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Journo for the Study o f the New Testament 34(5)

The authors clearly land some punches on Ehrman, e.g., in the evidence he adduces from Acts 4.13 and Celsus about the social location of early Christians, and his appeal to Hermas 5.4 as evidence for the poor quality of scribes. On the other hand, there is a slight tendency to present the data in an unbalanced way. In the arguments for the shortness of the gap between the composition and the extant copies of NT texts, the standard date of c. 125 c e is given for P52, noting Aland in support of a date of c. 100 c e (in fact the article cited gives beginning of the second century), but no reference to Nongbris questioning of the standard date. Similarly, P66 is assigned to the late second century, with a reference to Hungers earlier date but no mention of the later date assigned by Turner and Parsons. Similarly, the date of 125 c e is given for Papias, with reference to a possible earlier date, but no reference to scholars such as Lightfoot, Westcott and W. Bauer, who placed him rather later. There is a lot of very valuable material here, but it is a shame that scholarly positions are sometimes presented a little tendentiously. Simon J. Gathercole

Jesus in apokryphen Evangelienberlieferungen: Beitrge zu auerkanonischen Jesusberlieferungen aus verschiedenen Sprach- und Kulturtraditionen

Jrg Frey & Jens Schrter, eds. W U N T 254; Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2 0 10, 978-3-16 - 15 0 147-0, 139.00, xi + 798 hb

This latest collection edited by two leading German Neutestamentler contains 25 essays, mostly in German, with 7 in English and 1 in French. Scene-setting chapters are supplied by the editors and Christoph Markschies, after which (Part II) comes a series of chapters on particular Gospels, such as Jewish-Christian Gospels (Frey), Secret Mark (E. Rau), infancy Gospels (U.U. Kaiser), the Gospels of Peter (T. Nicklas), Thomas (E.E. Popkes), Philip (H. Schmid), Mary (E. de Boer) and Judas (U.-K. Plisch). Part III treats points of wider controversy, such as the definition of Gospel (J.A. Kelhoffer) and Gnosis/ Gnosticism (K.L. King). Finally, Part IV covers the spread of influence of apocryphal traditions in Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Arabic, Ethiopie, Slavonic and Irish milieux. The treatments of particular works are interesting and fresh, with some of the European contributions offering important correctives to positions widely held in North America. For example, Wursts argument that Eugnostos is an essentially Christian work (rather than an instance of pre- or non-Christian Gnosticism) is welcome and thoroughly deserving of a wide readership. Hagen rightly presses for attention to the Coptic Christian context of works such as the Gospel o f the Saviour. In the third part, some material will already be familiar to scholars from the authors other work (e.g., Kelhoffers How Soon a Book Revisited, Kings What is Gnosticism?) It is perhaps the fourth part which will provide most new material for booklist readers. Nevertheless, something of an omission here is non-Coptic transmission of apocrypha in eastern Manichaeism (see, e.g., H.-J. Klimkeits 1999 essay Apocryphal Gospels in Central and East Asia). Overall, however, this is an impressive and important book. Simon J. Gathercole

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