Apocryphicity

My long-awaited (well, by me at least) critical edition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas is due to be published this year. Seeing it in print seems a little closer to reality now that it is listed in the Brepols on-line catalogue (and it's a steal at a mere 160 Euros!). The listing will soon be updated with the following product description:

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT), an early apocryphal writing about Jesus’ childhood, was first published from a Greek manuscript in the seventeenth century. At the time, and for several centuries thereafter, scholars believed the text to be the “Gospel of Thomas” mentioned by a number of early Church writers and frequently associated with gnostics. With the publication of the true Gospel of Thomas from Nag Hammadi in 1956 interest in the text waned. A few scholars published editions of various versions of the text—including Syriac, Ethiopic, Georgian, Latin, and Slavonic—but study of the Greek tradition stalled, despite indications of the existence of a number of manuscripts that could greatly improve our knowledge of the text. This edition brings together all known published and unpublished Greek manuscripts of IGT, assigns them to four separate recensions (Greek A, B, D, and S), and presents them in Greek and English translation. Attention is also paid to the versions, particularly the Slavonic and Latin traditions, which are shown to be translations of Greek A and Greek D, and therefore help to establish the original form of those recensions. The early versions (Syriac, Ethiopic, Georgian, and another Latin translation) are discussed also as they inform the text of Greek S, an important new recension which brings us much closer to IGT’s original form and should be considered the new textus receptus for study of the gospel. The edition also features a detailed overview of previous scholarship on the text, and a commentary on the gospel that seeks to situate it in its appropriate theological and socio-historical contexts. Scholars of early Christianity have been waiting centuries for a comprehensive critical edition of IGT. While more work needs to be done on some of the versions of the text, this volume fulfills much of the needs of scholarship by providing a vastly improved edition of IGT in its likely language of composition.

In my neverending work on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, I have begun the process of collating copies of the Life of Mary edited by E. A. W. Budge over a century ago. Some of the manuscripts, however, are quite difficult to obtain (indeed, it may be that they are now lost forever). I was hoping some experts in the field might know how to find manuscripts from Diyarbakir, Mardin, Alqosh (specifically the convent of Notre-Dame de Sémances), and Urmia.

I just received my free copy of Cornelia Horn and Robert Phenix’s essay collection, Children in Late Ancient Christianity (Mohr Siebeck, to be published this month). I have a free copy because the book features my essay, “‘Social Viewing’ of Children in the Childhood Stories of Jesus.” The essay is essentially a summary of the last 200 pages of my doctoral thesis on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The book also features a few other Christian Apocrypha related pieces, including Reidar Aasgaard’s “Uncovering Children’s Culture in Late Antiquity: The Testimony of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” and Cornelia’s “Approaches to the Study of Sick Children and Their Healing: Christian Apocryphal Acts, Gospels, and Cognate Literatures.” Congratulations Cornelia and Rob on a fine publication.

Apocryphicity has suffered from considerable neglect lately. There are several reasons for this. For one, I am under review for Tenure, and the file preparation has taken some of my time. Also, I have a heavy course load this semester. And, there has been an illness (and subsequent death) in the family, leading to the abandonment of my SBL paper (see further below) and a curtailing of other projects.

Nevertheless, it’s probably time to put some work into my languishing Blog. I thought I’d begin with some updates on a variety of projects.

1.  I look forward very soon to seeing the proofs for my critical edition of the Greek tradition of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.  The edition is based on my 2001 doctoral dissertation (available HERE) and is to be published in the Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum. The editing process has taken a considerable amount of time, but the end product will be much superior to the dissertation. We should see the edition some time in 2010 (hopefully by the l’AELAC Réunion in June).

2. I am following up my Greek edition of IGT with work on the Syriac tradition of the text (for more information see HERE). This was the focus of two presentations last year (at the l’AELAC Réunion and at SBL). The first of these, focusing specifically on the Ms Vat. Syr. 159, is currently under revision. I am supplementing the paper with readings from a second, similar Ms (Mingana 105).

3. This past summer Slavomir Ceplo and I presented a paper on the Syriac tradition of the Legend of the Thirty Silver Pieces (for more, see HERE). We will revise the paper for publication once we finally obtain the last remaining Ms of the text.

4. My paper on Christian Apocrypha in Ancient Libraries (mentioned HERE) for this year’s SBL Annual Meeting has been canceled (due to illness/death in the family). I will continue work on the topic, perhaps resubmitting the paper for next year’s meeting.

5. Much of my time over the summer was spent translating a well-known text from the OT pseudepigrapha from Syriac into English for a top-secret publication that should appear in the Spring or Summer of 2010. It is a lengthy text, and it has never been translated into English (or any modern language) before, so it was a big challenge that strained by still-developing skills in Syriac.

So, you see I am not dead, merely busy and distracted. But I promise that Apocryphicity will be more active for the foreseeable future.

I'd like to congratulate Reidar Aasgaard on the publication of his new book, The Childhood of Jesus: Decoding the Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas. Reidar has been working for several years now on this text; some of you may have seen him present his work at the meetings of the SBL or AELAC. This is the first book devoted solely to Infancy Thomas in quite some time (the most recent being Thomas Rosen's excellent study, The Slavonic Translation of the Apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas in 1997). Best of luck Reidar. For more information , download the promotional PDF here. 

