Baylor Press recently provided a review copy of Hans-Josef Klauck's new book, The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction (amazon.com). For blurbs and the TOC, see my previous post. I hope to blog some thoughts as I have time to read through the book.

But, my first impressions: As an introduction, this book is marvelous. Note that the actual text (translated or otherwise) is not contained in this book. But if you have never read or worked with this material before, I'd recommend using Klauck's book along with an edition of the text (I'd recommend Schneemelcher's second volume (amazon.com)) in order to familiarize yourself with what's going on.

If you're teaching this material, this is a great introduction and you'll probably want to use it. Make sure to stop by the Baylor Press booth at SBL and check out a copy of the book.

In this post, I'll briefly review Klauck's section on the Acts of John. Here is a detailed TOC of the whole section:

The Acts of John (pp. 15-45)
     Bibliographical material: Editions, Translations, Secondary literature (p. 15)
     A. Context (pp. 16-18)
     B. Contents (pp. 19-40)
          1. The First Period in Ephesus (ActJoh 18–55) (p. 19-24)
               Cleopatra and Lycomedes (p. 20)
               The Apostle and his Portrait (pp. 20-21)
               The Old Women (pp. 21-22)
               The Destruction of Artemis (pp. 22-23)
               Fornication with Dramatic Consequences (pp. 23-24, includes bibliography)
          2. Intermezzos (ActJoh 56-61) (pp. 24-26)
               A Partridge or the Sons of Antipatros? (pp. 24-25)
               The Obedient Bugs (pp. 25-26, includes bibliography)
          3. The Second Period in Ephesus (ActJoh 62-86) (pp. 26-30)
               The Death of Drusiana (p. 27)
               In the Tomb (pp. 27-28)
               The Raising Up of Callimachus and Drusiana (pp. 28-29)
               The "Unsuccessful" Raising of Fortunatus (pp. 29-30)
          4. The "Polymorphous" Earthly Lord (ActJoh 87-93, 103-5) (pp. 30-33, includes bibliography)
          5. The True "Passion" of the Lord (ActJoh 94-102) (pp. 33-36)
               The Dance Hymn (pp. 33-35, includes bibliography)
               The "Passion" Narrative (pp. 35-36, includes bibliography)
          6. The Death of the Apostle (ActJoh 106-115) (pp. 36-38, includes bibliography)
          7. Fragments that Cannot Be Localized (pp. 39-40)
     C. Evaluation (pp. 40-42, includes bibliography)
     D. Later Narratives (pp. 42-45)
          1. The Syriac History of John (pp. 42-43, includes bibliography)
          2. The Acts of John by Pseudo-Prochorus (pp. 43-44, includes bibliography)
          3. Virtues Johannes, Passio Johannes (p. 44, includes bibliography)
          4. The Acts of John in Rome (p. 45, includes bibliography)

One of the many strengths, as you can see, is the inclusion of bibliographic material at various levels. If there are articles or whatnot that pertain specifically to a given section, they are listed with that section. Also, the organization (at least of this portion) outlines the text itself under discussion. The text itself serves not only as introduction, but also as a short commentary and discussion of the text. All of this, particularly when combined with a reputable edition of the text (amazon.com), gives the reader good apprehension of what is going on in this somewhat neglected and sometimes weird literature.