Hospitality of Dysmas

Hospitium Dusmas

Standard abbreviation: Hosp. Dysmas

Other titles: De bono latrone, the Good Bandit

Clavis number(s): ECCA 630

Category: Infancy Gospels

Related literature: Arabic Infancy Gospel, Die Neu Eu, Ethiopic Miracles of Jesus, Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Homily of the Church on the Rock, Hospitality and Ointment of the Bandit, Hospitality and Perfume of the Bandit, Book about the Birth of the Savior, Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea, Narrationes de vita et conversatione beatae Mariae virginis et de pueritia et adolescentia salvatoris, Rebellion of Dimas, Vision of Theophilus, Vita beate virginis Marie et Salvatoris rhythmica.

Compiled by: Mark G. Bilby, independent scholar (mgb8n at virginia dot edu).

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Bilby, Mark G. “Hospitality of Dysmas.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/hospitality-of-dysmas/.

Created July 2016. Current as of April 2023.

1. SUMMARY

This story describes the devotion and kind welcome that a bandit named Dysmas–the so-called “good thief ” of Luke 23:40–43–and his wife show Mary–frequently honored in the text as the Theotokos–during the sojourn of the Holy Family in Egypt. The story opens (v. 1) as a narrative aside from the passion account from Acts Pil. into which the story is inserted. The scene shifts backwards in time, “thirty-three years prior” to the Passion. The Holy Family makes its way to Egypt, where hunger prompts Mary to command a ripe date-palm to bow down and feed them (2). Soon after, they meet the “bandit . . . Dysmas” (3). At the sight of Mary he is stunned by her beauty, even more so when she takes Jesus to her breast. He then bows down before her, finds himself confessing her as the mother of God, and invites them to his home. When they arrive (4), Dysmas commands his wife to give them hospitality fit for a noblewoman such as Mary, then he leaves to hunt wild game. Next, the bandit’s wife prepares a bath for Jesus (5). After Mary bathes her child, the bandit’s wife bathes her own child—leprous and given to wailing from the time of its birth—in the leftover water. Instantly, the child is healed of its leprosy and becomes quiet. When the bandit returns (6), everyone sits down to eat. The unusual silence prompts the bandit to inquire about his child. His wife explains the miracle and echoes her husband’s earlier confession of Mary’s nobility in light of her mediation of the miraculous healing of their child. Upon hearing this (7), the bandit explains his question: he had thought his child was dead. The splendid miracle prompts him to laud Mary as a conduit of divine answers to prayers. He submits himself to become her devotee and protector during her stay in Egypt. He goes so far as to lead Mary on the dangerous roads back to Judea, ensures the safety of her path before saying farewell, and begs her to return someday to his home (8). His extraordinary hospitality and devotion to Mary finally meet with a reward (9). Through the favor of Mary and Jesus, he will become a witness (or martyr!) with Christ and share in his destiny.

Named historical figures and characters: Dismas/Dysmas/Demas (Good Thief), Herod the Great, Jesus Christ, Joseph of Nazareth, Mary (Virgin).

Geographical locations: Egypt, Jerusalem, Judea.

2. RESOURCES

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

3.1.1 Greek (BHG 2119y)

B Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, gr. 808 (olim Regius 2342²), fols. 270^rb–271^ra (16th cent.)

C Venice, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, gr. app. II, 87 (coll. 1258; olim Nanianus CIX), fols. 244^r–246^v (16th cent.)

D Oxford, Bodleian Library, Holkham gr. 24 (olim 90), fols. 270^v–272^r(14th-15th cent.)

I Mount Athos, Monē Ibērōn, 692 (Lambros 4812), fols. 113^r–114^v (16th cent.)

H1 Earliest retrievable text (collated edition of B, D and Tb)

H2 Hyperarchetype of B and D

L Mount Athos, M. Megistes Lavras, H 31 (Eustratiades 686), fols. 78^v–80^v(18th-19th cent.)

P Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, suppl. gr. 1169, fols. 18^r–19^v (1685)

Tb Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ott. gr. 411, fols. 152^v–153^v (start of 15th cent.)

X Mount Athos, Monē Hagiou Pantelēmonos, 742 (Lambros 6249), fols. 11^v–13^r (19th cent.)

Y Mount Athos, Monē Hagiou Pantelēmonos, 744 (Lambros 6251), fols. 89^v–90^v (19th cent.)

