10.1484/J.APOCRA.1.103505 Apocrypha 24, 2013, p. 255-279

Erik YINGLINGYale University

SINGING WITH THE SAVIOR : RECONSTRUCTING THE RITUAL RING-DANCE IN THE GOSPEL OF

THE SAVIOR 1

In this article I reconstruct verse 72 of the Gospel of the Savior and show that the reconstruction portrays the Savior singing in the midst of a ring-dance. I also answer two questions about this choral ring-dance : First, what signifi cance did this ritual likely have for the Egyptian Christians who used the Gospel of the Savior ? Second, within the liturgical world of the Gospel of the Savior, what was the purpose of the Savior’s mysterious ring-dance ? I argue that the responsory-ring in the Gospel of the Savior was signifi cant for some Egyptian Chris-tians because it defended Coptic theological views of the incarnation and human salvation. Within the Gospel of the Savior, the purpose of the liturgy was to deify the disciples by transforming them to be like the Savior, and to praise the Savior’s supremacy as the divine King.

Cet article propose de reconstruire le paragraphe 72 de l’Évangile du Sauveur et montre que cette reconstruction dresse le portrait du

1. I’m grateful for the generous funding that was provided while I was at Brigham Young University, including grants from the Harold B. Lee library, the Offi ce of Research and Creative Activities (ORCA), and Kennedy Center for International Relations. I would also like to thank Thomas Wayment, John Gee, and Malcolm Choat for their excellent advice. If any weaknesses remain in this paper they are my own. My reconstruction of the damaged lacuna was originally presented as, Erik YINGLING, “‘Gather unto Me O My Holy Mem-bers’ : A Papyrological Restoration of the Gospel of the Savior’s Introduction to the Amen-responsory” (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, San Francisco, Calif., 21 November 2011), 1-15. After this paper was being fi nalized, I encountered Alin Suciu’s recently defended dissertation which offers an excellent partial reconstruction of lines 107.51b-57a. The lines which he has reconstructed in their entirety agree with what is presented in this paper except where he has chosen to supply the empty lacu-nae on line 55 with “[ ] ” and not “ ] [ ”. See Alin SUCIU, Apocryphon Berolinense/Argentoratense (Previously Known as the Gospel of the Savior): Reedition of P. Berol. 22220, Strasbourg Copte 5-7 and Qasr el-Wizz Codex ff 12v-17r with Introduction and Commentary (Ph.D. Thesis, Université Laval, 2013).

E. YINGLING256

Sauveur chantant au milieu d’une danse en cercle. Il tente aussi de répondre à deux questions sur cette danse chantée. D’abord, quel sens ce rituel pouvait avoir pour les chrétiens d’Égypte qui ont utilisé l’Évangile du Sauveur ? Puis, dans le contexte liturgique de l’Évangile du Sauveur, quelle était la fonction de cette danse mystérieuse du Sau-veur ? Cette contribution démontre que la mise en scène en réponds de l’Évangile du Sauveur avait du sens pour des chrétiens égyptiens parce qu’elle confi rmait leurs perspectives théologiques sur l’incarnation et le salut des humains. Dans l’Évangile du Sauveur, la liturgie avait pour fonction de déifi er les disciples en les rendant semblables au Sauveur, et de magnifi er la suprématie du Sauveur comme Roi.

In verse 72 of the Gospel of the Savior Jesus says to his disciples, “Gather unto me O my holy members.” 2 What the Savior says or does after this point remains a mystery because the next six lines of the parchment are so badly damaged. A few words were carefully recon-structed in the editio princeps, but at that time there were no known parallel texts from which to inform any further reconstruction. 3 Readers of this journal may remember that Stephen Emmel suggested that a parallel Coptic text (since named the Dance of the Savior around the Cross) had been found, and that verse 72 of the Gospel of the Savior might be reconstructed by drawing upon this document. 4 Peter Hubai also noticed striking parallels with the Dance of the Savior but did not proceed any further. 5

In this article, I show that the reconstruction of verse 72 of the Gospel of the Savior portrays the Savior singing in the midst of a ring-dance. I also answer two important questions about this choral ring-dance : First, what signifi cance did this ritual likely have for the Egyptian Christians who used the Gospel of the Savior ? Second, in the liturgical world of the Gospel of the Savior, what was the purpose

2. All translations are my own except where otherwise noted. When refer-ring to verses within the Gospel of the Savior I am referring to the edition pro-duced in : Stephen EMMEL, “Preliminary Reedition and Translation of the Gospel of the Savior : New Light on the Strasbourg Coptic Gospel and the Stauros-Text from Nubia,” Apocrypha 14 (2003) : 9–53.

3. Charles W. HEDRICK and Paul A. MIRECKI, The Gospel of the Savior : A New Ancient Gospel (Santa Rosa, CA. : Polebridge Press, 1999), 40–41. The fi rst German translation of the Gospel of the Savior was given in Hans-Martin SCHENKE, “Das sogenannte ‘Unbekannte Berliner Evangelium’ (UBE),” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 2 (1998) : 199–213. Hubai follows Hed-rick and Mirecki’s reconstruction in, Peter HUBAI, Koptische Apokryphen aus Nubien : der Kasr el-Wizz Kodex (trans. Angelika BALOG ; Berlin : Walter de Gruyter, 2009), 104.

4. Emmel, “Preliminary Reedition,” 22–24, 41, 52.5. “Die Parallele mit dem [Dance of the Savior 24.9–25,10] ist auch hier

unverkennbar. Sie besteht auch dann, wenn die Übereinstimmung nicht wort-wörtlich ist.” HUBAI, Koptische Apokryphen aus Nubien, 105.

SINGING WITH THE SAVIOR 257

of the Savior’s mysterious ring-dance ? I argue that the responsory-ring in the Gospel of the Savior was signifi cant for some Egyptian Chris-tians because it defended Coptic theological views of the incarnation and human salvation. Within the Gospel of the Savior, the purpose of the liturgy was to deify the disciples by transforming them to be like the Savior, and to praise the Savior’s supremacy as the King. In what follows, I will fi rst discuss the documents used in my reconstruction ; then, I will describe the particulars of this project ; and lastly, I will discuss what can be learned from the liturgy of the ring-dance.

The Textual History of the Gospel of the Savior

Only two manuscripts of the Gospel of the Savior have survived to the present day. The two manuscripts are found in Strasbourg and Ber-lin and are probably not dated later than the 5th and 7th centuries respec-tively. 6 Because so little of the Strasbourg fragments have survived and these fragments are not directly relevant to my reconstruction, only the Berlin manuscript (P22220) will be considered for restoration in this paper. Although the earliest fragments of the Gospel of the Savior date to the 5th century, some scholars have proposed that it may have been composed much earlier.

Initially, Hedrick and Mirecki posited that the Gospel of the Savior was composed in Greek around the latter half of the second century. 7 Now that more of this text has been reconstructed by Emmel a closer textual analysis is possible. Subsequent arguments now favor a late antique or early medieval date for the following reasons : The Gospel of the Savior was composed in Coptic using the Sahidic New Testament and a host of other apocryphal documents, suggesting that the author had access to a signifi cant library. 8 The theology of the Gospel of the

6. Pierluigi PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever : Dancing and Singing with Jesus in the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior around the Cross,” Early Christianity 3 (2012) : 235.

7. Though for Hedrick and Mirecki “the latest date” of composition is “the latter half of the second century” their claim still is not an absolute assertion because the dating “is scarcely possible to be certain.” ; This argument for a second century dating was originally based on the idea that the Gospel of the Savior drew upon “oral tradition” because it did not quote directly canonical material and lacked the expected “quotation formula[s].” HEDRICK and MIRECKI, The Gospel of the Savior, 2, 23, 223–38 ; SCHENKE, “Unbekannte Berliner Evan-gelium,” 201 ; Arthur J. DEWEY, “The Gospel of the Savior : A Gem of a Jigsaw Puzzle,” Proceedings : Eastern Great Lakes and Midwest Biblical Societies 22 (2002) : 4 ; Bart D. EHRMAN, Lost Scriptures : Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament (New York : Oxford University Press, 2003), 52 ; Hans-Josef KLAUCK, Apocryphal Gospels : An Introduction (London : T & T Clark Interna-tional, 2003), 28.

8. PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 235–239 ; Peter NAGEL, “‘Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern vor der Auferstehung’ – zur Herkunft und Datierung

E. YINGLING258

Savior matches debates which continued from the 4th century onwards, especially those ideas of Shenoute (the abbot of the white monastery 385–465 CE). 9 The codex itself matches so closely the height, width, page, and line arrangements of a known White Monastary Shenoute-codex that Peter Nagel suggested it could have come from the famous monastery itself. 10 Joost Hagen also has challenged a second century date for this text because the Gospel of the Savior displays similarities with medieval Coptic homilies. 11

Yet it is during the second century that the textual progenitors of the Gospel of the Savior fi rst may have been produced. Sometime during the second century, some Christians began to re-envision the hymn of the Lord’s Supper and the Jewish Passover as a dance (Mark 14.26 ; Matt. 26.30). 12 In particular, the Acts of John recast the hymn as a ring-dance. In this environment, the ritually stylized responsory ring-dance in the Acts of John became popular and was subsequently copied, revised, and “sanitized” in Egypt. 13 A new “orthodox” textual stream

des ‘Unbekannten Berliner Evangeliums,’” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der ältern Kirche 94 (2003) 215–257.

9. This includes Shenoute’s ideas on the Eucharist, the divinity of Christ, Christ’s unity with the Father, and one of Shenoute’s known proof texts from the Gospel of John ; PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 239. Piovanelli draws upon both Grillmeier’s and Davis’s research on how Shenoute interprets John 10.30 ; Alois GRILLMEIER and Theresia HAINTHALER, Christ in Christian Tradition. Vol. 2 : From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590–604). Part 4 : The Church of Alexandria with Nubia and Ethiopia after 451 (trans. O.C. DEAN Jr. ; London : Mowbray Press, 1996), 183 and 218 n. 132 ; Stephen J. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice : Incarnation and Divine Participation in Late Antique and Medieval Egypt (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2008), 68, 284.

10. NAGEL, “Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern vor der Auferstehung,” 239.11. Joost L. HAGEN, “Ein anderer Kontext für die Berliner und Strassburger

‘Evangelienfragmente’ : Das ‘Evangelium der Erlösers’ und andere ‘Apostele-vangelien’ in der koptischen Literatur,” in Jesus in apokryphen Evangelienüber-lieferungen. Beiträge zu außerkanonischen Jesusüberlieferungen aus verschiede-nen Sprach- und Kulturtraditionen, ed. J. FREY and J. SCHRÖTER (WUNT 254 ; Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck 2010), 339–371.

12. W. C. VAN UNNIK, “A Note on the Dance of Jesus in the ‘Acts of John,’” Vigiliae Christianae 18 (1964) :1–5

13. For Piovanelli’s description of how the Acts of John was “sanitized” see PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 246. For a discussion of the dance in the Acts of John and the text generally see Paul G. SCHNEIDER, The Mystery of the Acts of John : An Interpretation of the Hymn and the Dance in Light of the Acts’ Theology (San Francisco : Mellen Research University Press, 1991), 144–159 ; VAN UNNIK, “A Note on the Dance of Jesus” 1–5 ; Pieter J. LALLE-MAN, The Acts of John : A Two-Stage Initiation into Johannine Gnosticism (Leu-ven, Belgium : Peeters, 1998), 1–24. EHRMAN, Lost Scriptures, 94 ; Hans Josef KLAUCK, The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles : An Introduction (Waco, Tex : Baylor University Press, 2008), 15–18 ; Alin Suciu has done work on frag-ments of the Acts of John which were found at Shenoute’s White Monastery :

SINGING WITH THE SAVIOR 259

resulted from this process, to which the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior would eventually belong. 14

Though the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior are very different in many respects, certain parts display suffi cient verbal similarity so as to determine that either one borrowed from the other, or that they each drew independently from a common source. 15 Because both of these texts share verbal similarities with the Acts of John, Pier-luigi Piovanelli has suggested that the “orthodox” may have created their own revision of the dance around the 3rd or 4th century. In time, probably around the 5th or 6th century, the authors of the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior may have drawn upon this recycled recension of the Acts of John 94–102. 16 Whether this lost revision of the Acts of John existed or not remains to be determined, but the verbal similarities between these three texts are quite clear as can be seen in tables 17 1 and 2 below.

http ://alinsuciu.com/2011/09/22/a-further-fragment-from-the-apocryphal-acts-of-john-in-coptic-once-again-concerning-the-sotheby-bolaffi -fragments/.

14. PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 246–247.15. Stephen EMMEL, “Ein altes Evangelium der Apostel taucht in Fragmenten

aus Ägypten und Nubien auf,” Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum 9 (2005) : 89–93 ; PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 241–244.

16. PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 246–248.17. I follow Hubai’s edition of the Dance of the Savior except where I have

reconstructed in two missing spaces of line 25.3 ; HUBAI, Koptische Apok-ryphen aus Nubien, 14 ; Eric JUNOD and Jean-Daniel KAESTLI, Acta Iohannis (Turnhout : Brepols, 1983), 199 ; For the Coptic text of the Gospel of the Savior see : EMMEL, “Preliminary Reedition,” 49.

(Table 1) The Dance of the Savior 24.1–25.9

The Gospel of the Savior 107.39–64 The Dance of the Savior 27.12–28.5

(24)

5

10

(25)

5

10

40

45

(72)50

(lines 51b–57a not transcribed)(73)

60 (74) (75)

(76)

(27)

(28)

5

(24) And it happened on [a day] while the Savior sat upon the Mt. of [Olives] before the lawless Jews crucified him. We were all gathered with him. He responded saying: “O my holy members gather unto me so that I may sing a hymn to the cross. And (25) as for you, you respond [after] me. And we [formed] a circle, (and) we circled around him. He said to us “I am in your midst as a little child.” He said “Amen!” A little while I am with you in your midst.

(71) If someone [comes close] to me, he [will get burned. I] am [the] blazing [fire. Whoever is close] to [me] is close to [the fire]. Whoever is far from me is far from life. (72) So now gather [unto] me, O my holy members, […6 lines untranslatable…] (73) [He] said to us, “I am in your midst [as] a little child.” (74) He said, “Amen!”(75) A little while I am in your midst.(76) We responded “Amen!”

(27)…“Amen!” He said again to us.Gather unto me (28) O my holy members, dance to the cross a third time! (And) respond after me “Amen!”

E. YINGLING260

Table 1 illustrates a number of similarities between the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior. These verbal similarities are especially close between verses 72–75 in the Gospel of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior 24.9–25.9. The lacuna in the Gospel of the Savior is immediately preceded and followed by close verbal parallels in the Dance of the Savior (i.e “O my holy members gather unto me … He said, I am in your midst as a little child.”). This observation at fi rst makes it tempting to assume that the Gospel of the Savior merely follows the Dance of the Savior after the lacuna begins. But the paleo-graphical evidence (discussed below) does not allow for such a simplis-tic solution, therefore other sources must also be consulted to inform this reconstruction.

Table 2 illustrates how sometimes the Dance of the Savior parallels the Acts of John. Both the Acts of John and the Dance of the Savior follow a rather systematic pattern at this point : the “lawless Jews” and their actions form the setting ; the disciples are gathered ; Jesus tells them they will sing a hymn (94//24) ; the disciples form a circle ; Jesus is centered in the midst or middle ; the amen-responsory is ordered ; and the disciples begin to go around (κυκλεύοντες// ) the Savior (94//25). Yet there are many differences between these texts as well.

