02466nam a2200133 4500008004200000020001800042245007100060210006900131260003600200520195000236653002802186100002702214856009102241 2002 eng.d  a978019925075200aAncient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption0 aAncient Traditions of the Virgin Mary s Dormition and Assumption aOxfordbOxford University Press3 a

The ancient Dormition and Assumption traditions, a remarkably diverse collection of narratives recounting the end of the Virgin Mary's life, first emerge into historical view from an uncertain past during the fifth and sixth centuries. Initially appearing in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, these legends spread rapidly throughout the Christian world, resulting in over 60 different narratives from before the tenth century preserved in nine ancient languages. This study presents a detailed analysis of the earliest traditions of Mary's death, including the evidence of the earliest Marian liturgical traditions and related archaeological evidence as well as the numerous narrative sources. Most of the early narratives belong to one of several distinctive literary families, whose members bear evidence of close textual relations. Many previous scholars have attempted to arrange the different narrative types in a developmental typology, according to which the story of Mary's death was transformed to reflect various developments in early Christian Mariology. Nevertheless, evidence to support these theories is wanting, and the present state of our knowledge suggests that the narrative diversity of the early Dormition traditions arose from several independent ‘origins’ rather than through ordered evolution from a single original type. Likewise, scholars have often asserted a connection between the origin of the Dormition traditions and resistance to the council of Chalcedon, but the traditions themselves make this an extremely unlikely proposal. While most of the traditions cannot be dated much before the fifth century, a few of the narratives were almost certainly in composed by the third century, if not even earlier. These narratives in particular bear evidence of contact with gnostic Christianity. Several of the most important narratives are translated in appendices, most appearing in English for the first time.

10aNew Testament Apocrypha1 aShoemaker, Stephen, J. uhttp://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0199250758.001.0001/acprof-978019925075201776nas a2200133 4500008004200000245014200042210007000184300001200254490000800266520126900274653002801543100002701571856004401598 2011 eng.d 00aNew Syriac Dormition Fragments from Palimpsests in the Schøyen Collection and the British Library: Presentation, Edition and Translation0 aNew Syriac Dormition Fragments from Palimpsests in the Schøyen C a259-2780 v1243 a

These new Syriac fragments (BL syr. Add. 17,137 and Schøyen MS 579) offer early witnesses to the apocryphal traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Both are important for the evidence they provide for the circulation of these apocrypha in the fifth and sixth centuries, for the 'Six Books' apocryphon in the case of the Schøyen fragments, and for the Obsequies of the Virgin in the case of the British Library fragment. The British Library fragment is especially important inasmuch as it confirms the presence of certain elements in the earliest version of this Dormition apocryphon. In fact, the British Library fragment would appear to present one of the earliest witnesses to belief in Marian intercession. The Schøyen fragments, for their part, offer further evidence for the circulation and redactional diversity of the 'Six Books' apocryphon now in several late ancient Syriac manuscripts. This article presents editions and translations of these two fragments.

10aNew Testament Apocrypha1 aShoemaker, Stephen, J. uhttps://syri.ac/bibliography/1050186486