Description

This book is the first modern collection of studies on important aspects of the Protevangelium of James. The volume opens with three chapters on introductory questions, such as the canonical or apocryphal status of the Protevangelium in early Christianity, its date, author and provenance, and the way it adapted and developed earlier traditions about the birth of Jesus. The subsequent chapters first focus on the protagonists Mary and Joseph, after which they discuss the Jewish aspects of the Protevangelium, Salome's manual inspection of Mary, the place and nature of space in the Protevangelium, and the question of the text's consistency and coherence. The final two chapters discuss a series of annunciation scenes in Christian and Islamic literature, which are often heavily dependent on the Protevangelium, and the latter's reception in the Armenian Gospel of the Infancy. The Appendix looks at the Armenian apocryphal text entitled Script of the Lord's Infancy, a witness to the great popularity enjoyed in Armenia by the early Syriac apocryphal stories of Christ's birth and childhood. As has become usual, the volume concludes with an extensive bibliography and a detailed index.