The Apocryphal New Testament (Hone 1820: Protevangelion, Infancy Gospels, Nicodemus, Paul & Thecla, Apostolic Fathers incl. Hermas)

with the waves thereof. 36 But the rest I will not tell thee, for he that standeth by suffereth me not. 37 Bartholomew saith unto him: How chastisest thou the souls of men? 38 Beliar saith unto him: Wilt thou that I declare unto thee the punishment of the hypodites, of the back¬ biters, of the jesters, of the idolaters, and the covetous, and the adulterers, and the wizards, and the diviners, and of them that believe in us, and of all whom I flook uponf (deceive?)? (38 Lat. 2: When I will show any illusion by them. But they that do these things, and they that consent unto them or "follow them, do perish with me. 39 Bartholomew said unto him: Declare quickly how thou persuadest men not to follow God, and thine evil arts, that are slippery and dark, that they should leave the straight and shining paths of the Lord.) 39 Bar¬ tholomew saith unto him: fl will that thou declaret it in few words. came up out of the bottomless pit a wheel having a sword flash1 Boreas. * Aparktios. ing with fire, and in the sword were pipes. 41 And I (he) asked him, saying: What is this sword? 42 And he said: This sword is the sword of the gluttonous: for into this pipe are sent they that through their gluttony devise all manner of sin; into the second pipe are sent the backbiters which backbite their neigh¬ bour secretly;

into the third pipe are sent the hypocrites and the rest whom I overthrow by my contrivance. (Lai . 2: 40 And Antichrist said: I will tell thee. And a wheel came up out of the abyss, having seven fiery knives. The first knife hath twelve pipes ( canales ). ... 42 Antichrist answered: The pipe of fire in the first knife, in it are put the casters of lots and diviners and enchanters, and they that believe in them or have sought them, because in the iniquity of their heart they have invented false divinations. In the second pipe of fire are first the blasphemers . . . suicides .. . idolaters. ... In the rest are first perjurers . . . (long enumeration).) 43 And Bartholomew said: Dost thou then do these things by thyself alone ? 44 And Satan said: If I were able to go forth by myself, I would have destroyed the whole world in three days: but neither I nor any of the six hundred go forth. For we have other swift ministers whom we command, and we furnish them with an hook of many points 1 and send them forth to hunt, and they catch for us souls of men, enticing them with sweetness of divers baits, that is by drunkenness and laughter, by backbiting, hypocrisy, pleasures, fornication, and the rest of the j*triflesf that come out of their treasures. (Lat . 2 amplifies enormously.)

45 And I will tell thee also the rest of the names of the angels. The angel of the hail is called Mermeoth, and he holdeth the hail upon his head, and my ministers do adjure him and send him whither they will. And other angels are there over the snow, and other over the thunder, and other over the lightning, and when any spirit of us would go forth either by land or by sea, these angels send forth fiery stones and set our limbs on fire. (Lat. 2 enumerates all the transgressions of Israel and all possible sins in two whole pages.) 46 Bartholomew saith: Be still (be muzzled) thou dragon of the pit. 47 And Beliar said: Many things will I tell thee of the angels. They that run together throughout the heavenly places and the earthly are these: Mermeoth, Onomatath, Douth, Melioth, Charouth, Graphathas, Oethra, Nephonos, Chalkatoura. With them fdo flyt (are administered?) the things that are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. 48 Bartholomew saith unto him: Be still (be muzzled) and be faint, that I may entreat my Lord. 49 And Bartholomew fell upon his face and cast earth upon his head and began to say: O Lord Jesu Christ, the great and glorious name. All

1 hook of many points, &c. This passage recalls the Coptic fragment No. 5, above, p. 149. the choirs of the angels praise thee, 0 ^ st ( ^ r i,^ 1 Hearken of cu?tom y and didst not suffer me to have my conversa^on unto the end in my former deeds, O Lord JesuChnrt, hearken unto me and have mercy upon the sinners. 50 Mid when ne hadsHaidthe Lord saith unto him: Rise up, suffer him that SiSSfc SL: I will d.cl„. th. nt unto tta ? . 51 tod Bartholomew raised up Satan iind said onto thy place, with thine angels; but the Lord “ercy upon all his world. (50, 51, again enormously amplified in Lat. 2. Satan complains that he has been tricked h „C„ r ., the time. The interpolation is to some extent aatea this sentence: ‘ Simon ^gus and Zaroes and Arfaxir and Jannes and Mambres are my brokers.’ Zaroes and A,fexat are wizards who figure in the Latin Acts of Matthew ana o Simon and Jude (see below). 49 foUows 51 m this text.) 52 But the devil said: Suffer me, and I will tell thee how T was cast down into this place and how the pord did make maxi. 53 I was going to and fro in the world, and G »d said unto Michael’ Bring me a clod from the four corners °t the earth, and water out of the four rivers of paradise.

And when Michael brought them God formed Adam in the regions of the east, and shaped the clod which was shapeless, and stretched slne ws and veins upon it and established it with joints; and he worshipped him hhnself for his own sake first, because he was the image t Pod therefore he worshipped him. 54 And when I came from tL ends S the earth Michael said: Worship thou the image of God. which he hath made according to his likeness. But I said’ I am fire of fire, I was the first angel formed, and sha I worship clay and matter? 55 And Michael saith to me: Wor¬ ship lest God be wroth with thee. But I said to him: God

not be wroth with me; but I will set my throne ove i t his throne, and I will be as he is. Then was God wroth with me and cast me down, having commanded * he ,^™ d T! s ° s ^ed also tn he onened. 56 And when I was cast down, he asked also the six ^hundred that were under me, if they would worship: hut thev said • Like as we have seen the first angel do, neither wfwomhip hta that is less than ourselves Then were the six hundred also cast down by him with me. 57 And when we were cast down upon the earth we were senseless for . forty vears- and when the sun shone forth seven times brighter than fire, suddenly I awaked; and y° oked ^’I^aked my *ix hundred that were under me senseless. 58 And 1 awaked my son Salpsan and took him to counsel how I might deceive the man on whose account I was cast out of the heavens. 59 And thus did I contrive it. I took a vial in mine hand and scraped the sweat from off my breast and the hair of nune armpits, and

washed myself (Lat. 2, I took fig-leaves in my hands and wiped the sweat from my bosom and below mine arms and cast it down beside the streams of waters. 59 is greatly prolonged in this text) in the springs of the waters whence the four rivers flow out, and Eve drank of it and desire came upon her: for if she had not drunk of that water I should not have been able to deceive her. 60 Then Bartholomew commanded him to go into hell. with tears to say thus: Abba, Father, that art past finding out by us, Word of the Father, whom the seven heavens hardly contained, but who wast pleased to be contained easily and without pain within the body of the Virgin: whom the Virgin knew not that she bare: thou by thy thought hast ordained all things to be: thou givest us fthat which we needf before thou art entreated. 62 Thou that didst wear a crown of thorns that thou mightest prepare for us that repent the precious crown from heaven; that didst hang upon the tree, that ( a clause gone ): (Lat. 2, that thou mightest turn from us the tree of lust and concupiscence (etc., etc.). The verse is prolonged for over 40 lines) (that didst drink wine mingled with gall) that thou mightest give us to drink of the wine of compunction, and wast pierced in the side with a spear that thou mightest fill us with thy body and thy blood:

63 Thou that gavest names unto the four rivers: to the first Phison, because of the faith (pistis) which thou didst appear in the world to preach; to the second Geon, for that man was made of earth (ge); to the third Tigris, because by thee was revealed unto us the consubstantial Trinity in the heavens (to make anything of this we must read Trigis ); to the fourth Euphrates, because by thy presence in the world thou madest every soul to rejoice (euphrdnai) through the word of immortality. 64 1 My God, and Father, the greatest, my King: save, Lord, the sinners. 65 When he had thus prayed Jesus said unto him: Bartholomew, my Father did name me Christ, that I might come down upon earth and anoint every man that cometh unto me with the oil of life: and he did call me Jesus that I might heal every sin of them that know not . . . and give unto men (several corrupt words: the Latin has) the truth of God.

66 And again Bartholomew saith unto him: Lord, is it lawful for me to reveal these mysteries unto every man? 67 Jesus saith unto him: Bartholomew, my beloved, as many as are faithful and are able to keep them unto themselves, to them mayest thou entrust these things. For some there are 1 In Lat. 2, w. 64-71 occupy 83 lines: verse 65 fills nearly 50 of these; Jesus dwells on the words, ‘ I am the way, the truth, and the life and speaks at some length of his benefits to the Jewish nation and their blindness and ingratitude (recalling the Improperia and 2 Esdras 1): there are also many clauses from John xiii-xv. that be worthy of them, but there are also other some unto whom it is not fit to entrust them: for they are vain (swaggerers), drunkards, proud, unmerciful, partakers in idolatry, authors of fornication, slanderers, teachers of foolishness, and doing all works that are of the devil, and therefore are they not worthy that these should be entrusted to them. 68 And also they are secret, because of those that cannot contain them; for as many as can contain them shall have a part in them. Herein (Hitherto ?), therefore, my beloved, have I spoken unto thee, for blessed art thou and all thy kindred which of their choice have this word entrusted unto them; for all they that can contain it shall receive whatsoever they will in the <day?> of my judgement.

heart, took hold on the hand of the Lord the lover of men and began to rejoice and to speak thus: Glory be to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, that givest unto all thy grace which all we have perceived. Alleluia. Glory be to thee, O Lord, the life of sinners. Glory be to thee, O Lord, death is put to shame. Glory be to thee, O Lord, the treasure of righteousness. For unto God do we sing. his mantle and took a kerchief from the neck of Bartholomew and began to rejoice and say (70 Lat, 2, Then Jesus took a kerchief (?) 1 and said: I am good: mild and gracious and merciful, strong and righteous, wonderful and holy): I am good. Alleluia. I am meek and gentle. Alleluia. Glory be to thee, O Lord: for I give gifts unto all them that desire me. Alleluia. Glory be to thee, O Lord, world without end. Amen. Alleluia. gave them the peace of love. 1 Bartholomew saith unto him: * Declare unto us, Lord, what sin is heavier than all sins? 2 Jesus saith unto him: Verily I say unto thee that hypocrisy and backbiting is heavier than all sins: for because of them, the prophet said in the psalm, that ‘the ungodly shall not rise in the judgement, neither sinners in the council of the righteous’, neither the ungodly in the judgement of my Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that every sin shall be forgiven unto every man, but the sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven. 3 And Bar¬ tholomew saith unto him: What is the sin against the Holy Ghost? 4 Jesus saith unto him: Whosoever shall decree against any man that hath served my holy Father hath blasphemed against the Holy Ghost: For every man that serveth God

1 toracem. * In Lat. 2, w. 1-6 occupy 58 lines. worshipfully is worthy of the Holy Ghost, and he that speaketh anything evil against him shall not be forgiven. 1 5 Woe unto him that sweareth by the head of God, yea woe (?) to him that sweareth falsely by him ftrufyt* For there are twelve heads of God the most high: for he is the truth, and in him is no lie, neither forswearing. 6 Ye, therefore, go ye and preach unto all the world the word of truth, and thou, Bar¬ tholomew, preach this word unto every one that desireth it; and as many as believe thereon shall have eternal life. 7 Bartholomew saith: 2 O Lord, and if any sin with sin of the body, what is their reward? 8 And Jesus said: It is good if he that is baptized present his baptism blameless: but the pleasure of the flesh will fbecome a loverf. For a single marriage belongeth to sobriety: for verily I say unto thee, he that sinneth after the third marriage (wife) is unworthy of God. (8 Lat. 2 is to this effect: . . . But if the lust of the flesh come upon him, he ought to be the husband of one wife. The married, if they are good and pay tithes, will receive a hundredfold. A second marriage is lawful, on condition of the diligent performance of good works, and due payment of tithes:

but a third marriage is reprobated: and virginity is best.) 9 But ye, preach ye unto every man that they keep themselves from such things: for I depart not from you and I do supply you with the Holy Ghost. (Lat. 2, At the end of 9, Jesus ascends in the clouds, and two angels appear and say: ‘Ye men of Galilee’, and the rest.) 10 Arid Bartholomew worshipped him with the apostles, and glorified God earnestly, saying: Glory be to thee, Holy Father, Sun unquenchable, incomprehensible, full of light. Unto thee be glory, unto thee honour and adoration, world without end. Amen. (Lat. 2, End of the questioning of the most blessed Bartholomew and (or) the other apostles with the Lord Jesus Christ.)

