Apostles, Long Dead 'Heretics', and Monks: Noncanonical Traditions on Angels and Protoplasts in Two Late Antique Coptic Apocalypses (7th-8th Century CE)

The article aims at offering a glimpse into the first results of a five year engagement with the German translation and annotation of three mostly neglected Late Antique Coptic ‘apocalypses’ (The Glory of the Precursor, The Investiture of Abbaton, and The Mysteries of John, these last two still untranslated in German). Firstly, this corpus of texts is searched through for common literary motifs and traces of their milieu of production. Secondly, the non canonical traditions related to angels and primeval human beings are identified that two of the aforementioned ‘apocalypses’ (The Investiture of Abbaton and The Mysteries of John) evidently rework into their texture. The main questions of the sources and the Christological and soteriological agenda are addressed. Finally, conclusions are drawn regarding the polemical stances and ideological strategies underlying these literary works as a whole and animating the monastic milieu of their production. Both the analysis and the conclusions stand out as the first attempt to provide the texts with critical observations and a coherent commentary on some relevant passages. A new English translation of the latter is offered in the appendix.