Woodbrooke studies; Christian documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni;

WOODBROOKE STUDIES
VOL. I

PUBLISHED FOR THE TRUSTEES OF
THE WOODBROOKE SETTLEMENT, SELLY OAK, BIRMINGHAM

BY

W. HEFFER & SONS LIMITED
CAMBRIDGE

WOODBROOKE STUDIES

CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS IN SYRIAC, ARABIC,

AND GARSHUNI, EDITED AND TRANSLATED

WITH A CRITICAL APPARATUS

BY

A. MINGANA

WITH INTRODUCTIONS
BY

RENDEL HARRIS

VOLUME I

1. BARSALlBI'S TREATISE AGAINST THE MELCHITES

2. GENUINE AND APOCRYPHAL WORKS OF IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

3. A JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON

4. A NEW LIFE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

5. SOME UNCANONICAL PSALMS

Reprinted from the "BULLETIN OF THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY,"
Volume n, 1927

CAMBRIDGE
W. HEFFER & SONS LIMITED

1927

TO

MR. EDWARD CADBURY

WHOSE GENEROSITY AND ENCOURAGEMENT

HAS MADE POSSIBLE THE PUBLICATION

OP THE " WOODBROOKE STUDIES "

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The " Woodbrooke Studies " will consist of texts and translations
of Christian documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni drawn from
the manuscripts forming part of my own collection, which, for the
time being, is in the custody of the Rendel Harris Library, Selly
Oak, Birmingham.1

These Studies will appear first in serial form in the columns of
the " Bulletin of the John Ry lands Library," which is published twice
during the course of the year, in the months of January and July. At
the end of each year they will be issued in a separate volume uniform
with the present initial issue.

Dr. Rendel Harris has kindly consented to write an introduction
to each treatise in the series.

I find it impossible adequately to express my feelings of grateful
appreciation of the generosity of Mr. Edward Cadbury, whose finan-
cial assistance and encouragement has made possible the publication of
these studies ; and for that reason I take the liberty of dedicating to
him this first-fruit of his generous encouragement.

To my colleague, Dr. Henry Guppy, the editor of the " Bulletin,"
I offer my sincere thanks for his painstaking interest in the editing and
publication of these Studies.

A. MINGANA.

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY,
MANCHESTER.

1 The history of the collection will be dealt with in the introduction to the
catalogue of it, upon which I am at present engaged.

vii

CONTENTS.

Introductory Note

A Treatise of BarsalTbi against the Melchites :

Introduction ........

Preface and Translation .....

Text in Facsimile .......

Index of Proper Names .....

Genuine and Apocryphal Works of Ignatius of Antioch

Introduction .

Preface and Translation

Garshuni Text .......

Facsimile of the First Page of the Paris MS.
Facsimile of the First Page of the Mingana MS.
Facsimile of the Canon of Ignatius

A Jeremiah Apocryphon :

Introduction ........

Preface and Translation

Text in Facsimile of Mingana Syr. MS. 240 .
Text in Facsimile of Paris Syr. MS. 65

A New Life of John the Baptist :

Introduction

Preface and Translation .

Garshuni Text .

Facsimile of Page from Mingana Syr. MS. 22
Facsimile of Page from Mingana Syr. MS. 183 .

Some Uncanonical Psalms :

Introduction

Preface and Translation

Text in Facsimile of Mingana Syr. MS. 31 .

PAGE

vii

2-9
17-63
64-92
93-96

9-16

96-109

110-120

121

122

123

125-138
148-191
192-216
217-233

138-145

234-260

261-285

286

287

145-147
288-292
293-294

viii

WOODBROOKE STUDIES

WOODBROOKE STUDIES.

CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS IN SYRIAC, ARABIC AND GARSHUNI
EDITED AND TRANSLATED WITH A CRITICAL APPARATUS

BY A. MINGANA.

WITH INTRODUCTIONS

BY RENDEL HARRIS.

FASC. 1.

(i) A Treatise of Barsalibi against the Melchites.
(ii) Genuine and Apocryphal Works of Ignatius of Antioch.

INTRODUCTIONS.
BY RENDEL HARRIS.

I.

A TREATISE OF BAR SALIBI AGAINST THE MELCHITES.

WE have been advised by our Master (whose name is Peace
and whose admonitions are all of the nature of Benedictions)
that we ought not to waste our time gathering grapes of
thorns or searching for figs among thistles ; his words and warnings,
no doubt, include in their scope our literary occupations as well as our
theological studies or our philanthropic activities. Here, as elsewhere,
wasted time and unremunerative labour are under His ban ; and it
may, therefore, well be asked whether it is wise to spend our slender
residue of years over extinct literatures, forgotten writers and churches
that are near to disappearance (e'yyus d^avtcr/^oi), as the writer of the
Epistle to the Hebrews would say, in view of the inveterascence
which came under his own observation).

We have before us a treatise by one who was once a great leader
in the religious life and thought of the Syrian Church ; but his name

INTRODUCTIONS 3

is scarcely known in the West, and the church of which he was the
leader has practically perished, its literature has ceased and has become
the dryest of dry roots ; persecution has accomplished a disintegration
which piety was insufficient to prevent. How many people know, or
care to know, about Bar Salibi and his writings ? Why should we
try to recall the author or search the dust heap of his literary remains
for grains of possible gold ?

When we have asked ourselves that question, there is one direction
in which we immediately receive an encouraging response. Bar Salibi
was not only a great ecclesiastic in a church that had passed its zenith,
he was also a great scholar in the time of decline of the Syriac literature,
and being a scholar as well as an administrator, he had a great library,
which he knew how to use as well as to value. Alas ! that it has
perished ! It had many ancient works of great worth, not only the
original writings of Syrian fathers, but early translations made from
Greek writers which have disappeared in the West. For instance, it
is almost certain that he had a copy of the Diatessaron or Gospel
Har?nony of Tatian, to which he refers and from which he quotes ;
he had also a copy of a work of Hippolytus of Rome, called Heads
against Gaius which was lost in the West ; its value can be inferred
from its theme when the heads of the contention referred to are defined.
There was a certain Gaius, who in the second or third century exercised
his critical faculties, exactly as scholars are doing in the twentieth
Christian aeon, over the authorship of the Fourth Gospel, and its
irreconcilability with the authorship of the Apocalypse. Bar Salibi
gives us many quotations from the lost Gaius, and helps us to see that
this early devotee of Higher Criticism was not, as Lightfoot supposed,
a mere phantom, a creation by Hippolytus of a straw-man for subse-
quent demolition, but a real man of flesh and blood, with a powerful
intellectual apparatus attached to his anatomy.

The greatest of Bar Sahbi's works, both in compass and in variety
is his commentary on the Scriptures covering the whole space from
Genesis to Revelation, and filled with patristic matter both Eastern
and Western. Complete copies are very rare, and we have the good
fortune to possess the whole in one of our Woodbrooke MSS. It
was this commentator's work that first drew the attention of Western
scholars ; the portion of the commentary which deals with the Four
Gospels was done into Latin by Dudley Loftus, in the seventeenth

4 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

century, from a MS. in Trinity College, Dublin ; and in recent times
the commentary on the Apocalypse, Acts and Catholic epistles, and in
part the Gospels has been edited by Sedlac.ek in the series of Scriptores
Syri. If we may judge from the parallel case of his successor Bar
Hebraeus, there will, before long, be many theses presented for doctor's
degrees in German Universities, from the commentaries of Bar Salibi.

The treatise which we present in the following pages has no special
scriptural interest ; it is ecclesiastical rather than Biblical ; but it has a
value of its own, inasmuch as the controversy which it reflects throws a
good deal of light on the relations of the Greek and Eastern churches
in Bar Salibi's own day. It will bring vividly before us the facts of
the subdivision of the Syrian churches and its three branches, in the
days before the Roman church had invaded the area, and, in the in-
terests of unity, made three divisions into six. We shall have before
us the Nestorian or East Syrian Church with its God-and-Man doctrine
of Christ, its noble protest against the deification of the Blessed Virgin,
and its unparalleled record in the Mission fields of the far East ; next
to them we shall have the Jacobite or West Syrian Church with its
God- Man Christology, or as it is called by the wise, its Monophysite
theology, its exaltation of the Virgin to celestial rank, and its defect of
missionary zeal. Between the two lies a slender group of Syrian
believers who have succumbed to the claims of the Greek theology of
Antioch and Constantinople, securing their orthodoxy on the one hand
by the acceptance of the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, which
made other Syrian churches excommunicate on one side or the other,
and at the same time obtaining protection as well as patronage by
attachment to the State church and the Imperial city. They are known
as Melchites, or Royalists, and if few in number and confined to
Palestine and North Syria for the most part, are an aggressive minority
with the Ruling State and Dominant Greek Church at their back.

We shall not hear much of the Nestorians in our tract ; they are
too far East to be troublesome or troubled ; it is the little Melchite
community that provokes the controversy reflected in the following
pages of Bar Salibi ; the little man that is trying to put its arms round
its big brother, and to annex him ; in reality a half-anonymous monk,
one Rabban 'Isho', who seems to have been reconciled to the Greek
Church and its theology and rituals, and who will have the great Bar
Salibi in his embrace, and will prove to him that he is both insignificant

INTRODUCTIONS 5

and wrong, a terrible combination. We shall see presently the chief
points of the appeal ; but it is as well to be forewarned, lest dis-
appointment ensue. The matters discussed will not strike us as being
of any great importance. Probably the reader will say, as he watches
the two dogs over their bone of contention (as indeed happens com-
monly in ecclesiastical strife), that, if this is Christianity, then I have
little chance of being a Christian. The trivialities of ritual will have
proper attention, the supposed decencies of liturgical usage and the
like ; we shall know all about the war, and what they killed (or ex-
communicated) each other for. When we have finished our study,
we can set the infinitely little on one side, and estimate the value of
what is left. We shall probably be impressed with the adroitness of
Bar Salibi, but still more with his noble Christian spirit and temper,
worthy of the Patriarch of half the East ; and, even if we do not feel
drawn to his Monophyite doctrine, we shall be glad that he held it
too tenaciously and too intelligently to be allured to its abandonment,
by the bait of a personal attachment to, and promotion in a State
church, which he knew to be a focus of increasing impurity, and
political corruption.

Now let us very briefly analyse the discussion of which Bar Salibi's
portion is before us. Rabban ' Isho ' has written to Bar Salibi, a re-
union tract to which the latter replies in ten chapters. The first condi-
tion of re-union is that the Jacobites must learn how to cross themselves
with two fingers, as do the Greeks and Latins ; and they must give up
the practice of crossing themselves with one finger, which is a dangerous
illustration of the Monophysite doctrine. They must also change the
direction in which the crossing is exhibited, and no longer operate
from left to right Further, in making such changes, Bar Salibi will
find that he has gone over to the majority. The suggestion provokes
a noble protest from Bar Salibi : '* Maytwe not be in the right with
two or three ? " The discussion is continued over one finger or two
fingers, and right-to-left or left-to-right crossing. It becomes very
tedious, but the tedium is relieved by thejtheological implication. A
spirited reply is made to the question whether Bar Salibi really believes
the Greeks to hold the doctrine of two natures in Christ. Whether
they believe in two natures in Christ or not, they believe most assuredly
in serving two masters, Truth and Untruth. From Bar Salibi's point
of view, that is the real heresy. He tells a tale of a philosopher, who,

6 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

like the Vicar of Bray in the popular English song, changed his faith
with every successive king. But, at last, unlike the profane Vicar, he
realized that one must not change one's faith with the colour of the
times, and besought people to " Pity the salt that has lost its savour ! "
The argument over the two natures is resumed. Rabban 'Isho' is at
his best when he argues for the comprehension of inconsistent beliefs
in one corporate body ; did not the Apostle tell us not to judge
another man's servant ? Did he not say " Pray for one another,"
and not " Anathematize one another " ?

Bar Salibi has great reply to this seducing doctrine ; he points out
that the Court Party at Constantinople do not practise the toleration
which they invoke ; they expel our people from their city, burn their
books, and suppress our Meeting-places. Away from the city, they
rebaptize our people as heretics whom Rabban 'Isho' proposes to annex
as believers. And such is their doctrine of toleration and the persons
to whom it is applied, that, suppressing the Jacobites, they have actu-
ally permitted the Moslems to build a Mosque in the city. One may
judge the value of their charity, by the range of its application. It
passes by the Syrian Christian and embraces the Moslem unbeliever.

Bar Salibi goes on to point out that, although it is inconsistent on
the part of the Melchites and their friends to curse and bless in this
way, yet after all the power and faculty of judgment is Christian, and
it follows that there is also in the Church a power of excommunica-
tion. St. Paul is clear on the right of anathema. A spirited defence
is made of the Jacobite position from the side of Ecclesiastical History.
Rabban 'Isho' proceeds in favour of his doctrine that Christians are
not to judge Christians, but that it is better to live at peace with every-
body. Bar Salibi now turns the tables on his adversary ; he discloses
the state of morals in the Imperial City and in the prominent church
of the city, and shows what peace with anybody and everybody means.
He has now taken the Puritan position, and refuses fellowship with
murderers, adulterers, liars, and thieves.

The light that is turned on the church of Constantinople is a fierce
light indeed. He talks of an emasculated clergy, and of adulterous
and vicious practices which naturally are associated with such contra-
ventions of nature. " Like priest, like people ; " the city is full of
outrage and villany.

The argument now turns to the order of the Liturgy and the ex-

INTRODUCTIONS 7

quisite arrangement made by the Greeks for lections and for the tones
to which the psalms and hymns are sung ; how beautiful to see such
universal order and harmony !

Bar Salibi has a good deal to say on these matters, but he carefully
points out that the church was antecedent to its musical services, and
that the creed was before the metrical canons. In the beginning they
had only the reading and interpretation of the Scriptures. The use of
lustful melodies had not arrived. The Sirens had not come into the
church. It was better to preach, teach, and convert, than to invent
melodies like the Sirens, bray like asses, sing like nightingales or
swans, and then finish up the day with such feasting as makes the
occasion of sin.

The glory of the new Rome is now emphasized by the Melchite.
He quotes an apocryphal prophecy of Jeremiah about the Latter
House, and the Latter City. This prophecy, he says, refers to Con-
stantinople. Bar Salibi disputes his text, and denies his interpretation.
Who goes to this supposed New Jerusalem to worship ? They go
there to grub, and to buy and sell. Do they boast of their sanctities
and relics, the rod of Moses and the ark in which it was laid, the
picture of Christ on Veronica's handkerchief and the Virgin's robe,
the right hand of John the Baptist, which they use in consecrations,
etc. Bar Salibi makes short work of these relics and the use to which
the Greeks put them.

The argument now passes over to the question of authority in the
Church : according to Rabban 'Isho', there is primacy in the church,
and that primacy has been located by God with the Greeks. There
is a prescription against Christians, just as there is against heretics.
We were there before you.

Bar Salibi wonders why, from this point of view, the Jews were
displaced. He returns to his argument for the sanctity of two or
three in the name of Truth. The argument now turns on the power
and wealth which God has given to the Greeks, Mammon being
called in as the chief witness to the divine election of the Greeks, and
per contra of the divine reprobation (relatively) of the poverty-
stricken Syrians. Bar Salibi has little difficulty in proving that

" Gold and Grace did never yet agree !
Religion always sides with poverty ! "

8 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Mammon the prosperous leaves the witness box, and Lazarus and a
crowd of poor folks occupy it. Bar Salibi comes into the box himself
and holds up the Gospel. The case for the social and wealthy
Mammon collapses. The argument is varied now from wealth
to numbers. You Jacobites are very few ; a handful in Edessa,
another handful in Melitene. Evidently they have been uprooted by
God, and have lost their first acceptance and favour. It is otherwise
with the Greeks, who are a prickly shrub that bears a beautiful
rose.

Bar Salibi wishes to have a further definition of the rose of the
Greeks. In what sense does Constantinople blossom like the rose ?
Is it their elaborate liturgy ? The true rose is meditation and prayer,
holiness, chastity, perfection. Does the Greek shrub bear these ? A
further discussion is made on the sign of the Cross, and on the addition
which the Syrians make to the Trisagion of the words "who was
crucified for us." The Greeks interpret the Trisagion of the Trinity,
Sanctus es Deus ( = the Father), Sanctus es omnipotens ( = the Son),
Sanctus es immortalis ( = the Spirit) ? The Syrians refer all three
classes of the Trisagion to the Son, and can, therefore, properly add
" qui crucifixus es pro nobis."

It is rather difficult to follow the argument which Bar Salibi makes
for the Monophysite use of the Trisagion plus the added phrase qui
crucifixus es pro nobis.

It is an interesting study to observe how the Trisagion came to be
regarded as a definition of the Trinity, and so to be inconsistent with
the addition qui crucifixus es pro nobis. In the first instance it was
Jesus and his Glory that were sought for in the sixth chapter of Isaiah,
while the same chapter yielded the convincing anti- Judaic testimony in
regard to the blinded eyes and hardened hearts of the chosen people.
Of the antiquity of this testimony there can be no doubt, seeing it is
employed by Jesus, according to the Gospel of Mark (Mark iv. 1 2)
and by Paul in the closing sentences of the Acts of the Apostles,
according to Luke (Acts xxviii. 26, 27). In the Fourth Gospel, we
have this testimony expanded by the statement that " Isaiah said this
when he saw his Glory and spake of him." This can only mean that
there has been an identification of Jesus with the Lord Sabaoth or, in
a sense that is common in the Targums, with the Divine Glory.
Thus it was not the Trinity that the early Christians looked for in the

INTRODUCTIONS 9

Trisagion, but Jesus in Glory. In that sense it was quite proper to
add " qui crucifixus es pro nob is." The addition could be made
without any risk of a charge of Patripassianism or Pneumatopassianism.
But what might be good theology in the first stratum of the deposit
of belief might be quite the opposite when a further plane of theological
definition had been reached. Bar Salibi retains what appears to be
an early position in Christology ; it may, however, be doubted whether
the Monophysites consistently did the same. In a Liturgy attributed
to Ignatius, which Renaudot published, and which is supposed to have
Monophysite leanings, we find the following Trinitarian interpretation
and use of the Trisagion :

Sanctus enim es, Deus Pater,
Sanctus etiam unigenitus Filius tuus
Sanctus etiam Spiritus tuus.

We cannot, however, infer that in this Liturgy there once stood
the ascription of crucifixus along with the adoration of the Seraphim.
We will hand Bar Salibi over to the students of liturgiology and see
what they will make of him. There is no doubt more to be said on
the matter, in proportion as we know less.

His concluding appeals to the Greeks to cease from persecuting
the Syrians and the Armenians, to whom they are doing more harm
than the Turks themselves, are written in an excellent spirit and like
a true father in Israel. He concludes by a challenge to his opponents
generally to meet him in a public discussion, when he proposes to
clear up any remaining difficulties. We do not know whether this
debate ever came off ; a priori we should have our doubts of its
success ; in fact, the greater the success, the less in many cases the
actual good resulting. Nothing so much narrows and dries up the
heart as controversy does ; it must be admitted, however, that no
controversial writer shows less sign of the threatened narrowness and
dryness than our good Syrian father.

II.

GENUINE AND APOCRYPHAL WORKS OF IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH.

The above treatise is followed by some stray documents, which
profess to be related in some way to the person of Ignatius of
Antioch, the martyr bishop of that great city. Around his name,

10 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

as in the parallel case of Clement of Rome, there accumulated
so much spurious matter, in the shape of interpolations and ad-
ditions, that it is not to be wondered at, if in the first ages of the
Renaissance of Criticism, doubts should have arisen whether any of
the Ignatian matter could be referred to his time, place, or person. In
our own time the author of Supernatural Religion, Mr. W. R.
Cassels, declared roundly that " the whole of the literature ascribed
to Ignatius is, in fact, such a tissue of fraud and imposture, . . . that
even if any small original element exist referrible to Ignatius, it is
impossible to define it " ; and made Dr. Lightfoot very angry by his
statement.

We are afraid that the contributions which we are making to
Ignatian literature will have to be classed with the Ignatian Apo-
crypha, rather than with what Lightfoot shows to be canonical
Ignatiana. Our first document, for instance, professes to be an actual
epistle of Ignatius, who is carefully defined, against misunderstanding
or possible confusion with later Patriarchs of his name, by the titles
which belong to the first of the line, the designation of him as the
God-bearer or the punning Syriac title of Nurana, or the Fiery =
Ignatius. Even if the epistle should be condemned contemptuously
as an obvious product of a later rhetorician, we shall be able to show
that there are traces of genuine Ignatian expressions in the text. This
leads us to the reflection that a possible motive for the composition,
assuming it to be spurious, lies in the undoubted fact that a genuine
letter, and perhaps more than a single letter, from Ignatius to the
Church at Antioch, is actually missing. The proof of this is interesting
and fairly complete.

In writing to the Church at Philadelphia, Ignatius remarks that
report has reached him that matters had taken a favourable turn in
the Church at Antioch : he begs the Philadelphians to appoint an
ambassador to take a message of congratulation to the Antiochenes.
This must mean a written communication either from Ignatius or
from the Philadelphian Church. The following is the text of the
passage : —

Ign., ad Pkilad., c. 10.

"Seeing that in answer to your prayer and to the tender
sympathy which ye have in Christ Jesus, it hath been reported

INTRODUCTIONS 1 1

to me that the Church which is in Antioch of Syria hath peace,
it is becoming for you, as a Church of God, to appoint a deacon
to go thither as God's ambassador, that he may congratulate
them when they are assembled together, and may glorify the
Name."

Ignatius goes on to say that the good news had been brought to
him by Philo, a deacon from Cilicia and by Rhaius Agathopus, who
had followed him from Syria. Lightfoot suggests, from the language
of Ignatius' letter to the Church at Smyrna, that he had already left
Smyrna when the messengers from Antioch arrived, and that they
then followed him to Troas. Assuming this to be the case, it is
almost unthinkable that Philo and his companion should have had no
letter to carry back from Ignatius himself, or that Ignatius should have
advised the churches to which he was writing to despatch messengers
and congratulatory messages on their own account, while he himself
remained silent. There must be a letter or letters from Ignatius to
Antioch, whether the Philadelphians and Smyrnaeans assisted and
joined in the correspondence or not. The natural thing to happen
would be that Philo and Rhaius should immediately turn back and
carry with them the felicitations of the bishop to his own Church.
Other communications require time and special official messengers
The message to the Smyrnaeans from Ignatius is as follows : —

Ign., ad Smyrn., c. 1 1 .

"Your prayer sped forth unto the Church which is in
Antioch of Syria . . . it is meet that your Church should appoint
for the honour of God, an ambassador of God, that he may go
as far as Syria, and congratulate them because they are at peace,
and have recovered their proper stature, and their proper bulk
hath been restored to them. It seemed, to me, therefore, a
fitting thing that ye should send one of your own people with a
letter, that he might join with them in giving glory for the calm
which by God's will had overtaken them, and because they were
already reaching a haven through your prayers."

Similar advice is given to Polycarp, as the bishop of Smyrna, and
the suggested ambassador from Church to Church is described playfully
as God's courier : the following is the passage : —

12 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Ign., ad. Polyc., c. 7.

" Seeing that the Church which is in Antioch of Syria hath
peace, as it hath been reported to us, through your prayers, I
myself also have been the more comforted, since God hath
banished my care. ... It becometh thee, most blessed Polycarp,
to call together a goodly council, and to elect some one among
you, who is very dear to you, and zealous also, who shall be fit
to bear the name of God's courier, — to appoint him, I say, that
he may go to Syria, and glorify your zealous love unto the glory
of God."

It appears, then, that two separate embasssies, and two separate
letters are asked for by Ignatius. It is out of the question to suppose
that he had himself nothing to say to the Church at Antioch. What
he did say has disappeared.

Now what was the matter at Antioch, for it is clear that there
has been a storm either in the Church or against it ?

Lightfoot takes it for granted that the persecution which made
Ignatius its central object, had also affected the Church. In consequence
many of the members had relapsed, and now there was good news of
their return. Philo and his companions were, says Lightfoot, " doubt-
less the bearers of the good news that the persecution at Antioch had
ceased." This may be the correct explanation, but there are some
things which suggest that there was trouble inside the Church as well
as outside it and around it. Lightfoot further remarks that the Church
at Antioch " had been previously weakened and diminished by the
dispersion and defections consequent on persecution." That would
explain the reference to the restored dimension of the Church ; but we
must keep our eyes open for an alternative reason for the diminution
of the Church membership. The document which we are here printing
is an exhortation to priests and deacons to practise personal piety and
not to be led away into immoral actions. It may be nothing more
than a general exhortation addressed to all clergy ; but there are some
passages in it which seem to suggest an individual priest who has fallen
into sin ; the supposed letter suddenly becomes in the highest degree
eloquent and personal. An appeal is made which begins with :

" Who envied you, O chaste one, and made you a forni-
cator ? "

INTRODUCTIONS 13

and the supposed faithless priest is addressed as

"You dear and beloved ram who became the prey of a
wolf ! "

The person addressed has become a pagan, and is now "a
mediator to idols : " and so on, with much eloquence and force of
personal appeal, which the reader must estimate for himself. If it
should be judged that the supposed faithless priest to whom the appeal
is made has a real existence, the possibility will have to be reckoned
with that there has been a factious and perhaps an immoral person
among the leadership of the Antiochene Church, who may even be a
rival and contemporary of Ignatius himself. This is, of course, a
speculation which may not find support. In that case we should fall
back upon Lightfoot's theory, that the persecution under Trajan had
been general, as well as personal and particular.

Now let us turn to the text of our document and see what we can
pick up in the way of Scriptural references and possible local allusions.
First of all we notice that in one passage, the writer quotes the Gospel
in a harmonized form. At the beginning of the letter the impious
priest is compared to the salt that has lost its savour. " If the salt
has lost its savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned ? It is thenceforth
good for nothing, neither for the land nor the dung, but it is cast out
and trodden underfoot by men." This is a harmonization of Matthew
and Luke. If we examine the Tatian Harmony, either in the Arabic
of Ciasca, or in the old Dutch version of Dr. Plooij, we shall find that
we have an independent harmonization, which does not appear to be
derived from the Syriac of Tatian.

The next thing we notice is that he is acquainted with one of the
greatest of all Syriac writings, the Odes of Solomon. He opens his
address to the Antiochene clergy, by appealing to them to

" wipe off the dirt from your hearts."

This is almost exactly the language of the beautiful 13th Ode of
Solomon :

" Wipe the dirt from off your faces,

And love his holiness and clothe yourselves therewith."

There is one expression in our tract which is distinctly Ignatian :
the writer says :

14 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

" We cannot avoid answering for all those he confided to our
care ; the souls redeemed by the innocent blood of God, and he
gave us a covenant that we should worship him and shepherd
his flock."

At first sight this looks like Monophysite language, but we re-
member that it is also Ignatian. In the epistle of Ignatius to the
Ephesians, in the opening chapter, the saint speaks of the Ephesian
Church as

" kindling into living fire " (so Lightfoot) " by the blood of God."

There is, however, an objection to the description of the term
" blood of God," as Ignatian. It is well known that it is implied in the
language of St. Paul to the elders of the Church at Ephesus (Acts
xx. 28) who are admonished to " feed the Church of God, which He
hath purchased with His own blood ; " and on comparing the language
of our tract, we see the reflection of the " shepherds of the flock " to
which St. Paul refers. So it is just as likely that the expression is
Pre-Ignatian as Ignatian, and perhaps we ought to describe both the
Ignatian expression and the language of our tract as Pauline.

On the other hand we have the similar expression in the opening
of the Syriac Didascalia, where Christians are spoken of as " partakers
in the sprinkling of the pure and precious blood of the Great God,
Jesus the Christ." This has a very Monophysite appearance, and
shows, at all events, that the term " Blood of God " is not theologically
colourless.

The next point that interests us, is that our supposed Ignatius is
made responsible for the Wednesday and Friday fasts of the early
Church, and the question must be asked whether there is an element of
truth in the suggestion. It is not negatived by the observation that
our document has the week-day fasts in an accentuated form, at least
for the clergy the problem is to determine if the fasts in question are
possibly of Antiochian origin. Of their antiquity there is no doubt,
for they are in the Teaching of the Apostles : nor can it well be
denied that they are originally anti-Judaic, since the Teaching says :
" Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast Monday and
Thursday, but do you fast Wednesday and Friday." The hypocrites
are here the Jews and Judaisers. No reason appears for the choice

INTRODUCTIONS 15

of the particular days ; nor does there appear in the Ignatian letters any
reference of the kind ; what does appear, however, is the anti- Judaic
displacement of the Sabbath by the Sunday, as Christians are described
as " no longer Sabbatizing, but living with the Lord's Day in place of
the Sabbath." Thus the anti-Judaic element in the Teaching has its
parallel in Ignatius.

At this point a curious parallel comes to light, for which we must
now turn to our second document, the supposed Canon of Ignatius.
In this Canon there is a clear indication of the establishment of the
weekly fasts, with an anti- Judaic reference. For instance, we have
the curious statement that " we observe the night of Friday, because in
it our Lord was seized by the Jews? It is further stated that on the
night of Saturday they broke the legs of the robbers, in order that the
Sabbath might not begin for them (which must mean the Jews), and
that they might not be condemned in the eyes of the law (which must
mean the Jewish law). Our Canon is, therefore, anti- Judaic, like the
Teaching of the Apostles and the Ignatian letters. It cannot,
however, be derived directly from the Teaching. Nor can it be
derived directly from the seventh book of the Apostolical Constitu-
tions, which works over the instructions of the Teaching. For here
the anti-Judaic reference has disappeared, and the fast-days are kept
in commemoration of the Betrayal and the Crucifixion. There is,
however, some similarity of treatment ; each writer has the problem of
explaining the change in the fast- days from the Jewish customs, but
the explanations are not the same. We conclude that the Canonist
is working on an independent line, and we cannot confirm his reference
to Ignatius as his authority.

Now let us see what can be made out of the explanations furnished
by the Canonist. First of all we have the Last Supper referred to
the night of Wednesday in the Passion week ; next we are told that
our Lord was seized by the Jews on the night of Friday ; then that
he descended into Sheol on the night of Saturday. We are to observe
(which must in this connection mean, we are to fast) on Wednesday
night and Friday night, and we are not to observe (that is, we are not
to fast) on Saturday. There is much confusion here, which cannot be
got rid of by reading " vigil " for " night," and making the vigil anticipate
the next day. For the Last Supper cannot be put on Thursday, in
this hypothesis, without putting the arrest on Saturday, and the descent

16 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

into Hades on Sunday. The arrest of our Lord and his binding by
the Jews must take place the same day as the Last Supper. To date
the Last Supper on Wednesday by the Oriental hypothesis of making
the day begin at sunset, would require that the Supper took place
before sundown on Thursday, which is absurd. We cannot make the
" night of Wednesday " into the " afternoon of Thursday." So we
conclude that the Canonist has lost his reckoning ; his statements are
inconsistent with the evangelical tradition.

