Category: SBL Christian Apocrypha Section

The SBL Annual Meeting presents an ideal opportunity to check out new books on Christian apocrypha, and at substantial discounts. As you make your way through the publishers’ exhibition, keep an eye out for these publications. If there is a book missing in the list, please pass along the details.

Brepols

Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky. Representations of Saint Anne and the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period (CATALOG).

Cambridge University Press

Benjamin De Vos. The Pseudo-Clementine Tradition (CATALOG).

Richard Flower. The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy (CATALOG).

 

M. David Litwa. The Secret Book of John (CATALOG).

Shaily Patel. Magic and Heresy in Ancient Christian Literature (CATALOG).

Francis Watson. The Gospel of Truth (CATALOG).

Eerdmans

James R. Davila and Richard Bauckham, eds. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Vol. 2 (CATALOG).

Fortress

M. David Litwa. Marcion: The Gospel of a Wholly Good God (CATALOG).

Yosuf Y. Mirza. The Islamic Mary: Maryam Through the Centuries (CATALOG).

Tobias Nicklas and Janet E. Spittler. Reading Christian Apocrypha: Tradition, Interpretation, Practice (CATALOG).

Harvard University Press

Adam Bremer-McCollum. The Pearl Song (also open access; CATALOG).

McGill-Queens University Press

Gregory Fewster. The Authentic Paul: Critical Scholarship and the Making of the Christian Book (CATALOG).

Oxford University Press

Michael J. Kruger. Miniature Codices in Early Christianity (CATALOG).

Shaily Patel. Smoke and Mirrors: Discourses of Magic in Early …

The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature runs from November 22 to 25 in Boston. The following is a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha.

1. Christian Apocrypha Sessions

S22-235 The Apocrypha of Symeon Metaphrastes, Part 1 (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
In the tenth century, Symeon Metaphrastes created an expansive menologion collecting lives of saints for reading in the monasteries. Symeon’s menologion is a mix of rewritten and newly-written texts. Fifteen of them focus on the lives of apostles and other first-century figures. The goal of the Apocrypha of Symeon Metaphrastes Project is to prepare English translations of this corpus for a volume to be published in 2027. Leading up to that publication, contributors to the project will present their preliminary work at the SBL in 2025 and 2026 and at a workshop to be hosted by the Beyond Canon Project in Regensburg in the summer of 2026. The first set of presentations are the following:

“The Byzantine Rewriter Symeon Metaphrastes and the Apocrypha of Symeon Metaphrastes Project” by Christian Høgel, Lunds universitet

Hypomnema on John, Son of Zebedee (ECCA 191; CANT 221), by Janet Spittler, University of Virginia
Martyrdom of Longinus the Centurion (ECCA 730), by Nathan Hardy and Kelly Holob, University of Chicago
Hypomnema on Timothy (ECCA 928; CANT 296), by Scott Robertson, Projekt Beyond Canon, Universität Regensburg
Hypomnema on Matthew (ECCA 768; CANT 271), by Tony Burke, York University

S 22-307 Christian Apocrypha Section and Religious …

The 2024 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature runs from November 23 to 26 in San Diego, California. I won’t be attending this year, but I can still post my usual roundup of sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha. Take note of how many presenters this year are fellows of the Beyond Canon project at Universität Regensburg. Looks like I’ll be the only one left in the office!

1. Christian Apocrypha Sessions

S23-213 Christian Apocrypha (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia, Presiding

Thomas J. Kraus, Universität Zürich/University of the Free State: “What Did Jesus Christ Do between Death and Resurrection? The Descent of Christ into Hell (Gos.Nic.) and Some of Its Interrelations with Other Texts”

Martin Meiser, Universität des Saarlandes: “‘Acts of the Apostles’ within and beyond the Canon?.”

Triantafillos Kantartzis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München: “Voice of the Unseen Narrator: Shaping the Christological Contours in the Acta pilati.”

Benjamin Lensink, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen: “Mygdonia: Model of the Perfect Christian in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas.”

Timothy B. Sailors, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen: “Odes of Solomon 24 and Its Allusions to the Baptism of Jesus.”

S23-310 Christian Apocrypha / Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Theme: Jewish Christianity/Christian Judaism and Christian Apocrypha
Jae Han, Brown University, Presiding

Daniel Maier, Københavns Universitet, Denmark: “Paradise Lost in Transmission: The Apocalypse of Peter as a Central Witness for the Conceptualisation of the Righteous’ Afterlife in Early Christian Literature and Its Ancient …

The SBL Annual Meeting presents an ideal opportunity to check out new books on Christian apocrypha. As you make your way through the publishers’ exhibition, keep an eye out for these publications. If there is a book missing in the list, please pass along the details.

