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Apocrypha of the New Testament
Introductory Notice to Apocrypha of the New Testament.
[1548] Schaff-Herzog, i. p. 105.
[1549] In most cases the vocabulary of the books furnishes positive evidence of the late origin. A great number of terms can be traced to a particular period of ecclesiastical development, while the dogmatic tendencies which point to a given (and comparatively late) period of controversy are frequent and obvious.
[1550] [James the Lord’s brother, in the earliest Christian literature, is not identified with James the son of Alphæus, one of the twelve. On the titles, see footnote on first page of text.—R.]
[1551] [The numbers here correspond with those of Tischendorf in his prolegomena. In his table of contents, however, he gives a separate number to the letter of Pilate, which closes XIII. Hence the enumeration differs from that point.—R.]
[1552] [For a full list of fragments and titles of other Apocryphal Gospels, see Schaff-Herzog, i. p. 106. Twenty-nine are given, but in some cases the same work probably appears under two titles.—R.]
Part II.—The Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles.
[1553] [That is, this is the tradition. Of such Hebrew original there is no trace.—R.]
[1554] [This title is taken by Tischendorf from a manuscript of the eleventh century (Paris). At least seventeen other forms exist. The book is variously named by ancient writers. In the decree of Gelasius (a.d. 495) he condemns it as Evangelium nomine Jacobi minoris apocryphum.
The text of Tischendorf, here translated, is somewhat less diffuse than that of Fabricius, and is based on manuscript evidence. The variations are verbal and formal rather than material.—R.]
[1555] Susanna i. 4.
[1556] The readings vary, and the sense is doubtful. Thilo thinks that the sense is: What I offer over and above what the law requires is for the benefit of the whole people; but the offering I make for my own forgiveness (according to the law’s requirements) shall be to the Lord, that He may be rendered merciful to me.
[1557] The Church of Rome appoints March 20 as the Feast of St. Joachim. His liberality is commemorated in prayers, and the lessons to be read are Wisdom 31; Matt. 1.
[1558] 1 Sam. i. 6-7; Hos. ix. 14.
[1559] Another reading is: In his last days.
[1560] Another reading is: Into the hill-country.
[1561] Moses: Ex. xxiv. 18, xxxiv. 28; Deut. ix. 9. Elijah: 1 Kings xix. 8. Christ: Matt. iv. 2.
[1562] The 26th day of July is the Feast of St. Anna in the Church of Rome.
[1563] Other forms of the name are Juth, Juthin.
[1564] Some mss. have: For I am thy maid-servant, and thou hast a regal appearance.
[1565] Severalmss. insert: Thou hast not listened to my voice; for.
[1566] Comp. 1 Sam. i. 9-18.
[1567] Tobit ii. 10.
[1568] Many of themss. here add: Alas! to what have I been likened? I am not like the waves of the sea, because even the waves of the sea, in calm and storm, and the fishes in them, bless Thee, O Lord.
[1570] One of themss.: With his shepherds, and sheep, and goats, and oxen.
[1571] Ex. xxviii. 36-38. For traditions about the petalon, see Euseb., H. E., ii. 23, iii. 31, v. 24; Epiph., Hær., 78.
[1572] Various readings are: Sixth, seventh, eighth.
[1573] One of the MSS inserts: On the eighth day.
[1574] One of themss. has nine.
[1575] This is the reading of most mss.; but it is difficult to see any sense in it. One ms. reads: They attended on her. Fabricius proposed: They bathed her.
[1576] Two of themss. add: And they gave her the name of Mary, because her name shall not fade forever. This derivation of the name—from the root mar, fade—is one of a dozen or so.
[1577] This is taken to mean: Send someone to us to warn us that we have been too long in paying our vow. One ms. reads, lest the Lord depart from us; another, lest the Lord move away from us.
[1578] Or, fourteen. Postel’s Latin version has ten.
[1579] Ex. xxviii. 28;Ex. xxviii. 28; Sirach xlv. 9; Justin, Tryph., xlii.
[1581] Lit., undefiled. It is difficult to say what colour is meant, or if it is a colour at all. The word is once used to mean the sea, but with no reference to colour. It is also the name of a stone of a greenish hue.
[1582] Lit., hyacinth.
[1586] Other readings are: the wool—what she had in her hand.
[1589] Six mss. have sixteen; one, fourteen; two, fifteen; and one, seventeen.
[1590] The Latin translation has hung down.
[1591] Ezek. xxi. 12; Jer. xxxi. 19.
[1592] Two mss.: her.
[1593] Another reading is: As Adam was in Paradise, and in the hour of the singing of praise (doxology) to God was with the angels, the serpent, etc.
[1595] Lit., angelic; one ms. has holy; the Latin translation, following a slightly different reading, that it would not be fair to her.
[1597] Three mss. have high priest.
[1598] Num. v. 11, ff.
[1600] Or: On this day of the Lord I will do, etc.
[1601] Another reading is: And his son Samuel led it, and James and Simon followed.
[1602] Bethlehem…used to be overshadowed by a grove of Thammuz, i.e., Adonis; and in the cave where Christ formerly wailed as an infant, they used to mourn for the beloved of Venus (Jerome to Paulinus). In his letter to Sabinianus the cave is repeatedly mentioned: “That cave in which the Son of God was born;” “that venerable cave,” etc., “within the door of what was once the Lord’s manger, now the altar.” “Then you run to the place of the shepherds.” There appears also to have been above the altar the figure of an angel, or angels. See also Justin, Tryph., 78.
[1603] Two mss. here add: And thou Bethlehem, etc., from Mic. v. 2.
[1604] Matt. ii. 1-12. One of the mss. here adds Matt. ii. 13-15, with two or three slight variations.
[1605] Four mss. have all the male children, as in Matt. ii. 16.
[1606] Another reading is: And Herod, enraged at this, ordered him to be slain in the midst of the altar before the dawn, that the slaying of him might not be prevented by the people. [This incident was probably suggested by the reference to “Zacharias the son of Barachias” in Matt. xxiii. 35, Luke xi. 51; but comp. 2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22.—R.]
[1607] Lit., the blessing of Zacharias did not come forth, etc.
[1608] Or, with prayer.
[1609] Another reading is: And was rent from the top, etc.
[1610] Luke ii. 26. One of the mss. here adds Matt. ii. 19-23, with two or three verbal changes.
[1611] [Assuming that this is among the most ancient of the Apocryphal Gospels, it is noteworthy that the writer abstains from elaborating his statements on points fully narrated in the Canonical Gospels. The supplementary character of the earliest of these writings is obvious. But what a contrast between the impressive silence of the New Testament narratives, and the garrulity, not to say indelicacy, of these detailed descriptions of the Nativity!—R.]
[1612] The mss. vary much in the doxology.
[1613] [This introduction is, of itself, an evidence of late origin.—R.]
[1614] Lit., to Latin ears.
Reply to Their Letter by Jerome.
[1615] Lit., conscious of gold.
[1616] Two of themss. have this prologue: I James, the son of Joseph, living in the fear of God, have written all that with my own eyes I saw coming to pass in the time of the nativity of the holy virgin Mary, or of the Lord the Saviour: giving thanks to God, who has given me wisdom in the accounts of His Advent, showing His abounding grace to the twelve tribes of Israel.
[1617] Tobit i. 7.
[1618] One of themss. has: Only they vowed that, if God should give them offspring, they would devote it to the service of the temple; and because of this, they were wont to go to the temple of the Lord at each of the yearly festivals.
[1619] Another reading is: Where he has died—reading mortuus for moratus.
[1620] Comp. Tobit ii. 10.
[1624] Faustus the Manichæan said that Joachim was of the tribe of Levi (August. xxiii. 4, Contra Faustum). As belonging to the tribe of Judah, he had not the right of sacrifice.
[1625] Comp. Judg. xiii. 20.
[1626] Comp. Acts ix. 11.
[1627] This is the Beautiful gate of Acts iii. 2, to which, according to Josephus, there was an ascent by many steps from the valley of Kedron.
[1628] Corresponding with the fifteen Songs of Degrees, Ps. cxx.-cxxxiv. See Smith’s Dict.—art. Songs of Degrees. Another reading is: And there were about the temple, according to the fifteen Psalms of Degrees, fifteen steps of ascent: the temple was on a mountain, and there had been there built the altar of burnt-offering, which could not be reached but by steps.
[1629] For the hours of prayer, see Apost. Const., ch. xl.; Jerome’s letters to Læta, Demetrias, etc.
[1630] One of themss. has: She was anxious about her companions, lest any of them should sin even in one word, lest any of them should raise her voice in laughing, lest any of them should be in the wrong, or proud to her father or her mother.
[1631] Or, by the first of all.
[1632] Or, twelve.
[1633] One of themss. adds: Seeing that he had not a wife, and not wishing to slight the order of the high priest.
[1634] One of themss. inserts: To the number of three thousand.
[1636] Another and more probable reading is: And this was Joseph’s rod; and he was of an abject appearance, seeing that he was old, and he would not ask back his rod, lest perchance he might be forced to receive her.
[1637] Or, hyacinth.
[1639] Another reading is: The Holy Spirit.
[1642] See Alford’s Greek Testament on Luke ii. 14. [So Rev. Version, following the weight of manuscript authority.—R.]
[1643] Or Zelemi.
[1646] Hab. iii. 2, according to the LXX. reading, שְׁנַיִם תִיִיס two living creatures, for שָׁנִיִם תַיַיוּ years make alive.
[1648] This shows the extent of the writer’s, or transcriber’s knowledge of Greek.
[1652] One ms. has: When two days were past. Another: On the thirteenth day.
[1654] The siclus aureus, or gold shekel, was worth £1, 16s. 6d.
[1655] One ms. has: Gaspar gave Myrrh, Melchior frankincense, Balthusar gold.
[1657] One ms. has: And when Herod, coming back from Rome the year after, saw.
[1660] One of themss. has: Then Joseph put the blessed virgin and the boy upon a beast, and himself mounted another, and took the road through the hill country and the desert, that he might get safe to Egypt; for they did not want to go by the shore, for fear of being waylaid.
[1663] Or, Sotrina.
[1664] No nation was so given to idolatry, and worshipped such a countless number of monsters, as the Egyptians.—Jerome on Isaiah.
[1665] Cf. 1 Sam. v. 3.
[1668] Matt. ii. 26. One of the mss. here has: And Joseph and Mary went to live in the house of a certain widow, and spent a year there; and for the events of the year it gives a number of the miracles recorded in the early chapters of the Latin Gospel of Thomas.
[1669] Other forms of the name are: Zachias, Zachameus, Zacheus, Zachæus.
[1670] Or, seeing that there was in Him an insuperable knowledge of virtue.
[1671] Tischendorf thinks that the text is corrupt. But the meaning seems to be: You are not a whit better than your neighbours; for all of you teach what you have named, and you can teach nothing else. But he alone (ipse, i.e., Christ) can teach more who is worthy.
[1672] Comp. John viii. 56-58.
[1673] Or, literally, inferior to me.
[1674] 1 Cor. xiii. 1, xiv. 7.
[1675] Tau, and not Teth, is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
[1676] The original—triangulos gradatos, subacutos, mediatos, obductos, productos, erectos, stratos, curvistratos—is hopelessly corrupt. Compare the passages in the following Apocrypha. [The Gospel of Thomas, first Greek form, chaps. 6, 7, and parallel passages.—R.] It obviously, however, refers to the Pentalpha, Pentacle, or Solomon’s Seal, celebrated in the remains of the magical books that have come down to us under the names of Hermas and the Pythagoreans. The Pentalpha was formed by joining by straight lines the alternate angles of a regular pentagon, and thus contained numerous triangles. The Pythagoreans called it the Hygiea or symbol of health, and it was frequently engraved on amulets and coins. It is still, if the books are to be trusted, a symbol of power in the higher grades of freemasonry.
[1677] i.e., It is not wonderful that we do not understand what he says, for we do not know what he is.