This exists in Coptic only. There are several recensions of it: the most complete is in a manuscript recently acquired by the British Museum (Or. 6804), and translated first by W. E. Crum (Rustafjaell’s Light of Egypt, 1910) and then edited and translated by Sir E. A. Wallis Budge (Coptic Apocrypha in the dialect of Upper Egypt, 1913). Other fragments are in the publications of Lacau and Revillout. No full translation, but only an analysis, will be offered here. 1 Lat. 2 enumerates seventeen other sins—chiefly forms of idolatry and wrong belief. * In Lat. 2, w. 7-10 fill 69 lines. Five leaves are wanting at the beginning of the British Museum MS. The contents of these can be partly filled up from Lacau and Revillout. But in the first place a passage (p. 193, Budge) may be quoted which shows something of the setting of the book: ‘Do not let this book come into the hand of any man who is an unbeliever and a heretic. Behold, this is the seventh time that I have commanded thee, O my son Thaddaeus, concerning these mysteries. Reveal not thou them to any impure man, but keep them safely.’ We see that the book was addressed by Bartholomew to his son Thaddaeus, and this would no doubt have been the subject of some of the opening lines of the text.

Next we may place the two fragments, one about the child of Joseph of Arimathaea, the other about the cock raised to life, which have been already described as nos. 7 and 8 of the Coptic narratives of the Passion (pp. 149, 150). The order is uncertain. Then we have a piece which in Revillout is no. 12 (p. 165), in Lacau no. 3 (p. 34). Lacau gives it partly in two recensions. Christ is on the cross, but his side has been pierced, and he is dead. A man in the crowd named Ananias, of Bethlehem, rushes to the cross and embraces and salutes the body breast to breast, hand to hand, and denounces the Jews. A voice comes from the body of Jesus and blesses Ananias, promising him incorruption, and the name of ‘the firstfruits of the immortal fruit’. The priests decide to stone Ananias: he utters words of exultation. The stoning produces no effect. They cast him into a furnace, where he remains till Jesus has risen. At last they pierce him with a spear. The Saviour takes his soul to heaven, and blesses him. There can be but little matter lost between this and the opening of the British Museum MS., in the first lines of which the taking of Ananias’ soul to heaven is mentioned.

We now take up the British Museum MS. as our basis. Certain passages of it are preserved in Paris fragments which partly overlap each other, and so three different texts exist for some parts: but it will not be important for our purpose to note many of the variations. Joseph of Arimathaea buried the body of Jesus. Death came into Amente (the underworld), asking who the new arrival was, for he detected a disturbance. He came to the tomb of Jesus with his six sons in the form of serpents. Jesus lay there (it was the second day, i. e. the Saturday) with his face and head covered with napkins. Death addressed his son the Pestilence, and described the commotion which had taken place in his domain. Then he spoke to the body of Jesus and asked, ‘Who art thou?’ Jesus removed the napkin that was on his face and looked in the face of Death and laughed at him. Death and his sons fled. Then they ap¬ proached again, and the same thing happened. He addressed Jesus again at some length, suspecting, but not certain, who he was. Then Jesus rose and mounted into the chariot of the Cherubim. He wrought havoc in Hell, breaking the doors, binding the demons Beliar and Melkir (cf. Melkira in the Ascension of Isaiah), and delivered Adam and the holy souls.

Then he turned to Judas Iscariot and uttered a long rebuke, and described the sufferings which he must endure. Thirty names of sins are given, which are the snakes which were sent to devour him. Jesus rose from the dead, and Abbaton (Death) and Pestilence came back to Amente to protect it, but they found it wholly desolate, only three souls were left in it (those of Herod, Cain, and Judas, says the Paris MS.). Meanwhile the angels were singing the hymn which the Sera¬ phim sing at dawn on the Lord’s day over his body and his blood. Early in the morning of the Lord’s day the women went to the tomb. They were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James whom Jesus delivered out of the hand of Satan, Salome who tempted him, Mary who ministered to him and Martha her sister, Joanna ( al . Susanna) the wife of Chuza who had renounced the marriage bed, Berenice who was healed of an issue of blood in Capernaum, Lia (Leah) the widow whose son he raised at Nain, and the woman to whom he said, ‘Thy sins which are many are forgiven thee’. These were all in the garden of Philogenes, whose son Simeon Jesus healed when he came down from the Mount of Olives with the apostles (probably the lunatic boy at the Mount of Transfiguration).

Mary said to Philogenes: If thou art indeed he, I know thee. Philogenes said: Thou art Mary the mother of Thalkamarimath, which means joy, blessing, and gladness. Mary said: If thou have borne him away, tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away: fear not. Philogenes told how the Jews sought a safe tomb for Jesus that the body might not be stolen, and he offered to place it in a tomb in his own garden and watch over it: and they sealed it and departed. At midnight he rose and went out and found all the orders of angels: Cherubim, Seraphim, Powers, and Virgins. Heaven opened, and the Father raised Jesus. Peter, too, was there and supported Philogenes, or he would have died. The Saviour then appeared to them on the chariot of the Father and said to Mary: Mari Khar Mariath (Mary the mother of the Son of God). Mary answered: Rabbouni Kathiathari Mioth (The Son of God the Almighty, my Lord, and my Son). A long address to Mary from Jesus follows, in the course of which he bids her tell his brethren, ‘I ascend unto my Father and your Father’, &c. Mary says: If indeed I am not permitted to touch thee, at least bless my body in which thou didst deign to dwell.

Believe me, my brethren the holy apostles, I, Bartholomew, beheld the Son of God on the chariot of the Cherubim. All the heavenly hosts were about him. He blessed the body of Mary. She went and gave the message to the apostles, and Peter blessed her, and they rejoiced. Jesus and the redeemed souls ascended into Heaven, and the Father crowned him. The glory of this scene Bartholomew could not describe. It is here that he enjoins his son Thaddaeus not to let this book fall into the hands of the impure (quoted above). Then follows a series of hymns sung in heaven, eight in all, which accompany the reception of Adam and the other holy souls into glory. Adam was eighty cubits high and Eve fifty. They were brought to the Father by Michael. Bartholomew had never seen anything to compare with the beauty and glory of Adam, save that of Jesus. Adam was forgiven, and all the angels and saints rejoiced and saluted him, and departed each to their place. Adam was set at the gate of life to greet all the righteous as they enter, and Eve was set over all the women who had done the will of God, to greet them as they come into the city of Christ.

As for me, Bartholomew, I remained many days without food or drink, nourished by the glory of the vision. The apostles thanked and blessed Bartholomew for what he had told them: he should be called the apostle of the mysteries of God. But he protested: I am the least of you all, a humble workman. Will not the people of the city say when they see me, ‘Is not this Bartholomew the man of Italy, the gardener, the dealer in vegetables? Is not this the man that dwelleth in the garden of Hierocrates the governor of our city? How has he attained this greatness?’ The next words introduce a new section. At the time when Jesus took us up into the Mount of Olives he spoke to us in an unknown tongue, which he revealed to us, saying: Anetharath (or Atharath Thaurath). The heavens were opened and we all went up into the seventh heaven (so the London MS.: in the Paris copy only Jesus went up, and the apostles gazed after him). He prayed the Father to bless us. The Father, with the Son and the Holy Ghost, laid His hand on the head of Peter (and made him archbishop of the whole world: Paris B). All that is bound or loosed by him on earth shall be so in heaven; none who is not ordained by him shall be accepted. Each of the apostles was separately blessed (there are omissions of single names in one or other of the three texts). Andrew, James, John, Philip (the cross will precede him wherever he goes), Thomas, Bartholomew (he will be the depositary of

the mysteries of the Son), Matthew (his shadow will heal the sick), James son of Alphaeus, Simon Zelotes, Judas of James, Thaddeus, Matthias (who was rich and left all to follow Jesus). And now, my brethren the apostles, forgive me: I, Bar¬ tholomew, am not a man to be honoured. The apostles kissed and blessed him. And then, with Mary, they offered the Eucharist. The Father sent the Son down into Galilee to console the apostles and Mary: and he came and blessed them and showed them his wounds, and committed them to the care of Peter, and gave them their commission to preach. They kissed his side and sealed themselves with the blood that flowed thence. He went up to heaven. Thomas was not with them, for he had departed to his city, hearing that his son Siophanes (Theophanes ?) was dead: it was the seventh day since the death when he arrived. He went to the tomb and raised him in the name of Jesus. Siophanes told him of the taking of his soul by Michael: how it sprang from his body and lighted on the hand of Michael, who wrapped it in a fine linen cloth: how he crossed the river of fire and it seemed to him as water, and was washed thrice in the Acherusian lake: how in heaven he saw the twelve splendid thrones of the apostles, and was not permitted to sit on his father’s throne. 1

Thomas and he went into the city to the consternation of all who saw them. He, Siophanes, addressed the people and told his story: and Thomas baptized 12,000 of them, founded a church, and made Siophanes its bishop. Then Thomas mounted on a cloud and it took him to the Mount of Olives and to the apostles, who told him of the visit of Jesus: and he would not believe. Bartholomew admonished him. Then Jesus appeared, and made Thomas touch his wounds: and departed into heaven. This is the second time that he showed himself to his disciples after that he had risen from the dead. This is the Book of the Resurrection of Jesus the Christ, our Lord, in joy and gladness. In peace. Amen. Peter said to the apostles: Let us offer the offering before we separate. They prepared the bread, the cup, and incense. Peter stood by the sacrifice and the others round the Table. They waited (break in the text: Budge and others suppose an appearance of Christ, but I do not think this is correct: 4| lines are gone: then there are broken words): table . . . their hearts rejoiced . . . worshipped the Son of God. He took his seat . . . his Father ( 'probably , who sitteth at the right hand of the Father). His Body was on the Table about which

of the Apocalypse of Paul. they were assembled; and they divided it. They saw the blood of Jesus pouring out as living blood down into the cup. Peter said: God hath loved us more than all, in letting us see these great honours: and our Lord Jesus Christ hath allowed us to behold and hath revealed to us the glory of his body and his divine blood. They partook of the body and blood—and then they separated and preached the word. (What is clearly indi¬ cated is a change in the elements: there is not room for a description of an appearance of Jesus: he says no word, and his departure is not mentioned.) This writing may be better described as a rhapsody than a narrative. It bristles with contradictions of itself: Joseph and Philogenes both bury Jesus; Thomas raises the dead and will not believe in Christ’s resurrection: and so forth. That Mary the mother of Jesus is identified with Mary Magdalene is typical of the disregard of history, and we have seen it in other Coptic documents. The interest of the author is centred in the hymns, blessings, salutations, and prayers, which in this analysis have been wholly omitted, but which occupy a large part of the original text. The glorification of St. Bartholomew is another purpose of the writer: the special blessings given to him recall the attitude which he takes in the Gospel (i. 1, 8) as inquiring into the mysteries of heaven, and seeing things which are hidden from others. Both Gospel and Book are specially interested in the Descent into Hell, the Resurrection, and the redemption of Adam.