The reader will have noticed a reference to the patronage of Simon
and John of the Church of Antioch, to which Ignatius is supposed to
be writing. These two apostles, Peter and John, are invited to join
in the lamentation over an apostate priest. It is certainly peculiar to
have St. John associated with St. Peter in the presidency of the Church
at Antioch. But there can be no mistake as to the intention of the
writer, since, a little later, the unfaithful steward is addressed as a
brother of Simon and John. Where shall we find parallel statements
connecting these two apostles with the Church of Antioch ?

While these pages were passing through the press two more
Ignatiana were brought to light. The first is another recension of the
Canon which we have discussed ; the second is a genuine fragment of
the Epistle to the Ephesians, which does not appear in the collection
of Lightfoot. So we have one more fragment of the lost Syrian
Version recovered.

PREFACES, EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS.
BY A. MINGANA.

(i) A Treatise of Barsalibi against the Melchites.
PREFATORY NOTE.

I GIVE in the following pages the translation, accompanied by a
critical apparatus, of a very rare treatise of Dionysius Barsalibi,
the well-known West Syrian or Jacobite writer who died in A.D.
1171. The treatise is indeed so rare that not even a reference to it
is found in Baumstark,1 and no acquaintance with its existence is shown
by the early Syrian bibliographer who wrote a complete list of
Barsalibi' s works.2

The treatise is in the form of a discussion with, or rather a long
address to, a certain Rabban 'Isho', a West Syrian monk of some
importance, who had evidently shown some leniency towards the
Melchites, and was about to leave, or had already left, his own
community to join them. He had written a long letter to Barsalibi
on this subject, and it is this lost letter that has given birth to the
present treatise. Barsalibi analyses verbatim his opponent's missive,
and refutes it. As the author does not give any clear indication where
his own sentence ends and that of his adversary begins, I have
experienced some difficulty in following his argumentation ; but I
believe that I have succeeded in overcoming the obstacles thrown in
our way in this matter, but not without sacrificing to the altar of
clearness my predilection for literal translations.

I have, therefore, been compelled to mark in the translation
Rabban 'Ish6''s text by the words : " You write " which are not in the
text, and here and there I have added words and even complete
phrases in order to make it easier for the English reader to follow
the author's too concise, too disconnected, and sometimes obscure
reasoning.

1 Gesch. der Syr. Lit., pp. 295-298.
• Assemani, Bibl. Orient., ii, 210-21 1.
17

18 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

The " Greeks " assailed by Barsalibi are better known to us under
the name of Melchites, who in the West Syrian Orthodox Church
are generally styled " Chalcedonians," although the appellation
" Melchites " is also very often ascribed to them.

The Syriac MS. in which the treatise is found constitutes an in-
tegral part of my own collection of Syriac MSS., in the custody of the
Rendel Harris Library, Birmingham, where it has the class-mark Syriac
MS. Mingana 4. It was copied in A.D. 1 895 by Deacon Matthew,
from a very ancient MS. preserved in Tur ' Abdln, near the monastery of
Dairuz-za'faran, the residence of the monophysite Patriarchs of Antioch.
Because of the rarity of the MS. I have deemed it advisable to give a
complete facsimile of its text, and refer in the footnotes of the transla-
tion to some lexicographical and grammatical errors made either by the
first or by the second copyist. An index of proper names will be found
at the end of the work.

TRANSLATION.

We will further write the ten chapters composed by Dionysius,
metropolitan of Amed, who is the illustrious Jacob Bar
Salibi, against Rabban ' Isho'.

The humble Dionysius, the servant of God, offers you his greetings
and his prayers, O Rabban 'Isho* ; may you be in the keeping of
Providence !

Any work from which spring good and gain for the souls of both
the speaker and the attentive hearer, is not to be hindered or silenced.
These words we write at the beginning of our discourse to you, as we
have read your conciliatory treatise which stands between truth and
falsehood in order not to hurt anybody's feelings. In another place
we will deal with the worldly questions that it raises. So far as the
spiritual questions which give life to the souls are concerned, it is more
advantageous to strive after undiluted truth and avoid ambiguity,
especially in our dealings with those people who twist the facts and
mix straw with corn, water with wine, and all kinds of impure alloys
with gold. The Apostle of the Gentiles has said : " Prove all things,
hold fast that which is good, and abstain from any form of evil." ' See
how Paul teaches us to prove and examine everything, and hold fast

M Thes. Y. 21-22.

BARS ALIBI 19

that which is good before God, and flee from all bad things and false
teaching, as from nests of snakes.

We are also shown how a man can learn with certitude where
truth lies : he must either follow one who is universally acknowledged to
be wise and learn little by little from him, as Philip taught the eunuch of
the Queen of Sheba,1 or he must read studiously the Books of the
Spirit and acquire from them the knowledge of truth. He who
believes that he has attained truth from hearsay, or from the ravings
of a seducer, or from the sight of an occurrence that happens to be in
harmony with his beliefs, does not lean on truth but on a broken reed,
on a shadow only. But it is time now to embark on our subject.

CHAPTER I.
On the Sign of the Cross.

You wrote to us that neither from nature nor from any book did
you learn to cross yourself with two fingers, but that you are following
in this the habit of the Greeks, of the Franks, and of twenty-four
other peoples such as the Iberians, Alans, Russians, Hungarians and
others who cross themselves with two fingers. This, O Rabban
'Isho', we will answer in the following manner :

An intelligent man like you should weigh his words in the balance
of justice before uttering them. If you have not acquired a subject
from a book, nor learned it from nature, the two sources which
embrace all the universe, how then can you neglect the truth of both
book and nature, and follow something that is not based on any real
foundation ? The Book says : " Remove not the eternal landmark ; "
now if the landmark is nature and book, in rejecting them both we
naturally trespass on the boundaries of truth. Christ did not destroy
the law but fulfilled it,3 and we4 contend that we are not to follow
nature and the law, but to step in strange paths ! Do we not fear
then a rebuke from David who says : " When thou sawest a thief, then
thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers." ;
Among the peoples whom you have mentioned there is injustice,

1 See Acts viii. 27. The author identifies Sheba with Ethiopia.

'2 Prov. xxii. 28 and xxiii- 10 (Peshitta).

y Cf . Matt v. 1 7. 4 Sic Cod. 5 Ps. L 1 8.

20 WOODBROOKE ESSAYS

murder, immorality and many other abominations ; should we follow
them in these ? Sound judgement forbids it. Even those people
whom you have mentioned, if they do not prove the truth they hold
from nature and book, no one will ever induce himself to listen to them,
and their own followers will forsake them. But we who are right and
possessors of the truth, will demonstrate to you that we are walking in
the path of nature and book, and that is why we make the sign of the
cross with one finger only.

First, nature teaches us that the cross to which Christ was attached
was not composed of double pieces of wood stretched in its perpendi-
cular and horizontal side, as a symbol to the two fingers used by the
Greeks in crossing themselves, but had only one piece of wood on
each side. Further, the rod of Moses which was a symbol of the
cross, was one and not two like that symbolized by two fingers.
Finally, the crosses made of silver, brass and wood, and those found
on the walls are not fashioned by the peoples you mentioned in double
perpendicular and horizontal lines, but in one line only as the symbol
of one finger. These arguments from nature will suffice, and we will
now enumerate the arguments from book.

That universal Doctor, John Chrysostom, clearly shows this in
saying thus in the fifty-third discourse of his commentary on Matthew :
" (Paul's saying) ' Ye are bought with a price,' " l signifies the price
paid on your behalf, and it does not fit you to be the servants of any
man. (Paul) alludes by the word " Price " to the cross ; you should
not make the sign of the cross with the finger in a simple way, but you
should first make it with will and with great faith ; and then if you
print it in this way on your forehead, no vile demon will be able to
prevail against you." : See how the Doctor speaks of one finger only
and not of two or three. If we were to cross ourselves with two
fingers he would have said " with the fingers " or " with two fingers."
Further, when the Apostle Thomas wished to test the resurrection of
the One who was crucified, he only desired to put his finger into the

1 1 Cor. vii. 23.

2 Here is the whole passage : " Pretio, inquit, empti eslis ; ne sitis servi
hominum. Cogita, inquit, pretium pro te numeratum, atque nullius hominis
eris servus ; pretium vero crucem vocat : neque enim simpliciter illam digito
efformare oportet, sed prius voluntate et multa fide. Si hoc modo illam in
facie tua depinxeris, nullus impurorum daemonum contra te stare potent."
Pat. Gr.t Iviii. 557.

BARSALIBI 21

print of the nails, because he said : " Except I put my finger into the
print of the nails, I will not believe." And when our Lord revealed
Himself to him, He said, " Reach hither thy finger." : See how the
Book mentioned one finger only in the first and the second instances,
and not two or several.

From these we may learn that the act of making the sign of the
cross upon oneself or upon the holy elements is not done with two
fingers but with one only. The Greeks, however, who believe in two
natures in Christ say : " We make the sign of the cross with two
fingers because there are two natures in Christ." Against this we
wrote at length in our controversial treatise against them ; here it will
suffice us to say : If the natures in Christ are as separate from each
other as two fingers are, they have no unity, and the Doctors of the
Church who say that the Word was united to His flesh as fire is to
iron, are in error. Further, two fingers, although separate from each
other, are really one in substance (ovcri'a), and thus, in the contention
of the Greeks, the eternal Son of the Father would be one in sub-
stance with the flesh which is created and subject to time ; and this
is blasphemy.

We will further rebut the Greeks as follows : the cross teaches us
that Christ, the Son, was attached to it in the flesh, while in His
divinity He was neither extended nor attached ; but with two fingers
you show that He was extended on the cross and crucified in His two
natures. You are thus Theopaschites, because with the human nature
you crucify God also. As to us, we believe that as Christ is one, and
the cross is one, the sign also of the cross is to be made with one finger
only ; and this we have learned from both nature and book.

You write : '* The sacrament of the sign of the cross consists in
the Word of God who became flesh and came down from heaven to
earth, and removed mankind from the left hand and darkness to the
right hand and light."

We do not drive away darkness with light, as you write, because
we make the sign of the cross from right to left ; everyone knows that
darkness is the very antithesis of light, and that if the latter is mixed
up in the former it becomes swallowed up in it in the same way as
the bitterness of a little brackish water in a jug 3 of sweet water, or

1 John xx 25. 2 John xx. 27.

3 Read Mnaik'itha for mainoktha.

3

22 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

that of a little myrrh or wormwood in a considerable quantity of
honey. Let us admit that light drives away darkness, how can the
left hand drive away the right ? Our Lord has said that He will set
the sheep on His right hand and the goats on His left ; l in this our
Saviour demonstrated that the right cannot expel the left, but those
who make the sign of the cross from right to left, move, out of their
own free will, from the right hand to the left which is that of the
goats, and are counted with the robber who was on our Lord's left.
But see how in the consecration of the elements and in the final
prayers of the service the Greeks make the sign of the cross like us,
from left to right, and in this way they contradict themselves.

You wrote : " twenty-four peoples use two fingers," but your
number did not reach even ten. Do not listen, therefore, to some
deceivers who say that we have with us twenty-four peoples. Further,
truth is not always with the majority. Consider that there are seventy
different peoples, and that those who follow the gospel are less numer-
ous than those who are still pagan ; and no one pretends that because
of their higher number, the pagans have greater right than we have.
In the time of Abraham and Moses there was only one people, that
of the Hebrews, who worshipped God, and the rest worshipped idols,
and no one says that because of that the worshippers of idols had
greater right than the single people of the Hebrews. This suffices for
this chapter.

CHAPTER II.
A /so on the Sign of the Cross.

You wrote : " What is the meaning of our making the sign of the
cross with one finger ? Could we possibly have greater right than all
others ? Christ ordered that every word should be established at the
mouth of two or three witnesses,2 and in our case there are more than
three."

If your words are true, it follows than wherever there are several
people holding an opinion, they have more truth than one people ; and
this leads us, as we wrote in the first chapter, to the assumption that
the Gentiles had more truth than the Jews, and that Abraham was

^att. xxv. 33. 2 Matt, xviii. 16.

BARSALlBI 23

in error because he was the only one who worshipped God, and
the numerous men, his contemporaries, who worshipped idols, were
right. Our Lord's sentence : "At the mouth of two witnesses or
three every word is established," has not the meaning that you attribute
to it ; it bears exclusively on the fact that the testimony of a single
witness should not be accepted against a culprit, lest he should be
testifying falsely against him out of spite ; when, however, there are
two or three witnesses, they could not testify against him in a biased
way, but only truly and rightly.

You write : " Is it not more advantageous that a man should cross
himself in beginning with the right side, which is the side of light, and
then pass this light over his face and with it drive away darkness, than
to cross himself from the side of darkness and pass it over his face ? "

If darkness and light are defined by the right hand moving
horizontally, tell me what is meant by the first act we do in crossing
ourselves, which consists in moving our hand in a perpendicular way
from our head downwards ? You might say that the top movement
means light and the bottom one darkness, and that a man first takes
light and comes down to darkness, and then takes light again to another
darkness. The Greeks would have thus two lights and two darknesses,
and would begin with light and end with darkness. This theory of
yours is not a happy one, and the single cross is not light in one of its
horizontal sides and darkness in the other, but it is light in both of its
sides. It is also advantageous that the end of all our works should
be on the right hand, that is to say, good, and it is thus better to end
the sign of the cross with the side of the right hand, and not with the
side of the left which is, according to the words of our Lord, that of
the goats.

Further, we maintain that the cross of the Greeks has not only
two lines in its horizontal side, but four lines. In the first act of cross-
ing themselves they form their cross from top to bottom with two fingers,
and then in making the horizontal part of the cross, they form it, also
with two fingers, from right to left, and finally they return backwards
to the right. The horizontal part of their cross has then two lines,
nay, even four lines, in counting the two fingers. Those who, as you
put it, had driven away the darkness of the left by the light of the
right, return now from the light right to the dark left, and take over
its darkness which they carry to the right, so that they become involved

24 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

in thick darkness in both their right and left. If they were consistent
with themselves, since they form their cross from right to left, they
should have crossed themselves with the left hand, because in this way
their cross would have been more natural and it would not have been
necessary for them to move their hand twice over.

Our ecclesiastical historians are in accord with their ecclesiastical
historians in what they wrote concerning the Emperor Constantine,
that at the hour of the day in which the sun was hottest, he saw in
heaven a column of light in the shape of a cross, on which there were
the words " By this sign thou shalt conquer," and after the pattern
which he saw he fashioned the cross. Now what do the Greeks say
about that column ? Was it in the shape of double columns, like the
two fingers, or in the shape of one column ? If in the shape of double
columns, two of which stretched perpendicularly and two horizontally,
why is not the fact mentioned in any ecclesiastical history ? If the
column of light was in the shape of one column only, corresponding
with one finger, why should we not have greater right1 than the
Greeks ? And why should we not make the sign of the cross on
ourselves with one finger 2 only, and from left to right as we, and not
as they, do ?

In administering the baptism even the Greeks make the sign of the
cross on the child with a collyrium-pencil which has one point only
and not two points, which would correspond with the two fingers, and
move also the instrument from left to right as we do, and not from
right to left. Had they not done so in this case even their cross would
not have been straight but twisted.

You write : *' As we heard and saw, all the Fathers and Doctors
whose names I mentioned, whether they be Prankish, or Egyptian, or
Greek, make the sign of the cross with two fingers ; and we have
never heard that any of them has made it with one finger."

You have not attained yet the age of seventy years, and conse-
quently you could not have seen Athanasius the Great, Basil, Gregory
Nazianzen, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and others. We
might believe you when you say that you heard, but who can believe
you that you saw ? You should not, therefore, have written that you
saw. If you mean that you saw their books, how did you then write

1 Read Sharririnan for Sharrlrin (copyist's inadvertence).

2 Read Sib'a for Sliba.

BARSALIBI 25

previously that you had not learned this either from book or from
nature ? Is it because you forgot what you wrote previously that
you assert now that all of them made the sign of the cross with two
fingers ? If you have heard and seen, tell us in which book and in
which treatise ? So far as we are concerned we have already
quoted you John Chrysostom, the glory of the Greeks, who refutes
them and corroborates us.

You write : " Since the Armenians profess one nature in Christ,
why are they not ordered to make the sign of the cross with one finger
only ? "

Some of the Armenians make the sign of the cross with two fingers,
some of them with three fingers, and some of them with all their hand,
like the Franks. It is only those among them who are ignorant and
mixed with the Greeks, who make the sign of the cross with two fingers ;
but who can hold a discussion with illiterate and insensible people,
except those who wish to throw their pearls into the depth of the sea ?
Further, the Armenians did not remain united with us long enough to
learn all the Christian sacramental customs ; after having accepted the
dogma of one nature in the Word that became flesh, they left us and
went after their own. They are somewhat inconsistent with their
belief ; on the one hand they believe in one Lord, and in one nature
in the Word who became flesh, and on the other they believe in two
natures in Him, a proposition which they would readily reject, were
they but told that it is implied in the act of making the sign of the cross
with two fingers.

You write : " We who make the sign of the cross with two
fingers, do we believe in two natures in Christ ? God forbid that this
should ever happen."

If you do not believe in two natures after the union, how then do
you make the sign of the cross with two fingers ? In your mouth you
believe something,1 and with your hand which makes the sign of the
cross you believe something else. The Greeks at any rate assert that
the two fingers symbolize the two natures in Christ. If this is not so,
show us then the sacrament of the two fingers. How can you mix
up two incompatible propositions in saying "We believe like the
orthodox Syrians, and we make the sign of the cross like the Greeks ? **

1 Remove the dalath before mtddaim.

26 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

This amounts to saying, " We accept truth and untruth." No man
can serve two masters ; 1 if we have the truth with us, you cannot
follow the others, and if the others have the truth, we are liars ; and
if you pretend that both of us are right, who will believe you ? How
can that section of Christians who believes in one nature that became
flesh, and the other in two natures, and how can that section of them
who makes the sign of the cross with one finger and the other who
makes it with two fingers, be in harmony with each other and be
equally right ?

You write : " We should not reject the Greeks because they
believe in two natures, since apart from us and the Armenians, and a
few Franks, all Christians believe in two natures in Christ."

It is narrated that a philosopher used to change his faith with every
rising king. When eventually he repented and realized that it was
not good to forsake truth and change with the times, he wrote :
" Pity the salt which has lost its savour." O brother, no one in your
position should say that he does not reject the Greeks ; if they are
right and should not be rejected, your own people are, therefore,
wrong and should be rejected ; and if the Syrians are rejected, no one
will believe you also, because you are a Syrian from us and not from
our enemies ; but tell us now, if you know, which are the two natures
in which the Greeks believe ? The Franks and some others call
natures the Word God and the body with a soul which He united
to Himself, but the Greeks think otherwise, and their story on this subject
is a long one, and not even yet quite clear ; if it ever becomes clear,
I know and I am convinced that you will never accept any Melchite.
Further, how did you assert that all Christians believe in two natures
except us and the Armenians, while the Egyptians, Nubians, Abys-
sinians, the majority of the Indians,13 and the country of Libya which
in the time of Dioscorus was composed of one thousand and five
hundred parishes,3 accept the faith of St. Cyril and St. Dioscorus,
and of the great Severus.

1 Matt, vi., 24.

2 The word Indian in the mouth of a West Syrian writer often
designates the Himyarites, or Southern Arabs. See my Spread of
Christianity in India, 1926, pp. 11-14.

3 Lit. thrones, chairs. The word Kursya commonly refers to episcopal
sees, but who could believe that there were 1 500 bishoprics in Libya ?

BARSALIBI 27

Even the Greeks when brought face to face with the words of
Athanasius the Great and Cyril the Wise are put to shame and
believe like them in one nature of the Word who became flesh ; l this
is written in their books and they believe in it like ourselves, but they
explain away the expression " one nature" and say afterwards "two
natures " contrary to the teaching of the Doctors, and give a meaning
of their own to the words used by Cyril the Great, and pretend that
he really meant two natures, and this in spite of the fact that those
Arabs and Persians of the East and the South who are Christians '
understand like us the doctrine of one nature in the Word who
became flesh, and they are known to be Arabs or Persians by the
fact that they are not versed in any other language but Arabic and
Persian. Let now the subject end here.

<

CHAPTER III.

On his hidden Falsehood that has been Exposed and on how
he is a Protagonist of the Believers in two Natures.

You write : " Why should we have greater truth than all ? We
do not agree with them in the matter of two natures, but we should
not reject them and consider them as heretics."

See how this discloses your intention to favour those who differ
from us in their faith. I will now ask you a question : Are the Syrians
right or are they wrong ? If they are wrong, why do you not reject
them completely ? And if they are right, why do you not reject the
Chalcedonians ? If you refuse to believe in two natures, you should
reject also the truth of the orthodox Syrians. As light is opposed to
darkness, and good health to illness, so that they are mutually
repellent and cannot remain concomitantly in one place, so also the
one who believes in two natures in Christ after the union is opposed
to the one who believes in one nature in the Word who became flesh.
You will not contradict that the two are opposed to each other, how
then do you pretend that you do not believe in two natures like them,

* I.e., presumably in one Christ, in one Son. Neither in the fifth nor in
the twelfth century had the Christological terms of person and nature both in
Greek and in Syriac the fixed meaning that we give them in our days.

• There was a considerable number of Monophysites in West Persia,
and a still more considerable one among the Arabs.

28 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

and at the same time not reject them ? You are like the one who
holds the two ends of a rope and is unable to climb up with any of
them.

You write : " Why should we not accept them ? The Apostle
said : ' Who art thou that judgest the servant of another ? To his
own lord he standeth or falleth.' i He also said : ' Pray for one
another,' 2 and he did not say ' anathematize.' '

Your words would have been very true, if only the Chalcedonians
would listen to you. For your sake we shall compromise and accept
them : but come now to Melitene which is not under their power
and see how they tear at our people like wolves. Anyone who
through his unstability and weakness falls (and joins them), they
baptize again, and they openly call us 3 heretics and untruthful, and
out of their own free will they do not allow anyone to enter their
churches. I remonstrated several times with them, but because of their
arrogance they did not desist. Were it not for a reason that I will
not disclose, and for the fact that they would have been sneered at by
outsiders, I would have revealed their falsehood, and they would have
been despised by all ; but mendacity often succeeds.

Now repair in your imagination to the city of their pride. You
will see that it contains a mosque for the Mohammedans, but it has
no church for the Syrians and the Armenians. Do they do this out
of their good nature or out of their wickedness ? By their actions
they show that the faith of the Mohammedans is better than the
orthodox faith of ours.

About a hundred years ago, in the time of Ignatius of Melitene,
we had a church in Constantinople, but impelled by Satan they took
possession of it, and their Patriarch of that time ordered our books
that were in it and the church vestry, and the holy chrism, to be burnt
in the middle of the bazaars. In that very night that Patriarch was
struck by a sudden illness and lost his life. What do you say about
these ? Glory be to the one who deprived them of their power ! 4
If they had the power they would not have left a single Christian
alive, as their fathers did in the times of yore.

As to the quotation that you brought forth to the effect " Who
1 Rom. xiv. 4. 2Cf. Col. i. 3, 9; iii. 1 ; Heb. xiii. 18.

3 Possibly read Ian for laih.
* Through the Mohammedan Arabs and Salju^s.

BARSALIBI 29

art thou that judgest the servant of another," it has not the significance
that you attribute to it, and it has not been said of the heretics. If it
were, we should not be allowed to bring an accusation against the
Jews and the pagans, or to reprove the immoral people and the
adulterers, or to punish the criminals, the sedition -mongers, the robbers,
and the murderers. Will the Apostle come in these cases and tell
us : " Who are you that judge these who are the servants of
another ? " but for the tranquillity of your conscience I am going to
disclose for you the mind of the Apostle.

The Jews who had believed in Christ used to keep also the law
of Moses, and not to eat the food that that law considered to be
unclean ; but the Gentiles who had believed in Christ used to eat
everything. A disturbance arose on this account between Jewish
Christians and Christians. Paul then rose, strong in truth, against the
Jews who had believed, and he maintained that food does not bring
men nearer to God nor farther from Him ; why do you force, there-
fore, the Gentiles to observe the old law ? and he further added :
" He that is weak eateth herbs." He meant by these words that as
you Jews are weak in faith you distinguish between this and that food
(as a weak stomach does) with regard to herbs, but he who is strong
in faith eats everything and despises distinctions between foods ; "let
not him which eateth not judge the Christian that eateth, for God
hath received him ; " ~ that is to say, He has made him to be related
to Him and not to the law ; 3 you, therefore, O Jew, why do you
judge him ? He is the servant of God, how dare you then judge
him ? If he standeth, that is to say by faith, he is to his Lord and
not to you ; and if he falleth, as you believe, because he does not
observe the legal distinction between the foods, he is also to his own
Lord. This is in short terms the meaning of the sentence of the
Apostle.

As to your other point, that we are commanded to pray for one
another, it does not mean that we are commanded to pray for a man
to go astray from the truth of the faith and walk in error ; nor are we
commanded to pray for this particular person in relation with that
particular person, but only to pray in such general terms as : O God,
call all men and bring them to Thyself. As to your saying " Paul

1 Rom. xiv. 2. '2 Rom. xiv. 3.

3 Put a lamadh before namosa.

30 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

did not say : anathematize ;" but Paul did say : " If somebody should
preach unto you other than that which we preached unto you, let
him be anathema." What answer do you want us now to give to
Paul ? He said : " Let him be anathema," and you say that we
should not anathematize.

Three hundred and eighteen bishops assembled once and defined
the Catholic faith in the Father and the Son, and reached in the
Credo as far as the passage " And in the Holy Ghost," and they
anathematized Arms and Sabellius. Then one hundred and fifty
others gathered together in Constantinople, completed the Credo, and
said, " And in one Holy Ghost the Lord and vivifier of all, who
proceeds from the Father," etc., till the end of the Credo ; and they
anathematized the Macedonians. Then again two hundred and fifty
bishops assembled at Ephesus in the time of the Emperor Theodosius
and of the Patriarch Cyril, but they did not write a new profession of
faith nor did they add anything to the Credo in unum Deum, but
they said that the faith of the two previous Councils was sufficient ;
and they enacted in the Synod a Canon of anathemas and curses
against anyone who would introduce a new faith, or would add any-
thing to it, or diminish anything from it ; and after anathematizing
Nestorius and his teachers,2 they went back.

Then after a time the Emperor Marcian assembled that unholy
Council of Chalcedon. The Fathers of it, however, did not follow in
the steps of the Fathers who had preceded them, but through the
pressure brought upon them by the wicked Emperor, and by his
accursed wife, Pulcheria, and by other heretics who were present
there, such as Theodoret, they trespassed against the anathema of the
Council of Ephesus, and wrote a new Credo which begins : " We
believe in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and in the
incarnation of the Son." They thus made the Trinity a quaternity ;
and then they defined the two natures.

Now if the Greeks are anathematized, it is the Fathers of the
first Council who anathematize them ; what blame then attaches to
us from it ? Where did you hear in the faith of the ancients the
mention of the two natures, which the Greeks have added ? Et
Cetera.

1 Gal. i. 8.

2 Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia.

BARSALIBI 31

CHAPTER IV.
On the wicked Rites and Habits of the Greeks.

Let us see what Rabban Isho' writes on this subject : ' We
(Syrians) constitute ourselves the judges of Christians ; some of them
we make pagans and some others heretics. What would be better for
us to do would be to live in peace with everybody."

Peace is a very beautiful and praiseworthy thing, O honourable
one, but not all peace ; this is known from the sentence uttered by
our Saviour ; " I am come not to cast peace on the earth but sword ;
for I am come to set a father at variance against his son, and a
daughter against her mother." ] Learn, therefore, that peace with
immoral passions and with the enemies of truth drives us away from
God. The theologian ' says : "A just war is better than a peace
which separates from God." Examine well the saying of this Doctor
who teaches us that peace with everybody is not advantageous.

Now who makes the Christians pagan except themselves? A
pagan is much better than a 3 Christian who forsakes the true faith
and follows strange religions, and is unjust, immoral, adulterous, a
murderer, a liar, or a breaker of the law. Go now to the Capital 4 of
which you are so proud and see how much immorality prevails in it,
and what is still more terrible, how they call immorality " father."
Bring also to it with you foodstuffs of any kind 6 and see how they
will steal them from you and swear that they have not done so.

Let it be also known to you that the word " Greek" is expressed
in their language by " Hellenics," which further means "pagan."
What blame attaches to us from a fact to which they themselves bear
witness that their true names are "Hellenes" and "Hellenism,"
which mean "pagan" and "paganism" respectively? The name
" Romans " ' does not belong to them but to the Franks, and it is
derived from the name of " Rome" their town, and Romulus, their

1 Matt. x. 35.

2 Gregory Nazianzen. Here is the whole passage : " Melius enim est
laudabile bellum pace a Deo disjungente." Pat. Gr., xxxv. 487.

3 Read aina for aikanna. * Constantinople.

5 An obscene expression of this kind still survives in the vulgar par-
lance of North Syria and Cilicia.

6 Read meddaim for niadain. ~ Cf. Arabic rum.

32 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

ancient king ; and the Greeks unjustly stole it from them. What
does the word "heresy "mean except " heterodoxy," or holding of
another theological opinion ? He, therefore, who adds to, or subtracts
from, the theological opinion of the ancients is an heretic. So far as
we are concerned we love so dearly our ancient Fathers because of the
good habits and good laws which they have ; now what good habits
do the Greeks possess ? Is it the habit of eating fish and drinking
wine in Lent ? Or is it that other habit of theirs by which they rebel
against God, and make men like women, in emasculating them, and
defile themselves with many abominations ? What is still more
terrible is that they ordain such men priests and bishops. Paul has
said : "I permit not a woman to teach," l and what is the difference
between a woman and a neutered man ? on the whole the difference
is not very great. They have other perverse habits about which we
wrote at length elsewhere.

Which is the law that is observed to-day in their Capital ? Not
one. There is in it nothing but iniquity, injustice and theft ; the
strong in it beat the weak, and the rich plunder the poor ; their
soldiers enter anywhere they fancy, plunder and rob and misconduct
themselves with the wives of other men, who fear even to speak to
them.