[1679] The kor or chomer was, according to Jahn, equal to 32 pecks 1 pint.
[1680] Multiplicibus suis.
[1681] Josh. iii. 16; 2 Kings ii. 8.
[1682] One of the mss. tells the story, not of Joseph, but of a certain builder, a worker in wood.
[1683] Lit., boy.
[1684] One of themss. here inserts: And when Jesus was with other children He repeatedly went up and sat down upon a balcony, and many of them began to do likewise, and they fell down and broke their legs and arms. And the Lord Jesus healed them all.
[1685] Note that the letters are Greek here.
[1687] In place of this chapter, one of the mss. has a number of miracles copied from the canonical Gospels—the walking on the sea, the feeding of the five thousand, the healing of a blind man, the raising of Lazarus, and the raising of a certain young man.
[1688] According to the tradition preserved by Hegesippus and Tertullian, James and Judas were husbandmen. See Apost. Const., ch. lxvii.
[1689] Comp.Acts xxviii.
[1690] One of themss. has: And when Joseph, worn out with old age, died and was buried with his parents, the blessed Mary lived with her nephews, or with the children of her sisters; for Anna and Emerina were sisters. Of Emerina was born Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. And as Anna, the mother of the blessed Mary, was very beautiful, when Joachim was dead she was married to Cleophas, by whom she had a second daughter. She called her Mary, and gave her to Alphæus to wife; and of her was born James the son of Alphæus, and Philip his brother. And her second husband having died, Anna was married to a third husband named Salome, by whom she had a third daughter. She called her Mary likewise, and gave her to Zebedee to wife; and of her were born James the son of Zebedee, and John the Evangelist.
Another passage to the same effect is prefixed to the Gospel. It reads Emeria for Emerina, and Joseph for Philip. It ends with a quotation from Jerome’s sermon upon Easter:—We read in the Gospels that there were four Mary’s—first, the mother of the Lord the Saviour; second, His maternal aunt, who was called Mary of Cleophas; third, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, fourth, Mary Magdalene—though some maintain that the mother of James and Joseph was His aunt.
The same ms. thus concludes: The holy Apostle and Evangelist John with his own hand wrote this little book in Hebrew, and the learned doctor Jerome rendered it from Hebrew into Latin.
[1691] 1 Macc. iv. 52-59; 2 Macc. x. 1-8; John x. 22; Josephus, Antiq. xii. 7.
[1692] The spelling in the text is that in the Hebrew, the Samaritan Codex, the Targums, and the Textus Receptus. There is no Issachar in the list of high priests.
[1693] This statement does not occur in Scripture in so many words; but sterility was looked upon as a punishment from God.
[1695] Gen. xvii. 17. Sarah was ninety years old.
[1696] Ps. cxx.-cxxxiv. The fifteen steps led from the court of the women to that of the men.
[1706] Thus in the original.
The History of Joseph the Carpenter.
[1707] The Coptic has: The 26th day of Epep. This is the departure from the body of our father Joseph the carpenter, the father of Christ after the flesh, who was 111 years old. Our Saviour narrated all his life to His apostles on Mount Olivet; and His apostles wrote it, and put it in the library which is in Jerusalem. Also that the day on which the holy old man laid down his body was the 26th of the month Epep. In the peace of God, amen.
His day is the 19th of March in the Roman calendar.
[1710] Comp. Matt. x. 42.
[1711] Comp. Ps. lxxxiv. 10.
[1714] Jer. ix. 23-24; 1 Cor. i. 31; 2 Cor. x. 17.
[1717] Ps. ii. 9; Rev. xi. 5, xix. 15.
[1719] It was Herod Antipas who ordered John to be beheaded.
[1721] The Salome here mentioned was, according to two of the mss. of Pseudo-Matthew, the third husband of Anna, Mary’s mother, and the father of Mary the wife of Zebedee. But compare Matt. 27.56; Mark 15.40.
[1723] One the subject of guardian angels, see Shepherd of Hermas, iii. 4; Justin, Apol., ii. 5, Tryph., 5; Athenagoras, Legat., 10, 20; Clem. Alex., Strom., vi. 17.
[1724] This clause looks like an interpolation. But the doctrine of purgatory was held from an early date. Clem. Alex., Pædag., iii. 9; Strom., vii. 6; Origen against Celsus, v. 14, 15.
[1725] Note the change from the first person.
[1726] Here the Coptic has: This is the end of the life of my beloved father Joseph. When forty years old he married a wife, with whom he lived nine (? forty-nine) years. After her death he remained a widower one (or two) year: and my mother lived two years in his house before she was married to him, since he had been ordered by the priests to take charge of her until the time of her marriage. And my mother Mary brought me forth in the third year that she was in Joseph’s house, in the fifteenth year of her age. My mother bore me in a cave (this seems a mistranslation for mystery), which it is unlawful either to name or seek, and there is not in the whole creation a man who knows it, except me and my Father and the Holy Spirit. It is to be noted that the last clause is omitted in the Coptic. The phrase one essence was first used in regard to the doctrine of the Trinity by Augustine.
[1730] The Sahidic has: Joseph entreats Jesus to pardon him likewise, because when, once upon a time, He had recalled to life a boy bitten by a cerastes, he (Joseph) had pulled His right ear, advising Him to refrain from works that brought hatred upon Him. See Second Gospel of Thomas, chap. 5.
[1732] The argument of the Sahidic is: He sends for Joseph’s sons and daughters, of whom the oldest was Lysia the purple-seller. They all wept over their dying father.
[1733] Barnabas, 15; Hermas, i. 3; Irenæus, Contra Hær., v. 33; Justin, Tryph., 81; Tertullian, Adv. Marc., iii. 24. Caius and Dionysius imputed grossness and sensuality to Cerinthus, because he spoke of the wedding feast of the thousand years.
[1734] All the fathers placed the purgatorial fires, as the Greek Church does now, at the day of judgment. Augustine was the first who brought forward the supposition that the purification took place in Hades before the day of judgment. Haag, Histoire des Dogmes, ii. 323.
[1737] Comp.Rev. xi. 3-12.
[1738] Acts ix. 36. Schila is probably meant for the widow of Nain’s son.
The Gospel of Thomas: First Greek Form.
[1739] Pseudo-Matt. 26, etc.
[1740] Another reading is, branches.
[1741] One ms. has: And Jesus, at the entreaty of all of them, healed him.
[1742] Or, either teach him to bless, and not to curse, or depart with him from this place; for, etc.
[1743] Or, are not mine, but thine.
[1744] Pseudo-Matt. 29. [The numerous references to the latter part of Pseudo-Matthæi, see pp. 378–383, shows the close relationship. But it is generally agreed that this narrative is the older, and one of the sources of Pseudo-Matthæi.—R.]
[1745] Pseud.-Matt. 30, 31. Various explanations have been given of this difficult passage by annotators, who refer it to the A of the Hebrew, or of the Greek, or of the Armenian alphabet. It seems, however, to answer very closely to the old Phenician A, which was written *** or ***.
The Paris ms. has: And he sat down to teach Jesus the letters, and began the first letter Aleph; and Jesus says the second, Beth, Gimel, and told him all the letters to the end. And shutting the book, He taught the master the prophets.
[1746] Instead of this chapter, the Paris ms. has: And he was ashamed and perplexed, because he knew not whence he knew the letters. And he arose, and went home, in great astonishment at this strange thing.
It then goes on with a fragment of the history of the dyer’s shop, as given in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, ch. 37.
[1747] One of themss. of the Latin Gospel inserts here—Jesus, saying: Indeed, you made him fall down. And Jesus said: I never made him fall.
[1748] Pseudo-Matt. 32.
[1749] A better reading would be ἐν τῇ γειτονίᾳ, in the neighbourhood, for ἐν τῇ γωνίᾳ, in the corner.
[1750] Pseudo-Matt. 33.
[1751] The kor or chomer was, according to Jahn, 32 pecks 1 pint.
[1752] Pseudo-Matt. 34.
[1753] Pseudo-Matt. 37.
[1754] Pseudo-Matt. 38.
[1755] Tischendorf suggests ἀνάπηρος, maimed, for ἄπειρος.
[1756] Pseudo-Matt. 39.
[1757] Pseudo-Matt. 41.
[1758] Pseudo-Matt. 40.
[1759] [This may be rendered, as in R.V., Luke ii. 49, “ in my Father’s house.” The words are the same as in that passage.—R.]
The Gospel of Thomas: Second Greek Form.
[1761] [Compare the account in the version of the first Greek form, chap. 6, and the footnote.—R.]
Chapter VI.—How Jesus Was Treated by the Schoolmaster.
[1762] [In this book, the name Zacheus is given in different form, following the Latin.—R.]
[1763] A slight alteration is here made upon the punctuation of the original.
[1764] This refers to the Hebrew alphabet.
[1765] Better, perhaps: And when He began to tell that teacher.
[1766] This passage is hopelessly corrupt. The writer of this Gospel knew very little Greek, and probably the text from which he was translating was also here in a bad state. [Compare the accounts in the versions from the Greek forms.—R.]
[1767] The Greek original has μήτρα, which he seems to have confounded with μήτηρ.
Chapter VII.—How Jesus Raised a Boy to Life.
[1768] Or, on the house.
Chapter X.—How Jesus Sowed Wheat.
[1769] The modius or modium was almost exactly two gallons.
Chapter XI.—How Jesus Made a Short Piece of Wood of the Same Length as a Longer One.
[1770] But probably architector here is equal to τέκτων, a carpenter.
[1771] Perhaps sectum, cut, is the true reading, and not actum.
Chapter XII.—How Jesus Was Handed Over to Learn His Letters.
[1772] This is his translation of ἐπὶ πολλην ωραν.
[1773] Here again he makes a mistranslation—δύναμις, fortitudo.
Chapter XIII.—How He Was Handed Over to Another Master.
[1774] Some words have been omitted here in the ms., but the sense is obvious enough.
Chapter XV.—How Jesus Raised a Boy to Life.
[1776] This, I think, means: and which their father Israel, i.e. their fathers generally, had not seen.
The Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour.
[1777] Or, have found.
[1778] He is called Joseph Caiaphas in Josephus, Antiq., xviii. 2. 2.
[1779] The Latin translation in Tischendorf has Hierosolyma, which, as the form in the rest of the translation is feminine, means “from Jerusalem.” But as the Arabic can mean only “to Jerusalem,” the acc. plural of the neut. form may be here intended.
[1780] Or, with the lights of lamps and candles, more beautiful than lightning, and more splendid than sunlight.
[1781] John xii. 5. The denarius was worth about 7-3/4 d.
[1784] Ex. xiii. 2; Luke ii. 23.
[1786] For this prediction of Zoroaster, see Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, art. Magi.
[1789] Hos. xi. 1; Matt. ii. 15.
[1790] Burning to death was the punishment of those convicted of sacrilege and the practice of magic. It was inflicted also on slaves for grave offences against their masters.
[1791] Matarea, or Matariyeh, the site of Heliopolis or On, is a little way to the N.E. of Cairo. Ismail Pasha is said to have presented, on his visit to the Paris Exhibition of 1867, the tree and the ground surrounding it to the Empress of the French. For some interesting particulars about the tree, see a paragraph, by B.H.C. (i.e., Mr. B. Harris Cowper, who has translated the Apocryphal Gospels), in the Leisure Hour for 2d November, 1867.
[1794] Perhaps the correct reading is fornice, archway, and not fornace.
[1795] [So the Latin; but the Greek word in the Gospels is equivalent to “zealot.” See Rev. Vers. in the lists of the Apostles.—R.]
[1796] Matt. x. 4, etc.
[1797] Luke ii. 42-47. [A comparison of the two narratives is very suggestive. The Evangelist Luke does not present any such monster of precocity, nor does he adventure into discussions “upon the sciences.”—R.]
