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 in the monasteries. Symeon’s menologion is a mix of rewritten and newly-written texts. Fifteen of them focus on the lives of apostles and other first-century figures. The goal of the Apocrypha of Symeon Metaphrastes Project is to prepare English translations of this corpus for a volume to be published in 2027. Leading up to that publication, contributors to the project are presenting their preliminary work at the SBL. The first of these sessions took place in 2025. This second and final partial session features the following:
Miracle of the Archangel Michael at Chonae (ECCA 217), by Jonah Bissell, Boston University
On the Acts of Peter by Clement (Pseudo-Clementines, epitome) (ECCA 638; CANT 209.7), by Joshua King, Loyola University
Hypomnema on John the Baptist (ECCA 537; CANT 182), by James McGrath, Butler University
The second half of the session features the following papers:
Ciara Mulcahy, University of Virginia: “‘A She-lamb, Silent, Before the One Shearing Her’: Thecla’s Imitatio Christi in the Life and Miracles of Thecla”
Lydia Clare Bremer-McCollum, Spelman College: “The Migration of Thekla: On Variety and Transformation in the Transmission of the Acts of Paul and Thekla in the Eastern Mediterranean”
Naiara Leao, King’s College London: “Bridge People in the Early Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles”
S23-123 New Insights into Jewish-Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:00 AM)
Alexey B. Somov, Universität Regensburg: “James, ‘the Brother of God’ and ‘the Just’: Jewish Inheritance Practices in Byzantine Synaxaria and Their Slavonic Reception”
Sarah Kathryn Wilder, Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology: “The Hebrew Gospel and the Gospel of Matthew: A History of Conflation or Distinction?”
Giovanni Battista Bazzana: “Peter and Judaism in the History of Simon Cephas”
Benjamin L. White, Clemson University: “Pauline Epispasm in the Second Century”
2. Additional Sessions
S23-218 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Elijah Sturges, Yale Divinity School: “Apostles Anonymous: The Gospel of Judas as Evangelistic Narrative”
Daniel Zimmerman, University of California, Santa Barbara: “‘Water, Water, Everywhere’: The Mimetic Function of Water in the Apocryphon of John”
Nicole Kelley, Florida State University: “Monstrous Births and Resemblance to the Divine in the Apocryphon of John”
Geoffrey Smith, University of Texas at Austin: “Rethinking the Origins of Christian Visual Culture: Marcellina, ‘Heresy,’ and Image Veneration in Second-Century Rome”
Addie Harrington, University Texas at Austin: “Salome and the Unnamed Mary: Regional Models of Female Discipleship in Early Christianity”
3. Individual Papers of Interest in Other Sessions
P21-239s The Relationship between the Testaments as Canon-Consciousness (1:00 PM to 3:00 PM)
Tony Burke, York University: “Canon Consciousness in Early Christian Apocrypha”
S21-116 Syriac Studies Section (9:00 AM to 11:00 AM)
Catalin-Stefan Pops: “Stephen the Protomartyr in Selected Syriac Manuscripts: Liturgical Reception and Parabiblical Expansion”
S21-302 Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative Section (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Ana Golland, Trinity Western University: “Divine Displacement: Amnesia and the Pythian Framework of Mary’s Pregnancy in the Protevangelium of James”
S22-126 Bible and Film Section (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
T.H .Wolf, Drew University Theological School: “Making Jesus the Monster: The Carpenter’s Son and Salvific (Dis)comfort”
S22-131 Children in the Biblical World Section (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Nathan Houstin, Loyola University of Chicago: “Holy Swathing-Cloth and Baby Bathwater: Restoring Health and Community for Children in the Arabic Infancy Gospel”
S22-216 Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World Section (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Angela Molloy, lliff School of Theology, Denver University, and Joseph Foltz, University of Denver: “The Healing and Un-healing of Peter’s Paralyzed Daughter: Liberative Disability Ethics and the Coptic Act of Peter”
S23-117 Pseudepigrapha Section and Qumran Section (9:00 AM to 10:30 AM)
Melissa Sellew (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities): “Embodiment of the Soul in the Gospel of Thomas”
S23-209 Jewish Christianity/Christian Judaism Section (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Paul Wheatley, Nashotah House Theological Seminary: “Doubting Thomas: P. Oxy. 5575, Fasting, and Jesus’s Halakha”
S23-225 LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics Section (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Nathan Houstin, Loyola University of Chicago: “The Bridal Chamber as Queer Counterpublic: Unveiling the Queerness of the Gospel of Philip (NH II, 3)”