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Epistula Apostolorum and the Johannine Tradition, Pp Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 06 November 2018 Version of attached le: Accepted Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Watson, Francis and Parkhouse, Sarah (2018) 'Connecting gospels : beyond the canonical/non-canonical divide.', Oxford: Oxford University Press. Further information on publisher's website: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/connecting-gospels-9780198814801 Publisher's copyright statement: Gospel of the Eleven: the Epistula Apostolorum and the Johannine Tradition, pp. 189-215, in Watson, Francis Parkhouse, Sarah (2018). Connecting Gospels: Beyond the Canonical/Non-canonical Divide. Oxford: Oxford University Press, reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press, https://global.oup.com/academic/product/connecting-gospels-9780198814801 Additional information: Sample chapter deposited. Chapter 9: ' Gospel of the Eleven: the Epistula Apostolorum and the Johannine Tradition', pp. 189-215. Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk Chapter 9 A Gospel of the Twelve: the Epistula Apostolorum and the Johannine Tradition FRANCIS WATSON In the so-called Epistula Apostolorum (EpAp), eleven named apostles write to the churches of the whole world to pass on the teaching they received from the Lord during the interval between his resurrection and ascension. The apostles are writing (so they say) to protect their readers from the corrupt teaching of Simon and Cerinthus, who are ‘false apostles’ and ‘enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ.’1 Yet there is little explicitly anti-heretical material to be found in this text.2 In a long series of questions and answers, Jesus provides his disciples with all they need to know in order to fulfil his commission to preach the good news to the people of Israel and the world. He instructs them about his own return in glory after 120 years,3 the resurrection of the flesh,4 the judgment of the righteous and unrighteous, and the eternal rest or torment that will follow.5 He narrates his own descent through the heavens to enter the womb of the Virgin Mary and become flesh, and his further descent into hell to announce salvation to the righteous dead.6 He predicts the conversion of Saul or Paul, the former persecutor who will become a preacher to the Gentiles.7 He warns against showing partiality to the rich,8 and vindicates the divine 1 EpAp 1.2; 7.1-2. Ethiopic (Ge‘ez) and Coptic texts were published respectively by Louis Guerrier (with Sylvain Grébaut), Le Testament en Galilée de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ, Patrolologia Orientalis 9, Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1913 (repr. Turnhout: Brepols, 1982), 141-236; Carl Schmidt (with Isaak Wajnberg), Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern nach der Auferstehung, Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1919 (repr. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1967), 1*-26*. Translations here are my own. Verse divisions here are those of Julian V. Hills, The Epistle of the Apostles, Santa Rosa CA: Polebridge Press, 2009, except in the few cases where my own forthcoming translation uses a different enumeration (indicated with an asterisk). My translation will provide a single text with variants noted in a critical apparatus, in contrast to the use of separate and poorly co-ordinated columns for the Coptic and Ge‘ez texts. 2 EpAp 29.1-4; 50.8-11. Nothing is said in these passages about the content of the false teaching. 3 EpAp 16.1-17.2. 4 EpAp 19.17-25.8. 5 EpAp 26.1-6; 28.1-5. 6 EpAp 13.1-14.8; 27.1-28.2.. 7 EpAp 31.1-33.9. 8 EpAp 38.1-3; 46.1-47.7. justice.9 In communicating this teaching to their readers, the apostles indicate that their commission to preach the gospel includes the production of this co-authored text.10 EpAp probably dates from the first half of the second century. While its early date and its content make it potentially no less significant than the Gospel of Peter or the Gospel of Thomas, it has never enjoyed anything like the recognition and attention that these more accessible texts have received. Its importance will best be appreciated if it is brought into relation to other early gospel literature of the period c. 75-150 CE, prior to the formation of the canonical collection. 