Category: Member Publications

Charles W. Hedrick. Parabolic Figures or Narrative Fictions? Seminal Essays on the Story of Jesus. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2016.

Charles Hedrick is a founding member of the NASSCAL board. He describes the book in a post on his blog Wry Thoughts about Religion:

In the book I contend that parables do not teach moral and religious lessons; they are not, in whole or part, theological figures for the church. Rather parables are realistic narrative fictions told to Judean peasants, and like all effective fiction literature the stories are designed to draw auditors (and now readers) into their story worlds where auditors and readers make discoveries about themselves by finding their ideas challenged and subverted—or affirmed, by the stories.The parables have endings but not final resolutions, because the endings raise new complications for careful readers, which require further resolution.  The narrative contexts and interpretations supplied by the evangelists constitute an attempt by the early church to bring the secular narratives of Jesus under the control of the church’s later religious perspectives.  Each narrative represents a fragment of Jesus’ secular vision of reality.

As I began this approach to parables over twenty years ago, I found myself moving further outside the mainstream of parables scholarship, both ecclesiastical and critical. I explored a literary approach to the parables in a series of early essays that, among other things, set out what I considered the basic rationale for a literary approach to the parables of Jesus.  These early essays form the central section of the book, published in recently edited form along with previously unpublished critiques of a strictly literary approach to the parables and my response to my critics.

 

 

Edmund P. Cueva and Javier Martínez, eds. Splendide Mendax: Rethinking Fakes and Forgeries in Classical, Late Antique, and Early Christian Literature. Groningen: Barkhuis, 2016.

Featuring a contribution by NASSCAL member (and contributor to the 2011 and 2015 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Series) Scott Brown, “Mar Saba 65: Twelve Enduring Misconceptions” (pp. 303-30). From the publisher’s abstract (full information including table of contents at Barkhuis):

Scholars for centuries have regarded fakes and forgeries chiefly as an opportunity for exposing and denouncing deceit, rather than appreciating the creative activity necessary for such textual imposture. But should we not be more curious about what is spurious? Many of these long-neglected texts merit serious reappraisal, when considered as artifacts with a value beyond mere authenticity. We do not have to be fooled by a forgery to find it fascinating, when even the intention to deceive can remind us how easy it is to form beliefs about texts. The greater difficulty is that once beliefs have been formed by one text, it is impossible to approach the next without preconceptions potentially disastrous for scholarship.

The exposure of fraud and the pursuit of truth may still be valid scholarly goals, but they implicitly demand that we confront the status of any text as a focal point for matters of belief and conviction.

Many new and fruitful avenues of investigation open up when scholars consider forgery as a creative act rather than a crime. We invited authors to contribute work without imposing any restrictions beyond a willingness to consider new approaches to the subject of ancient fakes and forgeries. The result is this volume, in which our aim is to display some of the many possibilities available to scholarship when the forger is regarded as “splendide mendax” – splendidly untruthful.

Stephen J. Patterson. The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2016.

From the publisher’s web site:

NASSCAL Board member Annette Yoshiko Reed delivered a lecture at Trinity University on February 17, 2016, on the topic, “The Bible Beyond the Bible: From Apocrypha to Anime.” The lecture was filmed and has been made available for viewing on Youtube.

Jan N. Bremmer, Thomas R. Karmann, Tobias Nicklas. The Ascension of Isaiah. Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha 11. Leuven: Peeters, 2015.

This collection features the essay “‘A Door into an Alien World’: Reading the Ascension of Isaiah as a Jewish Mystical Text” by NASSCAL Board member Pierluigi Piovanelli.

From the publisher’s catalog entry:

This book is one of the first modern collections of studies on important aspects of the Ascension of Isaiah, which occupies a special place among the early Christian writings, due to its complicated origin and its relevance in regards of the early Christian self-understanding in respect of the Jews. The volume starts with an analysis of the place of the Ascension in the development of early Christian prophecy and continues with several chapters that discuss the problems of the date, provenance, genre and interpretation of the Ascension as well as its potential relationship to Marcion. The following chapters focus on various aspects of the Ascension, such as its mystical character, oracular nature, self-designation, Johannist constellation, religious experience, cosmology, the descent of Christ, eschatology and the Virgin birth. A final chapter looks at P.Amh. I 1, the Greek witness to the Ascension of Isaiah. The volume concludes, as has become customary, with a bibliography and index.

