Thomas A. Wayment, The Text of the New Testament Apocrypha (100–400 CE). New York and London: Bloomsbury, 2013. Xii + 409 pp. Hardback. $220.

I would like to express my utmost appreciation to the kind folks at Bloomsbury for sending me a review copy of this book.

I am very happy to review this book by Thomas Wayment on the Text of the New Testament Apocrypha. It presents a collection of early Christian apocrypha from the first five centuries of the Common Era with Greek texts and complete images of individual manuscripts. Some of the texts include the Epistle of the Barnabas, Didache, Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Peter, Infancy Gospel of James, and Sherpherd of Hermas. The book consists of a very brief introduction (pp. 1-4), Greek texts with introductions to each category (pp. 9-197), a nice bibliography (pp. 199-205), an index of Greek words (pp. 207-210), and images (pp. 213-409). Although surprisingly not mentioned anywhere in or on the covers of the book, the beautiful papyrus featured on the cover is P.Hamburg 1, p. 7 (Acts of Paul). The book is large and heavy and the pages are nice and thick. 

In producing a work like this, one is always faced with the decision over which texts to include and which ones to exclude. Moreover, given the variety of early Christian apocrypha, there is also a challenge of how to group these texts into categories and sub-categories (e.g., gospels, sayings gospels, acts), and the author is not unaware of these problems (see the introduction). The introduction provides an explanation for delimitation and underscores the significance of apocryphal research today.

The bulk of this book is comprised of manuscript entries, Greek texts, and manuscript images, so the rest of this review will focus on each, respectively.

Each manuscript entry contains various components: inventory number set in bold, title, date, bibliography (not exhaustive), provenance, editio princeps, location, notes, list of nomina sacra, followed by the transcriptions. One will notice that there are occasional inconsistencies in the employment of these subsections. For example, the entry on P.Berlin 13893 + P.Mich. 1317 + P.Mich. 3788 (p. 17) lacks the subsection of “location,” and the entry of PSI I 6 and 7 lacks the subsection of “nomina sacra,” even though there is a nomen sacrum in the text (fr. 5a, verso). The entry on P.Egerton 2 and P.Köln 255 (p. 180) contains an additional subsection of “other editions,” but it is not employed elsewhere.

It is unfortunate that the sublinear dots in the transcriptions are not always centered underneath the letter. This is an all too common problem with word processors but it is almost always corrected in the typesetting stages of manuscript production. The placement of the dot under some letters is quite acceptable, but with others, it shifts away from center, most notably iota. A standard Greek font is used and the accents are clear. There are two different fonts used for the editorial sign indicating an interlinear addition (`´), as can be seen by comparing P.Bodmer 5, p. 48, l. 6, verso (p. 72) and P.Yale 1376, l. 8, recto (p. 34). The editorial sign indicating a deletion in the original, listed at the beginning of the book, is not found elsewhere; the dots there should be corrected to double square brackets, which do occur in the texts. Spelling errors in the original have been corrected in the transcriptions but they are noted below the transcriptions along with the abbreviation “pap.” to indicate that that reading is found in the papyrus. Ancient pagination is preserved. Nomina sacra are resolved, the abbreviated portions being placed within parentheses. Sometimes arrows are employed to indicate fiber orientation (→, ↑) but other times they are not (for example, cf. P.Bodmer 5 and P.Ashmolean inv. 9). Diplai occurring in the original manuscript to signal a quotation have been included in the transcriptions, as have diplai used as line fillers, except that the latter are sometimes omitted (e.g., P.Bodmer 5, p. 2 verso, l. 15). Spot checks reveal that the transcriptions are very accurate.

It is probably true that many (most?) people will purchase this book merely for the images. There are nearly 200 manuscript images, a feature alone that merits a place on the bookshelf. It would be nice to have percentages marking the amount of reduction or enlargement of the photos, but that would have required a lot of additional work on the part of Wayment. Most of the images are very clear, but some are blurry (P.Mich. 13893, P.Mich. 1317, P.Mich. 3788, P.Schøyen MS.2634.1, P.Köln 255, P.Iand I 4). P.Oxy. XIII 1602 is too dark. The finest images are those of P.Bodmer 5 (Infancy Gospel of James)—some real eye candy! According to the introduction, “Some of the photographs are new and others have not been made available outside of a small circle of specialists in New Testament papyrology” (p. 4).

In sum, if there were a “Reference Book of the Year,” in my opinion, this is it. This is a fine collection of apocryphal Greek texts and manuscript images that will serve the field for many, many years to come. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Wayment for his superb efforts in producing such a volume, a task that is not for the faint of heart. I myself am working on a catalogue of transcriptions from many different manuscripts and fully understand how burdensome it is to track down editions that are not readily available and request manuscript reproductions from various libraries, museums, and private collections from all over the world. Any shortcomings must be forgiven in light of these considerations. This book is a critical scholarly tool that will be consulted by scholars in a variety of disciplines, such as New Testament and Early Christian studies, New Testament textual criticism, palaeography, codicology, papyrology, etc. I heartily welcome the book and look forward to using it.

