Infancy Gospel of Thomas Edition Wins Book Prize

May 27, 2012 by Tony

My critical edition of the Greek manuscript tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, De infantia Iesu Evangelium Thomae Graecae (CCSA 17; Turnhout: Brepols, 2010) has been awarded the F. W. Beare Prize at this year’s Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. This award recognizes an outstanding book in the areas of Christian Origins, Post-Biblical Judaism and/or Graeco-Roman Religions written by a member of the CSBS and published during the previous two years. The award was established in honour of Francis (Frank) Wright Beare, one of Canada’s most reknowned New Testament scholars. My thanks to the anonymous jurors of the award and my fellow members of CSBS who helped me drink away the award money tonight.

Anne Rice’s Jesus Biography Film Adaptation Update

May 24, 2012 by Tony

The first installment of Anne Rice's Jesus trilogy, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, is set to be made into a film. I commented on this development a few years ago (HERE), but there seems to have been some development in the project. Chris Columbus is now attached to the film. Since the book covers Jesus' early years, a time in his life documented in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and other infancy gospels, Columbus seems an ideal choice–his earlier work, including Home Alone and several Harry Potter films, similarly features precocious youngsters, some of whom have superhuman abilities (not you Caulkin). For more on this, see the interview at the Comic Book Resources site. Despite its heavy reliance on apocryphal texts, Rice thinks the film (and the book, I assume) are "completely biblically correct." Here is an excerpt:

Last question I wanted to ask to wrap all this up — recently, we learned that Chris Columbus and his team are working on an adaptation of "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt." That is — obviously when a book comes out like that and obviously discussions around a book, even when it is very respectful of the Christ story, there's one level of discussion and it seems like when a movie gets made, there's going to be another crazy huge level. Do you feel prepared for that after all the other books you've written and everything else that's happened and whatever happens with that?

Well, "Christ the …

Hill Museum and Manuscript Library in Syria

May 19, 2012 by Tony

The SCTimes has an interesting article on the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library and their efforts to photograph collections in Syria before the unrest there in recent months.

Secret Mark on Euangelion Kata Markon

May 7, 2012 by Tony

Michael Kok, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Sheffield, has begun a series of posts on the Secret Gospel of Mark on his blog, Euangelion Kata Markon. So far, he has posted an introduction and the clip of Morton Smith discussing the text on the documentary Jesus the Evidence.

Syriac Infancy Gospel of Thomas in Hugoye

April 11, 2012 by Tony

I just received word that my article, "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas from an Unpublished Syriac Manuscript. Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes," has been accepted for publication by the journal Hugoye. This article has been years in the making (editing?) and it is rewarding to see that it will soon be published. Here is the abstract:

The Syriac tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) has been published from three manuscripts, two of which hail from the 5th or 6th centuries. Unfortunately, all three sources lack large sections of the text. In 1914, Paul Peeters discussed a fourth Ms (Vat. Syr. 159 from the 17th century) preserving the entire text, but until now, that Ms has not been published. This article presents a diplomatic edition of Peeters’ Ms, comparing its readings with those previously published, and with another Ms very similar to Peeters’. Also included are a comprehensive overview of other Syriac sources for IGT, and a discussion of Peeters’ theory of Syriac composition for IGT.

Christopher Rollston on Forgeries

April 11, 2012 by Tony

Christopher Rollston of the Emmanuel Christian Seminary has a post on the ASOR blog on the subject of forgeries ("Forging History:Motives, Methods, and Exemplars of Forged Texts"). The post discusses inscriptions and texts. What is conspicuously absent is Secret Mark. Perhaps Rollston does not consider this text a forgery. He does discuss, however, Paul R. Coleman-Norton's "Amusing Agraphon" which Craig Evans brought into the debate on Secret Mark at the York Symposium.

Another “Lost Gospel” Novel

April 4, 2012 by Tony

The latest thriller from writer Mary Higgins Clark, The Lost Years, is based on the (now rather tired) plot of the discovery of a lost early Christian text–this time, a letter from the twelve-year-old Jesus to Joseph of Arimathea. An excerpt can be found HERE, but here's a little taste:

In the hushed quiet as late shadows fell over the walls of the eternal city of Rome, an elderly monk, his shoulders bent, made his silent and unobtrusive way into the Biblioteca Secreta, one of the four rooms that comprised the Vatican Library. The Library contained a total of 2,527 manuscripts written in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Some were available under strict supervision to be read by outsiders. Others were not.

