TRADITIONS ABOUT JESUS in APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS (With the Exception of the Gospel of Thomas)

TRADITIONS ABOUT JESUS IN APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS (with the Exception of the Gospel of Thomas)

Tobias Nicklas

Christian apocrypha play only a marginal role in the consciousness of many exegetes and church historians, who regard the significance of these texts as secondary in every sense: such marginal literature does not deserve any great attention. For example, W. Michaelis speaks in his collection of apocryphal texts—the second edition of which was published in 1958—in a wholesale manner of “mere imitative continu- ations,” of a “branch on the side of the tree which once was vigorous and produced many leaves, but later gradually dried up and declined.”1 Such extreme judgments would scarcely be formulated today, but they seem to linger on, especially where the apocrypha are read more or less explicitly as poor imitations of the canonical texts2—or, better, of those texts that became canonical.3

1 W. Michaelis, Die apokryphen Schriften zum Neuen Testament, 2nd ed., Sam- mlung Dietrich 129 (Bremen: Schünemann, 1958), xv and xx. Among German scholars, a prominent example is J. B. Bauer, Die neutestamentlichen Apokryphen, WB (Düsseldorf: Patmos-Verlag, 1968), 12–13, who writes: “Nothing reveals more vividly and convincingly the sureness of touch on the part of the church in the delimitation of the canon—or, to put it more clearly, the fact that the church was guided by the Spirit in this work—than a reading of those texts which it rejected as apocryphal.” On the status quo of the investigation of the apocryphal gospels today, cf. also T. J. Kraus and S. E. Porter, “Fragmente unbekannter Evangelien,” in Antike christliche Apokry- phen in deutscher Übersetzung, ed. C. Markschies and J. Schröter (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010). 2 This idea can be glimpsed e.g., in H. von Lips, Der neutestamentliche Kanon. Seine Geschichte und Bedeutung, Züricher Grundrisse zur Bibel (Zürich: Theologischer Ver- lag, 2004), 106, who calls the apocrypha “texts dependent on New Testament genres.” For a critique of this way of looking at things, cf. also D. Marguerat, “Pourquoi lire les apocryphes,” in Le mystère apocryphe. Introduction à une littérature méconnue, ed. J.-D. Kaestli and D. Marguerat, EssBib 26 (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1995), 141–145, esp. 142–143. For a similar evaluation of the status quo of research into the apocrypha, cf. also J. H. Charlesworth, Authentic Apocrypha: False and Genuine Christian Apoc- rypha, Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins Library (North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL Press, 1998), ix. 3 This phrase is inspired by D. Lührmann,Fragmente apokryph gewordener Evan- gelien in griechischer und lateinischer Sprache, MThSt 59 (Marburg: N. G. Elwert Ver- lag, 2000); idem, Die apokryph gewordene Evangelien. Studien zu neuen Texten und 2082 tobias nicklas

In recent years, however, we note that the study of Christian apocryphal literature has acquired a fresh impetus. This is attested not only by the publication of numerous collections and editions of texts,4 but also by the foundation of the Association pour l’étude de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne (AELAC) which has complemented its vast project of editions and commentaries in the series Corpus Christianorum. Series Apocryphorum with the series Apocryphes. Collection de Poche de l’AELAC, and edits the periodical Apocrypha. In parallel to this movement (and certainly not independently of it), we note that a number of important scholars of the so-called “Third Quest” for the historical Jesus evaluate the apocryphal gospels anew as sources worth investigation. Here, however, no consensus is in sight. Some authors attribute a high measure of historical reliability to apocryphal texts—e.g., J. D. Crossan, R. W. Funk, or C. W. Hedrick5—but neuen Fragen, NTS 112 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 4: we should speak of texts which have “become apocryphal,” thereby making clear our perspective. 4 Cf. e.g., F. Bovon and P. Geoltrain, eds., Écrits apocryphes chrétiens 1 (Paris: Gal- limard, 1997); P. Geoltrain and J.-D. Kaestli, eds., Écrits apocryphes chrétiens 2 (Paris 2005); K. Ceming and J. Werlitz, Die verborgenen Evangelien. Apokryphe Schriften (Augsburg: Weltbild, 1999 [reprint Wiesbaden: Marix, 2004]); B. D. Ehrman, The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings. A Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. 2004); D. Lührmann, Fragmente; U.-K. Plisch, Verborgene Worte Jesu. Verworfene Evangelien. Apokryphe Schriften des frühen Christen- tums, Brenn punkt: Die Bibel (Erfurt, Evangelische Haupt-Bibelgesellschaft, 2000); H.-J. Klauck, Apokryphe Evangelien. Eine Einführung (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholis- ches Bibelwerk, 2002; Eng. tr. by Brian McNeil: Apocryphal Gospels [London: T&T Clark International, 2003]); idem, Apokryphe Apostelgeschichten. Eine Einführung (Stuttgart: Bibelwerk, 2005); T. Nicklas and J.-M. Roessli, eds., Apocrypha, NTP-Sb (Göttingen, 2011 and the project of a fundamentally new edition of the classical collection by Hennecke and Schneemelcher initiated by C. Markschies: “ ‘Neutesta- mentliche Apokryphen’. Bemerkungen zu Geschichte und Zukunft einer von Edgar Hennecke im Jahr 1904 begründeten Quellensammlung,” Apocrypha 9 (1998): 97–132. 5 On this question, cf. J. D. Crossan, Four Other Gospels. Shadows on the Contours of the Canon (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985); idem, The Cross That Spoke. The Origins of the Passion Narrative (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988) (on the Gospel of Peter); idem, The Historical Jesus. The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant(San Francisco: Harper, 1991); R. W. Funk et al., The Five Gospels. The Search for the Authen- tic Words of Jesus (New York: HarperCollins, 2nd ed. 1996); R. W. Funk, Honest to Jesus (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996); idem et al., The Acts of Jesus. The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998); C. W. Hedrick, Parables as Poetic Fictions. The Creative Voice of Jesus(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994); idem, “The Tyranny of the Synoptic Jesus,”Semeia 44 (1988): 1–8. Criticism of the Jesus Seminar founded by R. W. Funk can be found e.g., in M. A. Powell, Jesus as a Figure in History. How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 75–81. A particu- larly clear line is taken by L. T. Johnson, The Real Jesus. The Misguided Quest for the