You can purchase this book here. 

A few days ago, an international research seminar on "The History of the Caves of Qumran" was held in Lugano, Switzerland (20-21 February); the program of that seminar may be found here. One participant, Drew Longacre, reports that "Yonatan Adler announced the discovery of 9 (possibly 10) previously unknown tefillin slips found inside of unopened tefillin cases from Qumran. The slips have not yet been opened and read, but they promise to be very interesting." There is also an Italian online news article confirming this report, with an image of what may be the tefillin in question (see image on the left). I have translated this Italian article into English below, with the help of Google Translate. Thanks to David Eastman for bringing this to my attention.

In a 2012 issue of New Testament Studies, there is an article by Richard Last titled "Communities That Write: Christ-Groups, Associations, and Gospel Communities." The article challenges Richard Bauckham's "Gospel for all Christians" theory and proposes that the old view that states that Gospel authors wrote from within and for their own communities should be maintained. Last's biggest contribution is his methodology. He claims that genre criticism does not help us much, since genre (e.g., biography) does not tell us much at all about the Gospels' intended audiences. Instead of a genre approach, Last shows how ancient associations provide the closest analogy to early Gospel communities. Last claims that "associations wrote out of collective self-interest...since approval from the general membership was needed before association writings were deemed authoritative by the group, the content of association writings reflects the communal histories (narratives) and values (bylaws and decrees) of the group as a whole, not just the viewpoints of selected representatives." (182). Thus, according to Last, while we should uphold the standard view that Gospels were written from within andfor specific Gospel communities, we should no longer think of their authors as single representatives of those communities. Instead, the composition of a Gospel was a communal process that reflected the collective cultic ideologies of the "Christ-group." Last concludes: 

"There is now reason to suspect that communities, not just individual ‘spokespersons’, played an active role in the production of gospels, but Esler’s observation is right. The association evidence supports the intuitions of many gospel scholars by demonstrating that communities in antiquity wrote collaboratively as a group in a manner that fostered self-reflexivity and self-interest, and that made general readership an uninteresting and impractical goal. Early Christ-groups operated by the same conventions. This was the normal practice of composing a document from within an association, and it created an obstacle to their acceptance as authoritative texts by general audiences." (198).

This is a significant contribution to Gospels criticism that must be taken seriously. I am not persuaded by Bauckham's theory of "Gospels for all Christians" nor have I accepted his radical view that the traditions about Jesus were safeguarded by those who preserved and transmitted them. At least with regard to the former, Last has proposed a new way of thinking about the composition of Gospels that makes Bauckham's thesis untenable. At first blush, Last's attempt to forge a connection between "Christ groups" and ancient associations is successful, at least insofar as the analogy seems much closer with respect to the writing and function of group documents than is, say, genre. I am very interested in knowing how Last's theory has been received among NT scholars since its 2012 publication. The main issue, I think, will be to what extent we should read the writing practices of ancient associations into early Christian communities. That is, is there a way to prove that early "Christ groups" saw themselves as an "association" and that their group practices (such as writing) are perfectly consistent? Again, I find the analogy persuasive and helpful. In any case, there is no question: this article is a weighty one that will likely challenge quite a few followers of Bauckham, if not Bauckham himself. 

Last has made his NTS article available on his academia.edu webpage here. 

On the heels of the long-awaited publication of BASP 49, Peter van Minnen announced today that BASP 50 has also appeared. I post his message below, along with the contents of the vol. I should note that my friend Peter Malik has an article in this volume titled "The Earliest Corrections in Codex Sinaiticus: A Test Case from the Gospel of Mark." Congratulations to Peter and all the other contributors. 

"Dear colleagues,
BASP 50 (2013) has arrived. See the table of contents below. BASP 51 (2014) still welcomes submissions in a "congress language" (English, French, German, and Italian - according to ANVUR, BASP is an A journal in ancient history!). Please submit your manuscripts to me ([email protected]) for consideration.
Thanks in part to the technical support made possible by the Semple Fund of the University of Cincinnati, BASP is the cheapest papyrological journal around, made available to members of the American Society of Papyrologists for an annual subscription of $35 ($16 for student members) and to institutions for an annual subscription of $65 (plus shipping). Check outhttp://papyrology.org/index.php/membership


Copies of books for review can be sent to the reviews editor: Arthur Verhoogt (Department of Classical Studies, University of Michigan, 2160 Angell Hall, 435 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003, USA).
Peter van Minnen

