This article questions the Gospel of Thomass long-standing classification as a sayings gospel. It argues that this classification rests largely on modern editorial practices, which impact the reading experience. Using a material philological approach, by reading the gospel as an uninterrupted work as presented on the Greek and Coptic manuscripts, we can see that the Gospel of Thomas exhibits dialogical features, thematic coherence, and a concern with revelation, eschatology, and Jesuss departure. In both form and content, the text aligns closely with early Christian dialogue gospels such as the Apocryphon of John and the Book of Thomas, and in some respects contains more dialogue than these comparable works. Adopting a fluid understanding of genre, the article argues that the Gospel of Thomas has been unhelpfully confined by the category of sayings gospel and should be recategorized as a dialogue gospel.
In one of the stories in the Acts of Philip, the apostle finds himself in conflict with the local Jewish authorities, transforms into shining glory before his disciples eyes, allows himself to be tried in court, resurrects a dead man, and ascends into heaven. This article uses narrative methods to analyze how the author of Acts Phil. 5-7 reimagines the story of Jesus with the apostle Philip as the new protagonist.
This essay argues that the Gospel of John shares an especially deep kinship with deploys many of the same authenticating strategies found in these works, legitimizing its novelties through appeals to its supposed eyewitness character and access to Jesus's private dialogues, as well as its strategic use of cryptic speech and Synoptic-like elements. In this respect, the Gospel of John can be playfully but productively considered an "apocryphal" (in the sense of "hidden" or "concealed") gospel, one that supplements the Synoptics with hidden or obscure knowledge about Jesus.
For nearly ten years, Peter Arzt-Grabner regularly published in this journal bibliographical dossiers reporting on new discoveries in papyrology relevant to scholars of early Christianity.1 I am pleased to carry forward his valuable work and to offer here a survey of papyri published from 2020, the year of his last contribution, through September 2025. The material is organized into four sections. The first presents recently published New Testament, early Jewish, and early Christian texts. The second section focuses on the two newly published volumes of the Corpus papyrorum Judaicarum, with special attention to a second-century Jewish exorcism that appeared after the Corpus had gone to press. The third section offers a selective sample of recently published documentary papyri that sheds light on New Testament passages or the cultural background of New Testament authors. The final section concludes with a bibliographical update.
This article questions the Gospel of Thomas's long-standing classification as a "sayings gospel." It argues that this classification rests largely on modern editorial practices, which impact the reading experience. Using a material philological approach, by reading the gospel as an uninterrupted work as presented on the Greek and Coptic manuscripts, we can see that the Gospel of Thomas exhibits dialogical features, thematic coherence, and a concern with revelation, eschatology, and Jesus's departure. In both form and content, the text aligns closely with early Christian dialogue gospels such as the Apocryphon of John and the Book of Thomas, and in some respects contains more dialogue than these comparable works. Adopting a fluid understanding of genre, the article argues that the Gospel of Thomas has been unhelpfully confined by the category of "sayings gospel"and should be recategorized as a "dialogue gospel."
This article makes the case that Papias read Jesus books within the sociocultural milieu of the early Second Sophistic, and, as such, he read them as discrete units within a bibliographic landscape. The argument is made in two parts. First, the genre of Papias's major work, the Exposition of Dominical Oracles, is defined by its title as an exegetical treatise (epsilon is an element of eta gamma eta sigma iota sigma). This is corroborated by parallels in Galen, Clement of Alexandria, and later Papian reception. Second, Papias is shown to exhibit the following literary habits common in the Second Sophistic: the appeal to the living voice, the use of biographical anecdotes for textual interpretation, the concern for multilingualism, and the envisaging of books within a framework of textual geography. These habits are prevalent in the writings of Aulus Gellius, Galen, and Apuleius, and Papias practices them in the service of interpreting the Jesus tradition drawn from books that would be later known as the gospels. Thus, in the first quarter of the second century, Christians in Asia Minor were already furnished with the grammar with which to describe a twofold, threefold, or even fourfold gospel collection.