Most of the sigla above are those used by Gounelle in his reconstructions of the Gospel of Nicodemas in two of its medieval recensions (M2, 12th–14th century; and M3, 14th–15th century). Hosp. Dysmas appears in two witnesses to the M2 recension, B and Tb, and most of the witnesses to the M3 recension, i.e., CDILPXY but not M or O.

Bilby, Mark Glen. “The Hospitality of Dysmas.” Pages 39–51 in vol. 1 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Edited by Tony Burke and Brent Landau. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016 (translation and notes based on a collated critical edition of the three major witnesses—B, D and Tb—and thus represents the editio princeps).

Gounelle, Rémi. “Une légende apocryphe relatant la rencontre du bon larron et de la sainte famille en Égypte (BHG 2119y).” AnBoll 121 (2003): 241–72 (two separate editions of Hosp. Dysmas alongside each other: a diplomatic version of the story in Tb, and a collated hyperarchetype of D and B, to which Bilby assigns the siglum H2).

Gounelle, Rémi. Les recensions byzantines de l’Évangile de Nicodeme. CCSA Instrumenta 3.Turnhout: Brepols, 2008 (diplomatic edition of the B text, pp. 244–48 even; a diplomatic version of the D text, pp. 247–51 odd).

Huidekoper, Frederic. Acts of Pilate from a Transcript of the Codex designated by Thilo as Paris D. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1887 (this book only contains the B version of the story).

3.2. Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

3.2.2 French

Gounelle, Rémi. “Une légende apocryphe relatant la rencontre du bon larron et de la sainte famille en Égypte (BHG 2119y).” AnBoll 121 (2003): 241–72 (contains a French translation of H2, the hyperarchetype of B and D, pp. 263–69 odd, and notes on the translation pp. 268–70).

3.3 General Works

Bilby, Mark Glen. As the Bandit Will I Confess You: Luke 23, 39–43 in Early Christian Interpretation. Turnhout: Brepols; Strasbourg: University of Strasbourg, 2013 (a critical overview of patristic interpretations of the so-called good bandit).

Dzon, Mary. “Out of Egypt, Into England: Tales of the Good Thief for Medieval English Audiences.” Pages 147–241 in Devotional Culture in Late Medieval England and Europe: Diverse Imaginations of Christ’s Life. Edited by Stephen Kelly and Ryan Perry. Medieval Church Studies 31. Turnhout: Brepols, 2014.

Geerard, Maurits. “Gute Schächer: Ein neues unediertes Apokryphon.” Pages 85–89 in La spiritualité de l’univers byzantin dans le verbe et l’image. Edited by Kristoffel Demoen and Jeannine Vereecken. Instrumenta Patristica 30. Steenbrugis: In Abbatia S. Petri; Turnhout: Brepols, 1997.

Geerard, Maurits. “Le bon larron, un apocryphe inédit.” Pages 355–63 in vol. 2 of Philologia Sacra: Biblische und patristische studien für Hermann J. Frede und Walter Thiele zu ihrem siebzigsten Geburtstag. Edited by Roger Gryson. 2 vols. Vetus Latina: Aus der Geschichte der lateinischen Bibel 24. Freiburg: Herder, 1993.

Gounelle, Rémi. “Une légende apocryphe relatant la rencontre du bon larron et de la sainte famille en Égypte (BHG 2119y).” AnBoll 121 (2003): 241–72 (recounts many of the legends about the bandit and shows their respective affinities with the edited and translated text).

Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. Le Voleur De Paradis: Le Bon Larron Dans L’art Et La Société (XIVe-XVIe Siècles). Paris: Alma, 2015.

Kretzenbacher, Leopold. “St. Dismas, der rechte Schächter: Legenden, Kultstätten und Verehrungsformen in Innerösterreich.” Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereines für Steiermark 42 (1951): 119–39.

Merback, Mitchell B. The Thief, the Cross, and the Wheel. Pain and the Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Poucet, Jacques. “La Fuite de la Sainte-Famille en Égypte chez Jean d’Outremeuse: Un episode de l’Évangile vu par un chroniqueur liégeois du XIVe siècle.” Folia Electronica Classica (Louvain-la-Neuve) 28 (2014 July-December). Accessed July 6, 2016. http://bcs.fltr.ucl.ac.be/FE/28/Egypt_MM/Egyptien/Larrons.htm,