Baylor

Aageson, James. After Paul: The Apostle’s Legacy in Early Christianity. (CATALOG)

Brepols

Shoemaker, Stephen. The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mary. (CATALOG)

Cambridge University Press

Jacobs, Andrew. Gospel Thrillers: Conspiracy, Fiction, and the Vulnerable Bible. (CATALOG)

Fortress Press

Heil, Uta, ed. The Apocryphal Sunday: History and Texts from Late Antiquity. (CATALOG)

InterVarsity Press

Laird, Benjamin P. Creating the Canon. (CATALOG)

Mohr Siebeck

Goldstein, Miriam. A Judeo-Arabic Parody of the Life of Jesus. The Toledot Yeshu Helene Narrative. (CATALOG)

Miroshnikov, Ivan (ed.). Parabiblica Coptica. (CATALOG)

Nagel, Peter. Codex apocryphus gnosticus Novi Testamenti. (CATALOG)

Lundhaug, Hugo, and Christian H. Bull (eds.). The Nag Hammadi Codices as Monastic Books. (CATALOG)

Eerdmans

Burke, Tony (ed.). New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Vol. 3. (CATALOG)

Wipf & Stock

Lollar, Jacob (trans.). The Doctrine of Addai and the Letters of Jesus and Abgar. (CATALOG)

Yale University Press

Smith, Geoffrey S., and Brent C. Landau. The Secret Gospel of Mark: A Controversial Scholar, a Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, and the Fierce Debate over Its Authenticity. (CATALOG)

The 2023 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature runs from November 18 to 21 in San Antonio, Texas. The following is a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha

1. Christian Apocrypha Sessions

S19-114 Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University, Presiding

Benjamin Lensink, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen: “Look at These Two Ugly Men, Whose Teeth Are like Milk and Their Lips Are like Soot: Demons in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas.”

Benjamin M.J. De Vos, Ghent University: “A Disabled Saint and True Beauty: The Voice of Mattidia in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies.”

Franz Gilbert Hetroza Biantan, University of Texas at Austin: “Acts of Thomas and Slavery in the Silk Road.”

Eric Cregheur, Université Laval: “The Acts of Thomas and of Peter? A Close Look at an Intriguing Text.”

Thomas Tops, Universität Regensburg: “Apostleship and Mission in the Acts of Andrew and the Acts of John.”

S19-311 Christian Apocrypha (4:00 PM to 6:00 PM)
Theme: Translating Christian Apocrypha

Tony Burke, York University: “What More Do You Need? The Next Wave in Christian Apocrypha Texts and Translations.”

David Calabro, Brigham Young University: “The Arabic History of Elijah in Deep Translation.”

Jacob A. Lollar, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Universität Regensburg): “Thekla in the Syriac Traditions: Critical Edition in Light of ‘New Philology.’”

Respondent: Janet Spittler, University of Virginia

S20-109 Christian Apocrypha (Joint Session with Syriac Studies) (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Theme: Syriac Apocrypha
Kristian Heal, Brigham …

My third day in Denver began early with a pilgrimage (of sorts) to Red Rocks Amphitheatre. To people of my age and musical interests, Red Rocks is famous as the recording site of U2’s career-breaking Under a Blood Red Sky EP and video. Plenty of other bands have played the venue also, some even willing to bring a larger show to this smaller theatre (aprox. 9500) just for the joy of playing in this stunning, and storied, location. I convinced two friends (and fellow U2 fans), Phil Harland and Bob Derrenbacker, to join me for the trek and we hailed an Uber to take us there. Once we arrived, we hauled our creaky bones up and down the flights of stairs, stood on the stage (if only I had brought an instrument; I could then say I played at Red Rocks!), and just soaked in the atmosphere. Bob even played a couple of U2 songs on his phone to capture the spirit of that seminal event. I think I even saw tears welling in Bob’s eyes. Quoting Nigel Tuffnell of Spinal Tap, I said, “It really puts perspective on things, though, doesn’t it?” On cue, Bob responded, “Too much. There’s too much fucking perspective now.”

