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.[1]
The series was inspired by our “sister” publication Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (MOTP), edited by Richard Bauckham, James Davila, and Alexander Panayotov.[2] The first MOTP volume was published in 2013, and a second is in development. The goal of both series is to publish translations of texts that have not appeared in previous English compendia or that need substantial updating based on newly available manuscripts. Previous collections of Christian apocrypha in English—such as J. K. Elliott’s The Apocryphal New Testament (an update of M. R. James’ classic collection)[3], or the popular translations of the German volumes by Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher (Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, translated under the guidance of Robert McLachlan Wilson as New Testament Apocrypha)[4] —have a rather narrow focus: they are largely restricted to texts that are believed to have originated in the first three centuries, in a sense establishing a “canon” of apocryphal texts that predate the formation of the New Testament canon. But a new breed of apocrypha collections—in French, Italian, Spanish, and German —is casting its net far wider, bringing in late antique and medieval texts, some of which are preserved in languages that few biblical scholars have mastered, making modern translations all the more valuable.[5] MNTA aims to do the same for English readers.
The first volume of MNTA, published in 2017, features 30 texts—12 appearing for the first time in English, four for the first time in any modern language, and others substantially updated based on new manuscript discoveries. Volume two was released in the summer of 2020 with another 28 texts; of these, 14 appear in English for the first time, and another three for the first time in any modern language. In both volumes the texts are arranged according to the genre categories of the New Testament, with gospel-like texts (Revelation of the Magi, Dialogue of the Paralytic with Christ, and a few untitled papyri), acts (of apostles, like Peter and Philip, but also of disciples of apostles, such as Cornelius and Barnabas), epistles (Epistle of Christ from Heaven, Epistle of Pelagia), and apocalypses (several apocalypses of John, the Apocalypse of the Virgin). Some texts transcend these literary boundaries, such as accounts of the origins of relics (Legend of the Thirty Pieces of Silver), homilies with embedded apocrypha (Homily on the Life of Jesus and His Love for the Apostles, Homily on the Building of the First Church of the Virgin), and church orders (Teaching of the Apostles), but all belong to the story world of the New Testament.
Among the stand-out contributions to MNTA 2 are a variety of Johannine apocalyptica. These include a fragmentary text in Coptic called the Dialogue of the Revealer and John; in his introduction to the text, Philip Tite notes connections in the dialogue to Sethian theology. Two others are Byzantine Greek sequels to the canonical Revelation with John asking the risen Jesus for more details about the Antichrist and the destruction to come (1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John, translated by Rick Brannan), and John asking Abraham about the fate of the righteous souls who will rest in his bosom (3 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John, translated by me, Chance Bonar, and Slavomír Čéplö). Additional information about the afterlife is provided in the Questions of James to John (translated by me and Kathleen Gibbons), though here John provides the answers, and in 2 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John (translated by Rebecca Draughon, Jeannie Sellick, and Janet E. Spittler) questions are posed to Jesus about aspects of the Byzantine Liturgy, but here John the Son of Zebedee is replaced by John Chrysostom. Also included in the volume is the first English translation of the Healing of Tiberius (by Zbigniew Izydorczyk), which features the earliest tradition about the image of Jesus preserved on the veil of Veronica, and three short stories about the missionary exploits of Peter (the Acts of Peter in Azotus, by Cambry Pardee, along with the Exhortation of Peter, and the Travels of Peter, both translated by J. Edward Walters).
The variety of contributions to the MNTA series is made possible by developments in the field of Christian apocrypha studies that began in the 1980s.[6] Éric Junod called for an end to the term “New Testament apocrypha” because it places temporal and generic bonds on the field, and urged replacing it with “apocryphal Christian writings” (écrits apocryphes chrétiens). This new designation incorporates texts previously assigned to other categories (such as hagiographa and Christian-authored Old Testament pseudepigrapha) and encourages the study of apocryphal texts not simply for understanding the origins of canonical texts or the creation of the canon, but for what they can tell us about the people who wrote and valued them, no matter the time or place of composition. Scholars of Christian apocrypha no longer see themselves as a service industry to New Testament studies, simply searching for insights into the historical Jesus or the sources for the canonical gospels.
