Apocryphicity » CA Web Sites

Christian Apocrypha Site of the Week

Tony — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:55:46 +0000

(Yes, I know, I have hardly been regular on posting these “CA of the week” features, but I try) A helpful reader has passed along a link to Pitts Theology Library at Emory University which has prepared an excellent research guide on Early Christian Apocrypha (one I will certainly recommend to my students). It provides information on concepts and methodology, print resources, on-line resources, and research guidance. Of particular interest is the extensive alphabetical list of texts. Selecting a text will give you a brief description of the text, the original language and estimate of time of composition, alternate titles, and a source for English translations (where available).

CA Web Site of the Week 2

Tony — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:33:05 +0000

The Christian Apocrypha Web Site of this week is the home page of the Association pour l’étude de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne (AELAC). AELAC is an academic association based in Switzerland and France dedicated to the publication of finely-crafted critical editions of Old and New Testament Apocrypha in a series called Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum. To date, editions have appeared on various Apocryphal Acts, the Ascension of Isaiah, Irish Apocrypha, and most recently the Kerygma Petri; the next volume to be published will likely be my edition of the Greek tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

The site contains an overview of all of the society’s publications, including the CCSA volumes, their related Instrumenta (concordances), the popular-market translations of the Collection de poche, the journal Apocrypha, the yearly Bulletin de l’AELAC, and the wonderful two-volume CA collection Écrits apocryphes chrétiens published in the Pléiades series. You can also find here information on the annual Réunion that takes place in Dole, France.

Another useful feature of the site is a bibliography of work by the members of the association. It is arranged both by author’s names and by text. The only shortcoming of the site is that it is woefully out of date (the last Bulletin posted is from 2007, and the last table of contents of Apocrypha is vol. 16 from 2004).

CA Web Site of the Week

Tony — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:37:44 +0000

As I work through my web site (tonyburke.ca) and update various materials (including my links to sites focusing on the Christian Apocrypha), I thought it would be useful to offer more expansive descriptions of sites of interest in a series of “CA Web Site[s] of the Week” (cue applause). The first is Andrew Bernhard’s gospels.net.

Bernhard, an Oxford Graduate, is the author of Other Early Christian Gospels (London: T & T Clark, 2006) a study of the CA texts preserved in early papyri (e.g., P.Oxy. 840, The Egerton Gospel, the Greek manuscripts of the Gospel of Thomas, and others). These particular texts were the focus of the previous incarnation of this site, Jesus of Nazareth in Early Christian Gospels.

The current site contains resources for the study of twelve texts: the Gospels of Thomas (which receives the most attention), Judas, Mary, Peter, Egerton, P. Oxy. 840, the Jewish-Christian gospels, Secret Mark, and the Infancy Gospels of James and Thomas. For each gospel, Bernhard provides a list (and sometimes images) of the extant manuscripts, a select bibliography, scans of secondary sources (where available), and links to on-line resources. The site features also a blog (which has been quite active of late with discussions of Secret Mark and the Gospel of Thomas) and a page of supplementary resources (e.g., links to texts from the Church Fathers, lexicons, etc.).

Gospels.net’s greatest contribution is the images of the manuscripts which, though available from host institutions, sites, and print resources, are found here in a useful, one-stop location. Bernhard’s blog, one of few dedicated to the CA, also promises to be a valuable new voice in online discussions of the CA.