The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir

The incomplete state in which many Coptic writings have survived makes them difficult to assess, and the text studied in this book is no exception. Preserved in two fragmentary manuscripts, the Berlin-Strasbourg-Apocryphon - previously known as the Gospel of the Savior - has been wrongly identified as a second-century gospel which was bypassed in the formation of the Christian canon. Alin Suciu demonstrates that this misunderstanding of the text derives from an insufficient knowledge of Coptic literature. Rather, the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon is one of the numerous "apostolic memoirs," a peculiar genre of Coptic literature which consists of writings allegedly written by the apostles, often embedded in sermons attributed to famous church fathers. These texts were composed following the Council of Chalcedon, as part of the attempt of the emerging Coptic church to mold its identity after the schism.