The Dance of the Savior and the Gospel of the Savior—or a prior text which they drew upon—manifest the tendency to condense much of the material in the introductory portion of the Acts of John 94. They

(Table 2) The Acts of John 94.1–9 The Dance of the Savior 24.1–25.9 (94) (24)

5

10

(25)

5

10The Acts of John 100 (100)

(94) And before he was arrested by the lawless Jews, (even who received their law from the lawless serpent), gathering us all he said: “Before I am given over to those men let us sing a hymn to the Father, and thus let us go out to what lies ahead.” Then he ordered us to form a circle, clasping each other’s hands, and while he was in the midst, he said. Respond after me“Amen!” Then he began to sing a hymn and to say. “Glory to you Father.” And while we were circling around, we were responding back to him “Amen!”

(24) And it happened on [a day] in which the Savior sat upon the Mt. of [Olives] before the lawless Jews crucified him. We were all gathered with him. He responded saying: “O my holy members gather unto me so that I may sing a hymn to the cross. And (25) as for you, you respond [after] me. And we [formed] a circle, and we circled around him. He said to us “I amin your midst of you like a little child.” He said“Amen!” A little while I am with you in your midst.

The Acts of John 100 “Now the crowd around the cross… if they don’t have one form, (it is because) every member of the one who came down has not yet been gathered”

SINGING WITH THE SAVIOR 261

also play with syntax and morphology while keeping the basic storyline similar. 18 In the Dance of the Savior and the Gospel of the Savior, the “lawless Jews” are described in less detail or excised entirely ; 19 the phase about the Savior and the disciples leaving or going “out” (ἐξέλ-θωμεν) is omitted ; 20 hand clasps are not mentioned ; 21 and references to “the Father” are condensed or redirected to the cross. 22

Though the tables above indicate that the Gospel of the Savior matches more closely the text of the Dance of the Savior than the Acts of John, this fact does not necessarily preclude using the Acts of John to inform parts of the reconstruction, especially where the Dance of the Savior provides no relevant parallels. This is true because the Gospel of the Savior still exhibits important verbal similarities with the Acts of John, 23 and because it may have adopted vocabulary present in an ear-lier rewriting of the Acts of John 94, which the redactor of the Dance of the Savior chose not to include. 24 It is for this reason that both the Acts of John and the Dance of the Savior have informed portions of my reconstruction (see below).

18. For instance, the Dance of the Savior tends to use active rather than pas-sive voice, and to change the person number of verbs among other things ; The Dance of the Savior 24 states “before the lawless Jews crucifi ed him” instead of “He was arrested by the lawless Jews ;” it uses “so that I may sing a hymn” instead of “let us sing a hymn.” Notice the penchant for participles and infi ni-tives in the Acts of John, which the author of the Dance of the Savior does not always seek to mimic (e.g. “we were all gathered with him” instead of “gather-ing us all”).

19. The Dance of the Savior does not include Jesus’ phrase about the Jews “who received their law from the lawless serpent” found in the Acts of John 94.1b–2a. The author instead clarifi es that the setting occurs on the Mount of Olives in Dance of the Savior 24.1–3. In the Gospel of the Savior 71 the description of the “lawless Jews” is replaced by the logion variant from the Gospel of Thomas which describes the Savior as burning fi re ; Hedrick and Mirecki, Gospel of the Savior, 41.

20. The Acts of John 94.4.21. The Acts of John 94.5.22. PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 242. See the Acts of John 94.3b–4a,

8 ; After the initial ritual staging the Father is addressed directly in the Dance of the Savior 30.

23. PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 18–19. A thesis conducted under the direction of Mirecki investigates similarities between both circle dances in the Acts of John and the Gospel of the Savior, in Melody G. BEARD-SHOUSE, “The Circle Dance of the Cross in the Acts of John and the Gospel of the Savior : An Early Christian Ritual” (M.A. thesis, University of Kansas, 2009), 1–70. Online : http ://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/bitstream/1808/6462/1/BeardShouse_ku_0099M_10717_DATA_1.pdf.

24. PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 21.

E. YINGLING262

The Reconstruction : Lines 107.51b–57a of Berlin P22220

Figure 3 25

Damaged Lacuna

Proposed Reconstruction

Transcription :

25. The Egyptian Museum, Berlin, Papyrus Collection, P.Berol. inv 22220 Fragment 1, Hair side, 4th column (=Recto column 2), lines 49–58 = Coptic page 107.49–58. Used with permission from the museum. The top image shows the actual state of the parchment. The bottom image shows my reconstruction. The reconstructed letters are exact copies from extant examples found on the hair side of fragment 1 ; the line numbers were added for clarity. Page 107 of the Gospel of the Savior averages between 11–13 letters per line and 32 lines per column. In my reconstruction, each line contains 11–12 letters which fi ts within the averages of page 107 of the codex. The reconstruction of the bottom image was done using Adobe Photoshop 5.1.

SINGING WITH THE SAVIOR 263

Translation :

So now gather unto me O my holy members. Dance (and) respond with me. The Savior sang a hymn before he left, (and) we formed a circle while going round about him.

Textual Notes : Lines 107.51b–57a of Berlin P22220

51b. About fi ve spaces remain open after . It appears that the Berlin manuscript 107.51b has departed from the Dance of the Sav-ior in 24.11b. If the two texts paralleled each other precisely at this point, one would expect Berlin 107.51b to read . But in the Berlin manuscript the next letter after cannot be . The fi rst letter of this sequence could be taken as a or an . Since the letter

tends to be narrower than what is expressed here, 26 this letter is most likely either a or a . Only the outer rim of the next letter after / is available for inspection and the slight curve of its edge gives the impression that a number of possibilities exist.  27 Hedrick and Mirecki’s edition proposed that the fi rst two letters in 107.51b after be taken as but they were unable to propose any further reconstruction for this line because the Dance of the Savior was still unpublished. 28 I suggest that the remaining fi ve spaces of the Gospel of the Savior 107.51b, and the fi rst space of line 52a, can be restored using from the parallel Dance of the Savior 28.1. 29 This reconstruction is likely because the injunction to dance ( ) immediately follows the parallel in the Dance of the Savior 28.1–2a, and because it is unlikely that the narrator would mention that the Savior had fi n-ished dancing in verse 97 if the dance was never mentioned prior to that point. 30 The reading is further strengthened by surviving traces of ink of the fi nal letter of 51b which Hedrick and Mirecki had already proposed as . 31 The initial of line 52 both fi ts the parallel

26. Compare with the Gospel of the Savior 107.49, 45–47.27. Such as , or .28. HEDRICK and MIRECKI, Gospel of the Savior, 40–41.29. The remaining traces of ink could equally be construed as or ,

but does fi nd a parallel in the Dance of the Savior 24.9 ; 27.13a. Except in both 24.9–10 and 27.13–28.1 “ ” is used before the phrases “

” and “ ” respectively. It seems unlikely that “ ” would have been used in the Gospel of the Savior 107.51b directly after the Savior’s command “to gather” rather than in its nor-mal location as it is found in the Dance of the Savior.

30. The Gospel of the Savior 109. 15b–18 or 19 : ǀǀ ǀ . (“and [after] he had

completed [the (or : his) dance], [we (all) answered after him “Amen !”]) ; Text : EMMEL, Ein altes Evangelium, 92.