This article situates gospel books amid the manifold experiments in imperial Roman narrative prose. These variegated innovations were not structured by existing generic categories, although several prominent contours - fictionality, empire, wonder, and religious experience - texture the literary landscape. Both critics and adherents of the emerging Christian movement attempted to categorize gospel books. Some dismissed gospels as cheap paradoxography, flimsy fiction without underlying significance. Others theorized gospels as marvelous narratives constructed in order to signify divine truth. Both approaches reflect vibrant and ongoing conversations about narrative form, literary fiction, and divine reality.
In one of the stories in the Acts of Philip, the apostle finds himself in conflict with the local Jewish authorities, transforms into shining glory before his disciples' eyes, allows himself to be tried in court, resurrects a dead man, and ascends into heaven.This article uses narrative methods to analyze how the author of Acts Phil. 5-7 reimagines the story of Jesus with the apostle Philip as the new protagonist.
This article presents Epistula apostolorum (EpAp) as a second-century apostolic writing targeted toward reception as gospel among an ambitiously conceived readership of Christian assemblies. Juxtaposition between this text and parallel descriptions of communal reading among early Christians in this period reveals its intention to be read in like manner. Internal evidence within EpAp indicates that its fictive authorship by an apostolic collective invokes continuity with writings of the prophets and apostles before it. Additionally, the epistolary conceit of this text presents its apostolic authors directly addressing a sweeping audience of Christian readers in churches throughout the four corners of the world. External evidence from Justins First Apology (67.3-4) illustrates the practices for communal reading of writings of the prophets and memoirs of the apostles among early Christian communities. Similarly, the apostle Peter is narratively depicted interpreting the writings of the prophets and his fellow apostles in a setting of public reading among gathered Christians in the Acts of Peter (20). I conclude that EpAps mode of authorial fiction aspires to a status worthy of reading in early Christian gatherings like those depicted in Justins First Apology and the Acts of Peter.
There is general agreement that Mark 13, Matt 24-25, and Luke 21 reflect knowledge of the Jewish War. Luke 21 is particularly obvious as a post-war vaticinium ex eventu, but few commentators have attended to Luke 21:25s redaction of Mark 13:24-25 within this post-war framework. This article argues that Luke 21:25 might be illuminated through comparison with a papyrus from Oxyrhynchus. This papyrus, P. Oxy. 4950, offers an astrological interpretation of Vespasians rise - including events of the Jewish War. It bears remarkable similarities to the Eschatological Discourse, being an ex eventu oracle predicting Vespasians victory in the Year of the Four Emperors, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the suffering of the Jewish population. Luke made a number of intentional decisions in modifying Mark so as to also evoke - in a vague and generalized way - astrological portents associated with Vespasians rise, the type of predictions found in P. Oxy. 4950 and recorded by other ancient writers (e. g., Josephus, Suetonius, Tacitus).
This article examines Cornelius - a centurion of the so-called Italian cohort mentionedin Acts 10:1 - within the military and historical context of early first-centuryJudea. The passage referring to Cornelius and his cohort has been widely debatedboth in New Testament scholarship and Roman military history. The study surveysdivergent assessments regarding the presence of a Roman citizen cohort in Caesareaduring the 30s-40s CE. Drawing on both literary and documentary evidence, the papersituates Cornelius and his cohort in the broader context of auxiliary units, citizencohorts, and centurions roles in provincial administration. It argues that, although apositive proof of the cohorts stationing in Judea at that time is lacking, the presenceof Cornelius as a centurion - potentially detached from his unit for specific duties - ishistorically plausible as it aligns reasonably well with known Roman military practicesin Syria and Judea.
The question of whether Jas 2:1-6 is colored by pagan social reality of the early empire has been the subject of quite some discussion in recent scholarship. In this article I take up the thesis of the historian Elke Hartmann which holds that in social spaces of the early Principate there was a close connection between certain aspects of self-staging performed through external signs (clothing, formal and informal status symbols) and the process of social hierarchy formation. Early imperial prose literature and satirical poetry, such as Martials epigrams, documents this social reality in settings like the banquet and the theater and reflects on the topics of honor and dishonor, distinction and degradation. Against this backdrop, Jas 2:1-6 evaluates these topics and social practices in a Christocentric way and with reference to Jewish tradition (Septuagint, Aristeas), thus turning them into a negative foil for the social unity and equality in Christian assemblies.
