TOOLS AND CRITICAL EDITIONS

The Apocyphon ofJohn: Synopsis of Nag Hamrnadi Codices 11,l; 111,l;and IV, 1, with BG 8502,2, ed. Michael Waldstein and Frederik Wisse. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 33. LeidenINew York/Cologne: Brill, 1995. Pp. xii + 243. $97.00. This useful volume presents all four surviving Coptic translations of the Apocyphon ofJohn in parallel columns, with English translations underneath. It will be an invaluable tool for anyone interested in the relationship of these translations to one another and to the underlying Greek versions of the text. The Apocyphon ofJohn was originally written in Greek in the early third century. It undenvent an extensive redaction not long thereafter, still in Greek. Both the later, lengthier, version of the text and its earlier pre-redacted Vorlage were eventually translated into Coptic. As it happens, with the discovery of the Berlin Codex and the Nag Hammadi tractates, we now have two Coptic copies of each version. Codex Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 and NHC 111, 1 represent independent Coptic translations of the shorter version of the text. Translations of the longer version are found in NHC 11, 1 and, more fragmentarily, in NHC IV, 1. (These actually represent copies of the same Coptic translation, made independently of one another.) In the present volume, Waldstein and Wisse print all four Coptic texts side by side, with the two more complete forms of the short and long texts (BG 8502 and NHC 11, 1, respectively) on the inner margins of the facing pages for ready comparison. English translations of these tractates and of NHC 111, 1 (the independent translation of the shorter Greek version) are provided underneath. This is the first English translation of NHC I I I , 1 to be published. No translation of NHC IV, 1 is provided, since it represents simply another copy of the longer form already rendered beneath NHC 11, 1. Instead, the space beneath NHC IV, 1 is used to provide a translation of the parallels to the text found in Irenaeus Aduersus Haereses 1,29. A text-critical apparatus for all four tractates is provided at the foot of the page. An Introduction discusses (a) the relation of these texts to one another and to their Greek originals, (b) codicological,paleographic, and text-critical data for each of the surviving texts, (c) the accuracy of the Coptic translations and the significance of their patent inaccuracies for understanding the functions of the translations and the use to which they were put, and, consequently, (d) the tradition-history of the Apocnjphon of John. The editors provide several appendices, including, most usefully, the Latin text of Irenaeus Adu. Haer. 1.29 and the Greek parallels in Theodoret, Haer. Fab. 13, both with English translations on facing pages, and the parallels to the Apocyphon ofJohn found

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in the writings of Theodore bar Konai, Liber Scholintum, and in the fourth-century fragmentary parchment leaf discovered at Deir El-Bala'izah in upper Egypt. The volume ends with a bibliography and, most usefully, a complete index of Coptic words (with brief definitions and cross-references to Crum's Coptic Dictionary), of Greek words, and of names. Bart D. Ehrman University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Dictionary o f Deities and Demons in the Bible (DDD), ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst. Leiden/New York/Cologne: Brill, 1995. Pp. xxxvi + 1774 cols. $128.75.
A unique reference tool that provides concise articles on "all the gods and demons whose names are found in the Bible" (p, xv). By "the Bible," the editors mean the books of the Hebrew Bible in the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint (including the Apocrypha), and the NT. Among the purposes of the volume are (a) to provide "a scholarly introduction to the religious universe which the Israelites and the Early Christians were part of," (b)to "enable readers to assess the distinctiveness of Israelite, Jewish, and Early Christian religions," and (c) to show "the mythological background of various biblical notions and concepts" (p, xvii). The dictionary does not include entries on deities from the Ancient Near East or the Greco-Roman environment that are not named in the Bible, a limitation overcome, to some extent, by the healthy smattering of references to nonbiblical divinities that are included (the index allows the reader to track these down), and even more by the generous definition of what it means for a deity or demon to be "mentioned in the Bible. There are five kinds of entries: (1) biblical deities that are explicitly named as such (e.g., Asherah, El, Zeus); (2) deities incorporated into personal or place names (e.g., Shemesh in "Beth-Shemesh," or Artemis in the name "Artemas"); (3) deities named, but not in their capacity as gods (e.g., the Hebrew word for new wine, tiros, is "etymologically the equivalent o f . . . the Canaanite god Tirash," p. xvi, on which, therefore, an entry is provided); (4) deities whose appearance in the Bible is subject to question (e.g., when scholars have either emended the text to represent a divine name or reinterpreted a common word as a theonym-such as the Hebrew raC,"evil" [= the Egyptian sun-god, "Re"?]); and (5) human figures who later came to be seen as divine or semi-divine (e.g., Enoch, Moses, and Mary). This latitude of definition allows for a surprisingly large number of entries: over eighty alphabetized under "A" and "B" alone. Many may not be expected (e.g., Dew, Fire, Thornbush, Vampire). Each article discusses the name of the deity, its etymology, and its identity, role, and character both in its "culture of origin" and in the biblical traditions themselves. All entries conclude with relevant bibliography; some provide additional discussion of the deity in post-biblical periods. The three editors and their panel of over one hundred contributing authors from around the world are to be commended for providing an important and unparalleled reference tool for scholars of the biblical and surrounding cultures. Bart D. Ehrman University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599