscripts, Papyrus Berolinensis 22220 and Strasbourg Copte 5–7. Additionally, a Coptic manuscript discovered at Qasr el-Wizz in Christian Nubia contains a short version of the Hymn of the Cross. Until now, it has been almost unanimously accepted that the Berlin Strasbourg-Apocryphon is an ancient Christian gospel – probably datable to the second century CE – which was bypassed in the formation of the Christian canon. Approaching the text from the angle of Coptic literature, Alin Suciu rejects this early dating, showing instead that its composition must be located following the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE), whose theological deliberations gradually alienated Egypt from the Byzantine world. The author argues that the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon is one of numerous “apostolic memoirs,” a peculiar genre of Coptic literature, which consists of writings allegedly written by the apostles, often embedded in sermons attributed to famous church fathers.

A. Van den Kerchove, and L. G. Soares Santoprete (eds.), Gnose et manichéisme. Entre Les oasis d’Égypte et la Route fe la Soi. Hommage à Jean-Daniel Dubois. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016.

This extensive volume features over forty articles, primarily by our European colleagues. Two of the pieces, however, deserve particular mention here: “The Troyes Redaction of the Evangelium Nicodemi and its Vernacular Legacy” by NASSCAL member Zbigniew Izydorczyk (co-written with Dario Bullitta) and “Loisy et les apocryphes pétriniens” by NASSCAL board member Jean-Michel Roessli. For a complete list of the volume’s contents, see the page on the Brepols catalog web site or download this promotional flyer.

Tony Burke, “Two New Witnesses to the Acta Pilati Tradition.” Le Muséon 129 (2016): 251-78.

Abstract: A 14th/15th-century Greek manuscript in Vienna (Cod. hist. gr. 91) contains two fragmentary texts relating to the Acta Pilati corpus of the Christian Apocrypha. The first is a fragment of On the Passion, for the Preparation Day, a sermon attributed to Eusebius of Alexandria drawing upon the Descensus ad inferos, found appended to several versions of the Acts of Pilate. The paper includes a transcription and translation of the fragment along with an overview of the publication history of the sermon. The second text is an unpublished, untitled excerpt from an unknown homily dealing with the burial of Jesus and the imprisonment of Joseph of Arimathea. This paper presents a diplomatic edition of the text with an English translation along with a discussion of its relationship to the Acts of Pilate and the related Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea.

For additional information on one the texts discussed in the article (On the Funeral of Jesus) see the entry on e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha.

J. K. Elliott, well-known to Christian Apocrypha scholars as the editor of The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford University Press, 1995), contributed a commentary piece to the December 16 issue of the Times Literary Supplement entitled “Beyond the Bible: Literature from the fringes of the New Testament.” The article is behind a pay wall, but an excerpt can be found on the TLS site (HERE). Elliott also wrote the preface to New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, which features contributions from a number of NASSCAL members. He mentions the collection in the TLS article: “The number of apocryphal texts already published and thus readily accessible to a general readership has been increasing in recent decades. Even more texts are in the pipeline. A new book by Tony Burke and Brent Landau—New Testament Apocrypha: More non-canonical Scriptures (Eerdmans, 2016)—is the first in a projected multi-volume series. It contains several unknown or unfamiliar texts.”

Piovanelli, Pierluigi. Apocryphités: Études sur les textes et les traditions scripturaires du judaïsme et du christianisme anciens. Judaïsme ancien et origines du christianisme 7. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016.

Congratulations to NASSCAL Board Member Pierluigi Piovanelli on this collection of 21 previously published (and influential) studies. For details, see the catalog page on the Brepols web site. The abstract is reproduced below:

Tony Burke and Brent Landau (eds.), New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016.

Congratulations to NASSCAL President Tony Burke and Secretary Brent Landau on their new publication. The volume features contributions from numerous NASSCAL members and is a testimony to the accomplishments and capabilities of our Society.