1. The Epistula Apostolorum as Gospel If it is integral to the gospel genre to narrate the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, then a text such as EpAp will be at best gospel-like in certain respects though not in others. Yet there is little justification for such a prescriptive account of the gospel genre. The only canonical gospel to lay claim to the term εὐαγγέλιον is Mark (Mk.1.1). Matthew and John prefer ‘book’ (Mt.1.1; Jn.20.30, cf. 21.25), and Luke selects διήγησις, ‘account’ (Lk.1.1).11 In itself, εὐαγγέλιον does not entail a specific narrative content but the apostolic announcement of salvation in and through the person of Jesus. Only from a rigidly a priori perspective is it problematic for texts with greater emphasis on sayings or dialogue to describe themselves or be described by others as ‘gospel.’ If EpAp is to be integrated into the field of early Christian gospel literature, it must be shown to belong most fundamentally to the gospel genre, whatever its other generic features. The situation is complicated by its categorization as an ‘Apocryphal Epistle’, a ‘Dialogue of the Redeemer’, or a ‘Dialogue Gospel’ in standard collections of New Testament Apocrypha. 9 EpAp 39.1-40.5; 43.1-45.8. 10 Cf. EpAp 1.3-4; 2.1; 8.1; 31.11. 11 The later evangelists’ lack of interest in the term ‘gospel’ makes it hard to accept M. Hengel’s claim that the traditional gospel titles ‘were not secondary additions but part of the Gospels as originally circulated’ (The Four Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Investigation of the Collection and Origin of the Canonical Gospels, Eng. tr. London: SCM, 2000, 50). Hengel believes that anonymous circulation ‘must necessarily have led to a diversity of titles’, and that ‘[t]here is no trace of such anonymity’ (54). (i) Classifying EpAp In the collection of New Testament apocrypha edited by Montague Rhodes James and published in 1924, EpAp was placed last in a group of apocryphal letters that included the pseudo-Pauline Epistle to the Laodiceans and the correspondence of Paul and Seneca.12 This arrangement remains intact in Keith Eliott’s revised and expanded version of James’ work (1993).13 An alternative category is proposed in the 3rd edition of the Hennecke-Schneemelcher collection (1959), where EpAp is placed within a group of ‘Dialogues of Jesus with his Disciples after his Resurrection’, accompanied only by the ‘Freer Logion’ (a further expansion of the Longer Ending of Mark) and a reconstruction of the two severely damaged pages of a ‘Strassburg Coptic Papyrus.’14 In the 5th edition (1987),15 however, EpAp is set within a larger collection of ‘Dialogues of the Redeemer’ that include the Apocryphon of James,16 the Dialogue of the Saviour,17 the First and Second Apocalypse of James,18 and the Letter of Peter to Philip.19 To these, texts such as the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Judas have been added in the 7th edition, edited by Christoph Markschies and Jens Schröter (2012).20 The generic category now proposed is that of ‘Dialogue Gospels’ (Dialogische Evangelien),21 and it is an important step forward to recognize that a text that presents itself as a letter, an apocalypse, or a dialogue may in reality be no less gospel-like than one that includes ‘gospel’ in its title. Yet the category of ‘dialogue gospels’ may also have the detrimental effect of suggesting that EpAp’s affinities are with other members of this limited body of texts to the exclusion of gospels in general. While its dialogical format is broadly similar, EpAp may have less in common with, say, the Dialogue of the Saviour or the Gospel of Judas than with the Gospels of John or 12 Montague Rhodes James, The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924 (corrected, 1953), 476-503. 13 J. K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, 537-88. 14 ‘Wechselsgespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern nach seiner Auferstehung’: E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher, Neutestamentliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung: I. Band, Evangelien, J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 19593, 125-57. 15 Wilhelm Schneemelcher, Neutestamentliche Apocryphen: I. Evangelien, Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 19875, corrected 19906, 189-275; Eng. tr. ed. R. McL. Wilson, New Testament Apocrypha, Volume I: Gospels and Related Writings, Louisville and London: WJK Press; Cambridge: James Clarke, 1991, 228-353. 16 NHC I, 2. 17 NHC III, 5. 18 NHC V, 3-4 19 NHC VIII, 2. 20 Christoph Markschies and Jens Schröter (ed.), Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung: I.Band: Evangelien und Verwantes, Teilband 2, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012, 1051- 1238.
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