Bartholomew (Nathanael) was told (in St. John’s Gospel) that he would see the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. This promise is fulfilled in the Gospel (i. 6, 23) and very often in the Book : in St. John we also read of his being ‘under the fig-tree’, and this was probably enough to suggest to the Coptic author of the Book that he was a gardener. A date is hard to suggest. The British Museum MS. is assigned to the twelfth century ; the Paris fragments are older. That of the Coptic literature of this class is usually supposed to belong to the fifth and sixth centuries ; and I think this, or at latest the seventh century, may be the period when the book was produced. There is a fairly large class of books, early and late, which consists, like the Gospel of Bartholomew, of questions addressed to our Lord and his answers to them. Earliest of all are perhaps the Gnostic books preserved in Coptic in a Berlin MS. and not yet edited. One of these was used by Irenaeus. We hear of lost books of a similar kind: Questions of Mary, and a Gospel of Philip. We also possess, in Greek, late specimens of this class: e. g. Questions of John to Christ about the Last Things, which go by the name of the Apocryphal Apocalypse of John and have been printed by Tischendorf. Another like book is the Liber S. Joannis which was found in use in a Latin version among the Albigensian heretics in Southern France: it is printed by Thilo. Yet another is the Dispute of the Devil with Christ, printed in two texts, in Greek, by Vassiliev, and on the same general lines are Questions of St. James the brother of the Lord to St.John, also printed by Vassiliev. Various late Testaments or Dialogues of Jesus with the apostles remain unprinted.

Reprinted by Thilo from I. Benoist’s Histoire des Albigeois , &c., Paris, 1691, T. 1, 283-96. Dollinger in his Beitrdge zur mittelalter - lichen Sektengeschichte , vol. ii, printed another text from a fourteenthcentury manuscript at Vienna. I have not given the variants. Thilo’s reprint is followed. The Vienna MS. is rather imperfect at the end. Benoist derived his text from the Archives of the Inquisition at Carcassonne. The manuscript of it had this annotation in Latin: ‘This is the secret book of the heretics of Concor£ze, brought from Bulgaria by their bishop Nazarius; full of errors.* This Nazarius was examined by Rainer (Contra Waldenses, vi: printed in Bibl . Pair . max . xxv. 271). He said that the Blessed Virgin was an angel, and that Christ did not take upon him a human nature but an angelic or heavenly one: and that he had this erroneous teaching from a bishop and elder son of the church of Bulgaria almost sixty years since. The book is a Bogomile production, denying that the world was made by God, and attributing creation to ' ’ Catholic Christians are disciples of John Baptist: baptism has no value, nor, probably, the Eucharist: but the statement about this has dropped out of the text.

A'he account of the Last Judgement, I agree with Thilo, seems too orthodox and conventional to square with the rest of the book: one suspects dilution from another source. In its Latin dress the book can hardly be older than the twelfth century. The original might be of the sixth or seventh. I, your brother and partaker in tribulation, and that shall be also a partaker in the kingdom of heaven, when I lay upon the breast of our Lord Jesus Christ and said unto him: Lord, who is he that shall betray thee ? [and] he answered and said: He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish: then Satan entered unto him and he sought how he might betray me. And I said: Lord, before Satan fell, in what glory abode he with thy Father? And he said unto me: In such glory was he that he commanded the powers of the heavens: but I sat with my Father; and he did order all the followers of the Father, and went down from heaven unto the deep and ascended up out of the deep unto the throne of the invisible Father. And he saw the glory of him that moveth the heavens, and he thought to set his seat above the clouds of heaven and desired to be like unto the Most High.

1 Here (in Thilo’s text only) occurs the word ossop which means nothing. A marginal note in Dollinger’s Vienna MS. speaks of oseph and says that it is a place, apparently the Vallis JosaphaU shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And he shall bring them before the throne of the in¬ visible Father, saying: Behold, I and my children whom God hath given me: O righteous one, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee in truth, because thou hast sent me. And then shall the Father answer his Son and say: My beloved Son, sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet which have denied me and said: We are gods and beside us there is none other god: which have slain thy prophets and persecuted thy righteous ones, and hast persecuted them even unto the outer darkness: there snail be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then shall the Son of God sit on the right hand of his Father, and the Father shall command his angels, and they shall minister unto them (i. e. the righteous) and set them among the choirs of the angels, to clothe them with incorruptible garments, and shall give them crowns that fade not and seats that cannot be moved. And God shall be in the midst of them ; and they shall not hunger nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat. And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. And he shall reign with his holy Father, and of his kingdom there shall be no end for ever and ever.

As was the case with the Acts of Pilate, we must admit that we have as yet no critical edition of the very numerous forms of this legend. We have texts in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Arabic, not to mention derivatives in many vernacular mediaeval versions, all of which would have to be dealt with in a comprehensive survey. Clearly the present collection cannot attempt to do that. What it can do is to present a statement of the contents of the principal ancient versions. My own belief is that the legend was first elaborated, if it did not originate, in Egypt; and therefore the Sahidic and Bohairic texts will receive special attention. The standard Greek writing on the subject is one attributed to St. John, which is edited from five manuscripts (of eleventh-fourteenth centuries) by Tischendorf. This was exploited and inflated in sermonform by John, archbishop of Thessalonica, in the seventh century. It will be translated here. The standard Latin form is that attributed to Melito, bishop of Sardis: often printed, last by Tischendorf (Transitus Mariae B). What Tischendorf calls the Latin A form is attributed to Joseph of Arimathaea. The text, which is very divergent in various copies, is printed by Tischendorf from three late manuscripts, all Italian.

Of the Syriac, of which there are many forms, we have editions by Wright, Budge, and Mrs. Lewis. The Arabic, edited by Enger in 1854, is akin to the Syriac; it is not very important for our purpose, nor is the Ethiopic, edited by Chaine in Apocrypha de B . V. M. Of these we have two complete texts in Bohairic and one in Sahidic, with fragments of others. The first Bohairic account is in a Homily attributed to Evodius (usually described as first bishop of Antioch, but here), archbishop of Rome, the successor and spiritual son of Peter; he insists that he was an eyewitness of all that he tells. (Ed. by Robinson, Coptic Apocryphal Gospels,) The first four sections of the homily are panegyric. The narrative begins with V. Evodius first tells of his calling by Jesus. He was with Peter and Andrew and Alexander and Rufus his kinsmen, and followed Jesus when Peter and Andrew did, and was of the seventy-two disciples. They lived with Mary after the Passion, as did Salome and Joanna and the rest of the virgins who were with her, and Peter sanctified an altar in the house. VI. On the twentieth of the month Tobi, they were all gathered

at the altar, and Jesus appeared and greeted them. He bade Peter prepare the altar because ‘ I must needs take a great offering from your midst on the morrow, before that each one of you goes to the lot that hath fallen to him to preach therein’. He then ordained Peter archbishop, and others, including Evodius, pres¬ byters, and also deacons, readers, psalmists, and doorkeepers; and departed to heaven. They remained, wondering what the offering was to be. VII. On the twenty-first of Tobi Jesus returned, on the chariot of the cherubim, with thousands of angels, and David the sweet singer. ‘We’ besought him to tell what the great offering was to be, and he told them that it was his Mother whom he was to take to himself. (Here, as elsewhere, I do not pretend to give the long discourses which occur, but only the bare skeleton of the story.) 1 VIII. We all wept, and Peter asked if it was not possible that Mary should never die, and then if she might not be left to them for a few days. But the Lord said that her time was accomplished. IX. The women, and also Mary, wept, but Jesus consoled her. She said: I have heard that Death has many terrible faces. How shall I bear to see them ? He said: How dost thou fear his divine shape when the Life of all the world is with thee ? And he kissed her, and blessed them all, and bade Peter look upon the altar for heavenly garments which the Father had sent to shroud Mary in.

X. 2 Mary arose and was arrayed in the garments, and tinned to the east and uttered a prayer in the language of heaven, and then lay down, still facing eastward. Jesus made us stand for the prayer, and the virgins also who used to minister in the temple and had come to wait on Mary after the Passion. We asked them why they left it. They said: When we saw the darkness at the crucifixion we fled into the holy of holies and shut the door. We saw a strong angel come down with a sword, and he rent the veil in twain : and we heard a great voice (from the house of the altar Sah .), saying, Woe to thee, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets. The angel of the altar flew up into the canopy of the altar with the angel of the sword : and we knew that God had left his people, and we fled to his Mother. XI. The virgins stood about Mary singing, and Jesus sat by her. She besought him to save her from the many terrors of the next world—the accusers of Amenti, the dragon of the abyss, the river of fire that proves the righteous and the wicked. (All this Sah. omits.)

1 Parts of VII and VIII exist in Sahidic fragment I (Robinson, p. 60). * At this point begins Sahidic fragment II (Robinson, p. 70) and continues into XVII: it has important differences. XII. He comforted her and said to the apostles: Let us withdraw outside for a little while, for Death cannot approach while I am here. And they went out and he sat on a stone, and looked up to heaven and groaned and said: I have overcome thee, O Death, that dwellest in the storehouses of the south. Come, appear to my virgin mother: but not in a fearful shape. He appeared, and when she saw him, her soul leaped into the bosom of her son—white as snow, and he wrapped it in garments of fine linen and gave it to Michael. All the women wept; Salome ran to Jesus and said: Behold, 6he whom thou lovest is dead. David the singer rejoiced and said: Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. (The Sahidic does not describe the moment of death, but says it took place at the ninth hour of the 21st of Tobi: and omits David.) XIII. They re-entered the house and found her lying dead, and Jesus blessed her.

XIV. Jesus shrouded the body in the heavenly garments, and they were fastened thereto. He bade the apostles take up the body, Peter bearing the head and John the feet, and carry it to a new tomb in the field of Jehoshaphat, and watch it for three and a half days. David rejoiced, saying: She shall be brought unto the King, &c. (Ps. xlv. 14), and: Arise, O Lord, into thy resting place (Ps. cxxxii. 8). (Sah. omits details: the order is merely to carry the body to the tomb: David again omitted.) XV. Jesus ascended with Mary’s soul in the chariot of the Cherubim. (Sah. merely: he hid himself from us.) We took up the body, and when we came to the field of Jehoshaphat, the Jews heard the singing and came out intending to burn the body. But a wall of fire encompassed us, and they were blinded: and the body was laid in the tomb and watched for three and a half days. (Sah. omits all after the blindness.) XVI. The Jews were in terror and confessed their sin and asked pardon. Their eyes were opened and they sought and found not the body: and they were amazed and confessed them¬ selves guilty.

(Here Sah. has a very confusing insertion. When the eyes of the Jews have been opened: ‘there came a great choir of angels and caught away the body of the Virgin, and Peter and John and we looked on while she was carried to heaven, until we lost sight of it. And the Jews saw it also, and confessed themselves guilty. XVII. At mid-day on the fourth day all were gathered at the tomb. A great voice came, saying: Go every one to his place till the seventh month: for I have hardened the heart of the Jews, and they will not be able to find the tomb or the body till I take it up to heaven. Return on the 16th of Mesore. We returned to the house. In the seventh month after the death, i. e. on 15th of Mesore, we reassembled at the tomb and spent the night in watching and singing. (Sah. has only: We returned to the house.) XVIII. At dawn on the 16th of Mesore, Jesus appeared. Peter said: We are grieved that we have not seen thy Mother since her death. Jesus said: She shall now come. The chariot of the Cherubim appeared with the Virgin seated in it. There were greetings. Jesus bade the apostles go and preach in all the world. He spent all that day with us and with his Mother, and gave us the salutation of peace and went up to heaven in glory.

