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A tabular comparison of 1st through 14th Century texts about or related to the death of James the... more A tabular comparison of 1st through 14th Century texts about or related to the death of James the Just.

This paper presents an annotated English language translation of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (M... more This paper presents an annotated English language translation of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (Mäṣḥafä Dorho / መጽሐፈ፡ ዶርሆ፡), also known as the Ge'ez Book of the Rooster. The text narrates the events leading up to the Last Supper, the arrest, trial and execution of Jesus. While the text's basic framework is a harmony of the canonical gospels, the Book of the Cock contains many non-canonical narrative features.

Evocatio Deorum and the Siege of Jerusalem. A Comparison of Josephus' and Tacitus' accounts of ... more Evocatio Deorum and the Siege of Jerusalem.
A Comparison of Josephus' and Tacitus' accounts of the siege of Jerusalem to texts that refer to the rite of Evocatio Deorum suggest that the rite of evocatio deorum was performed by the Romans during their siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple.

The Multiple Arrests (and Escapes) of Jesus. A List of the Attempts to Capture Jesus and His Esc... more The Multiple Arrests (and Escapes) of Jesus.
A List of the Attempts to Capture Jesus and His Escapes.
Jesus had multiple encounters with hostile authorities or antagonistic crowds, in both the canonical Gospels and non-canonical texts. In each case he was set free or managed to escape, up until his final capture and subsequent execution.

I propose that the "Scribes" of the New Testament are equivalent to Josephus' Essenes.

The New Testament appellation "Simon the Leper" appears to be a bilingual (Greek-Latin) pun of "S... more The New Testament appellation "Simon the Leper" appears to be a bilingual (Greek-Latin) pun of "Simon the Priest". This paper compares 5 versions of the anointing of Jesus and demonstrates the punning transformation of "priest" to "leper".

1. Narratives about Jesus' resurrection in canonical and non-canonical texts are displayed in par... more 1. Narratives about Jesus' resurrection in canonical and non-canonical texts are displayed in parallel fashion in the two tables below. Similarities between the texts suggests that the stories shared a common literary precursor. Oral transmission is too mutable keep this kind of tight structural similarity, and the free oral translation of a story from one language to another would cause more change to its narrative sequence and vocabulary than would be found in a written translation that closely adheres to its source.
The origin of the story about Matthew's walking dead men is proposed.

Irenaeus' Against Heresies, Epiphanius' Parnarion, Gospel of Thomas 50, and 1st Apocalypse of Jam... more Irenaeus' Against Heresies, Epiphanius' Parnarion, Gospel of Thomas 50, and 1st Apocalypse of James contain variations of the same Gnostic text. The texts are compared allowing a better understanding of how they were transmitted across language and cultural barriers.

The Origin of the Story of Jesus bringing Clay Birds to Life. These stories appear to be based o... more The Origin of the Story of Jesus bringing Clay Birds to Life. These stories appear to be based on a Hebrew source text which contained extended puns or word play based on Hebrew having a single word that can mean both male bird (rooster) and man, and another word which can mean either man or earth/clay. The original text contained a double entendre that could be read either as a miraculous story about Jesus giving life to earthen birds, or as a hidden message about Jesus bestowing a blessing upon twelve men, chosen from among his followers, and sending them out into the world as his apostles.

The conception stories about Izates, the king of Adiabene, in Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of th... more The conception stories about Izates, the king of Adiabene, in Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, the story about the conception of Jesus in the Gospel attributed to Matthew, and the legendary conception story of Alexander the Great as recounted in the Greek Alexander Romance have sequences of phrase-by-phrase parallels.

In Book 2 of Jewish War, Flavius Josephus wrote that he had hoped to discourage the Roman besiege... more In Book 2 of Jewish War, Flavius Josephus wrote that he had hoped to discourage the Roman besiegers of Jotapatai by convincing them that the city’s water supply was not in immediate danger of being exhausted.
I compared eleven texts recounting this episode: the 1895 Niese critical Greek text, six English translations ranging from the 1603 Thomas Lodge translation to the contemporary Loeb translation, the 1912 Reinach French translation, Pseudo-Hegesippus, Josippon, and the Slavonic recension of Jewish War.

