Synopses & Reviews
This is the first in a two-volume critical investigation of one of the earliest and most important of the New Testament Apocrypha, the Protevangelium of James (also known as the Infancy Gospel of James). Zervos challenges the prevailing view that the ProtJas is a second century unitary document, and finds instead that it is a product of an ongoing redactional process by which a first century CE 'heretical' text was progressively conformed to the 'orthodox' Christian doctrine of the time.
Zervos tells the story of how an early apocryphal gospel provided the developing church with doctrinal material that was incorporated into both the theology and the ecclesiastical liturgical cycle of the medieval Church, and became a significant part of the standard catechism for generations of Christians. Volume I contains the Greek text, English translation, and a critical introduction. For the first time the readings of the vast majority of the known Greek manuscripts will appear together with a transcription of the original text of the complete copy of the ProtJas found in Papyrus Bodmer V.
About the Author
George Themelis Zervos (Ph.D., Duke University, USA), is Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA. He teaches courses in New Testament, Biblical Greek, Greek Biblical Papyrology, and Early Christianity.
Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword
Preface
1. Introduction
2. The Compositional Problem
3. The Genesis Marias
4. The Redaction/The Bodmer Papyrus
5. Palaeography
6. Codicology
7. The Later Manuscripts
List and brief descriptions of the MSS
Greek Text with facing English Translation
Critical Apparatus
Bibliography
Index