XIX. Such was the death of the Virgin on the 21st of Tobi, and her assumption on 16th Mesore. I, Evodius, saw it all. The sermon ends with a blessing. (Sah. has: XVIII. At dawn on the eighth day after her death Jesus appeared (as in Boh.), and the fragment ends at his promise that the apostles shall now see the Virgin.) The other Sahidic account is in the ‘Twentieth Discourse of Cyril of Jerusalem’, edited by Budge ( Misc. Copt, texts). We have seen what he says of the early part of the life of the Virgin. At p. 642 (Eng. trans.) he takes up the subject of her death. A considerable portion of this had been already edited by Robinson as Sahidic Frag¬ ment IV of the Life of the Virgin , pp. 24r-40. For ten (Rob. fifteen) years after the resurrection, according to Josephus and Irenaeus(I), John and Mary lived together at Jerusalem. One day the Virgin bade John summon Peter and James: and they sat down before her and she addressed them, reminding them of the life of Jesus (up to the Ascension and Pentecost). She went on to say that Jesus had come to her and warned her that her time was accomplished. ‘ I will hide thy body in the earth, no man shall find it until the day when I raise it incorruptible. A great church shall be built over it.’ Now there¬ fore summon the virgins.

It was done. Mary took the hand of one of them, Mary Magdalene, now very old, and committed the others to her charge. She bade Peter fetch from the house of his disciple Birrus the linen clothes she had committed to him: James was to buy for a stater (shekel, Rob.) spices and perfumes. John lighted the lamps. Mary spread the linen on the ground and poured the spices upon it and stood and prayed, facing east: she asked to be delivered from the terrors of the next world—the dragon and the river of fire. Then she lay down facing east. Jesus appeared on the Cherubim and bade her not fear death. And said to Death: Come, O thou who art in the chambers of the south. When Mary saw him her soul leaped into the bosom of her Son, and he wrapped it in a garment of light. She fell asleep on the night of the 20th day of Tobi (early on the 21st, Rob.). The Lord bade the apostles take the body to the valley of Jehoshaphat and set down the bier, because of the Jews, and he would hide it. In the morning they took it forth. The Jews heard the singing, and took counsel and set out with fire to burn it. The apostles saw them coming, and dropped the bier and fled. The Jews found nothing but the bier, and that they burnt. A sweet odour came from the place where the body was laid, and a voice said: Let no man give himself the trouble of seeking it till the great day of the appearing of Christ. The Jews were ashamed and fled, and told their neighbours, but bade them tell no one.

This is Cyril’s account, which entirely shuts out a corporal assumption, but has frequent coincidences of language and matter with the Bohairic account of Evodius, and the Sahidic fragments of the same.

Archbishop of Alexandria (probably the Jacobite Patriarch of 536-68). It is in Bohairic, edited by Robinson (p. 90), who calls it the Second Bohairic account: he omits fifteen pages of homiletic matter at the beginning. I. At the moment of the Ascension Jesus charged Peter, ‘his bishop’, and John to remain with Mary till her death. II. She was living in Jerusalem with a number of virgins. ‘We also, the apostles Peter and John’, were with her. On the 20th of Tobi we came to her and found her amazed. She explained that that night, after she had finished the ‘little office (synaxis)’, she slumbered and saw a beautiful youth about thirty years of age, ‘ and you also standing at his right hand, with garments in your hands’. She perceived that it was Jesus, and he told her that the garments were her shroud; and he vanished. Then Mary makes a long discourse on the horrors of death— the river of fire, the two powers of light and darkness, the avengers with diverse faces, the worm, the unquenchable fire which three tears will put out, the ruler of darkness. On hearing this we wept. III. There was a knocking at the door. It was the virgins who had come from the Mount of Olives, with censers and lamps. They had been warned by a voice in the night to come to Mary, who was to die next day.

Mary bade us withdraw a little, and uttered a (long) thanks¬ giving to her Son, and a prayer to be delivered from the terrors of the next world. IV. There were thunderings and lightnings. Jesus came on a chariot of light with Moses, David, the prophets, and the righteous kings, and addressed Mary. (There is a refrain to the speech, ‘O my beloved Mother, arise, let us go hence’.) Mary spoke comfort to the apostles. Jesus spoke of the necessity of death. If she were translated, ‘wicked men will think concerning thee that thou art a power which came down from heaven, and that the dispensation (the Incarnation) took place in appearance’. V. He turned to the apostles—to me Peter and to John—and said that Mary should appear to them again. ‘ There are 206 days from her death unto her holy assumption. I will bring her unto you arrayed in this body.’ He bade them bring garments and perfumes from the altar, which were sent from heaven. They spread them on the bed. The Virgin arose and prayed him to receive her. VI. She lay down on the garments, turned her face to him, and straightway commended her spirit into his hands.

He bade us prepare her for burial, and gave us three palms from paradise and three branches of the olive-tree which Noah’s dove brought to Noah, and we laid them on her body. Peter was to bear the head, John the feet. The Jews would plot against her, but they should be blinded. The body was to be placed in the stone coffin and watched, and in 206 days he would bring the soul to it. He went up to heaven and presented the soul to the Father and the Holy Ghost. And the voice of the Holy Trinity was heard welcoming the soul. VII. We carried the body out to the field of Jehoshaphat. The Jews saw it and took counsel to come and burn it. The apostles set down the bier and fled. Darkness came on the Jews, and they were blinded and smitten by their own fire. They cried out for mercy and were healed, and many were converted. We returned to Jerusalem, and often came back to the tomb. VIII. When the 206 days were over, on the evening of the 15th, that is the morning of the 16th of Mesore, we gathered at the tomb and watched all night.

At the tenth hour there were thunderings, and a choir of angels was heard, and David’s harp. Jesus came on the chariots of the Cherubim with the soul of the Virgin seated in his bosom, and greeted us. He called over the coffin and bade the body arise (a long address). IX. The coffin, which had been shut like Noah’s ark, opened. The body arose and ‘ embraced its own soul, even as two brothers who are come from a strange country, and they were united one with another’. David said, ‘Mercy and truth are met together’ (&c.). Jesus went up to heaven, blessing us, and we heard the voice of the powers singing: Bring to the Lord the honour due unto his name. The virgins that be her fellows (her holy deeds) shall be her company (&c.). Here we have the corporal assumption after 206 days. Yet another Sahidic fragment is to be found in Revillout ( Patrol . Orient • Apocryphes Copies , I, fr. 16, p. 174). He attributes it quite without reason to the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles. It is told by an eyewitness, but he cannot be identified. We here encounter the high priest whose hand is smitten off when he touches the bier: he appears in the other versions.

The high priest begs to be healed. Peter says, if he believes in Jesus Christ he can be healed. The high priest acknowledges that he and his people crucified Jesus (knowing him to be the Son of God) because he drove the traders out of the temple. Peter bids him, if he believes, to embrace the body of the Virgin and profess his belief. He does so and takes his own cut-off hand and puts it to the stump, and it adheres. Peter bids him take ‘this palm branch’ and go to the city and lay it on the eyes of those who are blind. He found many of them lamenting, and all who believed were healed. Meanwhile the apostles laid the body in the tomb and remained there, to wait till the Lord should come and raise it up as he had said. They bade the virgins go home in peace: but they wanted to stay there too. Peter and John reassured them. They asked to be blessed, and Peter blessed them. At the third hour of the day the converted high priest came and told Peter that the Jews were still plotting to burn the body and the tomb.

Peter warned the disciples: but God sent forgetfulness upon the Jews. And the apostles took courage. And a voice from heaven came also, promising safety. It came to pass after that we reached the 16th of Mesore, and were gathered with the apostles at the tomb. We saw lightnings and were afraid. There was a sweet odour and a sound of trumpets. The door of the tomb opened: there was a great light within. A chariot descended in fire: Jesus was in it; he greeted us. He called into the tomb: Mary, my mother, arise! And we saw her in the body, as if she had never died. Jesus took her into the chariot. The angels went before them. A voice called, ‘Peace be to you, my brethren’. The miracle was even greater than that of the resurrection of Jesus, which no one saw except Mary and Mary Magdalene. We, then, the apostles, are witnesses of these things, and have added or diminished nothing. We went to the tomb and found the garments where the body had lain: we buried them. Here the fragment ends. It forms a link between the Egyptian and the other forms of the story. To sum up. All the narratives except the Discourse of Cyril tell of a corporal assumption, and all but cne place it on the 16th of Mesore, the exception being the Sahidic fragment II, which puts it on the eighth day after the death.

The same fragment seems to indicate that the body was taken up at the burial: whether it was brought back and taken up a second time we cannot tell. The other versions will mostly agree in assembling all the apostles at the death-bed. In the Coptic group the death takes place before the dispersion of the apostles, and we do not hear of any of them individually except Peter and John.

THE DISCOURSE OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE CONCERNING THE FALLING ASLEEP OF THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD Mary according to her custom went unto the holy sepulchre of our Lord to burn incense, and bowed her holy knees, she besought Christ our God that was^ born of her to come and abide with her (rather, that she might depart unto him). they came to the chief priests, saying: Mary goeth every day unto the sepulchre. And the chief priests called the watchmen which were charged by them not to suffer any to pray at the holy sepulchre, and inquired of them if it were so in truth. But the watch answered and said that they saw no such thing; for God did not suffer them to see her venerable presence. she was wont to the sepulchre, and as she prayed it came to pass that the heavens were opened and the archangel Gabriel came down unto her and said: Hail, thou that didst bear Christ our God: thy prayer hath passed through the heavens unto him that was born of thee and hath been accepted, and henceforth according to thy petition thou shalt leave the world and come unto the heavenly places unto thy Son, unto the true life that hath no successor.

returned unto Bethlehem the holy, having with her three virgins that ministered unto her. And when she had rested a little space she sat up and said to the virgins: Bring me a censer that I may pray. And they brought it as it was commanded them. 5 And she prayed, saying: My Lord Jesu Christ, who didst vouchsafe of thine excellent goodness to be born of me, hear my voice and send unto me thine apostle John, that seeing him I may have the firstfruits of joy: and send unto me also the rest of thine apostles, both them that have already come to dwell with thee and them that are in this present world, in whatever land they may be, by thy holy commandment, that I may behold them and bless thy name that is greatly extolled, for I have confidence that thou hearest thine handmaid in every thing. caught me up by a cloud from Ephesus and set me in the place where the mother of my Lord lay. And I entered in unto her and gave glory to him that was born of her and said: Hail, thou mother of my Lord, that didst bear Christ our God: rejoice for that thou departest out of this life with great glory.

come to her, remembering the word of the Lord which he spake: Behold thy mother, and behold thy son. And the three virgins came and worshipped. 8 And the holy mother of God said unto me: Pray thou and put on incense. And I prayed thus: O Lord Jesu Christ that doest marvellous things, do now marvellous things before her that bare thee, and let thy mother depart out of this life, and let them that crucified thee and believed not in thee be troubled. me: Bring me the censer. And she cast in incense and said: Glory be to thee, my God and my Lord, because in me are fulfilled all things that thou didst promise me before thou didst ascend into the heavens, that whenever I should depart out of this world thou wouldest come unto me in glory, thou and the multitude of thine angels. 10 And I, John, said unto her: Our J;Ord and our God Jesus Christ cometh, and thou beholdest him according as he promised thee. And the holy mother of God answered and said to me: The Jews have sworn that when mine end cometh they will burn my body. And I answered and said unto her: Thy holy and precious body shall not see corruption. And she answered and said unto me: Bring a censer and put incense therein and pray. And there came a voice from heaven and said the Amen.

