The Latin title, Epistula Apostolorum, was suggested by Carl Schmidt, the first editor of this previously unknown work. In chapter 2 eleven apostles are indeed named as the collective authors of this work, addressed to the entire worldwide Christian community, but its contents do not correspond to the apostolic or pseudo-apostolic letters of the New Testament. The major part of the Epistula records a dialogue supposed to have taken place on Easter morning in which Jesus answers questions put to him by his disciples in preparation for their future mission. The dialogue occurs within a narrative frame that includes a collection of miracle stories from Jesus’s childhood and ministry (chapters 4–5), a version of the empty tomb story together with an appearance to female and male disciples (chapters 9–12), and a concluding ascension narrative unrelated to the more familiar version in Acts (chapter 51). In many respects this text is more like a gospel than an epistle.

Investigates the proliferating texts and traditions about Jesus in the early church and the decision in favour of the canonical four. By examining the competing options, the decision in favour of a fourfold gospel is seen as a decision for plurality within limits: the limits sustaining the coherence of the apostolic testimony to Jesus, and the plurality allowing the richness and complexity of the truth about Jesus to be displayed.

This chapter reconstructs the modern editorial history of the Epistula Apostolorum, with a particular focus on the origins of the unsatisfactory formatting of translations of this work. In collections of so-called New Testament Apocrypha it is presented in two independent and poorly co-ordinated columns, one translated from the Ethiopic version, the other from the Coptic. This two-column format makes the text difficult to use, and it is probably the main reason for its scholarly neglect. It derives from the editio princeps of 1919 and reflects the desire of the editor – the German Coptologist Carl Schmidt – to preserve the integrity of the partially extant Coptic text rather than using the complete Ethiopic text to produce a critical translation which would correspond as closely as possible to the lost Greek original. Schmidt only became aware of the existence of the Ethiopic version at a late stage and failed to collaborate effectively with Louise Guerrier, editor of the Ethiopic version. In subsequent translations the two-column format has been retained under the erroneous impression that the Ethiopic and Coptic versions represent different recensions of the Epistula.

In contrast to the synoptic gospels and the Pauline letters, the author of the Epistula is concerned to present a coherent and comprehensive account of the essentials of Christian faith as he understands it. That is especially the case in the area of eschatology, which becomes increasingly focused on judgement as the text proceeds. Judgement is preceded by resurrection, and it is the resurrection and judgement of Christians that is most strongly emphasized. The judgement will bring about a final division within the Christian community between the elect (those who obey Jesus’ commandments) and the rejected (those who disobey), and the failure to challenge the inappropriate conduct especially of wealthy members of the community is attributed to ‘partiality’ and is itself regarded as disobedience exposing one to eternal punishment. Thus the impartiality that Jesus will display at the eschatological judgement must be anticipated here and now. A hardline insistence on strict retributive justice is maintained in spite of the disciples’ appeal to the divine mercy.

Following the critique of early translations of the Epistula Apostolorum in Chapter 1, this chapter consists in a new translation which normally follows the much older Coptic manuscript where available and uses the Ethiopic version to fill in the many larger or smaller Coptic lacunae. Greek loanwords included in the Coptic text are noted. A critical apparatus lists variants between the Ethiopic and the Coptic and/or within the Ethiopic manuscript tradition, presented in English translation. In addition to the four Ethiopic manuscripts collated by Guerrier for his edition of 1912, variants from four previously unedited Ethiopic manuscripts have been incorporated. Links are provided from the critical apparatus to the extensive ‘Additional Notes on Text and Translation’ in the final part of the present work, where key decisions are explained and justified.

Like other second-century authors, the author of EpAp combines Johannine incarnational theology with the Lukan miraculous conception account and views the miraculous conception as the means by which the incarnation took place. Unlike the canonical evangelists, this author also provides an account of the pre-existent Jesus’ descent from heaven, adopting angelic disguise. Thus the angel Gabriel in the Lukan annunciation story is here the Son of God in angelic form, who brings about his own incarnation in Mary’s womb without assistance from the Holy Spirit. EpAp thus narrates the entire process of incarnation, following the precedent of the angelic transformation schema depicted in the Ascension of Isaiah. In that text, the event of incarnation appears to take place not at conception but at the birth itself – a point of agreement with an otherwise quite different ‘narrative of incarnation’ in the Protevangelium of James. So-called ‘adoptionist’ christologies may better be understood as attempts to narrate the incarnation, now identified with the descent of the Spirit/Christ at Jesus’ baptism.

Part Three of this work consists in extensive notes providing supplementary information about translation decisions, differences between the manuscripts, and exegetical issues, keyed to the translation of the Epistula Apostolorum in Chapter 2.

After brief discussion of the manuscript evidence for the Epistula Apostolorum, the primary focus of the Introduction is on questions of genre and provenance. While the (modern) Latin title presents this text as a letter, its focus on revelation also links it to Christian apocalyptic texts. Yet the Epistula is most fundamentally a gospel, with close thematic connections to other early gospel literature, especially the Gospels of Matthew and John, of which the author makes selective use at a number of points. While a question-and-answer session between Jesus and his disciples on Easter morning occupies the bulk of the text, it also includes a collection of miracle stories and an account of the ascension, confirming its gospel-like character. To describe it as an ‘apocryphal’ gospel is, however, anachronistic given its early date. References to the apostle John and the heretic Cerinthus suggest an Asian provenance, and a date of around 170 CE would account both for Jesus’ announcement of his return after 150 years and for the emphasis on the worldwide plague expected to precede that return, identifiable as the ‘great plague’ spoken of by Galen and later writers.

Prior to the dialogue on Easter morning that forms the major part of this work, the Epistula Apostolorum includes a sequence of seven stories of Jesus’ miracles. Since this text also includes references to his birth and his ascension, its scope is comparable to that of the Gospel of Luke, in contrast to other so-called ‘dialogue gospels’, which focus exclusively on post-Easter appearances of the risen Lord. Skilfully integrated into its context within the Epistula, the miracle sequence opens with a story from Jesus’ childhood also attested in non-canonical sources, here illustrating a Christology which differentiates the pre-existent from the incarnate Christ. This is followed by a version of the water-into-wine story that seems to preserve pre-Johannine features, challenging the assumption that Jesus traditions in non-canonical sources always postdate and depend upon their canonical versions. Other miracles recounted in this group of stories shows awareness of synoptic traditions, although substantial redactional elements are also present.