I mentioned some time ago a discussion with A. Vinogradov about a manuscript of the Acts of Andrew and Matthias that features a summary of the life of Jesus. Included in this summary are three episodes from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. The section alludes also to the Protoevangelium of James and begins with an expanded version of the story of the Magi from Matthew. Here is a translation of the IGT material (based on the Greek text edited by A. Vinogradov, “Die zweite Rezension der Actorum Andreae et Matthiae apud Anthropophagos [BHG 110B]”, Christianskij Vostok, 3, 2001, p. 11-105 with some emendations by J-. D. Kaestli.):

And behold, he happily taught the alphabet with joy. And hearing him, the teacher….his hand was withered up to where it touched his fringe, and suddenly he was healed. And filled up with strength again, he dug by a word and commanded the flowing water to divide into twelve streams. And he formed birds of clay on the Sabbath day. And the priests, seeing and being angry, wished to destroy them. But, clapping his hands, he said: “O melodious birds, behold, in the presence of the priests I say to you: become flesh, receive form, become animated, become winged and fly to the entire world. Do not fear the archer, be careful of traps and tortuous snares, fly not toward the ground. And take care of your young in heaven above. And at once the announced deed became a thing manifest for, singing sweet music through the voice, the birds went away crying: “O holy child of a heavenly father and earthly mother… And grace has shone on us, Christ. And we have returned to you again so that you may know that we believe in your father.” And he said to the priests: “You are despising, and are like the clay that was formed by the hand of the craftsman in the form of the birds, which now also have been given form. And you, oh priests, who until now were without form regarding life, through the water, you have been made known to God and are fleeing from the threat of the Law and receiving the grace of life.

And the child Jesus, playing, went upon a roof with his children friends. And one of the children fell and died at once. And when his father and also his mother raised a clamour because of the one who was dead, and when everyone fled, the boy Jesus remained alone. And placing his hand on the one who was dead, he said: “Did I kill you?” And the boy, rising as if from sleep, looked up and saw Jesus and said: “No Lord, but you raised me from the dead.” And then the parents of the one who was raised ran to the temple and reported all that Jesus had done to the high priests of the Law. And they said: “truly this is the messiah, the one born of Mary the holy virgin, and truly she is a virgin still.” And again they (the high priests) said: “Beelzebul, ruler of the demons, he does these things. For who has heard that a virgin has given birth?” And the parents of the boy who was raised were saying to the priests: “Why do you, who read the Law, not recognize Jesus the Messiah in the Law?” The high priests said to them: “Babouberbeth, who is called Accursed, are you teaching us?” And they ordered them to be banished from the synagogue. But they laughed. Then the high priests said: “Why did you laugh?” And they said: “We did not laugh (at ourselves), rather we laughed at you, because from now on we have forsaken you for, having gone away, we will follow Jesus. For if our son Zeno was raised from the dead, he is able to raise us after death also.” And at once they left the temple and came to where Jesus was.

And the high priests called for Joseph, the father of Jesus, and said to him in Hebrew: “Nathazareth and Boum.” And they said: “The god of your fathers, in fear give him praise. Is the child Jesus your son?” Joseph said: “If he is my son, I do not know, for the virgin Mary, who you had given to me from the house of the Lord to protect her, gave birth to him and she is a virgin still.” The high priests said: “No small wonder, that having brought forth she is still a virgin.” And they said to him: “Call Mary, your wife, so that we may see if, after giving birth to the boy Jesus, she is still a virgin.” Joseph said: “I said to you that I took her from the holy house after she conceived from the Holy Spirit there in the temple of God with the virgins spinning the purple and red and the gold embroidery into the curtain for the glory of the Lord. But I am alone in my house, and the child Jesus.” They said to him: “How old is the child Jesus?” He said to them: “Why do you accuse me so, in contentiousness? For the child Jesus is three years old. And he speaks from the beginning so that often also I see him greater, above my height. And also frequently he watches over and considers and prays and does wonderful things, such as the prophets did not do, nor Moses, no Elijah. And he says God is his own father.”

And the high priests said: “Dachodoreth, Samouth, who is called Excellent, Joseph…[Joseph said:] “Why do you accuse me so and talk idly so much? Listen, because Zeno was raised from the dead and two birds molded from clay; animating them and giving them wings, he sent them out to the whole world. He is to me a support and all my nourishment is from him; for when I do not have wood, he commands and a great amount appears. And when I began an evening’s work, he came at night and he observed, and in the morning it was finished. And when it was time for a meal and having nothing to eat, he came to the table and immediately the table became full of bread and good things of all sorts. And drawing water from the well, he offered it to drink and it was found to be fine wine. And as I was eating, he came out from my house and he calls to the neighbours from the street and the poor and those he found to be lame, blind, half-withered, crippled, and thrown on the dungheap and said to them: ‘Rise in full health and come into the house of my father Joseph and eat the bread and drink the wine to filling.’ On the whole, his word is a true deed. And he has a great crowd of disciples. And the Sabbath, he says, was made for man. And he said to the teacher: ‘Why do you strike (me) for not breaking the Sabbath?’ And in striking him, he whipped him and immediately his right hand withered. And running he fell at his feet and it was healed. And everyone in the schoolroom worshipped him as God.”

And the high priests were amazed at what he said. And they said to him: “What can we give you to kill him during the night?” And he said to them: “How could I kill him? I said to you that he never sleeps but he watched and considers and prays, and a great crowd of angels respond: Alleluia.” And the high priests became silent and said to Joseph: “Go to your home and say nothing in arrogance to the child, do not be angry with us and kill us. Go home, Joseph, bless you. Bless also the child Jesus.”