Apocryphal and Esoteric Sources in the Development of Christianity and Judaism: The Eastern Mediterranean, the Near East, and Beyond(21 Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity)

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 mediæval 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.

Table of Contents:
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 création d’ Adam à Noravank̔: Théologie et narrativité  Jean-Pierre Mahé 8 Translatio corporis Adæ: 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 Lourié 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  Nazénie 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-Überlieferung in der Kratkaja Chronografičeskaja 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 Hamidović 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 Maʿon (Nirim)  Zaruhi Hakobyan Postscript: Border-Crossing Texts  Hartmut Leppin Index

About the Author :
Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, Ph.D. (2002) and Habilitation (2009) at ÉPHÉ – 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.