Richard Bauckham, Assessing the Lost Gospel: All Seven Parts

Richard Bauckham's assessment of Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Ancient Text that Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary Magdalene (New York: Pegasus, 2014) is now complete.

I have been posting his responses over the last two weeks, and I am happy now to gather links to all seven parts here.  In each case, the main link is to a PDF of the article.  Word versions are linked in square brackets:

Part 1: The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor – Content and Context [PDF] [Word]

Part 2: Misinterpreting Ephrem [PDF] [Word]

Part 3: Misreading Joseph and Aseneth (i) [PDF] [Word]

Part 4: Responding to Simcha's Responses [PDF] [Word]

Part 5: Misreading Joseph and Aseneth (ii) [PDF] [Word]

Part 6: On Mary Magdalene and Magdala [PDF] [Word]

Part 7: Conclusion and Pauline Postscript [PDF] [Word]

Many thanks to Prof. Bauckham for this fine, detailed critical analysis.

Richard Bauckham, Assessing the Lost Gospel, Part 7

Here is the seventh and final instalment of Richard Bauckham's assessment of the new book by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel.

Assessing the Lost Gospel
Part 7: Conclusion and Pauline Postscript

by Richard Bauckham

The above link is to a PDF of the article.  A Word version is also available.  Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here. Part 6 is here.

I will gather all seven parts into a single post a little later on for ease of access.

I would like to thank Prof. Bauckham, on behalf of all the readers of this blog, for a masterful series of articles.

Richard Bauckham, Assessing the Lost Gospel, Part 6

Here is the sixth instalment of Richard Bauckham's assessment of the new book by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel.

Assessing the Lost Gospel
Part 6: On Mary Magdalene and Magdala

by Richard Bauckham

The above link is to a PDF of the article.  A Word version is also available.  Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here. Part 5 is here. (When the response is complete, I'll gather links to all the parts in a single post).

Richard Bauckham, Assessing the Lost Gospel, Part 5

Here is the fifth instalment of Richard Bauckham's assessment of the new book by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel. In it, he continues the response begun in Part 3: Misreading Joseph and Aseneth (i):

Assessing the Lost Gospel
Misreading Joseph and Aseneth (ii)

by Richard Bauckham

The above link is to a PDF of the article.  A Word version is also available.  Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Part 4 is here.  (When the response is complete, I'll gather links to all the parts in a single post).

Richard Bauckham, Assessing the Lost Gospel, Part 4

Here is the fourth instalment of Richard Bauckham's assessment of the new book by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel. In it, he responds to Simcha Jacobovici's Response to his reviews found here: Response to Prof. Bauckham’s critique of The Lost Gospel Part 1 and Part 2.

Assessing The Lost Gospel
Part 4: Responding to Simcha's Responses

by Richard Bauckham

The above link is to a PDF of the article.  A Word version is also available.  Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here and Part 3 is here.  (When the response is complete, I'll gather links to all the parts in a single post).

Richard Bauckham, Assessing the Lost Gospel, Part 3

Here is the third instalment of Richard Bauckham's assessment of the new book by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel:

Assessing The Lost Gospel
Part 3: Misreading Joseph and Aseneth (i)

by Richard Bauckham

The above link is to a PDF of the article.  A Word version is also available.  Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.  (When the response is complete, I'll gather links to all the parts in a single post).

Richard Bauckham, Assessing the Lost Gospel, Part 2

Here is the second instalment of Richard Bauckham's assessment of the new book by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel:

Assessing The Lost Gospel
Part 2: Misinterpreting Ephrem

by Richard Bauckham

The above link is to a PDF of the article.  A Word version is also available.  Part 1 is here.

Richard Bauckham, Assessing the Lost Gospel

I am delighted to be able to post here a piece by Richard Bauckham assessing the new book by Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel:

Assessing The Lost Gospel
Part 1: The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor – Content and Context
by Richard Bauckham

The above is a link to a PDF of the article.  A Word version is also available.

The Bride of God or the Lost Gospel of Joseph and Asyath, Richard Bauckham

On Sunday, I posted some comments on Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson's forthcoming book and documentary, Jacobovici and Wilson's "Lost Gospel".  It led to a very interesting comments thread in which the possibility came up that their "lost gospel" might in fact be a section from Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor featuring a Syriac text of Joseph and Aseneth as well as the correspondence that prefaces it.  In response to this, Richard Bauckham has sent the following comments, which I am here promoting to a post of its own.  I have also made this available as a PDF here.
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The Bride of God or the Lost Gospel of Joseph and Asyath

Richard Bauckham

I think there can be no doubt that this ‘lost Gospel’ is a section of The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor. The relevant section is Book I chs. 4-6, where chapter 6 is ‘The History of Joseph the Just and Asyath his wife,’ while chapters 4-5 are two letters that introduce it. The recent English translation of Pseudo-Zacharias (2011) does not include books I-II, mainly because these are not ecclesiastical history and consist mainly of material found also elsewhere. The editors do note that others are working on these books.

