Apocryphicity

Secret Scriptures Revealed Book Launch

January 17, 2014 by Tony

Last night we celebrated the North American release of my new book Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha with a small gathering at a local book store, Words Worth Books, in Waterloo, Ontario. I have a long history with the store; I worked there throughout grad school. I couldn't resist the idea of holding my first book launch there, and the staff were very accommodating.

Snow began to fall early in the evening and I worried that turnout would be dismal. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to see so many faces, including family, friends, and colleagues—some of whom traveled far just to celebrate with me—and a handful of new faces, there simply to find out more about the book. Also in attendance were retired professor Harold Remus, to whom I dedicated the book, and not-yet-retired professor Michel Desjardins, who served on the committee for my doctorate. Everyone listened intently as I read portions of the book, then we had a thought-provoking discussion, I signed some books, and thanked everyone profusely for coming. I think the bookstore was surprised at the turnout and happy that they sold all of their copies of the book.

Once again, an enormous thank you to everyone who came to the event, and to those who wanted to come but were unable.

More Christian Apocrypha vol. 1: Update

November 13, 2017 by Tony

As some of the readers of Apocryphicity are aware, Brent Landau (University of Texas) and I are working on assembling a new collection of Christian Apocrypha in English entitled New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. The project is a mirror of the More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha volumes under preparation by Jim Davila and Richard Bauckham (University of St. Andrews). These volumes collect material that is not included in the edition of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha assembled by James Charlesworth in the 1980s. Where Charlesworth’s volumes focused on early texts of Jewish provenance, the MOTP project seeks to include also medieval and Christian works, as well as new texts and new sources for texts that have surfaced since Charlesworth’s day. The first volume of the MOTP was released just a few months ago; it is available for purchase from Eerdmans. To read more about the project, visit THIS PAGE and see this previous POST.

The MCA project (which has been initiated with Davila and Bauckham’s consent) similarly seeks to collect neglected apocryphal texts. Where MOTP is conceptualized as a supplement to Charlesworth, MCA is an enlargement of the most recent English-language CA collection (but now almost two decades old): J. K. Elliott’s The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford 1991). There is no need to duplicate Elliott’s work, nor is there utility in presenting texts that have been published in other collections (e.g., the Nag Hammadi Library) or recent editions (e.g., Abraham Terrian’s 2008 edition of the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy…

Bible Secrets Revealed Episode 3: The Forbidden Scriptures

December 18, 2013 by Tony

The third and fourth episodes of Bible Secrets Revealed finally saw broadcast in Canada over the weekend. I am particularly interested in these episodes as they focus their attention on non-canonical texts, including 1 Enoch, the Life of Adam and Eve, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and a few others. Though often the discussion of CA in television documentaries leaves much to be desired, BSR deserves credit for their informative and evocative presentation of the material. Of course, it wasn’t perfect.

Episode three, “Forbidden Texts” (a summary from Robert Cargill available HERE), concentrates on two interrelated themes: the political motivation for the selection of texts for the canon (both HB/OT and NT), and the suppression of feminine imagery and figures in early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism. The show opens with mention of the variety of canons (e.g., the 81 books of the Ethiopic church, the expanded OT of Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity); this is a favourite topic of mine and I am pleased to see it discussed. However, there was some imprecision in the delineation of “Apocrypha” (as the term for the Deutero-canonical texts but the narration and accompanying images roughly seguéd into Christian Apocrypha), and the repeated statement that texts were “removed” from the Bible, rather than not selected, was misleading (though perhaps the topic is even more nuanced than that—if a group valued …

Loren Rosson III: “Secret Mark Still Fools People”

December 17, 2013 by Tony

In a post on the Secret Gospel of Mark (HERE), Nashua librarian Loren Rosson III, administrator of The Busybody blog, offers some comments on Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery?, the collection of papers from the 2011 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. I appreciate the attention paid to the book and, though I try to resist responding to reviews (I don't want to be perceived as having thin skin), I wanted to correct a few misstatements in the post.

Rosson obviously supports the theory that Secret Mark is a forgery perpetrated by Morton Smith, the scholar who discovered the manuscript of the text in the Mar Saba monastery. To support his position, Rosson repeats many of the arguments offered by previous scholars–including, the text's apparent "seal of authenticity"; it promotes a "gay Jesus," which reflects Smith's own (unconfirmed) homosexuality; it supports theories Smith had about Jesus before the text's discovery; the so-called "Morton Salt Company" clue; and the connections between Smith's discovery and the James Hunter's 1940 novel, The Mystery of Mar Saba. Given the weight of these arguments, Rosson is surprised that people remain "fooled" by Smith's hoax; indeed, he concludes this section of the post with the comment, "only fools and the willfully obtuse maintain Smith's innocence."