31. Notice that the top of this is slightly narrower than the preceding it in 107.51b.

E. YINGLING264

in the Dance of the Savior 28.2a and seems to accord with the scribe’s penchant for placing the at (or near) the beginning of each line. 32

52–53a. After the fi nal from , the next fi ve letters appear to form . The second letter of the line can clearly be seen as a just as Hedrick and Mirecki had proposed. 33 This portion of the text can be reconstructed by considering the parallel lines found in the Dance of the Savior 25.1b–2a and 28.4–5a. These read (As for you, you respond after me), and (you respond after me) respectively (cf. the Acts of John 94.6 ὑπακούετέ μοι). The phrase (you respond with me) fi ts the expected amount of letters for lines 51b–52a, and is similar in meaning. 34

53b–55a. I reconstruct : “ : ” (the Savior sang a hymn). This phrase probably began with an empty space 35 pre-ceded by two dots just as it did on lines 9b–11a of this same page. 36 The parallel verb is found in the Dance of the Savior 24.11b, while the Acts of John uses ὑμνήσωμεν. 37 I follow the editio princeps and regard lines 54b–55a as containing a reference to such as found in line 24 of this same page. 38 Page 107 of the Berlin codex commonly uses the postponed subject mediated by , and is preceded immediately by a 3rd person singular, masculine, past tense verb. 39

55–56a. Here, I tentatively reconstruct ǀ , or alternatively ǀ (before he left we formed a cir-cle). Based only on the surviving traces of ink, was already proposed in the editio princeps. 40 Possibly the redactor of the Berlin text—or a prior author from which the Berlin redactor borrowed—has condensed the Acts of John 94.4–5a in order that it might appear more like the shorter descriptions  41 of the hymn of the Lord’s Supper found

32. See the Gospel of the Savior 107.49–52, 57 in fi gure 3.33. See the in 107.52 which is just four spaces directly to the right.34. Notice that the form which I propose belongs in this line, mir-

rors the form found in the Dance of the Savior 28.4b (as the proposed recon-struction of in the Gospel of the Savior 107.51b–52a) more closely than the Dance of the Savior 25.1b.

35. Such breaks are very common in the Berlin codex, and can be found on page 107. This is manifested in the middle of lines 14,16,20,29,30, 43,46,51,57, 63, and the end of lines 9,11, and 48. Most likely if the ends of each line of parchment were not so badly damaged there would be other discernible lines that manifest these breaks.

36. The Gospel of the Savior 107. 9b–11a : … (“…tell us ! John replied…”).

37. The Acts of John 94.3.38. Note the scribe places in virtually the same position in

line 24 as is done in line 54.39. See 107.10–11a, 24–25a.40. HEDRICK and MIRECKI, The Gospel of the Savior, 40–41.41. After the hymn of the Lord’s Supper was sung, both Mark and Matthew

simply state “they went out” ( ). The Coptic verb ⲉⲓ echoes the use of

SINGING WITH THE SAVIOR 265

in the Sahidic New Testament.  42 The Dance of the Savior’s ǀ is an exact parallel with the Berlin (55b–56a), with both texts con-taining page breaks in the same location (25.2b–3a). When the entire reconstruction is taken together, the sections of the Dance of the Sav-ior 25.4–9 and the Gospel of the Savior 107.57–63  43 are nearly exact verbal parallels of one another. This lends credibility to the argument that the words which preceded the Gospel of the Savior 107.57a were similar to the Dance of the Savior 25.2b–4a. Thus, enhancing the likeli-hood of the word order ǀ in the Gospel of the Savior 107.55b–57a. 44

56b–57. The reconstruction was suggested in the editio prin-ceps before the parallel sequence of words had been discovered in the Dance of the Savior 25.3b–4. 45 The reconstructed

ǀ in the Berlin lacuna mirrors the phrase ǀ but matches the paleographical requirements where does not (cf. the Dance of the Savior 25.3b–4).

The Ring-Dance in the Gospel of the Savior : The Broader Ritual and Theological Environment

Frequently Coptic Christians practiced their theologies through their liturgy. Often these liturgies performed Jesus’ incarnation and pointed towards human salvation through deifi cation. 46 Stephen Davis has asserted that Egyptian Christological views of the incarnation were intimately woven together with their views of human salvation. Such views are nicely summarized in Clement of Alexandria’s catchy apho-rism : “The Word of God became human so that you may learn from

ἔρχομαι in the Acts of John. For as a translation of ἔρχομαι see W. E. Crum, A Coptic Dictionary (Oxford : The Clarendon Press, 1939), 70.

42. It appears that the redactor departed from the Acts of John by simplify-ing the narration and using variant grammar, although some vocabulary and word order still persist in the Gospel of the Savior. For example, the redac-tion of the Acts of John could have been akin to the following : Πρίν ὑμνή[σε] [ἐξῆλθεν] 5 ἡμῖν γῦρον ποιῆσαι. (“Before…he sang…he left…we formed a cir-cle”). Cf. “The Savior sang a hymn before he left, (and) we formed a circle…” as is found in the Gospel of the Savior 72. Neither the tendency to switch person numbers, nor for the redactor to shorten parallels with the Acts of John is not without precedent as was discussed earlier in this paper. At this point the parallels are faint between the above two texts, perhaps resulting from the hypothesis that the Gospel of the Savior is more than one recension removed from the Acts of John.

43. This comprises the end of verse 72 and lasts until verse 75.44. I have reconstructed the Dance of the Savior 25.2b–3a : ǀ

(“we formed a circle”). The editio princeps leaves the two spaces before blank ; HUBAI, Koptische Apokryphen aus Nubien, 14.

45. HEDRICK and MIRECKI, The Gospel of the Savior, 40–41.46. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, vi.

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a human, how a human may become god.” (Protr. 1. 8. 4). Egyptian Christians were concerned that if the Word did not fully become fl esh, then it might be possible for humans not to be raised to salvation. 47 Davis has demonstrated that such theologies of theosis and their rela-tionship to the incarnation pervaded the social and liturgical worlds of Egyptian Christianity, and was manifest in a variety of ways including : the Eucharist, litanies, hymns, clothing, pilgrimage, burial, baptism, art, and even the church buildings themselves. 48 Among this litany of litur-gies, the Eucharist reigned supreme ; one could literally in-corporate the body and blood of Christ into one’s own body through the Eucharist. Such a practice underscored the potential for human salvation through “co-corporeality” with Christ and mimetic participation in his divine body. 49 Davis’s study not only critically draws upon pertinent historical sources to come to these conclusions, but has carefully integrated the work of many ritual theorists.

Egyptian Practices : Theoretical Frameworks

The ritual imitation of Christ played an important role in the Coptic quest for salvation. In this quest Egyptian Christians sought to create a mimetic relationship between themselves and Christ and other heroes whose life or death mirrored Christ’s. 50 Davis’s research on pilgrimage built on theoretical frameworks established by Victor Turner, who saw pilgrimage as a way to imitate Christ and his incarnation. Davis per-ceived this as “putting on” the “persona” of Jesus as “…one becomes the redemptive tradition” (emphasis in original). 51 A variety of changes can occur when one mimetically modifi es the body through ritual.

Through imitation one can transform one’s body into some other type of “ritualized body.” 52 Through ritual, self-defi nition occurs, 53 new identities are created, and even new ontologies are realized. 54 The ritual revisions of the body can reshape the mind with its interrelated thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes. Furthermore, not only can ritually revised bodies

47. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 175.48. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 23–26, 40, 47, 97, (cf, appendix).49. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice. 40, 86–110.50. For the concepts of imitation and mimesis in Christian Egypt see speci-

fi cally DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 180, 6, 10, 26–7, 42, 95, 112–13, 119, 145–6, 166, 168, 172, 187, 221, 226, 229, 230, 263, 270.

51. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 112.52. Catherine BELL, Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice (New York: Oxford Uni-

versity Press, 1992), 94–117 ; DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 112.53. Roy A. RAPPAPORT, “The Obvious Aspects of Ritual” in Readings in

Ritual Studies, ed. Ronald GRIMES (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996), 436.

54. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 178.

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be modifi ed by their environment but they modify their environment. 55 In fact, entire cosmologies are at stake when one ritually modifi es the body. 56 Davis has noted that a Christian who kneels before an icon of the Incarnation actually “incarnate[s] a body of subordination.” 57 And Coptic Christians who wore tunics with artistic depictions of Christ performed their Christologies by ritually “im-personat[ing]” Christ (emphasis in original). 58 The phrase “ritualized body” was coined by Catherine Bell who states :

The implicit dynamic and ‘end’ of ritualization—that which it does not see itself doing—can be said to be the production of a ‘ritualized body.’ A ritualized body is a body invested with a ‘sense’ of ritual. This sense of ritual exists as an implicit variety of schemes whose deploy-ment works to produce sociocultural situations that the ritualized body can dominate in some way…it appears as an instinct for creating and manipulating contrasts. 59

It seems that a body’s mimetic transformation can occur by creating contrasts with one’s own mundane “non-ritualized” body in favor of a more sacred ritualized body. In this way, one’s ritualized body may “dominate” the former non-ritualized body, and increase its status by mimicking the body of a superior. In the case of the ring-dance, the leader of the circle uses the principles of mimesis and unifi cation to create a copy of himself while still retaining a position of superiority. Additionally, the superior can ritually merge the members of a group by unifying the senses of the body.

