Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, Ph.D. (2002) and Habilitation (2009) at ÉPHÉ – Sorbonne, is a lecturer in Armenian civilisation at the University of Aix-en-Provence. He is interested in the interaction of religions across pre-modern Eurasia and in the cross-cultural development of ecclesiastical institutions in Syria, South Caucasus and Anatolia. In his recent publications, he has focused on the transmission of apocrypha in the South Caucasus and on the phenomenon of cultural blending in apocrypha.

• PrefaceList of Figures and TablesNotes on ContributorsIntroductionPart 1 Esoteric Writing and Esoteric Cults in the Biblical Religions1 The Exoteric Settings of Jewish EsotericismIthamar Gruenwald2 The Gospel of Peter between the Synoptics, Second Century, and Late Antique ‘Apostolic Memoirs’Tobias Nicklas3 All Mysteries Revealed? On the Interplay between Hiding and Revealing and the Dangers of Heavenly Journeys according to the Ascension of IsaiahJoseph Verheyden4 Early Christianity and the Pagan Mysteries: Esoteric Knowledge?Jan N. Bremmer5 The Medieval Dualist Nachleben of Early Jewish and Christian Esoteric Traditions: The Role of the PseudepigraphaYuri Stoyanov6 The Esoteric Cardinal: Giorgios Gemistos, Bessarion and TheurgyEzio AlbrilePart 2 Bridging the Account of the Origins and the Messiah’s Advent7 La création d’ Adam à Noravank̔: Théologie et narrativitéJean-Pierre Mahé8 Translatio corporis Adæ: Trajectories of a Parabiblical TraditionSergey Minov9 Apostles, Long Dead ‘Heretics’, and Monks: Noncanonical Traditions on Angels and Protoplasts in Two Late Antique Coptic Apocalypses (7th–8th Century CE)Daniele Tripaldi10 Face as the Image of God in the Jewish PseudepigraphaAndrei A. Orlov11 On the Perdition of the Higher Intellect and on the Image of Light: Critical Edition, Translation, and CommentaryMaria V. Korogodina and Basil Lourié12 Bridging the Gaps in the Samaritan TraditionAbraham Tal13 ‘On the Mountains of Ararat’: Noah’s Ark and the Sacred Topography of ArmeniaNazénie Garibian14 The Historian’s Craft and Temporal Bridges in Apocrypha and in Early Christian Art: Para-Biblical Sources in the Light of the Work of Marc BlochIgor Dorfmann-LazarevPart 3 Symbols and Figures of the Messianic Expectation15 Quellen der nichtbiblischen Mose-Überlieferung in der Kratkaja Chronografičeskaja PalejaDieter Fahl and Sabine Fahl16 Whether Lamb or Lion: Overlapping Metaphors in Jewish and Christian ApocalypticismAbraham Terian17 Rescuing John the BaptistAlbert I. Baumgarten18 The Esoteric Legacy of the Magi of Bethlehem in the Framework of the Iranian Speculations about Jesus, Zoroaster and His Three Posthumous SonsAntonio Panaino19 Visual Apocrypha: The Case of Mary and the Magi in Early Christian RomeFelicity Harley20 Gnostic and Mithraic Themes in Sefer ZerubbabelYishai KielPart 4 Angels, Heavenly Journeys and Visions of Paradise21 1 Enoch 17 in the Geneva Papyrus 187David Hamidović22 Enochic Traditions in Slavia OrthodoxaFlorentina Badalanova Geller23 Visions of Paradise in the Life of St Andrew the Fool and the Legacy of the Jewish Pseudepigrapha in ByzantiumEmmanouela Grypeou24 Eternal Chains and the Mountain of Darkness: The Fallen Angels in the Incantation BowlsYakir Paz25 Iconography of Angels: Roots and Origins in the Earliest Christian ArtCecilia Proverbio26 The Gardens of Eden: Compositional, Iconographic and Semantic Similarities between the ‘Birds Mosaic’ of the Armenian Chapel in Jerusalem and the Mosaic of the Synagogue at Maʿon (Nirim)Zaruhi HakobyanPostscript: Border-Crossing TextsHartmut LeppinIndex