Apocryphicity
A Blog Devoted to the Study of Christian Apocrypha
Mark Bilby (University of Virginia) pointed out to me this edition by Sebastian Brock of a fifth-century Syriac poem entitled The Dispute Between the Cherub and the Thief. The poem is related to the Decensus traditions in which the one good thief of Luke 23: 39-43 attempts to enter Paradise.
The Infancy Gospels Research Program is hosting three conferences in Switzerland this fall. You can check out the program HERE. The events feature surprisingly few North American scholars and also little on apocryphal texts (though see the final day, which features papers by Sever Voicu and Jean-Daniel Kaestli among others).
I have just added this text to the More Christian Apocrypha page on my main site (www.tonyburke.ca). It's a curious text, as it reports some events of John's life and death differently from other Baptist-related texts and traditions. Here Herod's wife is named Polias (Paula?) and Elizabeth does not die in John's youth, but remains alive to bury her son along with Zechariah, whose body, which went missing after his death according to the Protoevangelium of James, reappears late in the narrative.
It is appropriate to be adding this text to the page after the news reports of the last few days about the discovery of relics of John the Baptist in Bulgaria (see HERE). Of course, likely these are just as authentic as the numerous other relics of John known throughout Christian history (including several heads and arms).
Jim Davila at Paleojudaica pointed out this review of Reidar Aasgaard's study of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (The Childhood of Jesus: Decoding the Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2009).
I have returned from my trip to the US to photograph a handful of Syriac manuscripts. The work went quite well, with only a few minor problems accessing the material. Here's a brief rundown of the trip.
I arrived in New York City Sunday night. Princeton Theological Society was scheduled for one o'clock the following afternoon. So, after a short stroll through Central Park Monday morning, I headed off to Princeton. When I arrived, a fire alarm was going off in the library (due to construction) and I had to wait a little while for that to be resolved. I speedily photographed the manuscript (Speer Library Cabinet C, Ms. 40). I was under the mistaken belief that this was a copy of a manuscript from Urmia (Urmia 43) that was now lost. In fact, however, it actually is Urmia 43. So, one mystery solved. Documents in the library suggest that the other two Urmia manuscripts (38 and 47) are indeed lost, though the Royal Asiatic Society Ms published by Budge is virtually identical to Urmia 38.
On Tuesday, I made it to Union Theological Seminary to photograph UTS Syr. 32, a fragmentary Life of Mary Ms of only forty or so pages. Upon arrival I was told I needed a temporary library card from Butler library, which was four blocks down the street. Sigh. After a quick run in terrible heat, I was back to complete the job.
And on Friday, I spent a few hours in Harvard's Houghton Library …
On Sunday I will be heading off to the US for a research trip. I have been collecting manuscripts of the two Syriac versions of the Life of Mary: an eastern one edited by E.A.W. Budge in 1899, and a western one still unedited but discussed here and there by a few previous scholars. My interest, of course, is in the material incorporated into these texts from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
The goal, ultimately, is to construct a critical edition of the Syriac tradition of this text. To date only two manuscripts of the Syriac IGT have been published. These two, plus two more, have been collated in my article that should appear in Apocrypha some time soon. Of the western Life of Mary, which incorporates all of IGT as one of its six “books,” there are thirteen known manuscripts. One of these is at Harvard and has not yet been photographed (thus the need for the trip). Of the eastern Life of Mary, which contains some episodes from IGT, there are 23 manuscripts. Two have been published (by Budge), and several are probably lost forever. One is at Harvard, one at Princeton, and one at Union Theological Seminary; all of these have to be photographed.
The US is not exactly Mt. Sinai, but I am excited about the trip, especially since I’ll be incorporating some site-seeing along the way and bringing my two girls for company. It is exciting also because these are probably …
In October, I will be participating in a workshop in Winnipeg on the Acts of Pilate/Gospel of Nicodemus cycle of texts ("Editing the Acts of Pilate in Early Christian Languages: Theory and Practice"). If interested in this enterprise, you can check out the web site dedicated to the workshop.
Looking again at traditions of John the Baptist, I came across two versions of the Prayer of John the Baptist in a few Syriac manuscripts. Does anyone know anything about this? (oh, I will look into it further, but I thought I'd post on it regardless). Here it is:
Longer version:
Now, the first prayer of John to his disciples: “Father, show me your son. Son, show me your spirit. Holy Spirit grant me wisdom through your strength.” And some say it is this: “Holy Father, consecrate me through your strength and make known the glory of your excellence and show me your son and fill me with your spirit which has received light through your knowledge."