said unto me: John, heardest thou this voice which was uttered in heaven after the ending of the prayer ? And I answered and said: Yea, I heard it. And the Holy Ghost said unto me: This voice which thou heardest signifieth the coming of thy brethren the apostles and of the holy powers which is to be: for to-day they are coming hither. said unto the apostles: All of you together mount up upon clouds from the ends of the world and gather yourselves together at Bethlehem the holy because of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a moment of time: Peter from Rome, Paul from Tiberia, Thomas out of the inmost Indies, James from Jerusalem: Canaanite, and Thaddaeus, which were fallen asleep, were raised up by the Holy Ghost out of their sepulchres; unto whom said the Holy Ghost: Think not that the resurrection is now; but for this cause are ye risen up out of your graves, that ye may go to salute for an honour and a wonderful sign for the mother of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: for the day is come near of her departure and going to abide in heaven. 14 And Mark, who was yet alive, came also from Alexandria with the rest, as hath been said, from their several countries.

the heaven and the earth, for the Holy Ghost sustained him, and beheld 1 while the rest of the apostles also were caught up in the clouds to be present with Peter. And so all came together by the means of the Holy Ghost, as hath been said. 15* 2 And we entered in unto the mother of our Lord and God and did her worship and said: Fear not, neither be grieved: the Lord God that was born of thee shall bring thee out of this world with glory. And she rejoicing in God her Saviour sat up in the bed and said to the apostles: Now believe I that our teacher and our God cometh from heaven, and I shall behold him, and so depart out of this life, even as I have seen you come unto me. And I would that you would tell me whence ye knew that I was departing and came unto me, and from what lands and how far ye are come hither, that ye have been so quick to visit me: for neither hath he that was born of me, even our Lord Jesus Christ, hidden it from me. For I have believed now also that he is the Son of the Most High.

16 And Peter answered and said unto the apostles: Let each one certify the mother of our Lord, in what manner the Holy Ghost announced it unto us and charged us. 17 And I, John, answered and said: I, whenas I was entering in unto the holy altar in Ephesus to minister, the Holy Ghost said unto me: The time of the departure of the mother of thy Lord is come near: go unto Bethlehem to salute her. And a cloud of light caught me up and set me at the door of the house where thou liest. 18 And Peter also answered: I also was in Rome, and about the dawn I heard a voice by the Holy Ghost saying unto me: The mother of thy Lord must depart, for the time is come nigh: go thou unto Bethlehem to salute her: and lo, a cloud of light caught me up, and I beheld the rest of the ‘beheld the apostles’, or the like. 1 The number 15 is, by an error, repeated in Tischendorf.

apostles also coming unto me upon clouds, and a voice saying to me: Go all of you unto Bethlehem. 19 Paul also answered and said: I also was abiding in a city not very far off from Rome; and the place is called Tiberia. And I heard the Holy Ghost saying unto me: The mother of thy Lord leaveth this world to go unto the heavenly places, and endeth (maketh) her course by departure: but go thou also unto Bethlehem to salute her. And lo, a cloud of light caught me up and set me where it did set you also. 20 Thomas also answered and said: I also had passed through the land of the Indians, and my preaching was increased in strength by the grace of Christ, and the son of the king’s sister, by name Labdanes, was about to be sealed (baptized) by me in the palace, and suddenly the Holy Ghost saith unto me: Thou also, Thomas, go unto Bethlehem to salute the mother of thy Lord, for she maketh her removal unto heaven. And a cloud of ljght caught me up and set me with you. 21 And Mark also answered and said: As I also was finishing the service (canon) of the third hour in the city of Alexandria, while I prayed, the Holy Ghost caught me up and brought me unto you.

22 And James also answered and said: While I was in Jerusalem the Holy Ghost admonished (permitted) me, saying: Be thou present at Bethlehem, for the mother of thy Lord maketh her departure. And lo, a cloud of light caught me up and brought me unto you. 23 And Matthew also answered and said: I glorified and do glorify God, for that as I was in a ship and it was tossed, for the sea was boisterous with waves, suddenly a cloud of light over¬ shadowed us, and overcame (shook off) the billows of the tempest and made them calm, and me it caught up and brought me unto you. 24 Likewise they that had departed this life before told how they were come. And Bartholomew said: I was preaching the word in the country of Thebes, and lo, the Holy Ghost said to me: The mother of thy Lord maketh her departure: go there¬ fore to salute her at Bethlehem. And lo, a cloud of light caught me up and brought me unto you. God, how and in what fashion they came. And she spread forth her hands unto heaven and prayed, saying: I worship and praise and glorify thy name, which is greatly extolled, O Lord, because thou hast regarded the lowliness of thine handmaiden, and thou that art mighty hast magnified me, and behold all genera¬ tions shall call me blessed. 26 And after the prayer she said unto the apostles: Cast on incense and pray. And when they had prayed there came a thunder from heaven and a terrible sound as of chariots, and lo, a multitude of the host of angels and powers, and a voice as of the Son of man was heard, and the Seraphim came round about the house wherein the holy and spotless mother of God, the virgin, lay: so that all that were in

Bethlehem beheld all the marvellous sights, and went to Jerusalem and declared all the wonderful things that were come to pass. moon appeared about the house, and an assembly of the firstbegotten saints came unto the house where the mother of the Lord lay, for her honour and glory. And I saw also many signs come to pass, blind receiving sight, deaf hearing, lame walking, lepers cleansed, and them that were possessed of unclean spirits healed. And every one that was under any sickness or disease came and touched the wall where she lay, and cried: Holy Mary, thou that didst bear Christ our God, have mercy on us. And forthwith they were cured. of every country because of a vow, when they heard the signs that were being done in Bethlehem by means of the Lord’s mother, came unto the place seeking to be healed of divers diseases; and they obtained health. And there was joy unspeak¬ able on that day of the multitude of them that were healed, with them also that beheld, glorifying Christ our God and his mother. And all Jerusalem returned from Bethlehem, keeping holiday with singing of psalms and spiritual songs. were amazed at that which was done, and were taken with bitter (heavy) envy, and again with vain thoughts they gathered a council and advised themselves to send men against the holy mother of God and the holy apostles which were there at Beth¬ lehem.

And when the multitude of the Jews were now set forward toward Bethlehem, as it were about a mile therefrom, it came to pass that they saw a terrible vision, and their feet were bound: and they departed thence to them of their nation, and declared all the fearful vision unto the chief priests. 30 But they being yet more inflamed in spirit went unto the governor, crying out and saying: The nation of the Jews is destroyed because of this woman: drive thou her away from Bethlehem and from the province of Jerusalem. But the governor was astonied at the wonders and said unto them: I will not drive her out from Bethlehem nor from any other place. But the Jews continued crying out and adjuring him by the safety of Tiberius Caesar that he should lead the apostles out of Bethlehem: and if thou doest it not we will report it unto Caesar. And being now com¬ pelled he sent a captain of a thousand against the apostles unto Bethlehem.

of the Lord: Behold, the governor hath sent a captain of a thousand against you, because the Jews have made a tumult. Go out therefore from Bethlehem, and fear not; for behold, I will bring you by a cloud unto Jerusalem; for the power of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is with you. of the house, bearing the bed of their lady the mother of God, and set forward toward Jerusalem: and immediately, according as the Holy Ghost said, they were lifted up by a cloud and were found at Jerusalem in the house of their lady. And we stood up and for five days we sung praise without ceasing. there the mother of the Lord, neither the apostles, he laid hold upon the Bethlehemites, saying unto them: Did ye not come and tell the governor and the priests all the signs and wonders which were come to pass, and how the apostles came out of every land ? where then are they ? come ye hither to Jerusalem unto the governor. For the captain knew not of the departure of the apostles and the mother of the Lord unto Jerusalem. So the captain took the Bethlehemites and went unto the governor, saying that he had found no man.

to the priests and to all the city that the mother of the Lord was in her own house in Jerusalem with the apostles, by means of the signs and wondrous things that came to pass there; and a multitude of men and women were assembled, crying out: O holy virgin that didst bear Christ our God, forget not the race of men. 35 And because of this the people of the Jews, moved yet more with envy, together with the priests, took wood and fire and came on, desiring to burn the house where the mother of the Lord lay, together with the apostles. But the governor stood beholding the sight afar off. And when the people of the Jews were come unto the door of the house, behold, suddenly a force of fire came from within it by means of an angel and burnt a great multitude of the Jews, and there was great fear through¬ out all the city and they glorified God which was born of her. before all the people, saying: Of a truth he is the Son of God, which was born of the virgin whom ye thought to drive out: for these signs are of a true God. And there was a division betwixt the Jews, and many believed on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ because of the signs which came to pass.

Mary the mother of God and ever virgin, the mother of the Lord, as we the apostles were with her in Jerusalem, the Holy Ghost said unto us: Ye know that on the Lord’s day the good tidings were told unto the Virgin Mary by the archangel Gabriel, and on the Lord’s day the Saviour was born in Bethlehem, and on the Lord’s day the children of Jerusalem went forth with palm-branches to meet him, saying: Hosanna in the highest: blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And on the Lord’s day he rose from the dead, and on the Lord’s day he shall come to judge the quick and the dead, and on the Lord’s day he shall come from heaven for the glory and honour of the departure of the holy and glorious virgin which bare him. 38 And upon the same Lord’s day the mother of the Lord said unto the apostles: Cast on incense, for Christ cometh with an host of angels: and behold Christ cometh sitting upon the throne of the Cherubim. And as we all prayed there appeared innumerable multitudes of angels, and the Lord riding upon the Cherubim in great power. And lo, an appearance of light going before him and lighting upon the holy virgin because of the coming of her only-begotten Son: and all the powers of the heavens fell down and worshipped him. 39 And the Lord called unto his mother and said:

Mary. And she answered and said: Behold, here am I, Lord. And the Lord said unto her: Be not grieved, but let thine heart rejoice and be glad; for thou hast found grace to behold the glory that was given me of my Father. And the holy mother of God looked up and saw in him glory which the mouth of man cannot utter nor comprehend. And the Lord abode by her, saying: Behold, henceforth shall thy precious body be translated unto paradise, and thine holy soul shall be in the heavens in the treasuries of my Father in surpassing brightness, where is peace and rejoicing of the holy angels, and continuance thereof. 40 And the mother of the Lord answered and said unto him: Lay thy right hand upon me, Lord, and bless me. And the Lord spread out his unstained right hand and blessed her: and she, holding his unstained right hand, kissed it, saying: I worship this right hand which made the heaven and the earth; and I beseech thy name which is greatly extolled, O Christ, God, King of the ages, onlybegotten of the Father, receive thine handmaid, thou that didst vouchsafe to be born of me the lowly one to save mankind by thine unutterable dispensation. Every man that calleth upon or entreateth or nameth the name of thine handmaid, grant him thine help. 41 And as she thus spake, the apostles came near unto her feet and worshipped the Lord and said:

O mother of the Lord, leave unto the world a blessing, for thou departest out of it: for thou didst bless it and raise it up from destruction when thou barest the light of the world. And the mother of the Lord prayed, and thus spake she in her prayer: O God, who of thy great goodness didst send thine only-begotten Son to dwell in my lowly body, who didst vouchsafe to be born of me the lowly one, have mercy upon the world and upon every soul that calleth upon thy name.

