Apocryphicity

A Blog Devoted to the Study of Christian Apocrypha

Category: Infancy Gospels

2017 ISBL Preview: “‘Arabic’ Infancy Gospel No More”

by Tony

I am about to depart for the 2017 International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Berlin. Slavomír Céplö and I will be presenting at the first of four Christian Apocrypha sessions; for a full listing of the Christian Apocrypha papers at this year’s ISBL see this post. The paper, entitled “‘Arabic’ Infancy Gospel No More: The Challenges of Reconstructing the Original Gospel of the Infancy,” has two aims: to present the current status of our work on the Arabic Infancy Gospel (aka Gospel of the Infancy), and to interact with the session’s theme of “Is this a ‘text’?” (questioning practices of how we title texts and if these titles capture the dynamic, fluid natures of verbal communication). Here is the abstract for the paper:

The Arabic Infancy Gospel (Arab. Gos. Inf.) was first published by Henry Sike in 1697, long before many of the apocryphal texts that now dominate the study of Christian Apocrypha. Only one other edition of the text has appeared in the intervening centuries: from a much-different and likely-superior manuscript at the Biblioteca Laurenziana. Additional manuscripts exist but no one, as yet, has evaluated these witnesses. Nor has there been much effort to integrate into the study of this text the East Syriac History of the Virgin, which shares a large portion of material with Arab. Gos. Inf. This paper presents the results of careful analysis of the manuscript sources for both texts and offers some preliminary observations about how best …

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New in Print: Infancy Gospel of Thomas Reader

by Tony

Hadavas, Constantine T. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: An Intermediate Ancient Greek Reader (Beloit, WI: CreateSpace, 2014). Hadavas is Chair of the Department of Classics at Beloit College. I’m interested in seeing what Greek text he is using (likely it is Tischendorf’s Greek A with variants from Greek B and D). Here is the abstract:

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (c. 150 CE) is an excellent text for students who have completed the first year of college-level Ancient Greek. Its length is short, its syntax is generally straightforward, and its narrative is inherently interesting, for it is the only account from the period of early Christianity that tells of the childhood of Jesus. This student edition includes grammatical, syntactical, literary, historical, and cultural notes. Complete vocabulary is provided for each section of the text, with special attention paid to the differences between Koine Greek and Classical Greek meanings and usage. Since the Infancy Gospel of Thomas possesses an unusually rich textual history, this edition also includes a selection of the most interesting variant readings.

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New Article on Depictions of Children in Apocryphal Infancy Gospels

by Tony

A special issue of the journal Studies in Religion/ Sciences Religieuses focused on children in early Christianity includes my brief article “Depictions of Children in the Apocryphal Infancy Gospels” (p. 388-400). The abstract is below.

The apocryphal infancy gospels (such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and the Protoevangelium of James) seem at first look to be ideal sources for the study of children and childhood in early Christianity. They all feature depictions of Jesus as an infant and/or a child; some tell similar tales of other eminent Christian figures, such as Mary of Nazareth and John the Baptist. Few of these texts, however, can be considered “early” texts (i.e., 2-3rd centuries) and even those texts we can confidently date to this period are of limited value for the study of children. One text remains useful for this endeavour: the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. And in recent years, several scholars have looked seriously at this gospel for what it can tell us about the experiences of children in antiquity. Yet, even this text must be approached with caution for it has more to say about how adults of the time wanted children to be than what they truly were.

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The Revelation of the Magi

by Tony

November sees the release of a new book by Brent Landau (University of Oklahoma) on a rarely-studied CA text. Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem (from Harper Collins) features an English translation of the text with some commentary. It is one of two projects deriving from Brent’s doctoral dissertation; the second is a complete critical edition, to be published in Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum.

This particular book is directed at a popular audience. The goal of it is primarily to provide a readable version of the text. The introductory materials, then, are somewhat sparse but are enough to set the text in its historical and literary contexts. Brent also adds some details about how he came to be interested in the text and his efforts to discover more about it.