As part of this process, the leader of the circle can use the eyesightof the circle members to produce unity. When the circle is formed, unconsciously all the eyes of those in the circle are directed toward the leader in the center. This gives the participants in the circle a united vision of the leader. If the circle rotates around the leader—as is the case in the Acts of John and possibly in the Gospel of the Savior—then it brings each of the participants face to face with the leader. 60 The leader in the Acts of John tells the circle “I am a mirror to you who perceive.” 61 This suggests that there is a mimetic relationship between the leader and the circle members. Through an effective use of space,

55. Davis’s use of the phrase “ritualized bodies” comes from BELL, Ritual Theory, 100, and generally 94–117 ; See the discussion of clothing and ritual-ized bodies in the context Coptic Christianity is also found in Stephen J. DAVIS, “Fashioning a Divine Body : Coptic Christology and Ritualized Dress,” HTR 98 (2005) : 335-362.

56. BELL, Ritual Theory, 99.57. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 189.58. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 177.59. BELL, Ritual Theory, 98.60. KAESTLI and JUNOD, Acta Iohannis, 199.61. See the Acts of John 95 ; EHRMAN, Lost Scriptures, 105.

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the hymn of the ring-dance unifi es the disciples in what they see. But this is not the only means that the circle members are unifi ed and mimic their leader.

The choral ring-dance also allows the circle to imitate the leader through voice and bodily movements. Each time the leader of the circle sings a small portion of the song the disciples chant back “Amen.” Each amen-response signifi es that the circle agrees with the leader, and is as if the circle had sung it themselves. In theory, this process is less problematic than requiring the entire circle to repeat back the entire verse at once (possibly discordantly). Since each member of the circle says “Amen” they are not only unifi ed with the leader, but also with each member of the circle. The leader can also unify the members of the circle through the use of ritualized gestures or “dancing.” In the Acts of John Jesus tells the disciples to “respond to my dancing [and] see yourself in me” (96). And in the Gospel of the Savior, he orders the disciples to “dance and respond with me” (72). 62 While it may be impossible to know exactly what gestures could be danced out, research on the Acts of John suggests the gestures may have imitated the cru-cifi xion. 63 This is a possibility since many documents that mention the ring-dance are textually situated in pre-passion settings, and the lyrics of the hymn often concern the crucifi xion. 64 As a whole, the theoretical framework mentioned above can be summarized in the following.

The leader of the circle uses the ring-dance to unite the eyesight, voice, hearing, and bodily members of those in the circle so that they mirror his own. In essence, the leader uses the hymn of the ring-dance to duplicate himself among the various circle members. Applying this theoretical model to our text would suggest that the Savior actually creates a ritualized circle of “saviors.” Yet the Savior is foremost in this hierarchy of “saviors” because he leads the dance, takes a position of prominence in the center, and he ritually creates the other “saviors.” The ritual actions, positions, spacing, sounds, and sights all combine in a purposeful way. Indeed, the famous phrase “the medium is the mes-sage” has been aptly applied to the hymn of the dance in the Acts of

62. In the Acts of John 96 Jesus tells the disciples to “respond to my danc-ing [and] see yourself in me.” In the Gospel of the Savior 72 the Savior tells the disciples to “Dance and respond with me.”

63. SCHNEIDER, The Mystery of the Acts of John, 169. 64. Charles ALLBERRY, Robert CECIL, and Hugo IBSCHER, A Manichaean

Psalm-Book Part II (Stuttgart : W. Kohlhammer, 1938), 190–191 ; The Acts of John 94 ; the Gospel of the Savior 71–133 ; and the Dance of the Savior around the Cross 24–33. It appears that current scholarly consensus favors that this rite was actually practiced among some ancient Christian groups ; PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 246 n. 59.

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John by Barbara Bowe, 65 whose research has paved the way for some of the theory I have advanced above. 66

The Gospel of the Savior’s Choral Ring-dance : Egyptian Precedents

Though Bowe does not specifi cally mention deifi cation, Bowe’s con-clusions are in harmony with such a theory. She asserts that the purpose of the dance is to make the disciples virtually indistinguishable from the Lord, to transport the disciples into heavenly realms, and to “fuse” them with the Godhead. 67 Indeed, in the Acts of John the ring-dance unites the members of the circle with the leader so thoroughly that they become mirror images of the Word through song and dance. 68 Roughly contemporary with the Acts of John, Clement of Alexandria also con-textualized salvation as participation in the Word’s divine dance.

In his Exhortation to the Greeks, Clement encouraged pagans to be initiated and to join in the celestial circle by stating : “If you desire, be initiated also and you will dance with the angels around the unbegotten and imperishable, who even is God alone, the Word of God who sings hymns together with us” (Protr.12.120.2). 69 Notice how Clement called this both a hymn and a dance. This fact is important, because at times song and dance can be categorized in isolation from one another. 70 But in the case of both the Gospel of the Savior and the Acts of John, these texts use the terms “hymn” and “dance” in conjunction. 71 Shortly after the description of the heavenly ring-dance, Clement elaborates what the Word sings during this redemptive ring-dance.

As the Word sings, he invites pagans to imitate him and receive salvation. He says “…I will give you my perfect self” calling himself the “concord” (συμφονία), and the “harmony” (ἁρμονία) of his Father (Protr.12.120.3–4). The Word continues his song of salvation with an invitation : “O all you who were images, but all do not resemble me, I want to conform you to the archetype, that you may become even as I am” (Protr. 12.120.4). Thus to receive the divine music of the previously mentioned ring-dance is to receive salvation through Christ. It is not said whether Clement viewed this as a real ritual that was actually practiced by some Egyptian Christians. Yet Clement viewed

65. Barbara Ellen BOWE, “Dancing into the Divine : The Hymn of the Dance in the Acts of John,” Journal of Early Christian Studies, 7 :83 (1999) : 101.

66. BOWE, “Dancing into the Divine,” 83–104.67. BOWE, “Dancing into the Divine,” 100.68. Idem.69. Greek text from : Clé ment, d’Alexandrie, Le Protreptique, ed. C. MON-

DÉSERT (Paris : É ditions du Cerf, 1949), 189.70. J. G. DAVIES, Liturgical Dance : An Historical, Theological, and Practi-

cal Handbook (London : SCM Press, 1984), 36-45.71. The Acts of John 94 and 96 ; EMMEL,“Ein altes Evangelium,” 92.

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this dance as an opportunity for the Logos to duplicate the dancers after his own image. Following Clement of Alexandria, later Egyptian sources—both “orthodox” and heterodox—continued to reimagine the relationship between Jesus, his ring-dance, and human salvation.

In the gnostic 2nd Book of Jeu, one must join the circle around the Savior in order for the soul to perform the mysteries, leave the body, and ascend to salvation. Although dancing is not specifi cally men-tioned, this “mystery-ring” shares common ground with the ring-dance texts already mentioned. As in the Gospel of the Savior, Jesus gathers ( ) his disciples and they form a circle ( ) around him. Yet this time, Jesus also invites his “women disciples” ( ) into his “mysteries” (242.6–9). 72 He then explains that those who are “worthy” to receive these mysteries while “in the body” will be able to leave the body and ascend to the “Treasury of Light.” The myster-ies must be received before the ascent, however, because they “erase all sins” and transform the soul into “pure light” (42–43). The theme of Jesus’ ring-dance had fairly wide appeal, and it was not just gnos-tic Christians who deemed this rite important, but the responsory-ring made its way into monastic material as well.

