Martha, sister of Mary (of Bethany) and Lazarus, is a well known secondary character in the Gospels of Luke and John. But has she appeared elsewhere in non-canonical sources? There are some Latin medieval tales (particular of the “Golden Legend” lore) but there are much earlier stories, those being from the Gnostic tradition! I have …
Author Archives: bP
The Mysteries of Saint John the Apostle and Holy Virgin
This particular Coptic tale is quite interesting. It is an ascension text, but then dives into a question and answer narrative. John the Theologian/Evangelist is taken up into the heavens by Jesus. There, John is handed over to a Cherubim, whom he questions rigorously. There are some interesting dialogue that is presented here. I find …
Continue reading “The Mysteries of Saint John the Apostle and Holy Virgin”
The Repose of Saint John the Evangelist and Apostle
I guess I have Saint John on my mind as I have yet another post on him (and a few more in queue!). My last post was an Ethiopic version of the death of John, this time I have a Coptic tale of this event to share. The manuscript of this story dates to about …
Continue reading “The Repose of Saint John the Evangelist and Apostle”
The History of the Death of Saint John the Evangelist
Returning back to the translations of E. A. Budget with another Ethiopic tale, this time in regards to Saint John the Evangelist/Theologian. This translation appeared in 1898 in “The Contendings of the Apostles Vol 2” and I’ve slightly modified some of it for the modern reader. I am currently unsure where and when this story …
Continue reading “The History of the Death of Saint John the Evangelist”
Wisdom and her Daughters
On September 17, it is the Orthodox feast day for Saint Sophia and her Daughters. The daughters being Faith, Hope and Love. Now while these characters (presented as literal people) were all given a back story by the church, they are actually allegorical figures. This past year I joined a Freemason fraternity and it has …
Apocalypse of holy John the Theologian
Another Apocalyptic John text that appears in the New Testament Apocrypha Volume 2 (edited by Tony Burke) is titled “Apocalypse of holy John the Theologian” or “3 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John”. The exact date of this work can not be pinpointed, but it looks like 1300s CE-ish. It survives in Greek and Church Slavic manuscripts. …
First Apocryphal Apocalypse of John
With my last post, I mentioned how there are several “Apocalypses of John” texts out there besides the canonical version. In the book New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures Vol 2 (edited by Tony Burke) there are 3 more texts with this title. This post will be going over what the book refers to as …
The Revelation of John about Antichrist
No, this isn’t about the book in the canonical Bible, but rather an apocrypha text. In case you are unaware, there are a handful of texts that have the name of “Apocalypse of John” / “Revelation of John”, and I plan to highlight a few of them in the near future. This particular text I …
The Martyrdom of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist
Being that June 24 is the feast day (nativity, as his death feast day is later) of John the Baptist, I wanted to bring light to this story found in the New Testament Apocrypha Volume 3 edited by Tony Burke. This interesting text makes it’s modern English translation debut thanks to Tony Burke and Sarah …
Continue reading “The Martyrdom of Zechariah, father of John the Baptist”
The Eremitic Life of Mary Magdalene
Here is a short text involving the life of Mary Magdalene after the resurrection of Christ. It survives in quite a few manuscript copies, all dating from the 10th century onward, however it is believed to originate earlier. This tale is pretty similar to other western legends regarding MM though it does not feature her …
Culmination of Wisdom 