P.Oxy. 4.755 descr. – a Homeric Papyrus at Princeton (Iliad 5.130-174)
Andrzej Mirończuk...........................................................................................7
Greek von Scherling Papyri in Leiden
Klaas A. Worp..................................................................................................15
Zwei Aufträge zur Ausstellung von Kopfsteuerquittungen
Dieter Hagedorn..............................................................................................39
Penthemeros Certificates from the Granary C123, Karanis
W. Graham Claytor..........................................................................................49
A Schedule of Contracts and a Private Letter: P.Fay. 344 Century CE
W. Graham Claytor..........................................................................................77
P.Tebt. 2.562: Conclusion of a Report of Proceedings
Taylor Coughlan............................................................................................123
A Loan of Wheat
Daniel Ullucci.................................................................................................129
Guarding Grapes in Roman Egypt (P.Mich. inv. 438)
Kyle Helms......................................................................................................135
The Mysterion of P.Mich. inv. 4061
C. Michael Sampson.....................................................................................145
P.Corn. inv. 127: Letter Seeking Capture and Rendition of Runaway ταρσικάριοι
Ryan E. McConnell........................................................................................153
Receipt from Alexandros to Anoubion
C. Michael Sampson.....................................................................................165
A Coptic Letter Referring to the Bishop of Babylon
Jennifer Westerfeld........................................................................................171
A Bawit Fragment in Phoenix
Leslie S.B. MacCoull.....................................................................................183
Deux papyrus coptes et une inscription grecque du Monastère Blanc
Alain Delattre..................................................................................................187
Attestations of ἡ κοινή in BKT 10.4 (Hom. Od. 15.531-553 with marginal annotations)
Michael Haslam.............................................................................................203
The Earliest Corrections in Codex Sinaiticus: A Test Case from the Gospel of Mark
Peter Malik......................................................................................................207
“Goldfinger” on a Leiden Mummy Label?
Raquel Martín Hernández and Klaas A. Worp.........................................255
Chrysos Bourdonon: SB 16.12828 Revisited
Roger S. Bagnall and Klaas A. Worp.........................................................261
Natural Resources in Roman Egypt: Extraction, Transport, and Administration
Colin Adams...................................................................................................265

Notes on Papyri.............................................................................................283

Review Article
Sur un nouveau manuel de paléographie des papyrus documentaires grecs
Jean-Luc Fournet..........................................................................................287

Reviews
Philodemus, On Death, translated with an introduction and notes by W. Benjamin Henry
(Voula Tsouna)..............................................................................................301
Lutz Popko, Nadine Quenouille, and Michaela Rücker (eds.), Von Sklaven, Pächtern und Politikern. Beiträge zum Alltag in Ägypten, Griechenland und Rom. Δουλικὰ ἔργα zu Ehren von Reinhold Scholl. Archiv für Papyrusforschung, Beiheft 33
(Peter van Minnen).......................................................................................309
V. Bartoletti, G. Bastianini, G. Messeri, F. Montanari, and R. Pintaudi, Papiri greci e latini 15
(Maryline Parca)............................................................................................311
Hélène Cadell, Willy Clarysse, and Kennokka Robic, Papyrus de la Sorbonne (P.Sorb. III nos 70-144). Papyrologica Parisina [1]
(Peter van Minnen).......................................................................................315
Jan Bazant, Hermann Harrauer, and Rosario Pintaudi (eds.), “Papyrologica III,” Eirene 46 (2010) 5-149
(Peter van Minnen).......................................................................................319
S. Gaffino Moeri, S. Gällnö, N. Poget, and P. Schubert, Les Papyrus de Genève
(Peter van Minnen )......................................................................................323
Rodney Ast, Late Antique Greek Papyri in the Collection of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (P. Jena II). Papyrologische Texte und Abhandlungen 45
(Peter van Minnen).......................................................................................327
Günter Poethke, Sebastian Prignitz, and Veit Vaelske, Das Aktenbuch des Aurelios Philammon. Prozessberichte, Annona militaris und Magie in BGU IV 1024-1027. Archiv für Papyrusforschung, Beiheft 34
(Peter van Minnen).......................................................................................331
Jitse H.F. Dijkstra, Syene I: The Figural and Textual Graffiti from the Temple of Isis at Aswan, with a contribution on the Egyptian texts by E. Cruz-Uribe. Beiträge zur ägyptischen Bauforschung und Altertumskunde 18
(Sven P. Vleeming).......................................................................................335
T.V. Evans and D.D. Obbink (eds.), The Language of the Papyri
(Peter van Minnen).......................................................................................339
Marja Vierros, Bilingual Notaries in Hellenistic Egypt: A Study of Greek as a Second Language. Collectanea Hellenistica 5
(Coulter George)...........................................................................................343
Charikleia Armoni, Studien zur Verwaltung des Ptolemäischen Ägypten. Das Amt des Basilikos Grammateus. Papyrologica Coloniensia 36
(Andrew Monson).........................................................................................349
Andrew T. Wilburn, Materia Magica: The Archaeology of Magic in Roman Egypt, Cyprus, and Spain
(Joseph E. Sanzo)........................................................................................353

Books Received............................................................................................359

American Studies in Papyrology................................................................361