Category: Infancy Gospel of Thomas

In the short time between when I submitted the manuscript of my new book, The Syriac Tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, to its publisher and when it was printed, two additional sources for the text came to my attention. This was to be expected, particularly for the rather robust Sw recension, in which Inf. Gos. Thom. appears as the fourth of six books in a sprawling Life of Mary collection. It was a big surprise, however, to discover a fifth/sixth-century manuscript belonging to the Sa recension (the best witness to the early form of the text), and that this manuscript had been mentioned in scholarship over a century ago! I promised in the preface to the book that I would publish updates (chiefly via the e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha entries for the three recensions), but I didn’t think I would be doing it so soon!

I will cover the Sw manuscript first. It is an uncatalogued and unnumbered manuscript belonging to the Monastery of St. Ephrem in Holland. It was published in a devotional edition prepared by Julius Y. Çiçek (Die heilige Meryem/Tad’itho d’yoldath aloho Maryam. Holland: Bar Hebraeus Verlag, 2001) that came to my attention via Grigory Kessel. These kind of editions are fairly common in places like Cairo and the monasteries of Greece and essentially entail a transcription of a single manuscript, sometimes with translation. Çiçek’s edition is significant not only for its use of a previously unknown manuscript but also because it is …

Back in October and November I wrote a series of three posts (1, 2, and 3) detailing my efforts to construct a critical edition of the Syriac manuscripts of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The project is now about eight years (and counting) in the making but it may soon finally see publication because I’ve been working diligently on it over the past six months, to the neglect, unfortunately, of other tasks, such as Apocryphicity. Right now I’m taking a brief pause in the project, so I thought I’d use some of this time to reacquaint myself with the blog by posting a short update.

As previously mentioned, my critical edition will contain three separate recensions of the text:

Sa: based on five manuscripts, two of them from the 6th century; another three interrelated manuscripts from the 17th-18th centuries; and one more from the 15th/16th century that I recently came across that lies midpoint in development between the early and recent manuscripts.

Sw: based on 15 manuscripts (another seven exist in Garshuni, which I am justifiably ignoring) varying from the 15th to the 20th centuries; incorporates IGT into a West Syrian Life of Mary collection in six books (the Infancy of Mary and the Birth of Jesus, both taken from the Protevangelium of James; the Vision of Theophilus; IGT; and the Death of Mary and Departure of Mary from the Dormition of Mary)

Se: three manuscripts of an East Syrian Life of …

Between 2012 and 2014 I picked away at the edition while working on other projects. Brent Landau and I had begun the More New Testament Apocrypha project (a series of volumes collecting neglected Christian Apocrypha in new translations) and that took a considerable amount of time to co-ordinate. But I contributed a translation of the Syriac Infancy Thomas to the first volume and this translation integrated for the first time all previously-published manuscripts on the text, including provisional work on the three editions (Sa, Sw, and Sw) I was compiling for the Gorgias volume. We included Syriac Infancy Thomas in the MNTA project because this branch of the tradition, universally believed to be important for establishing the text’s original form, had not appeared in previous Christian Apocrypha collections—typically these compendia contain Greek A, sometimes with Greek B and a portion of the late Latin text.

The MNTA vol. 1 manuscript went to the publisher’s in January 2015, thus allowing me finally to devote most of my energy to the edition. In May and June I compiled a glossary for the three translations, thus ensuring that the texts were translated consistently. It was a very time-consuming project, but very valuable and, of course, will be included in the finished volume.

I took a new look also at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, thinking perhaps that other manuscripts of the text had become available. Those of us who do text-critical work on apocryphal texts know that catalogers can be somewhat …

When I returned to examining the Syriac Infancy Thomas tradition in 2008 I began with the Vatican manuscript translated in part (chs. 5-8 only) by Paul Peeters in 1914. He stated at the time that the manuscript was superior to William Wright’s sixth-century manuscript, despite its much more recent date of composition (17th century), because it contains portions missing in Wright. It was simple to obtain a microfilm copy of the Vatican manuscript and, being recent, it was quite easy to read. I could only wonder why it had taken so long for anyone to follow up on Peeters’ “superior” source.

I debuted the new text and translation at the 2008 Réunion de l’AELAC to largely positive response. However, Sever Voicu, well-known as a leading voice on Infancy Thomas, commented that the manuscript was so recent that it could hardly be important for reconstructing the text. Voicu’s resistance may stem from his belief that the Ethiopic tradition of the text is the best witness to its original form. After some revision, I submitted the paper to l’AELAC’s journal Apocrypha in September 2009 and waited for a response.

In the meantime I began investigating unpublished manuscripts of the text. Back in 1994, Simon Mimouni had prepared a study of Life of Mary traditions for Apocrypha (“Vies de la Vierge. État de la question,” Apocrypha 5 [1994]: 211-48) that I had somehow missed when preparing my dissertation. He had combed the manuscript catalogs and divided the Life of Mary sources into …

One of the projects I hoped to finish over this past summer is a long-percolating critical edition of the Syriac tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Alas, I was not able to complete the project, but instead of spending my time responsibly and working on it some more, I thought I’d put together a series of posts on the various stages the project has gone through so far. I hope the posts will be of interest to those who work on the text, on Syriac literature, or on text critical work in general.

I became interested in the Syriac tradition of Infancy Thomas while writing my doctoral dissertation, published in 2010 as De infantia Iesu euangelium Thomae graece (Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum 17; Turnhout: Brepols). The dissertation focused on the Greek manuscripts of the gospel, but it is well-known among those who have worked intensely with the text that a number of early versions (Syriac, Latin, Georgian, Irish, and Ethiopian) preserve a form of the text that is more primitive than the Greek (and two related traditions: one in Latin and one in Slavonic). Of these early versions, the Syriac is the earliest, with manuscripts dating to the fifth and sixth century, and in many ways the best witness. So it was necessary that I incorporate the published Syriac manuscripts into my comperanda for determining the original readings of the Greek tradition.

The first Syriac source known to scholars is a fifth/sixth century manuscript in the British Museum …

Congratulations to Stephen Davis on the publication of his new book, Christ Child: Cultural Memories of a Young Jesus (Yale University Press). I had a chance to read the book in manuscript form before publication but I'm excited to hear my complimentary copy is in the mail. From the testimonials:

"Stephen Davis's Christ Child is as theoretically important as it is fascinating. Davis takes the reader on an engaging journey through the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and its surprisingly rich afterlives in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In the process, Davis challenges us to grapple with broader theoretical questions about transmission, textuality, and memory. Not only does Christ Child demonstrate the importance of attention to apocryphal texts, but it offers a model for bringing interdisciplinary insights from Memory Studies into research on religion and literature more broadly."—Annette Yoshiko Reed, University of Pennsylvania  

"Stephen Davis’s outstanding study of the so-called Infancy Gospel of Thomas provides a model for how early Christian “apocrypha” should be understood.  A major advance in the literary and cultural history of ancient Christianity."—David Brakke, The Ohio State University

My article on the Syriac tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (titled, "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas from an Unpublished Syriac Manuscript. Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes") can now be seen in preview at the Hugoye site (HERE). Here (once again) 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.

Now that this article is in print, I can continue work on a full critical edition of the Syriac Infancy Gospel of Thomas to be published by Gorgias Press.

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.

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.