Testimonials from the Book Jacket:

“This fine collection brings together thirty recently published or long known but often neglected Christian texts, variously inspired by or responding to characters or events presented in the books of the New Testament, together with one Jewish parody of the Life of Jesus. Editors and contributors alike are to be congratulated on their achievement, which paves the way for a wider appreciation and understanding of these varied, fascinating, and sometimes surprising texts, some of which may at times have been more popular than their biblical counterparts.” ~ Andrew Gregory, University College, Oxford

“In this masterful volume we find that greatest of rarities—a collection of ancient texts scarcely known (let alone studied) by scholars of Christian antiquity. With these fresh translations of some thirty apocryphal works, each with a gratifyingly full introduction and bibliography, Burke, landau, and all the contributors have provided us with a rigorous but highly accessible volume that will long prove to be a scholarly vade mecum.” ~ Bart D. Ehrman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“A treasure trove of early Christian writings dating from the second century onward. Created by Tony Burke and Brent Landau as a supplement to more traditional collections of apocryphal literature, this book contains amazing stories from the Christian imagination about Jesus and other biblical characters whose legends were popular witnesses to the Christian faith in late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Many of the texts introduced and translated here are being made available to us for the first time. A must-have collection.” ~ April D. DeConick, Rice University

“Magnificent…The thirty writings brought together here present a fascinating snapshot of the concerns, interests, and piety of various early believers expressed in the form of literary texts. This volume will become a standard work in the field; serious scholars of early Christianity and interested readers will learn much while being entertained and captivated by these enigmatic ancient texts.” ~ Paul Foster, University of Edinburgh

From the Eerdmans Catalog:

Compilation of little-known and never-before-published apocryphal Christian texts in English translation

This anthology of ancient nonbiblical Christian literature presents introductions to and translations of little-known apocryphal texts from a wide variety of genres, most of which have never before been translated into any modern language.

An introduction to the volume as a whole addresses the most significant features of the included writings and contextualizes them within the contemporary (quickly evolving) study of the Christian Apocrypha. The body of the book comprises thirty texts that have been carefully introduced, annotated, and translated into readable English by eminent scholars. Ranging from the second century to early in the second millennium, these fascinating texts provide a more complete picture of Christian thought and expression than canonical texts alone can offer.

CONTENTS

1. Gospels and Related Traditions of New Testament Figures
The Legend of Aphroditianus (Katharina Heyden)
The Revelation of the Magi (Brent Landau)
The Hospitality of Dysmas (Mark Bilby)
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Syriac) (Tony Burke)
On the Priesthood of Jesus (Bill Adler)
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 210 (Brent Landau)
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5072 (Ross P. Ponder
The Dialogue of the Paralytic with Christ (Bradley N. Rice)
The Toledot Yeshu (Stanley Jones)
The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon (Alin Suciu)
The Discourse of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior (Paul C. Dilley)
An Encomium on Mary Magdalene (Christine Luckritz Marquis)
An Encomium on John the Baptist (Philip L. Tite)
The Life of John the Baptist by Serapion (Slavomír Céplö)
Life and Martyrdom of John the Baptist (Andrew Bernhard)
The Legend of the Thirty Silver Pieces (Tony Burke and Slavomír Céplö)
The Death of Judas according to Papias (Geoffrey S. Smith)

2. Apocryphal Acts and Related Traditions
The Acts of Barnabas (Glenn E. Snyder)
The Acts of Cornelius the Centurion (Tony Burke and Witold Witakowski)
John and the Robber (Rick Brannan)
The History of Simon Cephas, the Chief of the Apostles (Stanley Jones)
The Acts of Timothy (Cavan Concannon)
The Acts of Titus (Richard Pervo)
The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena (David Eastman)

3. Epistles
The Epistle of Christ from Heaven (Calogero A. Miceli)
The Letter of Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite to Timothy on the Death of Peter and Paul (David Eastman)

4. Apocalypses
The (Latin) Revelation of John about Antichrist (Charles Wright)
The Apocalypse of the Virgin (Stephen Shoemaker)
The Tiburtine Sibyl (Stephen Shoemaker)
The Investiture of Abbaton (Alin Suciu and Ibrahim Saweros)

J. K. Elliott, A Synopsis of the Apocryphal Nativity and Infancy Narratives. 2nd ed. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2016.

