Apocryphal and Esoteric Sources in the Development of Christianity and Judaism
The Eastern Mediterranean, the Near East, and Beyond
Published on 17. June 2021
Book
Hardback
652 pages
978-90-04-44593-2 (ISBN)
Description
Apocryphal traditions, often shared by Jews and Christians, have played a significant role in the history of both religions. The 26 essays in this volume examine regional and linguistic developments in Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria, Armenia, the Balkans, and Italy. Dissenting groups, such as the Samaritans, followers of John the Baptist, and mediaeval dualists are also discussed. Furthermore, the book looks at interactions of Judaism and Christianity with the religions of Iran.
Seldom verified or authorized, and frequently rejected by Churches, apocryphal texts had their own process of development, undergoing significant transformations. The book shows how apocryphal accounts could become a medium of literary and artistic elaboration and mythological creativity. Local adaptations of Biblical stories indicate that copyists, authors and artists conceived of themselves as living not in a post-Biblical era, but in direct continuity with Biblical personages.
Seldom verified or authorized, and frequently rejected by Churches, apocryphal texts had their own process of development, undergoing significant transformations. The book shows how apocryphal accounts could become a medium of literary and artistic elaboration and mythological creativity. Local adaptations of Biblical stories indicate that copyists, authors and artists conceived of themselves as living not in a post-Biblical era, but in direct continuity with Biblical personages.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
1075 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-44593-2 (9789004445932)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, Ph.D. (2002) and Habilitation (2009) at EPHE - Sorbonne, is a lecturer in Armenian civilisation at the University of Aix-en-Provence. He is interested in the interaction of religions across pre-modern Eurasia and in the cross-cultural development of ecclesiastical institutions in Syria, South Caucasus and Anatolia. In his recent publications, he has focused on the transmission of apocrypha in the South Caucasus and on the phenomenon of cultural blending in apocrypha.
Content
Preface
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Part 1 Esoteric Writing and Esoteric Cults in the Biblical Religions
1 The Exoteric Settings of Jewish Esotericism
?Ithamar Gruenwald
2 The Gospel of Peter between the Synoptics, Second Century, and Late Antique 'Apostolic Memoirs'
?Tobias Nicklas
3 All Mysteries Revealed? On the Interplay between Hiding and Revealing and the Dangers of Heavenly Journeys according to the Ascension of Isaiah
?Joseph Verheyden
4 Early Christianity and the Pagan Mysteries: Esoteric Knowledge?
?Jan N. Bremmer
5 The Medieval Dualist Nachleben of Early Jewish and Christian Esoteric Traditions: The Role of the Pseudepigrapha
?Yuri Stoyanov
6 The Esoteric Cardinal: Giorgios Gemistos, Bessarion and Theurgy
?Ezio Albrile
Part 2 Bridging the Account of the Origins and the Messiah's Advent
7 La creation d' Adam a Noravank?: Theologie et narrativite
?Jean-Pierre Mahe
8 Translatio corporis Adae: Trajectories of a Parabiblical Tradition
?Sergey Minov
9 Apostles, Long Dead 'Heretics', and Monks: Noncanonical Traditions on Angels and Protoplasts in Two Late Antique Coptic Apocalypses (7th-8th Century CE)
?Daniele Tripaldi
10 Face as the Image of God in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha
?Andrei A. Orlov
11 On the Perdition of the Higher Intellect and on the Image of Light: Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary
?Maria V. Korogodina and Basil Lourie
12 Bridging the Gaps in the Samaritan Tradition
?Abraham Tal
13 'On the Mountains of Ararat': Noah's Ark and the Sacred Topography of Armenia
?Nazenie Garibian
14 The Historian's Craft and Temporal Bridges in Apocrypha and in Early Christian Art: Para-Biblical Sources in the Light of the Work of Marc Bloch
?Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev
Part 3 Symbols and Figures of the Messianic Expectation
15 Quellen der nichtbiblischen Mose-UEberlieferung in der Kratkaja Chronograficeskaja Paleja
?Dieter Fahl and Sabine Fahl
16 Whether Lamb or Lion: Overlapping Metaphors in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism
?Abraham Terian
17 Rescuing John the Baptist
?Albert I. Baumgarten
18 The Esoteric Legacy of the Magi of Bethlehem in the Framework of the Iranian Speculations about Jesus, Zoroaster and His Three Posthumous Sons
?Antonio Panaino
19 Visual Apocrypha: The Case of Mary and the Magi in Early Christian Rome
?Felicity Harley
20 Gnostic and Mithraic Themes in Sefer Zerubbabel
?Yishai Kiel
Part 4 Angels, Heavenly Journeys and Visions of Paradise
21 1 Enoch 17 in the Geneva Papyrus 187
?David Hamidovic
22 Enochic Traditions in Slavia Orthodoxa
?Florentina Badalanova Geller
23 Visions of Paradise in the Life of St Andrew the Fool and the Legacy of the Jewish Pseudepigrapha in Byzantium
?Emmanouela Grypeou
24 Eternal Chains and the Mountain of Darkness: The Fallen Angels in the Incantation Bowls
?Yakir Paz
25 Iconography of Angels: Roots and Origins in the Earliest Christian Art
?Cecilia Proverbio
26 The Gardens of Eden: Compositional, Iconographic and Semantic Similarities between the 'Birds Mosaic' of the Armenian Chapel in Jerusalem and the Mosaic of the Synagogue at Ma?on (Nirim)
?Zaruhi Hakobyan
Postscript: Border-Crossing Texts
?Hartmut Leppin
Index
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Part 1 Esoteric Writing and Esoteric Cults in the Biblical Religions
1 The Exoteric Settings of Jewish Esotericism
?Ithamar Gruenwald
2 The Gospel of Peter between the Synoptics, Second Century, and Late Antique 'Apostolic Memoirs'
?Tobias Nicklas
3 All Mysteries Revealed? On the Interplay between Hiding and Revealing and the Dangers of Heavenly Journeys according to the Ascension of Isaiah
?Joseph Verheyden
4 Early Christianity and the Pagan Mysteries: Esoteric Knowledge?
?Jan N. Bremmer
5 The Medieval Dualist Nachleben of Early Jewish and Christian Esoteric Traditions: The Role of the Pseudepigrapha
?Yuri Stoyanov
6 The Esoteric Cardinal: Giorgios Gemistos, Bessarion and Theurgy
?Ezio Albrile
Part 2 Bridging the Account of the Origins and the Messiah's Advent
7 La creation d' Adam a Noravank?: Theologie et narrativite
?Jean-Pierre Mahe
8 Translatio corporis Adae: Trajectories of a Parabiblical Tradition
?Sergey Minov
9 Apostles, Long Dead 'Heretics', and Monks: Noncanonical Traditions on Angels and Protoplasts in Two Late Antique Coptic Apocalypses (7th-8th Century CE)
?Daniele Tripaldi
10 Face as the Image of God in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha
?Andrei A. Orlov
11 On the Perdition of the Higher Intellect and on the Image of Light: Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary
?Maria V. Korogodina and Basil Lourie
12 Bridging the Gaps in the Samaritan Tradition
?Abraham Tal
13 'On the Mountains of Ararat': Noah's Ark and the Sacred Topography of Armenia
?Nazenie Garibian
14 The Historian's Craft and Temporal Bridges in Apocrypha and in Early Christian Art: Para-Biblical Sources in the Light of the Work of Marc Bloch
?Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev
Part 3 Symbols and Figures of the Messianic Expectation
15 Quellen der nichtbiblischen Mose-UEberlieferung in der Kratkaja Chronograficeskaja Paleja
?Dieter Fahl and Sabine Fahl
16 Whether Lamb or Lion: Overlapping Metaphors in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism
?Abraham Terian
17 Rescuing John the Baptist
?Albert I. Baumgarten
18 The Esoteric Legacy of the Magi of Bethlehem in the Framework of the Iranian Speculations about Jesus, Zoroaster and His Three Posthumous Sons
?Antonio Panaino
19 Visual Apocrypha: The Case of Mary and the Magi in Early Christian Rome
?Felicity Harley
20 Gnostic and Mithraic Themes in Sefer Zerubbabel
?Yishai Kiel
Part 4 Angels, Heavenly Journeys and Visions of Paradise
21 1 Enoch 17 in the Geneva Papyrus 187
?David Hamidovic
22 Enochic Traditions in Slavia Orthodoxa
?Florentina Badalanova Geller
23 Visions of Paradise in the Life of St Andrew the Fool and the Legacy of the Jewish Pseudepigrapha in Byzantium
?Emmanouela Grypeou
24 Eternal Chains and the Mountain of Darkness: The Fallen Angels in the Incantation Bowls
?Yakir Paz
25 Iconography of Angels: Roots and Origins in the Earliest Christian Art
?Cecilia Proverbio
26 The Gardens of Eden: Compositional, Iconographic and Semantic Similarities between the 'Birds Mosaic' of the Armenian Chapel in Jerusalem and the Mosaic of the Synagogue at Ma?on (Nirim)
?Zaruhi Hakobyan
Postscript: Border-Crossing Texts
?Hartmut Leppin
Index