[1798] Ps. cx. 1; Matt. xxii. 42-45. [The Latin reads: vestigiis pedum tuorum, “the footsteps of thy feet.” The original term, “footstool,” has evidently been misunderstood by some transcriber.—R.]
[1799] The scripulum was the twenty-fourth part of the as. It is likely here put for the motion of a planet during one hour. Pliny, N. H., ii. 10, uses the word to signify an undefined number of degrees, or parts of a degree.
[1801] Matt. iii. 13-17; Luke iii. 21-23.
The Gospel of Nicodemus: Part I.—The Acts of Pilate: First Greek Form.
[1802] [The works which precede sought to supplement the evangelical narrative in regard to the early life of our Lord, and Mary His mother; those which follow are also supplementary, but refer to the closing events.—R.]
[1803] The 15th year of Tiberius, reckoning from the death of Augustus, was a.d. 29, a.u.c. 782, the first year of the 202d Olympiad, in the consulship of C. Fugus Geminus and L. Rubellius Geminus, and the 34th year of Herod Antipas. Other readings are: In the eighteenth year—In the nineteenth year. [Compare the Acts of Pilate in both forms. The variations here correspond with the various theories of the length of our Lord’s ministry. The text seems to confuse the statement of Luke (Luke 3.1) respecting the beginning of the public ministry with the time of our Lord’s death.—R.]
[1804] There is in themss. great variation as to these names.
[1805] Lit., and wishes to do away with it.
[1806] Compare with this, Lactantius, iv. 17. The Jews brought charges against Jesus, that He did away with the law of God given by Moses; that is, that He did not rest on the Sabbath, etc.
[1807] Another reading is: We entreat your highness to go into the prætorium, and question him. For Jesus was standing outside with the crowd.
[1808] Probably the Alexander mentioned in Acts iv. 6.
[1810] Ps. cxviii. 25: Hosyah na bimromim baruch hobba (b’shem) Adonai.
[1811] Another reading is: Annas and Caiaphas and Joseph, the three false witnesses, began to cry out, etc.
[1813] One ms. adds: Procla,—the traditional name of Pilate’s wife.
[1814] Three mss. add: And by Beelzebul, prince of the demons, he casts out the demons, and they are all subject to him.
[1815] i.e., let them see to it.
[1816] There is considerable variation in the mss. as to these names.
[1817] Or, let them swear.
[1818] See Apost. Const., ii. 56. At last he who is going to pronounce sentence of death upon the culprit raises his hands aloft, and takes the sun to witness that he is innocent of his blood.
[1819] The full force of the expression is: You do not mean to say that I too am a Jew?
[1820] Comp. John ii. 20.
[1821] Deut. xxv. 3; Lev. xxiv. 16.
[1825] Mark x. 46, etc.
[1826] Matt. viii. 1-4, etc.
[1827] Some mss. add the name Bernice, or Veronica.
[1829] Jos. Ant., iv. 8, § 15.
[1831] Matt. xxvii. 15-26, etc.
[1832] Lit., king. Other readings are: with wishing another king; with seeking Jesus for king.
[1833] One ms. adds: from two years old and under.
[1834] This was customary before pronouncing sentence. See Apost. Const., ii. 56.
[1835] Some of themss. add: And the soldier Longinus, taking a spear, pierced His side, and there came forth blood and water.
[1836] Lit., art.
[1837] Luke 23.46; Psa. 31.5 is, b’yadcha aphkid ruchi.
[1838] One ms. adds: Pilate said to them: You scoundrels! is this the way you tell the truth about everything? I know that that never happens but at new moon. Now you ate your passover yesterday, the fourteenth of the month, and you say that it was an eclipse of the sun.
[1840] Deut. xxxii. 35; Rom. xii. 19; Heb. x. 30.
[1841] [This is an evident blunder, one of many pointing to a late origin.—R.]
[1843] Three of the Latin versions say: And they took the money, but could not hide the truth. For they wanted to say, His disciples stole him while we slept, and could not utter it; but said, Truly the Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead; and we saw an angel of God coming down from heaven, and he rolled back the stone, and sat on it. And this saying has been spread abroad among the Jews even to this day.
[1844] Other readings are: Malek, Mophek, Mambre, Mabrech. Comp. 2 Kings xxiii. 13.
[1846] Lit., why then this trifling which ye have trifled, etc.
[1847] Perhaps better as a question.
[1848] Lit., boys.
[1850] i.e., Joshua. Josh. vii. 19, 20.
[1851] Comp. Acts x. 11.
[1852] Or, and he spoke to me.
[1853] This would seem to confirm the opinion that there were three tithes paid in the year. Comp. Smith’s Dict., sub voce.
[1856] Gen. v. 24; Heb. xi. 5.
[1859] Ex. xxiii. 20-21; Mal. iii. 1; Matt. xi. 10.
[1861] Deut. xxi. 23; Gal. iii. 13.
[1863] i.e., the year of jubilee. The original, ἕως τοῦ σώμμου, is not Greek. It is not easy to see what the passage means. It may refer to Isa. lxi. 1-3.
[1864] Deut. xxvii. 15; Rom. i. 25.
[1865] Or, sang hymns to.
[1870] Comp. Jer. xvii. 14.
[1871] Comp.1 Sam. xii. 22.
The Gospel of Nicodemus: Part I.—The Acts of Pilate: Second Greek Form.
[1872] [Compare the first Greek form, prologue and footnote.—R.]
[1873] One ms. inserts: by name Rachaab, the messenger.
[1874] Instead of these four sections, ms. C has a minute account of the suicide of Judas, of which the following specimen may be given:—And he went home to make a halter to hang himself, and he found his wife roasting a cock on the coals. And he says to her: Rise, wife, and get a rope ready for me; for I mean to hang myself, as I deserve. And his wife said to him: Why do you speak like that? And Judas says: Know in truth that I unjustly betrayed my master, etc., and that he is going to rise on the third day; and woe to us! And his wife says: Do not speak or think in that way. It is just as likely as that this cock roasting on the coals will crow, that Jesus will rise, as you say. No sooner said than the cock flapped his wings, and crew thrice. This decided Judas, and he immediately made the halter, and hanged himself. [Themss. of the “Second Greek Form” are designated by Tischendorf (Evang. Apocry., pp. lxxii., lxxiii.) as follows: A, a Venice ms., comparatively recent; B., a Paris ms. of the fifteenth century; C. a Venice ms. of the same century.—R.]
[1876] Comp.John xix. 11.
[1877] ms. A, 14,000 infants; B, 44,000 infants.
[1880] Comp.John ii. 20.
[1881] Deut. xxv. 3; Lev. xxiv. 16.
[1884] Comp.Acts v. 38.
[1888] Comp.Acts iii. 7.
[1891] See note 9, p. 419.
[1893] Matt. xxvii. 15-18, 21-23.
[1895] Or, slanderous.
[1896] The word here, χάρισμα, is used in the New Testament only of gifts and graces bestowed by God, and specially of the miraculous gifts imparted to the early Christians by the Holy Ghost. The word in Matt. ii. 11 is δῶρα.
[1897] Matt. ii. 14-16. [The writer seems to identify Herod the Great and Herod Antipas.—R.]
[1898] Luke xxiii. 6-11. [The only passage directly interpolated into Luke’s narrative is “as being derived of the race of the Jews.” A curious blunder of the compiler!—R.]
[1900] John xix. 2-3; Matt. xxvii. 29.
[1902] Θεοτόκος— a word used several times by Athanasius (died 373), e.g., in Orat. iii. Contra Arianos, c. 14 and 29. The refusal of Nestorius to give this epithet to Mary was the commencement, in 428, of the long struggle between the rival sees of Constantinople and Alexandria. See Haag, Histoire des Dogmes Chrétiens, i. 190. The paragraphs about the Θεοτόκος in this chapter are interpolations.
[1903] Lit., and.
[1904] Lit., darkened.
[1905] A mistaken reference to John xix. 13.
[1908] John xix. 28; Matt. xxvii. 48.
[1909] Comp. Matt. xxvii. 40-42.
[1910] Luke xxiii. 39-43. ms. C here inserts the early history of the robber Dysmas. [See note 3, p. 426.—R.]
[1912] Comp. Luke xxiii. 44-49.
[1914] [Or simply, “the Preparation;” comp. Matt. xxvii. 62, and elsewhere, in the Rev. Vers.—R.]
[1915] Comp. Matt. xxvii. 60.
[1918] It is to be observed that John’s Gospel is much more frequently quoted in this book than any of the others.
[1919] Observe the anachronism.
[1925] ἐσίκωσαν, which should be ἐσήκωσαν, is a modern Greek word, the aorist of σηκόνω.
[1926] Ps. cxviii. 26; Matt. xxi. 9.
[1927] Or, literally, men of good family.
[1928] Deut. xix. 15; Matt. xviii. 16.
[1929] This last clause would be better as a question: And how is it the truth that he has risen?
[1935] Or: and I saw, as it were, a dove and the Holy Spirit, etc.
[1936] Or, of the God and Father.
[1938] [Mark 16.16; John 3.18.
[1939] 300 b.c. was the date commonly assigned to the creation. See Clem., Strom., i.; Theoph. Ant., ad Autol., iii.; comp. Just., Apol., xxxix.
[1940] For this legend, see the Revelation of Moses.
[1944] Lit., erect.
[1945] Isa. xxvi. 19, according to the LXX.
[1949] Comp. Ps. ciii. 4.
[1951] 1 Thess. iv. 17; Rev. xi. 3-12.
[1954] The word in the original is the general term præses, which the Vulgate uses for procurator.
[1955] i.e., was it possible for us.
[1956] Vultus. He seems to have read πρόσωπα, and not προτομαι, as in the Greek.
[1957] Lit., nothing to thee and that just man.
[1958] Lit., nothing to thee and that just man.
[1959] Lit., they will see.
[1960] Lit., makest a word for him.
[1961] See note 5, p. 420.
[1962] Procidentes; but this, according to the Greek, should be procedentes, coming before Him.
[1963] [The Latin has Arimathia; and in the next clause there are variations in the mss.—R.]
[1964] Another reading is compunctus, pricked. The reading in the text, obstructus, is a curious mistranslation of the word in the Greek, περιτετμημένος, cut away all round, i.e., circumcised; or, by an obvious transition, hemmed in—the meaning adopted in the version before us.
[1965] Confirmabimus.
[1966] [Comp. Mark xvi. 15-19; from the disputed ending of that Gospel.—R.]
[1967] Concidebantur, a mistranslation from considering ἐκόπτοντο as passive, they were cut, instead of middle, they beat their breasts.
[1968] i.e., servants.
[1969] The Greek ῥῆμαmeans thing as well as word.
[1970] Perhaps this would be better as a question: Is it good?
[1971] Lit., mouth.
[1972] Or, its. The text of the clause is corrupt.
[1973] i.e., was tried before.
[1974] Comp. Ps. cxviii. 23.
[1976] Calor; another ms. has color, hue.
[1977] Lit., body.
[1979] Ps. lxviii. 18. Captivemus in the text is probably a misprint for captivemur, may not be taken captive.
[1980] Ps. cvii. 15-17, according to the LXX. and the Vulgate.
[1981] Isa. xxvi. 19, according to the LXX.
[1982] Hos. xiii. 14; 1 Cor. xv. 55.
[1985] Comp. Isa. ix. 2; Luke i. 79.
[1986] Some mss. have: Who art thou, O man, that to God directest thy prayer to our confusion? The correct reading may be: Who art thou, that bringest confusion upon our master?
[1987] Ps. xxx. 1-6 (Vulg.).
[1991] So the text, multitudine mortis; but the mss. must have had altitudine maris, in the depth of the sea, with the LXX. and the Hebrew.
[1994] Or, bringing sacred words from their praises.
[1995] Rev. xi. 3-12; 1 Thess. iv. 17.
[1998] Should be 2262—βσοβ in place of βσιβ.
[1999] This includes the second Cainan.
