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
Paul 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
Coptic 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, Alexandros, 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).
Schröter, Jens. “Dancing around the Cross: The “Theology of the Cross” according to the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon and the Qasr el-Wizz Codex within the Jesus Tradition.” Pages 219–34 in Narratives of Jesus’s Passion and Resurrection between the Second and Seventh Centuries. Edited by Tobias Nicklas and Konrad Schwarz. WUNT 536. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2025.
Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strausbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017 (esp. 42–47).