Shorter version:
The first prayer of St. John the Baptist to his disciples: "Holy Father, guard your strength and show us your glory and make your son known to us and fill us, my Lord, with your spirit which gives light through your knowledge."
I have started some work on apocryphal traditions of John the Baptist. One of the texts I am consulting is the Life of John the Baptist ascribed to Serapion (read the text HERE). The text was published almost a century ago and tends to be overlooked in CA scholarship. But it has some interesting, and bizarre, traditions within it. Just to whet your appetite, here is a scene about the amazing abilities of the head of John the Baptist:
But immediately after the head of the blessed John let the locks of its hair rise from the dish, and it flew to the middle of the convivial room before the king and his high officials. In that very moment the roof of the house was opened and the head of John flew in the air…As to his head, it flew over Jerusalem, and cried for three years to the town, saying: "It is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive." After it had cried for three years, it went to all the world shouting and proclaiming the horrible crime of Herod, and repeating the words: "It is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive." Fifteen years after it had been cut off it ceased proclaiming, and rested on the town of Horns. The faithful who were in that town took it and buried it with great pomp. …
Just a few things recently noted in other people's blogs:
Timo Panaanen at Salainan evankelista offers a critique of Francis Watson's article"Beyond Suspicion: On the Authorship of the Mar Saba Letter and the Secret Gospel of Mark" from JTS. Read also the extensive critiqueat Synoptic Solutions.
April DeConick a The Forbidden Gospels reports on the restoration of images of Peter, Paul, John and Andrew in the Thecla catacomb in Rome.
Mark Goodacre at NTBlog reports Prince Charles' odd use of the Gospel of Mary in a recent speech.
I have added two texts to my More Christian Apocrypha page: the History of the Thirty Pieces of Silver (based on the edition and translation made by myself and Slavomir Ceplo), and the Dialogue of the Paralytic with Christ (my English translation of Bernard Outtier's French translation).
The 2010 réunion annuelle de l’Association pour l’étude de la literature apocryphe chrétienne (AELAC) takes place June 24-26th. Here are the papers to be presented:
Jane Baun, “The Apocalypse of the Theotokos: Some Avenues of Approach.”
Christoph Markschies, "Das Evangelium der 12 Apostel. Beobachtungen im Rahmen der Arbeit am neuen Hennecke zu diesem und zuanderen apokryph gewordenen Texten.”
Alessandro Bausi, “Les listes des apôtres et disciples en éthiopien.”
Nicole Volmering, “The Seven Heavens in the Old English Tradition.”
Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh, “The Relationship between the Tenga Bithnua and the Irish Seven Heavens Texts.”
Charlotte Touati, “Les sept cieux de l'ascète. Témoignages égyptiens du IIIe s. ap. J.-C.”
Christophe Guignard, “Les listes grecques d’apôtres et de disciples”
André Gagné, “Jésus, la lumière et le Père vivant (EvTh 15; 50; 77). Existe-t-il des traces d'une christologie modaliste dans l’Évangile selon Thomas?”
Sever Voicu, “A popos de la tradition latine des Paidika Iesou.”
Valentina Calzolari, “Les Actes de Thècle arméniens.”
Scott Brown and Allan Pantuck, now well-known as critics of Stephen Carlson's book The Gospel Hoax: Morton Smith's Invention of Secret Mark, have composed a guest-post on Timo Paananen's Salainan evankelista blog. It is an excellent piece that confronts Carlson's argument that the manuscript of Secret Mark betrays signs of a forger's tremor. (And if you read to the end you'll see a little comment from me).
Timo S. Paananen at the Salainen Evankelista blog has posted on a recent article by David Landry on the Secret Mark debate. Landry is rather positive about Stephen Carlson’s achievements, but strangely negative about the rebuttals of Scott Brown and Allan Pantuck. For my part, I am still interested in mounting a real debate on the text in a public forum and will be pursuing the idea when the time comes for us Canadian scholars to beg for government funding. Stay tuned.
I have updated the text on my Syriac Infancy Gospel of Thomas page to reflect the work I completed recently on a translation of the unpublished manuscript Vat. Syr. 159, the only manuscript published (well, almost published) to date that includes the full text of the Syriac tradition of this text (previous Mss are all fragmentary). I am working now on another branch of the tradition preserved in eleven known (and unpublished) Mss. And one of these Mss (Mingana Syr. 5) can be viewed on-line at the University of Birmingham's Virtual Reading Room (the text begins at fol. 18).