Rosson then turns to his discussion of Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? He focuses most of his attention on Scott Brown's and Allan Pantuck's response to Craig Evans's overview of the theory of forgery, and picks out two rather …

2013 SBL Annual Meeting Diary

November 13, 2017 by Tony

Now that the teaching for this semester is dying down, I have some time, at last, to throw together some reflections on my activities at this year’s Annual Meeting of the SBL. Without further ado…

Day One (November 22):

Arrival in Baltimore via plane, train, and automobile—driving from home in Kitchener to the airport in Buffalo (cheaper than a flight from Toronto) with a transfer in Detroit (that’s right, Detroit) and touchdown in Baltimore, then LTR to my hotel. Nighttime in Baltimore is a little scary. I disembarked the LTR in a part of town that was mostly boarded up and the people on the street looked a bit desperate. My hotel (the Quality Inn) was actually quite nice, but the miniscule size of their sign made it difficult to find. I capped off the evening with a drink and a meal with my York University colleague and SBL roomie Tony Michael.

Day Two

I began my Annual Meeting experience as many of us do with a visit to the registration desk (for name tag) and then a spin around the book display. I had a lunch meeting lined up with Jim Davila, co-editor of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, and had to grab a copy of the book, now finally available after much delay. I also put my name down for the display copy of Roelof van den Broek’s Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, On The Life and the Passion of Christ: A Coptic Apocryphon (discussed previously HERE…

Guest post on Eerwords Blog on Secret Scriptures Revealed

December 5, 2013 by Tony

The North American edition of Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to the Christian Apocrypha was released just a few weeks ago by Eerdmans. As part of their marketing strategy, I was asked to contribute a guest post to their blog Eerdwords. So I did two (HERE and HERE). Readers of my own blog may notice that they are somewhat recycled from a series of posts on Apocryphicity about Writing for Non-Specialists (part 3 HERE with links to previous posts). While you are visiting Eerdwords, check out Jim Davila's post (HERE) on his newly-released volume Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Sciptures. It is really gratifying to read the testimonials included on the back cover and opening pages of Eerdmans' SSR. Thank you to Bart Ehrman, Brent Landau, Stephen Shoemaker, Charlie Hedrick, and Nicola Denzey Lewis for all of your support. The testimonials can be read in the catalogue entry for the book; here is what Bart Ehrman had to say:

"Tony Burke has long established himself as a master of the Christian apocrypha, writings that did not make it into the New Testament. With Secret Scriptures Revealed he has made his massive knowledge of the field available to a broad general audience in a readable, informed, and enjoyable overview that will be long cherished by both beginners and devotees."

Nice.

Bible Secrets Revealed: Does it do biblical scholarship more harm than good?

December 3, 2013 by Tony

The much-talked about (on certain biblio-blogs, at least) new documentary series Bible Secrets Revealed finally aired in Canada this past weekend. I may be a bit late to the party on this but, with an episode due December 15 on the Christian Apocrypha, I thought it would be helpful to my readers to bring some attention to the series. While such programs are helpful for bringing scholarship on biblical and nonbiblical texts to a broader audience, I worry, after watching the first episode, that these documentaries are now doing more harm than good.

First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I am involved in a documentary that is due to air in November of next year. So I am fully aware that I may be part of the problem. However, my issues with BSR are not with the scholars involved in the program, but with the narrative imposed upon the scholars’ contributions by BSR’s producers.

Bible Secrets Revealed is the creation of Promethus Entertainment, a supplier of a host of docudramas (including Ancient Aliens and America’s Book of Secrets) to the History Channel and other providers. The titles and airdates of the six scheduled episodes of BSR are:

“Lost in Translation” – November 11, 2013 (re-airs in Canada December 13 and 14)“The Promised Land” – November 18, 2013 (December 6 and 7 in Canada)
“The Forbidden Scriptures” – November 25, 2013 (December 15 in Canada)
“The Real Jesus” – December 2, 2013 (December 15 and 16 in Canada)

…

Remembering François Bovon

November 6, 2013 by Tony

On Friday, November 1 world-renowned Christian Apocrypha scholar François Bovon died after a long illness. Many of us learned of his passing on Saturday; a formal statement from Harvard’s Dean David Hempton was issued on Monday. Among François’ many scholarly accomplishments are his work on recovering the text of the Acts of Philip and his involvement with AELAC, particularly his supervision of the first volume of the Écrits apocryphes chrétien collection.

