The Protevangelium of James

This book is the first modern collection of studies on important aspects

of the Protevangelium of James. The volume opens with three

chapters on introductory questions, such as the canonical or apocryphal

status of the Protevangelium in early Christianity, its date,

author and provenance, and the way it adapted and developed earlier

traditions about the birth of Jesus. The subsequent chapters first focus

on the protagonists Mary and Joseph, after which they discuss the Jewish

aspects of the Protevangelium, Salome’s manual inspection of

Mary, the place and nature of space in the Protevangelium, and

the question of the text’s consistency and coherence. The final two

chapters discuss a series of annunciation scenes in Christian and

Islamic literature, which are often heavily dependent on the

Protevangelium, and the latter’s reception in the Armenian

Gospel of the Infancy. The Appendix looks at the Armenian apocryphal

text entitled Script of the Lord’s Infancy, a witness to the

great popularity enjoyed in Armenia by the early Syriac apocryphal

stories of Christ’s birth and childhood. As has become usual, the volume

concludes with an extensive bibliography and a detailed index.