Chapter 11 1 Apocalypse of James and Valentinians on Martyrdom

Karen L. King

Among recent discoveries from Egypt are two copies of a narrative ending in the violent death of James by stoning. This work was probably composed in the second to third centuries ce, possibly in Greek, but is known only from two fourth to fifth c. Coptic manuscripts: Nag Hammadi Codex V,1 (where it is titled The Apocalypse of James [1 Apoc. Jas.]) and a better preserved copy from the Tchacos Codex (which ends simply with the name “James”).1 Accounts of James’s martyrdom are also attested in Josephus and Eusebius,2 but the ac- count in 1 Apoc. Jas. shows a number of remarkable oddities. His arrest appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Someone with the same name has escaped prison and fled, and James is put on trial in his stead.3 The majority of the judges find him innocent and set him free, but a few others along with a crowd of people object, saying: “Make him leave the earth; he is not [worthy of] life” (TC 30:12–13).4 Most of the judges are frightened at this, and apparently get up to leave, declaring they’ll “have no part in this blood,5 for a just man will perish through injustice” (NHC 43:16–21). The people proceed to stone him anyway, and the story ends abruptly with the prayer of James: “My Father [in

1 For texts and modern translations, see Schoedel, “The (First) Apocalypse of James”; Kasser et al., , 120–76; Brankaer and Bethge, Codex Tchacos, 88–129. Citations refer to the codex, line and page numbers from these editions, Nag Hammadi Codex V,3 (NHC) and Tchacos Codex (TC). Modern scholars dub the work “first” apocalypse because a second Apocalypse of James follows in NHC V,4. 2 Josephus, Ant. 20.200; Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.1.5, 2.23. Eusebius in particular emphasizes James’s confession of Jesus and calls him a martyr. 3 I interpret TC 30:6–7, “They seized this one instead of him,” to mean (paraphrased): They seized Jesus’s disciple James instead of another person, also named James, who got away by fleeing. 4 Eusebius (Hist. eccl. 2.23) also reports disagreement about the justice of stoning James the Just, but there is no case of mistaken identity, and James clearly confesses and is called a “martyr.” 5 Compare Matt 27:24.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004414815_013 1 Apocalypse of James and Valentinians on Martyrdom 253 the] heavens, forgive them for they do [kn]ow what they are doing” (TC 30:24–26).6 It may well be asked whether the stoning of James here can rightly be called a martyrdom at all since it lacks characteristic features: no charge of being a Christian was made; there is no account of an interrogation or confession, and indeed no conviction – the stoning is the extrajudicial act of a mob, perhaps led by renegade judges. How, then, is the death of James to be understood? Early Christians faced with the possibility of violent persecution developed a variety of theological and practical responses.7 I want to argue in this essay that 1 Apoc. Jas. employs the story of James and Jesus to articulate a distinc- tive perspective on martyrdom and to model a particular set of practices to respond to violence. These may be glimpsed by attending to central features of 1 Apoc. Jas. and by comparing its views with materials concerning Valentinian attitudes toward death and persecution from , Tertullian, and the Tripartite Tractate (NCH I,5). The essay will begin by examining Jesus’s teaching to James, both in what Jesus says and how he acts. This teaching is crucial in understanding the text’s abrupt (suspended) ending, which encapsulates and dramatizes its main themes. Mikael Haxby has clarified these themes by showing how the expected final scenes of a martyrdom have been displaced to the heavenly rise of the soul, pointing toward a distinctive perspective on martyrdom. This perspec- tive is further illuminated by comparison with Irenaeus, Haer. 1.21.5, which contains a passage about a Valentinian rite for the dead that has significant parallels to the Savior’s instruction on the rise of the soul in 1 Apoc. Jas. (NHC 32:28–35:25). Finally, the essay discusses Tertullian’s report of ’s at- titude toward confession, as well as briefly analyzes the theme of persecution in the Valentinian treatise, Tripartite Tractate (NHC I,5). Considered together, these materials offer a distinctive view about martyrdom and advocate a quiet- ist position toward persecution.

1 1 Apocalypse of James

1.1 Jesus’s Teaching to James The First Apocalypse of James narrates a set of encounters between Jesus and James, both before and after Jesus’s death, and ends with the death of James by stoning. In them, Jesus offers James the true teaching and becomes a model

6 See Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60. 7 See, for example, the discussion of King, “Rethinking.”