The program for the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature is now available. The presentations focusing on Christian Apocrypha are collected below. Among the highlights this year are the book review panel for New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, and the mysterious new text being announced by Brent Landau and Geoffrey Smith in the Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism session.
Christian Apocrypha Section sessions:
S18-118 Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Apocryphal Letters, Legends, and Sayings
Brent Landau, University of Texas at Austin, Presiding
Kimberly Bauser, Boston College: “Put on Your James Face: Pseudonymous Prosopopoeia and Epistolary Fiction in the Apocryphon of James”
Phillip Fackler, University of Pennsylvania: “Survival of the Most Banal: Paul’s Letter to the Laodiceans and the Correspondence with Seneca”
David P. Griffin, University of Virginia: “Psalm-Quotations in the Epistle of the Apostles and the state of Christian Psalmody in the Second Century”
Adam Carter McCollum, Notre Dame: “East of the Magi: An Old Uyghur (Turkic) Text on their Visit to the Young Jesus”
Jeremiah Bailey, Baylor University: “Male Angels, Resurrection Marriage, and Manly Mary: A Possible Connection Between GTh114 and the Synoptics”
Rick Brannan, Faithlife: “Sounding Biblical: The Use of Stock Phrases in Christian Apocrypha”
S19-330 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism; Christian Apocrypha (Joint Session; 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Theme: Coptic Apocrypha at Nag Hammadi and Beyond
Adeline Harrington, University of Texas at Austin, Presiding
Sarah Parkhouse, University of Durham: “Why Write a Post-Resurrection Dialogue?”
Janet Timbie, Catholic University of America: “Quoting the Prophet in the Epistle of the Apostles”
Alin Suciu, Göttingen Academy: “‘There are many matters which the gospels passed by’: Apocryphal Texts in Coptic Monasticism”
Hugo Lundhaug, Universitetet i Oslo: “Textual Fluidity and Exegetical Creativity in the Investiture of Michael the Archangel”
Lance Jenott, Princeton University: “Charity, Rewards, and Punishments in The Investiture of the Archangel Gabriel”
Lloyd G Abercrombie, University of Oslo: “The Mysteries of John: The Content and Context of a Manuscript from Early Islamic Egypt”
S20-111 Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Panel Review of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (Eds. Tony Burke and Brent Landau; Eerdmans, 2016)
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University, Presiding
Panelists: David Brakke (Ohio State University), Philip Jenkins (Baylor University), Valentina Calzolari Bouvier (University of Geneva), Julia Snyder (Universität Regensburg), J. Gregory Given (Harvard University), Judith Hartenstein (Universität Koblenz – Landau), Christoph Markschies (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin – Humboldt University of Berlin)
Respondents: Tony Burke (York University), Brent Landau (University of Texas at Austin)
Additional Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism papers:
S18-330 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Tuomas Rasimus, Helsingin Yliopisto – Helsingfors Universitet, Presiding
Carl Johan Berglund, Uppsala University: “Discerning Quotations from Heracleon in Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel of John”
Forrest A.B. Kentwell, University of Groningen: “Re-envisioning ‘Light’ and ‘Death’ in the Gospel of Thomas: A Demiurgical Myth?”
Kristine Toft Rosland, University of Agder: “Reading the Apocryphon of John through the frame narrative”
Austin Busch, College at Brockport: “Greek Philosophical Circles and Gnostic Scriptural Interpretation”
Eric Crégheur, Université d’Ottawa – University of Ottawa: “The Celestial Topography of the ‘Untitled Text’ of the Bruce Codex”
Geoffrey Smith, University of Texas at Austin and Brent C. Landau, University of Texas at Austin: “Nag Hammadi at Oxyrhynchus: Introducing a New Discovery”
And there are a variety of additional papers on apocryphal texts in other sessions:
S18-112 Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Paula Tutty, University of Oslo: “Monks, materiality and manuscripts: putting early Coptic codices into their social context”
S18-133 Letters of James, Peter, and Jude (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Rebecca Skaggs, Patten University and John Skaggs, Patten University: “Christ’s Visit to Hades or the Harrowing of Hell: The Effects of 1 Peter 3: 18-22 on Theology, Culture, Literature and Art”
S19-114 Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia: “Joking and Play in the Acts of John”
S19-155 Wisdom and Apocalypticism; Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
René Falkenberg, Aarhus Universitet: “Wisdom Speculation from Wisdom of Solomon to Wisdom of Jesus Christ”
S19-203 Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Eric M. Vanden Eykel, Ferrum College: “‘Then Suddenly, Everything Resumed Its Course’: The Suspension of Time in the Protevangelium of James Reconsidered”
S19-324 Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Benjamin M. De Vos, Universiteit Gent: “Paganism and Jewish-Christian identity in the Pseudo-Clementines: An Analysis of the Disputes between Appion and Clement”
Stanley Jones, California State University – Long Beach: “The Dispute with Appion in Recent Research”
S20-223 Johannine Literature (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Karen L. King, Harvard University: “The Gospel of Mary reads the Gospel of John”
S18-145 Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Sheila E. McGinn, John Carroll University: “Gender and Virginity in the Acts of Paul and Thecla”
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University: “The Testing of Mary: Virginity and Gender in the Protevangelium of James”
S18-309 Children in the Biblical World (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Anna Rebecca Solevåg, VID Specialized University: “Absence and Presence of Children in the Apocryphal Acts”
S19-308 Book History and Biblical Literatures (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Gregory Fewster, University of Toronto: “3 Corinthians among the Pauline Textual Tradition: Ancient Manuscripts, Modern Publishing, and the Demands of Textual Materiality”
S19-335 Redescribing Early Christianity (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Mark Letteney, Princeton University: “Authoritative Forgeries and Authentic Apocrypha in Late Antiquity”
Anna Cwikla, University of Toronto: “The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter as a Pseudepigraphon”
S20-206 Bible and Visual Art (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Geert Van Oyen, Université catholique de Louvain: “The Pictorial Representation of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas in the Klosterneuburger Evangelienwerk (ca. 1340)”
Rebecca Skaggs, Patten University and John Skaggs, Patten University: “The Harrowing of Hell (1 Peter 3:18-22): Theological Observations from the Consideration of its Reception History in Art”
S20-321 Greco-Roman Religions (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Travis Proctor, Northland College: Of Landscapes and Legacies: “The Reconfiguration of Cultic Space in the Acts of John”
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.
Abstract: