Apocryphicity

A Blog Devoted to the Study of Christian Apocrypha

Apocrypha Vol. 17

by Tony

The latest volume of the annual journal Apocrypha was released just a few months ago. I picked up a copy at the l’AELAC conference. Here are the contents (previous years contents can be found on the l’AELAC web site HERE):

“Un fragment grec inédit des Actes de Pierre” by François Bovon and Bertrand Bouvier (9-54)

“Semiotik Intertextualität Apokryphität: Eine Annäherung an den Begriff ‘christlicher Apokryphen” by Tobias Nicklas (55-78)

“Les Enseignements de Sylvanos et la parole tranchante. Jeux de mots et assonances plurilinguistiques” by Michèle Broze (79-86)

“Was the Gospel of Philip written in Syria?” by Bas van Os (87-94)

“Revisiting Preliminary Issues in the Acts of Thomas” by Susan E. Myers (95-112)

“Intersections: The Reception History of the Protoevangelium of James in Sources from the Christian East and the Qu’rān” by Cornelia B. Horn (113-150)

“‘Righteous people according to the Old Law’: Aelfric on Anne and Joachim” by Frederick M. Biggs (151-178)

“The Gospel of Nicodemus in the Slavic Manuscript Tradition: Initial Observations” by Georgi Mincziew and Malgorzata Skowronek (179-202)

ÉTUDE CRITIQUE: “Michael J. Kruger, The Gospel of the Savior: An Analysis of P. Oxy 840 and its Place in the Gospel Traditions of Early Christianity” by Tobias Nicklas (203-210)

ÉTUDE CRITIQUE: “La philosophie du gnostique Basilide” by Lucia Saudelli (211-222)

ÉTUDE CRITIQUE: “Une collection de paroles de Jésus non comprises dans les évangiles canoniques” by Enrico Norelli (223-244)

ÉTUDE CRITIQUE: “The Old Slavic Apocrypha in Serbian Translation” by Georgi Mincziew (245-254)

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Bock and Wallace on Religious Intolerance in the Academy

by Tony

I have been rereading Darrell L. Bock and Daniel B. Wallace’s Dethroning Jesus: Exposing Popular Culture’s Quest to Unseat the Biblical Christ (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007) for a paper I am writing. I was struck by one statement in particular:

“Certain narrow perspectives reign on many campuses almost without any expression of alternate viewpoints. What makes this a scandal is that educational universities, especially state universities, are supposed to be places where intellectual perspectives held by the full array of the populace represented by the schools are weighed. These public schools should not be think tanks of a singular point of view. The give-and-take of diverse viewpoints is what makes the educational experience. Yet in many universities, when it comes to religion, representation by believers within the various religious perspectives is lacking, as evidenced by the numerous students who say their faith has come under attack in courses on religion” (p. 21).

The statement shows a surprisingly misguided view of the goals and methodology of Religious Studies in the Academy. In our courses we do not seek to provide instruction, or even a forum, for all viewpoints on religion (though here by “religion,” I think the authors mean Christianity). What we do seek to do is examine religious texts and related historical events with the same scientific methodology as other university/college disciplines (e.g., literary criticism, social-scientific criticism, etc.). Religious or faith-based perspectives have no role to play in the Academy, i.e., unless it is to study these perspectives in others. …

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Life of Mary in two Altarpieces

by Tony

Education of Mary by her mother Anna.While in Paris last week, I visited the Musée National du Moyen Age. The museum is situated in the Latin Quarter of Paris, combining two earlier buildings: Gallo-Roman baths (1st-3rd cent.) and the former residence of the abbots of Cluny (15th cent.).

The museum itself was founded in 1843 and contains works of art assembled by Alexandre Du Sommerard. I found two pieces particularly interesting: A 14th cent. altar front with scenes of the life of Mary (including her education by her mother Anna), and a tryptich of the Assumption of the Virgin from the 16th cent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assumption of the Virgin.

Réunion annuelle de l’AELAC 2008: A Report

by Tony

The Sanctury at Mt. Roland in Dole, France.This year’s AELAC (Association pour l’étude de la literature apocryphe chrétienne) réunion took place in Dole, France June 26-28. The association was formed by French and Swiss scholars in 1981 and is responsible for a well-regarded line of critical editions (Corpus Christianorum, Series Apocryphorum), the journal Apocrypha, the Pleiades Apocrypha Collection Études apocryphes chrétiens, and a series of French pocketbook editions of individual texts (La collection de poche apocryphes). The membership of the group has become increasingly international over the years and now includes scholars from across Europe, Russia, and North America. The annual meetings are wonderful opportunities to meet scholars in the field, engage in collaborative endeavours, and hear about new developments in the study of the texts.

Many of the presenters this year were North American, which was somewhat comforting to those of us who do not speak French. Several of the papers dealt with narratives of Jesus’ childhood and infancy, a topic of particular interest to me. Here are some of the highlights of the réunion.

