The Protevangelium of James

Greek Text, English Translation, Critical Introduction: Volume 1

George T. Zervos

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780567700384
• eBook ISBN: 9780567689757
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

George T. Zervos presents the first in a two-volume critical investigation of one of the earliest and most important of the New Testament Apocrypha, the Protevangelium of James, also known as the Infancy Gospel of James. Zervos challenges the prevailing view that the ProtJas is a 2nd century unitary document; finding it instead to be the product of an ongoing redactional process in which a 1st century CE "heretical" text was progressively conformed to the "orthodox" Christian doctrine of the time. Zervos tells the story of how an early apocryphal gospel provided the developing church with doctrinal material, which was incorporated into both the theology and the ecclesiastical liturgical cycle of the medieval Church, thus becoming a significant part of the standard catechism for generations of Christians. In this first volume Zervos provides a critical introduction to the text and discusses ProtJas' publication history, scholarly investigation, compositional problems and evidence of redaction, as well as a in-depth analysis of the narrative. For the first time the readings of the vast majority of the known Greek manuscripts appear together, with a transcription of the original text of the complete copy of the ProtJas found in Papyrus Bodmer V.

Chapter 1

EVIDENCE OF REDACTION OF THE PROTJAC

THE JOSEPH COUNCIL: PROTJAC 8:03–9:12

In accordance with the theory of the composition of the ProtJac upon which the present study is based, the unredacted Veil Council, now contained in ProtJac 10–12, was the original continuation of the GenMar, which now occupies the initial chapters of the ProtJac 1:01–8:02. The Joseph Council, now ProtJac 8:03–9:12, was interpolated by the Composer into the original text of the GenMar. The first indication that the Joseph Council may constitute a distinct block of material that was inserted by the Composer into the GenMar before the Veil Council is the similarity between the statements that introduce each of these two successive priestly councils respectively that now occur in the present form of the ProtJac:

Joseph Council

ProtJac 8:03b συμβουλιον εγενετο των ιερεων λεγοντων

there was a council of the priests saying

Veil Council

ProtJac 10:01 εγενετο δε συμβουλιον των ιερεων λεγοντων

and there was a council of the priests saying.¹

Both statements contain the same five identical words, although in a different order. In ProtJac 8:03b συμβουλιον εγενετο των ιερεων λεγοντων (“there was a council of the priests saying”) is the main clause of a larger sentence that is introduced by a subordinate clause in the form of a genitive absolute phrase γενομενης δε δωδεκαετους (“she becoming twelve years old”).² This verse serves as the transitional link between the preceding chapters of the GenMar and the beginning of the Joseph Council in ProtJac 8:03 within the context of the redactional enhancement of the GenMar by the Composer’s interpolation of the Joseph Council before the Veil Council. In that setting the genitive absolute γενομενης δε δωδεκαετους was introduced by the Composer³ to facilitate the abrupt transition from ProtJac 8:02, which briefly describes Mary’s life in the temple from the age of three, to ProtJac 8:03, where Mary is now a physically mature twelve years old, thus obliging the priests to hold the Joseph Council to resolve the issue of her new impure status vis-à-vis the purity laws regarding menstruant women in the temple⁴:

ProtJac 8:03 γενομενης δε δωδεκαετους

συμβουλιον εγενετο των ιερεων λεγοντων

She becoming twelve years old

there was a council of the priests saying:

04 ιδου μαρια γεγονε δωδεκαετης εν τω ναω κυριου·

“Behold, Mary has become twelve years old in the temple of the Lord,

τι ουν αυτην ποιησωμεν,

μηπως μιανη το αγιασμα κυριου του θεου ημων.

what will we do with her

so that she will not defile the holy place of the Lord our God?”

The Composer’s interpolation of the Joseph Council before the Veil Council interrupts the natural flow of the GenMar narrative and creates a problem by distancing Mary from participating directly in the preparation of the new temple veil. There must now be an entire two-chapter-long process by the priests to remove Mary from the temple and a special dispensation to return her to the temple from Joseph’s home to help prepare the new veil. This is accomplished by an editorial adjustment to the now detached Veil Council in ProtJac 10:02-05.⁵ As opposed to the sudden leap over nine years of Mary’s life in the first verse of the Joseph Council in ProtJac 8:03, the initial verse of the Veil Council in ProtJac 10:01 does not mention Mary’s age, which is irrelevant to her participation in preparing the new veil: εγενετο δε συμβουλιον των ιερεων λεγοντων· ποιησωμεν καταπετασμα τω ναω κυριου (“And there was a council of the priests saying, ‘Let us make a veil for the temple of the Lord’”). ProtJac 10:01 represents an unobtrusive, and thus probably original, continuation of the preceding narrative of Mary’s life in the temple ending in GenMar 8:02.