You wrote : " They have arranged rites of prayers, canons and
Gospel lessons for every festival, and have given eleven lessons to
Easter ; and what they read here is read in every other Church of
theirs. They have also composed Canons and Cathismata and
stickera, and have written a book which turns on eight echadia. 2

If one is obliged to follow them for the sake of these rites which
you have mentioned, the Hebrew people had also similar rites ;
indeed the Torah was not read by everybody, but only by the elders
and the priests, and the prophetical Books were only read on some
special days, and what was read in Jerusalem was also read in every
country in which Jews were found, and their sacrifices were offered in
one3 place. David in his days set up twenty- four singers, every two

H Tim. ii. 12.

2 i.e. tones, tunes. The author refers here to the Melchite Octoechus.
Further, Canons, Cathismata and Stichera are well-known prayers of the
same community.

3 Read bhadh for biyadh.

BARSALlBI 33

of whom used to sing two hours and were followed by a relay of two
others. Coclions ( = Cyclii) and various kinds of tones never ceased
to be in use in the Temple ; and the Jews possessed other enactments
and rites of a similar kind. Why then we Christians do not follow
the Jews ? For crucifying the Son they were humbled in spite of
their tunes and rites. It is not through catechismata and stichera
that one will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but by means of
good works and pious deeds : "The fear of God is the beginning of
wisdom."

If the Gospel of the Syrians was different from that of the Greeks,
the former might have been blamed. But when the Gospel is one,
no harm and wrong can possibly attach to anyone who reads this or
that lesson from it on a special occasion. Look at the community of
Muhammad, their munddis or muadhdhins, when they cry, have the
same words here and anywhere else, and none of them adds anything
to them or subtracts anything from them, but no Christian praises them
for this rite. Lo the Syrians also have arranged their prayers in eight
tones, and they perform two echadia every week. Sundays are con-
secrated to the festival of the Resurrection ; Mondays and Tuesdays
are devoted to prayers for repentance ; Wednesdays are to the
Mother of God, to the martyrs and the dead ; Thursdays to the
Apostles and Doctors, to the Mother of God, to the martyrs, and to
the dead ; Fridays to the Cross ; and Saturdays to the Mother of
God, to the martyrs and the dead.

The Syrians perform also every month the eight echadia like the
Greeks ; and they have further Kabbelai Mar^ with the rest of the
Kale, while the M^irane1 with the rest of the iidakhraith are even
supererogatory, and it was only the wealth of the devotions of the
Syrian Fathers that induced them to arrange them as a rite in this way.
See now how the Greeks have no special prayers for the night, apart
from what they regularly recite in the morning and in the evening, at
night, and in the day-time ; but the Syrians who are endowed with
great wealth of devotions have also the Shuhlaph — Kdla which was
recited by the ancients, the Madhrashe", the Ma'nyatha, the
takhshpatha, the ba'watka, with the rest of the KaU of itdakkraith,

^ror. ix 10.

2 This and the following words are names of prayers in the West
Syrian breviary.

34 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

the Greek and Syriac Canons,1 and the 'Inyant. The fact that
people of every country pray differently, and have something which
singles them out from the rest, goes to their credit, first because it in-
dicates the wealth of their devotions and spiritual vigour, and secondly
because it is a sign of the incomprehensibility of God who wishes to be
glorified in different ways in different countries and towns.

Now you examine our Service Books and our penkyatha : 2 if you
find in them mistakes or heresies, blame and rebuke us ; but if they tell
the undiluted truth, why should they be blasphemous in their different
bat 2 and Klnatha ? The Greeks also have different Canons,
Stic her a, and Cathismata in different countries, and I myself saw in
the books of the Melchites Canons which were at Antioch recited for
the saints, but which were not so used in Melitene, and some others
were substituted in their place ; and the same thing happens with them
in other countries, as it happens also with the Franks, the Armenians
and other Christians, Tones and words vary with countries and
persons.

What harm is there in the simple service of Maksa ? It contains
" mul turn in parvo," and has been arranged for the sick, and at one
time, for the nuns. Now that it has been established everywhere you
see that it possesses driving force, and fulfils all the requirements of
the prayers directed to the Mother of God, to the Apostles, to the
Fathers, to the Prophets, to the Martyrs, to repentance, and to the
dead. " Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the Kingdom, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven." :

Let it also be known to you that the Canons, the Cathismata
and the rest have entered into the Church as something supererogatory.
This is known from the fact that in the days of the Doctors, there was
only reading and interpretation of the scripture in the Churches, and
there were not found in it melodies and harmonious modulations which
create lust in the hearers. When Bardaisan became insane and com-
posed the Kinta? St. Ephrem was obliged to multiply the madhrasha 6

1 The West Syrian Service Books have two kinds of Canons ; some
are called " Syrian" and some others "Greek."

2 Penkitha is the name of the West Syrian Breviary.

3 Matt. vii. 21.

4 Here : musical tunes and melodies with metrical compositions.

5 Here : didactic composition in poetry.

BARSALlBI 35

through which he destroyed Bardaisan's lustful Kinatha. And Mar
Severus recited ma'nyatha against the poets and against the 'onyatha
of the Greek Sustius.1 And John Chrysostom arranged the stichera
against the Arians who had composed 'onyatha through which they
used to deceive the simple folk. The same may also be said of the
Canons, etc., which really did harm to the Church, since they have
been in it the cause " of the cessation of the reading and interpretation
of scripture and the art of preaching. Show me if in the time of the
Apostles there were musical tones and 'onyatha, apart from the read-
ing and interpretation of scripture and the art of teaching and
preaching.

You write : In the penkiyatha 3 of the office of Lent it is said :
44 Moses, Elijah and Daniel fasted ; " and in the office of Palm
Sunday it is written : " The children glorified Him," etc. ; and in the
office of the Passion Week there is : " Blessed is Thy passion,
O Lord."

Let it be known to you that the Syrian writers showed the
mystery of every festival in the words of the office which they wrote
for it, and they wove all its history in the Kinatha, in order to teach
the hearers the mystery of the festival. It was quite legitimate for them
to have written the office of the festivals and commemorations in a
way that its prayers were directed only to penitence, but they wished
to put variety in the ritual. If, for instance, the Fathers had not said
in the breviary of the time of Lent that so-and-so had fasted, others
would not have imitated the ancients and fasted ; if they had
not explained how the wound of the sinners was healed, those who
had the wound of sin would not have had recourse to any medical treat-
ment and to penitence ; if they had not told how our Lord entered
Jerusalem and was praised by children, the children would not have
striven to emulate their praise ; if they had not concerned themselves
with Zechariah, David, Ezechiel and the Prophets, one would not have
known who prophesied about the Christ that he would ride on a she-ass
and enter the Holy City ; if they had not written about Abraham, and
his son, no one would ever have known that Abraham was the figure

1 Sic Cod. Is he the neo-Platonic bishop Synesius (375-430) who
wrote several hymns in Greek ? or is he Methodius the hymn-writer who
died about 311 ?

- Read frillathhon for millathhon. 3 Office books, breviary.

36 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

of the Father, and Isaac that of the Son, who was offered as a sacrifice
for us ; that Cain was the figure of the Jews, and Abel the figure of
Christ who was murdered ; and that the vineyard was the symbol of
the synagogue of the Jews.

Now knowledge and not ignorance is necessary for the understand-
ing of all these. The Hdhau 'Amm^ has been said by St. Ephrem,
and he derived it from the prophet who said " Rejoice and be glad
because your Saviour is mighty." ' The Train Talmldhe s is derived
from the Gospel. You say that these two prayers have no driving
power and no savour. If there is no driving power in the prophets
and in the Apostles whose very words have been borrowed by the
Fathers in the composition of these prayers, we will admit that the
former have not got them either ; but if the prophets and the Apostles
are believed in and accepted by all Christians, we must also accept the
Fathers and not rebel against the truth. Et cetera.

CHAPTER V.

On how tones and melodies do not bring any profit to those who
sing them and those who hear them.

Now let us come to the remaining part of what you wrote on this
subject : " To-day that you are the Father of the Syrians and the son
of ... the rest of your encomium it is not necessary to quote-
collect all the service books of the Church and write from them all
one good book of Octoechus*

What you have mentioned has been arranged by the ancient
Fathers in the matter 6 of Ma'niyatha and the service of nocturns, as
we have stated above. The Church, however, is in no need of them,
and I would suggest to you and to every God-fearing man that instead
of canticles and prayers containing musical melodies which bring no
profit to the singer nor to the hearer, to make use of the Books of the
Old and New Testaments and the writings of the Fathers, and to
read a chapter from each one of them at every festival. Both the
reader and the hearer will derive profit from these lessons. Be

1 Beginning of a prayer which means : " Peoples rejoice."
2Cf. Is. Ix. 16 and Ixv. 18, etc.

3 Beginning of a prayer which means : " Two disciples."

4 Lit. eight echadia. 5 Read bsharba for bsharka.

BARSALlBI 37

concerned with this good work rather than Canons. The Apostle
Peter said : "Be ready to give answer to every man that asketh you
a reason concerning the hope of your faith ; " l and the Apostle Paul
said : "In the Church I had rather speak five words with my under-
standing than ten thousand words." And : " Cry with thy throat,
spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their
transgression, and the children of Israel their sins." ' It is not good to
forsake the words of God and do good worldly service at the altar.

You see how the Prophets and the Apostles exhort us to read,
interpret, preach and teach the mysteries of the faith, and convert any
one who is against us, and not to sing and to contrive musical melodies
like sirens, nor to bray like asses, nor to utter sweet sounds like
nightingales, nor to sing like swans, nor to coo like doves, nor should
we institute to-day a feast for so-and-so, and to-morrow another feast
for so-and-so, and in this open our stomachs to excessive food, and
broaden our gullets to drink, and thus pander to the proclivities of our
alimentary desires and minister to occasions of sin and say : " To-day
is a feast, we must therefore eat and drink." To pagans belong
festivities, songs, dances, banquets and drink, and to Christians fasting,
prayer, and reading of scripture. In their festivities the Greeks
resemble, therefore, those who are outside our sheepfold.

Let it be also known to you that musical tunes and melodies with
Canons, stichera and the rest of them have come down to the Greeks
from outsiders, that is to say from the pagan Odysseus who having
experienced the sweetness of the song of sirens which dwelt in the sea
of Scylla, perceived a desire to learn it ; and because these sirens sang
men used frequently to throw themselves into the sea, bewitched as
they were by their song, and were eaten by them. Odysseus, however,
resorted to a stratagem : he plugged with wax the ears of the sailors, and
some men tied him and his companions with chains of iron, and they
floated on the sea. When the sirens saw them they began to sing
songs of various melodies, but those men whose ears were plugged did
not hear the sweetness of the song, and those who were attached with
chains of iron could not throw themselves into the sea because of their
being strongly tied, and so they little by little learned the melodies
and introduced 4 them to mankind. Examine, then, the origin of the

M Peter iii. 15. 21 Cor. xiv. 19.

3 Is. Iviii. 1 . * Change the yodh into a waw.

4

38 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

melodies. It is really the sirens which have to take pride rather than
the Greeks.

You say : " It is not fair to make other Christians heretics, and to
call ourselves orthodox people."

If Christians were such as they, what would you be yourself ? If
you answer that you are a Christian, rise up and go to them and see
what they will call you. If they are not heretics, then the Syrians are.
If you pretend that both sides are right, no one from either side will
believe you, neither from our side nor from the side of the adversaries.
They call us heretical Jacobites, and we call them Chalcedonians,
Nestorians, and heretics. If you have enough power in you like your
namesake Joshua,1 son of Nun, to reconcile them with one another,
we ourselves will help you in everything. But what union is there
between light and darkness ? Many believed that it would be good
to join the adversaries, but this has proved a stumbling block to them
and finally their downfall. When Ahab had pity on Benhadad and
saved his life, God got angry with him and with his people, and he
was rejected from power, and Hazael 2 killed him.3

You write : " My heart does not allow me to anathematize
anyone, not even Nestorius and his companions. If I do not accept
them it is solely because they are alien to, and rejected from, the
Church of God."

I am tempted to be amazed at your simplicity, O brother, how it
easily contradicts itself. You contended that your heart4 does not
allow you to anathematize Nestorius and his companions, and you have
at the same time unknowingly anathematized him. Anathema is a
separation from God, and when you have separated them from the
Church and rejected and denounced them, you have anathematized
them. Do you then believe that anathema means anything else ?
The word " anathema " is used in two meanings. The first meaning
is found in the sentence of Moses : " every ' anathema ' 5 which is

1 In Syriac Is ho1 renders both "Jesus" and "Joshua."

2 For Samuel of the MS.

3Cf. 1 Kings xx. 31 sqq. ; 2 Kings viii. 15. "Him" means Benhadad.

4 Read libbakh for lakh.

5 In Syriac the same word hirma is used in the Scriptural passages used
below, and means both "anathema" and "offering, vow, sacrifice." This
distinction is a favourite theme of some Jacobite writers. See Pseudo-
Philoxenus in my Early Spread of Christianity in Central Asia, 1925,
p. 61.

BARSALlBI 39

* anathematized ' by a man." ] Here " anathema " means " vow " :
i.e. every vow vowed by a man. The second kind of anathema is
that spoken of by Paul : "He who does not love our Lord Jesus
Christ let him be anathema." : The first " anathema " means " vow "
and "sacrifice," and the second anathema means "separation from
God " and " rejection from the Church of God." This last kind of
anathema is the one used by the Doctors against the heretics.

You write : "The Greeks have a heavenly King, and God gave
them also an earthly king, how can they not be proud ? "

It is written that we cannot serve two masters,3 O brother. If
they call God their King, they are deprived of an earthly king ; and
if they seek the earthly one, they forsake the heavenly one. This is
also known by what God said to Samuel : In asking for an earthly
king, the Jews " have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me,"
Creator and God, "that I should not reign over them."' You see
how 5 God Himself decreed by His words that any one who has an
earthly king is deprived of the heavenly one. We follow the words
of God, and do not contend that a man has two kings ; if it was so
he would be bound to " love the one and hate the other, and hold to
one and despise the other."

Every pride in an earthly kingdom is from the evil one ; it is he
who overcomes the passions and lays the body under the power of the
soul who is a king. Further, other Christian peoples have also kings,
and they do not for that take pride in their souls, and the Persians
and the Arabs have all kings, and we could not say that they have
greater right than we have. The true kingdom is that which is
established in orderliness and virtue, as in the times of Constantine,
Theodosius and the rest of the Roman kings, that is to say the kings
of the Franks.0 Now look back at the kings of the Greeks of our
days, how they commit adultery and fornication more than the pagan
kings. When they are ordered not to take two wives, they take
them. And enter their Metropolis, and you will see in a love of
money, which is the root of all evil,' and coveteousness which is

1 Num. xxx. 2. - 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 3 Matt. vi. 24.

4 1 Sam. viii. 7. 5 Eliminate one aikanna.

6 The author is at some pains to distinguish between " Romans " whom
" he calls Franks " (Arab. Rumamyun, Syr. Romaye), and " Byzantines "
(Arab. Rum, Syr. Romaye, Yaunaye) whom he calls " Greeks."

7 1 Tun. vi. 10.

40 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

idolatry,1 and unbounded adultery, not only among laymen and
lay women, but also among the clergy. No king, no head, and no
superior can stop them. Their bishops are likewise covetous, and
they pile up gold like stones, and they enjoy material things, and
wear fine linen and purple instead of wool.2 They ride also on
powerful mules and bathe in the public baths like women, and relish
different kinds of food. Faith without works and good conduct is
dead.3 El cetera.

CHAPTER VI.

Against the Pride of the Chalcedonians, and on the Building

of their Capital.

Let us proceed now with haste and examine the fallacy of the
Greeks on this subject.

You write : ' The beautiful Metropolis which Jeremiah has
foreseen when lamenting over Jerusalem is our Metropolis. God
showed him her towers, her beauty, her ramparts, and her buildings
and said to him : ' Do not weep over Jerusalem, lo I have found a
house better than Jerusalem, and I will bring all people and all
tongues to its glory ; M and it happened as he said."

To whom shall we now speak, and on whom shall we pour our
wrath ? On those who foolishly utter fallacies like these, or on
people 5 who listen to them ? In what passage did Jeremiah prophesy
about Constantinople, and who is the commentator who understood
it in that sense ? Jeremiah was taken to Egypt ; and according to
some people, he even composed his Lamentations over Jerusalem in
Egypt. It is not written in the Lamentations that he prophesied
about the Metropolis, nor about a town that would stand on its site.
If they are so untruthful in palpable subjects like this, how much
more will they be so on the subject of faith which is thinner that a
hair ?

\ Col. iii. 5.

2 Or : sackcloth. A wool garment is an emblem of poverty and
penitence. Cf. the word Sufi (from which the Mohammedan Sufis, and
Sufism) which means "woolly " from Suf" wool."

3Jas. ii. 17.

4 There is no such passage in the Lamentations.

5 Read aw 'a! for akh-d.

BARS ALIBI 41

They raved also another falsehood to the effect that it was
Euphemia the martyr who gave them the articles of faith of the
Council of Chalcedon. In this they show that they have received
their faith from a dead woman ; and to this effect they even hang in
their Churches the picture of something which is unreal. The fact is
that the Council assembled in the temple of Euphemia, and the
Tomos of the unholy Leo and the other book containing the articles
of faith were laid in the font of the saint ; but it is nowhere written
that the saint rose from the dead and confirmed them ; what they are
uttering is pure lie, and their powerful pillars, and the enemies of the
truth, such as Joannes Damascenus, Theophilus, and Theodore of
Harran did not write these lies, I mean the untruth concerning
Jeremiah and Euphemia, because they knew that they were lies.
Damascenus, however, indulged in another falsehood in writing that
a child rose up to heaven and heard the angels say : " Sanctus es
Deus, Sanctus es Omnipotens, Sanctus es Immortalis" without the
addition: Qui crucifixus es pro nobis? Against this we wrote at
length (in another book) and we reproved him and showed that " no
man hath ascended into heaven but he that descended out of heaven."
We rebuked them that their faith has come down to them from a
woman, and that their trisagion has emanated from a child not yet in
his full senses, and not from an angel or a man in his full senses.
You, however, believe not the untruth 3 that they have uttered against
the Armenians.

Constantinople was built in the time of Manasseh by the brothers
Byzantion, and it was a pagan town, which had no fame till the
days of Constantine who repaired to it and enlarged it.

You say that it is written : "I will bring to it all peoples and
tongues for worship," to which we will answer : not the Christian,
but the pagan, peoples. We have heard that peoples and tongues
went to Jerusalem for worship ; and to the town you are mentioning
no one ever went for worship, but only on business. Further, when
did Christians ever repair to it for the sake of honour ? They went
to it only to grub, and to buy and sell. It is frequented mostly by
Persians, Arabs, and barbarous and godless peoples, such as Rumanians

1 See the story in Joannes Damascenus, De Fide Orthodoxa, cap. HT.,
Tol. i., p. 219 (edit. Lequien).

2 John iii. 1 3. 3 Which untruth ?

42 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

and Hungarians, who have enriched it with gold, silver and precious
stones. Lo, Bagdad, Cairo, and other towns of the kingdom of the
Arabs are richer in gold, silver and precious stones, and we do not
say that they have more truth than we have.

Listen now to Gregory, how he rebukes those who are rich in
gold : " Against those who have gold and silver, we have a pure
speech ; against those who have churches, we possess the One who
dwells in them ; against those who have temples, we possess God and
we are His living temples ; and against those who have multitudes,
we have angels."

You write : " God has gathered together and brought to it
prophets, apostles, and martyrs, so that none of them is outside it."

This also is untrue. James, the brother of our Lord, is buried in
Jerusalem, and James, son of Zebedee, is in the west, south of the
city of Rome ; Peter and Paul are in Rome, and John, son of
Zebedee is buried in Ephesus, where also is the mother of God. The
Apostle Thomas was buried in India, and his bones were transferred
to Edessa. Ezechiel and the three children 1 are in Babylonia with
Daniel, and the prophet Isaiah is in Jerusalem. The rest of the
prophets and apostles are likewise in all directions, and all are not in
the Metropolis. As to St. Basil, all the Emperors strove to transfer
his bones from Caesarea to the Metropolis, but they did ' not succeed.
The great Meletius 2 was transferred from the Metropolis to Antioch.
As to the wood of the Holy Cross, it was in Jerusalem, and in the
time of Shahrbaraz and Chosrau it was carried to Persia, and in their
time also it was brought back and sawn in the middle, and half of it
reached the Metropolis.

You write : " And also the rod of Moses and the staff of Aaron,
and the ark."

O deceivers and liars ! How they deceive the simple folk to
make them accept their teaching ! In the ark were the rod, the staff,
and the golden pot holding the manna. This ark and all the
sacraments that it contained Jeremiah took out and hid in a cave : and
from that day up to now no one has ever known their exact place.
We know this from the Book of Maccabees and from other Doctors.

1 Lit. Companions of Hananiah.

2 Meletius of Antioch who died in 38 1 .

BARSALlBI 43

You write : " And also the twelve baskets, and the veronica,
and the robe of the mother of God."

From the time of the Economy of Christ to that of Constantine,
there are more than three hundred years, and in that time kings were
pagan, and Christianity was not yet in plain light ; who, therefore,
collected the above sacred objects for the Greeks ? So they are also
liars in this matter ; they have neither the baskets, nor the crown of
thorns — for which they have fabricated one of nails — nor the swad-
dling clothes of Christ, as they rave. It is possible that the existence
there of the veronica is true, but who stole the robe of the mother of
God and brought it to them, and left the Virgin naked ? Fie, the
madness ! All the sacred objects were in Jerusalem, but when the
Jews transgressed the commandments and the law, they were taken in
captivity, and Jerusalem was destroyed ; the ark also and the tables
of the Covenant were carried away by the Philistines : their pride,
therefore, in these things is that of ignorant and not of intelligent
men.

As to the right hand of John the Baptist by which they sanctify
the holy chrism, do not follow blindly after children, O brother !
Tell me this : when Herodias took the head of John the Baptist in a
charger,1 what profit did she get out of this gift ? Was it not a loss
that she sustained ? It is the good actions of a man that give him the
right to be worthy of John's fellowship, and not the fact that he
possesses great things for which he does not care. To a pig pearls
and muck are on the same level. Many asses of merchants carry
precious things from which they derive no profit whatever.

Concerning John the Baptist, Theodoret, the helper of the Greeks,
wrote that in the days of Julian the Apostate, pagans took 2 his bones
from the urn and burned them.3 John of Asia 4 also wrote that in the
time of Justinian one of the prefects of Palestine who was like a pagan

1 Mark vi. 2S. - Add a ivau to the verb.

3 Here is the whole passage of Theodoret ; " Sebastae vero, quae et
ipsa ejusdem est gentis, Joannis Baptistae arcam aperuerunt, et, ossibus
combustis, cinerem dissiparunt." Pat. Gr., Ixxxii. 1091.

4 It is the Syrian historian John of Ephesus. I failed to see this passage
in the fragments that have come down to us from the great historical work of this
Syrian writer, as published by Land (Anecdota Syriaca, ii., 289-329, and
385-391) and by Cureton (The Third Part of Ecd. Hist, of John Bishop
of Ephesus, 1853).

44 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

in his conduct, sent a right hand to the Metropolis and said that it
was John the Baptist's. Many were suspicious about it and said that
it could not be true. It was, however, accepted by the Emperor and
the people as true.1 Where is it written that the holy chrism should
be sanctified by the right hand of John ? The Greeks that are
amongst us rave that they mix the blood of Christ with the holy
chrism. The Apostles and the Doctors have ordered that the holy
chrism should be composed of different elements and be sanctified by
the prayers of the bishops and the people, and these pretend that it
contains the blood of Christ ; which is untrue. This would make
them resemble the Jews who said : " His blood be on us and on our
children." : And they are being baptized by this same blood !

If the holy chrism is sanctified by a dead right hand, they are,
therefore, being baptized by a dead man ; because although St. John
be living to God, he is so in his soul, while in his body he is so far
dead, and he has not yet resuscitated. How can the right hand of a
dead man sanctify the holy chrism ? Why ! this is not a great affair,
since their ordination also emanates from a dead man ! Indeed they
used to receive for some time their bishops from Rome, but when
trouble arose between them and the Franks, Rome did not give them
any bishop ; and it was after many frays and bickerings that they gave
them a bishop, but when the messengers who were bringing him
reached the city of Heraclea in Thrace, he fell ill and died. They
were then in great pain and sorrow, and fearing lest the Romans
should require the ordination of another bishop from them, they
resorted to a stratagem and brought a man and laid the hand of the
dead bishop on his head and ordained him. They decreed also that
in future it is the bishop of Thrace that shall lay the right hand on
the head of all the bishops of the Capital. This custom they observe

1 Concerning the recent opening of the new Museum of Constantinople
the correspondent of the Manchester Guardian writes, under the date of
24 January, 1927, as follows : " Some interesting reliquaries are displayed,
including — from Byzantine times — a gold and jewelled section of the cranium
of the traditional head of St. John the Baptist, and a gold forearm showing
part of the bones of the back of the Saint's hand. They were taken from a
Christian Church by Mohammed the Conqueror, and have been preserved in
the Treasury ever since."

Manchester Guardian, 2 February, 1927.

3 Matt, xxvii. 25.

BARSALlBI 45

down to our own days, and on it we have written elsewhere in
several places.

You write : "So far as we are concerned whom have we but SS.
Barsauma and Aaron ? "

What shall we say to a mind glued to earthly things ? As to us
we have our beloved,1 the Lord of heaven and earth ; it is He, the
Lord of heaven and earth and holy sacraments who said : ' Where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them ; " and who spoke through the prophet : I do not
count heaven and earth, " where is the house ye build unto me ? "
and who proclaimed in the mouth of Isaiah : ' To whom shall we
look and in whom shall I dwell except him who is peaceful and
humble," and fears my word.4 You will see, if you reflect, whom
we have ! He is indeed St. Barsauma ! Listen also to St. John
Chrysostom how he rises against those who take pride in such things ;
he said in the eighty- second chapter of his commentary on Matthew :
" How many men there are now who say ' We wish to see the face
of Christ, His image, His dresses, and His shoes ; ' but lo you are
seeing Him, and you are holding Him ; you are eating Him, and
you are wishing to see His dresses ! He did not give Himself to you
in order that you may only see Him, but that you may also touch
Him, eat Him, and receive Him in yourself." '

What would you say about this quotation ? Did it not confute
and destroy all that you wrote ? Did it not put an end to all the
pride of the Greeks ? Do not err, therefore, after them, but follow
in the steps of your fathers. Et cetera.

1 Or possibly : O our beloved !

- Matt, xviii. 20. " Isa. Ixvi. 1 , with slight changes.

4 Isa. Ixvi. 2, with slight changes.

0 Here is the whole passage : " Quot sunt qui modo dicunt : vellem ejus
formam, typum, vestimenta, calceamenta, videre? Ecce ilium vides, ipsum
tangis, ipsum comedis ; et tu quidem vestimenta videre cupis ; ipse vero
seipsum tibi dat, non videndum modo, sed tangendum, comedendum, intus
accipiendum." Pat. Gr.t Iviii. 743.

46 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

CHAPTER VII.
On the fact that he made the Greeks the head of all Christians.

Let us go on with our investigation of the words of this
writer * and see how he inclines to all winds, and how he possesses
zeal and kindness, but not in the sense in which the Apostle intended
these to be.

You write : " Why should we blame them ? If they blame us it
is because we did not obey them when they were right. It is written :
" The superiors of the peoples are their superiors." 2

How well has Esau 3 been tested and his hidden mind disclosed !
In everything that you have propounded you have shown 4 that you
are not holding your faith from conviction but out of hypocrisy. On
the one hand you persuade us not to blame those who out of their
own free will have trampled on the anathemas of the Synod of
Ephesus and decreed another canon. On the other hand you gave
them authority to blame us on the score that they are our superiors
and directors. Show us where you get the information that they have
that precedence of us which would entitle them to blame us, and be
our superiors. If you say that it is because they were evangelized
before us, we demonstrated in our previous letter to you 5 that their
evangelization did not precede ours. If you pretend that they are our
superiors because some of their books have been translated by us, we
have proved decisively that all the Doctors of the Church are not
Greek.

As the Jews do not scorn the Christians because it is from their
people that the Books of the Prophets and Apostles have emanated,
so also the Greeks should not blame us on this score. If as you say
they are our superiors, and they have consequently right to blame us
because we did not listen to them, the Jews will hold them by their
throats and say : " We are older than you, and we are your superiors
and directors ; you took the Books from us ; (l come and become like

1 I.e. Rabban 'Isho'.

2 Or : those who blame the peoples are their superiors. Cf. Luke
xxii. 25.

3 He refers to his adversary.

4 Eliminate the waw before the verb.

5 This letter seems to be lost. 6 Read minnan for minkhon.

BARSALlBI 47

us ; if we blame you, it is our duty to do so ; you Greeks should
never rebuke us for the fact that we crucified the Christ." What are
these old women's tales, and what is this useless discussion!

You write : " That Council (of Chalcedon) which had six hundred
and thirty- six Fathers, and from which two were driven out."

I am amazed at the way you have accepted as true the falsehood
of liars. Who saw (the Fathers of that Council) and counted them
as amounting to such a number ? Who read their unofficial proceed-
ings and deliberations ? As for us we read everything in books and
we know what was done and spoken there, and how long the Council
lasted ; we have also written with us the names of all the bishops
who assembled in it, and those who subscribed to it by proxy, and the
number of all them amounts only to three hundred and sixty-three.
To what extent can the deceivers lie ! They believe that it is by the
magnitude of the number of the Fathers that truth is made manifest.
Three hundred and seventy bishops assembled in the town of Made-
cohnus l subscribed to the wickedness of Anus, and wished 2 to
throw away Athanasius the Great, because he did not agree with
them.

Now what do you say ? Had the high number of men in this
case greater right than one man, or had this one man, Athanasius,
greater right than all of them ? Learned men even among the Greeks
testify that Athanasius was right Picture, therefore, in your mind
and know that Dioscorus and the bishops who were with him had like-
wise 3 greater right than the other three hundred who out of their fear
of the king and for the love of their sees 4 put their signatures to the
Tomos of Leo. Abraham was in his days the only one who served
God, the rest being idol- worshippers. But listen to what the holy
Theologian0 says : "Three men who gather together in the name of
God, are more numerous before His eyes than several myriads who
deny His Godhead. Would you honour all the Canaanites more
than one Abraham, or the Sodomites more than one Lot, or the
Midianites more than one Moses?" And he added afterwards:

1 Sic cod. ; it is Mediolanum (Milan). - Read Sbau for Sba.

3 Read aph for aphain.

4 Or chairs ; see Pseudo-Philoxenus in my Early Spread of Christianity
in Central Asia, 1925, p. 63.

°i.e. Gregory Nazianzen.