42 And again she prayed and said: O Lord, King of the heavens, Son of the living God, accept every man that calleth upon thy name, that thy birth may be glorified. And again she prayed and said: O Lord Jesu Christ, that hast all power in heaven and on earth, I entreat thine holy name with this sup¬ plication: At every time and in every place where there is a memorial of my name, sanctify thou that place, and glorify them

that glorify thee through my name, accepting every offering of such, and every supplication and every prayer. 43 And when she had thus prayed, the Lord said unto his own mother: Let thine heart be glad and rejoice; for every grace and every gift hath been given thee of my Father which is in heaven and of me and of the Holy Ghost. Every soul that calleth upon thy name shall not be put to shame, but shall find mercy and consolation and succour and confidence, both in this world and in that which is to come, before my Father which is in heaven. 44 And the Lord turned and said unto Peter: The time is come to begin the song of praise. And when Peter began the song of praise, all the powers of the heavens answered Alleluia. And then the coun¬ tenance of the mother of the Lord did shine above the light. And she rose up and with her own hand blessed every one of the apostles, and all of them gave glory to God; and the Lord spread forth his unstained hands and received her holy and spotless soul. with sweet odour and light unspeakable, and lo, a voice from heaven was heard, saying: Blessed art thou among women. And Peter ran, and I, John, and Paul and Thomas, and embraced her precious feet to receive sanctification: and the twelve apostles laid her honourable and holy body upon a bed and bare it forth.

Jephonias, mighty of body, ran forth and set upon the bed, as the apostles bare it, and lo, an angel of the Lord with invisible power smote his two hands from off his shoulders with a sword of fire and left them hanging in the air about the bed. 47 And when this miracle came to pass, all the people of the Jews that beheld it cried out: Verily he is the true God that was born of thee, Mary, mother of God, ever virgin. And Jephonias him¬ self, being commanded by Peter, that the wonderful works of God might be showed, stood up behind the bed and cried: Holy Mary that didst bear Christ which is God, have mercy on me. And Peter turned and said unto him: In the name of him that was born of her thine hands which were taken from thee shall cleave to their place . And immediately at the word of Peter-the hands that did hang beside the bed of our lady went back and clave unto Jephonias: and he also believed and glorified Christ, even God, that was born of her. her precious and holy body in Gethsemane in a new tomb. And lo, an odour of sweet savour came out of the holy sepulchre of our lady the mother of God: and until three days were past the voices of invisible angels were heard glorifying Christ our God which was born of her. And when the third day was fulfilled the voices were no more heard, and thereafter we all perceived that her spotless and precious body was translated into paradise.

[Other MSS.: When the apostles went forth from the city of

Jerusalem bearing the bed, suddenly twelve clouds of light caught them up, together with the body of our lady, and translated them into paradise.] mother of the holy John the Baptist, and Anna the mother of our lady, and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and David singing Alleluia, and all the choirs of the saints worshipping the precious body of the mother of the Lord, and we saw a place of light, than which light nothing is brighter, and a great fragrance came from that place whereto her precious and holy body was translated in paradise, and a melody of them that praised him that was born of her: and unto virgins only is it given to hear that sweet melody wherewith no man can be sated. the translation of her holy body, glorified God who had shown unto us his wonders at the departure of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ: by the prayer and intercession of whom may we all be accounted worthy to come into her protection and succour and guardianship, both in this world and in that which is to come: at all times and in all places glorifying her only-begotten Son, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.

[For 49 and 50 one manuscript has only: And we all glorified God: unto whom be glory and power, world without end. Amen.] The other Greek narrative of the Assumption is not yet fully known. It is that which is embodied in a sermon of John, arch¬ bishop of Thessalonica. Tischendorf gives only extracts, from several manuscripts, which show that the story begins with the bringing of a palm to the Virgin by the angel as a token of her approaching departure. We have the same gathering of the apostles, who do not know why they have been summoned. They tell of the manner in which they were brought. The Jews are blinded and burnt, and healed by the palmbranch. The apostles lay the body in the tomb and remain there watching until it is translated. In one text Christ appears and takes the body. This is TischendorTs B text, but though he places it second, it is the leading Latin authority, the other being a late Italian fiction. Melito, servant of God, bishop of the church of Sardis, unto the brethren which are established in peace at Laodicea, reverend in the Lord, greeting.

I remember that I have oft-times written concerning a certain Leucius, who, after that with us he had been a companion of the apostles, with alienated sense and rash mind departed from the way of righteousness and put into his books many things con¬ cerning the acts of the apostles, and spake many and diverse things of their mighty deeds, but concerning their teaching lied much, affirming that they taught otherwise, and establishing his own wicked position as if by their words. Nor did he account this sufficient, but also corrupted with so evil a pen the departure of the blessed Mary ever virgin, the mother of God, that it is unlawful not only to read but even to hear it in the church of God. We therefore at your petition have written simply those things which we heard from the apostle John, and have sent them unto your brotherhood: believing no alien doctrines which sprout out from heretics, but that the Father is in the Son, the Son in the Father, the triune person of godhead and undivided essence abiding: and that not two natures of man were created, a good and a bad, but that one good nature was created by a good God, which by the fraud of the serpent was corrupted through sin, and restored by the grace of Christ.

II. When therefore the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for the life of the whole world hung on the tree of the cross pierced with nails, he saw standing beside the cross his mother and John the evangelist, whom he more especially loved beyond the other apostles because he alone of them was a virgin in body. Unto him therefore he committed the charge of the holy Mary, saying to him: Behold thy mother; and to her: Behold thy son. From that hour the holy mother of God continued in the especial care of John so long as she endured the sojourn of this life. And when the apostles had taken the world by their lots for preaching, she abode in the house of his parents beside the Mount of Olivet. III. In the second year after Christ having overcome death had ascended into heaven, upon a certain day, Mary fervent with desire of Christ betook herself alone into the refuge of her dwelling to weep. And lo, an angel shining in a garment of great brightness stood before her and came forth with words of greeting, saying: Hail thou blessed of the Lord, receive the greeting of him that granted salvation to Jacob by his prophets. Behold, said he, this palm-branch. I have brought it to thee from the paradise of the Lord, and thou shalt cause it to be carried before thy bier on the third day when thou shalt be taken up out of the body.

For behold thy Son with the thrones and the angels and all the powers of heaven awaiteth thee. 2 Then Mary said to the angel: I ask that all the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ be gathered together to me. And the angel said: Lo, this day by the power of my Lord Jesus Christ all the apostles shall come to thee. And Mary said to him: I ask that thou wouldest put thy blessing upon me, that no power of hell may meet me in that hour wherein my soul

goeth out of the body, and that I may not see the prince of darkness. And the angel said: The power of hell shall not hurt thee; but an eternal blessing hath the Lord thy God given thee, of whom I am the servant and messenger: but think not that the power not to see the prince of darkness can be given by me, but by him whom thou didst bear in thy womb: for his is all power, world without end. And thus saying, the angel departed with great light. 3 Now the palm-branch shone with exceeding brightness. Then Mary put off her garments and clothed herself in her best raiment, and taking the palm which she had received of the angel’s hand she went out into the Mount of Olivet and began to pray and to say: I was not worthy to receive thee, Lord, if thou hadst not had mercy on me; nevertheless I kept the treasure which thou didst commit to me. Therefore I pray thee, O king of glory, that no power of hell may hurt me. For if the heavens and the angels quake before thee every day, how much more a man created of the earth, in whom is no good save what he hath received of thy bounty. Thou, Lord, art God, blessed for ever, world without end. And having thus said, she returned to her dwelling.

IV. And behold, suddenly, while Saint John was preaching at Ephesus, on the Lord’s day, at the third hour, there was a great earthquake, and a cloud raised him up and took him out of the sight of all and brought him before the door of the house where Mary was. And he knocked at the door and straightway went in. But when Mary saw him she rejoiced greatly and said: I pray thee, my son John, remember the words of my Lord Jesus Christ wherewith he commended me to thee. For behold on the third day, [when] I am to depart out of the body —and I have heard the counsels of the Jews who say: Let us wait until the day when she shall die who bore that deceiver, and let us burn her body with fire. 2 So she called Saint John and took him into the secret part of the house and showed him her grave-clothes and that palm of light which she had received from the angel, and charged him to cause it to be borne before her bed when she should go to the tomb. V. And Saint John said to her: How shall I alone prepare thy burial unless my brethren and fellow apostles of my Lord Jesus Christ come to pay honour to thy body ?

And lo, suddenly by the commandment of God all the apostles were lifted up on a cloud and caught away from the places where they were preaching and set down before the door of the house wherein Mary dwelt. And they greeted each other and marvelled, saying: What is the cause wherefore the Lord hath gathered us together here ? [In another text is this addition . And Paul came with them who was turned from the circumcision and taken with Barnabas to minister to the Gentiles. And when there arose among them a godly contention, which of them should first pray the Lord to show them the cause of their coming , and Peter exhorted Paul to pray first, Paul answered, saying: That is thine office, to begin first, since thou wast chosen of God to be a pillar of the church, and thou art before all in the apostleship: but me it befits not at all, for I am the least of all you, and Christ was seen of me as of one born out of due time, neither presume I to even myself with you; yet by the grace of God I am what I am.] VI. Then all the apostles rejoicing with one mind finished their prayer: and when they had said Amen, lo, suddenly the blessed John came and showed them all these things. And the apostles entered the house and found Mary and saluted her, saying:

Blessed be thou of the Lord which made heaven and earth. And she said to them: Peace be unto you my most beloved brethren. How came ye hither? And they told her how they had come, each one of them being lifted up on a cloud by the Spirit and set down in that place. And she said to them: God hath not deprived me of the sight of you. Behold I go the way of all the earth, and I doubt not that the Lord hath_ now brought you hither to give me comfort in the anguish that is to come upon me. Now therefore I beseech you that we all keep watch together without ceasing, until the hour when the Lord shall come and I shall depart out of the body.

VII. And as they sat about her comforting her, and for three days gave themselves to the praises of God, lo, on the third day, about the third hour of the day, sleep fell upon all that were in that house, and no man at all could keep waking save only the apostles and three virgins that were there. And behold, suddenly the Lord Jesus Christ came with a great multitude of angels, and a great light came down upon that place, and the angels were singing hymns and praising the Lord. Then the Saviour spake, saying: Come, thou most precious pearl, enter into the treasury (receptacle) of eternal life. VIII. Then Mary fell on her face on the pavement, worship¬ ping God, and said: Blessed be the name of thy glory, O Lord my God, who hast vouchsafed to choose me thy handmaid and to commit to me thy secret mystery. Remember me, therefore, O king of glory; for thou knowest that with all my heart I have loved thee and have kept the treasure committed unto me. Receive me therefore thy servant and deliver me from the power of darkness, and let not any assault of Satan meet me, neither let me see ugly spirits coming to meet me. 2 And the Saviour answered her: When I was sent by the Father and for the salvation of the world was hung on the cross, the prince of darkness came to me : but whereas he prevailed not to find in me any sign of his work, he departed vanquished and trodden down. Thou when thou seest him shalt see him indeed according to the law of mankind whereby the end, even death, is allotted

thee: but he cannot hurt thee, for I am with thee to help thee. Come thou without fear, for the heavenly host awaiteth thee to bring thee into the joy of paradise. 3 And as the Lord thus spake, Mary arose from the pavement and laid herself on her bed, and giving thanks to God she gave up the ghost. But the apostles saw her soul, that it was of such whiteness that no tongue of mortal men can worthily express it; for it excelled all whiteness of snow and of all metal and silver that glistereth with great brightness of light. IX. Then the Saviour spake, saying: Arise, Peter, and take the body of Mary and bear it unto the right-hand side of the city toward the east, and thou wilt find there a new sepulchre wherein ye shall place it, and wait till I come unto you. the holy Mary to Michael which was set over paradise and is the prince of the people of the Jews: and Gabriel went with them. And immediately the Saviour was received up into heaven with the angels. X. Now the three virgins that were there and watched took the body of the blessed Mary to wash it after the custom of burials. And when they had stripped it of its apparel, that holy body shone with such brightness that it could indeed be touched to do the service thereof, but the appearance could not be looked upon for the exceeding flashing of light: and a great splendour appeared in it, and nothing was perceived by the sense when the body was washed, but it was most pure and not stained with any manner of defilement. And the body of the blessed Mary was like the flowers of the lily, and a great sweetness of fragrance issued from it, so that nothing like that sweetness could elsewhere be found.