Congratulations to NASSCAL member J. K. Elliott on the new edition of this useful resource for studying the various infancy traditions. Keith is well-known as the editor/translator of The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford, 1993) and as an active contributor to the Society of Biblical Literature Christian Apocrypha Section. The new edition incorporates texts not available in English translation for the first edition: the Armenian Infancy Gospel, the Ethiopic translation of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, the Revelation of the Magi, the Legend of Aphroditianus, and two Sahidic extracts. Also new is the inclusion of the Greek S recension of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and extracts from the Liber Flavus. For more information, see the catalog page at Brill’s web site. The abstract is reproduced below:

Eric Vanden Eykel, But Their Faces Were All Looking Up (The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries 1; New York: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2016).

From the publisher’s web site:

This study of the Protevangelium of James explores the interrelationship of authors, readers, texts, and meaning. Its central aim is to better understand how the process of repetition gave rise to the narratives of the early Christian movement, and how that process continued to fuel the creativity and imagination of future generations. Divided into three parts, Vanden Eykel addresses first specific episodes in the life of the Virgin, consisting of Mary’s childhood in the Jerusalem temple (PJ 7-9), her spinning thread for the temple veil (PJ 10-12), and Jesus’ birth in a cave outside Bethlehem (PJ 17-20).

The three episodes present a uniform picture of how the reader’s discernment of intertexts can generate new layers of meaning, and that these layers may reveal new aspects of the author’s meaning, some of which the author may not have anticipated

The latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review features an article entitled “‘Lost Gospels’–Lost No More” (BAR Sept/Oct [2016]: 41–47, 64–66) by NASSCAL President Tony Burke. Along with a basic overview of the more well-known (and some lesser-known) Christian apocrypha, the article looks at Philip Jenkins’ recent book, The Many Faces of Christ, which argues that Christian apocrypha were not really “lost” at all, but have always been a part of Christian thought and practice. It also mentions the “rethinking” of the Nag Hammadi library discovery in two articles by Mark Goodacre and Nicola Denzey Lewis and Justine Blount. For further information about the issue, visit the Biblical Archaeology Review web site.

The inaugural issue of Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies features an article by NASSCAL founding member and current Secretary Brent Landau and several contributions by member (and journal co-editor) April DeConick. The complete table of contents for the issue are given below. For more information on the journal visit Brill Online.

“Introducing Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies,” April D. DeConick and Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta

“Gnostic Countercultures: Special Issue,” April D. DeConick and Lautaro Roig Lanzillota

“The Countercultural Gnostic: Turning the World Upside Down and Inside Out,” April D. DeConick

“‘I Turned away from the Temple’: Sethian Counterculture in the Apocryphon of John,” Grant Adamson

“Transgressing Boundaries: Plotinus and the Gnostics,” John D. Turner

“Forbidden Knowledge: Cognitive Transgression and ‘Ascent Above Intellect’ in the Debate Between Plotinus and the Gnostics,” Zeke Mazur

“The Apocalypse of Paul (NHC V,2): Cosmology, Anthropology, and Ethics,” Lautaro Roig Lanzillotta

“Gnosis Undomesticated: Archon-Seduction, Demon Sex, and Sodomites in the Paraphrase of Shem (NHC VII,1),” Dylan M. Burns

“Gnostic Self-Deification: The Case of Simon of Samaria,” M. David Litwa

“Demon est Deus Inversus: Honoring the Daemonic in Iamblichean Theurgy,” Gregory Shaw

“The Coming of the Star-Child: The Reception of the Revelation of the Magi in New Age Religious Thought and Ufology,” Brent Landau

“The Great God Pan,” Sarah Iles Johnston

“Alan Moore’s Promethea: Countercultural Gnosis and the End of the World,” Wouter J. Hanegraaff

“Children of the Light: Gnostic Fiction and Gnostic Practice in Vladimir Sorokin’s Ice Trilogy,” Victoria Nelson

“Symbolic Loss, Memory, and Modernization in the Reception of Gnosticism,” Matthew J. Dillon

“Gnostic and Countercultural Elements in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Hoodoo in America’,” Margarita Simon Guillory