48 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

" No ; this could not be, could not be. God was not pleased with a
great number of people. You count the myriads, but God counts those
who are saved ; you (count) the earth that cannot be measured, but I
will (count) the vessels of election." ]

You further write: "Those Karion^ which are called Koklia
are invented by the Jews."

Show us the Canon which was invented by the Jews. It is said
that the Jews invented not the Kanond but the tishbhatha to the
tunes of which the Kanvn.4 have been invented, and which serve as the
foundations of their intonations. As to whether the Koklia are from
the Hebrews, I heard that it is the tishbhatha, that is to say the
mazmbre, that they sing with different melodies. Ponder well over
what you write, and then begin to discuss.

You condescended also to say that the Greeks took the kingdom
of the Romans by stratagem.

When did it happen that a kingdom has been stolen ? It is God
who removes kings and raises up kings. He removed the kingdom
from the Franks3 and bestowed it on the Greeks. That a kingdom,
however, is stolen without the wish of God is known from the fact
that Absalom stole the kingdom from his father David, and the people
leaned towards him. That a king does rise without the order of God
is also borne out by the prophet who testifies and says : " He reigned
but not by me, and he governed but not by my will." Wicked kings
reign by the tacit permission of God ; this occurs especially when
iniquity is on the increase among the people. If God gave the kingdom
to the Greeks, it follows that it is He who also gave it to the Arabs and
the Turks for such a long time. The fact, however, is not so, and the
subject is different from the one that concerns us.

You write : " The foreign 5 merchants who go in and out of the

1 Here is the whole passage : "... tres in nomine Domini congregates
plures apud Deum censeri quam multos divinitatem abnegantes. An tu
universes etiam Chananaeos Abrahamo uni antepones ? An Sodomitas uni
Lot ? An Madianrtas Moysi ? . . . Non est ita, non, inquam ita est. Non
in pluribus beneplacitum est Deo (1 Cor. x. 5). Tu quidem myriades
numeras, at Deus eos qui salutem consequuntur ; tu infinitum pulverem, ego
electionis vasa." Pat. Gr., xxxvi. 467.

" Names of ritual prayers = Canons.

3 i.e. the Romans. 4 Hos. viii. 4.

5 Lit. of different tongue.

BARSALIBI 49

Metropolis testify that there is no kingdom, no government, no wealth,
and no charity similar to that of the Greeks ; and we Syrians consider
them as nothing."

Your saying that the Greeks are praised by outsiders and not by
Christians is prophetical ; we mean by outsiders Persians, Arabs, and
Turks. Earthly people think of earthly things. The Greeks are not
praised by just, pious, and orthodox people, but by grubbing and rob-
bing merchants. And in what do these praise them ? In the fact
that there is no kingdom, no government, and no wealth like theirs.

Alexander has not been praised in any (sacred or ecclesiastical)
book because his government embraced three ends of the inhabited
globe, and his kingdom extended to nearly all the earth, and his wealth
increased like stones. The kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and that of
Sennacherib, Pharaoh, and others was also very great, but in what did
these pagans excel in their kingdom and government ? Is it in their
piety and holiness ? There is no man of sound judgment who thinks
so. Do not praise, therefore, the Greeks for something that is shameful
before the eyes of God. The ancients, prophets and Apostles, have
not been praised for their government, kingdom and wealth, but for
their trials, privations, poverty and wants.

You say : " There is no charity like theirs." This is also untrue.
Where is the one who has been fed l in the bazaars of their Capital ?
Indeed how many needy and destitute people walk in its bazaars ?
Some Christians who had gone there because of their poverty told 2 us
that they have no mercy at all,3 and that when they wish to eat bread
they close their doors and bolt them, and the poor man hoarsens his
voice in crying and sighing from hunger, and no man gives him bread.
Here we will end this subject.

CHAPTER VIII.

On hov) He Blames His Co-religionists and is Proud of the

Greeks.

You write : ' We (Syrians) were the first in our evangeliza-
tion and the Greeks the last, and God gave us kingdom, power,

1 Read ettzln for esdben. - Add a waw to the verb.

3 Read dsakh for nsakh.

50 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

ecclesiastical see,1 and honour, because we were the first to believe in
Him, but now He has greatly humbled us."

0 brother, open your eyes and see, incline your ear and listen, and
you will not cling much to earthly things. Christ did not promise the
Christians earthly things sticking with mud, but He promised them
heavenly things. " Seek the things that are above, and set your
mind on the things that are above where Christ is." 2 It is the pagans
who glory in an earthly kingdom and have earthly possessions ; if we
Christians wish to fix our minds on the latter, by what would we be
distinguished from pagans ? Have you not heard your Lord say :
" My kingdom is not of this world ; if it were then would my ser-
vants fight for me."' And: "Where I am, there shall also my
servant be." ' If we are, therefore, the servants of Christ, we should
prepare ourselves for our journey to His heavenly kingdom, and not
seek to reign here like other people who have no hope.

To which of the Apostles, who were the first to be evangelized,
did God give in this world, kingdom, government, and wealth ? On
the contrary, they toured the world in want, privation, poverty, and
need. Has not the Son of God Himself plainly declared that He
" hath not where to lay His head." { Peter and John said to the
man that was lame : " Silver and gold have we none, but in the name
of Jesus rise and walk."' The Lord of all did not bestow any
worldly honours, nor any earthly kingdom, which in reality is nothing,
on all these saints who forsook everything and followed him. If every
poor man were despised 7 before God and wrong in his faith, and if
the man who8 has wealth and kingdom were right in his faith, it
would have been high time for you to despise Lazarus, the poor, full
of sores, and to extol the rich man who was " clothed in purple and
fine linen and faring sumptuously ; " * it would have also been good
opportunity for you to praise the faith of the sons of Hagar 10 who
reigned in the earth from end to end, and are prosperous in the world,
while the Christians are lowly, wretched, under subjection, and poor.

Listen to your Lord who says : "If the world hateth you, know

1 Allusion to the Patriarchal See of Antioch.

2 Col. iii. 1 -2. 3 John xviii. 36. 4 John xii. 26.
5 Matt. viii. 20. 6 Acts iii. 6.

7 Remove the waw before s/ilt. 8 Add a waw to tiau.

9 Cf. Luke xvi. 1 9 sq. 1IJ The Arabs.

BARSALJBI 51

ye that it hath hated me before you." And : " If ye were of the
world, the world would love its own." ' And : " If they persecuted
me, they will also persecute you." 5 And : ' Ye shall weep and
lament, but the world shall rejoice."4 And : " Love of this world is
enmity against God." : What do you say against all these ? Your
Lord has shown that it is the one who possesses neither kingdom nor
government who is accepted by Him. He who is here in subjection
and strong in faith is going to ° rejoice in the kingdom of heaven which
will never perish.

You write : "There are no Syrians except with you in Melitene
and in Edessa. There are very few of them with us."

Now Rabban 'Isho' comes back to us like a mighty teacher, and
believing that the Syrians are uprooted more than any other people,
he asks us why.

If you say that that is their condition because of their sins, we will
retort that there are to-day many pagans and Jews who have kindled
and kindle the wrath of God more than the Syrians, yet they are
strong in power and prosperous in wealth, and their number is so high
that it cannot be reckoned. Tell me also why are the prophets that
rose in this world now uprooted, while the Jewish people who crucified
the Son is still prosperous everywhere. Where are the Fathers, the
just men, and the pontiffs ? Where are the Apostles, the evangelists,
the solitaries, the martyrs, and the confessors ? If all these are up-
rooted because of their sins or for a similar reason,' so also consider the
Syrians ; but if it is because God loved them that He took them to
Him, you should also assert the same in the case of the Syrians.

Now listen to what Jeremiah says : " Now that the just have gone
to their rest, and the prophets have died, and we have left the land, we
have nothing but the mighty one and His law."* That just king
Josiah also did not last long in power, and it has been said about him :
" The just man goes to his rest before the wrath." ' You see that the
wheat is always gathered in the barns while the chaff is abandoned.

1 John xv. 1 8. - John xv. 1 9. 3 John xv. 20.

4 John xvi. 20. 5 Rom. viii. 7 (Syr.).

6 Remove the waw before 'th'idh.

' Add the words hraitha or ddhamya.

sThis quotation is from the Apocalypse of Baruch (Pat. Syr., ii. 1230).

9 Is. Ivii. i.

52 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

You write: -"Why should we (Syrians) be proud because we
were evangelized first ? The Christ has said : ' Many shall be last
that are first, and first that are last.' "

We did not take pride because we were evangelized first ; but we
simply asked you the reason why the Greeks scorn us after you had
made them our superiors and directors ! We have not received our faith
from them ; the Books have not come down from them to us, and
their language is not more ancient than ours. Further, in Lord Jesus
" there is no Greek, no barbarian, no bondman, and no freeman, but
Christ is all and in all." : He who works with Him is accepted by
Him. The proof which you put forward runs counter to what you
intended : you say that we who are first became the last, but see how
in the same sequence you added : " and the last shall be first ; " the
Syrians who in your sentence were the last became the first in relation
to the Greeks.

You write : "A prickly shrub that gives a beautiful rose, how
can its master uproot it ? "

It is sufficient for it that its name is a " prickly shrub." There
are many prickly shrubs which have no roses but are full of thorns, and
their end is fire. Before the Council of Chalcedon the Greeks were
not prickly shrubs, but a tree that bore fruits. After they tore the
robe of Christ and divided it into duality of natures, the rose of the
"first" was taken away from them, in a way similar to that of the
Jews from whom priesthood and Books have been taken and given to
a people that would yield fruits. The Jews were like the fig tree of
tender branches ; 4 as long as they kept the commandments and
discarded sin, they were planted in the angle of the heavenly abode,
but when they sinned and transgressed the commandments, the vine-
yard, that is to say, the people, was uprooted, and the vine and
its branches were burnt, and the fig tree was cut to pieces from its
roots by the axe of Vespasian and cast into the fire of dispersion.

Why did you not say to the master of the vineyard, as you would
have doubtless wished to have done: let the "prickly shrub" be

1 Matt. xix. 30. 2Col. iii. 11.

3 The author is playing here on the Syriac word sanya which means a
" rose-tree," and as a participle of the verb sna, a " vile and despicable
person."

4 The beginning of the sentence is somewhat corrupt.

BARSALIBI 53

watered, in order that it may bring forth a rose ? But which is the
rose of the Greeks ? Please tell me. If you say that the rose is the
Canons, the cathismata, and the stichera, intelligent people do not
consider these as a rose, because both our Church and theirs have
been meditating for a long time over these hymns, and have been
unable to convert through them a single man to the right path. The
true rose is scriptural meditation, interpretation, teaching, wisdom
and good advices ; it is through these that the Apostles and Doctors
converted all the ends of the earth to the truth. A second rose
consists in fast, prayer, charity, holiness, chastity, and acts of perfection.
It is through the scent of this rose that one can convert his own soul
and convert others also.

Listen now to what the Doctors say concerning Canons and
Kinatka, of which you are proud. The poets and the composers of
Kinatha, call sometimes a Kinta angelic, and some other times they
compare the singers to Moses and to the three children. They
confined1 their Biblical references concerning those who fasted in
repentance to the Ninevites, and to the publican. Through high-toned
Ziimmart you may forget or completely lose the power of penitence.
We are commanded to " pray with the spirit and to sing with the
understanding." This is something difficult for a Greek to do, since
his mind is concentrated on music.

God permitted sacrifices because He knew that the Israelites could
not be convinced otherwise ; and He also permitted the use by them
of cymbals and other musical instruments, in order that they may not
indulge in profane glees and in banquets. At the end, however, he
put an end to sacrifices in saying : "I have no pleasure in whole burnt
offerings, and the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit." ' He also
put an end to songs and melodies by saying through the prophet :
' Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs ; for I will not
hear the melody of thy viols." How is it that you who have been
ordered to sing spiritual songs endeavour to mix with the Church songs
those relaxing Klnatha and loose tones, and thus weaken with these
same Klnatha the vigour of the souls which have hardened themselves
against the passions, and mortified their bodies by ascetic works, and
begun to sing with angels ?

1 Add a waw to the verb. J 1 Cor. xiv. 1 5.

3 Ps. li. 16-17. 4 Amos xv. 23.

5

54 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

If somebody says that these Kinatha are spiritual, let him show
me their fruits, and I will agree : " By their fruits ye shall know them." 1
You do not see any poet making repentance from the depth of his
heart, nor striking on his breast to thwart unclean movements. On the
contrary he stands erect, shakes his head, moves his neck hither and
thither, gesticulates with his hands and his fingers and claps them
together with noise ; he often also strikes with his foot against the
ground, but he does not exhibit a single fruit of penitence to the hearers
who are bewitched by the sweetness of his Kinta ( = melody).2
Church music is not like this, but it is quiet, lugubrious, and inducing
to sighing and weeping.

Kinatha did not penetrate into the Churches except when these
were deprived of the gifts of teaching. When there was nobody to
impart sound teaching, chanted hymns invaded the Churches. Look,
therefore, at this Doctor,3 how he disliked the Canons, and the
Zummare", and magnified and praised the interpretations of doctrine.
Do not despise, therefore, the Kabbelai Maran^ and the 'al 'itra
dbisme, and the Dukhranah cC Mar yam. Very often one gets
greater spiritual gains from these simple Kale than from the elaborate
tones, in which the words are lost or not caught by the ears of the
listeners through the twistings, falls, elevations, and cadences of the
voice. Let this subject end here.

CHAPTER IX.
On the Sign of the Cross.

Let us examine now your other points. You write : " Show me
a Christian who believes in Christ who crosses himself with one5
finger that we also should do the same. What is there that matters
in the act itself ; if you wish, cross yourself with one finger, and if you
wish, do it with two fingers."

1 Matt. vii. 20.

2 The author's description of a chanting poet is rather interesting.

3 Which Doctor ? A sentence may have possibly been missed in the
preceding lines.

* These and the following Syriac words represent the first words of
West Syrian liturgical prayers.
5 Add an Alaph to hdha.

BARSALIBI 55

Lo the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Nubians, that is to say the
Indians,1 and the peoples of their neighbourhood, such as the Kushites
( = Abyssinians) cross themselves with one finger. We have shown
you above that the Book and nature agree with us on this point ; but
now that you have become the advocate of the Chalcedonians, show
us either from yourself or from them the Doctor from whom they
have received the meaning of the habit of which the two fingers are
the emblem, and where it is written.

If the habit of crossing oneself with two fingers symbolizes the two
natures, as the babbling nonsense of the Greeks has it, they crucify,
therefore, both these natures as we have already written in the previous
chapters. How could it be good to make the divine nature suffer and
be crucified ? If, however, there is nothing in the fact of crossing our-
selves with one finger or with two, why do you then forsake the habit
of crossing yourself with one finger, practised by your fathers, and
make use of the practice of two fingers against your fathers ? If, as
you say, you are not a stumbling block to your children and to the
children of your people — and it is more advantageous that one should
not be a stumbling block and a boulder — when your people, with the
presbyters, elders, dead and living bishops warn you that the practice
is a stumbling block and a scandal, how is it that you do not heed
them ? Did you not see what Paul wrote : "If meat maketh my
brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh for evermore." 2

You write : " We believe in one nature in Christ, we add to the
trisagion : Qui crucifixus es pro nobis, and we follow all the
ecclesiastical canons of the Syrians ; we do not reject those of the
Romans but we respect them, as a son respects his father, but in the
matter of the two natures we do not agree with them."

The Book says : " How long will you limp on your two hams ? " 3
Now in which camp shall we see and count you ? In that of the
Syrians with whose faith you agree, according to your own words, or
in that of the Greeks whom you do not reject,4 and what is more
difficult, whom you have made your fathers ? Our first father is God,

1 MS. Franks It is astonishing that Barsalibi should here (contrary to
what he had previously stated) confuse the Franks with the Nubians. Does
the addition emanate from a copyist ? It is probable that the word Franks
stands here for Indians.

1 Cor. viii. 13. 3 \ Kings xviii. 2 1 .

4 Put a Dalath before la.

56 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

from whom we are born in the spirit ; our second father, and that in
the flesh, is Adam ; each one of us also has a carnal father of whom
he is born ; the name of " father " extends also to the holy Fathers,
who, as we have previously shown, were not all Greek. The great
Alexander, the promoter of the Council of three hundred and eighteen
Fathers,1 and Athanasius, his disciple, were Egyptian ; and so also
were the rest of the bishops who accompanied them from Egypt and
Alexandria ; Viton with Vincentius, the priests of Rome, and Hosius
of the town of Cordova, and the rest of the Western bishops were
Franks ; Jacob of Nisibin, and Ephrem, his disciple, and Ith-Alaha
of Edessa, and Mara of Macedonopolis,2 and John of Persia, were
Syrian.

Show us how are the Greeks your Fathers. The kind of pride
you are taking belonged to the Jews who used to have pride in
Abraham and say : " We have Abraham to our father," 3 but Christ 4
answered them : " God is able from these stones to raise up children
unto Abraham." Listen also to John Chrysostom how he rebukes
those who take pride in carnal fathers, in origin, in earthly possessions,
and in country, in all of which the Greeks your fathers and friends
take pride : " Why are you proud that you are from a great country,
while I v/ould command you to be a stranger to all the earth ? And
why do you take pride in earthly possessions, you man, who, if you
wish, can easily render all the world unworthy of you ? "

Christ was brought up in Nazareth, was born in Bethlehem, and
laid in a manger. What profit had the children of Samuel in not
imitating their father's conduct ? And likewise the children of Moses ?
What harm came to Timothy from the fact that he was the child of
pagan parents ? In what was Canaan helped by Noah, his father ?
Children do not always help their parents, nor parents their children ;
indeed no help came to Esau from Isaac, nor to the Jews from
Abraham. From these you will learn that neither parents help their

1 That of Nicaea. 2 A town in Osrhoene.

3 Matt. iii. 9.

4 It was John the Baptist. The writer's or the copyist's inadvertence.

5 Here is the whole passage : " Cur enim de patria altum sapis, quando
ego, inquit, in toto orbe te peregrinum esse jubeo ? Quando licet tibi talem
esse, ut totus mundus te non sit dignus?" Pat. Gr., Ivii. 181. Much of
what follows is also taken by Barsalibi from Chrysostom (ibid., 181, 182).

BARSALIBI 57

children, nor the children their parents, but each one is justified by his
works and his deeds.

Neither the Greeks are our fathers nor the Romans, nor are the
Jews the fathers of Christians : all these are loose l expressions and old
women's tales. If Yawan,2 the father of the Greeks, was born before
Aram, our father, there might have been occasion for discussion, but
when this is not the case, how did you then glory in the not very
weighty words of those haughty and arrogant people. It is written in
the prophets : "A son honours his father, and a servant his master ;
if I am a father, how is it that you do not honour me, and if I am a
master, how is it that you do not fear me, saith the Lord Sabaoth."
What do you say about this ? God says that He is the Father and
the Lord of us and them and of all peoples, and you establish them as
our fathers, our lords, and our superiors because of some of their
Canons that happened to be translated in our Service-books ! This
is not the saying of a wise man.

If it is because of these Canons and because of four or five books
of theirs that we have translated that they are so arrogant, our Lord
was a Syrian, and they have translated all His teaching into their
language ; and in case we pretended to be their fathers, we might say that
lo all the Melchites who resemble them take great pleasure in the
teaching of St. Jacob. The Greeks take also great pleasure in the
teaching of the great Athanasius and Cyril, both of whom Egyptians,
while the Franks take great pleasure in the teaching of Xystus, and the
Franks, we and they in that of Hippolytus, Julius and others. Let
them, therefore, not show arrogance against truth. These will suffice
for this point.

CHAPTER X.
On the Trisagion.

You also discuss with us the trisagion in which you have written

that the Greeks say : Sanctus es Deus, Sanctus es Pater omnipotens.

Let it be known to you that the Chalcedonians do not refer all the

1 Add a feminine tau to the adjective.

2 The Syrians call the Greeks Yawnay/ and they believe that they are
descended from a first father called Yawan or Yavan.

3 Mai. i. 6.

58

trisagion to the Father, as you write, but to the Trinity, because they
say : " Sanctus es Deus Pater \ Sanctus es omnipotens Filius, Sanc-
tus es immortalis Spiritus Sancte, miserere nobis" We Syrians,
with the Armenians, the Egyptians, the Abyssinians, the Nubians,
and the Indians, refer the trisagion to the Son.

There are some who say that when Joseph brought down the body
of our Lord from the Cross, people saw that angels had set up three
choirs, the first of which saying : " Sanctus es Deus" and the
second : " Sanctus es omnipotens" and the third : " Sanctus es
Immortalis ; " then Joseph and Nicodemus were moved by the Spirit
and said : " Qui crucijixus es pro nobis — i.e. for mankind — miserere
nobis" This was immediately received in the Churches, and Igna-
tius the fiery, the disciple of John, established it in the Churches.
Some others, however, say that it has been established after Nestorius
had been rejected from the Church, but they are wrong. The Fathers
said that it was that fourth Person,1 with the human nature which was
crucified, who, although God, omnipotent and immortal, wished to
become flesh for us, and not another kind of nature.

The Chalcedonians say that the trisagion is derived from the
Sanctus found in Isaiah. As the Seraphim glorify the three persons
of the Trinity with the thrice repeated Sanctus, so we also should
refer the trisagion to the Trinity. Against them we will write as
follows : —

The One whom Isaiah saw on a high throne and the seraphim
round him is the Son. This we know from John the Evangelist who
says : " These things said Isaiah about Him when he saw His glory." '
Cyril, John Chrysostom, and other Doctors teach us that it was the
Son, the Word, that Isaiah saw on the throne and not the Father.
We also believe that it is He who is the door and that it is through
Him that we go to the Father. He says : " I am the door ; by me
if any man enter in, he shall find life." ' In the fact that we refer the
trisagion to the Son we may go up to the Father and say : " Our
Father who art in heaven." And in referring the glory to the Son

1 The mention of a fourth Person in connection with the Incarnation by
a monophysite writer is somewhat strange. Does he refer to Nestorian
Fathers ?

2Johnxii. 41. 3Johnx. 9.

BARSALIBI 59

We speak in the Holy Spirit : " No man can say : ' Jesus is Lord,
but in the Holy Spirit.' '

We say further that the Seraphim said : " Holy, Holy, Holy,
heaven and earth are full of His glory," * and they did not say :
"Thou art holy O God, Thou art holy O Omnipotent, Thou art
holy O Immortal." If the Doctors have explained the thrice repeated
" holy " as referring to the three persons (of the Trinity), and if the
Sanctiis of the liturgy also : " Sanctus, Sanctiis, Sanctus Dominus
Omnipotens, pleni sunt" etc., refers to the three persons, although
addressed to one of them only, let them show us from where
they learned that the trisagion of " Sanctus es Deus " refers to the
Trinity. The prophet says only : " Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus," and
the words "Deus, Omnipotens, Immortalis" have been added
afterwards.

That this trisagion refers to the Son to whom it is appropriate is
known by the following : we say " Holy art Thou O God the Son,"
because He became flesh although remaining God ; and we say : " Holy
art Thou O Omnipotent," because He put on our weak body although
remaining omnipotent in His divinity ; and we say : " Holy art Thou
O Immortal," because He died in the flesh although remaining immortal
like God. What passage is it of the heretic Macedonius or of any
other who attributed mortality to the Holy Spirit that the Chalce-
donians want to refute when they say : " Holy Thou art O immortal
Holy Spirit ? " They have really no apology to offer. The words of
the trisagion have been attributed by the Doctors to the Son because
He became flesh, put on the weak and mortal human body, and was
addressed by them as "God," "omnipotent," "immortal," and "who
hast been crucified for us " in the flesh.

If they refuse this and say that the trisagion refers to the Trinity,
let them only say : " Holy, holy, holy," and not : " Holy art Thou
O God," and the remaining "Omnipotent" and "Immortal." The
Nestorians and the Chalcedonians, in order to take from the middle
the question of the crucifixion, and to introduce the division of nature
and natures, and count in Christ two attributes, powers, and wills, and
in order not to admit that we crucify the Son in the flesh, avoided the
reference of the trisagion to the Son and attributed it to the Trinity,

1 Cor. xii. 3. Ms.

VI

60 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

not paying sufficient attention to what Paul said : " God forbid that
I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." l John
the evangelist also said : " glory to the cross." 5

The theologian said in his discourse on the passover : " We had
need of a God becoming flesh and dying in order that we may live
with Him. We died that we may be purified, and we rose with
Him. Many miracles occurred at that time : God was crucified, the
sun suffered eclipse and then shone again. It was necessary that the
creatures should suffer with the Creator." 3 Now where does this
Doctor put division in Christ ? Where does he say that man died or
that human nature was crucified ? He openly declared that God be-
came flesh, died and was crucified.

Let it be also known to you that if, as the Greeks believe, the
trisagion refers to the Trinity, and the sentence Qui crucifixus es
pro nobis is taken away from it, it would not only refer to the Trinity,
as they say, but also to angels and demons ; which is blasphemy.
The angel or the demon might indeed say : " I am a God," 4 because
they are Spirits ; and Satan said about himself : "I will ascend above
the stars of heaven, and I will be like God," 5 and Paul also said :
" Whose minds the god of this world hath blinded." e Satan calls
also himself " omnipotent," because he is constantly watchful in his
war against the saints, and he even made bold and fought the Christ.
He is also " immortal " because he does not die.

Consider well, therefore, where the trisagion might lead, if we
did not add to it Qui crucifixus es pro nobis ; indeed the trisagion
of the Greek may reach Satan ! When, however, the words Qui
crucifixus espro nobis are added to it, no one can refer " crucifixion "
to an angel or a demon, because this would be impossible ; nor could
then the trisagion be referred to a mere man, because " immortality "

i. 14.

2 Or: "to the crucified." In which passage? At the end of the sen-
tence is the redundant verb kare. The Text is probably corrupt.

3 Here is the whole passage : " Opus habuimus Deo, qui carnem acci-
peret ac moreretur, ut vivamus. Commortui sumus, ut purgemur; simul
resurreximus, quoniam simul mortui sumus ; simul glorificati sumus, quoniam
simul resurreximus. Quamvis autem permulta illius temporis miracula
fuerint : Deus nempe in cruce pendens, sol obscuratus ac rursus mflammatus.
nam creaturas quoque Creatori condolere oportebat." Pat. Gr.t xxxvi. 662,

4Cf. Is. xiii. 14. Ms. xiii. 12-14. 62 Cor. iv. 4.

BARSALIBI 61

which is expressed in it is not referred to a man. The trisagion is,
therefore, to be truly referred to the Son, and Word — God who
became man, and who is both mortal and immortal : mortal in the
flesh, and immortal in His Godhead, and He was crucified on our
behalf.

You mentioned that the Armenians at the Nativity say one thing
and at the Epiphany say another thing, and on some other occasion
some other thing. This, however, does not matter, since they refer the
trisagion to Christ. As we say in the Passion week : " O Christ,
who by His passion delivered us from error," and as at the beginning
of the Gospel we say : "At the time of the Nativity of our Lord,"
or " at the time of His Baptism, at the rime of His Economy, at the
time of His resurrection " as the case may be, so also the Armenians
do with the trisagion^ and use it according to circumstances.

We gave ourselves all this trouble for your salvation, not yours
alone, but that of many others who will listen to us. The prophet
said : "He who taketh forth the precious from the vile shall be
as my mouth." ] Do not throw, therefore, truth behind you, and
abandon an old habit. Who is the man who can be so forgetful of
his own self as to hate a human being ? We do not hate the Greeks,
but the schisms which they brought into the midst and the divisions
which they introduced into the Church. For a certain number of
years I only disclosed the trouble caused by five of their innovations
in five points of faith ; had I disclosed at length all the disturbances
they had caused, they would have been ashamed of themselves,
because not all of them are aware of what happened to them. I
warned them several times to let everyone go his own way without
recrimination against his neighbour of another creed, but they showed
no desire to heed our advice. I wrote chapters concerning their
habits, and also on the fact that we should be permitted to enter
their churches, and be allowed to pray for them and they for us ;
I also wrote many other chapters to rebuke them and point
to the disturbance that they would be causing in the Church if
they did not desire to live in peace and concord. For several
reasons, however, among which is the fact that they have no re-
sponsible director and head, I kept my tongue and did not disclose
what we are now aiming at.

er. xv. 19.

62

Because, if God gives me life, I have the intention of exposing
little by little all their teaching and comparing it with the interpreta-
tion of the holy Doctors, and of outlining afterwards our own teaching
and interpretation and those of the Doctors. We have written the
present pages in haste, but we have confidence that we shall not find
ourselves in need to write to you again on the same subject, and that
you will rather constitute yourself a preacher of truth, and thus
possess your own soul and that of the many who fell like you. In
case you remain stubborn in your old ideas, and in case light and
darkness are on the same footing with you, it is your own business,
but there is a great day which will make manifest all the hidden
secrets of mankind.

Let it be also known to you that it is very pleasing and agreeable
to God that there should be no divisions in the Churches of Christians ;
it would have been also more just that the Greeks should have torn
and pulled at l their own flesh, but they are so steeped in iniquity as
to say that there are no other Christians but themselves, and they
inflict more harm on our community and on that of the Armenians
than the Turks. As I said above, I warned several times the Greeks
of Melitene that they and the Syrians and Armenians should love
one another and not to growl at one another like wolves and lions,
but their madness reached such a pitch as to say like their fathers :
' You are not Christians " and other similar ugly offensive words
which are in keeping with their iniquity.

I wished to sow peace in the camp of the hostile parties, and to
convince them from the books of the Apostles and Doctors that it is
not good that they should contend with one another, but that they
should enter one another's Churches, and pray with love, and if
necessary to come nearer to one another and remember one another
in prayers, with the understanding that each one may follow his own
theological convictions, but they did not condescend to reconciliation.

When I examined their madness and noticed that it was that of
insolent people, I retorted and said to them : since you are so incurable,
and believe that truth, which you do not know, is with you, bring first
the testimony and the signature of your bishop, priests and notables,
and I on my part shall also bring those of our Patriarch, our bishops,

1 Read nbasbsum for nnaskiston.

BARSALIBI 63

priests, and notables, to the effect that (in a public discussion which
we will hold on religious questions) either party shall be pleased with
the truth which shall there be revealed, and that either of them shall
embrace it when revealed ; that in the discussion no party shall abuse
the other, or rebuke him and refer to extraneous subjects. By the
help of God I shall on that day disclose everything to the sun with
justice and equity, in spite of the fact that the affair requires labour,
time, helpers and promoters.

