Apocryphicity

Anchor Bible Report 17: James the Less

February 23, 2023 by Tony

It is Reading Week here in Canada, which means a break from teaching and a chance to get back to some (albeit very little) writing. I managed to finish off a section of my Anchor Bible project on apocrypha related to James the Less.

Besides the well-known apostle James, son of Zebedee (often called James the Great or Elder), three other men by the name of James appear in the New Testament Gospels: 1. James, son of Alphaeus, who is listed as one of the Twelve in all three Synoptics, 2. James the Less or Younger, who is said to be the son of Mary (not the Virgin, but identified, via John 19:25, as Mary, wife of Clopas and cousin to the Virgin Mary) and brother to Joseph/Joses (Matt 27:56; Mark 15:40), and 3. James the Righteous/Just, brother of Jesus. Often these three figures are conflated, so James Alphaeus’s place among the apostles is frequently supplanted by Jesus’ brother, despite the apparent lack of interest in Jesus’ ministry shown by him and his brothers in the canonical Gospels. Outside of the Gospels, James the Just appears also in Acts, Galatians (in both described as the “brother of the Lord”), and as the author of an epistle (calling himself “a servant of God and of Jesus Christ”). Because of the confusion of the Jameses, there are very few apocryphal texts and traditions about the son of Alphaeus. James the Just fares better, but much of what is said about him derives …

Anchor Bible Report 16: The Acts of Philip

December 14, 2022 by Tony

I have spent the past three weeks or so compiling information on the various traditions about the apostle Philip. The main one of course is the Acts of Philip, but there are also texts in Coptic (and from this Arabic and Ethiopic), Latin, and Irish. They will lead off my chapter on “other” apocryphal acts—that is, not the five “great” acts (Andrew, John, Peter, Paul, and Thomas) and related texts. This decision is based mostly on issues of space: the chapter on the big five is already really too long. But placing Philip in this “other” chapter is really a disservice to Acts Phil.

The text has been championed by only a few previous scholars—chiefly François Bovon and Christopher Matthews. M. R. James (1924: 438–39) early on declared that Acts Phil. belongs to the “secondary” stage of development of the apocryphal acts because it borrows material from the earlier texts, including part of the hymn material from the Acts of John and the Peter’s speech from the cross from the Acts of Peter. But Acts Phil. is still pretty early, likely composed not long after the others (fourth century but drawing upon material from the third). The diminishing of its importance has resulted in its virtual exclusion from Christian apocrypha collections, or at least the English compendia, which only present portions or summaries. But don’t despair, English readers can find it in the affordable translation by Bovon and Matthews (2012). And it’s worth seeking out, because this text …

2022 SBL Diary: Part Two

December 1, 2022 by Tony

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 …

2022 SBL Diary: Part One

November 25, 2022 by Tony

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 …

Anchor Bible Report 15: The Apocryphal Lives of the Companions of Paul

November 14, 2022 by Tony

As my readers on Twitter are aware, I have been posting reports on my latest project: an introduction to Christian apocrypha for the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. I am back to the project after taking a month to complete the indices to More New Testament Apocrypha vol. 3, but I feel . . . disenchanted with Twitter lately and thought I would switch the forum for these reports to my neglected blog. There are no megalomaniacs or racists here, and no one to tell me how many characters I can use.

This past week I turned my attention away from the five “great” apocryphal acts and worked on some later acts focusing on the companions of Paul: Barnabas, Timothy, and Titus. I figured these texts would make a gentle re-entry into the project. All three main texts appear in MNTA 1 and have companion e-Clavis entries, so the scholarship should be up-to-date. Well, it’s been more difficult than I thought.

Joseph Barnabas appears in Acts as an “apostle” (14:14) and early recruit of the church in Jerusalem. He is introduced as a Jew from Cyprus who gave all of his money to the church (Acts 4:36–37). When Paul makes his first visit to the Jerusalem church, Barnabas comes to his defense (9:26–27) and then travels with Paul and John Mark until the group is divided (15:36–40)—Paul refuses to travel with John Mark because he had abandoned them in Pamphylia (13:13). Barnabas and John Mark sail away to Cyprus and …

Christian Apocrypha Books to Look for at SBL 2022

October 26, 2022 by Tony

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 …

Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2022

October 23, 2023 by Tony

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 …

On Indexing More New Testament Apocrypha vol. 3

October 24, 2022 by Tony

The indices for New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures vol. 3 have just been completed and sent off to the publisher. Indexing a book of this size (650 pages) takes a month of full-time work; so all non-essential activities—research, administrative tasks, sleep—had to be put on hold. But now I can move on, happy that the final step in the publication process is complete. So what is the first thing I do with this newfound freedom? Write a blog post about it.

