Joseph Verheyden - The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Apocrypha

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CHRISTOPHER TUCKETT

JRG FREY

CHARLOTTE TOUATI AND CLAIRE CLIVAZ

RICHARD I. PERVO

ANDREW GREGORY

RICHARD BAUCKHAM

TOBIAS NICKLAS

L. W. HURTADO

JENS SCHRTER

FRANOIS BOVON

PHEME PERKINS

PAUL FOSTER

STEPHEN J. PATTERSON

SIMON GATHERCOLE

J. K. ELLIOTT

ROBIN M. JENSEN

RICHARD I. PERVO

PETRI LUOMANEN

OUTI LEHTIPUU

HARALD BUCHINGER

CANDIDA R. MOSS

JUDITH HARTENSTEIN

YVES TISSOT

TONY BURKE

TONY BURKE

Richard Bauckham is Emeritus Professor of New Testament Studies in the University of St Andrews and Senior Scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

Franois Bovon was Frothingham Professor of the History of Religion Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School, and is now deceased.

Harald Buchinger is Professor of Liturgical Studies at the University of Regensburg.

Tony Burke is Associate Professor of Early Christianity at York University in Toronto.

Claire Clivaz is a Visiting Professor at the University of Lausanne.

J. K. Elliott is Emeritus Professor in New Testament Textual Criticism at the University of Leeds.

Paul Foster is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Edinburgh.

Jrg Frey is Professor of New Testament at the University of Zurich.

Simon Gathercole is Senior Lecturer in New Testament Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Andrew Gregory is Chaplain and Fellow of University College, Oxford.

Judith Hartenstein is Professor of New Testament at the University of Koblenz-Landau.

L. W. Hurtado is Emeritus Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology at the University of Edinburgh.

Robin M. Jensen is Luce Chancellors Professor of the History of Christian Art and Worship at Vanderbilt University.

Outi Lehtipuu is Academy Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Helsinki.

Petri Luomanen is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Culture and Literature at the University of Helsinki.

Candida R. Moss is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame.

Tobias Nicklas is Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Hermeneutics at the University of Regensburg.

Stephen J. Patterson is the George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University.

Pheme Perkins is Professor of Theology (New Testament) at Boston College.

Richard I. Pervo was Professor of New Testament and Patristics at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL, and Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Jens Schrter is Professor in the Theology Faculty of the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Yves Tissot is Pastor of the French-speaking community of Nidau, Switzerland.

Charlotte Touati is Swiss National Fund Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Neuchtel.

Christopher Tuckett is Emeritus Professor of New Testament Studies at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.

CHRISTOPHER TUCKETT

THE Oxford Handbook series has grown considerably since its inception and now covers a very wide range of subject areas. Within theological areas of study, there are already Handbooks on Jewish Studies, Biblical Studies, and Early Christian Studies. In many ways it made sense to the overall editors of the series to have a Handbook devoted to the study of Christian apocryphal literature. Delimiting and defining any individual subject area is difficult and runs the risk of overcategorizing, or delineating too narrowly, the area to be studied. On the other hand, some limitation is necessary if a subject is not to become so diffuse and imprecise that it includes everything and anything and thus becomes too vast to try to cover in a reasonable and finite compass. In the case of Christian apocryphal literature, this problem of defining terms and of having some reasonably well-defined limits of the texts and subjects to be included (which in turn might imply what is excluded) is particularly acute. The title chosen by the editors of this volume is Early Christian Apocrypha; yet the problems of trying to pin down what one might mean by such a term, and whether alternative terms might be more appropriate, are by no means trivial; and the history of research in this broad area has shown some variety and developments since its inception.

In one sense, the issues involved in trying to determine exactly what one means by Early Christian Apocrypha are perhaps slightly less exacting if one is producing a Handbook such as the present volume, rather than producing a collection of specific texts under this category. If one has the latter end in view, with an aim of producing a potentially comprehensive collection, then the problems of deciding precisely what to include, and also what to exclude, are particularly pressing. Most editors of such collections regularly say something to the effect that the precise boundaries of their collections are inevitably a little rough and ready. The same applies even more to this Handbook, which seeks to provide a number of essays and studies to introduce readers to this material: the precise boundaries of what might be covered here, and what is not covered, are inevitably more than a little imprecise at times. Most would probably presume without question that texts such as the