I did not know François well but we did interact over the years. I became acquainted with his work when researching my doctoral thesis on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. I particularly valued his essay on “Editing the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles” for the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (1999) volume edited by François (with Ann Graham Bock and Christopher Matthews) and featuring essays by his colleagues and students at Harvard Divinity School. I continue to recommend the essay to anyone brave enough to delve into text-critical work.

During the last stages of my thesis research, I needed to get a look at some hard-to-get materials that were available at Harvard but not obtainable through Interlibrary Loan. I contacted François out-of-the-blue and asked if he could arrange for a graduate student to look at the material for me. He was very gracious about the request and was able to make it happen. We met formally at SBL a short while after. The meeting was one of those typical (well, typical for me) initial interactions with fellow academics: …

The 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium in Retrospect: Part Three

October 11, 2013 by Tony

Day two of the symposium was intended as a look to the future. The first session featured several of the participants in the More Christian Apocrypha Project (MCAP), which is producing collections of apocryphal texts in English translation (some for the first time), primarily by North American scholars. These papers examined some little-known or under-appreciated texts and traditions. In the first presentation, F. Stanley Jones (California State University) examined “The Distinctive Sayings of Jesus Shared by Justin and the Pseudo-Clementines.” Jones is contributing two pieces for the first More Christian Apocrypha volume: the Syriac epitome of the Acts of Peter, and the Aramaic fragments of the Toledot Yeshu (which have not yet appeared in English translation). We have talked also of including some or all of the Ps.-Clementine corpus in a future volume, since the material has not appeared in English translation for almost 150 years. Jones noted in his talk that he has constructed a synopsis of the witnesses to the text but has not found a publisher for it; this is unfortunate because it would be an important resource for studying the text. As for Jones’s paper, it presents an argument against the view that the shared sayings derive from a gospel harmony; instead Ps. Clem. seems to have pulled them from Justin’s lost work Syntagma, which Justin wrote to refute Marcion. The sayings thus have a distinct Marcionite or anti-Marcionite flavour.

Jones was followed by Stephen Shoemaker (University of Oregon), presenting on “The Tiburtine Sibyl, …

The 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium in Retrospect: Part Two

October 10, 2013 by Tony

In the first afternoon session, “New Frontiers in Christian Apocrypha Studies,” we looked to bridging gaps between CA and related disciplines. In “Jesus at School among Christians, Jews, and Muslims,” Cornelia Horn (Catholic University of America) built on her previous work on Christian and Muslim use of Jesus and Mary infancy traditions. This time her discussion featured the story of Jesus in school from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas and looked at its transformations in the Armenian Infancy Gospel, the Toledot Yeshu, and the story of Imam al-Baquir in Umm al-kitab (an eighth-century Shi’ite text). In her conclusion, Horn asked us to consider the status of texts like Umm al-kitab—does its connection to apocryphal Jesus stories make it a Christian apocryphal text, or an Islamic apocryphal text, or something else?

Nicola Denzey Lewis (Brown University) followed with dynamic presentation, “Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism, Apocrypha: Bridging Disciplinary Divides.” The paper points out how scholars have divided Gnostic texts from other apocrypha—“high” vs. “low” literature, the CA are folkloric but Gnostic texts are “the ugly, wicked stepsisters in the fairytale of NT studies.” The divide is most apparent at conferences like the SBL Annual Meeting, which separates Nag Hammadi or Gnostic Studies from Christian Apocrypha, despite the fact that some Nag Hammadi texts are not Gnostic (e.g., the Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles) and some Gnostic texts are not from Nag Hammadi (e.g., the Pistis Sophia, the Gospel of Mary); one text in particular, the …

The 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium in Retrospect: Part One

October 9, 2013 by Tony

This year’s York Christian Apocrypha Symposium is now fading into memory. I have stopped waking at night thinking that David Eastman is stranded in an airport, or Jean-Michel Roessli is endlessly circling Toronto Island on a boat. Other bloggers (Sarah Veale and Mark Bilby) have offered their thoughts on the event. So, I think it’s time I presented by own post mortem analysis.

(Front row, left to right: Lily Vuong, Stephen Shoemaker, Charles Hedrick, Mary Dzon, Stanley Jones, Mark Bilby. Second row: Pierluigi Piovanelli, Lee Martin McDonald, Annette Yoshiko Reed, Jean-Michel Roessli, Cornelia Horn, Stephen Patterson, Tony Burke, David Eastman. Back: Kristian Heal, Mark Goodacre, Glenn Snyder, Lorenzo DiTommaso, Brent Landau, Nicola Denzey Lewis, John Kloppenborg)

The York Christian Apocrypha Symposium series began in 2011 with a one-day event focusing on a single text: the Secret Gospel of Mark. We gathered together eight North American scholars and one editor of Biblical Archeology Review to discuss the text in front of an audience of about 60 people. The papers were published in early 2013 as Ancient Gospel or Modern Forgery? The Secret Gospel of Mark in Debate. The budget for this first Symposium was small but it was a seminal event, a beginning to the forming of an association (if informal) of North American scholars of the Christian Apocrypha.