The most controversial of the manuscripts was the one known as both the Joseph of Arimathea parchment and the Vatican letter. Carried by Peter the Apostle to Rome, it was believed by many to be the only letter ever written by the Christ.

It was a simple letter thanking Joseph for the kindness he had extended from the time Joseph had first heard Him preaching at the Temple in Jerusalem when He was only twelve years old. Joseph had believed He was the long-awaited Messiah.

When King Herod’s son had discovered that this profoundly wise and learned child had been born in Bethlehem, he’d ordered the young Christ’s assassination. Hearing this, Joseph had rushed to Nazareth and received permission from the boy’s parents to take Him to

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Neglected Apocrypha: the Book of the Rolls

March 29, 2012 by Tony

I mentioned in a recent post that I had been reading a little-known apocryphal text called the Book of the Rolls, also known in the manuscripts under several other names: the Apocalypse of Peter (not to be confused with the second-century Greek/Ethiopic work of the same name nor the Coptic text from Nag Hammadi), the Apocalypse of Simon, Clement, the Testament of Our Lord, or the Testament of Our Savior. The text is extant in Garshuni, Arabic, and Ethiopic and appears to have been written by Arabic Christians in Egypt around 800 CE. It is a huge work and has not been fully translated into a modern language; a complete translation would number about 400 pages. The most extensive translation to date is that of Alphonse Mingana, who published images from Mingana, Syr. 77 and translated much of the text (see “Apocalypse of Peter,” in Woodbrooke Studies, vol. 3, Cambridge 1931, 93–449).

Few scholars have yet worked on this text, but the early discussions indicate that it draws upon several earlier works from a Syriac milieu and new material was grafted onto the original core over the centuries. Much of the more recent sections of the text comprises apocalyptic visions announcing the coming of Mohammed (referred to as “the follower of the Archon,” “the leader of the children of the wolf,” and “the prophet of falsehood”) and the Islamic conquest of Egypt. In one memorable section, a Christian anti-biography of Mohammed is …

New Monograph on the Epistle to the Laodiceans

March 28, 2012 by Tony

Philip Tite, a McGill University graduate and currently an independent scholar in Seattle, has completed a monograph (the first ever?) on the Apocryphal Epistle to the Laodiceans. The book is due out in August from Brill (see the catalog entry HERE). Phil and I met when I was a graduate student at the University of Toronto and he was at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. I think a study of Laodiceans was in his plans even back then. Congratulations Phil on seeing it to completion.

The Childhood of Jesus for SBL 2012

November 13, 2017 by Tony

I have just been informed that my paper has been accepted for the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. The session focuses on childhood stories of Jesus. I decided to present on my ongoing efforts to compile critical editions of childhood stories in Syriac. Here is the abstract:

"The Childhood of Jesus in the East Syriac Life of Mary"

The East Syriac Life of Mary, published for the first and only time by E. A. Wallis Budge in 1899, is a combination of a variety of non-canonical texts, including the Protoevangelium of James, the Dormition/Transitus of Mary, sections from the Abgar Legend and the Acts of Pilate, and, in some manuscripts, much of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Also included in the text, but not often discussed, is a series of stories of the holy family during their time in Egypt. The source of these tales is unknown. The same stories occur in the more widely published Arabic Infancy Gospel, long believed to be a translation of the Life of Mary, perhaps from an earlier stage in its development. Scholars interested in the childhood of Jesus and the life of Mary would be better served reading the stories in the Syriac Life of Mary than in its Arabic translation. To that end, this paper provides a new edition and translation of the Egyptian childhood tales based on a pool of over fifteen manuscripts. It represents a considerable advance on …

Alphonse Mingana on the Study of the Apocrypha (1931)

March 28, 2012 by Tony

I have been doing some reading on the Book of the Rolls, a sprawling work of around 400 pages extant in Garshuni, Arabic, and Ethiopic. It also goes by the name of the Apocalypse of Peter (not to be confused with the other two texts of that name) or simply Clement. It's a fascinating text, and I may comment on it more later, but right now I just wanted to reproduce some words on the study of the CA offered by Mingana towards the end of his work on the text.

