Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2026
The 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature runs from November 21 to 24 in Denver, Colorado. Aside from a virtual presentation, I will not be attending this year because, like many Canadians, I am choosing at this time not to travel to the US. Perhaps I will be back in a few years! That doesn’t mean I can’t still post my usual roundup of sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha.
1. Christian Apocrypha Sessions
S21-305 Christian Apocrypha Open Session (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Michele Scarlassara, Yale University: “Apocryphal ‘Story-Worlds,’ Iconography, and Ritual Power in P. Heid. Kopt. 686 : A Dynamic Continuum”
Troy Hillman, Boston University: “Apocrypha in Miniature: Historiolae and the Expansion of Christian Narrative in Late Antiquity”
Triantafillos Kantartzis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München: “Veronica: An Analysis of the Narrative Perspective in Acta Pilati 6:3 of the Role of the Unnamed Woman with the Blood Flow”
Stephan Huller, Independent Scholar: “Morton Smith and the Letter to Theodore: A Paleographical Misreading and the Forgery Hypothesis”
Acacia Chan, The University of Texas at Austin: “Power, Play, and Performance in Prosopopoeia: Examining Established Character Roleplay in Acts of Andrew and Matthias and Fanfiction”
S22-113 Christian Apocrypha: Apocryphal Acts (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
The first hour of the session is the second part of The Apocrypha of Symeon Metaphrastes presentations.
In the tenth century, Symeon Metaphrastes was commissioned by Byzantine Emperor Basil II with the task of creating an expansive menologion collecting lives of saints for reading …