The shared agonies of Vitellius and Jesus. There is a remarkable literary resemblance between Je... more The shared agonies of Vitellius and Jesus.
There is a remarkable literary resemblance between Jesus' Agony in the Garden (Luke 22:44) and the arrest of Jesus the failed Messiah (Luke 22:50), and the Agony in the Palace and the arrest of Vitellius the failed Emperor (see below, Tacitus, Histories, 3.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 263 – 339) misrepresented a monument celebrating the Roman conquest o... more Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 263 – 339) misrepresented a monument celebrating the Roman conquest of Judea as evidence of the veracity of a Christian foundational story.

The preserved passages from the “Secret Gospel” of Mark contain literary parallels with the instr... more The preserved passages from the “Secret Gospel” of Mark contain literary parallels with the instructions for installing a priest found in the Tanakh.

There were late classical and medieval scribes, translators, apologists, and authors who had no c... more There were late classical and medieval scribes, translators, apologists, and authors who had no compunction about modifying the text of Flavius Josephus' works, either to use the altered text to support their own arguments, or to add drama to the story they were telling. In the autobiographical section of "War of the Jews", Josephus recounts how he commanded the Jewish forces who were besieged by the Romans at Jotapata. This episode has been altered to present Josephus as a pious man aceeding to God's will, a trickster, or a thug who used the threat of violence to get his own way, in different versions of Jewish War.
This essay examines the different versions of Josephus castingg lots for his life.

Examining allusions to Christian literature and Flavian Era texts in the Satyricon's Cena Trimalc... more Examining allusions to Christian literature and Flavian Era texts in the Satyricon's Cena Trimalchionis and insinuations of Christian Cannibalism in fragments of the Satyricon, and a proposal that Titus Petronius Secundus, not Titus Petronius Arbiter, was the author of the Satyricon.

Allusions to Christianity and Post Neronian texts in the Satyricon’s Cena Trimalchionis, The Saty... more Allusions to Christianity and Post Neronian texts in the Satyricon’s Cena Trimalchionis, The Satyricon and Allegations of Christian Cannibalism.
A Proposal that Titus Petronius Secundus, not Titus Petronius Arbiter, was the author of the Satyricon.

The Relationship Between the Satyricon's “Tale of the Ephesian Widow” and Texts Associated with E... more The Relationship Between the Satyricon's “Tale of the Ephesian Widow” and Texts Associated with Early Christianity and A Few Thoughts Concerning the Authorship of the Satyricon.

The relationship between the Satyricon's “Tale of the Ephesian Widow” and texts associated with E... more The relationship between the Satyricon's “Tale of the Ephesian Widow” and texts associated with Early Christianity and a few thoughts concerning the authorship of the Satyricon are presented in this essay.