For some Egyptian monks, participation in the responsory-ring could have been seen as the divine activity of angels. 73 In the Life of Shenoute, an anonymous cantor entered the church with apa Martyrius. After the cantor stood up and sang “on and on beyond all measure,” Shenoute exclaimed : “Behold, there is a choir of angels around him responding to him. Look there is the prophet David standing at his side and giving him the words which need to be said.”  74 Though the other monks did not discern the angelic choir surrounding the cantor the angels were nonetheless present.  75 In this passage the prophet David is likely presenting psalms to the cantor who sang “without understanding the mystery.” 76 The Psalms not only played an important role in the Coptic liturgy generally, but also were a key component of the hymn in the Gospel of the Savior.

72. Coptic text : Carl SCHMIDT, and Violet MACDERMOT, The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex (Leiden : Brill, 1978), 99.

73. The earliest Christian source that describes an angelic-responsory is the Book of Revelation. The responsory-ring in the heavenly Holy of Holies depicts divine beings in a circle (κύκλῳ) around the throne of God (Rev 4 :4–6 ; 5 :9–11 ; 7 :11–12 ; 19 :4).

74. The Life of Shenoute, ed. David N. BELL (Kalamazoo, Mich : Cistercian Publications, 1983), 69.

75. idem ; Likewise, in the Acts of John 95 the earthly ring-dance is joined by the heavenly ring-dance : “An Ogdoad is singing with us. Amen ! The Twelfth number is dancing above. Amen ! The whole universe takes part in the dancing. Amen !” EHRMAN, Lost Scriptures, 105.

76. BELL, The Life of Shenoute, 69.

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Alin Suciu has recently written that the text of the ring-dance in the Gospel of the Savior uses a redacted form of Psalm 71.1 in a simi-lar fashion as Shenoute and the later Great Euchologion of the White Monastery. 77 The Great Euchologion states of Christ, “you are the King and the Son of the King ;” 78 while the Gospel of the Savior reads “I am the king. – Amen ! I [am] the son of the king. Amen !” (81–82). Moreover, Nagel has pointed out that in the writings of Shenoute, the word “king” is synonymous with “God,” and the title “the son of the king” is equated with “the Son of God.” 79 Because these Coptic sources extolled Christ’s divinity as “the King” and the incarnate “Son of the King,” it is not surprising, therefore, for Coptic hymns such as the ring-dance in the Gospel of the Savior to challenge those who opposed such a Christology.

Internal Textual Evidence from the Gospel of the Savior

In the Gospel of the Savior, the disciples set the tone of the dance by asking : “Lord, in what form will you reveal yourself to us, or in what kind of body will you come ? Tell us !” (67). Before the Savior can reply, John interrupts and tells the Savior to “change” his glory so that the disciples can bear it (68). The Savior then rebukes John’s seemingly thoughtless and imperceptive suggestion by telling the dis-ciples to rid themselves of such fears (69). 80 It is possible that the above passage is a polemic against the polymorphic Jesus who lowers

77. SUCIU, “ ‘I am the King, I am the Son of the King’ : Psalm 71 :1 (LXX) in the Apocryphon Berolinense/Argentoratense (aka Unbekanntes Berliner Evan-gelium)”, (Paper presented in honor of Peter Nagel at an international confer-ence “Digitale Edition der koptish-sahidischen Septuaginta Fragestellungen und Herausforderungen,” in the Coptic monastery of St. Mary and St. Mauritius, Höxter-Brenkhausen, April 26–27 2013), 1–11 ; Generously posted online at http ://alinsuciu.com/2013/05/01/i-am-the-king-i-am-the-son-of-the-king-psalm-711-lxx-in-the-apocryphon-berolinenseargentoratense-aka-unbekanntes-berliner-evangelium-coptic-literature-and-patristics-paper-delivered-in-h/

78. “ ” ; E. LANNE, Le Grand Euchologe du Monastère Blanc, Patrologia Orientalis 28/8 (Paris : Firmin-Didot, 1958), 376. This document has recently been dated to the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century based on paleographical observations ; Alin SUCIU, “À pro-pos de la datation du manuscrit contenant le Grand Euchologe du Monastère Blanc,” VC 65 (2011) 189–198.

79. The Gospel of the Savior verses 81–82 (108.17–19) : . Shenoute Opera IV 5.7–8a :

. (“The Lord, Christ the king, and the son of the king”) ; See NAGEL, “Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern vor der Auferstehung,” 242–243 ; For Shenoute’s Opera IV see Johannes LEIPOLDT, W. E. CRUM, and Her-mann WIESMANN, Sinuthii Archimandritae vita et opera omnia 4 :[1] (Louvain : Imprimerie Orientaliste Durbecq, 1952), 1–234.

80. “[The Savior replied], “[I will rid] you [of] this [fear] that [you] are afraid of, so that by seeing you might believe !”

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his glory for lesser disciples in the Acts of John (88–93). Unlike the Acts of John—where John is the only person who can fully bear Jesus’ glory—in the Gospel of the Savior, John is troubled by the Savior’s full glory. It is also apparent that when the Savior censures John, his words are largely taken from statements found in the Gospel of John, and that these words concern Jesus’ resurrected divine body (69). 81 Now that the Savior has told the disciples what type of body he doesn’t have, he can tell them what kind of glorious body he does have.

The Savior’s next statement tells the disciples that Jesus is divine, and this statement also anticipates the upcoming ritual staging of the ring-dance. In verses 70–71 the Savior tells his disciples that he has a divine body composed of fi re. He does so by using the logion variant from the Gospel of Thomas : 82 “If someone [comes close] to me, he [will get burned. I] am [the] blazing [fi re]. Whoever is close] to [me] is close to [the fi re]. Whoever is far from me is far from life” (71 ; emphasis added). When the Savior says he is composed of “blazing fi re” he is saying that he is divine. 83 Key to these verses is the con-cept of proximity or distance from the fi re. Those who are close to the fi re will have “life” and can achieve a burning state of divinity. They acquire bodies of glory, while those who do not gather close to the fi re are “far from life” (71). In Egyptian-Christian thought, the kindling and transmission of fi re upon another substance was an act of union ; and the secondary substance acquired the power and nature of the igniting fl ames. 84 As a result, when the disciples gather close to the Savior they catch the fi re of life. Such statements pave the way for the Savior’s command to gather around him in a circle.

In order to initiate the dance, the Savior commands his disciples “Gather unto me O my holy members ( ). Dance and respond with me !” (72) ; this fi rst utterance should be taken as a performative action. In the Gospel of the Savior, the fact that the Savior calls his disciples his body parts or members, automatically transforms them into such.

The Savior’s statement becomes binding since he acts as the leader of the dance and the disciples obey his pronouncement. 85 Thus, the phrase

81. “So that you might see and believe” and “do not touch me until I ascend unto my Father” (cf. John 20 :8, 17, 29).

82. HEDRICK and MIRECKI, The Gospel of the Savior, 102.83. The divine being of fi re has precedents in both Alexandrian and Jew-

ish thought, and refers to the “transformed bodies of glory” given to humans who catch the fi re of divinity ; HEDRICK and MIRECKI, The Gospel of the Savior, 101–102. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 38, 106.

84. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 38, 296.85. Ritual theorists have observed that in certain contexts some speech utter-

ances also constitute performative actions as long as the one speaking is rec-ognized as possessing authority. The classic example, “I now pronounce you husband and wife” is more than mere words ; it actually binds two people in marriage the moment it is pronounced by one with authority. Such performative

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“gather unto me O my holy members ( )” is used as an invocation for the members of the Savior to assemble in bodily form, and as a ritual cue for the disciples to draw near in the circle formation (72). 86

As the disciples form a circle around the Savior, it is not just the disciples who undergo a ritual transformation ; the Savior himself is ritually incarnated as his bodily members assemble themselves together around him. Indeed, as soon as the bodily members (disciples) have assembled around him, the Savior immediately states “I am in your midst as an infant” (73). 87 It is as if there is a reciprocal relationship between the Savior and his disciples in this ritual ; the Savior both cre-ates—and is created by his disciples. Although the incarnation encom-passes more than just Christ’s infancy, Jesus’ childhood was especially important for Christians in Egypt (cf. Matt. 2.13–15). But questions still remain concerning this ritual. Why is the choral ring-dance used to defend the incarnation ? Why not simply appeal to some other rite ?