[2000] Should be 676.
[2001] Should be 586—dlxxxvi. instead of dcxxxvi.
[2002] Lit., has come.
[2003] [Compare the other Latin form of this letter, as translated on p. 459; also the version of the Greek form of a similar letter, included in the Acts of Peter and Paul.—R.]
[2004] Or, that they had seen that he rose from the dead.
[2005] Abbatorum.
[2006] Ornamenta; another ms. has armamenta.
[2007] Or, of all the wicked.
[2008] The text has deo, God, obviously a misprint for oleo, oil.
[2009] Or, who wearest such (things) on thy body.
[2010] Hospitio.
[2011] Præconcitus, corrected to præconatus or ans.
[2012] Momordidit infernum, which is obviously corrupt. The translator may have read δέδηχε ᾅδην, bit Hades, for δέδειχε ᾅδην, brought Hades to light.
The Letter of Pontius Pilate, Which He Wrote to the Roman Emperor, Concerning Our Lord Jesus Christ.
[2013] [Compare the translation of the letter of Pilate to Claudius, found in the Acts of Peter and Paul; also a similar letter incorporated in The Gospel of Nicodemus, second part, Latin, first version, chap. 13 (29), p. 454.—R.]
[2014] Or, Augustus.
[2015] Or, Augustus.
[2016] Codex A has a better reading—arteries. [Thems. here referred to is in Paris, of the fourteenth century (a.d. 1315).—R.]
[2017] The text here is very corrupt.
[2018] Or, so men appeared on high.
[2019] This sentence also is very corrupt.
[2020] Another and more probably reading is, not one. [So B, a Parisms. of the fourteenth century.—R.]
[2021] This is a conjecture of Thilo’s. Themss. have Spania.
[2022] Instead of this last sentence, one of the mss. has: And the whole world was shaken by unspeakable miracles, and all the creation was like to be swallowed up by the lower regions; so that also the sanctuary of their temple was rent from top to bottom. And again there was thunder, and a mighty noise from heaven, so that all our land shook and trembled. Another: And there began to be earthquakes in the hour in which the nails were fixed in Jesus’ hands and feet, until evening.
[2023] One ms. adds: To the number of five hundred.
The Giving Up of Pontius Pilate.
[2024] Or, in the entrance.
[2025] αὐτοκράτωρ.
[2026] The text is very corrupt.
[2027] Lit., he made to be slaves in the dispersion of the Gentiles.
[2028] One of themss. adds: By the will and good pleasure of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.
The Death of Pilate, Who Condemned Jesus.
[2029] Or, upon the sight of this.
[2030] This is the first appearance of the word Christian in these writings.
[2031] Losonium was the Roman name of Lausanne. For a discussion of this legend concerning Mont Pilate, near Lucerne, see Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, under Pilate.
[2032] ms. C. has God-killing. [C is the designation given by Tischendorf to the ms. from which Birch made his edition of the text. It is in Paris; date a.d. 1315. Themss. which Tischendorf himself collated are designated A (in the Ambrosian library at Milan, of about the twelfth century), B (Paris, fifteenth century), D (Harleian codex, of the same century). Only a small part of the last ms. was used by Tischendorf; see his prolegomena, p. lxxxi.—R.]
[2033] Tobit i. 17, 18.
[2034] Perhaps the true reading is ναόν, and not νόμον: plundered the temple.
[2035] ms. B has: And they say that he was of the family of the sister, etc.
[2036] Tischendorf suggests ἀέκρυψας, hidden, for ἀπεκήρυξας.
[2037] Or, taker away.
[2038] Following the reading of the LXX. in Ps. i. 1.
[2040] Or, upon the great throne of the Most High.
[2044] Lit., inseparably.
[2045] Or, the shining light of the letter, the fire of the Godhead, we indeed were extinguished.
[2046] i.e., of the nails.
[2047] The text is here corrupt; but this seems to be the meaning.
Here Beginneth the Avenging of the Saviour.
[2048] The Saxon version has Tirus.
[2049] Reges, kings, instead of leges, as suggested by Mr. Cowper, is a much better reading.
[2050] Sax.: Then Nathan came, and baptized him in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and took away from him his name of Tirus, and called him in his baptism Titus, which is in our language Pius.
[2051] Note this popular but erroneous appellation of Mount.
[2052] Sax. omits which is called Burgidalla.
[2053] Sax.: And Herod the king was so terrified, that he said to Archelaus his son.
[2054] Lit., countenance.
[2055] Sax.: And they inquired diligently whether perchance there were there any one who had miraculous relics of the Saviour, of His clothing, or other precious things; and they sought so diligently, that they found a woman, etc.
[2056] In the Saxon, Joseph’s speech is: I know that they took Him down from the cross, and laid Him in the tomb which I had cut out of the rock. And I was one of those who guarded His tomb: and I bent my head and thought I should see Him, but I beheld nothing of Him, but saw two angels, one at the head and the other at the foot, and they asked me whom I was seeking. I answered and said to them, I seek Jesus who was crucified. Again they said to me, Go into Galilee; there shall you see Him, as He said to you before.
[2057] A few lines of the text are here very corrupt, and are omitted by Tischendorf. The meaning of them is: And woe’s me, because, contrary to the law, thou hast treated me most unjustly. Ah! woe’s me, because thou hast taken my Lord from me; just as the Jews did contrary to the law in crucifying in this world the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the eyes of your Cæsar have not seen. But woe’s me! have I done contrary to the law? Have I deserved to suffer this punishment?
[2058] Or, taking vengeance upon all the nations of their land.
Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
[2059] Lambecius proposes to read Gaudos and Melita. In the Latin version of the famous Greek scholar Lascaris, 1490, it is a Melita et Gaudisio insulis. [Comp. Acts xxvii. 16, xxviii. 1. The two names are apparently combined here.—R.]
[2060] τρακταΐσαντες: from the Byzantine verb τρακταΐζειν = tractare. The various readings in the mss. are: Being very disorderly; having been much disturbed.
[2061] Various reading: Let it be…and we will write, etc.
[2062] Puteoli.
[2063] The geographical names are given in the peculiar forms of the text. Occasionally the usual forms, such as Baiæ, occur.
[2064] The distance was thirty-three miles. In the Antonine Itinerary, “To Aricia is sixteen miles, to Tres Tabernæ seventeen miles, to Appii Forum ten miles.”
[2065] Or, do away with belief in circumcision.
[2066] Lit., web or tissue.
[2068] Rom. ii. 11; Eph. vi. 9; Col. iii. 25; Jas. ii. 1.
[2071] Or, He allowed Himself to suffer all these things.
[2072] Or, by Him.
[2073] i.e., That all may profess their faith in Him. For similar expressions, see 2 Cor. ix. 13, Heb. x. 23.
[2074] Ps. cx. 4; Heb. vii. 21.
[2075] i.e., How do you happen, as a race, to be so unbelieving? The Latin translation has: against your race—κατὰ τοῦ γένους for κατὰ τὸ γένος.
[2076] For another translation of this letter, see Latin Gospel of Nicodemus, chap. xiii. (xxix.) [This occurs on p. 454; there is another form on p. 459.—R.]
[2077] Or, I saw.
[2078] Or, to their council.
[2079] i.e., human nature.
[2080] Jer. xvii. 10; Rev. ii. 23.
[2081] Lam. iii. 41; Mark xi. 25; 1 Tim. ii. 8.
[2082] See the Clementines, Homilies II., III., VI., XVI., XX.
[2083] Or, are proved to be.
[2084] Or, the pure in heart admitting the faith.
[2088] Or, those who have a moderate quantity of food and covering to be content (1 Tim. vi. 8).
[2089] Or, in the admonition of the Saviour (Eph. vi. 4.).
[2092] Four of themss. and the Latin version here add: For assuredly I have for a long time past received letters from our bishops throughout all the world about the things done and said by him.
[2093] i.e., mysteries.
[2094] Or, to nothing.
[2096] Or, chosen.
[2097] The text has κινάρας, artichokes, for which I have read κορυνας, clubs. Sea-fights were a favourite spectacle of the Roman emperors (Suet., Nero, xii.; Claud., xxi.; Dom., iv.). The combatants were captives, or persons condemned to death (Dion Cass., lx. 33).
[2098] For the episode of Perpetua, contained in three of the Greek mss., but not in the Latin versions, see the end of this book.
[2099] i.e., head uppermost.
[2100] One of the mss. here inserts: Do not be hard upon him, for he is the servant of this father Satan; but I must fulfil the command of my Lord.
[2101] Some of themss. insert: Until I bring thee into my Father’s house.
[2102] Several of themss. here add: I commend unto Thee the sheep whom Thou didst entrust unto me, that they may not feel that they are without me, having for a shepherd Thee, through whom I have been able to feed this flock.
[2103] In three of the Greek mss., but not in the Latin versions, the story of Perpetua is here continued.
[2104] Severalmss. here add: And the people of the Romans ran, and took them into the place called the Catacombs on the Appian Way, at the third milestone; and there the bodies of the saints were guarded a year and six months, until places were built for them in which they might be put. And the body of St. Peter was put into the Vatican, near the place for the sea-fights, and that of St. Paul into the Vostesian (or Ostesian) Way, two mile from the city; and in these places, through their prayers, many good deeds are wrought to the faithful in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[2105] This is a slip for Nomentan.
[2106] Or, persisted in staying with Paul.
[2107] Or, how they.
[2108] Or, healthy.
[2110] Comp. 1 Cor. vi. 18, 19.
[2111] Comp. Rom. xii. 2.
[2112] Comp. 1 Cor. vii. 29.
[2113] Comp. Luke xx. 36.
[2115] Some mss. add the following beatitudes: Blessed are they that tremble at the words of God, for they shall be comforted: blessed are they that have received the wisdom of Jesus Christ, for they shall be called the sons of the Most High: blessed are they that through love of Christ have come out from conformity with the world, for they shall judge the angels, and shall be blessed at the right hand of the Father.
[2116] Or, a great outpouring of lamentation in the house.
[2117] Or, a chief man.
[2118] i.e., we rise again in our children.
[2119] Or, whose.
[2120] i.e., in sign of grief.
[2121] One ms. has, boys.
[2122] Or, virtue.
[2123] 2 Cor. i. 22; Eph. i. 13, iv. 30.
[2124] Some mss. add: A widow, very rich.
[2125] One ms. has: God of our fathers, Son of the Most High. Another: O Lord God, who has made the heaven and the earth, Son of the Most High, Lord Jesus Christ.
[2126] i.e., the exhibition of wild beasts.
[2127] Or, be taken off, i.e., put to death.
[2128] Or, drawers.
[2129] A part of the ancient theatres on or near the stage.
[2130] Or, way.
[2131] Or, corrupt.
[2132] i.e., that he was dead.
[2133] Or, will come to reveal thee.
[2134] One ms. has Jerusalem, and adds, and we came to Antioch, which suits the geography better.
[2135] Acts xiii. 1; Rom. xvi. 21.
[2137] Or, turn away.
[2138] i.e., to finish my course.
[2139] This is the Syrian Laodiceia, opposite Cyprus.
[2140] Perhaps Corycus.
[2141] Or, Pityussa, close to the Zephyrian promontory.
[2142] Perhaps Aphrodisias.
[2143] Or, into.
[2144] To make much profit.
[2145] Crommyon Pr.
[2146] Lit., the voice.
[2147] Lapethus.
[2148] Lit., an idol-frenzy,—a term often applied to the worship of Bacchus.
[2149] Tamassus.
[2150] i.e., snowy, an epithet of Olympus, the mountain they crossed.
[2151] Perhaps Curtium, which was nearer Palæo Paphos than Curias Pr. was.
[2152] i.e., as a religious service.
[2153] Another reading is: In the city called Curium.
[2154] Lit., assemblies of the whole nation.
[2155] Another reading is: Eusebius the Jebusite. There is a legend that the Jebusites colonized Cyprus after they were driven out of Palestine by King David.
