Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-354) and index.

Death and the maiden : the early history of the Dormition and Assumption apocrypha -- Gender at the Virgin's funeral : men and women as witnesses to the Dormition -- Asceticism in the early Dormition narratives -- A peculiar version of the Inventio crucis in the early Syriac Dormition traditions -- "Let us go and burn her body" : the image of the Jews in the early Dormition traditions -- Rethinking the "Gnostic Mary" : Mary of Nazareth and Mary of Magdala in early Christian tradition -- Apocrypha and liturgy : the case of the "six books" Dormition apocryphon -- Epiphanius of Salamis, the Kollyridians, and the early Dormition narratives : the cult of the Virgin in the fourth century -- The Sahidic Coptic homily on the Dormition of the Virgin attributed to Evodius of Rome (Morgan MSS 596 & 598) : an edition and translation -- A new Dormition fragment in Coptic : P. Vindob. K 7589 and the Marian apocryphal tradition -- New Syriac Dormition fragments from palimpsests in the Sch�yen Collection and the British Library -- Apocalyptic traditions in the Armenian Dormition narratives.

This volume gathers a dozen essays by the author on the ancient traditions of Mary's Dormition and Assumption, all of which expand on the work published in his major study on this topic, 'The Ancient Traditions of Mary's Dormition and Assumption' (Oxford, 2002). The essays were originally published between 1999 and 2011 and cover a broad range of topics in relation to traditions about the end of Mary's life, from ancient gnostic Christianity to Christian anti-Judaism to the beginnings of Marian veneration. Although each of these items was previously published in another venue, for the first time this volume makes these writings on the Virgin's Dormition available together, offering an important supplement and in some cases update of the earlier monograph. While its chapters remain largely faithful to the original publications in their content, when appropriate, they have been selectively updated to account for more recent research.

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