With some Red Rocks merch in hand, we headed back to the conference centre for afternoon sessions. Jacob Lollar (Universität Regensburg) started the Apocryphal Acts session with “Canonizing Thekla: The Acts of Thekla and Her Legacy in the Syriac Tradition.” Lollar remarked that much work …

Back in the pre-pandemic era, I would follow up my trip to the SBL Annual Meeting with a series of posts on the highlights of the sessions, receptions, and other activities (beginning in 2014 and including the last time SBL was at Denver in 2018). When the meeting went virtual and then hybrid, there wasn’t much to be said, though I did post my entire paper from last year’s online session (HERE). But it’s a new year and SBL was fully in-person this time (except for the occasional pre-recorded paper), so I stifled all of the anxiety that has been building in me over the past two years and headed off to Denver. Things did not start well. Reduced traveling seems to have had an effect on my trip-planning abilities and I inadvertently booked my flight under the name Tony instead of Anthony, the name on my passport. Thankfully I caught the error the day before my journey and a friendly guy at Expedia helped me fix the problem—though it did mean I had to cancel one flight and rebook (at an extra $300). Thanks Air Canada. Even the next day I was still uncertain that everything had been changed correctly. I knew I’d be able to get to Denver, I just didn’t know if I’d be able to get back.

Day 1 started by packing up my car with local SBLers and heading to the airport. Since I volunteered to drive, my wife advised me to …

The SBL Annual Meeting presents an ideal opportunity to check out new books on Christian apocrypha. As you make your way through the publishers’ exhibition, keep an eye out for these publications. If there is a book missing in the list, please pass along the details.

Bloomsbury

Robertson, David G. Gnosticism and the History of Religions.

Brepols

McCollum, Joey, and Brent Niedergall. Acts of John.

Brill

Lanzillotta, Lautaro Roig, and Jacques van der Vliet. The Apocalypse of Paul (Visio Pauli) in Sahidic Coptic.

Cambridge

Baker, Robin. Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History.

Dabiri, Ghazzal, and Flavia Ruani. Thecla and Medieval Sainthood: The Acts of Paul and Thecla in Eastern and Western Hagiography.

Norman, Dawn LaValle. Early Christian Women. (Includes discussion of Thecla).

Eerdmans

Burke, Tony, ed. New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Vol. 3. (Page proofs available for preview).

Fortress

Vanden Eykel, Eric. The Magi: Who They Were, How They’ve Been Remembered, and Why They Still Fascinate.

Mohr Siebeck

Reed, Annette Yoshiko. Jewish-Christianity and the History of Judaism: Collected Essays.

Oxford

Le Boulluec, Alain. The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries. (French original 1985; newly translated into English).

Litwa, M. David. The Evil Creator. Origins of an Early Christian Idea.

Mendez, Hugo. The Cult of Stephen in Jerusalem: Inventing a Patron Martyr.

Peeters

Calzolari, V.M. The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles in Armenian. Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha 18.

SBL Press

Lehtipuu, Outi, and Silke Petersen, eds. Ancient Christian Apocrypha. Marginalized …

The 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature runs from November 19 to 22 in Denver, Colorado. The following is a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha.

1. Christian Apocrypha Section Sessions

S20-113 Christian Apocrypha (9:00 AM to 11:30 AM)
Lily Vuong, Central Washington University, Presiding

Thomas J. Kraus, Universität Zürich / Beyond Canon (Regensburg): “‘The Resurrection of the Flesh’ and What the Apocalypse of Paul Has to Say about It.”

Mari Mamyan, Regensburg University: “Shifts in Title: What Does the Evolution of Titles Imply about the Transmission of the Arm Inf Gsp?”

Rikki Wenxin Liu, Yale Divinity School: “The First and the Last: Scholarly and Popular Reception of The Thunder, Perfect Mind.”

Michael T. Zeddies, Chicago, IL: “More Misunderstandings about Mar Saba 65.”

Cristian Cardozo, Universidad Adventista del Plata: “What Is a Name? Author-Function in the 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John.”

S20-333 Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism / Christian Apocrypha (4:00 PM to 6:30 PM)
Theme: Coptic Apocryphal Literature in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Periods
This session showcases the ongoing work of the APOCRYPHA research project at the University of Oslo. This is a project that analyzes the production and circulation of apocryphal literature in Egypt throughout the entire period of Coptic literary production.
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia, Presiding

Hugo Lundhaug, Universitetet i Oslo: “Adapting the Storyworld: Coptic Apocrypha as Blueprints and Building-Blocks.”

Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin, Universitetet i Oslo:“‘Eloi Eloi Lema Sabachtani’: Crucifixion Narratives in Coptic …

The 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, which runs from November 20 to 23, is a combination of in-person (in sunny San Antonio) and virtual sessions. Apocryphicity continues its tradition of aiding readers plan their SBL schedules by compiling a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha.

