Stephen Hodge
Dr. Stephen Hodge completed his undergraduate studies at SOAS, University of London (1969–72) and his post-graduate studies at Tōhoku Universty (1972–81), focussing on the formation of early tantric Buddhism and early Yogācāra. He was ordained as a Shingon monk at Mt. Koya in 1974. Since returning to the UK, apart from some teaching work, Hodge has mainly engaged in translation work and also independent research into the textual formation of early Mahāyāna, especially focusing on the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra and related texts. He is currently working on a translation of the Tibetan and two Chinese versions of the Nirvāṇasūtra, to be accompanied by an exhaustive textual analysis demonstrating the compositional methods and stratification of this text and the relationship between the three versions. Hodge has recently embarked upon a parallel study of the development and texts of early 1st century CE Messianic Judaism and the Hebreo-Aramaic basis of the Gospels, as well as investigating possible ideological influences in Southern India.
His publications include: An Introduction to Classical Tibetan (1990), The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead (1998), The Dead Sea Scrolls (2001), The Mahā-Vairocana Tantra with Commentary by Buddhaguhya (2001), The Daodejing (2002), the following sections of the Yogācāra-bhūmi-ṣāstra: Vyakhyā-saṃgrahaṇī, Paryāya-saṃgrahaṇī, Vastu-saṃgrahaṇī, Śrāvaka-bhūmi (forthcoming with BDK). Hodge is also currently publishing a series of interim study papers on the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra: Paper I “The Textual Transmisssion of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra," Paper II "Who Compiled the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, Where & When?” (forthcoming), Paper III "The Development of the Conceptual Terminology of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra" (forthcoming. (Source Accessed October 16, 2019)
Library Items
On the Eschatology of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and Related Matters
Given that the MPNS is such a complex text, I should like to take up just one theme that runs through much of this sutra—the way the compilers of this sūtra seem to have perceived the causes and the implications of the decline of the Dharma, that is, what one might, as I have done here, term the "eschatology of the MPNS." I believe this may provide an important key to
understanding the entire sūtra, though some of my conclusions are necessarily based on circumstantial evidence. One might also remark here, in passing, that the prominence of the concept in the MPNS that the scriptural Dharma is, as we shall see, decidedly impermanent stands out in stark contrast to the recurrent idea in the sūtra of the permanence of Buddha. (Hodge, introduction, 1)
Hodge, Stephen. "On the Eschatology of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and Related Matters." Lecture delivered on the Tibetan version of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra at the University of London, SOAS, Spring 2006. http://www.shabkar.org/download/pdf/On_the_Eschatology_of_the_Mahaparinirvana_Sutra_and_Related_Matters.pdf
Hodge, Stephen. "On the Eschatology of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and Related Matters." Lecture delivered on the Tibetan version of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra at the University of London, SOAS, Spring 2006. http://www.shabkar.org/download/pdf/On_the_Eschatology_of_the_Mahaparinirvana_Sutra_and_Related_Matters.pdf;On the Eschatology of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and Related Matters;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Stephen Hodge; 
Textual History of the Mahāyāna-Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra by Stephen Hodge
Page, Tony. "Textual History of the Mahāyāna-Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra by Stephen Hodge." Nirvana Sutra: Appreciation of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra." Updated August 2019. nirvanasutra.net.
Page, Tony. "Textual History of the Mahāyāna-Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra by Stephen Hodge." Nirvana Sutra: Appreciation of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra." Updated August 2019. nirvanasutra.net.
Page, Tony. "Textual History of the Mahāyāna-Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra by Stephen Hodge." Nirvana Sutra: Appreciation of the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra." Updated August 2019. nirvanasutra.net.;Textual History of the Mahāyāna-Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra by Stephen Hodge;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Stephen Hodge; 
The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra: The Text and Its Transmission
Although the textual study of Mahāyāna sūtras has made gradual progress over the past few decades, there are a number of major sutras of considerable importance for an understanding of the development of Mahāyāna doctrinally and socially which still remain rather neglected in the West, such as the Tathāgataguhyaka, the Samādhi-rāja, and the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa. Of these, the Mahāyāna Mahā-parinirvāṇa-sūtra (hereafter MPNS), when not casually dismissed as a Hinduizing aberration, until recently has attracted interest almost solely as a source for studies of the so-called “Buddha-nature” or tathāgata-garbha doctrine. Moreover, the value of such studies has often been compromised by an uncritical, synchronic use of the text, completely ignoring the problems of stratification and interpolation which I shall highlight in this paper.
Yet the significance of the MPNS goes well beyond that restricted topic, despite its interest to many. For example, when utilized to the fullest, the available textual materials for the MPNS allow unique insights into the creation, development & transmission of Mahāyāna texts in general. Additionally, I believe that the composition of the main elements of the MPNS can be reliably dated to a narrow period from the middle decades to the end years of the 1st century CE, when read in conjunction with the small group of associated texts (the Mahāmegha-sūtra, Mahā-bherī-sūtra and the Aṅgulimālīya-sūtra), due to the specific mention in them of the Sātavāhana ruler Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi in conjunction with the timetable of a dire eschatological prophesy. There would also seem to be biographical details of a certain individual who may have been the founder or author of the MPNS “movement”. In sum, this situation seems to be virtually unique among all Mahāyāna sutras and, if properly understood, should have far-reaching ramifications for the study of the early Mahāyāna movements, for the MPNS may now be taken as a fixed reference point for constructing a relative chronology for many other early Mahāyāna sutras, though with the usual caveats concerning interpolated material. (Hodge, introduction, 1)
Yet the significance of the MPNS goes well beyond that restricted topic, despite its interest to many. For example, when utilized to the fullest, the available textual materials for the MPNS allow unique insights into the creation, development & transmission of Mahāyāna texts in general. Additionally, I believe that the composition of the main elements of the MPNS can be reliably dated to a narrow period from the middle decades to the end years of the 1st century CE, when read in conjunction with the small group of associated texts (the Mahāmegha-sūtra, Mahā-bherī-sūtra and the Aṅgulimālīya-sūtra), due to the specific mention in them of the Sātavāhana ruler Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi in conjunction with the timetable of a dire eschatological prophesy. There would also seem to be biographical details of a certain individual who may have been the founder or author of the MPNS “movement”. In sum, this situation seems to be virtually unique among all Mahāyāna sutras and, if properly understood, should have far-reaching ramifications for the study of the early Mahāyāna movements, for the MPNS may now be taken as a fixed reference point for constructing a relative chronology for many other early Mahāyāna sutras, though with the usual caveats concerning interpolated material. (Hodge, introduction, 1)
Hodge, Stephen. "The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra: The Text and Its Transmission." Corrected and revised version of a paper presented in July 2010 at the Second International Workshop on the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra held at Munich University, 2012. https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/hodge/the-textual-transmisssion-of-the-mpns.pdf
Hodge, Stephen. "The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra: The Text and Its Transmission." Corrected and revised version of a paper presented in July 2010 at the Second International Workshop on the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra held at Munich University, 2012. https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/hodge/the-textual-transmisssion-of-the-mpns.pdf;The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra: The Text and Its Transmission;Textual study;Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra;Stephen Hodge; 