I do not read Syriac, and so, in the absence of an English translation, I have consulted the Latin translation by E. W. Brooks (CSCO 3/5, 1924). In the first of the two letters the unnamed writer says that he found in a library a work in Greek called ‘the book of Asyath.’ He says he read only its ‘historia’ (the Greek word apparently used in the Syriac text) and did not understand its ‘theōria’ (Greek again). Since the Greek language is difficult and alien for him, he asks his learned correspondent, a certain Moses ‘Ingilae,’ to translate it into Syriac for him, and to explain both its ‘historia’ as a whole and something of its ‘theōria’. Moses replies, saying that he has read the ‘historia’ of the book and, if I’m understanding the text correctly, that the ‘theōria’ contained in it is (‘to put it briefly’) the truth that our God our Lord the Word became incarnate by the will of the Father and became human and was joined to a soul with its perfect senses ….

And there the text breaks off without finishing the sentence. You can imagine what fun Jacobovici and Wilson will have with that suspiciously lost ending.

The words historia and theōria are obviously here used in the way they were in the Alexandrian tradition of biblical exegesis, where every Old Testament narrative (historia) is expected to have a corresponding Christian allegorical meaning (theōria). Since Joseph and Asenath tells a story about Old Testament characters, it was natural for Moses and his correspondent to suppose it must have an allegorical meaning, which to them would be much more interesting than the literal reading. I suspect that Moses took Asenath (or Asyath, as she is called) to represent the church, the bride of Christ, and Joseph to represent the incarnate Christ, while his heavenly alter ego, the archangel, is the pre-existent Logos. (Moreover, I think he may have been right. I strongly suspect that Joseph and Asenath is not a Jewish work, at least not in the form we have it, but a Christian work with allegorical meaning. But this is hardly relevant to the present argument.)

Jacobovici and Wilson have evidently supposed that the talk of historia and theōria in the two letters means that the story is a cover for a coded meaning, which is the true history of Jesus. They have missed the fact that Moses and his correspondent are speaking merely about the usual sort of allegorical exegesis that in the Alexandrian school was applied to any such narrative.

There seems to be nothing special about the Syriac version of Joseph and Asenath in Pseudo-Zacharias, apart from the fact that Asenath is called Asyath. But it’s not too difficult to see roughly how Jacobovoci and Wilson are interpreting it. Joseph, I guess, is a cypher for Jesus, a thoroughly human figure who nevertheless has a kind of heavenly counterpart in the chief archangel. In the story Asenath’s name is changed to ‘City of Refuge,’ within whose walls many nations are going to gather. Since ‘Magdalene’ derives from migdal, tower, this change of name refers to Jesus giving his wife Mary the new name Magdalene, to symbolize the role she is to have in the Christian movement. Note that the blurb for the book refers to ‘the towering presence of Mary Magdalene’! In the story, Joseph and Asenath have two children: Ephraim and Manasseh. That Mary Magdalene is the ‘bride of God’ reflects the last section of Asenath’s psalm (21:21). I expect the strong political dimension in the description of Jacobovici and Wilson’s book refers to some kind of reading of chapters 23-29 of Joseph and Asenath. None of this sounds to me any more far-fetched than Barbara Thiering’s so-called pesher reading of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Since Jacobovici and Wilson say that the lost gospel has 29 chapters, they must be well aware that the Syriac work in Pseudo-Zacharias is the well-known Greek Joseph and Asenath. What they find special in Pseudo-Zacharias must be the two letters with their cryptic suggestion of a hidden meaning that has something to do with the incarnation of the Logos. 

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The Greek Ossuary Inscription in Talpiyot Tomb B – (hopefully) the Final Solution

Richard Bauckham has written the following new piece on the Greek Ossuary Inscription in Talpiyot Tomb B and I am delighted to be posting it here:

The Greek Ossuary Inscription in Talpiyot Tomb B – (hopefully) the Final Solution
Richard Bauckham

A New Interpretation of the Greek Ossuary Inscription in Talpiyot Tomb B

Richard Bauckham has written a new piece on the inscription in Tapiyot Tomb B and I am happy to be posting it here.  It's a PDF file available here:

A New Interpretation of the Greek Ossuary Inscription in Talpiyot Tomb B

Richard Bauckham

Pooh Community and Jack and Jill Exegesis in the latest BSB

The latest Biblical Studies Bulletin from Grove Books is now available online:

BSB 58 (December 2010)

It features two pieces of exegetical humour, Richard Bauckham's "Reconstructing the Pooh Community" and Michael B. Thompson's "Initial Critical-Exegetical Notes on 'Jack and Jill'".

Richard Bauckham on the Gospels as Biography and History

Here's another short video from The Christ Files series. This one features Richard Bauckham talking about the Gospels as biography, mentioning his well-known claim that the Gospels also contain eye-witness testimony:



Anyone recognize where he is being interviewed? St Andrews?

