Texts and their transmission

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North American Society for the Study of Christian Apocryphal Literature

Research society maintaining a guide to Christian apocryphal texts and witnesses.

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Ornias

A harmful spirit named in the Greek Testament of Solomon, whose capture begins the ring-and-Temple narrative.

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The shamir in the Talmudic story

A remarkable stone-cutting creature in Gittin 68's Temple-building story, not an identified archaeological tool.

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Ashmedai

The 'king of demons' in the Babylonian Talmud's Gittin 68 story about Solomon and the shamir.

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Odyssey

Greek epic attributed to Homer, following Odysseus’s return after the Trojan War.

Papyrus fragment of the Odyssey, about 285–250 BCE; Met 09.182.50. It preserves lines from Book 20, rather than the assembly scenes in Books 1 and 5

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Iliad

Greek epic attributed to Homer, narrating a phase of the Trojan War.

Fragment of the Hawara papyrus preserving Iliad 2.757–775, about 150 CE. A witness to the epic’s transmission in the Roman period; its date is not the date of composition

People

Hittites

Ancient people and kingdom of Anatolia, dominating much of Anatolia and northern Syria around 1650–1200 BCE.

The Lion Gate at Hattusha, the Hittite capital near Boğazköy in modern Türkiye. A contemporary view of the remains, photographed by Bernard Gagnon on 19 May 2014

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Radiocarbon dating

A probabilistic date range for organic material; for parchment it dates animal skin rather than ink directly.

Original clock diagram for dating organic material; it does not reproduce the Birmingham manuscript

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Typhon / Typhoeus

Zeus's serpent-headed opponent, whose battle differs between Hesiod and later Greek accounts.

Modern diagram separating Hesiod's Typhoeus from the later sinew episode; not an ancient depiction

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Illuyanka

The serpent opposed by the storm god in two Hittite narratives preserved in CTH 321.

Modern diagram separating the two CTH 321 Illuyanka versions; neither a tablet photograph nor a portrait of the serpent

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Kumarbi

Hurrian divine figure in Hittite CTH 344; challenges Anu and carries the storm god after swallowing his seed.

Modern succession diagram for CTH 344; neither a proven father–son genealogy nor an ancient portrait of Kumarbi

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Zeus

Zeus is the sky god and leading deity in many Greek traditions. In the Iliad he presides over divine gatherings while others can still speak and object.

Greek marble head, third or second century BCE. The Metropolitan Museum identifies the deity as probably Zeus; the attribution is uncertain, and the object postdates the Iliad's formation

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Divine assembly type-scene

A way to analyse a recurring assembly scene in narrative, while its purpose, speakers and decision vary.

Modern explanatory diagram comparing functions of particular Ugaritic, Iliadic and Odyssean scenes: message, dispute and feast, forbidding or permitting intervention, and a return decision. A tool for reading narratives, rather than independent evidence of transmission

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Sacrificial substitution

An offering replaces a person or another offering in a particular text; this alone establishes neither ritual origin nor borrowing.

Original diagram distinguishes text, interpretation, hypothesis and practice; comparison is not proof of borrowing or event

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Akedah (binding of Isaac)

Jewish designation for Isaac’s binding in Genesis 22, developing through retelling and prayer.

Modern diagram comparing explicit textual features; not a proven transmission route or final composition order

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Enclosed nations

Narrative motif of peoples beyond a barrier until their release, not a fixed ethnic name.

Modern method diagram distinguishing text, interpretation and copy dates; the rows do not give one date for the story

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Gog and Magog

Names with different roles in genealogies, invasion prophecy, end-time nations and barrier traditions.

Modern comparison of names and barriers in specified texts; no identification of a living people or proof of a complete transmission chain

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Targum Sheni of Esther

An Aramaic translation and expansion of Esther containing an excursus on Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Modern comparison of Eleazar’s and the Testament’s rings, nest and chamber glass, and Solomon’s roles; resemblance does not decide dependence

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Testament of Solomon

A Greek pseudepigraphal text about Solomon commanding spirits and building the Temple, preserved in different forms.

Modern method diagram: manuscript, work and modern research dates differ; these rows do not prove a transmission chain

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Apocalypse of Abraham

Work attributed to Abraham and preserved in Slavonic transmission; opens with idol criticism before heavenly revelation.

Modern method diagram distinguishing specific resemblance from a direct source: priority and circulation alone identify no manuscript, intermediary or definite route

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Genesis Rabbah

Jewish midrashic collection interpreting Genesis;38:13 narrates Abraham, idols, Nimrod and Haran’s death.

Modern comparison: Jubilees’ idol-house fire and Haran’s death; Genesis Rabbah’s rescue and Haran’s death; Apocalypse’s paternal-house destruction; Qur’anic rescue. No proven chain of borrowing

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War Scroll

Dead Sea Scroll text portraying war between the sons of light and the hostile camp; its principal copy is designated 1QM.

Modern distinction between War Scroll camps and equal divine origins; the prayer in1QM XIII attributes Belial’s making to God

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Book of Jubilees

Jewish retelling of Genesis and Exodus framed as angelic teaching to Moses, adding chronology, narratives and interpretation.

Modern diagram of Jubilees10: permission for one tenth, confinement of nine tenths, and Noah’s remedies; narrative proportions, not a historical census

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Enmeduranki

Primeval king in Mesopotamian wisdom tradition; distinguish from his sage and Enoch.