He notes that the canonical story of the Magi, from the Gospel of Matthew, leaves readers with many questions about these enigmatic figures. Where exactly are they from? How did they come to know about the prophecy of the star? What are their names? How many Magi are there? And why are they called “magi”? The Revelation of the Magi answers all these questions.

Among the “revelations” found in this text is the Magi’s origins in the land of Shir. They derive ultimately from the line of Seth, the son of Adam. The prophecy of the star comes from Adam himself who bequeathed it to Seth, according to a testament of Adam …

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Conference on Infancy Gospels

by Tony

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).

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The Childhood of Jesus from the Acts of Andrew and Matthias

by Tony

I mentioned some time ago a discussion with A. Vinogradov about a manuscript of the Acts of Andrew and Matthias that features a summary of the life of Jesus. Included in this summary are three episodes from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The section alludes also to the Protoevangelium of James and begins with an expanded version of the story of the Magi from Matthew. Here is a translation of the IGT material (based on the Greek text edited by A. Vinogradov, “Die zweite Rezension der Actorum Andreae et Matthiae apud Anthropophagos [BHG 110B]”, Christianskij Vostok, 3, 2001, p. 11-105 with some emendations by J-. D. Kaestli.):

And behold, he happily taught the alphabet with joy. And hearing him, the teacher….his hand was withered up to where it touched his fringe, and suddenly he was healed. And filled up with strength again, he dug by a word and commanded the flowing water to divide into twelve streams. And he formed birds of clay on the Sabbath day. And the priests, seeing and being angry, wished to destroy them. But, clapping his hands, he said: “O melodious birds, behold, in the presence of the priests I say to you: become flesh, receive form, become animated, become winged and fly to the entire world. Do not fear the archer, be careful of traps and tortuous snares, fly not toward the ground. And take care of your young in heaven above. And at once the announced deed became a thing manifest …

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New Developments in the Syriac Tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas II

by Tony

Several months ago I posted an item here on the start of my investigation into the Syriac tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (available HERE). Since then I have made significant progress in obtaining manuscripts and have begun collating them against previously published editions. Inspired by Roger Pearse’s posts on Thoughts on Antiquity (the latest is available HERE) relating to his work on the Onomasticon by Eusebius (edit: the text he is studying is actually Quaestiones ad Stephanum et Marinum or “Gospel problems and solutions”), I thought I would offer this progress report on the project.

I began the project, as many do, with lists of unpublished manuscripts. These were provided long ago by Anton Baumstark (Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluss der christlich-palästinensischen Texte. Bonn: A. Marcus & E. Webers Verlag, 1922, p. 69 n. 12 and 99 n. 4) and more recently by S. C. Mimouni (“Les Vies de la Vierge; État de la question,” Apocrypha 5 [1994]: 239-243). The two lists were subsequently reproduced (and thus came to my attention) by Cornelia Horn in a paper she delivered at the Ottawa Apocrypha Conference in 2006 (“From Model Virgin to Maternal Intercessor: Mary, Children, and Family Problems in Late Antique Infancy Gospel Traditions”). Such lists are provisional; they are based on the bare information provided in catalogues, and some items come from word-of-mouth reports by colleagues. So, it is to be expected that the lists will contain some errors, which can …

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Deciphering Christian Apocrypha Palimpsests

by Tony

Recently I finished reading Reviel Netz’s and William Noel’s The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Secrets of the World’s Greatest Palimpsest. The book details the acquisition of a thirteenth-century Christian prayer book that contains, as its underwriting, several works by the third-century BCE Greek mathematician Archimedes. One of these works, Floating Bodies, is found in no other source. But in some places the underwriting is incredibly difficult to read. The Archimedes Codex describes the pioneering scientific efforts to recover Archimedes’ works.

