Friday, July 18, 2008

text of the Apocalypse of Gabriel

Over at The Forbidden Gospels Blog, April DeConick posted a notice (which has since been taken offline and replaced with this) that the full translation (as well as the reconstructed Hebrew text) of the Apocalypse of Gabriel is available online [follow the link for the .pdf to access the Hebrew text].

I haven't looked at the Hebrew text, but after reading through the English translation (and being impressed by the amount of work still to do on this text, of course), I am even more convinced that the significance of this text for understanding Christian Origins and the earliest kerygma of Jesus' resurrection is on a par with Josephus's account of the Golden Eagle incident (War 1.648–655; Ant. 17.149–167) or Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. That's not to say that, if authentic, the Apocalypse of Gabriel isn't still momentously important. But its significance for Christian Origins needs to be kept in perspective. Unfortunately, perspective doesn't sell news stories.

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