Friday, May 9, 2008

Apocryphote of the Day: 5-9-08

Strive and save what is able to follow [me]. Seek it and speak from it, so that what you seek will be in harmony with you. For truly I say to you, the living God [dwells] in you, [as you also dwell] in God.

Dialogue of the Savior 137.16-138.2.

Comment: Since you liked this particular text so much yesterday, here it another quote from it. By the way, this text has always fascinated me, and when I first learned Coptic this was the text I chose to translate first. For a time, I even planned to write my dissertation on it, but instead went with Thomas. I did put my thoughts on the Dialogue of the Savior into an article many years ago which I published in VC. If you go to my articles page here, scroll down to 1996 "The Dialogue of the Savior and the Mystical Sayings of Jesus" you will see a pdf file of the article that you can download if you wish. And now I find myself in this text again as I write my article on the many faces of Mary Magdalene for the Talpiot tomb volume that Charlesworth is editing. I'm also going to be using this material in a chapter in my tradebook, Sex and the Serpent in Ancient Christianity: Why the Sexual Conflicts in the Early Church Still Matter. I'm having a blast with this book! Plan to finish it by the end of the summer.

3 comments:

R.Eagle said...

Thanks a lot, Dr. D. I started reading Emmel's translation. Yes, it's very deep, and yet, how I wish it didn't have all the empty spots. Has anyone been so bold as to try and fill them in??

Yes, I shall enjoy your article very much. Thanks again!

bulbul said...

Professor, is there any chance you could also post the original text, at least with the shorter ones? My knowledge of Coptic is somewhat sketchy, but I'd love to expand it and this would be the perfect way :)

John Noyce said...

I also have concerns about using this fascinating text given the extent of the apparent damage to the (unique) original as shown in the English translation.
Those fourth century church fathers who rejected this and other early texts sure have some explaining to do!