non-canonical Flashcards
audience
‘community’ behind each writing, via the application of so-called “mirror reading”, is dubious (schroter)
circulated among interested readers
did not function as ‘scripture’ of distinct groups of christian believers
conclusion: various christians read these texts and for various reasons
- variety of texts under the heading of christian apocrypha
difficulty
identifying the compositional circumstances of these works, the problem of the often fragmentary and translated forms in which they have come down to us
BEARE
1960
“it would be sheer delusion to imagine that any substantial increase in our scanty knowledge of the historical Jesus will ever be gained from Thomas or from any of the new gnostic documents’
- after the discovery of Nag Hammadi
value of non-canonical
FOSTER “expose the voices from the margins” 2/3 xians
5 different ranges of attitudes with BEANE and Ron CAMERON at their extremes
the more a work displays extensive dependence upon the canonical gospels, the less likely it is to have preserved additional dominical material independent (schroter)
- X CROSSAN pioneering work not focused on Thomas’ ‘new’ feelings but on the synoptic parallels and pointed a new meaning to the “thief of the night”
RON CAMERON
writes of a “pernicious” tendency to subordinate apocryphal tests to the canonical gospels
HENDRICK
writes of the “tyranny of the synoptic gospels” over their non-canonical counterparts in Jesus research
assessment
evaluation of macro and micro
macro: overall picture of the work/ plausibility of the portrait of the historical Jesus
micro: the historicity of the individual components
non-canonical texts
Thomas- sayings
Protoevangelium of James- encomiastic praise of Mary/her family
Mary- starts media res/ gnostic?
Peter- passion narrative
papyrus Egerton 2- fragmented narrative
canonical?
loaded question
SCHROTER- xian writings were first categorised as ‘accepted’, ‘disputed’ or ‘rejected’; the terms ‘canon’ and ‘non-canonical’ were not applied before the 4th c.
gradual process/emergence
technically: any text not in the NT canon
Irenaeus: 2nd c. in accordance with apostolic creed emph of 4 gospels 180ce HAER - 4 cardinal virtues - 4 wind direction
J.K ELLIOT
the non-canonical writings, usually classified as Christian Apocrypha, display great literary and theological imagination in their expansion of the Christian story
GNOSTIC
today the term ‘gnostic’ has fallen from favour as the catch-all-term for anything in early christianity of an esoteric, speculative or otherwise obscure nature
WILLIAMS; KINGS
mary- fragmentation
thomas- new’ sayings: speculative gnostic framework
peter- docetic
CROSSAN and the gospel of THOMAS
scholars had often simply assumed that the synoptic gospels use of a saying and a parable had a more or less prepared the original gist of the saying
in thomas the “thief of the night” is not an image for the coming of the son of man (lk 12.39-40; Matt 24.43)
but for the word and its hostility to the Jesus movement (thomas 21.5-6)
THOMAS
CULLMAN categories
brevity/simplicity does NOT equal primitive
anti-jewish 52-53
OT prophecy as “dead”
condemns circumcision
gnostic
quasi-platonist terms of the father’s light image and eternal human image
CULLMAN and thomas
4 categories of sayings
- parallel to synoptics
- variant of synoptics
- parallel to other non-canonical
- new
anti jewish
?Proto james
- supersessionist or praiseworthy
X Thomas
-prophecy and circumcision
X Peter
- starts noJews/herod/judges washed hands
- King Herod (x Nickels- historical accuracy?)
- king of israle not king of the jews
:) P.Eg 2 Jesus as Torah observer
PETER
Eusebius: Serapion w/ Rhossos (community)
- R used PETER for heretical views (docetic)
- content vs context
anti- jewish
starts “none of the jews washed their hands, neither Herod nor any of his judges”
Herod takes command and orders for Jesus to be taken away
“what I commanded you to do to him”
impression following mistreatments, mockings, crucifixion was ordered by him
“the jews rejoiced and gave his (Jesus) body”
jews= executioners implicitly
king of israel
- church was the new israel for the authro LUOAMEN
PETER as docetic
for it was thought that it was indeed a docetic text. Particularly to be noted are the statements in v. 10 that Jesus “was silent as if he had no pain” (if he had no pain, he must not have had a real body); in v. 19 his cry “My power, 0 power, you have left me behind” (is this the divine Christ leaving the body of the man Jesus?); the statement that on the cross “he was taken up” (Jesus’ body obviously wasn’t “taken up,” since it remained on the cross; was it his “spirit”—the divine Christ— that ascended?);
resurrection narrative, where the body that emerges from the tomb is obviously not a normal but a superhuman body.
CRITICISM OF DOCETISM IN PETER
v. 10 indicates that Jesus was silent “as if” he had no pain— not that he had no pain. The cry in v. 19 is just a paraphrase of the cry of dereliction in Mark 15:34; and his “being taken up” may simply be a euphemism for his “giving up his spirit”—that is, for dying. Moreover, even in the New Testament Gospels Jesus’ resurrection body is not a normal human body (it can walk through walls and disappear at will, for example)—but that does not make these books docetic
CROSSAN and Peter
controversial: most primitive passion account
- MIRECKI dates it to the middle 1st c
- LABHAN: value marginal at best
MARY and gnostic
Such fragmentation of entities is a common feature of Gnostic cosmologies, often with certain pieces of a higher-order being falling to a lower realm and resulting in a more derivative and partial mode of existence
secret teachings
complex cosmology
ignorance , desire and various ideas are anthropomorphised
enemies to the souls ascension ch8
PROTO JAMEs
rejected by church brothers because of explanation of Jesus’ brothers (not his cousins)
mariology origin? J.K ELLIOT
pseudonymous author: self identify as jesus brother james
2 half of 2nd c
defence agaisnt celsus: xian as having humble origin
- mary spins but not for money
- joseph building contractor
explain sexual irregularity: Jo’s convenient absence
davidic descendance of mary stressed
Jesus’ siblings explained
- X Jerome explaind them as cousin: papal approval
mary as instrument of divine salvation in her own right
PERPETUAL VIRGINITY
BRUCE METZER
NT gaps raised many unanswered questions
from 2nd c onwards
xian imagination and piety produced many (apocryphal) tales about Mary
