Ancient Jew Review is pleased to host a series of articles on the second volume of the series New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (ed. Tony Burke; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020; vol. 1 ed. Tony Burke and Brent Landau; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016).
More New Testament Apocrypha? Yes please.
All of us in the wider field of biblical studies have felt the thrill of discovering something new—whether it is something physical like an archeological discovery or a manuscript, or more ephemeral like a previously unnoticed parallel in contemporary literature or the application of new methodology to an old problem. For the study of Christian apocrypha, new often means finding an unidentified or long-forgotten text and presenting it to modern readers who get to feel something of that same thrill when they encounter it for themselves. So if it᾽s thrills you’re after, the More New Testament Apocrypha (MNTA) series delivers plenty of them.
Translating the Traitor: A Medieval Life of Judas
Surely Judas is one of the most infamous characters in the Christian Bible. From at least the late medieval period, the word “Judas” was used as not only a proper name but also a common pejorative term for traitors. Even earlier, during the beginnings of Christianity, adherents to the new religion regarded Judas with some amount of fascination, and that interest has persisted to the present.
“Bringing the West Back East, or How to Make Sure the Magdalene Belongs to Byzantium: The Life of Mary Magdalene”
The Life of Mary Magdalene, written in later Byzantine Greek, is a fascinating text. Before going into depth about the narrative’s contents, I’d like to highlight a few ways its translation into English contributes to larger scholarly conversations. The Life compiles multiple traditions, including sources that have no original affiliation with Mary.
Another Tale of Thomas: The Acts of Thomas and His Wonderworking Skin
Noncanonical texts relating to the apostle Thomas have certainly received a good deal of attention. Much scholarly ink has been spilled on texts like the Gospel of Thomas and the Acts of Thomas (Acts Thom.). In the relatively recent boom of interest in Christian apocrypha, these texts have even earned a bit of popular exposure. When it comes to narratives about the apostle Thomas, however, the well-known Acts of Thomas is far from the only game in town, so to speak.
The Exhortation of Peter: Interpreting Peter with Late Ancient Monastic Communities
Apocryphal narratives and traditions about the apostle Peter abounded among early Christian communities. From some of the earliest and most well-known apocryphal texts, like the Acts of Peter and the Pseudo-Clementines, to more obscure later texts like the History of Simon Cephas, the Chief of the Apostles and the Travels of Peter, it is clear that the character of Peter became a vehicle for the literary imaginations of various early Christian authors as they thought through new questions of ethics and everyday life. Through these texts, the voice of the “chief of the apostles” could echo through the centuries, finding new scenarios to address and new audiences to exhort.
Rethinking Conventional Genre Categories: How the Acts of Christ and Peter in Rome Breaks the Mold.
Many modern collections of Christian apocrypha group texts under headings such as “gospels,” “acts,” “epistles,” and “apocalypses.” But do these conventional genre categories help or hurt? Their resemblance to categories used in connection with the New Testament is not coincidental, and it helps explain why this classification scheme continues to be used for Christian apocrypha, despite the fact that scholars of apocrypha are well aware that many texts fail to fit into these boxes.