Mark Goodacre, Stephen Patterson, and Brent Landau chat at the reception. The success of the first Symposium enabled us to aim higher for the second. This time we gathered 19 scholars for presentations taking place over two days. Everything …

A Student Assistant’s Perspective on the 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium

October 8, 2013 by Tony

My net-savvy student assistant, Sarah Veale, has posted some comments on the 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium on her blog Invocatio. Sarah was of great help during the planning and the execution of the event. She humbly minimizes her contributions in her blog post.

Mark Bilby on the 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium

October 5, 2013 by Tony

Mark Bilby, administrator of the Voces anticae blog, offers his thoughts on the 2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium. Mark attended the event and contributed an excellent paper (“Backstories of the Bandits: The Emergence, Submersion and Re-emergence of the Cult of Dysmas”) on apocryphal traditions of the bandits crucified with Jesus. I hope to provide my own summary of the symposium some time in the next week.

2013 Society of Biblical Literature Christian Apocrypha Papers

November 13, 2017 by Tony

Here is a quick rundown of the sessions and papers focusing on the Christian Apocrypha. See you in Baltimore.

November 23

S23-106: Art and Religions of Antiquity (9-11:30am)

Zsuzsanna Gulacsi, Northern Arizona University, "The Crystal Seal of 'Mani, the Apostle of Jesus Christ’ in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France"

Michael Peppard, Fordham University, "Annunciation at the Well-Spring: An Analysis of Type"

S23-125:Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism (9-11:30am)
Joint Session With: Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism, Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Theme: Scribes and Readers of the Nag Hammadi Codices in Fourth- and Fifth-Century Egypt

Eduard Iricinschi, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, "'Do Not Think It Is as Moses Said' (NH II,1,13): Domesticating the Secret Book of John in Nag Hammadi Codices II, III, IV, and Berlin Gnostic Code"

Julio Cesar Chaves, Université Laval, "Scribal Intervention in Nag Hammadi Codex V’s Titles"

Eric Crégheur, Université Laval, "The 'Pistis Sophia': A Status Quæstionis"

Lance Jenott, Universitetet i Oslo, "Readers’ Aids and Other Scribal Practices in Codex Tchacos"

Hugo Lundhaug, Universitetet i Oslo, "Scribal Culture and Paratextual Features in the Nag Hammadi and Dishna Codices"

S23-209: Children in the Biblical World (1-3:30pm)
Theme: Children in Gospels, Especially the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

Justin King, Baylor University, "Not-Quite-As-Early Narrative Christology of the Pre-Existent Lord, Creator, Teacher, Son of God, and Savior in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas"

Sharon Betsworth, Oklahoma City University, "Where Have All the Young Girls Gone? The Infancy Gospel of Thomas and Girls"

Reidar Aasgaard, Universitetet i Oslo, "Challenges in Writing a Commentary

…

2013 York Christian Apocrypha Symposium Profiles: Lily Vuong

September 25, 2013 by Tony

This year's York Christian Apocrypha Symposium, “Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha in North American Perspectives,” is mere days away (September 26–28, 2013). If you are interested in attending, please register BY E-MAIL as soon as possible (remember, it's free for students, but you should register if you want to receive the papers ahead of time). For more information, see the Symposium's web page (HERE).

Lily Vuong, "Ordinary or Extraordinary? The Reception of the Protevangelium of James in the History of the Blessed Virgin Mary"

Lily Vuong is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Valdosta State University. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto (H.B.A.) and graduate studies at Wilfrid Laurier University (M.A.) and McMaster University (Ph.D.). Before joining the faculty at VSU, she spent time as a Visiting Scholar at Claremont Graduate University’s School of Religion, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity and the Women’s Studies in Religion Program and served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at UCLA's Center for the Study of Religion. Her area of study is in Early Christianity with a special interest in New Testament Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal writings. Gender studies have also played an important role in her research, especially in terms of its construction and interpretation in early Christian literature.

Other topics of interest include the relationships between Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman culture, the formation of Jewish and Christian identities in Late Antiquity, religious competition in the third century, the place of non-canonical …