Coptic Apocrypha

Drawing on theoretical and methodological perspectives ranging from material philology and digital humanities to cognitive science, the contributors to this volume present novel approaches to the study of the nature and functions of Coptic apocrypha in the context of late antique and early Islamic Egypt.

The contributors to this volume present detailed and groundbreaking studies of Coptic apocrypha in the context of Egypt in late antiquity and the early Islamic period, including new editions as well as studies synthesizing their history and development over the centuries. They explore the monastic context of the production and use of apocrypha, the relationship between apocrypha, liturgy and magic, and the role of apocrypha in doctrinal controversies. The book is divided into three parts. The first focuses on new theoretical and methodological approaches, including digital humanities and cognitive perspectives; the second part consists of new editions with commentary; and the third part contains studies contextualizing Coptic apocrypha. The book covers the entire period of Coptic literary production, from the fourth to the fourteenth century, i.e., all the way from the early Nag Hammadi Codices and the Tchacos Codex to the much later pseudo-patristic homiletic writings deriving from monasteries all along the Nile valley. It should be of interest to scholars of “Gnosticism,” monasticism, literary and media studies, late antique religion, magic, and liturgy, as well as patristic studies. Methodologically, the contributors ground their work in material philology, with a keen interest in scribal practices and fluid textual transmission; detail the design and function of a sophisticated relational database of Coptic apocrypha, based on the PostgreSQL platform, and explain how this database can be used for statistical as well as network analyses of Coptic apocrypha in light of the contexts of their material carriers; and explore the use of 4E Cognition to deepen the understanding of the functions of Coptic apocrypha in the communities in which they were produced and used.

I. New Approaches to Coptic Apocrypha
Hugo Lundhaug, Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin, Samuel Peter Cook, Lasse Løvlund Toft, and Florian Graz: A New Approach to Coptic Apocrypha: Categories, Methods, and Achievements of the APOCRYPHA Research Project - Samuel Peter Cook and Hugo Lundhaug: TInTraMaC: A Tool for the Analysis of Information Transfer in Manuscript Cultures - Hugo Lundhaug: Apocrypha and the Biblical Storyworld as a Complex Adaptive System: Perspectives from 4E Cognition and Systems Theory - Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin: Of Nodes and Names: Exploring Designations and Representations of the Four Bodiless Living Creatures in Coptic Traditions Through Content Network Analysis - Florian Graz: Transmission Stories and Discovery Stories in Coptic Apocrypha: A New Typology of Pseudo-Documentarism - Ivan Miroshnikov: Textual Fluidity in the Coptic Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles - René Falkenberg: Gospel of Thomas Unnumbered: Reading the Coptic Version as a Continuous Text
II. New Editions with Commentary
Lance Jenott: The Letter of Peter to Philip: Texts and Translations from Codex Tchacos and Nag Hammadi - Samuel Peter Cook: Apocryphal Exegesis? A Catena Fragment from the Monastery of Saint Macarius (P.Ryl.Copt. 436) and Apocryphal Traditions on the Empty Tomb Scene in Coptic Literature - Lasse Løvlund Toft: Thirteen Anathemas attributed to John of Paralos: Edited, Translated, and Studied in View of the Intra-Miaphysite Controversies of the Sixth Century and Coptic Apocrypha
III. Contextualizing Coptic Apocrypha
Sarah Parkhouse: Jewish Apocalypses and the Pistis Sophia: New Avenues for Exploring the Textual Network of Late Antique Egypt - Dylan Michael Burns: The New Jews: the Jew as Theological Opponent in the Coptic Versions of Two Homilies by Proclus of Constantinople - Alin Suciu: The Unfamiliar Holy Land: Imaginary Depictions of Jerusalem and Palestine in Coptic Literature

• Edited by Hugo Lundhaug
• Edited by Roxanne Bélanger Sarrazin
• Edited by Samuel Peter Cook
• Edited by Lasse Løvlund Toft
• Edited by Florian Graz