The Satyricon 1 is an incompletely preserved Latin picaresque novel about the misadventures of it... more The Satyricon 1 is an incompletely preserved Latin picaresque novel about the misadventures of its dissipated and unscrupulous narrator, Encolpius, and the dissolute characters he encountered during his travels. The story takes place in southern Italia, during the mid to late 1 st century CE. The date of composition of the Satyricon is unknown. The earliest known manuscripts of the Satyricon date to the 9th century. The Satyricon was rediscovered, copied, and printed during the Renaissance. The manuscript tradition attributes the work to an otherwise unidentified "Titus Petronius". One of the most famous narrative interludes in the Satyricon is the "Tale of the Ephesian Widow". The third-rate poet Eumpolis told the tale to entertain the passengers and crew of a ship sailing around the southern end of the Italian peninsula. The "Tale of the Ephesian Matron" is a story within a story. Eumpolis presented the story as a recollection of an actual event. The story was about a recently widowed woman who was celebrated for her great virtue. Accompanied by a servant, she sequestered herself in her husband's tomb and refused to take nourishment or leave the corpse's side. The mourning widow was noticed by a nearby soldier, who was guarding the corpses of several crucified thieves. The soldier seduced the grieving widow. While the soldier was dallying with the widow, one of the crucified corpses was stolen and given proper burial. The soldier decided to kill himself rather than suffer punishment for his dereliction of duty. The widow, not wanting to lose her new found lover, offered to substitute her husband's corpse for the stolen body. The next day, the townspeople wondered how the dead husband managed to climb up on the cross in place of the dead thief. Eumpolis' "Tale of the Ephesian Matron" was an elaboration of Plautus' well-known story of the "Widow and the Soldier" (2), which in turn may have been based on an earlier Greek fable (3). An alert and erudite Roman reader would have recognized that Eumpolis was a plagiarizer. Eumpolis took a well-known moralizing fable, repackaged it as a sardonic shaggy dog story (4), and then passed it off as his recollection of an actual event. The author of "The Satyricon" portrayed Eumpolis as an unreliable narrator, whose audience accepted the story as a true and accurate account of actual events because they lacked the refinement to recognize the story's true origin. What is somewhat less obvious is that "The Tale of the Ephesian Widow" is both a parody of the Christian biography of Jesus and a critique that questions the veracity of the Christian foundation myth by offering mundane alternative explanations for the supernatural events of the Christian myths. The accompanying five column table "Table 1-Correlations between Petronius' Tale of the Widow of Ephesus, The Canonical and Non-Canonical Gospels, and Other Stories" compares "The Tale of the Ephesian Widow" to its source "The Widow and the Soldier", and to canonical and non-canonical stories about Jesus. 1 Many translations and editions of the Satyricon are available on line and in well stocked book stores. Many essays about the text, the complex manuscript history of the Satyricon, and the extensive controversies surrounding the work are available at university libraries and on the many web pages devoted to the Satyricon. The literature on the Satyricon is voluminous, contentious and dates back hundreds of years. Caveat Lector. 2 The Widow and the Soldier / The Fables of Phaedrus, Literally translated into English prose. Translator: H. T. Riley, C. Smart, 1887, Fable XIV-The Widow and the Soldier, p 443. Phaedrus (c. 15 BC-c. AD 50) was a Roman fabulist. Phaedrus is known for rewriting Greek fables into Latin verse. 3 The literary trope of lovers meeting in a tomb has a long history. Plautus' "Widow and the Soldier", the Satyricon's "Tale of the Ephesian Matron", the 2 nd century CE "Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes" by Xenophon of Ephesus, "The Apocryphal Acts of John the Apostle" traditionally ascribed to Leucius Charinus, and of course William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" all contain variations of the "lovers in a tomb" theme. John 20: 11-18, in which Mary encountered the post mortem Jesus outside his tomb, probably should be included in this story genre. 4 A shaggy dog story is an extremely long-winded anecdote characterized by extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents and terminated by an anticlimax or pointless punchline. In the case of the "Ephesian Widow", the focus of the narrative is suddenly shifted from the seduction of the virtuous widow to the town's people's bewilderment at the undignified reappearance of her late husband's corpse. 5 Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.4 (18.066 et seq.) 6 The Toledoth Yeshu is a biography of Jesus that was circulated among Jewish communities. Books that contain some historical information about and transcripts of various manuscript versions of the Toledoth Yeshu are listed below.

A tabular comparison of 1st through 14th Century texts about or related to the death of James the... more A tabular comparison of 1st through 14th Century texts about or related to the death of James the Just.

This paper presents an annotated English language translation of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (M... more This paper presents an annotated English language translation of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (Mäṣḥafä Dorho / መጽሐፈ፡ ዶርሆ፡), also known as the Ge'ez Book of the Rooster. The text narrates the events leading up to the Last Supper, the arrest, trial and execution of Jesus. While the text's basic framework is a harmony of the canonical gospels, the Book of the Cock contains many non-canonical narrative features.

Evocatio Deorum and the Siege of Jerusalem. A Comparison of Josephus' and Tacitus' accounts of ... more Evocatio Deorum and the Siege of Jerusalem.
A Comparison of Josephus' and Tacitus' accounts of the siege of Jerusalem to texts that refer to the rite of Evocatio Deorum suggest that the rite of evocatio deorum was performed by the Romans during their siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple.