XI. Then therefore the apostles laid the holy body upon a bier and said one to another: Who shall bear the palm before her bier? Then John said to Peter: Thou who art before us in the apostleship oughtest to bear this palm before her bed. And Peter answered him: Thou only of us art a virgin chosen of the Lord, and hast found such favour that thou didst lie on his breast: and he when he hung for our salvation on the tree of the cross committed her unto thee with his own mouth. Thou therefore oughtest to carry this palm; and let us take up the body to bear it unto the place of the sepulchre. 2 There¬ after Peter lifted up the head of the body and began to sing, saying: Israel is come out of Egypt. Alleluia. And with him the other apostles bore the body of the blessed Mary, and John carried the palm of light before the bier. And the rest of the apostles sang with exceeding sweet voices. XII. And behold a new miracle. There appeared a very great cloud over the bier like the great circle that useth to be seen about the splendour of the moon: and an host of angels

was in the cloud sending forth a song of sweetness, and the earth resounded with the noise of that great melody. Then the people came out of the city, about fifteen thousand, and marvelled and said: What is this sound of such sweetness? 2 Then there stood one and told them: Mary is gone out of the body, and the disciples of Jesus are singing praises about her. And they looked and saw the bier crowned with great glory and the apostles singing with a loud voice. And behold, one of them who was a prince of the priests of the Jews in his degree was filled with fury and wrath and said to the rest: Behold the tabernacle of him that hath troubled us and all our nation, what glory it hath received. And he came near and would have overthrown the bier and cast the body on the earth. And forthwith his hands dried up from his elbows and clave to the bier. And when the apostles lifted the bier, part of him was hanging and part clave to the bier, and he was wrung with extreme torment as the apostles went on and sang. But the angels that were in the clouds smote the people with blindness.

XIII. Then that prince cried out, saying: I beseech thee, holy Peter, despise me not in this so great necessity, for I am sore tormented with great pains. Remember that when the damsel that kept the door knew thee in the judgement hall and told the rest, that they might challenge thee, then I spake good on thy behalf. Then Peter answered and said: It is not mine to give thee ought: but if thou believest with thy whole heart on the Lord Jesus Christ, whom this woman bare in her womb and continued a virgin after the birth, the mercy of the Lord, which by his great pity saveth the unworthy, shall give thee healing. 2 Whereunto he answered: Do we not believe? but what shall we do? The enemy of mankind hath blinded our hearts, and shame hath covered our faces that we should not confess the mighty works of God; especially when we did curse our¬ selves, crying out against Christ: His blood be on us and on our children. Then said Peter: See, that curse will hurt him that continueth unbelieving in him, but unto them that turn to God mercy is not denied. And he said: I believe all that thou sayest to me: only I beseech thee, have mercy on me lest I die.

XIV. Then Peter made the bier stand still and said to him: If thou believest with thy whole heart in Jesus Christ, thine hands shall be loosed from the bier. And when he had so said, straightway his hands were loosed from the bier and he began to stand on his feet: but his arms were yet withered, neither did the pain depart from him. 2 Then Peter said to him: Go near to the body and kiss the bed and say: I believe in God and in the Son of God whom this woman bare, even Jesus Christ, and I believe all things whatsoever Peter the apostle of God hath told me. And he came near and kissed the bed, and forthwith all pain left him and his hands were made whole. 3 Then began he to bless God greatly and to speak out of the books of Moses testimonies unto the praise of Christ, so that even the apostles themselves marvelled and wept for gladness, praising the name of the Lord. XV. But Peter said to him: Take this palm at the hand of our brother John, and go into the city and thou wilt find much people blinded; and declare unto them the mighty works of God, and whosoever believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ, lay this palm upon their eyes and they shall see: but whoso believe not shall continue blind. 2 And when he had so done, he found much people blinded and lamenting thus:

Woe unto us, for we are become like the men of Sodom that were stricken with blindness. Nothing remaineth for us now save to perish. But when they had heard the words that the prince spake which was healed, they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and when he laid the palm upon their eyes, they recovered sight; but whoso of them continued in hardness of heart died. And the prince of the priests went forth to the apostles and gave back the palm and declared all that had come to pass.

XVI. But the apostles carrying Mary came into the place of the valley of Josaphat which the Lord had showed them, and laid her in a new tomb and shut the sepulchre. But they sat down at the door of the tomb as the Lord had charged them: and lo, suddenly the Lord Jesus Christ came with a great multitude of angels, and light flashing with great brightness, and said to the apostles: Peace be with you. And they answered and said: Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, like as we have hoped in thee. 2 Then the Saviour spake unto them, saying: Before I ascended up unto my Father I promised you, saying, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his majesty, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Now this woman did I choose out of the tribes of Israel by the com¬ mandment of my Father, to dwell in her. What then will ye that I do with her ? 8 Then said Peter and the other apostles: Lord, thou didst before choose this thine handmaid to become thine immaculate chamber, and us thy servants for thy ministry. All things didst thou foreknow before the worlds with thy Father, with whom to thee and the Holy Ghost there belongeth equal Godhead and infinite power. If therefore it might come to pass before the power of thy grace, it hath appeared right to us thy servants that, as thou having overcome death dost reign in glory, so thou shouldest raise up the body of thy mother and take her with thee rejoicing into heaven.

XVII. Then said the Saviour: Be it done according to your will. And he commanded Michael the archangel to bring the soul of the holy Mary. And behold, Michael the archangel rolled away the stone from the door of the sepulchre, and the Lord said: Rise up, my love and my kinswoman: thou that didst not suffer corruption by union of the flesh, shalt not suffer dissolution of the body in the sepulchre. 2 And immediately Mary rose up from the grave and blessed the Lord, and fell at the Lord’s feet and worshipped him, saying: I am not able to render thee worthy thanks, O Lord, for thine innumerable benefits which thou hast vouchsafed to grant unto me thy hand¬ maid. Let thy name be blessed for ever, redeemer of the world, thou God of Israel. XVIII. And the Lord kissed her and departed, and delivered her to the angels to bear her into paradise. And he said to the apostles: Come near unto me; and when they had come near, he kissed them and said: Peace be unto you; as I have been always with you, so will I be even unto the end of the world. lifted up in a cloud and received into heaven, and the angels with him, bearing the blessed Mary into the paradise of God.

But the apostles were taken up upon clouds and returned every one unto the lot of his preaching, declaring the mighty works of God and praising the Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost in a perfect unity and in one substance of the Godhead, world without end. Amen. This is Tischendorf’s A text. It is of late complexion, and one of the three manuscripts used by Tischendorf (C) presents a very divergent text throughout. An analysis will suffice. of her death on the third day before it, and to receive her with his angels. 2, 3 He promised that this should be so (the speech is fairly long). praying. On the third day before her death an angel (Gabriel, C) came and gave her a palm and told her of her departure. and told them, and then washed and arrayed herself as a queen. Three virgins were with her—Sepphora, Abigea, and Zael. The apostles were already dispersed about the world. suddenly brought from Ephesus and entered the chamber and greeted her. She said: Dearest son, why have you left me for so long ? Philip, Luke, Barnabas, Bartholomew, Matthew, Matthias surnamed Justus, Simon the Canaanite, Jude and his brother, Nicodemus, Maximianus (this must be the legendary Maximin of Aix en Provence who figures in the late legend of Mary Mag¬ dalene’s mission to Marseilles).

9 Mary asked : why have you all come ? Peter said: It is for us to ask thee. None of us know. I was at Antioch, and now I am here. And all told where they had been. 10 Mary told them the reason, that she was to depart on the morrow, and asked them to watch and pray with her. So they did, all night, with lights and psalmody. a host of angels and took the soul of his mother. Such was the light and fragrance that all fell on their faces (as at Mount Tabor) and none could rise for an hour and a half. 12 As the light receded, the soul of Mary was taken up with it, with singing: and as the cloud went up, the earth shook, and all in Jerusalem saw the death of Mary in one instant. burn the body and kill the apostles; but they were struck blind, and smote their heads against walls, and hit one another. Sion to the valley of Josaphat. As they went, a Jew named Ruben tried to upset the bier, but his hands withered to the elbow and willy-nilly he had to go on into the valley weeping and crying, for his hands clave to the bier. 15 He began to ask the apostles to pray for him that he might be saved and become a Christian. They knelt and prayed, and his hands were loosed and he was healed. He was baptized at once, and began to proclaim Christ.

16 ‘Then the apostles laid the body in the tomb with great honour, weeping and singing for pure love and sweetness. And suddenly a light from heaven shone round about them, and as they fell to the earth, the holy body was taken up by angels into heaven’ (the apostles not knowing it). the holy body being taken up, and cried out to Mary: ‘ make thy servant glad by thy mercy, for now thou goest to heaven’. And the girdle with which the apostles had girt the body was thrown down to him; he took it and went to the valley of Josaphat. 18 When he had greeted the apostles, Peter said: ‘Thou wast always unbelieving, and so the Lord hath not suffered thee to be at his mother’s burial.’ He smote his breast and said: ‘I know it and I ask pardon of you all,’ and they all prayed for him. 19 Then he said: ‘Where have ye laid her body?’ and they pointed to the sepulchre. But he said: ‘The holy body is not there.’ * Peter said: ‘Formerly you would not believe in the resurrection of the Lord before you touched him: how should you believe us?’ Thomas went on saying: ‘It is not here.’ Then in anger they went and took away the stone, and the body was not there; and they knew not what to say, being vanquished by Thomas’s words. 20 Then Thomas told them how he had been saying mass in India (and he still had on his priestly vest¬ ments), how he had been brought to the Mount of Olives and seen the ascension of Mary and she had given him her girdle: and he showed it. 21 They all rejoiced and asked his pardon, and he blessed them and said : Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity.

them back, as we read in the Acts about Philip who baptized the eunuch, and as Abacuc was brought to Daniel and taken back. (miracles are enumerated). . tomb and saw him rise again, and always watched over his most holy temple, even the blessed Mary, ever virgin, before the ascension of the Lord and after it: and upon this page and in my heart have I written the things that came out of the mouth of God, and how the aforesaid matters came to pass, and I have made known to all the Jews and Gentiles what I saw with my eyes and heard with my ears, and as long as I live I shall not cease to proclaim them. ‘Whose assumption is this day reverenced and honoured throughout all the world: let us constantly pray her that she remember us before her most merciful son in heaven: to whom is praise and glory for infinite ages. Amen.’ (C has a statement that any Christian who has this writing in his house will be safe from various afflictions—lunacy, deafness, blindness, sudden death—and he will have the protection of the Virgin at his end.) The episode of Thomas and the girdle is peculiar to this writing. The girdle is the great relic of Prato; and the prominence given to this incident is another indication that we have here a mediaeval Italian composition, not earlier, I imagine, than the thirteenth century.