Table of Contents:

J.N. Bremmer, “The Domestication of Early Christian Prophecy and the Ascension of Isaiah.”

R. Bauckham, “How the Author of the Ascension of Isaiah Created its Cosmological Version of the Story of Jesus.”

J. Knight, “The Ascension of Isaiah: A New(er) Interpretation.”

M. Vinzent, “The Ascension of Isaiah as a Response to Marcion of Sinope.”

P. Piovanelli, “‘A Door into an Alien World’: Reading the Ascension of Isaiah as a Jewish Mystical Text.”

R.G. Hall, “Subtleties of Translation and Ancient Interpretation: Cues for Understanding the Ascension of Isaiah.”

M. Henning and T. Nicklas, “Questions of Self-Designation in the Ascension of Isaiah.”

A. Destro and M. Pesce, “The Ascension of Isaiah and the Johannist Constellation.”

I. Czachesz, “Religious Experience behind the Account of Isaiah’s Ascent to Heaven: Insights from Cognitive Science.”

L.R. Lanzillotta, “The Cosmology of the Ascension of Isaiah: Analysis and Re-Assessment of the Text’s Cosmological Framework.”

A.L.A. Hogeterp, “The Descent of Jesus Christ in the Ascension of Isaiah.”

J. Verheyden,“Pessimism in All Its Glory: the Ascension of Isaiah on the Church in the Last Days.”

T. Karmann, “Die Jungfrauengeburt in der Ascensio Isaiae und in anderen Texten des frühen Christentums.”

T.J. Kraus, “The P.Amh. I 1 (Ascension of Isaiah)–What a Manuscript Tells about a Text and its World.”

J.N. Bremmer, “Bibliography of the Ascension of Isaiah.”

Cornelia Horn and Sidney H. Griffith, editors. Biblical and Qur’anic Traditions in the Middle East. Warwick, RI: Abelian Academic, 2016.

From the publisher’s press release (and order a copy of the book HERE):

The contributors to this volume present current research on the interaction of Muslim-Christian-Jewish religious developments in the Late Antique Near East. The reader will find topics addressing biblical and qur’ānic material applied to a wide range of questions covering the intersection of Jewish, Christian, Manichaean, Islamic, and Graeco-Roman religious sources. Unifying this research is the history of biblical traditions and their interpretation across religious boundaries as well as the role of Syriac literature and thought in the transmission of religious ideas and material in Late Antiquity.
Key themes of the volume include studies on:

• Syriac Christian and Jewish traditions in the exegesis of the Psalms
• Biblical exegesis and Syriac polemic against Evagrian eschatology
• Gender (re)constructions and Biblical interpretation
• Exegetical traditions and the sensesBardaisan and Middle Platonism in the Syriac Christian context
• Apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature and the transmission of traditions in the Qur’ān
• The development of early asceticism at Antioch
• Sources for the history of Manichaeism

The book lays bare current debates concerning the development of religion in the Near East which impacts modern societies in East and West.
Biblical & Qur’ānic Traditions in the Middle East is essential reading for students and scholars seeking insight into the sources, methods, and current thought concerning Syriac and Arabic Christianity and its role in the development of religion and philosophy in Late Antiquity.