The concept of deification was a popular subject in early Christian discourse, especially among Greek authors. The classical biblical foundation for the Christian doctrine of deification is Ps 81(82):1, 6. At least, this was the case for Christian writers of the second and early third centuries, such as Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Clement of Alexandria. However, from Origen (ca. 185-254 CE), we have a homily in the recently discovered Homilies on the Psalms in which we find an innovative description of deification in his interpretation of Ps 81. In this paper I will show how Origen provided an innovative interpretation of Ps 81 by treating his audience to an elaborate discussion of vv. 2-5, emphasizing the ethical dimensions of the psalm and the doctrine of deification. In this homily we see not the elite ascetic teaching learned study, contemplation, and defeating the passions as the only pathways to deification, but a preacher emphasizing the role of Christian charity.
This article seeks to overturn more than one hundred years of scholarship that has suggested that Asclepius, the preeminent Greek god of healing, was reputed to heal by touch. Previous scholars have interpreted a small number of Attic votive reliefs as depicting touch-miracles analogous to those attributed to Jesus in the New Testament. In light of epigraphic and literary depictions of Asclepius as a divine physician, I argue that some of these reliefs show Asclepius administering medical or surgical cures, while others represent Asclepius employing the physicians compassionate hand (παιωνία χείρ). In contrast, Jesus is portrayed as a source of divine power, which he is able to transfer to a sick or injured person by means of a simple touch without any need for a physicians techniques. Similar touch-miracles in the Septuagint and the Genesis Apocryphon indicate that antecedents for touch-miracles attributed to Jesus can be found not in Greek healing cults but rather in Jewish traditions.
This article examines Cornelius - a centurion of the so-called Italian cohort mentioned in Acts 10:1 - within the military and historical context of early first-century Judea. The passage referring to Cornelius and his cohort has been widely debated both in New Testament scholarship and Roman military history. The study surveys divergent assessments regarding the presence of a Roman citizen cohort in Caesarea during the 30s-40s CE. Drawing on both literary and documentary evidence, the paper situates Cornelius and his cohort in the broader context of auxiliary units, citizen cohorts, and centurions' roles in provincial administration. It argues that, although a positive proof of the cohort's stationing in Judea at that time is lacking, the presence of Cornelius as a centurion-potentially detached from his unit for specific duties - is historically plausible as it aligns reasonably well with known Roman military practices in Syria and Judea.
The Physiologus is a remarkable collection of early Christian exegetical chapters. Various (fantastical) animals, plants, trees, and stones are explained as having symbolic meanings, building on traditions from animal encyclopedias.The many versions and translations show that the Physiologus functions as a model for medieval bestiaries. However, when was the oldest version written? Dating varies from the second to the fifth century, with the possible forming of a late third-or fourth-century origin. In this article, I want to add an argument for a late third-or fourth-century date by pointing to specific terminology used in the Physiologus: "wood of the cross."This phrase appears to be common in Greek in the late third and fourth centuries. Given this weight of evidence, it is all the more likely that the Physiologus originated in the same period.
This essay discusses the recent history and current state of the study of early Christianity or Christianities and offers some suggestions for future directions of travel. It considers whether historical Jesus research should be included in studies of early Christianity; what is at stake in different definitions of "primitive" or "early"; and the ongoing, still under-acknowledged effects of Christian confessionalism on the field. It surveys some key themes and approaches in recent research, including studies of wealth, gender, sexuality, education, and material culture, regional and rural studies, studies of networks, papyrologically or epigraphically led studies, and studies of "lived religion." It explores some potentially fruitful directions for future research, arguing that we must go on debating how we periodize the subject and how we handle the sources, and that we need to challenge the ubiquitous and little-scrutinized model of early Christianity as a political formation. It suggests that there is scope, inter alia, for new approaches to early Christian law, ethics, emotions, and sub-elite religiosity, in dialogue with new work in ancient Judaism and Mediterranean religions.
