New Testament Apocrypha Course Class 7
Our latest New Testament Apocrypha class took a tour of the Apocryphal Acts. We began with a look at the canonical Acts, focusing on some aspects of the text important for the discussion of orthodoxy and heresy—namely, Luke’s interest in bringing certain (not all) Christian groups into accord (note his silence on Alexandria and Syria), and the significance of James (and sometimes Peter) for Jewish-Christianity. We also read the spurious “lost ending” of Acts created in the 19th century (you can read it HERE). This is a text rarely discussed in our field because it is a modern (or pre-modern) apocryphon, but really the only difference between this text and what we call New Testament Apocrypha (and indeed some canonical texts) is the date (well, that and ancient apocrypha are ancient texts that claim to be by ancient Christian writers, whereas Acts 29 is a modern text that claims to be by an ancient Christian writer).
The Apocryphal Acts are an excellent resource for discussing the nuances in the distinction between canonical and non-canonical literature. These texts were declared heretical by the Roman Church but the narratives and the martyrdoms were retained and transmitted in a variety of forms (individual stories, summaries), including their incorporation into collections of Lives of Saints. Many elements in the texts are cemented in Christian tradition.
We looked at excerpts from three texts: the Acts of Peter, the Acts of John, and the Acts of Thomas. The students were asked, as usual, to look for both orthodox (i.e., fairly normal) and heretical (i.e., unexpected) elements in the texts. They were struck, as could be expected, by the radical asceticism in the texts, particularly in some of the more outlandish stories from John (or was that just me?). The doceticism in the texts is also quite surprising, and certainly brings the Acts into the orbit of Gnostic Christology (in the sense that Gnostics also saw Jesus as not human, not that the Acts are necessarily Gnostic).
It is unfortunate that the Apocryphal Acts are such lengthy and, frankly, ponderous texts. It is difficult to get students to invest their time in reading them, even in excerpts. Several years ago I used Keith Hopkins’ A World Full of Gods (1999) for a course on Greco-Roman religions; two chapters provided summaries and discussions of the Acts of Thomas and Andrew. Hopkins is an evocative and creative writer; perhaps in future I can have the students read his work as a gateway into the texts. If you haven’t read Hopkins’ book, you really should.
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:47 pm
I always like to imagine what it was like to hear Paul speak. He strikes me as the type who excels in a one-to-one conversation but falters in a crowd. I wonder if he was envious of – even intimidated by – more polished speakers, like Apollos. I wonder how he acted around the so-called “Super Apostles.” Did he have something to prove? Maybe. He was a fascinating man.