In the third volume of Woodbrooke Studies, Mingana mentions his intention to take a break from work on editing and translating apocryphal texts (p. 356). He then excerpts some comments about the CA by R. A. Lipsius and M. R. James. I'll leave aside the German quotation from Lipsius, but James writes: "There is no question of anyone’s having excluded (the apocryphal Gospels and Acts) from the New testament: they have done that for themselves. Interesting as they are, they do not achieve either of the two principal purposes for which they were written, the instilling of new religion and the conveyance of true history” (The Apocryphal New Testament, p. xi-xii). To this Mingana responds: “Whether the critics of the year, say, 2500, will wholly subscribe to this verdict I cannot say. That it will be slightly modified in favour of some Apocrypha seems to me just possible. Our main task for the …

Secret Mark Symposium Papers At Press

March 22, 2012 by Tony

The proceedings for the York Symposium on the Secret Gospel of Mark have now been submitted to the press. The book is titled Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate and will be published by Cascade Books. Now we need to plan next year's event. Stay tuned. Here is the table of contents for the collection:

1. “Introduction,” by Tony Burke

2. “Secret Mark: Moving on from Stalemate,” by Charles W. Hedrick

3. “Provenience: A Reply to Charles Hedrick,” by Bruce Chilton

4. “Morton Smith and the Secret Gospel of Mark: Exploring the Grounds for Doubt,” by Craig A. Evans

5. “Craig Evans and the Secret Gospel of Mark: Exploring the Grounds for Doubt,” by Scott G. Brown and Allan J. Pantuck

6. “Was Morton Smith the Bernie Madoff of the Academy?” by Hershel Shanks

7. “The Young Streaker in Secret and Canonical Mark,” by Marvin Meyer

8. “Halfway Between Sabbatai Tzevi and Aleister Crowley: Morton Smith’s “Own Concept of What Jesus ‘Must’ Have Been” and, Once Again, the Questions of Evidence and Motive,” by Pierluigi Piovanelli

9. “A Question of Ability: What Did He Know and When Did He Know It? Further Excavations from the Morton Smith Archives,” by Allan J. Pantuck

10. “Clement’s Mysteries and Morton Smith’s Magic,” by Peter Jeffery

11. “Behind the Seven Veils, I: The Gnostic Life Setting of the Mystic Gospel of Mark,” by Scott G. Brown

12. “The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate: A Scholarly Q and

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Christian Apocrypha at 2012 SBL

November 13, 2017 by Tony

Pierluigi Piovanelli, the new chair of the SBL Christian Apocrypha section, has asked me to pass along the call for papers for this year's annual meeting:

The Christian Apocrypha Section invites submissions for at least three sessions. A special session will be devoted to "New editions and/or new translations of Christian apocryphal texts — New texts and new looks at old texts". A second session will be more specifically focused on the first volume of the Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung (to be held in common with the Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism Section). For the third session on "New perspectives on Christian apocryphal texts", we have an open call. We especially encourage young scholars to present the results of their research.

Summer School on CA in Strasbourg

February 1, 2012 by Tony

Gabriella Aragione and Rémi Gounelle are hosting a summer course at the Université de Strasbourg in June on the The Latin Collection of the Acts of Apostles (Pseudo-Abdias) (see HERE).Strasbourg is a little far away for me, but I am glad to see some attention paid to this text, which, unless I am mistaken, still has not been translated into English.

Is the Gospel of Judas a Forgery?

January 27, 2012 by Tony

I have been reading Robert M. Price’s Secret Scrolls: Revelations from the Lost Gospel Novels (Eugene, Or.: Wipf & Stock, 2011). Occasionally Price contextualizes some of the books he examines with discussions of theories and results of biblical scholarship. Sometimes, however, this contextualizing is drawn from what most of us would consider “fringe” scholarship—for example, dating the composition of the canonical gospels to the mid-second-century, Barabara Theiring’s ideosyncratic views on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the New Testament as “put together and heavily rewritten by Polycarp” (p. 169, appealing to David Trobish, The First Edition of the New Testament [New York: Oxford University Press, 2000]).

Another of Price’s contextual nuggets is the claim that the Gospel of Judas is a forgery (p. 76-77, 181). Price appeals here to an article by Richard J. Arthur, Associate Professor of New Testament at the Unification Theological Seminary (“The Gospel of Judas: Is It a Hoax?” Journal of Unification Studies 9 [2008] 35-47, available online HERE). Price summarizes the article in three points: the text betrays an awareness of modern moral issues (“it seems to be editorializing on the priestly scandals of our time, as it depicts priests sleeping with women and ‘sacrificing’ children, this last perhaps pointing to abortion or molestation”), part of the gospel copies from The Secret Book of John (“the impression one gets from reading it is a patch transferred out of context, no longer making the sense it did in the original”), and it contains a …