Here end the ten chapters.

64

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INDEX OF PROPER NAMES.

A.

Aaron, 42.

Aaron (Monophysite saint), 45.

Abel, 36.

Abraham, 22, 35, 47, 56.

Absalom, 48.

Abyssinian, 26, 58.

Adam, 56.

Ahab, 38.

Alan, 19.

Alexander, 49.

Alexander (bishop), 56.

Alexandria, 56.

Amed, 18.

Antioch, 34, 42.

Arab, 27, 39, 41,48.

Arabic, 27.

Aram, 57.

Arius, 3.0, 35, 47.

Armenians, 25, 26, 28, 41, 58, 61

62.
Athanasius, 24, 27, 47, 56, 57.

B.

Babylonia, 42.

Bagdad, 42.

Bardaisan, 34, 35.

Barsauma (Monophysite saint), 45.

Basi'l, 24, 42.

Benhadad, 38.

Bethlehem, 56.

Byzantion, 41.

Caesarea, 42.
Cain, 36.

Cairo, 42.

Canaan, 56.

Canaanite, 47.

Chalcedon, 30, 41.

Chalcedonian, 27, 28, 38, 52, 55, 57,

58, 59.
Chosrau, 42.
Constanrine, 24, 39, 43.
Constantinople, 28, 30, 41.
Cordova, 56.
Cyril (of Alexandria), 24, 26, 27, 30,

57, 58.

D.

Daniel, 35, 42.
David, 19,32,35,48.
Dionysius (Bar salibi, the author), 18.
Dioscorus, 26, 47.

E.

Edessa, 42,51,56.

Egypt, 40, 56.

Egyptian, 24, 26, 55, 56, 57, 58.

Elijah, 35.

Ephesus, 30, 42, 46.

Ephrem, 34, 36, 56.

Esau, 46, 56.

Euphemia, 41.

Ezechiel, 35, 42.

F.

Frank, 19, 24, 26, 31 , 39, 44, 48, 56,
57.

93

94

WOODBROOKE STUDIES

G.

Greek (mainly), 19, 21, 23, 26, 31-
32,39,44-45, 46-47, 48-49, 51-
53, 56, etc.

Gregory (Nazianzen), 24, 31 , 42, 47,
60.

H.

Hagar, 50.
Harran, 41.
Hebrew, 22, 32, 48.
Hellenism, 3 1 .
Heraclea, 44.
Herodias, 43.
Hippolytus, 57.
Hosius, 56.
Hungarian, 19, 42.

1.

Iberian, 19.

Ignatius (of Melitene), 28.

Ignatius (of Antioch), 58.

India, 42.

Indian, 26, 58.

Isaac, 36, 56.

Isaiah, 58.

Isho' (Rabban), 18, 19, 31, 51

Israelite, 53.

Ith-Alaha (of Edessa), 56.

J-

Jacob (of Nisibin), 56, 57.
Jacobite, 38.
James, 42.

Jeremiah, 40, 42, 5 1 .
Jerusalem, 32, 40, 41,42.
Jesus, 52.

Jewish-Christian, 29.
John (of Asia), 43.
John (the Baptist;, 43-44.
John (Chrysostom), 20, 24, 25, 35,
45, 56, 58.

John (of Damascus), 41.

John (the evangelist), 42, 50, 58, 60.

John (of Persia), 56.

Joseph, 58.

Joshua, 38.

Julian, 43.

Julius, 57.

Justinian, 43.

K.

Kumanians, 41.
Kushites, 55.

Lazarus, 50.
Leo, 41.
Libya, 26.
Lot, 47.

M.

Maccabees, 42.

Macedonians, 30.

Macedonius, 59.

Macedonopolis, 56.

Madecolinus (Milan), 47.

Manasseh, 41.

Mara, 56.

Marcian, 30.

Matthew, 20, 45.

Melchite, 34, 57.

Meletius, 42.

Melitene, 28, 34, 51,62.

Midianite, 47.

Moses, 20, 22, 29, 35, 38, 42, 47,

53, 56.

Muhammad, 34.
Muhammadan, 28.

N.

Nazareth, 56.
Nebuchadnezzar, 49.

BARSALIBI

95

Nestorius, 30, 38.
Nestorians, 38, 58, 59.
Nicodemus, 58.
Ninevite, 53.
Nisibin, 56.
Noah, 65.
Nubian, 26, 55, 58.

o.

Odysseus, 37.

Palestine, 43.

Paul, 18,29,30,39,42,55,60.

Persia, 42.

Persian (people), 27, 39, 41, 49.

Persian (language), 27.

Peter, 42, 50.

Pharaoh, 49.

Philip, 19.

Philistine, 43.

Pulcheria, 30.

R.

Roman, 3 1,39, 48, 55, 57.
Rome, 31,42, 44, 56.
Romulus, 31.
Russian, 19.

S.

Sabellius, 30.
Samuel, 38, 39, 56.
Scylla, 37.
Sennacherib, 49.
Seraphim, 58-59.

Severus, 26, 35.
Shahrbaraz, 42.
Sheba, 19.
Siren, 37-38.
Sodomite, 47.
Sustius, 35.

Syrian (mainly), 25, 26, 27, 28, 33,
49,51-52,56,57,61-62.

Theodore, 4 1 .
Theodoret, 30, 43.
Theodosius, 30, 39.
Theopaschites, 21.
Theophilus, 4 1 .
Thomas, 20, 42.
Thrace, 44.
Timothy, 56.
Turk, 48, 49, 62.

Vespasian, 52.
Vincentius, 56.
Viton, 56.

Xystus, 57.

Yawan, 57.

Zebedee, 42.
Zechariah, 35.

X.

Y.

(ii) Genuine and Apocryphal Works of Ignatius of Antioch.

PREFATORY NOTE.

A.

The following pages contain the text and the translation, accom-
panied by a critical apparatus, of an " exhortation to priesthood,"
attributed to Ignatius of Antioch.- I have edited the text from the two
extant MSS., designated here as P. and M. P. indicates the Paris
MS. Syr. 1981 and M. indicates a MS. of my own collection in
the custody of the Rendel Harris Library, Birmingham, marked Syr.
MS. Mingana 223. Both MSS. are undated, but on palaeographic
grounds can be ascribed to about the sixteenth century. While the two
MSS. come near each other in point of date, they are totally different
as to the country of provenance. There are stylistic peculiarities in P.
which indicate that it was copied in Syria, and there are linguistic
features of the same domain which seem to indicate that M. was written
in Mesopotamia.2 The orthography used in the two offers considerable
variation, but there is reason to believe that both of them emanate
from a single prototype the immediate successors of which had begun
to exhibit some variants at the time when our MSS. were copied.

That the Arabic style used in the text is a translation from Syriac
is made abundantly clear by the fact that genuine Syriac words and
complete Syriac sentences are found in it ; indeed, even the mere
construction of the Arabic sentences denotes sometimes a Syriac original.
There is, however, a passage which in both MSS. is worded in rhymed
prose. If such a passage is to be considered also a translation from
Syriac, we shall be bound to admit that the translator allowed himself
a great amount of freedom in his work. A note that I have added at
the foot will assist the reader to form his own opinion on the subject.

The Arabic used in the text is most unclassical and is full of
grammatical and lexicographical mistakes ; indeed it represents the
lowest type of Christian Arabic used in Church services, but it can be

1 P. 147 in Zotenberg's Catalogue.

2 The MS. was recently acquired by me in North Mesopotamia.

96

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 97

illustrated by scores of similar tracts written in the same non-Arab
Arabic. I have collated the two MSS. and placed in the footnotes
the various readings which appeared to me of some importance. The
variants which were of purely orthographical order, or which were
clearly due to a slip on the part of the copyists, have been completely
ignored. I have generally followed in my transcription the ortho-
graphy used in P., but this does not imply that that orthography is
always the best. To save space 1 had simply to follow one of the
two MSS., and I decided to follow generally P. rather than M.

The Arabic text is printed in Garshuni (Arabic in Syriac characters),
as it was found in the MSS., and a facsimile of each MS. is given to
show the reader its palaeographical peculiarities. The translation
which I have adopted often gives only the meaning rather than a
literal rendering of the original, and always follows the text that is
printed in the main page to the exclusion of that found in the foot-
notes.

B.

I have attached to the above Arabic treatise a Syriac Canon
attributed also to Ignatius of Antioch and evidently culled from a
collection of ecclesiastical Canons used by the West Syrian Church.
It is taken from Syr. Cod. Mingana 1 , fol. 1 94b in the custody of
the Rendel Harris Library, Brimingham. The date of the MS. is
27 March, 1884, of the Greeks (A.D. 1573). A facsimile of all the
page on which the Canon is written accompanies the translation.

TRANSLATION.
A.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one
God, we will begin with the assistance of God to write the epistle
of the holy Mar Ignatius the fiery on admonition and exhortation
to priests. May his prayers be with us ! Amen !

He said :

O my brethren and O my beloved priests and deacons, and O
bishops, listen to me and hear my words to you. You wish to be
watchful and ever ready ; purify, therefore, your bodies and sanctify
your souls so that the Lord may not destroy you. Wipe off dirt from

98 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

your hearts, put your accounts in order, and clean out of your consciences
envy, deceitfulness, and other iniquities, so that Jesus Christ may not
put an end to you as He did to the priests who preceded you.

O my brethren, open your hearts in order that the Christ may
cause love, quiet, peace, and safety to abide in them, and everything
that is congruous l to the Lord in order that you may have pleasure
with Him, and rejoice in His grace, and sit for ever at His right.

O my beloved, because the first Adam did not stand by his birth-
right, that is to say his chastity and his holiness, but transgressed the
command of his Lord, he was separated from his kingdom, and be-
came a stranger to his possessions, and went out of the paradise cf his
inheritance. The Lord then decreed 2 and ordered 3 death against him
because of his transgression, and struck him with the sword of the
devastating fire, and threw him in the dark city of death where he
became subject to the latter, and because of his prevarications this same
death ruled over him for seven thousand years.4

O my brethren look at the accursed Cain, the second priest, and
the abominable, impure, accursed, and murderous man ; because the
desire of killing dwelt in him, his sacrifice was refused, and out of
jealousy he murdered his brother, and became separated from God and
from his fathers,5 accursed and anathematized, and was a vagabond
and a fugitive in this world, and was the first man to enter hell.

O my brethren. . . .6

0 priests (listen to) the saying of Moses, the head of the prophets,
who cried with his voice and said to the priests and the deacons : 7
" Sanctify yourselves because you serve the Holy One." f O priests
who have lost their priesthood, and transgressed the rules of their

1 Here begins a lacuna in M. " The Syr. gzar.

3 Possibly sallata, or kada.

4 Has this date a literal and historical meaning, or does it refer i to a
mysterious and mystical number ? It is useful here to remark that the era
of the Syrian Greeks and Melchites began 5508 years before Christ
(Angelo Mai, Script. Vet Nova Collectio, iv. 60). If the number 7000 is
here to be taken literally the date of the composition of the document would
be A.D. 1492. In this case the document would be of Melchite origin, but
then what about the Syriac words and expressions that it contains ? A
Melchite of A.D. 1 492 would not have inserted Syriac words and expressions
in an Arabic document of which he was the author.

5 Which fathers ? fi A lacuna in Paris MS.
7Levites? 8Cf. Levit. xx. 7.

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 99

Master, obey the prescriptions of your Master and do not neglect His
word. Do not make light of the offices of the Church of God and
do not despise the majesty which belongs to the holy altar, and to the
One who is offered on it.

0 high-ranked priests, do you not see those who l serve the earthly
kings how neat and clean they are, and how careful they are in
washing their hands and keeping their clothes clean. Examine how
similarly kept are the utensils which are2 on the table such as
plates, drinking vessels, goblets, and wine utensils and cups in which
there are no dregs3 nor feculence of any kind, and also the
ordinary bread and thin bread : how neat and clean everything is,
without any deficiency or defect. People line up erect to honour 4
earthly kings ° who are human beings like ourselves and mortals sons
of mortals ; O my brethren, with how much more care should we,
therefore, guard the Divine table, and serve it efficiently with faithful-
ness and holiness and with an outward appearance in which there is
no defect and imperfection of any kind.

O my brethren, great * woe be to the priests who ' do not keep their
priesthood with good works. The Church and its children weep
over the priest who sins, and give also woe to the deacon who does
not act in the right way. How can the one who acts badly penetrate
into the inner part of the house of God ? It is not right, therefore,
that an iniquitous priest should offer the sacrifice of other people and
enter into the holy church of God, nor is it right that his unclean
hands should handle that holy body, and be dipped " in the blood
of the Lord. How can a priest who is not clean in his actions
sacrifice that holy body which was lifted up on the Cross, and before
which the companies of angels stand in awe and the choirs of heaven
in fear, while they are unable to contemplate its splendour ? How
can any one who is impure and immoral dare handle it with his dirty
hands ? How can also any one who is an occasion of scandal to
other people sacrifice that sublime, high, holy and pious body, who
hates the drunkards and the immoral people ? Have you not heard
then what He says in the pure Gospel : ° " Scandal will arise but

1 Read al-ladhln. - Read al-lali.
3 The Persian dard. 4 Syr. ikar.

5 Read muluk (in plural). " Read al-allm.

7 Read al-ladkln. 8 An unclassical Arabic word.

9 Here ends the lacuna in M.

100 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

woe to the man through whom scandal comes." ' He also says :
' Ye are the salt of the earth ; but if the salt has lost its savour
wherewith shall it be seasoned ? It is thenceforth good for nothing,
neither for the land nor for the dung, but it is cast out and trodden
under foot 2 by men " 3 and it also becomes a vile object and an
example.

O my brethren, there is no sin in the earth more terrible than that
of a priest, for which there is no forgiveness. O my friends, lament
and weep continually over the priest who did not fear sin. The
weeping of the terrestrial people not being sufficient for him, the
inhabitants of heaven weep also over him : the Seraphim like whom
he was holy, and out of whose sanctification 4 he fell. The blessed
Cherubim weep also over him, because his sweet lyre is silent of their
melodious tunes.5 The angels and the High Companies (of the
Archangels) weep over him, because through his bad works the voice
of his praises has ceased to praise with theirs.

All those (of his pupils) who fell out of his command weep over
him.

The weeping of the inhabitants of land and water not being sufficient
for him, O holy Church gather together thy children, the celestial
and the terrestrial, and come and set up wailing and lamentation over
the infamous and accursed priest who has been wounded by sin.
Weep also over the deacon who by his bad actions has become the
companion of Satan. O my brethren, who is the man who does not
weep over a priest who has estranged himself from his Master like
that disciple Judas who sold his Master ?

0 Simon, head of the disciples, weep and lament over the shepherd
who, after having been like you and after having taken from his
Master like you that talent 6 in order to trade with it, has lost all the
sheep, and his soul is drowned. O my brethren, who will not weep
over the absolver of sins who falls into sin, and who will not weep

1 Matt, xviii. 7. 2 Read tandas for tansad in M.

3 Luke xiv. 34, and Matt. v. 13. A combination of the text of both
Matthew and Luke. Literally the sentence may mean : It is thenceforth good
for nothing, neither as earth nor as manure.

4 i.e. saying : holy, holy, holy, of Is. vi. 3.

5 This sentence is wholly in Syriac in P.

6 The Arabic word badrah means generally a great sum of money.

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 101

over a shepherd who becomes a wolf ? Who will not weep over a
watchman who becomes a thief, and who will not weep over a
merchant who becomes a spy, and a physician who is wounded by
sin and has no remedy ? Weep, O Church, over your priest.
Weep, O Simon and John, over your companion who left your
companionship and became a stranger to you.

Who envied l you, O chaste one, and made you a fornicator ?
Who envied you, O pure one, and made of you an immoral man ?
Who envied you, O fasting man, and made of you a gluttonous man
given to excess ? Who envied you, O just one, and made of you a
companion of the ignorant ? Who envied you, O devout and pious
one, and made you a wretch with the sinners ? Who envied you, O
man filled with sanctity, and made you sink in the sinfumess of
iniquity ? Who envied you, O fair one, and filled you with unholi-
ness ? Who envied you, O just man, and placed you in the company
of sinners and enemies ? Who envied you, O child (of the house),
and made you a stranger to your father and your brothers ? Who
envied you, O near relative, and made you a stranger to your relations ?
Who envied you, O celestial one, and made you terrestrial ? Who
envied you, O truthful one, and made of you a liar, and filled you with
sins and shameful deeds ?

0 you dear and beloved ram who became the prey of a wolf !
O hart who fell in the snare ! O you agile eagle who fell in the net !
O warrior ~ who was beaten and ran away ! O athlete who took to
flight ! O mariner whose ship has sunk ! O husbandman whose
com has perished ! O steward 3 who squandered his treasures ! O
table-companion 4 who left his place at the table ! O bridegroom
whose bridal chamber did not please him ! O mighty King whose

1 Read hasadaka for hadasaka in M. and note the rhymed prose of the
following few sentences, possibly due to a free translation ; if, however, it
could be proved from this that the document was originally written in
Arabic, its date could not have preceded the ninth century ; but we must
admit that such phenomena occur sometimes in Arabic translations from
Syriac. A free translation of this kind has even affected the sacred text of
the Gospels. I saw in Jazirat b. 'Umar, on the Upper Tigris, a MS. which
contained the Arabic translation of the Gospels by the very famous
Ebedjesu of Nisibin, wholly written in rhymed prose.

2 Read mubariz for martz.

3 Transliteration of the Syriac word parnasa. 4 Syr. hrifha.

8

102 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

crown fell from his head ! O judge condemned for his ignorance !
O chieftain who lost the greatness of his headship ! O wealthy one
who became poor by his will ! O sun whose rays have perished !
O moon whose light has suffered eclipse ! O seed of pure wheat
which has been mixed l up with tares ! O beautiful and lovely flower
which has been smitten by the blighting wind 2 of sin ! O admirable
rose the beauty of which has perished in the frost of ignorance ! O
pomegranate-flower3 which withered in the midday heat4 of sin
and iniquity.

Where are you O Paul and Timothy ? Where are your warn-
ings, your canons, and your conditions, which to-day your companions
have transgressed by stumbling ? O just Power, for how long wilt Thou
not utter the cry of vengeance against the priests ? Where are Thy
punishments and Thy zeal against the ancients ? How is it that
Thou art silent now ? Heaven is amazed at such a silence. Where
is the heart that can stand it and not break ? O my brethren, that
just Power which has equalized justice to all mankind, has left every-
thing to the next world, in which each one of us shall answer for his
actions.

O my brethren, let us place the judgment of God before our eyes,
because we cannot avoid answering for our words and for all those He
confided to our care : the souls redeemed by the innocent blood of
God,5 and we have to return them as we received them. He gave us
a pact to the effect that we shall worship Him, be with Him, and
shepherd His flock.6

0 my brethren, the sin of a priest is a wound which has no
remedy. O my brethren, at the time the priest sins, sadness overtakes
the multitude of angels in heaven. What shall we say concerning
those who believed that they had no sins, while Satan robbed
and plundered them ? They asserted that God is forgiving and
merciful, and they did not know that God is also a just and equitable
judge. O my brethren, let the story of Ananias and his wife inspire

1 Syr. Habbel = ithhabbal. 2 Syr. shauba.

3 Persian guli-anar or gulnar. It is somewhat strange that the author
should have used a Persian word.

4 Arab zuhriyah from Syr. Takrayatha. In P. zuhirat.
" Was the author a Monophysite ?

6 Syr. Markka.

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 103

you with fear, and take fright at the spectacle of those priests who
were burned for small sins. O my brethren, be afraid of the story of
Korah and Abiram, because all of them have become a mirror to us
so that we may hear what happened to them and fear ; and do not
sin and serve Satan like them.

0 priest, who is the one who will not weep over you ? O great
one and O confidential steward,1 brother of Simon and John, it has
been laid down that no one be appointed to priesthood except the one
who is blameless, and lo there is to-day shame and dishonour in your
bed ; and we do not find it difficult to cover you up ! O exiled one,
who has been separated from his service," and his high office, we weep
over the high office of priesthood which you have besmirched by your
iniquitous act ; and we do not feel any sorrow at the beauty of your stat-
ure ! O ignorant one who did not know his own self, we weep over the
crown of holiness which you have dishonoured by your bad deed !
The Lord had established you as a mediator between Him and His
Father, and not a mediator to the idols ; you did not approach priest-
hood in order to induce people to sin and detach them from God, but
to uplift them and bring them nearer to Him.

Woe to your spirit when your companions sit on the twelve
thrones s and you are driven out like the one who wore dirty garments.
Lo shame is in your bed and it pleases you to dishonour your bed, and
you make light of it.4 You have changed your zeal to your Master
for a zeal to another master, and you have become a stranger to
Him, and that is why fire will consume your body without getting
satiated with it O my brethren, there will not be mercy in the day
of judgment and decision for an unchaste priest, and he will not be
allowed to approach his throne, but he will be driven out like the five
foolish virgins. It is for this reason that the Apostle Paul cried and
said : " If a person desire priesthood he desireth a good desire." ; Lo
to-day the priests of the different peoples desire the office of headship
while they are far from real priesthood 6 and remote from its works.

1 Arab, mutahakkik, evidently a translation of the Syr. sharrira.
- Syr. Tishmishta. ' 3 Matt. xix. 28.

4 Here as above the author seems to allude to immoral acts of a private
character.

° ] Tim. iii. 1 . The author follows the Syriac version which has
"priesthood" instead of "episcopacy."

6 Read Kahnutihim.

104 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

O my brethren, listen to what has been enacted against those who
bear the yoke of priesthood but make light of it or neglect it : they
shall burn with those two hundred and fifty priests who were burnt 1
with their censers.2

O brethren, O priest, O deacon, any deacon who approaches8
his wife in the time of the fast that the Saviour fasted 4 will not find
mercy in that great day, the day of landmark and finality ; this will
happen also if he approaches her on the occasion of a festival, or on a
Friday, or on a Wednesday. Anyone who approaches his wife in one
of these days, his burning shall be with the fire of Sodom. This does
not apply to the children of the Church, the laymen, but it is ad-
vantageous also for them to abstain from marriage in the above
mentioned days.

O my brethren, the priests should not neglect, but should be
diligent in, their service and careful with the vestry of the holy altar
and the belongings of the Church. O my brethren, any priest who
makes light of them or neglects them, and serves with them in this
state the holy body which was lifted up on the wood of the cross — I say
to him that his lot shall be with those who cast lots upon the garments
of Christ ; with such shall his share be without pity ; also the priests
who steal from the belongings of the Church, and from what pertains
to it in the matter of the ex-votos of orphans and widows who gave
them on behalf of their sins : heaven and earth shall weep over such
priests, and their sin is greater that that of those who became the
companions of Ananias and his wife.

0 my brethren, a priest entering (a church ?) to offer sacrifice 5
with a heart in which there is rancour against his brother, is like Cain
the murderer. A priest who sees a needy person and does not
help him, or a thirsty person in want of a drop of water and does
not quench his thirst, and a priest who sees a sick person and turns
his face from him, will have no share in paradise. Accursed is the
priest who does not know his own self, who dishonours himself with
such sins ; such a one will be separated from his service and his

1 Num. xvi. 35. 2 Syr. perma.

2 M. " any priest or deacon who approaches." 4i.e. Lent.

5 Syr. Kaddesh which commonly means " to say mass, to consecrate,"
the former sense is relatively late for a supposedly early document. P. has
yalakaddas " to make himself holy."

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 105

priesthood, and the Father will rebuke him for not having served his
office rightly and justly ; the Son of the Father will not accept him ;
the Holy Spirit will avoid him, and all the celestial multitudes will
push him out to inherit hell where he will receive a just retribution
for his service.

Because he did not perform the duties of his priesthood with piety
and devotion,1 the angels will take away from him the imposition of
the hands 2 of priesthood, which had fallen on his head, and they will
push him out to hell in company of the impure, unchaste, and ignorant
people ; there he will weep and wail and also gnash his teeth. The
priest, however, who performs the duties of his priesthood with devo-
tion and piety, and offers sacrifice to God with holiness, and serves
before Him with good order and pious deeds, will be served by God
and by the multitudes of angels, who will exalt his office and his
priesthood ; and he will live in pleasure in the company of Simon,
the head of the Apostles, and he will be placed among all 3 the
Fathers, the Saints, the Prophets, and the Doctors of the Church.4

Similarly the deacons who leave the office of Stephen and of those
preachers who serve the church, will go and serve Satan and his armies.
What shall I say about them ? On the one hand if I keep silence, such
a silence may lead to misunderstanding, and if I speak my heart will not
allow me to rebuke them, but truth itself sits in judgment against them.
Instead of requiring from every deacon good works, fasting and prayer,
vouched for by good men,0 we present to-day to this high office men
who are uneducated, ignorant, not steeped in piety, untruthful, and
having no witnesses to vouch for their veracity and uprightness. (The
deacons) are thus liars, transgressors, drunkards, haters of their service,6
haters of the Church, haters of fast and prayers, insolent, and proud
like Satan. Those who are addicted to such vices and have left the
commandments and the law of God and do not turn to penitence will
from this world receive punishment for ever and ever.

1 Is it the Syr. hrirutha ? 2 Syr. Siam-idha.

The translator has joined the pronoun with kull as it is done in Syriac.

• This is a relatively late pronouncement.

' We are tcld in an unpublished work of ecclesiastical Canons (Syr.
MS. Mingana 32 fol. 36a, in the custody of the Rendel Harris Library,
Birmiugham) that three witnesses of high integrity are required to testify to
the piety of the man who is to be ordained deacon.

6 Syr. Tishmishta as above.

106 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

The deacon has to obey orders and commandments ; he is not to
neglect any virtue that pleases God : fast, prayer, holiness, and piety.
O my beloved (deacon), you should not neglect your soul on the
pretence that you have not the yoke of priesthood. O my brother,
fear the day of reckoning and punishment and the furnace l of fire. O
my brother, obey the injunctions of God, and lend your neck to the
yoke of Christ ; be sweet-tempered and humble 2 towards your brethren,
and love the strangers, the poor, and the beggars. O my brother,
educate yourself and the people of Christ ; when you go to the altar
in order to perform your duties 3 take care and pains to do it in good
order so that you may please your Lord ; let us examine our accounts
and see whether we have any hatred towards our neighbours, and
whether we have only love and peace.

O my brother, the deacon who neglects prayers will be judged
with Satan, and the deacon who disregards the duties of his service 4
will be in a place where there is no praise of God and where he will
be ministered to by the furnace 5 of fire ; the deacon who frequents the
company of drunkards, the worm that does not die will be intoxicated
from him ; the deacon who leaves the Church on the night of Sundays
and festivals, and wishes to drink wine, the Church of heaven will
drive him out to where she will not hear his voice ; the deacon on
account of whom God is mocked at, would to God that he had never
existed ; the deacon who causes uproar and discord in the Church,
will be consumed by fire alive ; the deacon who fails to control his
soul and his desires,6 will be far from heaven ; the deacon who makes
use of marriage and comes to perform his duties,7 the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost will be angry with him ; the deacon who goes to
the altar while intoxicated, the spirit of justice will rebuke him ; the
deacon who commits a sin and does not confess it and repent, his tor-
ment will be eternal and perpetual.

O my brethren, if you have accepted this order for the satisfaction
of the desires of your soul, you will not have forgiveness, and you will
suffer with Satan ; but if you have accepted this order to serve the

^yr. Shalhaibitha. 2Syr. makkekh.

8 Syr. shamli. 4 Again the Syr. Tishmishta.

5 Syr. Shalhaibitha as above.

6 The text is obscure and the sense doubtful.

7 Syr. Shamli.

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 107

Lord who was crucified on your behalf, do not be the servants of
Satan. O my beloved, avoid the service of Satan, intoxication, pride,1
and gluttony, and do not disappoint anyone,2 and avoid also lies which
are 3 a sign of the sad unbelief of the world. O my brethren, have
you not heard what the divine Apostle Paul said : "neither forni-
cators, nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor abusers of them-
selves with men, none of these will inherit the kingdom of heaven and
cross (the bridge ?) to it." ? 4

O my beloved, keep your soul from sin, and purify your body
from bad passions so that you may not suffer. O my brethren, the
deacons who walk in the way of God, keep His Commandments,
serve the Church with piety, serve the people of God, and long for
fast and prayer, the angels will long to meet them, and will also
accompany them and take them to heaven on their wings in order
that they may enjoy bliss and happiness with the priestly Fathers, and
the pious, in the kingdom of heaven the joys of which will not cease,
and be glorified at the table of Christ, as His holy mouth uttered :
" Where I am there my servant shall be." ' There you will also hear
the sweet voice : " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you before the foundation of the world." ' You will also
be table-guests of the angels,7 and along with martyrs (and) evangelists 8
you will receive ample reward ; and you will serve and rejoice with
Stephen.

We who are plunged in sin ask God not to make us deserve hell,
but the above grace and virtue. To Him are fitting glory, honour,
majesty, and power, with His Father, and His Holy Spirit, now, at
every time, and for ever and ever. Amen.

(Colophon.)

(Here recite) Pater Noster. May the grace of God be with the
weak and miserable scribe, with the pious readers, and with the blessed
hearers ! May we have mercy upon us through the prayer of the

1 takahrum : curious word formed from the Persian kahraman.
' Read tukhayyibu.

3 The author uses the feminine pronoun hiya under the influence of the
Syriac word Kaddabutha which he was rendering.
4 1 Cor. vi. 9, with some changes.
5 John xii. 26. 6 Matt. xxv. 34.

7 Read malaikah in M. 8 Read mubashshirin in M.

108 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

mother of Fire, the queen of the worlds, the Mother of God,1 hoping
that the Lord will deliver us from fire in the day of judgment !
Amen ! May the grace of God be with us all ! Amen ! Amen !
This has ended by the help of God.2

TRANSLATION.
B.

" Of Ignatius the fiery (Canon) 38. We observe the night of
Wednesday because in it our Lord announced His passion to His
disciples,3 and they were troubled with sorrow 4 ; we observe
the night of Friday because in it our Lord was seized by the Jews ;
we do not observe the night of Saturday, because in it there was rest
to all the dead of Sheol, at the descent of our Lord to them. He
who does not observe the night of Friday and Wednesday, will be
condemned with those who bound our Lord on the night of Friday,
and those who observe the night of Saturday, will be condemned with
those who broke the legs of the robbers, in order that the Sabbath day
may not begin for them and that they may not be condemned in the
eyes of the law."