As was shown earlier, the Gospel of the Savior may have borrowed the sentence “Gather unto me O my holy members” from a parallel passage in the Acts of John (100). This may have been done in order to refute its Christological views which opposed the incarnation. 88 This passage asserts that even after the Word came down to earth “…every member of him who came down has not yet been gathered together” (emphasis added). 89 This clever phrase seems to have a double enten-dre. Both in the Acts of John and the Gospel of the Savior the “mem-

utterances are found in a variety of contexts, religious or otherwise. According to Bell, such pronouncements can be “the most critical moment.” BELL, Ritual Theory, 113 ; Thomas E. LAWSON, and Robert N. MCCAULEY, Rethinking Reli-gion : Connecting Cognition and Culture. (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1990), 51 ; RAPPAPORT, “The Obvious Aspects,” 431 ; BELL, Ritual Theory, 112–113.

86. NAGEL,“Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern vor der Auferstehung,” 243. The concept of the Savior’s own bodily members ( ) gathering in an act of creation also has theological correspondences with Shenoute’s sermon And It Happened One Day. In this sermon Shenoute twice used the creation of Adam’s “members” ( ) to prove that God has power to a) create the members of his body in “the womb of the Holy Virgin,” and b) to make the Eucharistic ele-ments “…no longer bread or wine, but the body and blood of the Lord.” DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 287–288. Additionally, Shenoute compares the monastery and its ritual system to a body. Thus, he refers to the monks as his “his fellow members.” See, Caroline T. SCHROEDER, Monastic Bodies : Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe (Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), 81–89.

87. “Warum aber »wie ein ganz kleines Kind« ? Zu beachten ist, daß ‘ ʼ im sahidischen Neuen Testament stehende Wiedergabe von παιδίον ist, das nicht nur das Kleinkind oder unmündige Kind beiderlei Geschlechts bezeichnet, sondern auch »das ganz kleine Kind« (W. Bauer) im Säuglingsal-ter.” ; NAGEL, “Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern vor der Auferstehung,” 243.

88. PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 245.89. JUNOD and KAESTLI, Acta Iohannis, 211.

E. YINGLING274

bers” primarily refer to people other than the Savior. 90 The allusions to the incarnation—or rather the lack thereof—in the Acts of John 100 are not easily bypassed.

In the Acts of John the Word is said to “come down” to earth seem-ingly in an act of incarnation. But because the Word does not really take upon himself human fl esh, his bodily members are “not…gathered” together. The Christ in the Acts of John is “immaterial and bodiless,” “not at all like a human,” and “suffered not” upon the cross because he had “discard[ed] human-hood” (90, 93, 101). Such an attack against the incarnate Christ and his actual suffering on the cross is exactly the sort of idea Egyptian Christians like, and those who used the Gospel of the Savior would have decried. 91 Yet in the Gospel of the Savior, the disciples’ participation in the Savior’s divine body extends beyond the initial ritual staging of the ring-dance and extends well into the hymn itself.

Though the Gospel of the Savior mentions that the Savior and his disciples dance it is very diffi cult to ascertain what actions may be implied. The lyrics of the hymns in the Gospel of the Savior and the Acts of John suggest that those in the circle may have imitated the actions of the person in the center. 92 In the Gospel of the Savior a mimetic relationship is clear : As the Savior fi ghts, the disciples fi ght ; as he is sent, they are being sent ; as he grieves for the world, they grieve for the world ; as he overcomes the world, the disciples are to overcome the world ; as he becomes free from the world, they are to become free from the world ; and as he rejoices, they are to rejoice (85–86 ; 78//87b ; 89–90 ; 79//88). 93 In this way the disciples act as a mirror to the Savior.

One verse might imply that the will of the disciples mirrors the Sav-ior’s own will. As the Savior chants “I want,” the disciples concord with his will by chanting back “Amen !” (87). According to Bowe, such “I want” (θέλω) statements serve to unite the will of those in the circle with the will of the leader. Yet in the Gospel of the Savior this is not the main focus and such “I want” statements occur much more fre-

90. In the Gospel of the Savior the members primarily refer to the disciples, but in the Acts of John the members mainly refer to the Valentinian pneumatics ; PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 244.

91. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 282.92. SCHNEIDER, The Mystery of the Acts of John, 169.93. The Gospel of the Savior 85–86 :“I am fi ghting [for] you. You too,

wage war !” (78//87b) : “I [am grieving] on account of the [sins] of the world”, “But grieve for [the] world instead…” ; (89) : “I have overcome the world. And you, do not let the world overcome you !”(90) : “I have become free [from] the world. You too, [become] free from [it] !”(79//88) : “[But I am rejoicing] on [your] account, because [you have fought] well in [the world]” “Do not weep from now on, but rejoice instead.”

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quently in the Acts of John. 94 At this point the disciples appear to be thoroughly united with, and focused on the Savior. He has captured the vision of their eyes, has caused them to imitate the words of his voice, the gestures of his body, and possibly the will of his mind. Yet it appears that a closer look at the overall structure of the hymn reveals even more ways that the disciples imitate the leader of the dance.

It seems that as the disciples sing with the Savior, they follow him into a timeless eternal state. Still, the damaged state of verses 94–95 suggests some caution in this appraisal. The Savior’s song is punc-tuated with self-statements such as : “I am” (present), “I did” (past), and “I will” (future). 95 As the fi rst section of the dance concludes, the lyrics show that the order of tenses is then reversed. Accordingly, the dance ends with short statements of “whoever will” (future), “whoever did” (past), and “whoever does” (present) (94b–96).  96 As the disciples affi rm each of these statements through the responsory, they seem to travel with the Savior through time : present, past, future—and then, future, past, present. The trajectory of this journey moves through time much like a chiasmus with an ABC-CBA structure. Clearly this hymn blurs the boundaries of time creating a liturgical state of timelessness.

To blur temporal time is to be able to travel back to the mythic time when the god fi rst performed the rite. As Mircea Eliade has indicated, both sacred space and sacred time go hand in hand and often seek to take participants back to primordial time. Such events allow partici-pants in sacred ritual to say, “We must do what the gods did in the beginning.” 97 In the case of the Gospel of the Savior, the circle of dis-ciples demarcates sacred space, and allows the liturgy to transcend time and pass into eternity ; to participate in such a circle would be to return to the mythic time when the disciples fi rst reveled in the ring-dance of the Redeemer. The Savior’s song, however, is not just about the past ; for the Savior sings about future events which have not yet happened including his impending crucifi xion and enthronement.

94. BOWE,“Dancing into the Divine,” 97.95. For example, verses 81–86 contain the “I am” statements : “ ‘I am the

king.’ – ‘Amen !’ ‘I [am] the [son] of the king.’ – [‘Amen !’] ‘I [am ... ’ – ‘Amen !’] ‘[I am ... and] you have no [other]. ’ – ‘Amen ! ’ ‘I am fi ghting [for] you. You too, wage war ! ’ – ‘Amen ! ’ ‘I am being sent. I in turn want to send you. ’ – ‘Amen ! ’” For the “I have” statements see 89–90 : “‘I have overcome ( ) the world. And you, do not let the world overcome you !’ – ‘Amen !’ ‘I have become free ( ) [from] the world. You too, [become] free from [it] !’ – ‘Amen !’” Translation : EMMEL, Preliminary Reedition, 41.

96. Nagel asserts that the “whomever” statements are directed to an “open group.” Though the Savior likely directs these “whomever” statements to the disciples in the circle, the author of the text probably directs these statements at a larger group of people generally. NAGEL, “Gespräche Jesu mit seinen Jüngern vor der Auferstehung,” 244–245.

97. Mircea ELIADE, “Ritual and Myth,” in Readings in Ritual Studies, ed. Ronald GRIMES (Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall, 1996), 197–198.

