Back in 2015, I prepared a new English translation of a New Testament apocryphon titled Life of John the Baptist by Serapion (LJB) for the first volume of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. This text, preserved only in Arabic, seems to have been quite popular, considering the number of extant manuscripts (17 as of this writing). It's easy to see why: it involves a fan fave side character from an extended universe on a hero's journey, orphaned at an early age, then as a grown up fighting one of the major villains in the universe; even the main character of the universe makes a cameo appearance at one point. And although the story does end tragically for the main character, the bad guys ultimately get their comeuppance and then some. LJB is not a cult classic like other works in the extended universe, say Thomas' miracle skin or Andy and Bart's excellent adventure, yet it still contains enough fantastical elements like - spoiler alert! - Jesus and Mary traveling on a cloud or John's head preaching even after being cut off to be up there.
In the course of researching the text, I came across another text that was not identical, but definitely related. It is preserved on ff. 218r-223v in a 15th-century manuscript housed in the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF) with the shelf mark Arabe 258. The beginning is missing, so there is no title, but someone (possibly later) added "On Herod and John the Baptist" (OHJB) in the margin. This is also the title I assigned to it when I prepared an edition and translation of the text. OHJB is indeed not a recension of LJB, however, it contains the same striking motifs thought unique to LJB before OHJB came to light:
- Herod (Antipas) and Herodias have begun an affair behind her husband's Philip's (who also happens to be Herod's brother) back
- A reference to a room filled with stench
- A reference to Gabriel inspiring John’s rebuke of Herod
- Herod and Herodias hear John's voice and search for it, but cannot find it
- Herodias entices Herod to have John killed and when this fails, Herodias intends to enlist the help of sorcerers
- John's head continues to decry Herod's transgressions even after being cut off and continues to do so while flying over Jerusalem
To be sure, there are major differences between LJB and OHJB - for one, OHJB is obviously framed as a sermon, with citations from the Gospels, moralizing passages ("And where there’s drink and song and carnal desires, there is not a single good thing."), and on multiple occasions, the author addresses the audience as "dearly beloved" or alike. Additionally, both narratives disagree on the ultimate fate of those involved in John's murder and some details of it, such as Herodias' involvement and the details of the demise of her daughter. OHJB is nevertheless related to LJB and it is exciting to find a new witness to a text that has been known for quite some time.
Over the last decade, I occasionally came across new manuscripts of LJB, but nothing similar to OHJB. That was until last year when a colleague pointed me to a book by Delio Vania Proverbio on Ethiopic and Arabic recensions of a number of homilies purportedly written by John Chrysostom (henceforth: Proverbio 1998). These include three homilies on John the Baptist (Proverbio 1998: 82-83, 86) and according to my colleague, the Ethiopic text he consulted was nearly identical in terms of content with OHJB. I turned to Proverbio 1998 and found out that there are actually three pseudo-Chrysostomic homilies on John the Baptist, two extant in Arabic and the third extant in both Arabic and Ethiopic (the latter presumably a translation of the former):
- Arabic I: Sinai ar. 153, ff. 138r-146r; Tripoli Dayr Sayyidat al-Balamand 119, 40r-44v [1]
- Arabic II: Sinai ar. 153, ff. 146r-154v.
- Arabic III: Rome Bibl. Casanat. 2237, ff. 98r-107r; BnF Syriaque 237 (1553 CE), ff 245v-265r; Vat. copt. 77 (1480), 72v-55v (sic Proverbio and Graf from whom Proverio got this information).
Arabic I is obviously a different text than OHJB, being much shorter and focused only on the circumstances of John's birth, Arabic II is also too short, so the only candidate is Arabic III. Of the three manuscripts, only BnF Syriaque 237 is available to me and after a quick check, it turns out its text is nearly identical to that of OHJB. Compare the beginning of OHJB with the equivalent section in the Paris manuscript of Arabic III; the single difference is highlighted in bold:
OHJB (BnF Arabe 258, fol. 218r): واتخذ امرات اخيه له زوجه في السر. وكان اذا وجد خلوه اختلا بها في المقبره المنتنه. اعني بيته المملوا نتن.