C.

When all the above pseudo-Ignatian matter was in the press I
discovered the following quotations from Ignatius in Mingana Syr.
MS. 37, written about A.D. 1450 (in the custody of the Rendel Harris
Library, Birmingham).

1 The MS. is of Jacobite origin.

2 The closing sentence of the text and the colophon are as follows in P. :
"And there you will receive ample reward with the angels and the
'evangelists, and you will serve and rejoice with Stephen. And we who are
plunged in sin pray the Lord not to torment us in hell but (to make us
Reserve?) that grace, virtue, and piety. May honour, glory, majesty, and
thanks be to the Holy Trinity, now, at every time, and for ever and ever, and
on us all be His grace ! It has ended by the help of God." [This last
sentence is in Syriac.]

'The ecclesiastical day begins in the East in the afternoon of the
previous day.

4 Or : moved by affliction.

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 109

1°

The Ignatian Canon translated above is given in the following
form on fol. 44* : " Ignatius the Fiery says : We observe the night
of Wednesday because in it our Lord announced His passion to His
disciples, and He was moved by affliction. We observe the night of
Friday because in it our Lord was seized by the Jews and struck on
the face by the servant of the High Priest, and was tied to a column.1
We do not observe the night of Saturday because in it there was rest
to all the souls of the dead in Sheol by the descent of our Lord to
them." '

2°

On fol. 28* of the same MS. there is the following genuine
quotation from Ignatius not found in the fragments edited by Cureton
and Lightfoot.

1 * lit 11* 1 /ll

-4M^-I

V°

"Ignatius: Where is the disputer ? Where is the wise man ?
Where is the boaster of those who are called intelligent ? For our
God Jesus the Christ was conceived by Mary according to an
economy." Ad Epkes.t xviii.

This is an exact translation of the Greek of Ignatius as edited by
Lightfoot (Apostolic Fathers, iL, 74) with the exception that
"where is the wise man" is placed before "where is the boaster"
and that instead of " boaster " there is in Greek " boasting " Kai^cris.
The Syriac translation, however, brings the text of Ignatius nearer to
1 Cor i., 31.

1 The idea of our Lord having been tied to a column seems to be much
later than the time of Ignatius.

2 Fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, but not on Sundays, is in the
Apostolic Constitutions (fol. 10b of the same MS.).

110 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

A/Jo Oil]] J

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1 M omits. 2 P omits. 3 P omits. 4 M omits. 6 M
and so P prima manu. 6 M ZoJOialL. 7 P omits. 8 P
9 M 2«aao. 10 Here begins the lacuna in M.

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 1 1 1

Uo J

w,
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112 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

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4 M erroneously ?]flu2o. 6 P omits. 6 M aiuU^. 7 M
^(QSOfiQ..^. 8 M omits. ' This is a complete Syriac sentence in P.

In M it is translated into Arabic as follows : ,;iD ]r>\»»^\ Ol>]lLiJD ,iQa
^OOILD]^]. 10 M ou>^ oAJiate. » p oil^ol. " M omits.
13 M omits.

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 113

wi 001

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s j^j ^cooflo'L. 6 M »QilcD. 7 P oiNi^^v. 8 P

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114 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

3 [jO ^O0i^]0 ^iolU i» ^jfiO** ^,^v 001 ^SO

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1 P OICLM^. 2 M omits. 3 M OlSa.101 >D. 4 P -

6 P ?1L. 6 M ouioi^. 7 M 5oaio loSoloi. 8 M IQOOII and

P prlma manu. 9 M Ol^JCi^ Zo^O ^>'^^. 10 M

11 M omits. 12M^a. "pAaco. "

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

115

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.nn»AlO ^J^ns ^«. 10 M omits. n M omits. W.P repeats.
[ without the initial ba which, I believe, is only used in the vulgar Arabic
5yria. u P omits. 1S M Aj| (OlA£Q.kJ ,-O ^r-^v OlSi0)^.^.

1 omits. 1T P ^02)^. is M omits.

16

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IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 117

^ rr> oVnv m ^ 1 J»OO1_Q] SOjILiO SOOUQ

]>oi *^ A >^ 01 n • n

. oioa* o Jooiaji tQ^i y>ouS>o

001 wU <-lCO 011^2^ CTL^x

• ^ ,00u

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6 P oi*.fp^. 6 M >'r2*jZ. 7 P OU;M^O. 8 M omits.

9 p ^Vo 10 p omi,s a p ^QlS^o. 12 P ZjQjZ. 13 M omit&

14 M ^oVi-».

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18 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

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6 P omits. 6P omits. 7 P AASO. 8 P ^*^. • M ^Oi^A-.

10 P IOT. » M omits. 12 P omits. 13 M omits. u M *S?1.
15 M omits. 16 P ^oAj]. » M omits.

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IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 119

QjLS ffiA m ^r> mJ ^\± •rWtai So^ ^ jxJLQAO
m omVrrt OT_k>pZ .CuZo . m .. o or>7 2 ") jus .tTI A
U ^i,!L i1r»r^ aU^D pflcZ ..;]^cn^ .nnl^i .

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8 M
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120 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

OUOU

[- AV]

•! oiSC2>

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(s/c)

|] V1 Jvjau aiifln^ ^^ ^,1^00^..^)^ ^o Ik)] . va .
oil

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The closing sentences of the text and the Colophon are in P
as follows :

.
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i M CJUOIDO. 2 M »io. 3 M *- 4 p omits-

5 M omits. 6 M

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

121

122

WOODBROOKE STUDIES

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

123

f }>»f

CANON OF IGNATIUS.

WOODBROOKE STUDIES.

CHRISTIAN DOCUMENTS IN SYRIAC, ARABIC AND GARSHUN1
EDITED AND TRANSLATED WITH A CRITICAL APPARATUS

BY A. MINGANA.

WITH INTRODUCTIONS

BY RENDEL HARRIS.

FASC. 2.

(i) A Jeremiah Apocryphon.

(ii) A New Life of John the Baptist.

(iii) Some Uncanonical Psalms.

INTRODUCTIONS.

BY RENDEL HARRIS.

I.

A JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON.

IT is well known to students of Apocryphal literature that a whole
region of that fascinating, but perplexing, subject is covered by
works assigned to Jeremiah and his companions, in which the
fortunes of an exiled nation are depicted and their hopes of resuscitation
and of return are affirmed, with a guarded language and obscure
intimations for which Apocalypse is the proper and recognised vehicle.
All the great historic figures of the Old Testament, or such as were by
common consent regarded as historic, become in turn the lay-figures for
the drapery of the Apocalyptist when he wishes to paint approaching
desolations, or, in the depth of such desolations, to announce the
approaching consolations of Israel. We might say that in Jewish
literature (including its prolongation in Christian literature), Apocalypse
reigned from Adam to Bar Kochba : but even this lower limit is not

125 10

126 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

low enough ; for there are Apocalypses produced right down to the
Middle Ages, whenever days were dark enough to require, or a
distant and brightening horizon to suggest them. The rise of Islam is
as good ground for an Apocalyptic literature as the various sieges of
Jerusalem ; Mohammed can be as suggestive as Vespasian or Titus.
And when we find as in the present tract a new member of the
company which bear the names of Jeremiah and his friends, we need
not be surprised that the tradition has lasted so long ; we may say of
Jeremiah that he being dead yet speaketh ; and as a matter of fact, he
has been dead just as many times as he may be wanted to speak ; so
here he is again, as vocal as ever, and we must try and find the date
and the provenance of his latest resurrection.

All the great Apocalypses fall, as I think I said somewhere, within
the penumbra of the Canonical literature, some of them being actually
canonised. Jeremiah and his disciple Baruch will supply us with
illustrations. We have not only the Biblical Baruch, but there is also
the Apocalypse of Baruch, preserved in Syriac and first edited by
Ceriani. As we have shown in a recent publication of Bar Salibi's
reply to a Melchite proselytiser, this Syriac Apocalypse was clearly a
part of Bar Salibi's Canon ; and the reference to it here may illustrate
the way in which the frontier of the Canon fluctuates from time to
time and from country to country. A somewhat similar illustration
may be found in the Greek Apocalypse which I re-edited in 1889
under the title of the Rest of the Words of Baruch, and which I
assigned to the year 136 A.D., for here we found that the Greek
Service Books actually appoint this book to be read on the day when
they commemorate with the Jews the fall of the beloved city. We
must admit that the Rest of the Words of Baruch has crept up very
close to canonical dignity. When I was editing this work (of which
more presently) I made the following observation (p. 9) :—

" In addition to the three Baruch books to which we have
been alluding (Apocryphal Baruch, or simply Baruch, Apoca-
lyptic Baruch, and Christian Baruch) it is very likely that
there are other Baruch and Jeremiah books which have
perished"

How interesting to find one of these lost books coming to light
again, nearly forty years after the published lament for its disappear-

INTRODUCTIONS 127

ance : and to myself, how peculiarly interesting to find that the new
volume (as we shall see presently) incorporates a large part of what
was included in the Christian Baruch, and that it has fallen into my
hands to be interpreted, and into the hands of Dr. Mingana, my good
friend and colleague in all matters where I am able to accompany him.

The reader will see, at a glance, that the recovered document has
come to light from an unexpected quarter. It is a Christian Arabic
book, which we distinguish from the actually translated works of
Christian fathers in the Arabic tongue, by the term Garshuni ; that
is, it is a book written in Syriac characters, but in the Arabic language,
the said language being commonly popular speech rather than the
classical or semi-classical variety. We may imagine that the reason
for this duality in the presentation of Christian books, according to
which an author speaks in one tongue and writes in another, was
sometimes due to the desire to escape Moslem criticism. There was a
kind of protection, a guarantee of free speech, about a book written in
the Syriac character. Such a protection was appropriate to books like
this Apocalypse of ours, which could add to the obscurity inherent in
the subject the impenetrability of a scarcely legible script. Popular
writings escaped notice and veiled writings became more obscure when
transmitted through the medium of Garshuni. Our document is a
good illustration of this : the obscurity which it affects has prevented
scholars from invading the area in which it is found. We expect to
see a number of similar documents, and we will make a personal
confession, in view of what is to be found, that we will not, in the
future, as we have done in the past, despise a document because it
is written in what we have called Christian Arabic.

Now let us make a brief analysis of the book before us. We
will give a summary of its contents, and after that will discuss the
sources from which the writer has drawn and the relation of the
book to the Apocalyptic literature generally. We premise that
much of the Garshuni literature to which we have been referring is
translated from Syriac into the popular Arabic ; the present book is
no exception to the general rule : it is a Syriac book : whence the
Syriac text came from is another matter. We shall probably find out
that there is a Greek text underlying the Syriac. The story begins in
true Biblical manner and often in the very terms of the Old Testament
with the messages of Jeremiah the prophet to King Zedekiah and to the

128 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

people of Jerusalem. They have abandoned Jahweh and gone after
Baal and Zeus(!) Judgment is threatened to prince and people.
Thereupon Jeremiah is thrown into a muddy prison, as in the Old
Testament, after a dramatic dispute with a false prophet, Hananiah,
whom again we recognise as an ancient Biblical friend. Jeremiah is
rescued from the mire by his servant Ebedmelech, who now becomes
as in the Bible a leading character in the Passion Play of Jeremiah.
The prophet under Divine compulsion goes a second time to King
Zedekiah and renews the vision of approaching judgment, chains and
slavery for the king, captivity and massacre for the people. Jeremiah
sends his disciple Baruch to the king with a letter in which the word
of the Lord is contained (apparently an Apocalypse of some sort).
Baruch gets a flogging. Jeremiah is sent for ; he utters further
Biblical announcements of the coming of the Chaldeans. He is
promptly sent back to prison, where he would have died, if it had not
been for the friendly offices of his servant Ebedmelech, who bribes the
gaoler and keeps alive the saint. After twenty-one days he is
released, and it is promised to Ebedmelech that he shall not see the
ruin of the city nor taste death until the calamity of the people is past
and the wrath of God removed. This mysterious promise and its
fulfilment will become the foundation of a whole Act of the sacred
drama. Meanwhile Zedekiah goes from bad to worse ; he desecrates
the sanctuary, which he transfers to Baal and Zeus, and does many
impious deeds (which remind one in some details of Herod the
Great). At last the crash comes. Jeremiah's prayers have now only
a limited acceptance. The Almighty 'sends his angels on to the scene.
Michael goes to Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon and incites him to war
against the Jews. To our surprise we find that the King of Babylon
objects ; he is a friend of the Jews, not an enemy. He does not want
to hurt the people of God. He sends great gifts and a special
embassy to Jerusalem. For some reason not very clear the King of
Babylon is enraged with the reception of his embassy, and he calls on
Cyrus (sic !), his general, to prepare war. But he is still very
reluctant, and only moves forward under a sign from heaven. The
Chaldeans approach Jerusalem. In the interim Ebedmelech is sent
into the country to fetch fresh fruits and to sleep a long sleep through
the approaching captivity. The writer now begins to use the Last
Words of Baruch, as we shall see more clearly presently.

INTRODUCTIONS 129

When Nebuchadnezzar, for whom the writer has a kindly feeling,
with the aid of Cyrus, for whom he, strange to say, has no affection,
has taken the city, he calls for Jeremiah whom he recognises as a true
prophet. Jeremiah makes his last appeal to the Most High, but he
is told to take a lamp and see if he can find a single honest man, for
whose sake the city may be spared. Jeremiah is now playing the
part of Abraham the Patriarch and Diogenes the Cynic, but cannot
find his honest man. Knowing the city to be doomed, he makes
plans for secreting the vessels and the vestments of the sanctuary, and
for the preservation of the Holy Fire, as in the books of the Maccabees.
He then puts on sackcloth and marches to Babylon with the captives.
The horrors of deportation are told, and the toils and privations of the
people are described. So matters go on for the allotted seventy years
until Nebuchadnezzar dies and is succeeded by his general Cyrus,
who makes the lot of the people worse with added burdens and
increasing cruelties.

At this point of the story Ezra comes on the scene, a person who
will be wanted in the time of the regeneration of Israel. He is one of
the children of the captivity, and naturally suffers with the rest of the
Israelite youth from the over-lordship of the Babylonian boys. The
writer borrows a framework for introducing Ezra from the Gospel of
the Infancy. Like Jesus, he breaks his pitcher at the well, and when
the boys deride him, he folds his cloak into a water-tight carrier.
Then incensed in heart, and grieved with their contempt, he pours out
supplication to the Most High. The prayer and the miracle mark him
out as the one who shall deliver the people from captivity. Ezra and
his companions thereupon separate themselves from the wanton
Babylonian boys, and Ezra works another miracle and raises a flood
of water which well-nigh drowned the world, and would indeed have
done so, if God had not already made contract against such a
disaster.

Cyrus is now on the throne. He insists on a song from the
refugees of seventy years ago ; when the people sing, the earth
quakes and the song is heard in Jerusalem. Evidently the day of
redemption is at hand. Ezra and Daniel and Ezekiel then lay their
heads together and go out into the wilderness to offer a sacrifice to
God and to seek a sign from heaven. Michael is sent down and
consumes their sacrifice by fire which he produces from his wand.

130 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Now let us return to Jeremiah, who appears after all not to have
left the city, but remained in a sepulchre. (There seems to be some
confusion here.) Here Michael the archangel finds him resuming his
intercessions for Israel. Michael takes him to Babylon, or finds him
there, and bids him assemble the people, who are busy making bricks
as in Egypt, and promises him that if Cyrus hardens his heart like
Pharaoh, he shall be served as Pharaoh was. Cyrus takes the hint,
plays Pharaoh faithfully, and then the thunder clouds of divine wrath
appear in the sky. Let my people go, says the prophet. Yes, do
go, says Babylon : and away they go with their hearts full of joy and
their pockets full of money ; and they sing a song in a strange land,
because they are exchanging it for their fatherland.

Now we come to the sleeper who had gone to the gardens to
fetch fruit, figs, and grapes. He has fallen asleep in the heat, with
the basket under his head, while over him a cave or rock had made
shelter. This part of the story is a modification of that in the Last
Words of Baruck, but wanting somewhat of the dramatic force of
the latter. Still it is not wholly lacking. It is a fine situation when
one wakes from a sleep of seventy years and finds everything changed
except himself and his basket of figs, which are as fresh as if they too
had slept. The old man whom he meets, with whom he has a
chronological dispute, tells him that Jeremiah has just returned from
captivity, and the people are jubilating and the flags flying, and it is
like the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Triumphal Entry, for which the
writer quotes the Diatessaron of Tatian. Ebedmelech has a great
welcome from Jeremiah, and great honour from the people, who
indite a song of praise in the good Hebrew manner for all that has
occurred.

The rest of the story relates to the discovery and restoration of the
lost vessels of the sanctuary, which Jeremiah puts in their proper
place, and the vestments on the proper people ; while on all hands a
new covenant is assented to, for a fresh allegiance to Jahweh, and a
final desertion of Baal and of Zeus. The story does not say what
became of Jeremiah, who ought to be stoned, according to the tradi-
tion in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Last Words of
Baruch. But perhaps the writer thought it best not to attach the
gloom of a tragedy to the joys of the Return. So he only says that
while Jeremiah lived, the people were faithful to their covenant.

INTRODUCTIONS 131

We may now go on to say something about the time when our
Apocrypha was produced, which depends in part on the sources
which have been employed. The simplest method of proceeding will
be to establish superior limits of time, by reference to authors quoted
whose date is more or less exactly defined.

For example, we have suggested that our Jeremiah has employed
an incident in the Apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy, where Jesus
carries water in his cloak, after his pitcher has been broken. It may
be asked how we know that priority belongs to the Gospel of the
Infancy. May not Jesus' miracle have copied Ezra's, since both are
apocryphal ? The answer to this is very simple ; we know the reason
for the Jesus miracle, and the reason, when stated, excludes the
possible borrowing from Jeremiah. The Gospel of the Infancy is
concerned with the proofs of the Divine Nature of Christ, especially
of Christ as Creator, fulfilling his own statement that the Son does the
same works as the Father. Now amongst the proof-texts which the
Old Testament was supposed to furnish for this argument, there is
in the book of Proverbs, at the 30th chapter, a fine poetical out-
burst taken from some Oriental collection, in which the reader is
asked :

" Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended ? Who
hath gathered the wind in his fists ? Who hath bound the
waters in a garment ? Who hath established all the ends of
the earth ? What is his name, and what is his sons name, if
thou canst tell ? "

The passage was supposed to contain a reference to the Son of
God ; and by the simple expedient of a miraculous carrying of water
in a garment, the argument for Divine Sonship became irresistible.

We see, then, the origin of the story in the Infancy Gospel : it is
not borrowed from the Apocryphal Jeremiah, but conversely. The
date of the Infancy Gospel has never been closely fixed, but it occurs
in many versions and has very early MS. tradition, so that it is hardly
likely to be as late as the fourth century.1 Another landmark was

1 Its most popular story is the one where Jesus makes mud sparrows, and
bids them fly away, a tale which caught the fancy of Mohammed. It will be
noted that this story, also, is designed to prove Christ's creative power, in
accordance with the dictum of the Almighty in the first chapter of Genesis,
which caused fowl to fly upon the face of the firmament. It is curious in this

132 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

the reference in the text of Jeremiah to the rejoicings of the people
on their return from captivity, which are cast in the mould of the
Triumphal Entry of Jesus to Jerusalem and expressed in the terms of
the Arabic Diatessaron of Tatian. The matter is so interesting
from various points of view, that we may devote a little space to it.

When Ebedmelech comes back from his long sleep at Jerusalem,
and has been convinced of the reality of that portentous ecstasy by an
old man whom he meets, the latter says to him :

11 This month is the month of Nisan, and this day is the first
day in which the prophet Jeremiah reached Jerusalem, after a
stay of seventy years in captivity. The words that you utter
square with one another. Lo ! the people are coming, bringing
with them branches of palm trees, and holding in their hands
twigs of aromatic bushes and olive trees."

It is evident that the language is here coloured by the account of
the Triumphal Entry, and the reference to the carrying of palm
branches shows that it is the Gospel of John that is being idrawn on.
The language itself is peculiar ; the text says ' hearts of palm trees *
or * pith of palm trees '. Now in an early Irish Gospel (known as
Cod. r or Armachanus) we get a similar rendering of the yScua of
John xiii. 2 (medullas palmarum). Comparison with other attempts
to render the word into Latin suggests that this is the first Latin render-
ing, and since we get a similar translation in the Syriac version of
Lev. xxiii., 40, where the feast of Tabernacles is described, as well
as in the Arabic Diatessaron, we may say that it is a Syriac Gospel
of John, which has furnished the ' pith of the palms ' both to East
and West. This must then be Tatian's translation, made under the
influence of the Peshitta of the Old Testament. Since then our
Apocryphal Jeremiah is describing a Jerusalem situation, it is John
xiii., 2 that has influenced him, and not the prescriptions for the Feast
of Tabernacles. The date of production of Diatessaron, then, is a
superior limit of time to our Apocryphon. A reference to the margins
and footnotes will show that the Apocryphal writer has a close
acquaintance with the text of the Gospels generally, and that he is

connection to note that the Kur'an (ix, 30) maintains the divinity of
Christ as a Christian dogma and the divinity of Ezra as a Jewish belief.
Perhaps in either case on account of the argument from Prov. xxx. and its
illustrated miracle.

INTRODUCTIONS 133

under the influence o{ the Infancy sections both in Matthew and in
Luke. With almost equal confidence we may affirm that he was
acquainted with the Apocryphal Book of Enoch, from whom he
borrows an archangel (Satanael) upon occasion. He also knows the
seven archangels of Enoch. For the matter of that, it would be
difficult to find a writer of this period, whether canonical or apocryphal,
who is not under the influence of Enoch.

We come now to the most obvious of all the sources employed by
our writer ; a large part of his story, viz. the adventures of Ebedmelech,
is taken from the Last Words of Baruch. This work acquires a
special interest for us in view of its partial absorption by the newly
found Apocalypse ; and, as I said above, it is one of my earliest
publications, which I am reading again with some satisfaction and with
the inclusion of some corrections. In the editing of this text, or rather
its re-editing from a number of fresh sources, I had the advantage of
the counsel and vastly superior knowledge of Dr. Hort. If his name
does not appear on the pages, it was due to his characteristic self-
effacement in the work which he did for his colleagues and disciples.
For instance, when I was trying to find out why, in the story of
Abimelech, the good man had been sent to the market of the
Gentiles, according to one of my principal MSS., I consulted
Dr. Hort as to the meaning of the term, which was too striking to be
other than original. He asked me what was my best MS., and
what did my best MS. say ? Then a characteristic advice, ' always
stick to your best MS.' Nothing further at the time, but next morning
there lay on the breakfast- table a closely-written post-card with
references for the fair that was set up, when the last Jewish revolt
was over, at the Oak of Abraham. In that identification which I
promptly worked out, I was certainly a jay in peacock's feathers.

When the book appeared, it was received rather coldly by a
certain school of critics, because I had found the date of the document,
and involved in that discovery a quotation from the Gospel of John,
the earliest known quotation. This would hardly provoke resentment
at the present day, when it has ceased to be the fashion to talk of the
Fourth Gospel as the product of the latter half of the second century.
Critics are not so positive on that point as they were in Dr. Samuel
Davidson's day ; in other words, they allow other people to know
better.

134 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

In the working out of the theme of the long sleep of Abimelech
or Ebedmelech, I fell into a curious error. Reading in Maracci the
account of the Moslem appropriation of the story of the long sleep
and the basket of figs, and not being sufficiently adroit in the Kuran
and its commentators, I transcribed the Latin name of the Arabic
sleeper in Maracci as Alchedrum, taking the Latin accusative as the
proper name. Only two letters in excess, but those two letters
brought me a prompt correction from my friend Robertson Smith,
who was always ready to help me, and a thousandfold better
Orientalist than I, in which he advised me that I had stumbled over
the romantic sleeping figure of the Kuran al Khidr. A similar
correction reached me from Rabbi Kohler of New York, along with
some Talmudic parallels, followed by the flattering request (to which
I was not disposed to accede) that I would edit the article on
Apocrypha in the Jewish Encyclopedia. Dr. Robertson Smith's
letter was so interesting, and so like himself, that I am going to subjoin
it to my story.

CAMBRIDGE,
Mth October, 1890.

MY DEAR HARRIS,

In your Baruch, p. 41 , your Alchedrum whom you
have from Maracci is of course Al-Khadir or Al-Kkidr, a very
obscure personage, who is sometimes regarded as the Moslem St.
George. That some doctors suppose him to be the person alluded to
in Sura ii., 261 Maracci has (no doubt) from Baidawi's note on the
passage. I think you must be right in supposing that Sura ii., 261
contains an allusion to the story of Abimelech ; but did the com-
mentators, who say that Al-Khadir, is the person referred to, say this
at a guess, or had they some knowledge of their own about the
Christian legend ?

I have to remark first of all that the identification of Al-Khadir
with the man who slept for 100 years might be suggested by the
legend (Tabari i., 4 1 2) that Al-Khadir, a companion of Alexander,
drank of* the water of life (which has a prominent place in the
Alexander Romance) and is still alive. Nevertheless it is notable
that Tabari also connects him with Abraham and with the dispute
about the possession of the well of Beersheba. Abraham is said to
have brought this dispute to Alexander (Dhu '1-Karnain is Alexander,
tho* Tabari mentions that some take him to be a different person) and
the well was adjudged to Al-Khadir. This looks as if Al-Kh. were
mixed up with Abimelech, king of Gerar. That your Abimelech

INTRODUCTIONS 135

and the Philistine king should be mixed up will surprise no one who
knows the Arab way of using Biblical stories. That great liar the
Jew Wahb b. Monabbih identified Al-Khadir with Jeremiah. This
too might be a mere guess — the city being Jerusalem — or it may
indicate some confused acquaintance with your story. Finally Al-
Khadir is commonly taken to be son of Malkan. The patronymic
Ibn-Malkan does suggest Abimelech. Of these points the only one
that seems to me important is the association with Beersheba. That
goes far to prove that the expositors of the Kuran knew your story
and connected it with Sura ii., 261.

Yours ever,
(Signed) W. R. SMITH.

Rabbi Kohler, to whom I alluded above, was as quick as Dr.
Robertson Smith to correct my slip over the Moslem sleeper ; but he
also sent me a mass of Talmudic references, which were marked by
the usual Hebrew diversity in dealing with a supposed historical event
with a possible chronology. He regarded the Last Words as an
original Hebrew book from an Essene writer, and that the victim of
popular anger who was stoned in Jerusalem was not Jeremiah, but an
Essene hero named Onias, of whom the Talmud tells in Taanith,
chapter 3. He also pointed out to me that there was Rabbinical
tradition for actually identifying Ebedmelech and Baruch (see Pirke
Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 53), and that Ebedmelech was actually made (as
in our new Apocryphon) into the servant of King Zedekiah the
Distinguished One. Neither the Rabbi nor myself was able to
explain the series of anachronisms in the Talmudic treatment of what
was evidently a favourite subject ; and as to the existence of a
Hebrew original for all these various forms of legend, I am content to
leave the matter in the hands of those who are better skilled in detect-
ing Hebrew originals than myself.

As it is nearly forty years since the Rest of the Words of
Baruch appeared, and I have hardly looked at it since, it has been
possible for me to regard it dispassionately, and to say that it really
was not a bad book, and might have had a more favourable reception.
There is still a good deal to be learned from its pages by the student
of Apocrypha. Returning now to the relation between the Last
Words and the new Baruch, the priority of the Last Words which
turned out not to be the Last Words, will be evident. One of the
most striking variations is in the geography of the writer. I was able
to show that the Last Words, like its predecessor the Syriac
Apocalypse of Baruch, was a Jerusalem book, in which one could see

136 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Hebron rise to the south of Jerusalem, and pass on the way thither
the gardens of Agrippa, which could be reached either by the main
road to Hebron or by the mountain road to Solomon's pools. The
modern tourist in Palestine would recognise the provenance of the
writer at once. But it was this very exactness of locality which
perplexed the later Apocalyptist. He wanted figs, but saw no reason
why the gardens of Agrippa should supply them ; and as for the
mountain road, it might just as well have been the Milky Way. He
drops all these identifications, including the Fair at the Terebinth
where the Jews were sold cheap, as slaves, after the Hadrianic war —
in fact he had no geography and wanted none. All that his story
needed was a cave for the sleeper and a basket of fruit. The other
details have evidently been excised. The hand is not a Jerusalem
hand as in the case of the earlier documents.

In passing, we ought, perhaps, to add to what we said previously
about the acquaintance of our writer with Christian Gospels. We
spoke of Matthew and Luke, but ought not Mark to be also on the
horizon ? For when we read that the old man argues with Abimelech
over his figs and says that this is the month Nisan and Nisan (April)
is not the season for figs, we are reminded that the very same ex-
pression is used in Mark, when Jesus, on His way from Bethany to
Jerusalem, essayed to satisfy His hunger from a certain fig-tree. If,
however, this is a Marcan trait, it is also found in the Last Words,
and must not be set down as a first-hand quotation. Just as the
writer obscures the geographical solution, he also destroys the chrono-
logy. Seventy years of captivity was classical, but sixty- six was
meaningless. Here again the superiority and priority of the Last
Words was evident. The later MSS. of the Last Words fell into
the same natural error.

We must now say a few words on the question of the existence or
extent of Jewish influences in our new document. A similar enquiry
was raised in regard to the Last Words of Baruch which was
asserted, in certain quarters, to be a bona-fide Jewish document, in
spite of the fact that it was obviously coloured by the Christian
Gospels. In our new text we have also passages which look like
evangelical reflections, but at the same time there are other passages
which require the Talmud, or at least the folk-lore traditions embedded
in the Talmud, for their elucidation. The most interesting case is that

INTRODUCTIONS 137

in which the wife of Nebuchadnezzar makes a personal appeal to him
not to engage in hostile movements against the Jews. She bursts into
tears when she is informed of her husband's designs, ' What king is
there,' says she, ' that engaged in warfare with this people, and was
saved ? Dost thou not know that this is the people of God, and that
everything that they ask from God they obtain it forthwith ? ' The
queen's name is Hilkiah, which, whether masculine or feminine, has a
Hebrew cast, and suggests that the lady may have been a captive or a
pervert

Now if we turn to the Talmud, Taanith, xxiv. 2, we find a
similar story told of the mother of the Persian king Shapor II. : we
notice that here it is the mother and not the wife that makes the
appeal :

" Iphra Honniz, the mother of King Shapor, said to her son,
' Have nothing to do with those Jews, for whatever they ask
from their Lord, he gives it to them.' He says to her, 4 How
so ? ' She replied, ' They asked for mercy and the rain came.'
He said to her, ' It was because of the time of the year that the
rain came. But let them ask for rain now, in the time of the
summer solstice, and let the rain come.' Whereupon she sent a
messenger to Rabbah and said, ' Have a care of yourself ; implore
mercy and rain will come.* "

This lady, whose name, as we have seen, was Iphra Hormiz, is
frequently referred to in the Talmud, so that it has been suspected
that she was a Jewish proselyte.