The Syriac narratives of the Assumption of the Virgin form a very large mass of writing. The principal texts are: 1. That edited by W. Wright in the Journal of Sacred Literature for 1865, and again by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis in Studia Sinaitica , XI. Apocrypha Syriaca , 1902. In the latter the translation fills pp. 12-69 in quarto. 2. 2 a. Edited by Wright in Contributions to the Apocryphal Literature of the N.T. , 1865, pp. 18-24 (2), and 24-41 (2 a). These are pieces of two distinct works, which he has put together under one heading. Both are fragmentary: the first is the simplest of the Syriac versions. The second (2 a) is akin to 1. 3. That in Sir E. A. Wallis Budge’s History of the B. V . M., Luzac’s Semitic Text and Translation Series, vol. v, 1899, pp. 97-153. 4. The fragments in Wright’s Contributions called Obsequies of the Holy Virgin (pp. 42-51 and Preface, 10-15). Of these nos. 1, 2, 2a, 3 have much in common; 4 is very peculiar. Some account of each shall be given. No. 1 (Wright and Lewis) is a congeries of documents divided into six books (really five, but six are promised).

Book I, after a panegyrical introduction, tells how the narrative was found. It was attested in autograph by James, bishop of Jerusalem. Two apostles wrote each of the six books, and they were entrusted to John. His copy was found at Ephesus, attested by the Twelve and the Seventy-two, and written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. . Book II. In the year 344 (of the era of the Greeks), on the third day of the latter Teshrin (September), being the third day of the week at the third hour, Mary went to the tomb. The Jews immediately after the Passion had closed it with great stones, and forbidden resort to it on pain of death. They also hid the cross, spear, sponge, robe, crown of thorns, and nails. The priests told the guardians of the tomb to stone Mary if she came there again. They said, ‘Do it yourselves’. On the Friday Mary burnt incense there: Gabriel came down and told her of her approaching death. (There is no mention of a palm.) The guards informed the priests that Mary had come again. The priests asked the governor to forbid her. At this time Abgar of Edessa (converted by Addai) wished to destroy Jerusalem because of Christ’s death, and came as far as Euphrates, but hesitated to cross it. He wrote to the procurator Sabinus, who sent the letter to Tiberius, 1 who was greatly moved

Tiberius, are given by Moses of Chorene in his History of Armenia (ii. 83).

against the Jews. The Jews were alarmed. They said to the governor: Forbid Mary to go to the tomb. He said: Forbid her yourselves. A long abusive speech of the Jews to Mary follows. She left Jerusalem and went to Bethlehem with her three virgins, Callgtha, daughter of Nicodemus, Neshra, daughter of Gamaliel, Tabitha, daughter of Archelaus. (There is a descrip¬ tion of the service which these did to Mary: Gabriel tells her to go to Bethlehem.) On Friday Mary burnt incense and prayed that John might be sent to her. John was brought from Ephesus. His arrival and conversation with Mary. The other apostles were brought. Here we are following the Greek text pretty closely. John received the apostles. They each told Mary how they had come. The correspondence with the Greek is curiously exact. Mark was performing the service of the third hour. Matthew says: ‘I have given and am giving glory to God,’ and so on. The Greek, however, does not give the speeches of those who had been raised from the grave to come, but the Syriac does, for Philip, Simon, Luke, and Andrew. And after Andrew, Bartholomew (not already dead) follows, as in the Greek.

There was a great concourse of angels, and the Bethlehemites in fear went and told the governor and the priests. Book III. All the great signs attracted people from many quarters. Before this many used to come to the Virgin to be healed. (Five instances are given of cures.) There was now a festival at Jerusalem, and many sick went out to Bethlehem to be healed. 2,800 were cured. * Gk. 28, but more diffuse. On the 21st of Teshrin II in the night, men rose up to attack the house. Angels of fire descended from heaven. «= Gk. 29, but there the attackers are confounded and turned back. Syr. has nothing of this. The priests insisted on Mary’s banishment by the governor. He sent a chiliarch to Bethlehem with thirty men. The Spirit told the apostles to take Mary to Jerusalem. They did so and held a five days’ service. Meanwhile the chiliarch found nothing at Bethlehem, and the priests said this was due to magic. This last is not in Gk. 31-3, which is, otherwise, represented well. After the five days, Mary’s presence in Jerusalem was realized. The Jews wished the governor to burn the house: he told them to do so themselves, and watched from a distance. The attackers were scorched and burnt. The governor declared his belief in Christ. - Gk. 34-5. Here the Syriac has a very long digression not represented in the Greek, and belonging properly, it seems, to the story of the Cross (pp. 39-50).

Caleb the Sadducee, who was a secret believer, whispered to

the governor that he should adjure the Jews by the God of Israel to tell him their real opinion about Jesus. So all Jerusalem was assembled: and there follows a long altercation between the believers and unbelievers before the governor. Eventually some of the latter are forced by scourging to tell how they had hidden the cross, &c. The governor (rather inconsequently) has the place obstructed with great stones. He then goes to see Mary. He greets the apostles (and they tell him how they came there. This is only in 2). Mary at his request tells him the story of the Annunciation. The governor left Jerusalem and went to Rome and told the emperor, and the account of all this was written down by disciples at Rome, who also wrote to the apostles telling them of various miracles (seven are told) which Mary had wrought. The text then leaps to § 45 of the Greek, omitting (in this place) all notice of the death of the Virgin. The Spirit told the apostles to bear her to a place where were three caves, and to lay her on a bench there and await his bidding. Jephonias, ‘strong and tall, and handsome of figure’, attacked them—was smitten and healed (but Mary is not dead yet, for she speaks to him). Peter gave a dry rod to Jephonias and sent him to the Jews. The rod blossomed. He healed a man born blind, and many others. = Gk. 45-7, and Lat. xii-xv. The Greek has not the healing of the Jews, and the Syriac has distorted it.

The apostles laid Mary in the eastern cave and held a service of three days and nights. Some Jews came to the cave: three ventured in, and were burnt and swallowed up. Many believed, but the priests threatened and bribed them. This, which concludes Book III, is badly confused in the Syriac, which has made the great mistake of saying that the apostles bore the Virgin to the cave before she was dead. Book IV. While the apostles were ministering about Mary in the cave the Spirit spoke to them, and told the story of the Annun¬ ciation. He spoke also of the date of her death, and then told how Sunday is the day of the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Entry, Resurrection, Ascension, and Judgement. = Gk. 36. Eve, Anna, Elisabeth, Adam, and other patriarchs now came and greeted Mary, and then the procession of heavenly chariots, and then Christ. His words to her, and her answer. Her kissing of his hand, and prayers and blessing and death, are as in Gk. 38-^44, but the blessing is far longer. Then the body was prepared for burial. Twelve chariots took up the apostles and bore them all to Paradise (cf. the alternative text of Gk. 48): and they returned thence and ordained a com¬ memoration of her three times a year. Cf. Gk. 49.

After this is a very long disquisition on the rules which the apostles made about the commemoration: it need not even be summarized here (pp. 59-62).

When they had come back to the cave they agreed to write a book in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and commit it to John: and, with more unimportant matter following on this, the book ends. Book V, pp. 64-9. This is a diffuse account of the Virgin’s visit to Paradise. One paragraph tells of her seeing Gehenna. John and Peter were with her, and she revealed everything to John and told him to write it: it would be made public at the end of the world. Christ then says he will tell her what is to happen at his second coming: but nothing is told. Mary answers with thanksgiving and prayer—and Book V ends. Book VI does not appear. 2. (Wright: Contributions , p. 18.) A prefatory section declares the apostles to be the witnesses and authors of what follows. The story then begins, and gives a shorter form of what we have had, in this order: Mary goes to the tomb. The Jews threaten to stone her. She asks Jesus to take her out of the world. The angel comes to tell her her prayer is heard. The guards of the tomb report this. The Jews ask Sabinus the governor to banish her.

He refers them to her. They come and abuse her. She goes to Bethlehem with the three virgins (named as in 1). She prays that John may be sent. He comes. The other apostles arrive. They begin to tell how they came. The first fragment ends in John’s narrative. It was left unfinished by the scribe. 2 a. p. 24. This begins in the midst of the dispute between believers and unbelievers before the governor, and the story follows the course of 1 down to the point where the apostles lay Mary in the cave. Here the first fragment of 2 a ends. p. 39. The second fragment of 2 a does not seem to have an exact textual equivalent in 1. Chariots of light and saints arrive, and Mary is borne to paradise. The apostles return to the Mount of Olives, and pray to be allowed to ordain a commemoration of Mary. And so with rather a long doxology the book ends. It is, so far as we have it, far more compact and coherent than 1 or 3. This is mainly identical in content with 1, but has points of its own. Mary goes to the tomb. The Jews plot to kill her, close the cave, set guards on it.

The guards report it.

Mary goes to Bethlehem with the three virgins (as above). The Jews hid the cross, &c., and asserted that ‘here are buried the Book of Moses and the box of manna and the rod of Aaron and the mantle of Elijah’, so that if miracles did happen there, they could be attributed to those relics. Abgar’s letter. Sabinus is angry with the Jews. Mary prayed that the apostles might be sent. Then the others. The statement that they came and the circumstances of their doing so are put into one narrative, not repeated as in 1. After the apostles had greeted Mary, Anne, Elisabeth, Adam, &c., came, and all the various orders of saints and angels: and Christ. This dialogue and her prayers are rather shortened, but essentially as in 1. Mary died and her soul was taken up. Then we have a bad dislocation. The believers in the city went to the governor and told him the truth about Jesus and the Jews. He was angry with the chiefs, and smote them and told them not to harm the Christians. This is a condensation into a few lines of the dispute before the governor. Yet this dispute occurs later on. Here, however, we have the sequel.

The governor visited Mary with his sick son (who was healed). The apostles told him of their miraculous coming. The governor went to Rome and told the emperor, and the believers there wrote down the wonderful record. This is a shorter form of 1. A paragraph on the age of Mary (52) follows. The apostles said, ‘Let us make a distinction between the burial of believers and non-believers, and make a beginning with Mary’. They prepared her body for burial, and set out in procession. The Jews saw it and bribed the governor not to interfere with them. They also bribed a gigantic soldier of his, Yophana, to go with them and attack the bier. Then we have the affliction and cure of Yophana, who goes back to the governor, and he laughs at the Jews. The apostles laid the body in the cave. Peter asked the multitude to set guards over it. He also spoke to the believers of the glory of Mary. The Jews plotted and put a number of dead bodies in the cave, but in vain: and then tried to burn the body but were burnt themselves. Then the apostles brought out the body and laid it on a bier.

Then came all the chariots of light, and the body was put in a chariot of light, and it and all the apostles went up to Paradise. And the cloud took them back to Jerusalem. And they wrote down all the triumphs of the Virgin and sent the books every-

where, and ordained three yearly commemorations; and were taken back to the places whence they had come. Then a homiletical paragraph. It introduces the revelation of John about the Virgin in Paradise. = No. 1, Book V. The Jews thought the body was still in the cave, and they went in and found it not. Many believed. The unbelievers (again ?) put dead bodies in the cave. The believers told the governor, and he sent Yophana, who confiscated all the goods of the offenders. wrought in the upper chamber where Mary lay.’ Visions of angels, multitudes of sick healed: six miracles narrated, as in 1. The healing of 2,800 people. Plot to attack the house. Descent of angels of fire. All this is in 1. The priests insisted on the banishment of Mary. The chiliarch sent. The apostles bore Mary to Bethlehem (read Jerusalem). The five days’ service. The house in Jerusalem attacked, the besiegers burnt, the governor’s declaration of belief. The dispute between believers and unbelievers before the governor. The hiding-place of the cross obstructed. Then afterwards the disciples of the apostles wrote (to various places), and wrote an account of the departure of Mary, and took it with them to Byzantium.