The duplication of the initial verses in the Joseph and Veil Councils is an example, on a larger scale, of the standard editorial modus operandi of the Composer that occurs also on two occasions later in the Veil Council in which the Composer modified GenMar texts to reflect Mary’s location at “home” as opposed to her being in the temple.⁶ Since the primary purpose of the Joseph Council was to relocate Mary from the temple to Joseph’s home, it stands to reason that the Composer would implement the same editorial strategy in this larger scenario as well. In the account of the gathering of virgins to spin the threads in ProtJac 10:02-05 and 10:09–11:05,⁷ the Composer revised the GenMar narrative by duplicating and modifying elements of the relevant verses and then inserting his own materials into these scenarios to create his versions of the original texts now reflecting Mary’s location at “home.” In the case of the introductory verses of the two priestly councils, the Composer duplicated the entire initial sentence of the Veil Council in 10:01, rearranged the words of its text, and then inserted his revised version at the beginning of his own new creation, the Joseph Council.

A number of irregularities within the text of the Joseph Council indicate the presence of editorial activity, which suggests that the Composer found it difficult to integrate his new Joseph material into the existing GenMar text as he constructed the final form of his narrative. The first anomaly in the Joseph Council follows immediately after the initial introductory verses in ProtJac 8:03-04. A disconnect in the continuity of the text occurs between ProtJac 8:03-04, in which the priests as a group are in dialogue among themselves, and the following verse ProtJac 8:05, in which the priests are addressing a single individual who has appeared unexpectedly: και ειπαν αυτω οι ιερεις (“and the priests said to him”). There was no previous reference to this individual priest in the preceding text but he is soon recognized as the high priest when the priests as a group describe him as standing at the altar of the Lord and propose that he enter the Holy of Holies to pray about Mary:

ProtJac 8:03 γενομενης δε δωδεκαετους

συμβουλιον εγενετο των ιερεων λεγοντων

She becoming twelve years old

there was a council of the priests saying:

04 ιδου μαρια γεγονε δωδεκαετης εν τω ναω κυριου·

“Behold, Mary has become twelve years old in the temple of the Lord,

τι ουν αυτην ποιησωμεν,

μηπως μιανη το αγιασμα κυριου του θεου ημων

what will we do with her

so that she will not defile the holy place of the Lord our God?”

05 και ειπαν αυτω οι ιερεις· συ εστης επι το θυσιαστηριον κυριου,

And the priests said to him, “you stood at the altar of the Lord,

και εισελθε και προσευξε περι αυτης,

enter also and pray about her

και ο εαν φανερωση σοι κυριος ο θεος τουτο ποιησωμεν

and that which the Lord God reveals to you, this we will do.”

06 και εισηλθεν ο ιερευς λαβων τον δωδεκακωδωνα

εις τα αγια των αγιων,

And the priest entered, taking the vestment with twelve bells,

into the Holy of Holies

και ηυξατο περι αυτης

and prayed about her

This break in the continuity of the narrative suggests the possible existence of an original element between ProtJac 8:04 and 8:05 that somehow dropped out of the text and which may have contained information about the high priest who now appears abruptly in ProtJac 8:05. This is only the first example of a number of such anomalies that occur in the first verses of the Joseph Council, which, when viewed collectively, suggest the presence of redactional activity. In ProtJac 8:06 the high priest took up the vestment with twelve bells,⁸ entered into the Holy of Holies, and prayed about Mary. In ProtJac 8:07 the high priest received an answer to his prayer from an angel who appeared and addressed him as Zachariah:

ProtJac 8:07 και ιδου αγγελος κυριου εστη λεγων· ζαχαρια, ζαχαρια,

and behold an angel of the Lord stood saying, ‘Zachariah, Zachariah,

εξελθε και εκκλησιασον τους χηρευοντας του λαου

go out and call together the widowers of the people

08 και ω εαν επιδειξη κυριος ο θεος σημειον, τουτω εσται γυνη

and to whom the Lord God will show a sign, to him she will be a wife.

Angels appear in all three layers of the ProtJac, whether written by the GenMar Author (ProtJac 4:01, 4:05, 4:06, 8:02), the Redactor (ProtJac 11:06, 11:09, 14:05, 12:07, 20:07, 20:11, 21:15, 22:06), or, possibly, the Composer (ProtJac 8:07). If the angel’s appearance in ProtJac 8:07 is a genuine element of the Joseph Council, this would be the only instance of an angel appearing in the materials in the ProtJac that may be ascribed to the Composer,⁹ as opposed to three cases in the GenMar and eight in the Redactor’s interpolations. However, there are several exceptional elements in the text of ProtJac 8:07 that distinguish this verse from its context and may serve as clues to its special role in the narrative.

The first distinguishing element in 8:07 is the naming of the high priest by the angel as Zachariah in 8:07; this is a distinctive feature of the editorial...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents 
• Preface
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The General Background
• Chapter 1. Evidence of Redaction of the ProtJac
• Conclusions: The “Authors” of the ProtJac
• Appendices
• Illustrations
• Imprint