Andrei Vinogradov presented a study of the Acts of Andrew and Matthaias. What was interesting from my perspective was that he informed me later of a Russian manuscript of the text which features a recital of events from Jesus’ life including four stories from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. He promised to send me a copy of his edition of the manuscript. I look forward to seeing where it fits into the Greek tradition of the text.…

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Medieval Apocrypha

by Tony

Blogging has slowed down of late as I devote myself to a summer course on the History of the Bible (syllabus HERE) and to working on my edition of Infancy Gospel of Thomas from Vat. Syr. 159 for the AELAC réunuion in June. But I came across a new book on a few medieval apocrypha that I thought I’d bring to your attention.

The book is Tales From Another Byzantium: Celestial Journey and Local Community in the Medeival Greek Apocrypha (Cambridge UP, 2007) by Jane Baun. It focuses on two texts: the much-neglected Apocalypse of the Theotokos (aka the Apocalypse of Mary) and the Apocalypse of Anastasia. Both texts are 9/10th century reworkings of the Apocalypse of Paul, though there are versions of the Marian text believed to hail from the 4th century. The two apocalypses received some attention in 19th and early 20th century scholarship on the CA but, given the lateness of the texts, the CA scholars did not devote much time and energy to them. Technically, the Apocalypse of Anastasia is not an apocryphal text—an apocalypse certainly, but because it is not attributed to an early Christian figure, nor does it feature NT figures in their historical setting, it does not qualify as Christian Apocrypha (at least not as I see the category).

Mentioned also in the book are The Letter That Fell from the Sky, a text known from as early as the 5th century, the Didaskalia of our Lord Jesus …

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Jeffery vs. Brown on Secret Mark

by Tony

Ahh…more scholarly thrust and parry over Secret Mark. This week, Peter Jeffery (author of The Secret Gospel of Mark Unveiled) responds to the lengthy review of his book by Scott Brown (available HERE). You can access Jeffery's response HERE and for Jeffery's own running compilation of discussions of Secret Mark, go HERE.

Pantuck and Brown vs. Carlson on Secret Mark

by Tony

Allan Pantuck passed along to me an article he wrote with Scott Brown challenging one of the claims made by Stephen Carlson in support of his position that Secret Mark is a hoax perpetrated by Morton Smith. Brown, long a supporter of the authenticity of the text, has chipped away at several of Carlson’s claims now, and this one is quite devestating to Carlson’s argument. Here is the abstract for the article: 

Allan J. Pantuck and Scott G. Brown, “Morton Smith as M. Madiotes: Stephen Carlson’s Attribution of Secret Mark to a Bald Swindler,” Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus 6 (2008): 106-125.

In 1960, Morton Smith announced that he had discovered in the Mar Saba monastery tower library a fragment of a previously unknown letter of Clement of Alexandria containing excerpts from a longer version of the Gospel of Mark that Smith called the ‘Secret Gospel of Mark’. Controversial since its publication in 1973, this discovery has recently been criticized in print as both an academic hoax and a malicious forgery. This paper uses newly discovered manuscript photographs and archived documents to refute a claim found in Stephen C. Carlson’s The Gospel Hoax, namely that Smith invented a pseudomymous twentieth-centuty individual named ‘M. Madiotes’ as an elaborate and deliberate clue that he himself had forged the letter of Clement.

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Another Judas Apocryphon?

by Tony

While researching Syriac manuscripts for the Infancy Gospel of Thomas I came across a reference in a manuscript catalogue (W. Wright and S. A. Cook, A Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, 2 vol. Cambridge: University Press, 1901) to a text called “History of the silver which Judas received from the Jews as the price of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I have never heard of this text before and thought I’d ask here if anyone knows anything about it.

The manuscript is Cambridge Add. 2881. It is dated 1484 and comes from Damascus. It is written in Garshuni (i.e., Arabic in Syriac letters) with some portions in Arabic, but not the Judas text. The Judas text runs from f. 136b-138b. Also included here are several other apocryphal texts: Acts of Thomas (f. 53b), The Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ to his Disciples on the Mount of Olives (f. 103b), the Abgar Correspondence (f. 158b), The Relation of Pontius Pilate regarding the dealings of the Jews with our Lord, written in the year 18 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius (f. 160a), and History of the Decease of the Virgin Mary (f. 223a).

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Reflections on Teaching Gnosticism V: Blade Runner

by Tony

For our penultimate class in Gnosticism we took a bit of a break and watched Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2008). For those in-the-know, Blade Runner is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dick had an avid interest in Gnosticism and, though the film takes some liberties with his book, it is still suffused with Gnostic imagery and themes. Blade Runner was originally released in 1982 . Unfortunately, the film flopped but it became a cult classic and led to several further incarnations, including a Director’s Cut in 1992 and now the “Final Cut.” For more information on the film’s history, check out its WIKIPEDIA page.