In part, I just want to take an opportunity to vent a little about the frustrations of indexing, but I think some might wonder how indices are prepared, particularly for a project of this size and scope. Their first question might be why I don’t pay someone else (like a graduate student) to do it. Indexing is definitely the “grunt work” of publishing, an onerous task unworthy of a senior scholar’s time and attention (sarcasm alert!), and a graduate student could certainly use the experience and compensation. But I don’t have graduate students, or money. And I also prefer to do this work myself because of its complications. Indexing gives an author/editor a chance to catch lingering errors before the book goes to press. Despite an already rigorous process of proofreading—by the authors, then me, the publisher’s copyeditor, and the authors and me again—mistakes sneak through, and every one that makes it to the printed page is a dagger to the heart. And with my high blood pressure …

What Has Apocrypha to Do with Hagiographa? A Reconsideration of the “Editing” of Apocryphal Acts

January 3, 2022 by Tony

The following paper was presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Every year in my New Testament Apocrypha course at York University I tell the students about the five so-called Great Apocryphal Acts (Peter, Paul, Thomas, Andrew, and John). I give the usual “facts”: they were composed in the late second and early third century, and were declared heretical due to their promotion of encratism (specifically the refusal to marry) and gnostic-adjacent speeches, but some aspects of the texts remained valuable to the orthodox, so they were trimmed down, sometimes retaining only the martyrdoms, and in these forms they were passed along in hagiographical compendia. As I work through the texts for my forthcoming introduction to Christian Apocrypha for the Anchor Yale Bible Reference series (shameless plug), I am struck by the problems of this simplistic summary. It is influenced by the efforts still somewhat entrenched in our field to establish the original forms of apocryphal texts, and by ancient and Byzantine writers who mention the texts, often in unsympathetic ways.

Photius (Cod. 114), in the ninth century, for example, read all five as a collective work attributed to Leucius Charinos. He did not like what he read and characterized them as containing Gnostic dualism, docetism, substitution, encratism, and “childish” stories of resurrection and of oxen and cattle. Other writers associate them with Manicheans (and it does seem that they did value the texts), as well as groups described as Encratites, Origenists, and Priscillianists. …

Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2021

November 15, 2021 by Tony

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 …

“Canonical Apocrypha” in the Menologion of Symeon Metaphrastes

November 1, 2021 by Tony

Maurice Geerard’s indispensable Clavis apocryphorum Novi Testamenti (CANT) includes mention of a number of works that are each described only as a “commentarius” (from the Greek hypomnema; on genres in hagiographical literature see Hinterberger 2014) by Symeon Metaphrastes. Little bibliographical information is provided for them—amounting, for the most part, to a reference from Migne’s Patrologia Graeca. The reason for this is simple: very little work has been done on the texts, many don’t even have proper critical editions, and only a few of them have been translated into a modern language. What are these texts? And what are their value for the study of Christian apocrypha?

Symeon Metaphrastes was a hagiographer of the late tenth century who was appointed by the emperor Basil II (976–1025) to construct a new, official menologion—that is, a collection of saints’ lives to be read on their designated feast days. Previous menologia existed but they varied from one another significantly, both in scope and selection of texts. But in Symeon’s time there was a movement toward standardization, begun a few centuries earlier with the creation of the Byzantine calendar of feast days and the subsequent destruction of all rival calendars. Some early scholars of hagiography accused Symeon of destroying earlier texts, but Symeon’s process was rather conservative. He took earlier texts, made stylistic improvements (a process called metaphrasis), and arranged them according to the new calendar date. Most of these earlier texts still exist and indeed, by comparing them to …

More New Testament Apocrypha 3 Near Completion

August 24, 2021 by Tony

I have spent much of the past month hunkered down, determined to finish up work on the third volume of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. At time of writing, I’m waiting for two more pieces, and final edits of the remaining chapters are coming back from the other contributors. Things are looking good for sending the complete manuscript off to the publisher (Eerdmans) in September.

The second volume of MNTA was published in the summer of 2020. Like other projects appearing in the middle of a pandemic, the book didn’t get as much exposure as normal. The Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature provides an opportunity for the main demographic of the book (biblical scholars) to pick up a discounted copy; but it’s hard to buy a book at a virtual conference. And a review panel scheduled for the meeting of the Canadian Society for Patristic Studies had to be delayed until 2022. Nevertheless, Benito Cereno and Chris Sims at the podcast Apocrypals devoted three episodes to discussing texts in the volume, Shirley Paulson interviewed me for the Early Christian Writings podcast, James McGrath for his Religion Prof podcast, Rick Brannan tweeted mini-summaries of each text (as he did for MNTA 1), and Ancient Jew Review turned a planned session for SBL into four articles from MNTA contributors. I’m grateful to everyone who helped promote the book, especially in a time when we all have far more pressing concerns.