Evidently we have stumbled, in our new Apocalypse, upon the
same story that occurs in the Talmud. We must not, however,
conclude that there has been direct Jewish influence on our Apoca-
lypse, for the tradition of Iphra Hormiz and her Jewish sympathies
was well-known in the East Syrian Church.

Nor can we altogether ignore the similarity that there is between
the tradition that we are discussing and the story in the Gospel of
Matthew of Pilate's wife and her dream. Just as the queen-mother
of Persia is awakened from her sleep in order to interfere with her
husband's anti- Jewish projects, we have the wife of Pilate sending to
say that she has suffered much for Jesus in a dream ; and just as the
mother of King Shapor appeals to him to have nothing to do against
those good people the Jews, so we have Pilate's wife appealing

138 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

against his doing anything unfriendly to the good man whom he
has before him for judgment. Is it possible that she also may have
had secret sympathies with the Jews or with Jesus, or an actual
acquaintance with Him ?

As to Jewish influence generally, it is in the highest degree improb-
able that such grotesque views of Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar as are
presented in our tract can have come from a Jewish source.

II.

A NEW LIFE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

The reason for the existence of a multitude of Apocryphal writings
is in the main twofold. There will be in the first instance the class of
works in which the Apocryphal writer is dominated by an Apocryphal
situation, some concurrence of misfortunes which threaten his nation, or
some dreaded recurrence of misfortunes which have left their mark
upon past history ; the exigency of the time makes the man, who is
peculiarly a child of the time, to become a literary artist of the time.
He will write, or paint (the two words being primitively equivalent)
in lurid colours when he describes the miseries of his people, he will
have Gehenna itself for his palette when he lays on the flaming patches
of the Divine Judgments. Nor will he always be a mean artist, even
if using popular dialect or writing in a half cipher (' he that readeth,
let him understand ') for along with the moving tale of disasters in the
sun and perplexities on the earth, there will rise in his imagination the
story of storms succeeded by calm, and a lovelier city to replace the one
that was devastated and wasted.

The second class of Apocrypha is due, not to any peculiar strain
in the environment of the writer, but to a desire to fill up a deficit in
literature, and to complete a story that has been imperfectly told, or
perhaps not told at all. Every history, whether personal, local or
national, has lacunae in it ; if we are interested sufficiently in place,
person or people, we shall want to know or we shall pretend to know
how those empty spaces may be filled. The pretence to know is of
the very essence of a whole line of Apocryphal works.

For instance, the Gospel knows nothing or next to nothing of areas
in our Lord's life, where we would like to know much. It is our
modern spirit, I suppose, that makes us discontented with such informa-

INTRODUCTIONS 139

rion as might be gathered from a Family Bible or a genealogical tree :
but those of us who have family Bibles of any age, or ancestral
records, are well aware that these too are subject to Apocryphal
insertions ; and even in the scriptures we suspect that genealogies
could be produced because they were wanted, as occurs even to-day in
Arab circles. ' Abraham begat Isaac ' may be historical, at least we
hope so, and make it almost creedal ; but the fact that Aminadab
begat Aram does not provoke belief so readily. It all turns on the
point whether master Aminadab and his progeny were produced
because the historian wanted them. Now the Biblical story may
have supplied these genealogical matters, because the self-respect of a
family required them ; and in that case they are Apocrypha ; but
even if that were the case, the modern spirit of history would not be
satisfied with them, even if they were flaunted in our face in the fore-
front of the Gospels. We are sensible of a wider area of lacunae than
the person who hunts or imagines family registers.

Now we are not able to tell at what point the hungry student of
the life of Christ began asking for more history or for earlier history.
Such hungry sheep might look up to St. Mark and certainly not be
fed. They would get something from St. Matthew and a little more
from St. Luke ; might we, for instance, say that St Luke's account of
our Lord's visit at twelve years of age to the Temple was a historian's
instinctive intrusion into an uncharted area ? It may be so, and will
stand, in that case, to St. Luke's credit, which credit already stands
high. But in that case, why did he leave that great Terra Incognita
on his map between the life-parallels of twelve and thirty ? If he was
as interested in a child who could puzzle the doctors with questions
and surprise them with quick answers, why has he no interest in
the growing boy upon whom the shades of the prison house were
beginning to close ?

It is in such lacunae that the Apocryphist of our second species
finds his opportunity. We cannot, however, fail to be surprised that,
with such a canvas lying idle, no artist had seized it for some three
centuries after it had been exposed. The Gospels of the Infancy,
and the Gospel of the Boyhood are lacuna-Gospels. So are the
stories which tell of the Birth, Death and Rapture of the Virgin,
whose attractiveness secures them, even at the present day, a place of
recognition in the Christian Calendar, from which they can be detached

140 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

with difficulty. From Jesus and His mother the enquiring spirit
naturally passes over to ask for further information as to His great
Forerunner, John the Baptist. The existing history is only vocal about
John where the two lives of John and Jesus overlap, or where one
personality (either of them will do) bears testimony to the righteous-
ness of the authority of the other. And even here it is the Birth-
story and the Mournful Death that take most of the space. Who
would not rejoice, if a papyrus should turn up, to do for John the
Baptist what Mark did for Jesus ? So, without raising our hopes too
high, we turn to a recently found Life of John the Baptist in an
Arabic MS. to see if we can gather anything further with regard to
the Baptist, beyond what can be picked up, in the shape of fragments,
from the Gospel itself.

We premise that there are numerous indications in Christian
literature of the desire to fill in what might seem to be deficiencies in
the known story of St. John. One of the most interesting was caused
by the request of our Lord's disciples that He would teach them to
pray as John also taught his disciples. It was natural to ask what
was the form of prayer which was displaced by the Oratio Dominica.
The answer was supplied by some early Christian and is even now
extant in a Syriac form. It runs as follows in the MS. Add. 12, 138
of the British Museum :

The Prayer which John taught his disciples : " Father, show
me thy Son ; Son, show me thy Spirit ; Holy Spirit, make me
wise in thy truth."
But some say it was like this :

" Holy Father, sanctify me by thy truth, and make me to
know the glory of thy greatness, and show me thy Son, and fill
me with thy Spirit, that I may be illuminated with thy
knowledge."

The next increment to our supposed knowledge is called for by
our sense that Divine Justice had not been satisfied, if Herodias and
her daughter were allowed to go scot free. The student of English
literature will find this very proper sentiment expressed in verse in a
poem of Vaughan the Silurite on the theme of The Daughter of
Herodias. Here is a verse from this poem, with an explanatory
footnote, such as would be required by the ignorance of the reader :

INTRODUCTIONS 141

Leave then, young Sorceress ; the Ice
Will those coy spirits cast asleep,
Which teach thee now to please his eyes
Who doth thy lothsome mother keep.

The note runs as follows : Her name was Salome : in passing over
a frozen river, the ice broke under her, and chopt off her head.

It may be asked where Vaughan in the seventeenth century found
this Apocryphal addition to the New Testament record. It is
certainly found in the East as well as the West, for we have some-
thing of the kind in the commentaries of Bar Salibi. The first form
of the legend is more difficult to determine. We shall find one form
in the document before us. All that we say at present is that the
Apocryphal story was the outcome of a sense that Justice had not been
satisfied.

But now let us come to our Life of St. John, where we shall find

a curious mixture of history and legend ; in the first place the author

has Worked over the Biblical account in a very accurate manner ;

next, we shall see that he has blended with it an amount of Apocryphal

detail, sufficient to justify us in classifying the writing itself as

Apocryphal ; and last of all, when he comes to discourse of the final

disposal of St. John's relics, he reverts from legend to history, and

gives us the means of identifying himself as a real person, of high

standing in the church at Alexandria. He tells us that his name was

Serapion, and that he had been ordained to one of the Egyptian

episcopal centres by Timothy who was Patriarch of Alexandria from

A.D. 380 to 385. The Egyptian origin of our translation (at least of

one of the forms in which our Arabic text has come down to us) is

betrayed by the occurrence of the name of a Coptic month in the

narration. Serapion tells us, in fact, that at a somewhat earlier date

the faithful brought the bones of the Baptist to Alexandria, where a

church was built to receive them, and a magnificent celebration was

held on the second day of the month Baouna. The document, then,

is by provenance Egyptian, and it is historical and can be dated at

the close of the fourth century. The miracles wrought at the tomb

of the saint are also historical, so far as miracles can be, which are

evidently made to order, to enhance the dignity of the newly enshrined.

We must not be surprised if here also, as in so many other cases of

discovery and location of bones of saints, the fervour with which the

1 1

142 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

miracle-loving people believed and the benevolent saint operated, soon
subsided into a normal good feeling without supernatural attestations.
No need to give instances of this general statement ; they might be
compromising to great names in the church. In the matter of belief,
non omnes possumus omnia.

Now let us return to the story of the Baptist's birth ; it follows
closely the scriptural account, but with explanatory additions, mostly
of an Apocryphal character. We can easily see the genesis of these.
Our document is, in fact, a homily to be read at the festival of the
saint. The writer says so :

' The body of the holy John the Baptist, the saint whose
feast we are celebrating to-day, remained in Sebaste — which is
Nablus of Samaria — for four hundred years."

What more natural, then, than that Serapion, as preacher for the
day, should have added to his narrative such current stories as might
make the lessons for the day more interesting. It is a practice which
still prevails. One may say of it, what Mistress Quickly says, in
apology for the presence of a joint of mutton in her Tavern in the
holy season of Lent, " all vintners do it." Coming, then, to those
points in the Baptist's Infancy Gospel where the people would have
liked to ask questions, and perhaps did ask them, one would like to
know whether the good man really did eat locusts, and whether his
sanctity has a shadow cast over it from his diet. And further, how
was it possible for a child of tender years to live in the desert all the
years which intervened between his leaving his home, and his return
as a prophet to Israel ? It is well known that the difficulty over
St. John and his carnivorous diet is chronic in the East : as early as
the time of Tatian and the Eucratites the biblical text was subject to
correction by the substitution of a diet of milk and honey for the
offensive locusts. Even before Tatian's day, in Greek-speaking circles
in Palestine, the locusts (d/c/DtSes) had been replaced by pancakes
(ey/cptSes). Those who held to the milk and honey diet for
the youthful saint, had to employ their imagination in a further
direction, in order to explain how the necessary and constant milk
supply was to be obtained in the desert. They settled it by sending
St. Elizabeth into the desert with her son. Bar Salibi tells us that
this maternal function was discharged for a period of fifteen years, at
the close of which time we may assume that Elizabeth died. Now

INTRODUCTIONS 143

that our writer knows something of this tradition is clear — (i) from the
fact that Elizabeth actually takes her son into the desert ; (ii) that he
reduces the abnormal lactation to three years, which is not unusual in
the East ; (iii) he has a special death in the desert for Elizabeth, over
which he dilates as Browning might have done if he had known the
story and been enamoured of the theme. For other and similar
explanations of St. John and his locusts, the reader may refer to my
book, Epkrem and the Gospel, pp. 17-19.

The Apocryphal expansions for which we have found the motive
deserve a closer attention. Our writer oscillates between a carnivorous
and a vegetable diet. First he will have the locusts, and then again
he disowns them. We are told that ' the blessed John wandered in
the desert with his mother, and God prepared for him locusts and
wild honey as food. But after the death of his mother, when John
was only seven years and six months old, the writer says that ' John
lived in great asceticism and devotion. His only food was grass and
wild honey* Here is another solution of the problem how to keep
St. John a vegetarian !

The next problem for the thoughtful mind was the question of the
burial of the sainted mother by her seven-year-old child. The
situation demanded celestial assistance, a theophany, an angelophany,
as well as the aid which women render at such times to the departed.
Our Lord appears on a cloud, accompanied by His mother and
Salome, and with attendant 'angels and archangels. This cloud-flying
motive was familiar to the Apocryphal mind. Not only had they
Christ's promise that the Son of Man should be seen on the clouds of
heaven, but the descent into Egypt had been explained by the language
of the prophet that the Lord should mount on a white cloud and come
into Egypt, where some said the white cloud was Mary. So there
was no difficulty ; adest Deus, adest Machina. Jesus, at the age of
seven years, orders the obsequies and makes appropriate predictions.

Really the desert which our writer describes was not a very
formidable or distant affair. He combines it with the location of
Ain Karim near Jerusalem, which could be reached in a very short
space of time without an aeroplane ! The New Testament student
will notice that our text interprets €15 iroXw 'lovSa in Luke i. 39, as
being a town called Judah, for which the authorities may be consulted
on one side or the other. Coming now to the somewhat diffusely

144 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

treated subject of the relations between the Baptist and the Herodian
circle, we find ourselves in a folk-lore atmosphere with an independent
development. It is commonly supposed that Herodias, when she had
received the head of the Baptist, opened the mouth and pierced with
her bodkin the reproving tongue. In our tale she proposes to cut out
the tongue, place the eyes in a dish, and use his long hair to stuff
her bolster. These incidents, threatened but not occurring, came
back as curses are wont to do in biblical and semi-biblical tales, and
attached themselves to the fortune of Herodias, whose house came
down about her ears, and whose eyes left their sockets. Then the
writer shows the motive of his tale. It was the head of the Baptist
that had been insulted, and was now being avenged. And it was
the head whose fate as a sacred relic he now proposed to tell : for he
perhaps had it near him when he was preaching ; the people knew it
wasion hand ; it may even have been on exhibition for the day, as often
happens on the great days of great saints.

Now the history of relics is the most difficult part of the science
of hagiology. On one side it is a history of ecclesiastical lying, a long
series of volumes running parallel to the history of the church itself.
On the other side it is not to be denied that martyrs and holy men had
bones, and that these bones have a permanence to which the body
itself lays no claim, and which lends themselves to pious remembrance.
Why should not some of them be genuine ? One reason, of course,
is the tendency of the relic to multiply, to become ubiquitous. John
the Baptist's head is a case in point. Our writer says it was pre-
served at Sebaste, which he wrongly identified with Nablus. It is
still said to be there. But then it was also preserved in the great
Mosque at Damascus, and again in the town of Horns (Emesa).
Our writer says it was preserved for 400 years at Sebaste, and lay
there in peace till the time of Julian the Apostate. Then in a time of
the imperial rage against the Christians, the churches were desecrated,
and men found in the church at Sebaste two coffins ; from the contents,
which included shirts of camel's hair, it was inferred that these were
the coffins of the Baptist and of Elisha, the one having been,
by the design of providence for putting things side by side that
belonged together, laid in adjacent tombs. So they gathered up the
relics and secretly sent them to Alexandria. It does not positively say
that the head was there. In fact it was a very elusive head, and had

INTRODUCTIONS 145

been flying over the city of Jerusalem for many years and crying out
its condemnation of King Herod and his lawless marriage. From
which we may infer, if we please, that no one knows what really
became of it There are always various solutions for the history of a
relic ; but this does not mean that all relics are unhistorical : it would
be more correct to say, with a suitable motion of the eyelid, that all
of them cannot be historical ; say, for example, all the eight-day
clocks which are said to have come over in the Mayflower. But now
we are spoiling our story by modern illustrations. It is historical to
say that some relics supposed to be of the Baptist, were deposited by
Bishop Serapion in the church consecrated to his memory in Alexandria
at the end of the fourth century.

III.

Uncanonical Psalms.

The next contribution to the unedited Syriac literature consists of
a group of Psalms, of no special intrinsic value, but not without interest
if they illustrate to us the wide extent of the early hymnology, whether
that of the Hebrew community as contained in the conventional Psalter
and assigned to King David or imitated in the early Christian Church
under the authorship of King Solomon and the title of his Odes.
There is a literary bridge between the two collections in those Psalms
of the Pharisees which were written a few years before the coming of
our Lord, and are also dignified with a Solomonic authorship.

The most elementary criticism of the Psalter as the term is
commonly used will show that it is an edited volume, made to order,
and limited in its content to 1 50 songs. Even a child of the present
age can see, what the prophets and kings of previous critical ages failed
to apprehend, that it cannot be all of it Davidic in origin, and that
perhaps none of it is his. It belongs to different ages, and is probably
made up, like a modern hymn-book, out of previous handbooks of
song, covering a period that reached nearly to the Christian era. The
mere fact of its numerical limitation is sufficient to show that it is mis-
cellaneous in character, and contains, in consequence, like all hymn-
books, many things which ought to have been left out, and by inference
that it has left out a good many things that ought to have been put in.

146 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

That simple statement sets the watchman in Oriental lore on the look-
out for appendices to the Psalter, and for a more varied authorship
than that of David. Indeed, as is well known, the Psalter does not
profess to be wholly Davidic, even if it be heavily Davidized. There
are other suggestions of individual singers and groups of singers which
can hardly be neglected. Perhaps it was that learned group of
translators and higher critics, whom we call by the name of the
Septuagint, who first speculated on the situation which provoked the
Hebrew Psalms, and searched the story of David, in order to make
him sing the right thing at the right time. There were musical critics,
too, as we can see from the head-lines in Moffatt's translation, to tell
us what kind of instruments and what range of voices were proper for
any special chant. Good fellows, no doubt, who did not object to
using a hymn-book ascribed to the sons of Korah, because Korah had
disappeared, so they said, in a theologically accentuated earthquake.
But these modifications as to authorship and musical treatment left the
popular opinion unchanged ; David wrote them, the words expressed
his thought and the tunes answered to his harp.

As a Greek MS. expresses it, which I once saw in Jerusalem :

" David sat on the tower which is named after him in Jerusalem,
and elegantly composed his Psalms."

A burdensome belief ! but then the Psalter itself is a burdensome
legacy, from which both the Christian Church and individual believers
have suffered much, and from whose dominance the Christian Church
is slowly beginning to shake itself loose. The observation which we
made as to the over- Davidized head-lines, shows that premature
criticism leads to theological disaster ; take, for instance, the 1 1 Oth
Psalm, to whose Davidic authorship Jesus found himself committed,
which becomes the basis for the Session at the Right Hand of the
Father, and the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek !

Our reason for referring to these matters lies in the little collection
which is here published : the first Psalm in the group is not new : it
is sometimes printed as an Appendix to the Psalter, and is known as
the 1 5 1 st. The reason for it is obvious. Among all the odd situations
for Davidic psalmody which the earlier collectors imagined and which
the Septuagint has conserved, there was nothing in the form of a
triumphal ode over Goliath. There was a song written when the
Ziphites told Saul that David was in hiding among them, another when

INTRODUCTIONS 147

Joab had defeated 1 2,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt, while the
lovely 34th Psalm is said to be the work of David when he escaped
arrest by pretending to be mad ; but no word about Goliath ! The
Sunday schools of that day must have resented the omission ! Ap-
parently it was a Greek hand that rectified it and put it as an
Appendix to the completed collection. Not that it is ever going to be
said or sung. It isn't deep enough for that. Its main purpose is to
rectify an omission, which it does awkwardly enough. We do not
think it has a Hebrew original ; probably it passed from Greek into
Syriac, as we have it before us. In the West it does not seem to have
had much acceptance, but it may interest some persons of antiquarian
taste to know that, in the last century, it was rendered into Lowland
Scottish by Dr. Hately Waddell.

PREFACES, EDITIONS, AND TRANSLATIONS.
BY A. MINGANA.

(z) A Jeremiah Apocryphon.
PREFATORY NOTE.

IN the following pages I give the translation (accompanied by a
critical apparatus) of a rather strange work purporting to
contain the history of the events that preceded and followed
the deportation of the Jews to Babylon. I have followed in my
edition two manuscripts : Paris 65 1 and Mingana Syr. 240, in the
custody of the Rendel Harris Library, Birmingham, designated here-
after by the letters P. and M. respectively. P. is dated 1 905 of the
Greeks (A.D. 1594), and M. has lost its colophon, but on palaeo-
graphical grounds may be ascribed to about A.D. 1650. The former
was written at Hamat, and the latter was recently acquired by me in
Kurdistan. No attention has been paid to Paris 238,2 273,3
and 276,4 because all the above MSS. seem to contain only two
different recensions of the story, and Paris 65 and Mingana Syr. 240
offer the best specimen of each recension.

From footnotes that I have added to the following pages the reader
will conclude that I believe that P. which is now in Garshuni was
transcribed from a MS. written in Arabic characters and executed in
Egypt. The same, however, could not be said of M. This fact
induces us to suppose that the two recensions of the story referred to
above may provisionally be divided into an Egyptian recension and a
Syrian, Palestinian, or Mesopotamian recension. The discrepancies and
verbal differences which characterise the two recensions are profound
and unmistakeable.

I first tried to establish from all the above MSS. a good text for
the body of the story and relegate the numerous variants to the foot-

1 P. 32 in Zotenberg's catalogue.

2 P. 191 in Zotenberg's catalogue. (The MS. is dated 1785 of the
Greeks (A.D. 1474).)

3 P. 2 1 2 in Zotenberg's catalogue. (The MS. is of the sixteenth century.)

4 P. 214 in Zotenberg's catalogue. (The MS. is of the seventeenth
century.)

148

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 149

notes, but in the course of my transcription I discovered that the plan
was impracticable, and I was driven to the conclusion that the best
method to give an adequate idea of each recension would be to edit
separately all the text of its best specimen, and this is the reason why
the reader finds for his guidance in the present work a complete set of
facsimiles of all P. and of all M. The same difficulty presented itself
to me in the translation. To note all the variants of each recension
seemed to me to be cumbersome and useless, so I confined myself to
refer in short notes only to the most important variants exhibited by
the two MSS. In a few cases the translation represents a combina-
tion of both P. and M. and the purely verbal discrepancies and still
more the orthographical variants have been completely ignored.

The Arabic used in the story is grammatically and lexicographically
more correct than that used in the " Exhortation to Priesthood " which
I edited and translated on pp. 97-120, but it is still much below the
standard of what a good piece of classic Arabic should be.1 If it
comes to be established that the Arabic text is a translation from a
foreign language — an opinion to which I cannot subscribe — I might be
tempted to assert that the story was originally written in Greek, from
which it was translated into Syriac, and that the Syriac gave rise to the
recension represented by M. As to the recension represented by P. it
was possibly translated either direct from Greek or more probably from
a Coptic intermediary, before it came under the influence of the Syrian
copyists. I was not aware till very late that P. had been transcribed in
Arabic characters and translated in R.O£. 1910, pp. 255-266, 398-
404, and 19! 1, pp. 128-143. The MS. has lost nothing, however,
by a more critical edition.

The story itself appears to me to emanate from a man who lived
either in Egypt or in Western (not Eastern) Palestine.

TRANSLATION.

We will write concerning - the deportation of the Children of
Israel to Babylon at the hand of the King Nebuchadnezzar in the
days of the prophet Jeremiah.3

1 Only the most important mistakes have been corrected in the footnotes.

- P. : " In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, one God,
we will begin by the assistance of God and His help to narrate the history
•of ..."

3 P. adds : " May his prayer protect us and you. Amen."

150 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

And the word of God came to the prophet Jeremiah saying : x
" Say to the King Zedekiah and to the people of the Children of
Israel, ' Why do you add sins to your sins,2 and iniquity to your
iniquity ? My eye has seen your deeds, and my ear has heard your
sayings. If you had fasted, I would have been merciful to you ; and
if you had prayed, I would have listened to you, says the Lord
Omnipotent You have not fasted to me, nor have you stretched
your hands towards me, but you have fasted to Baal and prayed to
Zeus, and you have forgotten the Lord God of Abraham and said,
' Who is the God of Israel ? ' You have been unmindful of all my
goodness to you when I took you out of the land of Egypt, delivered
you from the servitude of Pharaoh,3 and smote the inhabitants of
Egypt with plagues. I cared for you like a tender mother 4 cares for
her 5 virgin daughters until she delivers them up to the bridegroom, in
order that no harm may befall you in all your ways.

" I have glorified you above all nations, and have called you my
people, O Children of Israel. I have brought you out of a wilderness
full of scorpions and vipers, and made you dwell in the desert forty
years while your dresses did not wear out, your shoes were not torn
up, and the hair of your heads did not grow up, and in all that length
of time your clothing did not show any dirt on it. I gave you the
bread of angels from heaven, while a column of light shone upon you
by night, and a cloud protected you by day. I guarded you with my
right hand and my holy arm, and delivered you from the hands of
your enemies and made you possess that for which you had not toiled.
I took you out of the depth of the sea, and you beheld your enemies
behind you standing by the sea like statues. I sent down angels from
heaven to assist you in crossing the middle of the sea, and drowned
the chariots of Pharaoh in its depth 6 with promptitude. I ordered
the abysses to cover them, and made you enter a land for which you
had not toiled, a land that flows with milk and honey, and put your
fear in the hearts (of your enemies).

" After all these things which I did for you, you have forgotten
my name and said, ' There is no God but Baal and Zeus.' You

1 Note the Biblical parallelism of the following lines.

J Read : taziduna in M. and dhunuban in P.

3 P. omits the proper name. * P. omits " mother."

5 P. " her sons and her ..." c See Exodus, XV, 1 sqq.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 151

have returned to me evil for good, forsaken me, offered sacrifices to
Baal, and immolated your sons and daughters to Zeus. You have
turned away from me, all of you, old and young, and have committed
injustices against one another. The seed of adultery has appeared in
your midst, and there is no just judge among you. If you persist in
these deeds, says the Lord, I will inflict calamities on you and cause
my wrath to flow like a flowing river which does not turn back.
Your young men will die smitten with the sword, and your old men
of hunger and thirst ; your children will be deported while you look
at them, and your great city will be destroyed. Your land shall
become a deserted waste, because I lost patience with you, says the
Lord Omnipotent. I bore with you so that perchance you may
repent and return to me, and I return to you. But now I have turned
my face away from you.1

" While you were doing my will and were calling me, ' O Lord,
O Lord,' I was listening to you with promptitude ; but now were you
to cry to me I would not answer you and say, ' Here I am,' nor
would I send down to you dew in time and rain in season. In the
days when you were obedient to me, all the nations were trembling
before you. Each one of you used to chase a thousand, and two put
ten thousand to flight,2 and my angels preceded you anywhere you
halted. But when you offended me, all the earth turned against you ;
and the sun and the moon mourned 3 over you because they beheld
your prevarication, your worship of idols, and all the iniquity which is
within you, and which you perpetrated before the idol of Zeus.4 You
kindled my wrath and did not return to me, says the Lord Omni-
potent, God of Israel.' "

The prophet Jeremiah rose up then and went to King Zedekiah.
He saw him sitting in the Sun-Gate,5 and with him was a company
of false prophets, who were prophesying falsely to him. When King
Zedekiah saw the prophet Jeremiah, he stood up before him and
received him and said to him : " O seer, hast thou the word of God
in thy mouth 6 in these days ? " And Jeremiah the prophet said to
him : " Here is the word ; " and he narrated to him the word of

1 About a third of a page is here torn in M.

2 Deut. xxxii. 30. s Syr. akhri.

4 P. omits the sentence which deals with Zeus.

5 A proper name of a gate dedicated to the deity Shemesh " sun."

6 P. omits " mouth."

152 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

God before all the people. When the king heard the words of the
prophet Jeremiah he waxed very angry, and asked the people and the
false prophets who were round him whether that young man was
mad.1 And Hananiah,2 the liar, rose up, put on his head horns of
iron,3 and began to speak and say, ' This is what the Lord God says :
" Thou, O king, shall triumph over thy enemies and over these ' — and
he made a sign to north, south, east, and west — and proceeded thus :
" No one will be able to contradict thee, O king, nor dwell in the
land." And there was then no word of God in the mouth of
the prophet Jeremiah.

When the king heard these words from Hananiah, the liar and
the deceiver, in the presence of all the false prophets his companions,
he said to those of his -servants that were present: "Take this
Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon, in the lowest pit, which is
full of mire,4 in order that he may die ; no other food should be given
to him apart from a little bread and water in order that we may know
whether the word of God is with him or not." Then they threw
forthwith Jeremiah in the place which the king had designated.

When Abimelech,5 a servant in constant attendance on the king,
heard that King Zedekiah had thrown Jeremiah into prison, he rose
up and inquired after the place where King Zedekiah was staying,
and went to him. When the king saw the servant approaching him,
he said to him : "Be welcome, O faithful servant ; thou hast come
to-day to us ; what is thy request ? " And the servant said to him :
" O king what has the prophet Jeremiah done, that you should have
acted with him in this way ? Do you not fear God, O king, in cast-
ing the prophet of the Lord into prison and in extinguishing the lamp
of Israel which shone on the people of God ? " Then King Zedekiah
said to him : " Thou hast done well in reminding me to-day of him, O
Ephti,6 take some men with thee, and go and take him out of prison."

1 Or : possessed by evil spirits.

2 P. : Hanina. See Jer. xxviii. 1-17.

3 Cf. 1 Kings xxii. 11. 4 See Jer. xxxviii. 6.

5 P. : Ephtimelech throughout. He is evidently the same personage as the
one called Ebedmelech (Jer. xxxviii. 7), an Ethiopian eunuch in the king's
house. The name given in P. seems to be of Coptic origin and emanates
from a MS. the archetype of which was written in Egypt.

8 The first half of the name of Ephtimelech, the reading of P. M. does
not mention any name in this sentence.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 153

Then Abimelech took with him men, old rags, and strong ropes,1
and repaired to the prison in which Jeremiah was lying ; he threw to
him the old rags, and let down to him the strong ropes and said :
" Attach these to your armholes so that we may draw you up." He
did as he was told, and they drew him out of prison and gave him his
freedom.

Then the Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah : " O you whom I
have elected and honoured, arise and go for the second time to
Zedekiah and say to him, ' Thus says the Lord God of Israel, " How
long will you irritate my spirit, shed innocent blood, cause pregnant
women to miscarry, and take the fruit of their wombs and burn it with
fire before the statue of Baal. The blood of those whom you have
unjustly killed cried towards the throne of my glory, and the cry of the
unjustly treated went up to the gates of heaven. Why have you
trodden in the path of Manasseh and forsaken the ways of David,
your father ? If you persist before me in these deeds, 1 will bring
down my wrath and anger on you, and strip you of your glory ; I
will overthrow your throne and give your kingdom to your enemy
who will put out your eyes and place them in your hands, and slay
your two children and place one at your right hand and the other at
your left ; and put a chain round your neck like a dog. In this way
you will be deported into Babylon, tied to the chariot of the king
Nebuchadnezzar,2 and you will die there while driving the mule that
pulls the stone of the flour-mill.3 This great people will also be led
into captivity with you, and Jerusalem4 will be destroyed to its
foundations, because you have dishonoured my name by your worship
of foreign gods and have broken my covenant which I made with your
fathers." All these words utter you before the elders 5 of the children
of Israel."

