Dissertation Abstract: Brent Landau, "The Sages and the Star-Child"

It is that time of year again. Dissertations are being defended. New life journeys are about to begin! So first let me congratulate Dr. Brent Landau for a successful defense of his Harvard thesis which examines a Christian apocryphal text, called the Revelation of the Magi.

Brent Landau
Harvard University
Dissertation Advisor: Professor François Bovon
Dissertation Title: The Sages and the Star-Child: An Introduction to the Revelation of the Magi, An Ancient Christian Apocryphon
Defended: Spring 2008

Abstract
This study analyzes a poorly-known ancient Christian apocryphal writing, termed the Revelation of the Magi. This document purports to be the personal testimony of the biblical Magi on the coming of Christ, and is the longest and most complex narrative devoted to the Magi surviving from antiquity. The first chapter is a critical edition of the Syriac text of this apocryphon as found in the Chronicle of Zuqnin, an eighth-century world chronicle preserved in a single manuscript, codex Vaticanus Syriacus 162. The corresponding annotated English translation is the first of its kind for this text.

The second chapter compares the Syriac text with a much shorter version of the narrative contained in the Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum, an Arian commentary on the Gospel of Matthew from the fifth century. It concludes that the Opus is a witness to a Greek version of this apocryphon, basically equivalent to the received Syriac.

The third chapter attempts to trace the prehistory of the text prior to its fifth-century form, and argues that the earliest form of the text was a pseudepigraphon, written from the putative perspective of the Magi themselves. This text, which was composed in the late second or early third century, was redacted in the third or fourth century to include a third-person account of the Apostle Judas Thomas’ conversion of the Magi.

The fourth chapter investigates the use of foundational Christian writings by the Revelation of the Magi. Although the text is obviously dependent upon Matthew for its basis narrative structure, the terminology and theology of the Gospel of John is much more influential, especially since the text portrays the Magi’s star as Christ in luminous form—the literal “light of the world.”

The fifth and final chapter argues that the text employs two different modes of religious diffusion: divine universal revelation and human mission. Its presentation of divine revelation has particular consequences for understanding the origins of religious difference. According to the Revelation of the Magi, because Christ can appear to anyone, in any place, at any time, he is actually the wellspring of all of humanity’s religious traditions.

Student Thesis: Shaping Christian Identity (Kevin Vaccarella)

Kevin Vaccarella has just finished his PhD. Congratulations! He sent me this information about his thesis to post.

If you send me your own thesis information when you finish, I will post it and archive it under Student Theses too.

Name: Kevin M. Vaccarella
Title: Shaping Christian Identity: The False Scripture Argument in Early Christian Literature
University: Florida State University
Advisor: Nicole Kelley

Description:
Christian communities in the first four centuries struggled to construct and maintain a sense of social identity in a time when there were no stable descriptions for Christianity or Judaism. Competing social identities emerged among Jewish and Christian groups as various authors worked to construct and maintain communal boundaries regarding acceptable (and, simultaneously, unacceptable) beliefs and practices. While some Christian groups rejected certain traditions, other groups found reasons to adopt them. An author (re)presents the community's values and beliefs, whether real or idealized, not only to establish an identity but also to maintain that identity. An investigation of early Christian texts regarding their attitudes toward the Mosaic law, then, provides a window into the process of identity formation.

This dissertation is an examination of a peculiar scriptural hermeneutic that claims that certain biblical mandates found in the scriptures are false. Any beliefs or regulations contained in the supposed false portions of scripture can be rejected on the grounds that they are not part of God's eternal laws. The distinction between the authentic and the false passages has been revealed by Jesus Christ and passed down to his most faithful followers. The false scripture argument is found, to my knowledge, exclusively within Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, the Didascalia Apostolorum, and the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies.

Although there are overlapping tenets, each text presents a unique explanation of the origin and catalogue of the false sections of scripture. The variation in the false scripture argument reflects each author's distinctive effort to construct communal boundaries in the face of social competition. The false scripture argument functions as a rhetorical tool designed to demarcate the author and his community as the true followers of God since they alone possess knowledge of, as well as the means to distinguish, the false passages of scripture. The false scripture argument shapes the community's religious life by barring members from dangerous practices while at the same time validating the traditions accepted by the author and his community.

What is your thesis?

Are you finishing your MA or PhD or ThD thesis this semester? If so, share the news in the comments. Don't be shy. Share your joy with the rest of us and let us know what your academic passion has been (or: is)!

Please include your name, the title, the university, the advisor, and a brief description.

Trey Gilliam,
"The Gospel of Mark and The Gospel of John: Complementary Christological Compositions"
M.A. thesis at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Under the supervision of Dr. James Tabor.
I am on my way to the University of Edinburgh to write a PhD dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Larry Hurtado.

Abstract. The scholarly consensus holds that the Christology of the Gospel of Mark is fundamentally different from the Christology of the Gospel of John. This thesis argues against that consensus. I argue that the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John contain complementary Christological compositions. My argument falls within a larger Christological debate. This debate is: when and how did early Christians come to reverence Jesus as divine and worthy of worship alongside God? My thesis builds on the work of Larry Hurtado and other scholars who contend that the understanding of Jesus as a divine figure who is to receive the worship of the gathered community developed within the earliest phases of the burgeoning Christian movement. My goal is to strike the same point with the earliest Christian narratives – the New Testament Gospels – that Hurtado and others have struck with the even earlier Pauline letters. In other words, I demonstrate that there is no major Christological evolutionary development between Mark’s gospel (dated sometime around 70 C.E.) and John’s gospel (dated sometime around 90-100 C.E.). After making this demonstration, I then ask: if the presentation of Jesus in Mark’s gospel and John’s gospel is complementary then why do many scholars continue to view John’s Christology as significantly more exalted than Mark’s Christology? I show how this manner of reading John’s gospel developed during the debates surrounding the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. I contend that this legacy of Nicaea continues in modern scholarship.

Update 5-1-07: I began moving the descriptions from the comments to the main blog.