[2156] The Vaticanms. adds: on the 17th of the month Paün according to the Egyptians, and according to the Romans the 11th of the month of June.
[2157] This place does not appear on the ancient maps, but there is a modern C. Limniti.
Of the Journeyings of Philip the Apostle.
[2158] [This enlarged title is from the Venetian ms.; see p. 355.—R.]
[2159] Comp. Euseb., H. E., iii. 32.
[2160] Or, in no one.
[2161] Or, covetousness.
[2162] i.e., Serpent’s town.
[2163] Or, iachaman.
[2164] Comp. Mal. iv. 2.
[2165] Isa. xxviii. 16; 1 Pet. ii. 4, etc.
[2166] Comp. Rom. vi. 3, 4.
[2167] Another and more probable reading is: He who is the son of Barek, which means living water.
[2168] Or, hams.
[2169] One of themss. has: has no resemblance to a man in anything.
[2170] A Bodleianms. adds: for because I am wrathful, Jesus named me Son of thunder. [This is the ms. from which Grabe derived his text of the Acts of Paul and Thecla; comp. pp. 355 and 491.—R.]
[2173] The Bodleianms. has the Hebrew thus: Saballon, prumeni, duthael, tharseli, annachathaei; adonab batelo teloe.
[2174] The Bodleianms. has Ailoel.
[2175] Comp. Luke ix. 62.
[2176] Comp. Matt. xxii. 11.
[2177] Comp.Matt. ix. 37.
[2178] Or, the Eucharist.
[2179] Or, type.
[2180] Alluding to Isa. xi. 6.
[2181] Comp. 1 Cor. vii. 5.
[2182] Lit., be a good trier.
[2183] On the subject of the immemorial practice of prayers for the dead, see Apostolical Constitutions, vi. 30, viii. 47. Comp.2 Macc. 12.44; 2 Tim. 1.18.
[2184] Lit., president of the games.
Acts of Saint Philip the Apostle When He Went to Upper Hellas.
[2185] Comp. Matt. x. 10; Mark vi. 9.
[2187] Comp.Matt. ix. 17, etc.
[2189] Or, preaching.
[2191] There seems to be some omission in the mss. here.
[2192] Lit., of life.
[2193] Or, these men.
[2194] It was James and John who were called sons of thunder (Mark iii. 17).
[2195] This last sentence is very corrupt in the original. A few changes give it the meaning above.
[2196] Rom. viii. 34, etc.
[2197] Better ταχ ἂν θεάσεσθε—you will perhaps see.
[2198] Or, which the high priest casts off for himself.
[2199] Comp. Acts 5.39; 23.9 in Textus Receptus.
[2201] Or, thou being a chief man who has done away with.
[2202] There is some doubt about the reading here.
[2203] [The Greek text of this addition is given by Tischendorf in the supplement appended to his volume containing Apocalypses Apocryphæ, pp. 141–150. The ms. from which it is taken is of the eleventh century. Tischendorf regards this form as of Gnostic origin.—R.]
[2204] ὐπόστασιν.
[2205] Or, æons.
[2206] δυναστείᾳ.
[2207] πανεπίσκοπος.
[2208] Matt. v. 39; 1 Pet. iii. 9.
[2209] Here a good deal of the text is wanting. The Bodleianms. fills up the blank to some extent:—Walking two and two, but let them not talk with the young men, lest Satan tempt them. For he is a creeping serpent, and made Adam be destroyed even to death. And thus shall it be again at this time, for the time and the season shall be wicked. Many women and men shall leave the work of marriage, and the women shall assume the name of virginity, but knowing nothing at all about it, and that it has a great and glorious seal. And there shall be many men in those days in word only, and not in its power; for they shall observe virginity in the members of the flesh, and commit fornication in their hearts, etc. [Thems. is that referred to on p. 500. Tischendorf gives large extracts from it; the Greek text of this paragraph may be found on pp. 154, 155, supplement to Apocalypses Apocryphæ.—R.]
Acts and Martyrdom of the Holy Apostle Andrew.
[2212] Another reading is Ægeas. [This is the reading of the Bodleian ms., already frequently referred to (see p. 355). In most cases its text is followed in the Latin version collated by Tischendorf.—R.]
[2213] Deut. xxxii. 17; 1 Cor. x. 20-21.
[2214] Or, Prince.
[2218] Another reading is: This is what I spoke of, as you know— that great is the mystery of the cross; and if so be that you are willing to listen, I will reveal it.
[2219] Perhaps we should read ἀναδείξει, shalt exhibit, for ἀναδέξει.
[2220] Two mss., of sinners.
[2221] Or, shut out.
[2222] Lit., be rolled towards.
[2224] Comp. 2 Cor. iv. 17.
[2225] Or, their sacred rites.
[2226] Comp. Matt. iii. 12.
[2227] Another reading is, seven quaternions.
[2228] One of themss. [the Bodleian] has here: Giving orders to the centurions that he should be bound hand and foot as if he were stretched on the rack, and not pierced with nails, that he might not die soon, but be tormented with long-continuing torture.
[2229] Another reading is: I am attached to thee.
[2230] The original is obscure. The meaning seems to be that he was tied only, not nailed. The nailing, however, seems to have been an essential part of the punishment of crucifixion.
[2231] It was common to let loose wild beasts on the crucified (Sueton., Nero, 49).
[2232] Instead of this paragraph, on ms. [the Bodleian] has: And there ran up a great multitude, about twenty thousand in number, among whom was the brother of Ægeas, Stratocles by name; and he cried out with the people, It is an unjust judgment. And the holy Andrew, hitting upon the thoughts of the believers, exhorted them to endure the temporary trial, saying that the suffering counted for nothing when compared with the eternal recompense.
[2233] One ms. calls her the proconsul’s wife. [So Pseudo-Abdias; but the Greek mss., collated by Tischendorf, do not give this reading.—R.]
[2234] i.e., having nothing to do with us.
[2235] ὁμόνοιαι.
[2236] Lit., females.
[2237] i.e., 30th November, St. Andrew’s day.
[2238] One ms. thus ends: These things were done in the province of Achaia, in the city of Patras, on the day before the kalends of December; where also his glorious good deeds are shown even to this day; and so great fear came upon all, that no one remained who did not believe in God our Saviour, who wishes all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. To Him be glory to ages of ages. Amen. [This is the ending of the Latin version (in Tischendorf); the Bodleian ms. has a similar conclusion, but the text is differently arranged.—R.]
[2239] The oldestms. has Matthias; the four or five others have Matthew.
[2240] Lit., œconomy.
[2241] One ms. inserts: having given thanks to God.
[2242] The winds from the four quarters of the heavens.
[2243] One ms. has: and the Lord prepared a small boat, and put angels in it for sailors; and Jesus was, as it were, the master of the boat.
[2244] Matt. x. 10; Mark vi. 9.
[2245] One ms. omits the negative.
[2246] Comp. Matt. viii. 26.
[2247] One ms. inserts, besides women and children.
[2250] There seems to be something wrong here. One ms. has, the structure of the temple, and omits the following clause.
[2251] One ms. has: Do not say that I am a carved stone, and that you alone have a name, and are called high priests.
[2252] Gen. xxiii. 9, 17, following the version of the LXX. and the older interpreters.
[2253] Not one of the twelve patriarchs was buried in Machpelah.
[2254] One ms. inserts: And he saw the gate of that city.
[2256] Anotherms. has: make men eat their like.
[2258] Two mss. have: two hundred and forty-nine men.
[2259] Another reading is, praying.
[2260] i.e., to be eaten by them.
[2261] Comp. Acts v. 20-25.
[2262] One ms. adds: like wax before fire.
[2263] Or, do not know.
[2264] One ms. has: Thou art always warring against the race of the Christians.
[2265] One of themss. has Samael.
[2266] One ms. adds: And Andrew answered and said: O Belial! foe of the whole creation, thou hast always been a robber, warring against the race of men: thou in the beginning didst cause Adam to be cast out of paradise; thou didst cause the loaves upon the table to be turned into stones; and again thou hast appeared in this city, to cause the people here to eat up men.
[2267] Comp.Acts xxiii. 2.
[2268] Comp.Matt. xii. 45.
[2269] One ms. adds: And the devil answered and said to the seven wicked demons, My children, kill him that dishonours us.
[2270] Or, a bishopric.
[2272] Comp.Matt. x. 30.
[2274] One ms. has: Yea, for assuredly you have been honoured: for God did not write the law for His people on plates of gold or silver, but on plates of stone. Now therefore, O statue, do this that I require of thee.
[2275] One ms. has, four.
[2276] i.e., neophytes.
[2277] Or, dust.
[2278] One ms. adds: With the Father, and the Son, and the all-holy and good and life-giving and holy Spirit. Anotherms. ends thus: Then the Apostle Andrew wished to go out again to preach. And they assembled from small to great of them, and said: There is one God and Father of all, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, which we have been taught by our father Andrew, the first called in (or by) Christ Jesus or Lord; to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
[2279] [This is thems. frequently referred to in the previous pages. The Greek text of this fragment is given by Tischendorf in the supplement to Apocalypses Apocr., pp. 161–167.—R.]
[2280] Something seems to have fallen out here.
[2281] Matt. xix. 24, etc.
[2282] πανταπωλης.
Acts and Martyrdom of St. Matthew the Apostle.
[2283] Or, that dies not.
[2284] The other [Vienna] ms. has, eleven.
[2285] In some of themss. of the previous book the name of Matthew appears in place of that of Matthias—Matthaios for Mattheias.
[2286] Comp.Rev. xxii. 2.
[2287] The other [Vienna] ms. has: heretofore worshipping every evil thing.
[2288] The other [Paris]ms. has: having communicated in the Eucharist.
[2289] Or, giving drink to.
[2290] The other [Paris]ms. has Smyrna. Nicephorus calls it Myrmene.
[2291] Comp. Acts xviii. 9, xxiii. 11.
[2292] Or, as an apostle.
[2293] i.e., monks.
[2294] Lit., of the same form with him.
[2295] The other [Vienna] ms. has: for he neither ate nor drank, in his concern about these things.
[2296] The word thus translated is used by the LXX. in the sense of an asylum, or place of refuge.
[2297] Comp.Mark vii. 34. The addition of Jesus here shows that the writer did not know the meaning of the Aramaic word.
[2298] Or, holding him back.
[2299] I should be disposed to read ἔκαιον, set fire to, for ἔκαμνον, laboured.
[2300] The other [Vienna] ms. has: at our gods.
[2301] The other [Vienna] ms. adds: How my forefathers toiled, and with great trouble made the gods; and now, behold, they have been destroyed by one magician.
[2302] The change of person is noticable.
[2303] In the otherms. the king prays: And now, since there is still in me a little unbelief, I beseech thee that thou wilt bring the body of Matthew from the sea. For, behold, I will order the body to be thrown into the depths of the sea; and if thou deliver it as thou didst deliver it, in the funeral pile, I will forsake all my gods at once, and believe in thee alone. [The Viennams., here cited, interpolates still more.—R.]
[2305] Ps. iii. 5 according to the LXX.
[2306] Or, of the Eucharist.
[2307] The meaning is not clear. The otherms. has: After one hour he sees in that place an image of a cross coming up from the depth of the sea. [The Viennams. varies more than this extract indicates.—R.]
[2308] The other [Vienna] ms. is much fuller here: And the cry of the multitude came to the king. And he asked: What is the uproar and shouting among the people? And he learned that Matthew’s coffin had come of itself. Then, filled with great joy, the king straightway goes to the coffin, crying out, and saying with a loud voice: The God of Matthew is the only God, and there is none other but Him. And he fell on his face near the coffin, saying: Pardon me, Lord Jesus Christ, for what I have done against this holy man, for I was in ignorance. And the bishop, seeing the repentance and tears of the king, gave him a hand, and raised him from the ground, and said to him: Rise up, and be of good courage; for the Lord God hath accepted thy repentance and conversion through the good offices of His servant and apostle Thomas. And the king rose up from the ground, and fell at the bishop’s feet, etc.—as in the text.