But that doesn’t mean New Testament scholars cannot benefit from the MNTA series. Several texts once believed to be pre-canonical—such as the so-called Gospel of the Savior (aka the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon), or the Book of Bartholomew—are now properly regarded as Coptic compositions from the fifth century, created, at least in part, to supply new liturgical materials and establish festivals for the orthodox churches of Egypt. These texts tear apart the dichotomies that plague the field—between orthodoxy and heresy, scripture and apocrypha—and demonstrate that the line that divides canonical from noncanonical texts has always been a blurry one. Other texts with rich manuscript bases—such as the Apocalypse of the Virgin (which numbers in the hundreds) or the Epistle of Pseudo-Dionysius to Timothy—demonstrate how some texts took on an importance that, despite their exclusion from the New Testament, surpassed that of some canonical texts. The constant creation and dissemination of apocrypha, even after the settling of the canon, demonstrates also that apocrypha did not simply “go away” in the fourth century only to be rediscovered in the Enlightenment.
Over the course of the next few issues of Ancient Jew Review, four contributors to MNTA vol. 2 will share their insights on the texts they translated for the series: Brandon Hawk (the Life of Judas), Christine Luckritz Marquis (the Life of Mary Magdalene), Jonathan Holste (the Acts of Thomas and His Wonderworking Skin), and James Walters (the Exhortation of Peter). The final paper, by Julia Snyder (the Acts of Christ and Peter in Rome), is a preview of a text to be included in the third volume, scheduled for publication in 2022. This volume will include also several texts about John the Baptist (the Decapitation of John the Forerunner, the Martyrdom of Zechariah), the first English translations of exploits of the apostle John (Acts of John by Prochorus, Acts of John in Rome), two little-known medieval apocalypses of Matthew (1 and 2 Revelation of Matthew about the Endtimes), and many more.
The mere listing of titles may go a long way toward whetting the appetite for learning about these new texts, but a menu is not a meal. On behalf of the contributors to the MNTA series, I hope you enjoy the appetizers to follow and consider ordering an entrée.
Tony Burke is Professor of Early Christianity at York University in Toronto.
[1] This 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) was intended as a session for the 2020 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature but was removed from the program once the meeting was transformed to a remote environment. My thanks to Janet Spittler and Lily Vuong, the chairs of the Christian Apocrypha Session, for their help in organizing the original session and for co-ordinating the publication of these short papers with Ancient Jew Review.
[2] Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013.
[3] M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924; 2nd ed. 1953); J.K. Elliott, ed. and trans., The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993; updated paperback ed. 2005).
[4] Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher, eds. New Testament Apocrypha (trans. Robert McLachlan Wilson; 2 vols.; Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press, 1963–1966); Wilhelm Schneemelcher, ed., New Testament Apocrypha (trans. Robert McLachlan Wilson; 2 vols.; Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1991–1992).
[5] Mario Erbetta, ed. and trans., Gli Apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento (3 vols. in 4; Turin: Marietti, 1966–1981); Luigi Moraldi, ed. and trans., Apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento (2 vols.; Classici delle Religioni 24.5; Turin: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 1971; 2nd ed. in 3 vols. 1994); François Bovon, Pierre Geoltrain, and Jean-Daniel Kaestli, eds., Écrits apocryphes chrétiens (2 vols.; Bibliothèque de la Pléiade 442 and 516; Paris: Gallimard, 1997–2005); and Christoph Markschies and Jens Schröter, eds., Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012).
[6] For an overview of the debate over redefining the category see Péter Tóth, “Way Out of the Tunnel? Three Hundred Years of Research on the Apocrypha: A Preliminary Approach,” in Retelling the Bible: Literary, Historical and Social Contexts (ed. Lucie Dolezalová and Tamás Visi; Frankfurt im Main: Peter Lang, 2011), 45–84 at 74–80.