front cover of Adam and Eve in the Armenian Tradition, Fifth through Seventeenth Centuries
Adam and Eve in the Armenian Tradition, Fifth through Seventeenth Centuries
Michael E. Stone
SBL Press, 2013
The Adam and Eve stories are a foundational myth in the Jewish and Christian worlds, and the way they were recounted reveals a great deal about those doing the retelling. How did the Armenians retell these stories? What values do these retellings express about men and women, their life in the world, sin and redemption? Presented here are twelve hundred years of Armenian telling of the Genesis 1–3 stories in an unparalleled collection of all significant narratives of Adam and Eve in Armenian literature—prose and poetry, homilies and commentaries, calendary and mathematical texts—from its inception in the fifth century to the seventeenth century. This seminal resource contributes to the lively current discussion of how biblical and apocryphal traditions were retold, embroidered, and transformed into the lenses through which the Bible itself was read.
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front cover of Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Angels and Biblical Heroes
Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Angels and Biblical Heroes
Michael E. Stone
SBL Press, 2016

Explore how the vivid and creative Armenian spiritual tradition shaped biblical stories to serve new needs

Michael E. Stone’s latest book includes texts from Armenian manuscripts that are relevant to the development and growth of biblical themes and subjects. Most of these texts have not been published previously. Stone has collected a fascinating corpus of texts about biblical heroes, such as Joseph and Jonah, Nathan the Prophet, and Asaph the Psalmist. In addition, he has included documents illustrating particular points of the biblical story. This work reflects not just on how the Bible was interpreted in medieval times, but also how its stories and details were shaped by and served the needs of the vivid and creative Armenian spiritual tradition.

Features:

  • Expanded stories from Exodus
  • Introductions,translations, and notes
  • Insights into the Armenian "Embroidered Bible," through which many biblical incidents were known to Armenian literature, art, and thought
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front cover of Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Biblical Heroes
Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Biblical Heroes
Michael E. Stone
SBL Press, 2019

Explore richly embellished Armenian tales of biblical heroes

This fifth book of Michael E. Stone's English translations of stories from medieval Armenian manuscripts illustrates how authors transmitted and transformed accounts of biblical heroes. Texts focus on important figures such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Solomon, Daniel and Susanna, and more. This collection reflects not only the richness of Armenian creativity stimulated by piety and learning but also Michael E. Stone's career-long search for reworkings of biblical traditions, stories, and persons in the Armenian tradition.

Features:

  • A rich tradition of biblical exegesis and commentary, much of it in genres of the older apocryphal and pseudepigraphical literature
  • Reflections on the roots of Armenian texts in ancient Judaism and earliest Christianity
  • Texts, translations, and a critical apparatus
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front cover of The Lost Bible
The Lost Bible
Forgotten Scriptures Revealed
J. R. Porter
University of Chicago Press, 2001
The Lost Bible provides a fascinating introduction to sacred writings of great profundity and aesthetic merit that did not become part of the canon of the Old and New Testaments. In the centuries around the beginning of the Common Era, the Jewish people drew faith and inspiration from hundreds of sacred writings, not just those that make up the Hebrew Bible we know today. Early Christianity itself produced a wealth of sacred writings, which, though they did not become part of the New Testament, were popular among believers and important in spreading the faith. After the canons of the Jewish and Christian Bibles were established, many of these works disappeared into obscurity. Some were lost entirely; others survived in translations.

J. R. Porter introduces the reader to a wide selection of these extraordinary and beautiful "lost" works-from words considered to be those of prophets, kings, and patriarchs (even Adam himself) to legends and stories that supply "missing" parts of the Gospels. For each work, commentary is followed by a translated extract in clear and up-to-date language. The commentary places writings in their religious, social, and political context; explains the crucial importance of these works to the development of Jewish and Christian thought; and highlights the many legends and artistic traditions that sprang from them. It also examines the reasons-both religious and political-why these writings did not become part of the Jewish and Christian Bibles.

Lavishly illustrated with beautiful artwork, and amplified by maps, timelines, and data boxes, this text is a rich resource for anyone interested in exploring the origins of Judaism and Christianity.

Part I: Works related to the Old Testament

*Apocalypses
*Testaments
*Comments on Scripture
*Wisdom and Philosophy
*Hymns and Prayers
*Sibylline Oracles
*Apocrypha and Deuterocanonical works
*Recent Discoveries, including the Dead Sea Scrolls

Part II: Works related to the New Testament
*Apocryphal Gospels
*Apocryphal Acts
*Apocryphal Letters
*Apocryphal Apocalypses
*Recent Discoveries, including the Gnostic Library
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front cover of Reading and Teaching Ancient Fiction
Reading and Teaching Ancient Fiction
Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman Narratives
Sara R. Johnson
SBL Press, 2018

The third volume of research on ancient fiction

This volume includes essays presented in the Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative section of the Society of Biblical Literature. Contributors explore facets of ongoing research into the interplay of history, fiction, and narrative in ancient Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian texts. The essays examine the ways in which ancient authors in a variety of genre and cultural settings employed a range of narrative strategies to reflect on pressing contemporary issues, to shape community identity, or to provide moral and educational guidance for their readers. Not content merely to offer new insights, this volume also highlights strategies for integrating the fruits of this research into the university classroom and beyond.

Features

  • Insight into the latest developments in ancient Mediterranean narrative
  • Exploration of how to use ancient texts to encourage students to examine assumptions about ancient gender and sexuality or to view familiar texts from a new perspective
  • Close readings of classical authors as well as canonical and noncanonical Jewish and Christian texts
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