The Multiple Arrests (and Escapes) of Jesus. A List of the Attempts to Capture Jesus and His Esc... more The Multiple Arrests (and Escapes) of Jesus.
A List of the Attempts to Capture Jesus and His Escapes.
Jesus had multiple encounters with hostile authorities or antagonistic crowds, in both the canonical Gospels and non-canonical texts. In each case he was set free or managed to escape, up until his final capture and subsequent execution.

I propose that the "Scribes" of the New Testament are equivalent to Josephus' Essenes.

The New Testament appellation "Simon the Leper" appears to be a bilingual (Greek-Latin) pun of "S... more The New Testament appellation "Simon the Leper" appears to be a bilingual (Greek-Latin) pun of "Simon the Priest". This paper compares 5 versions of the anointing of Jesus and demonstrates the punning transformation of "priest" to "leper".

1. Narratives about Jesus' resurrection in canonical and non-canonical texts are displayed in par... more 1. Narratives about Jesus' resurrection in canonical and non-canonical texts are displayed in parallel fashion in the two tables below. Similarities between the texts suggests that the stories shared a common literary precursor. Oral transmission is too mutable keep this kind of tight structural similarity, and the free oral translation of a story from one language to another would cause more change to its narrative sequence and vocabulary than would be found in a written translation that closely adheres to its source.
The origin of the story about Matthew's walking dead men is proposed.

Irenaeus' Against Heresies, Epiphanius' Parnarion, Gospel of Thomas 50, and 1st Apocalypse of Jam... more Irenaeus' Against Heresies, Epiphanius' Parnarion, Gospel of Thomas 50, and 1st Apocalypse of James contain variations of the same Gnostic text. The texts are compared allowing a better understanding of how they were transmitted across language and cultural barriers.

The Origin of the Story of Jesus bringing Clay Birds to Life. These stories appear to be based o... more The Origin of the Story of Jesus bringing Clay Birds to Life. These stories appear to be based on a Hebrew source text which contained extended puns or word play based on Hebrew having a single word that can mean both male bird (rooster) and man, and another word which can mean either man or earth/clay. The original text contained a double entendre that could be read either as a miraculous story about Jesus giving life to earthen birds, or as a hidden message about Jesus bestowing a blessing upon twelve men, chosen from among his followers, and sending them out into the world as his apostles.

The conception stories about Izates, the king of Adiabene, in Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of th... more The conception stories about Izates, the king of Adiabene, in Flavius Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, the story about the conception of Jesus in the Gospel attributed to Matthew, and the legendary conception story of Alexander the Great as recounted in the Greek Alexander Romance have sequences of phrase-by-phrase parallels.

In Book 2 of Jewish War, Flavius Josephus wrote that he had hoped to discourage the Roman besiege... more In Book 2 of Jewish War, Flavius Josephus wrote that he had hoped to discourage the Roman besiegers of Jotapatai by convincing them that the city’s water supply was not in immediate danger of being exhausted.
I compared eleven texts recounting this episode: the 1895 Niese critical Greek text, six English translations ranging from the 1603 Thomas Lodge translation to the contemporary Loeb translation, the 1912 Reinach French translation, Pseudo-Hegesippus, Josippon, and the Slavonic recension of Jewish War.

The shared agonies of Vitellius and Jesus. There is a remarkable literary resemblance between Je... more The shared agonies of Vitellius and Jesus.
There is a remarkable literary resemblance between Jesus' Agony in the Garden (Luke 22:44) and the arrest of Jesus the failed Messiah (Luke 22:50), and the Agony in the Palace and the arrest of Vitellius the failed Emperor (see below, Tacitus, Histories, 3.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 263 – 339) misrepresented a monument celebrating the Roman conquest o... more Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 263 – 339) misrepresented a monument celebrating the Roman conquest of Judea as evidence of the veracity of a Christian foundational story.