[2309] Wisdom.
[2310] Understanding.
[2311] The other [Vienna] ms. has: And likewise his wife and his daughter-in-law deaconesses.
[2312] The other [Paris]ms. ends differently: And there came a voice, Peace to you, and joy, for there shall not be war nor stroke of sword in this city, because of Matthew, mine elect, whom I have loved for ever. Blessed are they who observe his memory, for they shall be glorified to ages of ages.
And the day of his commemoration shall be the fourteenth of the month of Gorpiæus.* Glory, honour, and worship to God, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages. [The Paris ms. is usually followed by Tischendorf. But in the three concluding paragraphs, as given in the text above, he follows the Vienna ms.—R.]
*Gorpiæus was the eleventh month of the Macedonian year, and fell partly in August and partly in September.
Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas.
[2313] This list is a transcript of Matt. x. 2-4, except in the last name.
[2314] This double name is in accordance with a tradition preserved by Eusebius (H. E., i. 13), that the true name of Thomas was Judas.
[2315] Or, bill of sale.
[2316] Or, scales.
[2317] i.e., monuments.
[2318] Comp.Matt. xxii. 3-14.
[2319] Or, chin.
[2320] Or, cup-bearers.
[2321] Exod. 30.23; Song of Sol. 4.14; Ezek. 27.19.
[2322] Comp.Ps. xxiv. 7, according to the LXX.
[2323] Three of the fivemss. either omit the prayer altogether, or give it very briefly.
[2324] Or, couches.
[2325] The text of this exhortation also varies much in the four mss. which give it.
[2326] Or, look.
[2327] Or, in us.
[2328] Or, who.
[2329] Or, who.
Acts of the Holy Apostle Thomas, When He Came into India, and Built the Palace in the Heavens.
[2330] Dius was the first, and Xanthicus the sixth, of the twelve lunar months of the Macedonian calendar, which after the time of Alexander was adopted by the Greek cities of Asia generally. Dius fell partly in October and partly in November; Xanthicus answered generally to April.—Smith’s Dict. of Antiq., s.v. Mensis.
Another reading is: I shall begin in Hyperberetæus—the twelfth month.
[2331] Or, remission.
[2332] One of themss. has: that there is one God, namely Jesus.
[2333] One ms. has: But if thou buy it, thou shalt live in it. And he said to them: Can I buy it? And they said to him: See that thou obtain one like this which thou seest, or better if thou wilt, that when thou comest hither again, thou mayst not be driven into the darkness.
[2334] One of themss. here ends the history in these words:—And he sent, and brought out Thomas, and said to him: Pardon us if we have in ignorance been in any way harsh to thee; and make us to be partakers of him whom thou preachest. And the apostle says: I too rejoice with you, that you are made partakers of His kingdom. And he took and enlightened them, having given them the washing of grace in the name of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, to whom is due all glory and kingdom without end. And when they had gone up straightway out of the water, the Saviour appeared to them, so that the apostle wondered, and a great light shone brighter than the rays of the sun. And having confirmed their faith, he went out, going on his way in the Lord.
[2335] i.e., give thanks, as in Matt. xi. 25, Luke x. 21, etc.
[2336] Or, Eucharist.
[2337] i.e., by it.
[2338] One ms. for this whole section has: The two brothers having been set apart by the apostle, said to him, Give us the seal in Christ. And he ordered them to bring him oil. And ends the history thus: And he arose, and sealed them in the name of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, and baptized them. And the Lord was revealed to them, through a voice saying to them, peace unto you! And the apostle sealed also all that were with them. And they all believed in our Lord Jesus Christ: and the whole of India became believing.
The last sentence in the text seems to be an interpolation. The oil was not for the lamps, but for the ceremony of baptism. The practice of baptizing with oil instead of water—one of the “notable and execrable” heresies of the Manichæans—is said to have been founded on this passage.
[2339] Lit., the sealing up.
[2340] Lit., the administration.
[2341] Perhaps for προσβολῇ we should read προβολῇ, projection or emanation.
[2342] Or, communicants of the Eucharist.
[2343] Or, arising from the things of the body.
[2344] Comp.Matt. vi. 34.
[2346] Or, announcement.
[2348] Lit., master of the debt.
[2349] i.e., be.
[2350] In this passage we have one of the data for fixing the date of the writing.
[2351] Or, from those to whom he was lent.
[2352] And, by implication, gigantic.
[2353] Or, by them.
[2356] Rom. xiii. 13; Luke xii. 34.
[2358] 1 Cor. ii. 9; Isa. lxiv. 4.
[2359] Or, establishes.
[2360] Or, and that there may be.
[2361] Comp. Acts xvii. 30.
[2362] Or, no one else.
[2363] Or, grace.
[2364] Comp.Matt. viii. 29.
[2365] Or, wife.
[2366] i.e., get another instead of thee, my beloved.
[2367] Matt. xiv. 17; John xxi. 11; John iv. 6; Matt. xiv. 25.
[2372] Or, deacon.
[2373] συμψέλλιον, which is not Greek, is obviously the Latin subsellium.
[2374] Or, Eucharist.
[2375] Or, prizes.
[2376] Or, love-feast.
[2377] Or, in Thy calling.
[2378] Or, stand in awe of no one.
[2380] Matt. vii. 7; Luke xi. 9.
[2381] Matt. vi. 9; Luke xi. 2.
[2383] Or, having our sins in view.
[2384] Lit., with iron.
[2385] Lit., days of number.
[2386] Obviously omitted either in the mss. or in the text.
[2388] Or, deacons.
[2389] Comp.Luke xxiv. 46.
[2390] Comp. Acts v. 15.
[2393] i.e., wives.
Consummation of Thomas the Apostle.
[2394] The following translation of a ms. in the Bodleian Library, transcribed by Tischendorf (Apocal. Apocr., p. 158), gives a fuller account of the martyrdom of St. Thomas:—
MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY AND ALL-RENOWNED APOSTLE THOMAS.
After the apostle had gone forth, according to the command of our Lord, and God, and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Lord appeared to him, saying: Peace to thee, my disciple and apostle! And the apostle fell on his face on the ground, and prayed the Lord to reveal to him the circumstances of his precious departure. And the Lord said to him: Misdæus is contriving a plan to destroy thee very soon; but, behold, he will come to me. And after having sealed him, He ascended into the heavens. And the apostle taught the people, and there was added unto the flock of Christ. But some men who hated Christ accused him before King Misdeus, saying: Destroy this sorcerer, who corrupts and deceives the people in this new one God whom he proclaims. Moreover, he has deceived thy lady and thy son. On hearing this, Misdeus, without inquiry, ordered him to be laid hold of, and shut up in prison. And they quickly did what they were ordered, and threw him into the prison, and sealed it. And when the women who believed in God had heard that Judas was shut up, they gave a great sum of money to the warders, and went in to him in the prison. And the apostle says to them: My daughters, handmaidens of Jesus Christ, listen to me. In my last day I address you, because I shall no more speak in the body; for, lo, I am taken up to my Lord Jesus Christ, who has had pity upon me, who humbled Himself even to my littleness. And I rejoice that the time is at hand for my change from this, that I may depart and receive my reward in the end; for my Lord is just. And at the end of his discourse to them, he said: O my Saviour, who hast endured much for our sake, let Thy mercies be upon us. And he sent them away, saying: The grace of the Holy Spirit be with you! And they grieved and wept, knowing that King Misdeus was going to put him to death. And Judas heard the warders contending with each other, and saying: Let us go and tell the king, Thy wife and thy son are going to the prison to this sorcerer, and for their sakes thou shouldst put him to death soon. And at dawn they arose and went to King Misdeus, and said: My Lord, release that sorcerer, or cause him to be shut up elsewhere; for though we shut in the prisoners, and secure the doors, when we rise we find them opened. Nay, more: thy wife and son will not keep away from the man any more than the rest of them. And when the king heard this, he went to look at the seals. And he looked all about them on the doors, and found them as they were. Then he said to the jailors: What are you telling lies about? for certainly these seals are quite safe: and how do you say that Tertia, and Mygdonia, and my son go within the prison? And the warders said: We have told thee the truth, O king. And after this the king went into the prison, and sent for the apostle. And when he came, they took off his girdle, and set him before the tribunal. And the king said: Art thou a slave, or free? And Thomas said: I am One’s slave. Thou hast no power over me whatever. And Misdæus says: Didst thou run away and come to this country? Thomas: I came here to save many, and I am to depart from my body by thy hands. Misdæus says to him: Who is thy master? and what is his name? and what country dost thou belong to? Thomas: Thou canst not hear His true name at this time; but I tell thee the name that has been given Him for the time: it is Jesus the Christ. And Misdæus says: I have been in no hurry to put thee to death, but have restrained myself; but thou hast made a display of thy works, so that thy sorceries have been heard of in every country. But no; I shall bring thee to an end, that thy sorceries may be destroyed, and our nation purified. And Thomas said: What thou callest sorceries shall abound in me, and never be removed from the people here. And after this was said, Misdeus reflected in what manner he should put the apostle to death, for he was afraid of the people standing by who believed. And he arose and took Thomas outside of the city; and he was accompanied by a few armed soldiers. And the multitude suspected that the king was plotting about him, and stood and addressed themselves to him. And when they had gone forth three stadia, he delivered him to four soldiers and one of the polemarchs, and ordered them to spear him on the mountain; and he returned to the city. And those who were present ran to Thomas, eager to rescue him. And he was led away, accompanied by the soldiers, two on each side.…And Thomas, walking along, said: O Thy secret mysteries, O Jesus! for even unto the end of life are they fulfilled in us. O the riches of Thy grace!…for, lo, how four have laid hold of me, since of four elements…(Here the fragment ends.) [Thems. in which this occurs is not that one which has been so frequently cited in the preceding Apocryphal Acts.—R.]
[2395] Pseudo-Abdias, in his Histories of the Apostles, has as follows: Wherefore, in a rage, Mesdeus king of India thrust into prison the Apostle Thomas, and Zuganes his son, and several others.
[2396] Abdias: Treptia, who was the king’s wife, and Mygdonia the wife of Charisius, one of the king’s friends, and Narchia the nurse, gave the jailor 360 pieces of silver, and were let in to the apostle.
[2397] Abdias: Thomas stood in the prison, and said: Lord Jesus, who didst endure very much for us, let the gates be shut as they were before, and the seals be made again on the same doors.
[2398] Abdias gives an account of the king going to the prison, and disbelieving the report of the warders, because he found the seals on the doors as he had left them.
[2399] The not should, by the context, be omitted. [So Pseudo-Abdias.—R.]
[2400] Reading ἠπείχθην for ἀπήχθην.
[2401] i.e., I will so act.
[2402] Lit., polemarchs, who in the early times of Athens combined the duties of Foreign Secretary and War Secretary, and sometimes took the command in the field.
[2403] Abdias: The apostle said that great and divine mysteries were revealed in his death, since he was led by four soldiers, because he consisted of four elements; and the Lord Jesus had been struck by one man, because He knew that one Father had begotten Him.
[2404] Lit., the servants of the order.
[2405] The husband of Mygdonia.
[2406] These names are slightly different in form in this paragraph.
[2407] These names are slightly different in form in this paragraph.
[2408] Abdias: and buried them in the city of Edessa. [The translator cites the readings of Pseudo-Abdias, as given by Tischendorf (from Fabricius), as those of “Abdias.” The same form of citation appears in the footnotes to the Martyrdom of Bartholomew, pp. 553–557.—R.]
Martyrdom of the Holy and Glorious Apostle Bartholomew.
[2409] The history of Abdias gives the name as Berith, after Judg. ix. 46.
[2410] Lit., white flesh.