Modern distinction between king, sage and Enoch; seventh position proves neither personal identity nor a composition date

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Apkallu

Akkadian word for sage; lists,images and roles require their own textual contexts.

Modern comparison of Oannes, Enmeduranki, Watchers and Enoch in the cited passages; neither genealogy nor proof of borrowing

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Book of the Watchers

Opening section of1 Enoch, 1–36; includes the Watchers’ descent and transgression and Enoch’s journey.

1 Enoch 6–16: modern diagram distinguishing Watchers, their offspring’s bodies and offspring spirits; not an ancient image or portrait

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Nephilim

Term in Genesis and Numbers; it alone identifies neither a biological population nor every fallen angel.

Nephilim and giants: modern comparison of Genesis 6,Numbers 13 and Enoch 7; not a proven biological genealogy or ancient image

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Testament of Abraham

Narrative of Abraham’s death and journey; its long recension distinguishes Abel the judge, Dokiel the weigher and Michael the guide.

Roles in the long Testament of Abraham, 10–14: a modern textual diagram distinguishing Michael the guide from Dokiel the weigher; not an ancient artifact

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Rashnu: justice in Iranian reckoning

Iranian figure associated with just reckoning; the Menog i Khrad describes a balance favouring neither king nor pauper.

Reckoning in Menog i Khrad 2:110–122 and 12:11–15: original modern diagram of impartial justice and the outcomes of deeds; not a portrait of Rashnu or an ancient map

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Sheol: a Hebrew term for the realm of the dead

Hebrew textual term involving death, descent and lost return; it does not automatically mean later punitive Gehenna.

Sheol in Job 7:7–10 and Genesis 37:33–35: an original modern diagram comparing two textual contexts only; not an afterlife map or an ancient artifact

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Gehenna: a place-name and language of punishment

Term related to the valley of Hinnom; usage changes across Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts and does not equate every afterlife term.

Mount Zion from the valley of Hinnom; American Colony (Jerusalem), Photo Department, 1934–1939. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-matpc-19029. Modern historical site photograph, not an image of the afterlife or photographic evidence of ancient rites. Collection rights dedicated to the public; no known publication restrictions

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Adonia: the celebration of Adonis

Celebration associated with Adonis; texts and images attest practices varying by place and time, including planters, mourning and farewell.

Attic red-figure oil jar, mid-4th century BCE; a woman receives a planter from Eros in a scene associated with the Adonia. Metropolitan Museum, 22.139.26; Public Domain

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Adonis: death and return in differing narratives

Figure associated with Aphrodite, mourning and celebration; divided residence, death and return differ between sources.

Attic red-figure oil jar, mid-4th century BCE; a woman receives a planter from Eros in a scene associated with the Adonia. Metropolitan Museum, 22.139.26; Public Domain

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Apotheosis: acquiring divine status

Transformation granting divine status; differs from returning to an earlier human life or raising the dead for judgment.

Attic red-figure vessel, 4th century BCE; depicts Heracles’s apotheosis, not Alcestis’s rescue. Metropolitan Museum, 52.11.18; public-domain photograph

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Katabasis: descent to the underworld

Comparative term for a journey to the realm of the dead; does not by itself establish that its traveler died and rose.

Attic red-figure vessel, 4th century BCE; depicts Heracles’s apotheosis, not Alcestis’s rescue. Metropolitan Museum, 52.11.18; public-domain photograph

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Ritual atonement: kipper

Hebrew verb in offering and purification instructions; meaning depends on action, target, and beneficiary, rather than declaring someone outside a religion.

Hittite vessel terminating in a stag’s forepart, ca. 14th–13th century BCE; silver with gold inlay, central Anatolia. Metropolitan Museum, 1989.281.10; public-domain image. Ritual material culture, not evidence that it held blood or belonged to Papanikri’s or Leviticus’s rites

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Ritual impurity

Religious classification concerning sacred access and purification; not automatically moral condemnation or a modern medical diagnosis.

Hittite vessel terminating in a stag’s forepart, ca. 14th–13th century BCE; silver with gold inlay, central Anatolia. Metropolitan Museum, 1989.281.10; public-domain image. Ritual material culture, not evidence that it held blood or belonged to Papanikri’s or Leviticus’s rites

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Ritual removal

Analytical term for removing what is considered harmful or polluting from communal or sacred space; transfer, expulsion and slaughter are distinct functions.

William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat, mid-1850s; Lady Lever catalogue dates the painting to 1854, LL3623. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Later religious artistic interpretation, not an archaeological depiction of Leviticus’s rite or a portrayal of Azazel

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Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement

Jewish observance whose Leviticus 16 setting involves sanctuary purification and the sent-away goat; distinguish ancient instructions from later practice and interpretation.

William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat, mid-1850s; Lady Lever catalogue dates the painting to 1854, LL3623. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Later religious artistic interpretation, not an archaeological depiction of Leviticus’s rite or a portrayal of Azazel

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Kētos: marine creature

Greek word for the marine creature in Jonah and Matthew; alone it establishes neither a modern species nor the story’s origin.

Roman marble table base depicting Jonah swallowed and cast up by a marine creature, early fourth century CE. Metropolitan Museum,77.7, public-domain photograph. Evidence of Christian artistic reception, not an artifact from the prophet’s time or identification of his fish’s species