The preserved passages from the “Secret Gospel” of Mark contain literary parallels with the instr... more The preserved passages from the “Secret Gospel” of Mark contain literary parallels with the instructions for installing a priest found in the Tanakh.

There were late classical and medieval scribes, translators, apologists, and authors who had no c... more There were late classical and medieval scribes, translators, apologists, and authors who had no compunction about modifying the text of Flavius Josephus' works, either to use the altered text to support their own arguments, or to add drama to the story they were telling. In the autobiographical section of "War of the Jews", Josephus recounts how he commanded the Jewish forces who were besieged by the Romans at Jotapata. This episode has been altered to present Josephus as a pious man aceeding to God's will, a trickster, or a thug who used the threat of violence to get his own way, in different versions of Jewish War.
This essay examines the different versions of Josephus castingg lots for his life.

Examining allusions to Christian literature and Flavian Era texts in the Satyricon's Cena Trimalc... more Examining allusions to Christian literature and Flavian Era texts in the Satyricon's Cena Trimalchionis and insinuations of Christian Cannibalism in fragments of the Satyricon, and a proposal that Titus Petronius Secundus, not Titus Petronius Arbiter, was the author of the Satyricon.

Allusions to Christianity and Post Neronian texts in the Satyricon’s Cena Trimalchionis, The Saty... more Allusions to Christianity and Post Neronian texts in the Satyricon’s Cena Trimalchionis, The Satyricon and Allegations of Christian Cannibalism.
A Proposal that Titus Petronius Secundus, not Titus Petronius Arbiter, was the author of the Satyricon.

The Relationship Between the Satyricon's “Tale of the Ephesian Widow” and Texts Associated with E... more The Relationship Between the Satyricon's “Tale of the Ephesian Widow” and Texts Associated with Early Christianity and A Few Thoughts Concerning the Authorship of the Satyricon.

The relationship between the Satyricon's “Tale of the Ephesian Widow” and texts associated with E... more The relationship between the Satyricon's “Tale of the Ephesian Widow” and texts associated with Early Christianity and a few thoughts concerning the authorship of the Satyricon are presented in this essay.

