Category: Infancy Gospel of Thomas

I just received word that my article, "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas from an Unpublished Syriac Manuscript.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.

My long-awaited (well, at least by me) critical edition of the Greek tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas is now available (and hopefully coming to an academic library near you). Here is the abstract from Brepols' catalogue:

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT), an early apocryphal writing about Jesus’ childhood, was first published from a Greek manuscript in the seventeenth century. At the time, and for several centuries thereafter, scholars believed the text to be the “Gospel of Thomas” mentioned by a number of early Church writers and frequently associated with gnostics. With the publication of the true Gospel of Thomas from Nag Hammadi in 1956 interest in the text waned. A few scholars published editions of various versions of the text – including Syriac, Ethiopic, Georgian, Latin, and Slavonic – but study of the Greek tradition stalled, despite indications of the existence of a number of manuscripts that could greatly improve our knowledge of the text. This edition brings together all known published and unpublished Greek manuscripts of IGT, assigns them to four separate recensions (Greek A, B, D, and S), and presents them in Greek and English translation. Attention is also paid to the versions, particularly the Slavonic and Latin traditions, which are shown to be translations of Greek A and Greek D, and therefore help to establish the original form of those recensions. The early versions (Syriac, Ethiopic, Georgian, and another Latin translation) are discussed also as they inform the text of Greek S, an important new recension …

Well, the abstract of my forthcoming edition of the Greek tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas is back up on the Brepols page (HERE). The proofing stage of the project has taken a considerable amount of time, thus delaying the publication by a year. But, good news: I will receive the final proofs imminently and Brepols wish to have the book out in March (yes, 2011).Which means I won't be getting much sleep in the next few weeks as I check over the text again and generate indices. I hope everyone has their 300 Euros ready for the purchase.

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 …

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).

I was recently e-mailed a link to an article (though it is only on-line and apparently unpublished) on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas that suggests the author of the text was a child. Here is the LINK and the abstract (make of it what you will):

Apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Thomas is very controversial apocryphal text of uncertain origin. More authentic recent Czech translation by Petr Pe?áz (Dus, Pokorný 2001) tries to preserve original colloquial style and suggests an idea that the author of this text was not an adult person, but a child – boy at prepubescent age (10 – 12 years) with hyperactive tendencies. All the text represents childish megalomaniac imagination, which helps the child to cope with everyday conflicts with teachers, the father and friends by means of identification with young Jesus. The text had been probably forgotten in child’s lair and revealed a few decades afterwards without recognizing the real childish author. This article illustrates this hypothesis by comparing the gospel’s style with other literal works of similar age children and the Gospel of Mark and tries to depict a plausible psychological profile of the childish author by deliberate classification of his cognitive, emotional, moral, psychosexual stage of development.

My long-awaited (well, by me at least) critical edition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas is due to be published this year. Seeing it in print seems a little closer to reality now that it is listed in the Brepols on-line catalogue (and it's a steal at a mere 160 Euros!). The listing will soon be updated with the following product description:

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT), an early apocryphal writing about Jesus’ childhood, was first published from a Greek manuscript in the seventeenth century. At the time, and for several centuries thereafter, scholars believed the text to be the “Gospel of Thomas” mentioned by a number of early Church writers and frequently associated with gnostics. With the publication of the true Gospel of Thomas from Nag Hammadi in 1956 interest in the text waned. A few scholars published editions of various versions of the text—including Syriac, Ethiopic, Georgian, Latin, and Slavonic—but study of the Greek tradition stalled, despite indications of the existence of a number of manuscripts that could greatly improve our knowledge of the text. This edition brings together all known published and unpublished Greek manuscripts of IGT, assigns them to four separate recensions (Greek A, B, D, and S), and presents them in Greek and English translation. Attention is also paid to the versions, particularly the Slavonic and Latin traditions, which are shown to be translations of Greek A and Greek D, and therefore help to establish the original form of those recensions. The early versions …

I just received my free copy of Cornelia Horn and Robert Phenix’s essay collection, Children in Late Ancient Christianity (Mohr Siebeck, to be published this month). I have a free copy because the book features my essay, “‘Social Viewing’ of Children in the Childhood Stories of Jesus.” The essay is essentially a summary of the last 200 pages of my doctoral thesis on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The book also features a few other Christian Apocrypha related pieces, including Reidar Aasgaard’s “Uncovering Children’s Culture in Late Antiquity: The Testimony of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” and Cornelia’s “Approaches to the Study of Sick Children and Their Healing: Christian Apocryphal Acts, Gospels, and Cognate Literatures.” Congratulations Cornelia and Rob on a fine publication.