[2411] Pseudo-Abdias says: a hundred times.
[2412] Pseudo-Abdias says: a hundred times.
[2413] Abdias calls him Pseustius.
[2414] Or, prayed a prayer.
[2415] Comp. Luke i. 26-38. Abdias goes on: He then, after His birth, suffered Himself to be tempted by that devil who had overcome the first man, persuading him to eat of the tree forbidden by God.
[2416] Comp. Luke iv. 1-13.
[2418] Lit., reigneth.
[2420] Or, unity.
[2422] Abdias calls him Astyages; elsewhere he is called Sanathrugus.
[2423] Lit., no-priests—μιερεῖς for μὴ ἱερεῖς—a name given in scorn to heathen priests by Christian writers.
[2424] Lit., calling out.
[2425] Abdias calls him Vualdath.
[2426] Or it may mean: that the apostle might be established.
[2427] Or, in orthodoxy.
Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddæus,
[2428] [Curiously enough, the Vienna ms. has in the title: “one of the seventy,” instead of “one of the twelve.” The same confusion exists in the writings of Eusebius and Jerome.—R.]
[2429] Lit., the swift runner.
[2430] [Compare with this letter that found in Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., i. 13), where the reply is also given. Eusebius claims that he had seen the original documents.—R.]
[2431] Lit., doubled in four.
[2432] Or, fault.
[2433] The other [Vienna] ms. here adds: And having gone into it, he preached Christ, saying to them all with tears, Ye men who have ears to hear, hear from me the word of life; hear attentively, and understand. Cast off your many opinions, and believe and come to the one living and true God, the God of the Hebrews. For He only is the true God and Maker of the whole creation, searching the hearts of mankind, and knowing all about each one before their birth, as being the Maker of them all. To Him alone, fixing your eyes upon heaven, fall down evening and morning, and at noon, and to Him alone offer the sacrifice of praise, and give thanks always, refraining from what you yourselves hate; because God is compassionate and benevolent, and recompenses to each one according to his works.
[2434] The Parisms. has 20th.
Acts of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian.
[2435] Tischendorf gives a conjectural reading: who is present to them when they assemble; but the mss. reading will bear the interpretation given above.
[2436] Or, in.
[2438] Lit., of all breath and flesh.
[2439] Equal to our proverb, Seeing is believing.
[2440] i.e., the Eucharist.
[2441] Tischendorf conjectures this clause, as the original is illegible.
[2442] Comp. Heb. x. 26.
[2443] Or, sowing.
[2444] Comp. Matt. xiii.
[2445] Or, deacon.
[2446] i.e., martyr.
[2447] The othermss. has: not without concern.
[2448] Or, saw.
[2449] The word διγρωσίω is not to be found in any of the dictionaries. Perhaps it is a misreading of διαζώστρᾳ.
[2450] Or, apostleship.
[2451] Lit., words or reasons.
[2452] Or, visible.
[2453] Or, muzzle.
[2455] There is great variety as to these names in the mss. The true reading was probably διαφύτωρ or διαφυτευτής, a planter, and μηλατάς or μηλοβότης, a keeper of sheep.
[2456] Lit., made.
[2457] One ms. adds: And Adam lived 930 years; and when he came to his end he cried, etc.
[2458] One ms. has: and he will bring to me of the tree in which compassion flows, and thy trouble shall cease from thee.
[2459] Or, plagues.
[2460] Lit., and he will give.
[2461] Perhaps for ἴσον we should read εἴσω, within. Another reading is: for the days of his life have been fulfilled, and he will live from today three days, and he will die.
[2462] C has: I take counsel with thee. [C is a Vienna manuscript of the twelfth century; see p. 358, and Tischendorf, Apocalypses Apocryphæ, pp. xi., xii.—R.]
[2463] It seems to be settled that the zizania of the Greeks, the zawân of the Arabs, was darnel; but, from the associations connected with the word, it is better to keep the common translation.
[2464] C has, root and origin.
[2465] Lit, naked.
[2466] i.e., of the garden.
[2467] I have read ταχυνθήσει for παχυνθήσει, thou shalt grow fat.
[2468] The text has ματαίοις, vain; the true reading is probably καμάτοις or μόχθοις.
[2469] Inserted fromms. C.
[2470] ms. B. inserts: And Eve was twelve years old when the demon deceived her, and gave her evil desires. For night and day he ceased not to bear hatred against them, because he himself was formerly in paradise; and therefore he supplanted them, because he could not bear to see them in paradise. [B is a Viennams. of the thirteenth or fourteenth century; see Tischendorf, Apocal. Apocr., p. xi.—R.]
[2471] This is after the version of the LXX., and it is also the interpretation of Gesenius of the Hebrew shûph, Gen. iii. 15.
[2472] Or, incense.
[2473] This is the “sweet cane” of Isa. xliii. 24; Jer. vi. 20. See also Exod. 30.23; Song of Sol. 4.14; Ezek. 27.19.
[2474] Or, and we were upon the earth.
[2475] Perhaps τάφον, tomb, would be better than τόπον.
[2476] Or, anoint.
[2477] Or, all sin.
[2478] The text has πονήσαντα, a misprint for ποιήσαντα.
[2479] Lit., of a womb.
[2480] The last clause is not in C.
[2481] ms. A here ends thus: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen. [A is the Venice ms. “of about the thirteenth century;” Tischendorf, Apocal. Apocr., p. xi.—R.]
[2482] The mss. originally had days, and hours is substituted in another hand.
[2483] i.e., mounted His chariot.
[2484] According to a Jewish tradition, these were the four angels who stood round the throne of God.
[2485] Probably the reading should be ἕτερον, another, and not ἑταῖρον. Or it may mean: I will not receive a friendly body, i.e., one upon which I have no claims.
[2486] i.e., of which Adam was made.
[2487] Lit., earth.
[2488] ms. D ends here with: To whom be glory and strength to ages of ages. Amen. [D is the Milan manuscript which Tischendorf assigns to “About the eleventh century,” Apocalypses Apocryphæ, p. xi.—R.]
[2489] i.e., reveal.
[2490] Supplied by Tischendorf. Perhaps it should be days.
[2491] Perhaps this should be five—έ instead of ξ—which would make seventy days, as above.
[2492] Or, I am.
[2493] Lit., wall.
[2494] Tischendorf supplies this clause from conjecture, and adds that some more seems to have fallen out.
[2495] Lit., to Thine ear.
[2496] This seems to be the meaning of the text, which is somewhat corrupt. It obviously refers to Abraham pleading for Sodom.
[2497] This passage is very corrupt in the text; but a few emendations bring out the meaning above.
[2498] Better, him.
[2499] Comp. Ex. xxxiii. 19; Rom. ix. 18.
[2500] Lit., framing, or fashioning.
[2502] This is inserted by Tischendorf.
[2503] Comp. 2 Tim. iv. 1, 8; Tit. ii. 13.
[2506] Lit., the lip of the sea.
[2507] Comp. Matt. xxiv.
[2509] Or, who heard wrong.
[2510] Comp. Matt. xi. 23.
[2512] There is something wanting here in the text.
[2513] So in the text.
[2514] Or, the soul.
[2515] Or, tribunals.
[2516] Or, thy trust, or pledge. Comp. 1 Tim. vi. 20; 2 Tim. i. 14, in Textus Receptus.
[2517] Comp. Deut. xxxiv. 10.
[2518] Comp. Ex. xxxiii. 23.
[2519] Comp. 2 Tim. iv. 8.
[2520] The word is wanting in the ms.
[2522] Or, in a measure. Δρακήν in the text should be δρακά. Comp.Isa. xl. 12 in the LXX.
[2523] Comp. 1 Kings 2.11;1 Kings 2.11; Ecclesiasticus 48.9.
[2524] So the ms. Perhaps them would be better.
[2526] The mss. have Kontianus.
[2527] Or, according to the primary meaning of the word, shining, sparkling. The translation of the Syriac version has, “a box of white glass.”
[2528] Syr., Thinking that there was something of gold within it.
[2529] Syr., of the living God.
[2530] Or, sweep off it.
[2531] Comp. Heb. xi. 38.
[2532] i.e., to sinful matter—ὕλη—the source of the σῶμα in the Gnostic doctrine.
[2533] Comp.Matt. xiii. 41.
[2534] Or, come to God.
[2535] Comp. Rev. xiv. 13.
[2536] Or, bare rule over.
[2537] Isa. xxii. 13; 1 Cor. xv. 32.
[2538] Lit., shut up.
[2541] Comp. Ps. xxiv. 3.
[2542] The hiatus is thus filled up in the Syriac: Yes, not only are their names written, but their works from day to day: the angel their minister brings tidings of their works every day from morning to morning; they are known to God by their hearts and their works. And after they are recorded, if there happen to them a matter of sin or deficiency, it is purified by chastisement according to their sin, that there be not unto them any defect in their strivings.
[2543] Rev. xi. 3-12. Enoch and Elijah were supposed to be the two witnesses there mentioned.
[2544] Or, above.
[2546] Or, the good things.
[2547] Syr., This is the place of the prophets. A very slight change in the Greek text would give this reading.
[2548] Comp.1 Tim. iii. 1-4.
[2549] The Syriac has: Those who do not confess Jesus Christ, nor His resurrection, nor His humanity, but consider Him as all mortal, and who say that the sacrament of the body of our Lord is bread.
The word θεοτόκος in the text was the occasion of the three years’ struggle between Nestorius and Cyril of Alexandria, which ended by the condemnation of the former by the Council of Ephesus, a.d. 431.
The view of the Eucharist in the text is not inconsistent with an early date, though it must be remembered that the idea of a substantial presence became the orthodox doctrine only after the Second Council of Nicæa in a.d. 787.
[2552] Comp. Matt. xix. 29.
[2554] Or, miracles.
[2555] For this tradition, see the Bible Dictionaries under Manasseh. Comp. Heb. xi. 37.
[2556] Here the [Greek]ms. abruptly ends. The Syriac thus continues:—And He gave not until I called upon Him again; then He gave unto them. But blessed art thou, O Paul, that thy generation and those thou teachest are the sons of the kingdom. And know thou, O Paul, that every man who believes through thee hath a great blessing, and a blessing is reserved for him. Then he departed from me. And the angel who was with me led me forth, and said unto me: Lo, unto thee is given this mystery and revelation. As thou pleasest, make it known unto the sons of men.—And then follow details of the depositing of the revelation under the foundation of the house in Tarsus,—details which Tischendorf says the translator of the Syriac did not find in his original. [The close of the English translation of the Syriac version is given in full by Tischendorf (pp. 68, 69). It varies greatly from the above paragraph in the text, besides the addition of the details which Tischendorf regards as spurious.—R.]
[2557] For the history of the tradition that the transfiguration occurred on Mount Tabor, see Robinson’s Researches, ii. 358.
[2558] One ms. has: 700 cubits.
[2559] ms. B adds: And they shall be manifested at the consummation of the age, in the judgment to come. Just as the prophet Daniel saw the judgment, I sat, and the books were opened. Then also shall the twelve apostles sit, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And when I heard this from my Lord, I again asked: Show me, my Lord, when these things shall come to pass, etc. [B is the designation of a Paris manuscript dated 1523. All the manuscripts are comparatively recent; see Tischendorf, pp. xviii., xix.—R.]
[2560] ms. B. here inserts Luke xxi. 11.
[2561] The chœnix of corn was a man’s daily allowance. It was equal to two points according to some, a pint and a half according to others.
[2562] Or, gloomy.
[2563] ms. B. adds: And he will love most of all the nation of the Hebrews; and the righteous shall hide themselves, and flee to mountains and caves. And he shall take vengeance on many of the righteous; and blessed is he who shall not believe in him.
[2564] Or, dew.