The Satyricon 1 is an incompletely preserved Latin picaresque novel about the misadventures of it... more The Satyricon 1 is an incompletely preserved Latin picaresque novel about the misadventures of its dissipated and unscrupulous narrator, Encolpius, and the dissolute characters he encountered during his travels. The story takes place in southern Italia, during the mid to late 1 st century CE. The date of composition of the Satyricon is unknown. The earliest known manuscripts of the Satyricon date to the 9th century. The Satyricon was rediscovered, copied, and printed during the Renaissance. The manuscript tradition attributes the work to an otherwise unidentified "Titus Petronius". One of the most famous narrative interludes in the Satyricon is the "Tale of the Ephesian Widow". The third-rate poet Eumpolis told the tale to entertain the passengers and crew of a ship sailing around the southern end of the Italian peninsula. The "Tale of the Ephesian Matron" is a story within a story. Eumpolis presented the story as a recollection of an actual event. The story was about a recently widowed woman who was celebrated for her great virtue. Accompanied by a servant, she sequestered herself in her husband's tomb and refused to take nourishment or leave the corpse's side. The mourning widow was noticed by a nearby soldier, who was guarding the corpses of several crucified thieves. The soldier seduced the grieving widow. While the soldier was dallying with the widow, one of the crucified corpses was stolen and given proper burial. The soldier decided to kill himself rather than suffer punishment for his dereliction of duty. The widow, not wanting to lose her new found lover, offered to substitute her husband's corpse for the stolen body. The next day, the townspeople wondered how the dead husband managed to climb up on the cross in place of the dead thief. Eumpolis' "Tale of the Ephesian Matron" was an elaboration of Plautus' well-known story of the "Widow and the Soldier" (2), which in turn may have been based on an earlier Greek fable (3). An alert and erudite Roman reader would have recognized that Eumpolis was a plagiarizer. Eumpolis took a well-known moralizing fable, repackaged it as a sardonic shaggy dog story (4), and then passed it off as his recollection of an actual event. The author of "The Satyricon" portrayed Eumpolis as an unreliable narrator, whose audience accepted the story as a true and accurate account of actual events because they lacked the refinement to recognize the story's true origin. What is somewhat less obvious is that "The Tale of the Ephesian Widow" is both a parody of the Christian biography of Jesus and a critique that questions the veracity of the Christian foundation myth by offering mundane alternative explanations for the supernatural events of the Christian myths. The accompanying five column table "Table 1-Correlations between Petronius' Tale of the Widow of Ephesus, The Canonical and Non-Canonical Gospels, and Other Stories" compares "The Tale of the Ephesian Widow" to its source "The Widow and the Soldier", and to canonical and non-canonical stories about Jesus. 1 Many translations and editions of the Satyricon are available on line and in well stocked book stores. Many essays about the text, the complex manuscript history of the Satyricon, and the extensive controversies surrounding the work are available at university libraries and on the many web pages devoted to the Satyricon. The literature on the Satyricon is voluminous, contentious and dates back hundreds of years. Caveat Lector. 2 The Widow and the Soldier / The Fables of Phaedrus, Literally translated into English prose. Translator: H. T. Riley, C. Smart, 1887, Fable XIV-The Widow and the Soldier, p 443. Phaedrus (c. 15 BC-c. AD 50) was a Roman fabulist. Phaedrus is known for rewriting Greek fables into Latin verse. 3 The literary trope of lovers meeting in a tomb has a long history. Plautus' "Widow and the Soldier", the Satyricon's "Tale of the Ephesian Matron", the 2 nd century CE "Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes" by Xenophon of Ephesus, "The Apocryphal Acts of John the Apostle" traditionally ascribed to Leucius Charinus, and of course William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" all contain variations of the "lovers in a tomb" theme. John 20: 11-18, in which Mary encountered the post mortem Jesus outside his tomb, probably should be included in this story genre. 4 A shaggy dog story is an extremely long-winded anecdote characterized by extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents and terminated by an anticlimax or pointless punchline. In the case of the "Ephesian Widow", the focus of the narrative is suddenly shifted from the seduction of the virtuous widow to the town's people's bewilderment at the undignified reappearance of her late husband's corpse. 5 Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.4 (18.066 et seq.) 6 The Toledoth Yeshu is a biography of Jesus that was circulated among Jewish communities. Books that contain some historical information about and transcripts of various manuscript versions of the Toledoth Yeshu are listed below.

An English language translation of the opening chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (Ge'ez Bo... more An English language translation of the opening chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (Ge'ez Book of the Rooster (Mäṣḥafä Dorho, መጽሐፈ፡ ዶርሆ፡)).

An English translation of the chapter from the Ethiopic Book of the Cock in which Jesus announced... more An English translation of the chapter from the Ethiopic Book of the Cock in which Jesus announced his upcoming trials to his disciples.

The annotated English translation of the chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (Ge'ez Book of ... more The annotated English translation of the chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (Ge'ez Book of the Rooster / Mäṣḥafä Dorho, መጽሐፈ፡ ዶርሆ፡) about Jesus' first announcement to his disciples that one of them would betray him.

An English translation of the chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock that tells the story of ho... more An English translation of the chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock that tells the story of how a miraculous levitating column of stone identified Judas as the betrayer of Jesus.

An annotated English translation of the chapter of the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Book of the Cock (Book of... more An annotated English translation of the chapter of the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Book of the Cock (Book of the Rooster / መጽሐፈ፡ ዶርሆ፡ (Mäṣḥafä Dorho)) recounting Judas' negotiations with the priests and doctors of the law, and his subsequent exchange of words with Jesus.

The English translation of the chapter from the Ethiopic Book of the Cock dealing with the prepar... more The English translation of the chapter from the Ethiopic Book of the Cock dealing with the preparation for Jesus' Last Supper in Bethany.

This is an annotated English translation of the chapter from the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (Ge'ez... more This is an annotated English translation of the chapter from the Ethiopic Book of the Cock (Ge'ez Book of the Rooster) about Jesus' arrival the house of Simon the Pharisee and his wife Akrosenna.

