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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 Cépl? 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

December 12, 2020 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 …

Christian Apocrypha at SBL 2020

November 23, 2020 by Tony

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 …

“Lost Gospels” and Other Christian Apocrypha: New Discoveries and New Perspectives

October 9, 2020 by Tony

On Wednesday, October 7 I delivered a virtual lecture for BASONOVA (Biblical Archaeology Society of Northern Virginia). They have granted me permission to share the text of that lecture (with some minor changes) on Apocryphicity.

Discussions of the origin and transmission of apocryphal literature in popular media, and some scholarship, typically look something like this:

Christian apocrypha are texts about Jesus and his family, followers and friends that are not found in the New Testament. They were written in the first three centuries, some perhaps as early as the late first century. They contain heretical ideas and were systematically destroyed once the church of Rome solidified its power over other forms of Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries; these repressive efforts culminated in the formation of the canon of the New Testament, established at the latest by the time of Athanasius of Alexandria. The scriptures were clearly established as the 27 books of the New Testament; nothing more should be written, copied, or read thereafter. Some apocryphal traditions survived, however, but heavily sanitized of heretical ideas and collected as writings of the saints—so-called hagiographical literature. Otherwise, Christian apocrypha were lost to history until scholars of the Renaissance found copies in Eastern monasteries and brought them home to the West to be published, and more recently from archaeologists and Bedouins who found texts in caves and ancient garbage dumps. Despite all of the efforts of the church to censure these texts, many of them are now available for everyone to …

Some Reflections on Ariel Sabar’s Veritas

September 1, 2020 by Tony

Scholars, or at least those scholars in my small corner of academia, have been gleefully reading (some hate-reading) and reviewing Ariel Sabar’s new book Veritas: A Harvard Professor, a Con Man, and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife. I’m a bit late to the party, but I seem to be among the few who did not get sent an advance copy (sheesh!) and was further delayed because there were no stores within 50 km of me that bothered to stock the book on the day of its release. To me (and my colleagues) this book is important—why isn’t it important to everyone? Sigh. Truth be told, academics seem to both delight in and dread when outsiders (Sabar is a journalist) look into our world; it’s very much how Canadians feel living in the shadow of the US: they noticed us! (But did they have to be so mean?).

As other reviewers have said, Veritas is an excellent book. If you read Sabar’s piece on GJW for The Atlantic, you know that Sabar is a gifted investigator and writer, though here Sabar has adjusted his style so that readers are treated to a page-turning thriller. But he is no less strong an investigator. At several points in the book I felt like he had followed the evidence as far as he could, but then he went deeper, and found more. Who would have thought the trail would lead him to wandering around Bad Wurzach looking for men who were altar …

Publicity Roundup for More New Testament Apocrypha 2

July 17, 2020 by Tony

New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 2 (which I edited) was released just a few weeks ago. It is a follow-up to the first volume, which appeared in 2017. My personal web site, tonyburke.ca, features pages for both volumes (vol. 1; vol. 2) providing tables of contents and previews of the introductions. For vol. 2, I have included also a link to an article on editing the volume (“Even More Christian Apocrypha”) published in the latest issue of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion.

To help promote the volume, I appeared in an interview with Shirley Paulson on her podcast The Bible and Beyond. You can hear the episode by clicking on the image to the right. Our conversation covered the Book of Bartholomew, the Acts of Thom