[B-Greek] New Book: Other Early Christian Gospels
Andrew Bernhard
abernhar at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 14 00:37:53 EST 2007
Hello all,
Apologies for cross posting. I just wanted to make a brief announcement
about my recently published book, _Other Early Christian Gospels: A
Critical Edition of the Surviving Greek Manuscripts._ The reason I
mention it here specifically is to highlight the fact that book includes
"Student's" Greek Texts of a number of important ancient manuscripts
(e.g., those containing the Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas, the
Gospel of Peter, and the Egerton Gospel).
I realize that many people on this list are in the process of learning
Greek, and would be overwhelmed trying to make sense both of a Greek
text _and_ complicated scholarly annotations that accompany it. The
"Student's" Greek texts eliminate the apparatus and just present the
text itself. The Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas consist of
short sayings of Jesus that might be suitable for "students." :)
In any event, a more complete announcement of the book is included
below.
Thanks,
Andrew
Although it has been out for a few months now, I hope I may still make
an e-list announcement about my new book _Other Early Christian Gospels:
A Critical Edition of the Surviving Greek Manuscripts_. It is a part of
the _Library of New Testament Studies_ series edited by Mark Goodacre
and published by T & T Clark.
The book is essentially a sourcebook for the study of early Christian
gospels (other than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) that have been
preserved in Greek. It contains new English translations, critical
Greek texts, and what I call "Student's" Greek texts (i.e. the texts
without any of the apparatus) of the following Greek manuscripts:
The Gospel of Thomas
--Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 654 (P.Oxy. 654)
--Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1 (P.Oxy. 1)
--Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 655 (P.Oxy. 655)
The Gospel of Peter
--Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 4009 (P.Oxy. 4009)
--The Akhmim Fragment (P.Cair. 10759)
--Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2949 (P.Oxy. 2949)
Egerton Papyrus 2: The Unknown Gospel
--Egerton Papyrus 2 (P.Egerton 2) with Cologne Papyrus 255 (P.Koeln
255)
Other Unidentified Gospel Fragments
--The Faiyum Fragment (P.Vindob.G 2325)
--Merton Papyrus 51 (P.Mert. 51)
--Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 210 (P.Oxy. 210)
--Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1224 (P.Oxy. 1224)
--Oxyrhynchus Parchment 840 (P.Oxy. 840)
--Berlin Papyrus 11710 (P.Berol. 11710)
In addition, the book contains exhaustive indexes for all the Greek
texts and plates for all the Greek fragments of The Gospel of Thomas
(P.Oxy. 654, P.Oxy. 1, P.Oxy. 655), The Gospel of Peter (P.Oxy. 4009,
P.Cair. 10759, P.Oxy. 2949), The Unknown Gospel (PEgerton 2 + PKoeln
255), and previously unpublished photos of portions of P.Oxy. 210,
P.Oxy. 1224, P.Oxy. 840, and P.Berol. 11710.
This book was borne of out my own personal frustration. During my
student days, I became quite exasperated with how difficult it was to
obtain editions and translations of these very important gospel
manuscripts. Stan Porter called for a new edition of early Christian
gospel papyri back in 1995 (see, "The Greek Apocryphal Gospels
Papyri: The Need for a Critical Edition) and so far as I am aware none
has yet to be published for the English speaking world (Dieter
Luehrmann's German book, Fragmente apokryph gewordener Evangelien in
griechischer und lateinischer Sprache_ is of course very helpful, but
extremely difficult to find and presents the texts in a very European
format, i.e. just groups all noncanonical gospels together as "gospels
that became Apocryphal").
In any event, I am hopeful that _Other Early Christian Gospels_ will
help make these manuscripts more easily accessible and promote careful
study of the "lost" gospels.
Best,
Andrew
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