It may seem surprising that volume 3 is …

Apocryphal Traditions in Gregory of Tours’ Glory of the Martyrs

May 18, 2021 by Tony

I’ve spent the better part of the past two months polishing up my paper for the published proceedings of the Material of Christian Apocrypha conference that took place at the University of Virginia back in December 2018 (summary HERE and HERE). The paper is called “What They Brought Back Home: Pilgrimage Souvenirs as Transmitters of Christian Apocrypha.” From late antiquity and through the medieval period, pilgrims journeyed to various sacred sites—some of which are based purely on apocryphal traditions—and would hear stories associated with the saint and/or the site, see and touch its architectural and decorative features, participate in some kind of veneration, purchase one or more souvenirs (a token, a medal, or an ampulla, perhaps even a copy of text), and return home. There they might tell (or boast) about their experience and even proudly display their souvenirs.

Some pilgrims wrote about their experiences, and plenty of these pilgrimage itineraries survive today, including Egeria and the Piacenza Pilgrim. One writer on pilgrimage who is frequently passed over in discussions of pilgrimage is Gregory of Tours (ca. 538–594 CE). Gregory is best known in our field as the (likely) author of an epitome of the Acts of Andrew, offering us vital information for what the original text, now mostly lost, contained. Gregory also wrote seven books relating stories of saints and miracles that they or their relics performed. One of these books is the Glory of the Martyrs (English trans. Raymond van Dan, Gregory of Tours: Glory of …

Apocryphal Acts in Syriac Manuscripts

May 7, 2021 by Tony

I would like to thank Jacob Lollar, J. Edward Walters, and Slavomir Céplö for looking over a draft of this post and making suggestions for improvement.

In my last post, back in December, I provided an overview of sources for the “Egyptian” collection of the apocryphal acts of the apostles—manuscripts in Coptic, Arabic, and Ge‘ez. A follow-up was promised, and I will get to that soon, but for now I am taking a detour with a discussion of apocryphal acts in Syriac. Both posts derive from ongoing work on my next major project: an introduction to Christian apocrypha for the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library.

The number of texts and manuscripts for the Syriac apocryphal acts is significantly smaller than for the Egyptian corpus. The path of transmission is somewhat simpler also: the Egyptian collection began in Coptic and after the decline of Coptic in Upper Egypt, the texts were translated into Arabic, then Ethiopic. Syriac apocrypha follows a simpler path, with Syriac remaining the liturgical language (and for a small group, the spoken language) of the East and West Syriac churches, and some translation occurring into Arabic, Armenian, Georgian, and Tamil. Apocryphal texts have been transmitted in Syriac throughout the history of Syriac Christianity and appear in manuscripts created as recently as the twentieth century.

But the apocryphal acts appear with less frequency than some other apocrypha, such as texts about the Virgin Mary. Of the Five Great Apocryphal Acts, only the Acts of Thomas is represented in …

The “Egyptian” Collection of Apocryphal Acts, Part 1: Coptic, Arabic, and Ge‘ez Sources

October 18, 2023 by Tony

This is the first of two posts based on work in preparation for my forthcoming volume on Christian apocrypha for the Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library. I would like to thank Ivan Miroshnikov and Jacob Lollar for looking over the draft and making suggestions for improvement.

Readers interested in the apocryphal exploits of the apostles gravitate first, naturally, to the earliest examples of the genre, the so-called Five Great Apocryphal Acts: Peter, Paul, John, Andrew, and Thomas. The pull of these texts is so great that they leave neglected an assortment of “later” acts that, arguably, had a far deeper impact on Christian piety, not only because the plentiful manuscript evidence testifies to their popularity, but also because a large number of them circulated as a collection intended for liturgical use in Coptic and Ethiopic churches. The collection includes a core of 28 texts (with some additions, omissions, and substitutions), arranged largely in pairs: the preaching of the apostle and then his martyrdom. All twelve of the apostles are represented (with Matthias replacing Judas) along with Paul, James the Righteous, Mark, and Luke. Stories from the texts also appear in the Arabo-Coptic and Ethiopic Synaxaria, testifying, again, to their importance in northeastern African Christianity. The lack of attention paid to these apocryphal acts is due, in part if not in whole, to their remoteness linguistically, geographically, and temporally from the Greek and Latin centres that are the focus of most biblical scholars’ work (and training). But lately they have attracted …