Richard Bauckham USA Tour: Next Stop Duke

Richard Bauckham's USA Tour continues today and tomorrow with the Kenneth Clark Lectures here at Duke, in the neighboring Divinity School.  If you are in the area, do come along -- they are free to the public.  A reminder of the details:

Individualism and Community in the Gospel of John

Lecture 1
Thursday, February 24, 2011
4:00-5:15 p.m.
0016 Westbrook, Duke Divinity School

Lecture 2
Friday, February 25, 2011
12:20-1:20 p.m.
0016 Westbrook, Duke Divinity School

Richard Bauckham to give Clark Lectures at Duke

Details are now available for this year's Clark Lectures in the neighbouring Divinity School here at Duke:
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Established in 1984, the Kenneth Willis Clark Lectureship Fund honors the life and work of Reverend Professor Kenneth Willis Clark, a Divinity School faculty member for 36 years. Each year this fund enables the Divinity School to offer a distinguished program with special emphasis on New Testament studies and textual criticism.

These are free public lectures. No pre-registration is necessary.

Individualism and Community in the Gospel of John

Guest Speaker: Richard Bauckham

Richard Bauckham was until recently Professor of New Testament Studies and Bishop Wardlaw Professor in the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and is now Professor Emeritus at St. Andrews. He retired in 2007 in order to concentrate on research and writing, and is Senior Scholar at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, where he does some teaching for the Cambridge Federation of Theological Colleges. He is also a Visiting Professor at St. Mellitus College, London. From 1996 to 2002 he was General Editor of the Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series. He is an Anglican (but not ordained), and was a member of the Doctrine Commission of the Church of England for some years. In 2009 he was awarded the Michael Ramsey prize for his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, and in 2010 the Franz-Delitzsch-Award for a volume of collected essays, The Jewish World around the New Testament. His other publications include God Crucified: Monotheism and Christology in the New Testament (1998) and The Theology of the Book of Revelation (1993).

Schedule
Lecture 1
Thursday, February 24, 2011
4:00-5:15 p.m.
0016 Westbrook, Duke Divinity School

Lecture 2
Friday, February 25, 2011
12:20-1:20 p.m.
0016 Westbrook, Duke Divinity School

Please contact Jacquelyn Norris at (919) 660-3529 with any questions.

Richard Bauckham Homepage

Michael Bird and Jim Davila have news of a new Richard Bauckham homepage.  It's nicely done, with a full bibliography, details of speaking engagements and some full text unpublished work.

Review of Biblical Literature Latest

I am gradually working through the email backlog and have reached Boxing Day, when someone at SBL headquarters was not taking the day off and sent out a list of the latest reviews to be added to the Review of Biblical Literature. Of particular interest, under these NT related titles, is Christopher Tuckett's excellent review of Bauckham (though it contains a typo that needs fixing, "Two main chapters deal with more generally with what Bauckham . . ."):

Paul N. Anderson
The Fourth Gospel and the Quest for Jesus: Modern Foundations Reconsidered
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5879
Reviewed by Edward W. Klink III

Richard Bauckham
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5650
Reviewed by Christopher Tuckett

Lukas Bormann
Bibelkunde: Altes und Neues Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5458
Reviewed by Markus Oehler

Philip F. Esler and Ronald A. Piper
Lazarus, Mary and Martha: A Social-Scientific and Theological Reading of John
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5948
Reviewed by Jan G. van der Watt

Barbara Fuß
Neutestamentliches Griechisch: Ein Lernbuch zu Wortschatz und Formenlehre
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5797
Reviewed by G. J. (Gerhard) Swart

David E. Garland and Diana R. Garland
Flawed Families of the Bible: How God's Grace Works through Imperfect Relationships
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5838
Reviewed by Jason B. Hood

Andrew Lincoln
Hebrews: A Guide
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5732
Reviewed by Martin Karrer

John L. Meech
Paul in Israel's Story: Self and Community at the Cross
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5725
Reviewed by Mark Reasoner

Jens-W. Taeger; Dietrich-Alex Koch and David Bienert, eds
Johanneische Perspektiven: Aufsätze zur Johannesapokalypse und zum johanneischen Kreis 1984-2003
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=5604
Reviewed by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

Bauckham Collquium Starts Today

The online colloquium with Richard Bauckham starts today over on the Biblical Studies e-list, a day early by my reckoning, but that's welcome. It lasts until this time next week.

Richard Bauckham On-line Colloquium

It seems a long time since there's been a nice online colloquium with a top NT scholar. The good news is that Jim West announces a forthcoming colloquium on the Biblical Studies list, scheduled for 20-26 May, and to focus on Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. I notice in visiting the Biblical Studies list online that it now has over 650 subscribers, which is a pretty impressive number. I haven't been able to keep up with this list myself of late because its RSS feed has dropped, for some reason, and it doesn't seem to be possible to tap back into it again.