On Thursday, March 14 2024, a review panel dedicated to the new volume edited by Dr. Ivan Miroshnikov (Uppsala), Parabiblica Coptica, was organized by Dr. Alexei Somov at the University of Regensburg (Germany). AJR is thrilled to feature the responses of Dr. Samuel Cook and Dr. Jacob Lollar along with the response of Dr. Miroshnikov in this three-part series.
Miroshnikov, Ivan, editor. Parabiblica Coptica. Parabiblica 3. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023. V–241 pages. €119.
Précis of Volume
Parabiblica Coptica is the first volume in the Parabiblica series focusing on a “regional” corpus of parabiblical literature. This new series features parabiblical texts from various geographic and linguistic milieux—from Armenia to Ethiopia and from Sogdian to Church Slavonic.
The volume is made up of two parts, “Editiones” and “Studia.” The first part comprises editions of two apocryphal acts, the Acts of Andrew and Paul (by Christian H. Bull and Alexander Kocar) and the Preaching of Philip (by Ivan Miroshnikov). It also includes a contribution by Dylan M. Burns, who argues that the author of the Homily on the Passion and Resurrection (attributed to the fictional Evodius of Rome) made use of the literary work known as The Notes of Some Philosophers, which allows him to restore numerous lacunae in the text of the latter.
The second part (“Studia”) comprises five articles. Dan Batovici gives a useful overview of the Coptic manuscripts of the so-called “Apostolic Fathers.” Lilia Frangulian discusses the importance of numerological symbolism in the Investiture of the Archangel Michael and the Investiture of the Archangel Gabriel. Nils Arne Pedersen provides a fresh perspective on one of the most famous invectives against apocrypha—viz., Athanasius of Alexandria’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter. Eugenia B. Smagina investigates the theological significance of the names of some of the supernatural beings in Coptic apocrypha. Finally, Vincent W. J. van Gerven Oei and Alexandros Tsakos offer a detailed philological analysis of the Old Nubian translations of the so-called “apostolic memoirs.
The Possibilities and Limits of "Parabiblical" Literature
by Samuel Cook in Articles
by Jacob Lollar in Articles