2 The English language translation of the chapter in the Ethiopic Book of the Cock about Judas' i... more 2 The English language translation of the chapter in the Ethiopic Book of the Cock about Judas' interaction with Alexander the Doorkeeper. This incident has no parallel in the canonical gospels.

This is an annotated English translation of the chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock about th... more This is an annotated English translation of the chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock about the anointing of Jesus by a woman who had a questionable reputation. The chapter displays a surprising degree of intertextuality. The Apocryphal Book of the Cock and the canonical gospels have parallels with each other and with unexpected late 1 st c. Greek and Latin texts. The allusions to the Tanakh (Old Testament) suggest that the author of the source text on which the Christian gospels were based was a Hebrew speaker who was well versed in exegesis of the Tanakh.

The Ethiopic Book of the Cock Jesus washed his Disciples' Feet. A comparison of the English tran... more The Ethiopic Book of the Cock Jesus washed his Disciples' Feet.
A comparison of the English translation of the foot washing episode in The Ethiopic Book of the Cock to the canonical gospels and other texts, with additional annotations.

The Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Book of the Cock 3.21, The Institution of the Eucharist. A comparison of... more The Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Book of the Cock 3.21, The Institution of the Eucharist.
A comparison of the Last Supper in the Book of the Cock, to the accounts in the Synoptic Gospels, 1Corinthians 11, and The Gospel according to the Hebrews, and to the Miraculous Feeding in John 6.

This is an annotated English translation of a chapter of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock.

4.06 Reviving the Cock and Sending it on a Mission - The Ethiopic Book of the Cock. This is an a... more 4.06 Reviving the Cock and Sending it on a Mission - The Ethiopic Book of the Cock.
This is an annotated English translation of a chapter of the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Book of the Cock. In this chapter, Jesus resurrected a cooked cock, and sent it on a mission to spy on Judas.
Other chapters are available from the same translator.

4.09 The Ethiopic Book of the Cock, Judas' Final Transaction with the Judean Authorities . An ... more 4.09 The Ethiopic Book of the Cock, Judas' Final Transaction with the Judean Authorities .
An English translation of a Chapter of the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Book of the Rooster.
This chapter is about Judas consulting with his wife on how to best hand over Jesus, and his meeting with the chief priests. The revised essay demonstrates some parallels with Pseudo Cyril of Jerusalem's Homily "On the Life and the Passions of Christ".

4.17 The Ethiopic Book of the Cock - The Cock's Story. A Chapter from the Ge'ez Book of the Cock... more 4.17 The Ethiopic Book of the Cock - The Cock's Story.
A Chapter from the Ge'ez Book of the Cock, translated into English.
The resurrected cock's report about Judas' activities does not have a counterpart in the Canonical gospels. Another story about a talking animal that served as a messenger is found in the Acts of Peter. The Acts of Peter contains a story about a dog that was miraculously granted the ability to speak carried messages between for Simon Peter and Simon Magus.
Other translated chapters of the Ethiopic Book of the Cock are available from this translator on this website.

4.23 Ethiopic Book of the Cock-Jesus Bestowed a Blessing on Peter, and said grace over dinner. A ... more 4.23 Ethiopic Book of the Cock-Jesus Bestowed a Blessing on Peter, and said grace over dinner. A chapter from the Ethiopic (Ge'ez) Book of the Cock translated into English.

A Tabular Comparison of the English translation of The Prayer at Gethsemane in the The Ethiopic B... more A Tabular Comparison of the English translation of The Prayer at Gethsemane in the The Ethiopic Book of the Cock To the Canonical Gospel Accounts.

The Narrative of Jesus' Arrest and Interrogation by the High Priest In the Ethiopic Book of the C... more The Narrative of Jesus' Arrest and Interrogation by the High Priest In the Ethiopic Book of the Cock Compared With The Arrest Accounts in the Canonical Gospels.
The text is annotated demonstrating literary relationship of Ethiopic Book of the Cock to other texts.