After the film, we had a short discussion of the Gnostic themes and imagery we were able to observe. Several excellent ideas arose, including the identification of Replicant Roy Batty as a saviour figure (the nail in the palm and the ascending dove were tip-offs), Tyrell as Demiurge, the post-apocalyptic city as the dark earthly realm of matter, Rachael as the archetypal Gnostic seeking salvation, etc. Another observation made was that there are no children in the film. This led me to think further of my own take on it; so I thought I’d post that here to stimulate some discussion outside of the classroom. Note, however, that I have not consulted any commentaries on the film, so my comments risk being unintentionally similar to others and/or pitifully naïve.

As mentioned, the post-apocalyptic city represents …

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The Apocryphal Jesus on Film

by Tony

I have been trying to catch up on some news items I’ve been sitting on for a while. I’ll begin with some information on three apocrypha-related films.

The first is “The Messiah,” an Iranian movie that looks at the life of Jesus from an Islamic perspective. One of the sources used in the film, besides the Qur’an and other Muslim traditions, is the Gospel of Barnabas, a fourteenth-century Muslim anti-gospel hailing from Italy. Of interest in this text is the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. Like several early Gnostic Christian texts (including the Apocalypse of Peter, Second Treatise of the Great Seth, and, according to Irenaeus, Basilides), Barnabas states that someone else was crucified in Jesus’ place. The full text can be read HERE, but here is an excerpt of the relevant section (ch. 216):

1. Judas entered impetuously before all into the chamber whence Jesus had been taken up. And the disciples were sleeping. Whereupon the wonderful God acted wonderfully, insomuch that Judas was so changed in speech and in face to be like Jesus that we believed him to be Jesus. And he, having awakened us, was seeking where the Master was. Whereupon we marvelled, and answered: 'You, Lord, are our master; have you now forgotten us?' And he, smiling, said: 'Now are you foolish, that know not me to be Judas Iscariot!'

2. And as he was saying this the soldiery entered, and laid their hands upon Judas, because he was in every way …

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The Christ Files

by Tony

“The Christ Files,” a four-part documentary on the Historical Jesus to air in the Australia beginning March 21, begins with an episode titled “Gnostics and Romans.” A 2-disc DVD will be released on the same day. The documentary is based on the book by the same name by Dr. John Dickson, Director of the Centre for Public Christianity and Honorary Associate of the Department of Ancient History, Macquarie University, Australia. As he criss-crosses the globe, Dickson interviews such noted scholars as Tom Wright, Richard Bauckham, and James Charlesworth. Visit the official site HERE, and see a short clip on the Gospel of Philip.

The Contributions of the Christian Apocrypha to the Study of the Historical Jesus

by Tony

As mentioned in my previous post, the Wedgewood Baptist Church have sent me some questions to answer regarding the Christian Apocrypha. Here is another one (and I'd be interested to see what other scholars think of the question):

Could you name two or three contributions Christian Apocrypha (CA) have made to the historical study of Jesus?

I assume that should read the “study of the historical Jesus.” If so, only a few CA texts have been used in the effort to find authentic Jesus traditions outside the canonical gospels. These are Gospel of Thomas, the Egerton Gospel, and the Gospel of Peter. The agrapha (i.e., isolated sayings, which can include the citations from the lost Jewish-Christian gospels) are also a good source, though very few of them have been considered early (mind you, that is because the investigators have ruled out some of them as authentic only because they are so different from canonical sayings; and that is a spurious argument). Of the three gospels, GT has made the greatest contribution; even conservative scholars have been forced to admit that some of its unique sayings may be authentic, though they often state that these sayings do not change the image we have of Jesus from the canonical gospels. The CA have made a contribution also in widening the available pool of evidence for the historical Jesus; once one makes the ideological leap to consider that these might have authentic Jesus traditions, then our investigations are taken to …

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Reflections on Teaching Gnosticism IV: The Gospel of Thomas

by Tony

This week's Gnosticism lecture focused on the so-called School of Thomas. Our discussion looked at evidence for dating the text (whether early or late) and the implications this has for its study. As a way to present some of this discussion, I thought I would include here a condensation of my own thoughts on the Gospel of Thomas that I prepared for another forum. The Wedgewood Baptish Church in Charlotte, North Carolina contacted me several months ago asking if I would respond to questions about the Christian Apocrypha put forward by members of their congregation. I just obtained these questions (thirteen in total), and one of them deals specifically with the Gospel of Thomas. Here is the question and my response:

Do you agree with Crossan that the Gospel of Thomas comes from the first century and is possibly contemporaneous with “Q”? If not, why?

I am open to the possibility that apocryphal gospels could be early texts, or at least could contain early traditions. I do not dismiss the possibility a priori as some scholars do. But we need to look at the evidence:

1. What do we mean by the “Gospel of Thomas”? The only complete version of the text we have is a fourth-century Coptic manuscript. Our other evidence comes in three Greek fragments of the late second and third century. The Greek evidence is quite different from the Coptic; obviously it has gone through some development in the intervening years (and even the Greek fragments may …

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