This study of the Protevangelium of James explores the interrelationship of authors, readers, texts, and meaning. Its central aim is to better understand how the process of repetition gave rise to the narratives of the early Christian movement, and how that process continued to fuel the creativity and imagination of future generations. Divided into three parts, Vanden Eykel addresses first specific episodes in the life of the Virgin, consisting of Mary's childhood in the Jerusalem temple (PJ 7-9), her spinning thread for the temple veil (PJ 10-12), and Jesus' birth in a cave outside Bethlehem (PJ 17-20).
The three episodes present a uniform picture of how the reader's discernment of intertexts can generate new layers of meaning, and that these layers may reveal new aspects of the author's meaning, some of which the author may not have anticipated.
Bond, Helen K.: - Helen K. Bond is Professor of Christian Origins and Head of the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the social and political history of Judaea under Roman rule, the historical Jesus, and the canonical gospels. She is the author of Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation (1998), Caiaphas: High Priest and Friend of Rome? (2004), The Historical Jesus: A Guide for the Perplexed (2012), Jesus: A Very Brief History (2017), The First Biography of Jesus: Genre and Meaning in Mark's Gospel (2020), and a number of shorter studies and articles.
Eykel, Eric M. Vanden: - Eric M. Vanden Eykel is Assistant Professor of Religion at Ferrum College, USA.
Keith, Chris: - Chris Keith is Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway. He is the author of The Pericope Adulterae, the Gospel of John and the Literacy of Jesus, a winner of the 2010 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and Jesus' Literacy: Scribal Culture and the Teacher from Galilee. He is also the co-editor of Jesus among Friends and Enemies: A Historical and Literary Introduction to Jesus in the Gospels, and was recently named a 2012 Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar.
Schröter, Jens: - Jens Schroeter is Chair and Professor of Exegesis and Theology of the New Testament and New Testament Apocrpyha at the Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.