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The Hymn to the Cross

Now that the Savior has become united fully with his disciples, he then seeks to unite himself and the disciples with the cross through song and dance (98–125). The persistence of the amen-responsory and the fact that the disciples have already become one with the Savior suggests that what the Savior sings to the cross, the disciples sing to the cross as well. In the Savior’s journey to be united with the cross he is said to “hasten” toward it (99). The hymn uses different terms to show the Savior’s unifi cation with the cross. He sings to be physically united with the cross by being mounted and hung (106). And in a more abstract sense of union, he will fi ll the cross with his wealth through crucifi xion (104). 98 The Savior shows his desire to be united with the cross by crying out “receive me to yourself O cross !” (107). Yet to be united with this cross is not to be nailed to mere wood alone, but rather to be fastened to an “effulgent cross” of light (110). 99 Likewise, both the cross and the Savior are to be one ; they are both “brothers,” “strangers,” and receive people into a judgment of rejoicing on the one hand, and morning on the other hand (117–118, 115). 100 It is for this reason that the Savior can sing : “O cross, [truly] whoever is far from [you] is far [from] [me].” (119). And although he sings “whoever is far from me, is far from life,” the converse is also true (71) ; whoever is close to the Savior or cross is close to life. Now that the disciples in the circle have been united with the Savior and his cross of light, they can now receive the rewards of eternal life.

Divine Kingship

At this point, the Savior concludes his hymn to the cross and sings to the Father directly about his heavenly kingship (126). He sings “[I have] taken for myself the crown of the kingdom,” and “O my Father, through you I became king” (127–128). 101 Since the Father gives the Savior his kingship, the Savior sings “you will cause my enemies to submit” (128). The crown that the Savior receives faintly echoes the disciples’ own ritualized bodies which are literally translated as a crown

98. In the Gospel of the Savior 104 the Savior says “I am rich. I will fi ll you with my wealth.” For Shenoute, true wealth comes from Jesus, and spe-cifi cally recognizing that Jesus is God. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 283–284.

99. Text : EMMEL, “Ein altes Evangelium,” 89– 90.100. That the Gospel of the Savior 115 refers to an eschatological event see

EMMEL, “Righting the Order,” 60.101. These verses in the Strasbourg fragments were excellently reconstructed

in HUBAI, Koptische Apokryphen aus Nubien, 102.

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( ) around the Savior. 102 They are his “holy members,” joined as it were, around the head of the body (cf. 1 Cor. 12 ; Eph. 5.23). 103 Thus, the phrase “gather unto me O my holy members” has dual signifi cance : it points not only toward Christ’s incarnation as discussed previously, 104 but also toward Christ’s kingship (divinity) ; two theological concepts which were consistent with Coptic convictions.

The fi nal verses of the hymn in the Gospel of the Savior continue to focus on the Savior’s kingship, his sonship, and they seek to unite the disciples with their Savior. Before the fragmentary text breaks off, the choral-ring dance ends with a catechism (127–132). The Savior sings : 105

Through whom will the sting ( ) of death be destroyed ?Through the Only-begotten “Amen !”To whom belongs the kingdom ?It belongs to the Son “Amen !”From [what] is his kingdom ?[from the wood] “Amen !”

As the Savior sings questions and the disciples sing back answers in unison, they harmonize not only in voice, but also in mind. Throughout this catechism, the Savior’s kingship and sonship are woven together in the minds of the disciples in an alternating pattern, revealing a tapestry of salvation, whose theological threads cannot be viewed in isolation from one another. 106 Thus, death is overcome and salvation made pos-sible, not by separating the theological threads of the Savior’s humanity and divinity—just as Coptic Christians accused their opponents—but by confessing that salvation comes through the Savior’s single role as

102. See the reconstruction of the Gospel of the Savior 107.56 and verse 127. Notice how both the vocabulary and ritual actions are similar to those in the Dance of the Savior and Manichean Psalm-Book in PIOVANELLI, “Thursday Night Fever,” 16.

103. As was spoken in the Alexandrian Liturgy of St. Gregory both Christ’s kingship and his incarnation are one : “Not as two persons is…he known, but as one God, one Lord, one substance, one kingship, one rule, one activity, one hypostasis, one will, and ‘one incarnate nature of God the Word’, which is also worshiped” (emphasis added). His birth is also described as that of the “King of Creation.” Cited in : DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 96, 131.

104. See p. 272-273 and notes.105. The words Only-begotten, kingdom, and Son are underscored to high-

light the parallelism used in this passage. The addition “from the wood” is uncertain. It is placed here only because of its close similarity with the Dance of the Savior 32.3–5. See HUBAI, Koptische Apokryphen aus Nubien, 102.

106. In a polemic against Nestorius, Shenoute uses the weaver’s testimony embroidered in linen “Mary the God-bearer” as a evidence of how Mary bore Christ in the womb, but Christ formed Mary in the womb. In Shenoute’s mind-set, the weaver’s “humblest” testimony of the incarnation unites with his own testimony of Jesus’ divinity to show forth the oneness of Christ’s divinity and humanity ; cited in DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 287–288.

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the divine “King” and the incarnate “Son of the King” (81 –82). 107 For some Egyptian Christians who were contemporary with the Gospel of the Savior, there was a relationship between Christ’s kingship and the eschatological kingship given to the faithful.

For instance, Shenoute perceived that the faithful could become kings under the kingship of Christ. According to Shenoute, those who imitated Christ through good deeds, trials, and suffering would be raised and glorifi ed with Christ. Shenoute, however, stresses that the faithful must “suffer with Christ” and “die with Christ” before they “will be made kings with Christ.” And he repeatedly emphasized that ultimate kingship belongs to Christ alone and the Father. 108 Likewise, the disciples dance toward divinity through a similar process. In the hymn of the ring-dance, the Savior and his holy members must the-matically pass through the passion before entering into kingship.

Concluding Observations

I began this study by asking two questions : How might this hymn have been meaningful for some Coptic Christians ? And what might have been the purpose of the hymn of the ring-dance within the textual world of the Gospel of the Savior ? Likely, this hymn was meaning-ful for some Egyptian Christians because it protected their theologi-cal views of the incarnation and human salvation. The theology rooted within this hymn attempted to uproot theologies opposed to Christ’s lit-eral crucifi xion, birth as a “little child,” and single nature. The Jesus in the Acts of John was especially troubling ; this shape-shifting, bodiless, and passionless Jesus needed to die and be restored to a new textual life fi t for the “orthodox”.

In the liturgical world of the Gospel of the Savior, the purpose of the hymn of the ring-dance was to allow the members of the circle to follow the Savior in his dance toward deifi cation, and to praise the Savior as reigning supreme. In sacred time, those in the circle learn of things past, present and future. They are enabled to follow the Savior on a journey in which the disciples participate in the formation of the Savior’s divine body, his crucifi xion, and ultimately his heavenly kingship. In a sense, the Savior uses the circle to create

107. DAVIS, Coptic Christology in Practice, 97.108. “And neither king, nor ruler, nor any human generation rules in the

heavens except God alone and his Christ, the Lord, the King of heaven and the earth. Those who will be worthy because of their good deeds are they who will become kings of life forever. Those who died with Christ are they who will live again with Christ. Those who suffered with Christ are they who will be glorifi ed with him. Not those who endure in name alone, but (who endure) in faith and deeds, and also all other trials, they are those who will be made kings with Christ. But they are not equal with him, for he is God and he is the King. But if we are sons of Christ the King then we are kings.” (Opera IV. 4.14–25)

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divine duplicates of himself and his life. The Savior creates as it were, a ritualized circle of saviors. Yet the ritual relationship between the Savior and his disciples is at times reciprocal ; the disciples both form the body of the Savior and are transformed by his body ; they are the rite which crowns the King, and they are kings in their own right. In the end, however, the ultimate purpose of the hymn is not to praise the disciples as the crown, but to praise the true nature of him who wears the crown ; the incarnate Son, the divine King.