New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures

Abstract

Extending the works contained in the first volume in this series (Tony Burke and Brent Landau, eds., New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Volume 1. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), this second volume edited by Tony Burke provides an additional 29 texts, many of which are now made available to the English readers for the first time.Following the traditional classification as reflected in J. K. Elliott’s edition (The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Clarendon, 1993) that it seeks to supplement, most of the texts in this volume fall into the following categories: Gospels and related traditions of NT figures, apocryphal acts and related traditions, epistles, and apocalypses. However, departing from both Elliott’s edition and the first volume of this series, this volume also includes a fifth section on church orders that contains one text (The Teaching of the Apostles). The inclusion of this fifth section is particularly important as it signals the intentional departure from the classification of apocryphal works that follow the categories found within the NT canon. It also reflects the shift in recent studies on the apocryphal works, which are no longer considered to reflect the composition and reception of the NT canon. This shift also justifies the inclusion of works that can be dated in the medieval period.The section on Gospels and related traditions of NT figures contains a number of texts on relatively minor characters in the Gospel traditions (e.g., The Rebellion of Dimas, The Book of Bartholomew, The Story of Joseph of Arimathea) as well as texts on characters who have attracted considerable attention in the early Christian traditions (e.g., The Life of Judas, The Life of Mary Magdalene). The impressive range of material included in this collection is best illustrated by The Adoration of the Magi, a work extant only in the Old Uyghur (a Turkic language used only in the 9th to 13th centuries); the text is based on a number of manuscripts purchased in Turfan, China.The second section covers the apocryphal acts and related traditions. The five apostles memorialized in the widely circulated “great” apocryphal acts (John, Paul, Peter, Andrew, and Thomas) continue to be the focus of later works in these traditions, as reflected in four of the six selected texts in the section. The fifth work, The Acts of Nereus and Achilleus, is also associated with the Peter traditions, while the sixth, The History of Philip, is a Syriac work related thematically to the Greek Acts of Philip.The third section on epistles contains only one work, The Epistle of Pelagia, though even this work is closer in form and content to the apocryphal acts than the canonical epistles. It contains legends of the apostle Paul, and it is associated with the traditions behind The Acts of Paul.The fourth section on apocalypses contains nine works, most of which are connected with the traditions surrounding John, the figure behind the NT canonical apocalypse. Particularly difficult to classify is The Questions of James to John, which lacks heavenly or messianic mediation, and in which the focus is on the fate of the individual soul rather than public eschatology. The 9th-century dating of this work may explain the waning influence of Jewish and even early Christian apocalypses in pockets of the Christian traditions.The final section on church orders contains The Teaching of the Apostles, which belongs to the apocryphal collection as it contains framing narratives that place the 11 apostles in the “upper room” for the establishment of the 27 canons of ecclesiastical rules.For each of these works, introductory comments are provided on the content of the work, manuscripts and editions, language, date and provenance, literary and theological considerations, notes on translation, and a bibliography. Any informed reader will appreciate the mere collection and publication of these texts, while students and researchers alike are indebted to this team of scholars for the meticulous and careful collation of manuscripts, evaluation of versions and individual readings, as well as translation of texts.Those who have benefitted from this and the previous volume will be glad to learn of the anticipated third volume that will contain more than 30 additional works. The publication of these additional texts will further force the wider circle of scholars to question the criteria through which apocryphal works are to be evaluated. The consideration of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, dubbed “the most recent modern apocryphon” (p. xiii), as belonging to such a collection of material problematizes the whole notion of “New Testament Apocrypha” to an extent that the title may cease to be a useful one for the grouping of such material. For now, however, we are all grateful for the relatively ancient texts that are now made available to the modern readers.