[amc] Adult Sunday School, sanctuary class
- From: Steve Friesen <Friesen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Austin Mennonite Church <amc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:57:13 -0800
Dear all,
We're about to embark on several weeks based on some early Christian
writings that you won't find in anyone's New Testament. Think of it as the
theological junior varsity. Or Bible wannabes. Or orthodoxy's also-rans.
Anyway, I'll list below several of the texts that we could read. Then on
Sunday (the day after tomorrow), we'll discuss which ones we want to do.
And there are others. (If you don't believe me, take a look at
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com) But I don't want this series to go
on beyond your interest. So we'll set some parameters, number of weeks,
which texts, etc. on Sunday.
I've attached the Gospel of Peter fragment. If we have time, we'll start
with that one on Sunday. I'll also bring hardcopies.
Steve
SOME POSSIBLE TEXTS
GOSPEL OF PETER: a gospel that survives only as a fragment with stories
about trial and death of Jesus. (also attached)
INFANCY GOSPEL OF THOMAS: legends about Jesus between the ages of 5 and 12.
LETTER FROM VIENNA & LYON: a grim account about the local persecution of
Christians in the late second century.
GOSPEL OF JUDAS: a controversial newly-discovered gospel, in which Judas
might be a hero.
ACTS OF PAUL: legendary account of travels and death of Paul.
ACTS OF THOMAS: adventures of Thomas as the apostle to India.
ACTS OF THECLA: stories from the second-century about a woman who renounces
marriage, teaches, and baptizes, with Paul¹s blessing (he¹s a vegetarian in
this text).
PLACES TO FIND THESE TEXTS
* http://www.earlychristianwritings.com
* Many of them (and others) are in Bart Ehrman's *Lost Scriptures* Oxford
Univ. Press, 2003. Written to be accessible to lay readers.
* J. K. Elliott's *New Testament Apocrypha* is a huge collection of such
texts. Written to be impenetrable to lay readers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve Friesen
Louise Farmer Boyer Chair in Biblical Studies
418 Burdine Hall
Religious Studies, 1 Univ. Sta. A3700
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712-6000
W: (512) 471-8629
F: (512) 471-4230
H: (512) 482-0822
https://webspace.utexas.edu/sjf365/www/Site/Home.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
History isn't what it used to be.
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