The book led me to thinking about palimpsests of CA texts and the possibility that advances in reading palimpsests could aid in recovering our texts. I am aware only of one such palimpsest: Vindobonensis 563, an eighth-century manuscript written over a fifth-century collection of the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and selections from the Gospel of Matthew. Constantin von Tischendorf was the first scholar to see the manuscript and was able to decipher much of it; Guy Philippart (“Fragments palimpsestes latins du Vindobonensis 563 [Ve siècle?]: Évangile selon S. Matthieu, Évangile de Nicodème, Évangile de l’enfance selon Thomas”, AnBoll 90, p. 391-411) revealed more of it in 1972.

Separating the pages of the Archimedes Codex.The manuscript is important for the study of Infancy Thomas as it is the earliest known source we have for the text; unfortunately, only a handful of pages from the original manuscript were used by the eighth-century recycler. Virtually all of this material is readable (save for a few lines on two folios). …

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A New “Critical Translation” of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

by Tony
I have added to my Infancy Gospel of Thomas page a critical translation of the gospel. As I state in the introduction to the text, the translation is based primarily on the best of our Greek manuscripts (Cod. Sabaiticus 259 of the eleventh-century) with an eye to the early versions (Syriac, Old Latin, Georgian, and Ethiopic) which, though translations, appear to represent the text in an earlier form than all of the extant Greek manuscripts. Many of the chapters are is accompanied by illuminations from an Ambrosian manuscript (L 58 sup.) of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew.
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Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord to Become a Film

by Tony
In Fall 2008 moviegoers will be able to see a film adaptation of Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (read the press release HERE). I read the book soon after its release and made some notes on its use of Christian Apocrypha. This is as good a time as any to share those notes. 

The book tells the story of the Holy Family’s return from Egypt to their hometown of Nazareth. The story is told from Jesus’ perspective, but as an adult reflecting on his childhood. It opens with a seven-year-old Jesus in Alexandria, surrounded by his family, which includes Mary and her brother Cleopas, Joseph and his brothers Alphaeus and Simon, Jesus’ aunts Salome, Esther and Mary, Jesus’ cousins Little Joses, Judas, Little Symeon and Salome, and big brother James, the child of Joseph from a previous marriage (recalling the explanation for the brothers of Jesus given in the Protoevangelium of James).

Joseph and his brothers are employed in Egypt as carpenters. After Joseph completes a project for Philo, the famous teacher meets Jesus, who he calls “the most promising scholar he has ever seen” (p. 14). But things go wrong for the family when Jesus curses a boy, Eleazer, in the marketplace. The miracle echoes Infancy Thomas ch. 4, though in the gospel Jesus is five, not seven, and in Nazareth, not Egypt. Infancy Thomas is employed again when James recalls having seen Jesus make birds from clay on the Sabbath (Infancy Thomas…

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New Developments in the Study of the Syriac Infancy Gospel of Thomas

by Tony

As part of my efforts to unravel the complexities of the transmission history of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, I have begun the process of collecting and collating the various Syriac manuscripts of the text. The Syriac tradition of IGT is very important—it is among the earliest evidence we have for the text (two manuscripts are from the 5/6th century) and it is the best witness for the “short” version of the text, a version that is likely to be closer to the original than the longer versions we have in the Greek manuscripts.

The evidence for Syriac IGT comes in three forms:

1. Two manuscripts featuring a compilation of the Protevangelium of James, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and the Assumption of the Virgin. One of these (London, British Library, Add. 14484 of the sixth century; =SyrW) was published in 1865. The second (Göttingen, Universitätsbibliothek, Syr. 10 of the fifth or sixth century; =SyrG) was collated against the first in 1993/1994. I have obtained copies of both manuscripts and confirmed their contents. Both contain apparent omissions (that is, when compared with what is known about the short version from other witnesses): SyrW is missing sections of chs. 6, 7 and 15; SyrG is missing sections of chs. 4, 5, 7, 19 and all of chs. 14 and 15.

2. The Nestorian Life of Mary: this compilation includes the Protevangelium of James, material incorporated also in the Arabic Infancy Gospel, IGT, episodes from the
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