Featuring articles by NASSCAL members Charles Wright, Alin Suciu, Timo　Paananen, and Bradley Rice. The issue is slated to be published in March. The contents, as described on the publisher’s web site, are:

Charles　D.　Wright, “6　Ezra and The Apocalypse of Thomas with a previously unedited ‘interpolated’ text of Thomas”

Rossana　Guglielmetti, “Deux témoins inédits de la Visio Pauli”

Emanuela　Valeriani,　”Simbolismo ed escatologia nell’Apocalisse apocrifa di Giovanni: un confronto con l’Apocalisse canonica”

Susan E. Myers, “Antecedents of the Feminine Imagery of Spirit in the Acts of Thomas”

Boris　Paschke, “Speaking Names in the Apocryphal Acts of John”

Dan　Batovici, “Apocalyptic and metanoia in the Shepherd of Hermas”

Christophe　Guignard,　”La tradition grecque de la liste d’apôtres “Anonyme　I” (BHG　153C), avec un appendice sur la liste BHG　152N”

Alin Suciu, “The Book of Bartholomew: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir”

Alin　Suciu, “The Recovery of the Lost Fragment preserving the Title of the Coptic Book of Bartholomew. Edition and translation of Cornell University Library, Misc. Bd. MS.　683″

Timo　S.　Paananen et Roger　Viklund, “An Eighteenth-Century Manuscript: Control of the Scribal Hand in Clement’s Letter to Theodore”

Andrea　Nicolotti, “Un cas particulier d’apologétique appliquée: l’utilisation des apocryphes pour authentifier le Mandylion d’Édesse et le suaire de Turin”

Bradley N.　Rice, “Chronique: An Account of the York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium Series: ‘Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions: Writing Ancient and Modern Christian Apocrypha’ (Held at Vanier College on September 24-26, 2015)”

 

Gounelle, Rémi and Benoit Mounier, eds. La littérature apocryphe chrétienne et les Écritures juives. Publications de l’Institut Romand des Sciences Bibliques 7. Prahins, Switzerland: Editions du Zèbre, 2015.

Proceedings from the 2015 regional meeting of l’AELAC held at Bex. Featuring the article “L’Ancien Testament dans les Actes de Paul” by NASSCAL member Peter Dunn. Full table of contents available HERE.

La littérature apocryphe chrétienne est très peu citée dans les recherches sur la formation et le développement du canon des Écritures chrétiennes. Le colloque de Strasbourg a fait dialoguer des savants qui ne collaborent pas habituellement : les spécialistes de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne et les spécialistes de l’histoire de la Bible juive. Il a tenté d’attirer l’attention des premiers sur les références que les apocryphes chrétiens font aux Écritures juives et de les inciter à mettre davantage à profit les outils et les méthodes développées par l’histoire de l’exégèse durant ces dernières décennies ; analyser les apocryphes à la lumière de l’histoire des Écritures juives et de leur interprétation peut en effet fournir des éléments non négligeables sur le contexte de production d’un écrit et ouvre, dans certains cas, de nouvelles perspectives sur son interprétation.

La littérature apocryphe chrétienne provoque un certain renouveau dans l’étude de la réception du Premier Testament dans le christianisme et apporte de nouveaux matériaux à l’étude des relations entre judaïsme et christianisme, dans l’Antiquité comme au Moyen Age. En mettant au jour de nouvelles formes, inconnues jusque-là, du texte biblique et en analysant la façon dont les Écritures juives ont été exploitées dans des contextes parfois peu documentés par ailleurs, ce colloque a également mis au jour de nouvelles données, que les spécialistes de l’histoire de la Bible juive devront prendre en compte.

Les contributions présentées au colloque de Strasbourg témoignent de la multitude des méthodes à déployer pour circonscrire le phénomène citationnel dans des textes qui ne proposent que rarement des citations explicites. L’étude du rapport des apocryphes chrétiens aux Écritures juives peut en effet aussi bien passer par la recherche de citations précises dans des textes spécifiques et l’identification de leurs sources que par l’analyse des jeux d’allusions et d’intertextualité ; s’interroger sur le choix des versets et sur leur combinaison, questionner les changements qui y ont été apportés ou encore les situer dans l’histoire de leur réception peuvent s’avérer tout aussi fructueux.

Le colloque de Strasbourg ne prétendait pas couvrir l’ensemble de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne. Les contributions ici réunies n’en étudient pas moins un large éventail de textes de provenances et de datations très diverses : des textes liés aux prophètes et à l’histoire d’Israël côtoient des récits consacrés à la vie et à l’enseignement de Jésus et aux apôtres.