BnF Syriaque 237, fol. 293r-293v: ܘܐܬܟܕ ܐܡܪܐܗ̈ ܐܟܝܗ ܙܘܓܗ ܦܝ ܐܠܣܕ ܘܟܐܢ ܐܕܐ ܟܠܘܗ ܐܟܬܠܐ ܒܗܐ ܦܝ ܐܠܡܩܒܪܗ ܐܠܢܬܢܗ ܐܥܢܝ ܒܝܬܗ ܐܠܡܡܠܘܐ ܢܬܢ
English: "... and he took his wife’s brother for his own in secret and he found an opportunity to be alone with her in a stinking tomb – that is, his room filled with stench..."
Mystery solved, then: OHJB is not OHJB, but rather a pseudo-Chrysostomic homily which integrates motifs from LJB. Time to update the e-Clavis entry no. ECCA 590, obtain the remaining manuscripts listed by Proverbio for Arabic III (the one from Rome should be here next week) and redo the edition.
Also, maybe someone should look at every homily that mentions John the Baptist, like the one in Wādī al-Naṭrūn Dayr al-Qiddīs Anbā Maqār Hag. 37 (17th c. CE), pp. 26-71. This text contains many of the familiar motifs from LJB, but it is quite interesting in other ways, right from the rubricated (written in red ink) introduction. The introduction describes the text as a mīmar and identifies the author as "one of the believers in our Lord Jesus the Messiah". The text then goes on to say that this mīmar contains "his sīra from his childhood to the fullfilment of his (earthly) journey". The use of term sīra (pl. siyyar) right within the first few lines stands out. The term has two major meanings: first, it is used generically to mean '(way of life), conduct, life story, biography'; secondly, it is used as a technical term for two types of literary compositions, the biographies of Muhammad (sīra nabawīyya), and popular romances (sīra šaʕbīyya). I have argued that works like LBJ or the so-called Arabic recension of the Testament of Solomon are exactly that, original Christian compositions in the style of Muslim Arabic siyyar to educate and possibly even entertain the listeners. Now it is much more likely that in the case of Hag. 37, the author/editor/copyist uses the term sīra in the first sense, but considering the cultural context, one has to wonder what it is the author/editor/copyist was doing.
The second interesting thing about the homily in Hag. 37 is the large amount of attention it devotes to the conflict between Herod and his brother Philip. In the text (pp. 41-42), Herod writes to Tiberius accusing his brother of trying to dodge taxes and declare independence. This conflict - which has no basis in the historical record - is hinted at in LJB, but it is discussed in much more detail in two Coptic panegyrics to John the Baptist, one in Bohairic (henceforth: De Vis 1922), the other in Sahidic (henceforth: Kuhn 1966) attributed to Theodosius of Alexandria. I have argued that these panegyrics were mined for content by the author of LJB, considering the similarities in the motifs. In the case of the homily in Hag. 37, however, the connection is much stronger; for one, it includes details of Herod's betrayal of his brother only found in the panegyrics. Also, there is this Bohairic line on p. 41:
The Bohairic line reads "John witnessed" [2] and serves to introduce - rather abruptly, following a page or two of homiletic material - a section detailing John's involvement in the conflict; compare De Vis 1922:22 and Kuhn 1966: 39 which feature a similar sharp section division.
It should be noted that LJB and the pseudo-Chrysostomic homily are composite texts that borrow heavily from other texts, from Gospels to the Coptic panegyrics. Same applies to the homily in Hag. 37, except it would seem that it cribs a whole lot more from the panegyrics than either of the other two texts. As always, only a careful and detailed study of the text can elucidate the relationship between these texts and other parts of related traditions. Those of us interested in this sort of thing have our work cut out for us.
[1] I added the folio numbers, Proverbio only gives the number of text in the volume.
[2] My thanks to my homie Alin Suciu for the translation and analysis.