1. Christian Apocrypha Section Sessions

S20-209 Christian Apocrypha (1:00 PM to 3:30 PM)
Theme: Apocalypses and Christian Apocrypha
Brent Landau, University of Texas at Austin, Presiding

John Ladouceur, Princeton University: “‘At What Time Was This Revelation Made?’ The Apocalypse of Paul and Theodosian Religious Politics”

The relationship between the preface and the visionary narrative of the Apocalypse of Paul has been a fraught one in the history of scholarship. Since R.P. Casey’s contention in 1933 that the preface, which recounts the miraculous discovery of the lost work during the reign of Theodosius I, likely postdated the text’s original edition by a century or more, scholars have vigorously debated the preface’s redactional nature and the implications of this question for dating and analyzing the apocalypse itself. While Casey’s view became the majority opinion for much of the 20th century, serious challenges to his thesis have been levied in the past thirty years, most notably by Piovanelli and Copeland. These debates over the integrity of the preface have coincided with a new wave of research on the social context that produced the narrative as a whole, with a wide base of scholarship situating it firmly in …

The 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, which runs from November 29 to December 10, will take place online. The form of delivery may be entirely new but take comfort, because Apocryphicity continues its tradition of aiding readers plan their SBL schedules by compiling a list of all the sessions and individual presentations that focus on Christian Apocrypha. See you on Zoom.

1. Christian Apocrypha Section sessions:

S30-102 Christian Apocrypha (10:00 AM to 12:00 PM)
Theme: Christian Apocrypha
Janet Spittler, University of Virginia, Presiding

Chance Bonar, Harvard University: “The Place of the Dialogue between Jesus and the Devil in the History of the Antichrist”

The Dialogue between Jesus and the Devil (Dial. Devil; BHG 813f-g; CANT 84) is a narrative dialogue that expands upon the temptation account of Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. In its Greek and Slavonic recensions, the dialogue portrays Jesus and the devil debating the reason for Jesus’s descent to earth, who the devil’s accomplices are, what happens to repentant and unrepentant sinners in the afterlife, the death of John the Baptist, and the devil’s ultimate fate. Dial. Devil participates in a long history of elucidating why the devil hates humanity and attempts to mislead them, and yet goes further than many narrations about the devil by portraying the Antichrist as the devil incarnate. While the idea that the Antichrist is the devil incarnate is a common topic on evangelical Christian blogs today, this late ancient apocryphal text depicts this exact scenario and has …

My final full day in San Diego began with a meeting of the NASSCAL board—or at least those of us who made it to SBL (Janet Spittler, Lily Vuong, Lorne Zelyck, and Jonathan Henry)—to discuss plans for the next NASSCAL conference. These events take place, ideally, every two years; the last one was at the University of Virginia in 2018. Next year’s gathering will be at the University of Texas at Austin under the guidance of Brent Landau. For a theme we want something that is focused enough to give the conference an identity but open enough to encourage contributions from a wide range of specialties. So far we are looking at the theme of transformation—how apocryphal texts change over time through translation, expansion, contraction, adaptation, etc. We also quickly discussed planned volumes in the Early Christian Apocrypha series and the success of the e-Clavis (as Janet remarked, “I can’t believe how much we have done in just four years”).

After the meeting I went back to the book display for a meeting with my editor at Yale University Press. I am working on a comprehensive overview of Christian apocrypha for the Anchor Bible series. The plan was to have it finished in two years—that was two years ago. Who would have thought a 600-page volume discussing over 300 texts would take longer? So, we negotiated a new deadline and I made promises to send some material along for review soon. Then I grabbed the last of my book purchases: …

My second day at the 2019 SBL Annual Meeting began with the Journal of Biblical Literature editorial board breakfast meeting. If you ever submit a paper to the journal on the subject of Christian apocrypha, there’s a good chance I’m Reviewer 2. The discussion at the meeting focused on reducing the backload of submissions to the journal. But the really interesting talk was happening at my table. One person (who will not be named) mentioned to me that a certain scholar (who will not be named) was working on a complete version of an otherwise fragmentary apocryphal text (which will be named): the Gospel of Mary. The text is presently extant in an incomplete Coptic manuscript (the Berlin Codex) and two small Greek fragments. A complete text certainly would be a major contribution to work on this text, but some things about the rumor did not sound right. It is not out of the question that someone is working on this new manuscript, but probably not the person who was mentioned to me. Let’s hope there is some truth to the rumor.

Filled up on tea and pastries, I headed off to the first session of the Christian Apocrypha Section. The open session featured four papers on a variety of topics. Up first was Adeline Harrington (University of Texas at Austin) with “Apocryphal Oxyrhynchus: The Literary Landscape of a Late Antique City.” Harrington began with the statement by a late antique writer on Oxyrhynchus (I wish I could remember …