[2565] To the description of Antichrist, ms. E adds: He holds in his hand a cup of death; and all that worship him drink of it. His right eye is like the morning star, and his left like a lion’s; because he was taken prisoner by the archangel Michael, and he took his godhead from him. And I was sent from the bosom of my Father, and I drew up the head of the polluted one, and his eye was consumed. And when they worship him, he writes on their right hands, that they may sit with him in the outer fire; and for all who have not been baptized, and have not believed, have been reserved all anger and wrath. And I said: My Lord, and what miracles does he do? Hear, righteous John: He shall remove mountains and hills, and he shall beckon with his polluted hand, Come all to me; and through his displays and deceits they will be brought together to his own place. He will raise the dead, and show in everything like God. [E is one of the Venice manuscripts.—R.]
[2568] Ps. xcviii. 6 according to the LXX.
[2569] Lit., from quarters even to quarters of the world.
[2570] Adapted from Eccles. xii. 4.
[2571] To this sectionms. E adds many details: They that have gold and silver shall throw them into the streets, and into every place in the world, and no one will heed them. They shall throw into the streets ivory vessels, and robes adorned with stones and pearls; kings and rulers wasting away with hunger, patriarchs and governors (or abbots), elders and peoples. Where is the fine wine, and the tables, and the pomp of the world? They shall not be found in all the world; and men shall die in the mountains and in the streets, and in every place of the world. And the living shall die from the stink of the dead, etc. Whosoever shall not worship the beast and his pomp shall be called a witness (or martyr) in the kingdom of heaven, and shall inherit eternal life with my holy ones.
[2572] Comp. Matt. xxii. 30, and parallel passages.
[2573] Ps. ciii. 14-16 according to LXX.
[2574] Or, breath.
[2575] Ps. cxlvi. 4 according to LXX.
[2576] Another reading is cross.
[2578] Or, by.
[2579] Two mss. have this number; the other four have 500, 1800, 30, 60-100ths.
[2580] Or, winnow.
[2582] ms. D has: Again another prophet has said. [D is another Paris manuscript of the fifteenth century.—R.]
[2584] Comp.Matt. xxiv. 30.
[2586] Comp.Isa. vi. 3.
[2587] Or, upon.
[2591] Or, regions sunk in water.
[2593] Lit., tongue.
[2594] ms. D inserts, Trinity and.
[2599] Lit., heap up.
[2605] Lit., proportion or analogy.
[2607] Deut. xxxii. 8 according to the LXX.
[2609] John x. 16. [The correct text of John x. 16 is: “one flock, one shepherd,” but it was altered quite early.—R.]
[2610] i.e., the things heard.
[2614] As a specimen of the eschatology of these documents, Tischendorf gives the following extracts from the termination of ms. E:—
Hear, righteous John: All these shall be assembled, and they shall be in the pit of lamentation: and I shall set my throne in the place, and shall sit with the twelve apostles and the four and twenty elders, and thou thyself an elder on account of thy blameless life; and to finish three services thou shalt receive a white robe and an unfading crown from the hand of the Lord, and thou shalt sit with the four and twenty elders, etc. And after this the angels shall come forth, having a golden censer and shining lamps; and they shall gather together on the Lord’s right hand those who have lived well, and done His will, and He shall make them to dwell for ever and ever in light and joy, and they shall obtain life everlasting. And when He shall separate the sheep from the goats, that is, the righteous from the sinners, the righteous on the right, and the sinners on the left; then shall He send the angel Raguel, saying: Go and sound the trumpet for the angels of cold and snow and ice, and bring together every kind of wrath upon those that stand on the left. Because I will not pardon them when they see the glory of God, the impious and unrepentant, and the priests who did not what was commanded. You who have tears, weep for the sinners. And Temeluch shall call out to Taruch: Open the punishments, thou keeper of the keys; open the judgments; open the worm that dieth not, and the wicked dragon; make ready Hades; open the darkness; let loose the fiery river, and the frightful darkness in the depths of Hades. Then the pitiful sinners, seeing their works, and having no consolation, shall go down weeping into streams as it were of blood. And there is none to pity them, neither father to help, nor mother to compassionate, but rather the angels going against them, and saying: Ye poor wretches, why are you weeping? In the world you had no compassion on the weak, you did not help them. And these go away into everlasting punishment. There you will not be able to bear the sight of Him who was born of the virgin; you lived unrepenting in the world, and you will get no pity, but everlasting punishment. And Temeluch says to Taruch: Rouse up the fat three-headed serpent; sound the trumpet for the frightful wild beasts to gather them together to feed upon them (i.e., the sinners); to open the twelve plagues, that all the creeping things may be brought together against the impious and unrepenting. And Temeluch will gather together the multitude of the sinners, and will kick the earth; and the earth will be split up in diverse places, and the sinners will be melted in frightful punishments. Then shall God send Michael, the leader of His hosts; and having sealed the place, Temeluch shall strike them with the previous cross, and the earth shall be brought together as before. Then their angels lamented exceedingly, then the all-holy Virgin and all the saints wept for them, and they shall do them no good. And John says: Why are the sinners thus punished? And I heard a voice saying to me: They walked in the world each other after his own will, and therefore are they thus punished.
Blessed is the man who reads the writing: blessed is he who has transcribed it, and given it to other Catholic churches: blessed are all who fear God. Hear ye priests, and ye readers; hear ye people, etc.
The Book of John Concerning the Falling Asleep of Mary.
[2615] The titles vary considerably. In two mss. the author is said to be James the Lord’s brother; in one, John Archbishop of Thessalonica, who lived in the seventh century.
[2617] i.e., wilt see.
[2618] A place near Rome; one ms. calls it Tiberis.
[2619] Or, dissolution.
[2620] A canon is a part of the Church service consisting of nine odes. The canon of the third day is the canon for Tuesday.
[2622] Or, a church.
[2623] Burning—ms. B. [Thisms. is in Venice; see Tischendorf, Apocalypses Apocryphæ, p. xliii., for designations of mss.—R.]
[2624] Lit., chiliarch, i.e., commander of a thousand.
[2625] Or, be.
[2626] Matt. xxi. 9; Luke xix. 38; Ps. cxviii. 26.
[2627] The holy—ms. A.
[2628] Lit., a going forth of illumination.
[2629] Perhaps the true reading is: thou shalt dwell where there is peace and joy of the holy angels.
[2630] Or, grace.
[2631] Four of themss. give a different account here: While the apostles were going forth from the city of Jerusalem carrying the couch, suddenly twelve clouds of light snatched up the apostles, with the body of our Lady, and translated them to paradise.
[2632] i.e., the mother’s.
[2633] One ms. has: To find mercy and remission of sins from our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Passing of Mary: First Latin Form.
[2634] ms. B, the assumption. [For the list of mss. used by Tischendorf, see his Apocal. Apocr., p. xliii.—R.]
[2635] ms. C adds: And cause all the apostles to be present at my departure.
[2636] Puerpera.
[2637] Protevangelium of James, ch. 8, p. 363.
[2638] ms. C has: When, therefore, thou shalt see my archangel Gabriel coming to thee with a palm which I shall send to thee from heaven, know that I shall soon come to thee, my disciples, and angels, etc.
[2639] ms. C: And she began to give great thanks to God in these words: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
[2640] Or, other.
[2641] ms. A, raised. Levavit instead of lavit.
[2642] Lit., guard.
[2643] ms. C inserts: of the second day after the angel had come to her with the palm.
[2644] Or, earthquakes.
[2645] It was Joseph, the other candidate for the apostleship, who was called Justus (Acts i. 23).
[2646] ms. C adds: And she showed them the palm which the Lord had sent her from heaven by His angel.
[2647] ms. C has: just as the Holy Spirit appeared in a cloud to His disciples, viz., Peter, James, and John, when He was transfigured, so, etc.
[2649] ms. C: By the divine vengeance, at that very instant they began to strike and slay each other with their weapons, and struck their heads against the walls like madmen.
[2650] ms. C inserts: a scribe of the tribe of Dan.
[2651] ms. C adds: and firmly to promise that, if he were made whole by their prayers, he would become a Christian.
[2654] Bel. 33-39.
[2656] ms. C adds: and in Cana of Galilee made wine out of water.
[2657] ms. C has this last section as follows: For I am Joseph, who laid the body of our Lord Jesus Christ in my sepulchre, and saw Him and spoke with Him after His resurrection; who afterwards kept His most pious mother in my house until her assumption into the heavens, and served her according to my power; who also was deemed worthy to hear and see from her holy mouth many secrets, which I have written and keep in my heart. That which I saw with mine eyes, and heard with mine ears, of her holy and glorious assumption, I have written for faithful Christians, and those that fear God; and while I live I shall not cease to preach, speak, and write them to all nations. And let every Christian know, that if he keep this writing by him, even in his house, whether he be cleric, or lay, or a woman, the devil will not hurt him; his son will not be lunatic, or demoniac, or deaf, or blind; no one will die suddenly in his house; in whatever tribulation he cries to her, he will be heard; and in the day of his death he will have her with her holy virgins for his help. I beseech continually that the same most pious and merciful queen may be always mindful of me, and all who believe in her and hope before her most pious Son, or Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns God through endless ages of ages. Amen.
The Passing of Mary: Second Latin Form.
[2658] The otherms. has the following introductory chapter: Melito, servant of Christ, bishop of the church of Sardis, to the venerable brethren in the Lord appointed at Laodicea, in peace greeting. I remember that I have often written of one Leucius, who, having along with ourselves associated with the apostles, turned aside through alienated feelings and a rash soul from the path of rectitude, and inserted very many things in his books about the acts of the apostles. Of their powers, indeed, he said many and diverse things; but of their teaching he gave a very false account, affirming that they taught otherwise than they did, and establishing his own impious statements, as it were, by their words. Nor did he think this to be enough; but he even vitiated, by his impious writing, the assumption of the blessed ever-virgin Mary, the mother of God, to such a degree that it would be impious not only to read it in the church of God, but even to hear it. When you ask us, therefore, what we heard from the Apostle John, we simply write this, and have directed it to your brotherhood; believing, not the strange dogmas hatched by heretics, but the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, while the threefold person of the Godhead and undivided substance remains; believing not that two human natures were created by a good God, which by the craft of the serpent was vitiated through sin, and restored through the grace of Christ. [Tischendorf gives this from Maxima Bibliotheca vet. patr , ii. 2, pp. 212 sqq. (ed. Sugdun).—R.]
[2660] Lit., sprung forward to.
[2661] The otherms. has a better reading: For, behold, on the third day I am to depart from the body; and I have heard, etc.
[2662] The otherms. here adds: And there came with them Paul, converted from the circumcision, who had been selected along with Barnabas for the ministry of the Gentiles. And when there was a pious contention among them as to which of them should be the first to pray to the Lord to show them the reason, and Peter was urging Paul to pray first, Paul answered and said: That is thy duty, to begin first, especially seeing that thou hast been chosen by God a pillar (Gal. ii. 9) of the Church, and thou hast precedence of all in the apostleship; but it is by no means mine, for I am the least of you all, and Christ was seen by me as one born out of due time (1 Cor. xv. 8); nor do I presume to make myself equal to you: nevertheless by the grace of God I am what I am (1 Cor. xv. 10).
[2663] The otherms. adds: at the humility of Paul.
[2664] Comp. John xiv. 30.
[2665] Comp. Dan. x. 21, xii. 1.
[2666] This does not seem to make very good sense. Another reading is: And the splendour appeared great, and nothing was perceived, while the body, perfectly clean, and unstained by any horror of filth, was being washed.
[2668] The otherms. inserts: And Paul said to him: And I, who am younger than any of you, will carry along with thee. And when all had agreed, Peter, raising the bier at the head, began to sing and say.
[2669] Lit., a song of sweetness.
[2670] Lit., saying.
[2672] Or, heals.
[2673] Or, health.
[2675] The otherms. has: And when he had said this, “I believe.”
[2676] Gen. xix. 11;Gen. xix. 11; Wisd. xix. 17.
[2679] The otherms. has Gabriel.
[2680] Lit., the lot.
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