1 See Jer. xxxviii. II. P. reads mawdklt and M. kawaniit.

2 Cf. 2 Kings xxv. 6-7 ; Jer. xxxix. 4-7.

3 In early times (and occasionally also in the present day) the stone that
ground the corn in a flour-mill was tied to a chain pulled by a horse or a
mule.

4 Curiously enough the name of Jerusalem is generally written in P. with
zyodh at the beginning, in the Hebrew fashion, instead of an Alaph, in the
Arabic and Synac fashion. This also denotes a Coptic origin to the arche-
type from which P. emanates.

5 M. : nobles, princes (as in the Bible).

154 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

The prophet Jeremiah then said : " No, my Lord and my God,
Lord of mercy and creator of the universe ; no, O Lord, do not send
me to King Zedekiah, because he is a man who hates Thy pious ones,
and he will wax angry if I mention Thy name before him, and his anger
will be brought to the highest pitch if I mention the name of Thy saints
who have been slain and of Thy holy ones who have been stoned.
He has further sought my destruction, and if I go back to him he will
throw me in the pool of mire, in the lowest dungeon, and I shall die
there." The Lord said then to the prophet Jeremiah : " Rise up
and go to him. It is I who send you in my name, and be not
afraid."

Then the prophet Jeremiah rose up and went to King Zedekiah
and to the people of the children of Israel. He had an audience
with the king, and he related to him all the words of God. King
Zedekiah became exceedingly angry, and ordered the prophet Jeremiah
to be thrown for the second time in the lowest cistern, the cistern of
mire. When Abimelech heard of the imprisonment of the prophet
Jeremiah, he went to King Zedekiah and saved him like the first time x
and set him free.

Then the word of God came for the third time to the prophet
Jeremiah saying : " O Jeremiah whom I have elected, arise and go
to King Zedekiah and utter to him the words of the Lord, God of
Israel." Then the prophet Jeremiah fell down before the Lord, lifted
his hands to Him, worshipped before Him and said to Him : " No,
my Lord, do not send me to King Zedekiah, because if I mention to
him Thy holy name he will wax angry and kill me." Then the
Lord ordered the prophet Jeremiah to write down in a book all
that was revealed to him and deliver it to his disciple Baruch," to bring
to King Zedekiah. The prophet Jeremiah did what God ordered him
to do, and he wrote a letter and sent it to King Zedekiah with his
disciple Baruch and ordered him to read it before him and before the
company of the children of Israel. And Baruch went to the palace

1 P. adds : " and the second rime." M. omits it.

2 P. writes the name as Yaruth throughout with a ya (instead of a ba)
at the beginning. This could have happened only in case the Paris MS.
which is now written in Garshuni was emanating from an original which was
written in Arabic characters, because it is in Arabic characters only that the
letters ba and ya have graphically the same form and are only distinguished
by a small dot which is generally omitted in old MSS.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 155

of the king whom he saw sitting with his boon-companions. He
stood before him with the letter in his hand, and uttered the words of
God. When the king heard the speech of the disciple Baruch he
became exceedingly angry, took the letter from him, and burned it
with fire that he made there before all the children of Israel. He also
ordered at once Baruch, the disciple of the prophet Jeremiah, to be
flogged — and he was cruelly lashed1 — and asked him where (his
master) lived. The disciple told the king his master's whereabouts,
and the king ordered that he should be brought before him bound with
chains and fetters.

The servants went out to look for him and they found him in a
sepulchral crypt braiding fresh twigs and leaves.2 They seized him
forthwith and did with him what the king had ordered them to do,
and they presented him to King Zedekiah.3 When he stood before
the king, Satan filled the latter's heart and he began to gnash his teeth
at him and said to him : " I will shed your blood and pour it in the
plate from which I eat, I will deliver your flesh to the birds of heaven
and your bones to the carnivores of the earth, for the written words
that your disciple uttered before me. What is between me and you,
O Jeremiah, that you should prophesy falsely 4 against me and against
my kingdom and say, ' Your kingdom shall be taken from you and
your throne shall be overthrown, and the people shall be deported
and Jerusalem shall be destroyed to its foundations ? ' I swear to you
by the great gods Baal and Zeus that I shall torment you with a
grievous torment, and not finish you off quickly, but shall cast you into
the lowest pit of the prison, and see whether your words will apply to
me truly or not."

The king ordered him to be tied hands and feet with iron and
thrown into the pit which he had named ; he further ordered that
no bread and water should be given to him, in order that he may die
of hunger and thirst. The prophet Jeremiah turned then towards the
king and said to him before the people of the children of Israel :
" May God judge between thee and me, O King Zedekiah ; I have
prophesied for many years on behalf of the Lord, and no lie has ever
come out of my mouth,0 and thou art throwing me for the third rime

3. omits. - For basket making.

3 M. omits the last two sentences. 4 M. omits the adverb.

0 Read/mz (or fay a in P.

156 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

in prison, in the lowest pit, wishing me to die there. Thou hast
confidence in the false prophets who prophesy to thee falsely. This
being the case listen to the words of God which are in my mouth : *

" Thou hast angered me with thy iniquitous deeds,2 and I shall
turn my face away from thee and from the people of the children of
Israel. I shall kindle my wrath and anger against this land, and the
king of the Chaldeans shall come with men as numerous as locusts,
and shall dismantle to its foundations the rampart 3 of the city of
Jerusalem and fix his throne in its midst. And thou, O King
Zedekiah, when thou seest these things with thy eyes, pangs of travail
will take possession of thee like a woman who 4 gives birth to a child.
Thou shalt extend on thy bed and cover thy face with thy mantle
as with a shroud, and thy servants will carry thee on their necks like
a corpse and run with thee towards the Jordan in order that they may
cross it and save thee. God then will move the hearts of the servants
of Nebuchadnezzar, who will seek thee in thy bed-chamber and not
find thee, and they will follow thee and overtake thee on the river
Karmlis 5 ; they will throw thee on the ground, uncover thy face, and
strip thee of thy mantle, and present thee to Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of the Chaldeans, and thou shalt see his eyes with thy eyes, and
thy mouth shall speak with his mouth. He will put a chain round
thy neck like a dog, bring thy two sons to thy presence, and slay one
at thy right hand and the other at thy left. He will put out thy eyes
and place them in thy hands, and carry thee with him to the countries
of Babylon, tied to his chariot, with mud, mire6 and ashes on thy
head. Thou shalt eat bread, weeping and sighing, and shalt drink
water with grief and hardship, and shalt die there while driving the
mule that pulls the stone of the flour-mill."

When Jeremiah finished these words he was seized by the servants
to do with him what King Zedekiah had ordered. And the prophet

a for fay a in P.

Change the first ya into a rot. The correct form should have been
ar-radlyah. M. has the incorrect al-ayadi.

3 Read sur in M. 4 Read al-lati.

5 Written as " Karlis " in M. The word seems to be of Greek origin.
It is somewhat strange that the Jordan should be referred to in the document
by this uncommon word. Zedekiah was of course overtaken in the plain o£
Jericho.

6 P. wrongly " mud."

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 157

Jeremiah said to the servants of Zedekiah : " Have a little patience
with me until I finish the words of God which are in my mouth."
And King Zedekiah said : " Leave him until he utters all that he
has to say." While the prophet Jeremiah was left alone he turned
to all the people standing before the king and said : " Listen to what
the Lord Omnipotent says : ' I protected your fathers l when I took
them out of the land of Egypt, but because you have forgotten the
great goodness I did to your fathers in the desert, you shall be requited
with a much greater evil. When I took your fathers out of the land
of Egypt, and they dwelt forty years in the desert, their dresses did
not wear out, their shoes were not torn up, and the hair of their heads
did not grow. You, however, shall be deported and shall be in the
way to your destination " only a month and your dresses shall wear
out and become like old skins ; they shall tear up, and you shall sew
them with cords made of palm-tree fibres, of alfa, and palm-tree
leaves. The hair of your heads shall come down to your shoulders
like the hair of women, and instead of the column of light which shone
upon your fathers 3 day and night and went before them in their way,
you shall be deported and walk in the heat of the sun and the cold of
the night, and you shall experience the most intense heat of the
summer and severe cold of the winter. I shall order the moon and
the stars which * shine at night not to shed their light on you, in order
that you may be in darkness. You shall crawl on your hands in
groping your way, and shall stumble on one another with vehemence,
intense pains, and bitter weeping.

' You shall hunger after bread, and thirst after water, and you
shall sigh and say, ' Thou art just, O Lord, and Thou hast done
everything with wisdom ; Thou hast acted towards us according to
our merits.' 5 Instead of the manna and the quails which God sent to
your fathers, and the sweet water which He caused to jet forth for
them from the rock, there shall descend on you 6 from heaven, earth,
dust, and a fiery wind that will cling to your bodies and inflict on
them sores, wounds, and blisters that do not heal. I shall render
your drinking water brackish and bitter in your mouths, in order to

1 Read abaakum,

• Read taskunun in P., and put the particle lam before the verb.
3 Read abaikum in P. * Read -#/-/£// tudiu.

5 Lit as we acted. 6 Read 'tUatkxm'm P.

12

158 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

desiccate your bodies and dry up your bones. Instead of the light of
the sun that (God) caused to shine on your fathers, you shall have
lice and vermin to consume your bodies. You shall remain seventy
years in the captivity and servitude of the Chaldeans until the Lord
turns His wrath away from you."

When the prophet Jeremiah finished all these words to King
Zedekiah and to the elders and princes of the people who were
surrounding him, they cried one and all, saying, ' Long live thou King
Zedekiah.' The king then ordered the prophet to be cast into the
dungeon, in the place where the cistern of mire was found. The
description of this dungeon is that people walked three hours under-
ground in the dark until they reached it ; its sides were as thin as a
glass bowl ; no one was able to stand in that place, except on the
joint of his knees ; it was full of mire and pitch which reached the
armpits1 of a man. And the prophet Jeremiah remained in that
place for several days in great pains.

When Abimelech, the servant 2 of the king heard the story of the
prophet Jeremiah, he visited him every day, by giving a denarius to
the gaoler in order to let him enter, and gave the prophet Jeremiah
bread and water, and then returned to his master.3 He did this for
twenty-one days, after which he went to King Zedekiah and said to
him : "I felt the necessity of presenting myself before you for the
sake of the prophet Jeremiah. Was it not sufficient for you,4 O king,
to imprison the prophet of God a first time and a second time, that you
should have thrown him a third time into prison ? You have extinguished
the lamp of the children of Israel, which was shedding light on the
people of God ; and he did not speak before thee except what God
had revealed to him." Then the king said to him, " O Abimelech,
you have done well in reminding me of him to-day ; rise up, go and
take men with thee and draw him out of the dungeon, and place him
in a house until we ascertain if his words are true or not, and test the
truth of his sayings." ;

1 M. : the hands. 2 P. : the boon-companion.

8 P. And parts of the fruits of which his master had eaten.

4 The verb akna'a " to persuade " is used here for kafa "to be
sufficient," and this induces us to suppose that the original from which the
Arabic version is derived was Greek. The particle of the interrogative alam
is missing in P. but is found in M.

5 The above sentences are often differently worded in the MSS.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 159

Abimelech went then immediately and took with him two1
servants from the palace of the king, and drew up the prophet
Jeremiah from the dungeon, after he had spent there twenty-one days,
and placed him in a house of peace and rest. Then the prophet
Jeremiah said to Abimelech : 2 " Blessed be thou, O my child
Abimelech, because thou hadst pity on me in the time of my trials.
Thus says the Lord Omnipotent, ' He who does good to those in
trouble, or in prison, and to the poor, God will remember him with
His grace, and with His help and assistance.3 Thou shall not see
the destruction of Jerusalem, O my child, and thou shall not go to the
hardship of the captivity ; thou shall not die, bul shall live until ihe
Lord lurns away His wrath. The sun shall nurture ihee and ihe
firmamenl shall rear ihee, and ihe earth on which ihou shall sleep
shall give ihee rest, and ihe slone shall prolecl ihee from ihe cold of
ihe winler and ihe heal of ihe summer, and ihy soul shall be in joy
and pleasure for seventy years until ihou seest Jerusalem in its glory
and rebuilt as it was before."

After this King Zedekiah returned to sin before ihe Lord, and
he enlered ihe house of ihe Lord and look oul ihe Iwo columns of
marble which gave lighl in il wilhoul a lamp and placed ihem in ihe
temple4 before the stalues of Baal and Zeus, and he carried ihe
precious and holy plales ° lo ihe place where he used lo sil and drink
wilh his concubines. He pulled down ihe allar on which sacrifices
were offered, and he made il a lable lo himself in ihe lemple 6 which
belongs lo Baal and Zeus. He broughl oul also the ark of the
covenanl, and oul of ihe gold of ihe candle-stick 7 he made a crown
which he placed on ihe head of ihe idol. He ordered lhal oxen
should be offered lo Baal ihe idol, and summoned ihe pregnanl
women in travail and commanded lhal iheir offspring should be laken
oul of iheir wombs and sacrificed on the fire to Baal and Zeus. He
also ordered lhal all children from Iwo years old and under s should

1 P. omits " two."

Curiously enough P. also has here " Abimelech."
0 M. omits the last sentence.

4 M. says : " he brought them to the house in which were the idols Baal
and Zeus."

5 Read the word with a sad instead of a sin in P.

6 Sic. P., but M. again as above.

7 P. manzarah and M. better mariarah. 8 See Matt ii. 16.

160 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

likewise be sacrificed and their blood taken and offered to Baal and
Zeus.1

In that very day the earth shook and its (four) points quaked,
and the Lord thundered from heaven and his wrath spread over all
the earth, and He ordered the angel of anger to come down to it
with fury, and had it not been for the intervention of the angels and
the holy ones who knelt down before the Lord and besought Him to
turn away His wrath from His people, all would have perished.
The Lord perceived the odour of their sighing and their holy lamenta-
tions,2 had mercy upon the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
removed His wrath and did not destroy them.3

And the word of God came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
' Jeremiah, Jeremiah,' and he answered, ' Here I am, O Lord.'
And the Lord said to him : "I have sworn that I shall not remove
my wrath, and I say to you that I shall not do anything before I have
told it to you. Were it not for your prayers that 4 have surrounded
Jerusalem none of its inhabitants would have been alive, and I would
have destroyed it to its foundations, because my eyes are covered with
tears over the innocent blood of the children that has been shed ;
they cry and say, ' Avenge our blood.' 5 Lo, concerning this people
among whom you live examine the three following punishments : do
you wish me to order Satanael,6 the angel of wrath, to destroy them
and exterminate them from their young ones to their adults, with their
old men and young men ? Or do you wish me to inflict famine on
them and to command heaven which is above them to become brass
and the earth which is below them to become iron, so that no dew
may fall from heaven and no fruits should come from the earth ; and
I shall destroy all the trees and annihilate their storehouses that are
full so that they may eat one another and fall in the streets of the city

1 M. omits Zeus. " Read tasa'udat in P.

3 M. omits all the last sentence. 4 Read al-lati.

5 The meaning of the sentence is literally in P. as follows : " He who is
a sinner let us sin " (sic). It is altogether missing in M. and P. adds further :
" And who went down to hell that we may know that there is in it grievous
torment?"

8 About Satanael see the Book of the Secrets of Enoch in Charles'
Apocrypha and Pseud, ii. 439 and passim, and the Ethiopic Le livre des
Mysteres in Pat. Or. i. 73. See also Severus ibn al-mukaffa', Refutation
in Pat. Or. iii. 132-133.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 161

from hunger and thirst ? Or do you wish me to allow Nebuchadnez-
zar who is King of Babylon to subdue them and lord it over them for
seventy years, and they be slaves of the Chaldeans to the point of
destruction, in order that they may know that I am the God who
hold their spirits in my hands ? "

When the prophet Jeremiah heard these words from the Lord,
he fell down in worship on his face before Him and wept and said :
" O God of all mercy ; Thou art the God of gods and Creator of
the universe. Look, O Lord, upon the children of Thy servants
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to whom Thou sworest that their seed
shall be like the stars of heaven ; : no, O Lord, do not destroy them
one and all, and let not the angel Satanael come down on them
because he will not leave a single one of them. Where is'2 the
oath that Thou sworest to our father Abraham, Thy beloved, in
saying to Him, ' Thy seed shall not cease under heaven,' and if Thou
sendest against them famine and dearth, and Thou restrainest heaven
from sending down its dew, and the earth from yielding its fruit, the
children of Thy servants will perish from the surface of the earth,
and where shall be the covenant that Thou gavest to Thy servant
Israel in saying to him, ' Thy children shall remain for ever and ever/
And do not be angry, O Lord, because of the ill-treatment that I
receive at the hands of Thy servants : 3 Thy people who sinned
against Thee. If Thou orderest for them, O Lord, a deportation by
Nebuchadnezzar and a captivity to Babylon, verily a father chastises
his sons and a master his servants."

Then the Lord summoned forthwith the angel Michael, the head
of the angels, and said to him : " Arise and go to Nebuchadnezzar,
long of Babylon and say to him : * Go to Judea, to the city of
Jerusalem, and spread thy hand and the hand of the Chaldeans who
are with thee over its land, and bring into captivity all the inhabitants
of the land of Israel, lord it over them, and take them to the land of
the Chaldeans, and enslave them there for seventy years. Their
adults shall do brickwork and clay work, and their old men shall hew
wood and draw water, and their women shall spin and weave

1 Gen. xxii. 1 7.

- A word is missing at the beginning of the sentence in P.
3 Lit. " because of the affair that I have with Thy servants." Further,
P. exhibits : " Do not be angry with me."

162 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

wool, and they shall show thee their work every day, and thou shall
make accounts with them as if they were slaves. Act, however, with
mercy and justice towards them, because (in the end) I shall have pity
upon them.' "

Michael worshipped then the Lord immediately and went in
haste to Babylon, which he reached in that very night. He nudged
Nebuchadnezzar the king in the right side and said to him : " O
Nebuchadnezzar, arise quickly so that I may speak with you."
When Nebuchadnezzar awoke from his sleep and saw the angel of
God with shining eyes like the star of the morning, with a spear in his
hand, with loins girded with a sword, with feet covered with hot
polished1 brass, and with a terrifying speech, he said to him : " Woe
is me, O my master, because in no time have I seen the like of you.
Are you not one of the gods of Babylon ? 2 Or perchance are you
the God who spread heaven and established the earth, and fashioned
every thing ? " And the angel answered him saying : " I am not
God, but His servant. I am one of the seven angels3 who stand
before the throne of the Lord God, and here is what the Lord God
says, 'Arise with all your might and with the Chaldeans, and
spread your hand over all the land of Judea and deport its inhabitants
and bring them to the land of Babylon. And they shall be slaves to
you : their adults shall work at clay and bricks, and their old men
shall hew wood and draw water, and their women shall spin and
weave wool, and they shall bring in their work every day like slaves,
and you shall settle their accounts, but show mercy towards them. I
have delivered them to you for punishment, and after that I shall have
pity on them for ever and ever.' "

And Nebuchadnezzar said to the angel Michael : " Woe is me,
O my master, the Lord has perchance waxed angry with me because
of the great number of my sins, and He wishes me to go to foreign
lands in order to destroy my life in them ; do destroy me with your
hand ; this would be more advantageous for me than that I and all
who are with me should die in a foreign land. Who is the king of
Babylon, and who is Nebuchadnezzar before the people of God the

1 P. : hot. Read maskul in M. 2 M. : which god are you ?
8 See about the seven angels the Book of Enoch in Charles' Apocrypha
and Pseud, ii. 201.

4 M. omits " for erer."

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 163

Most High ? And who am I that I should go to Jerusalem and
fight the people of God ? Is it not the people whom Pharaoh fought,
and God drowned him in the abysses, and water covered him ? Is
it not the people whom the Amorites l fought, and they all perished ?
In this way five nations were destroyed before them." Who am I
then, O Lord, that I should fight a just people and conquer it, a
people who when they go to war do not take with them any material
of war, but, if they stretch out their hands, angels help them from
heaven and fight on their behalf ? 3

And the angel Michael said to Nebuchadnezzar : " Every thing
you said is true. Every people4 who keep the commandments of
God, no one 5 is able to overcome them ; but if they forsake His
commandments and His law, He delivers them into the hands of their
enemies, and they perish at their hands. Now, this people have
sinned, prevaricated, and increased their iniquity ; " arise thou, then, and
destroy them that they may know that God is the only one that lasts
for ever and ever." When the angel Michael finished his words to
Nebuchadnezzar, he stretched his hand, anointed him, and fortified
him against the (Jewish) people, and went up to heaven.

After the angel Michael had gone, Nebuchadnezzar arose and
went to his wife Hilkiah 7 whom he awakened from her sleep. He
narrated to her all that the angel had told him. When she heard
those words from him she was greatly perplexed 8 and fell down 9
weeping, and said to Nebuchadnezzar : " Woe is me, my lord, and
my brother ; take me with thee wherever llj thou goest,11 because I
shall not see thee another time. Who is the king who fought this
people and was saved ? Dost thou not know that this is the people
of God, and that everything that they ask from God they obtain it
forthwith ?"12 And Nebuchadnezzar said to her : " It is their God

I Read Amoraniun. 2M. omits all this sentence.

3 It is surprising how quickly Nebuchadnezzar became versed in the
Jewish history and in the knowledge of the true God.

4 Read shalbin in P. 5 Read ahadun in P.

6 The last two verbs are not found in M.

7 In M. Helkenah. s Read idtarabat in P.
9 P. wrongly " went out." 10 P. " when."

II Read tadhhab in P.

12 The knowledge of the Queen Helkenah or Hilkiah concerning the
Jewish people is as accurate and perplexing as that of her husband !

164 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

that has delivered them up to me." And she said to him : " O my
lord, listen attentively to what I am going to say to thee : if thou goest
to fight them, take with thee a ram, and when thou art near the city of
Judea alight from thy chariot, lay the sceptre of gold l that is in thy
hand on the head of the ram and let it go ; 2 if it take the direction of
Judea,3 follow it, and know that the Lord has delivered them up to thee ;
but if the ram does not proceed forward to Judea but turns its face 4
towards Babylon, return thou with it and fight not the people of God ;
if you are like the number of the sand of the sea not a single soul will
return alive with thee."

When the wife said these words to the king, he accepted them
from her, and he rose forthwith and summoned his generals Cyrus and
Isarus,5 and narrated to them all that God had promised him through
His angel. And they said to the king : " May you live for ever !
It is their God that is angry with them. This people has sinned ;
send therefore at once a messenger to Zedekiah, king of Jerusalem, to
convey to him words of conciliation, and despatch gifts with him, and
make inquiries whether his people have worshipped foreign gods and
forsaken the words of the Lord, and whether they have refused (to
listen to) the prophets who were with them and who interceded with
the Lord on their behalf. If not, do not proceed to their land, as He
has destroyed others who fought them, and fire will come down on us
from heaven and consume us along with our land." (

These words pleased King Nebuchadnezzar, who sent forthwith
a messenger ' from his generals, accompanied by a thousand horse-
men, and he wrote with him a letter to King Zedekiah, and despatched
gifts to him : a great quantity of carmine, gold, and frankincense.8
The general departed then for Jerusalem with his party. When he
reached it, King Zedekiah was informed that the messenger of
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had arrived. He at once went out
to meet him, surrounded by the women of the children of Israel
dancing before their king. Then King Zedekiah dismounted and
received the general of the king (of Babylon) and accepted the gifts

1 P. omits " of gold." 2 M. omits " let it go."

3 P. " the holy city." 4 Read biwajhihi in P.

5 M. Sharus. 6 A leaf is here missing in M.

7 Read rasulan.

8 Compare the two last named gifts with Matt. ii. 11.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 165

from him. He took the gold and of it he made a crown which he
placed on the head of the idol ; as to the frankincense he burnt it
before Baal and Zeus. He was also pleased with the letter of the
King Nebuchadnezzar, and he wrote to him to Babylon an answer to
his letter in the following terms :

" Zedekiah, King of Judea, writes to Nebuchadnezzar, King
of Babylon, thus : ' Peace be with you. This peace exists
between you and me. My gods are your gods, and your gods
are my gods.' "

He sealed the letter, handed it to the general, and despatched
with him gems and precious stones. When the priests of Baal, the
idol, heard 1 (this) they said to the king : " Where is Jeremiah who
said, 'The king of Babylon shall come and take possession of this
land?'"

A few days later the general reached Babylon with the thousand
horsemen who were with him, and handed to Nebuchadnezzar the
answer to his letter. When the king understood its meaning perfectly
he roared like a lion and neighed like the horse which pulls the wheel,
and said to Cyrus and his retinue : " Prepare at once your horses, the
troops and the soldiers."

And Nebuchadnezzar went forth in those days and with him
were all the Chaldeans to the number of six hundred thousand
horsemen and six hundred thousand chariots, and on each chariot
were sixteen horsemen, in all six thousand thousand thousand, and
six hundred thousand,1 with spears, weapons, and leather shields,
and they marched on the right hand of the king and on his left,
until they reached the partition of the roads between Babylon and
Jerusalem. There Nebuchadnezzar alighted from his chariot, stripped
himself of the royal robe, removed the crown from his head, brought
the sceptre of his kingdom, and put it on the head of the ram. The
ram took immediately the road of Judea, and the direction of Jerusalem.
The king then said to all who were with him : " I am very much
surprised,3 but the Lord God has delivered the (Jewish) people to
me." Then the king ordered that his ram 4 should be brought to him

1 Read sami'a.

' There is surely much exaggeration in all these numbers, if we under-
stand the computation given here aright.

3 Read muta'ajjibun. 4 Read kabshahu.

166 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

and placed l on the sceptre of his kingdom pitched in the ground ; and
then he placed his robe at his right hand, and removed his crown and
laid it under his feet, and he turned his face towards the direction of
the east,2 and said : " O God whom I do not know, God of the pious
Hebrews, and of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, O God whose name
I am not worthy to pronounce with my mouth that has sinned and my
lips 8 that have deceived.4 I am afraid that thou shouldest not deliver
the (Jewish) people to me because I am a sinner. My sins and those
of my people have perchance increased before Thee." Then he
proceeded : 5 " O God of Israel and God of heavens and earth, whose
name has reached me, the unworthy servant,6 God who has power
over heavens and earth, I beseech thee, O Lord, to tell me whether
that man who came to my house and nudged me is Thy angel, and
whether it is Thy will that I should fight this people. I implore Thee
to give a sign to this effect to me and to these men who are standing
before Thee,7 because I am Thy servant, Nebuchadnezzar, King of
Babylon. Thou hast, O Lord, hardened in the times of yore the
heart of Pharaoh, until the sea submerged him and those who were
with him. If I have sinned before Thee, and Thou wishest my
destruction, destroy me while I am still in the borders of my own land
with all those who are with me ; but, O Lord, if Thou truly deliverest

(the Jewish people) to me, let the shade of my sceptre return towards

i*
me.

And at that instant the sun moved and the shade of the sceptre of
Nebuchadnezzar turned towards his head. (The king) then left the
sceptre at his left side and the liver of the goat 8 at his right side and
said : " O Lord fortify my heart." And the Lord gave him courage

1 Read yansubuhu.

2 Why the east ? Can this sentence be attributed to a Christian ? The
Christians, as we all know, turned their face in prayer towards the east.

3 Readfiya and shafataiya.

4 M. " for my lips are dirty." Here ends the lacuna in M.

5 P. "And he turned his face towards the east, and he prayed and
said."

8 M. omits.

7M. "In this ram that is standing before Thee." There are many
rerbal discrepancies in all this paragraph between the text of the two MSS

8 Sic both MSS. P. has erroneously kibarior kabid " liver." All this
is somewhat obscure.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 167

and bravery,1 and he ascertained that it was the God of the Jewish
people who had delivered them to him.

And God who is God of mercy remembered Abimelech and his
kindness towards the prophet Jeremiah in the days in which King
Zedekiah had imprisoned him in the dungeon. And the Lord did
not wish ~ him to be in the captivity of Babylon and in the servitude of
Nebuchadnezzar. And the servant Abimelech according to his
daily habit went to the garden of his master, who was the boon-
companion 3 of Zedekiah, in order to bring him fruits. He took a
basket which he filled with grapes, figs, and other fruits from the
garden of his master, and covered them with green foliage, and carried
them in order to bring them to the house of his master. While he was
still on the way God remembered the words which He spoke to the
prophet Jeremiah, that he " shall not see the destruction of Jerusalem,
nor be under the yoke * of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon."
While he was walking and looking towards heaven, and while the
distance (to his destination) was about an hour's (walk), he saw a
cave in which there was shade and much refreshing humidity, and he
said to himself : " I have gone out before my time, and have not taken
to-day bread to the prophet, the man of God, my father Jeremiah ;
so I shall sit here awhile and sleep for an hour in this refreshing
shade." He therefore repaired towards the shade and slept ; and he
placed the basket near his head, and it was full of grapes, figs, peaches,
and pears, covered with foliage. The earth gave him rest, and the
rock of the cave expanded over him and covered him like the roof of
a house ; the dew fortified him and the sun nurtured him, and he did
not hunger nor thirst, and he was not affected by the cold of the winter
nor the heat of the summer till the time when Jerusalem was destroyed
and then rebuilt afresh ; (all this happened to him) by the great
power of God, which protected him.

After this King Nebuhcadnezzar reached Judea, with all his
Chaldean generals, and he subjugated all Judea and all the towns round
Jerusalem. His troops spread over the land of Israel like locusts, and

1 Here begins a short lacuna in M. - Read yurid in P.

3 It is curious that P. should make of Ebedmelech the servant of a boon-
companion of Zedekiah, instead of Zedekiah himself. Even the name of
this boon- companion is given below.

4 See Jer. xxxix. 16-18.

168 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

they clapped with their hands and danced with their feet and said :
" Let us go and fight the Hebrews, plunder their possessions and
destory them, because all other people are now in arms against the
people of Israel whom nobody has dared approach and subdue down
to this day. Their rod was over all the nations by the power of God,
their God who fights for them."

All the young men of the children of Israel fell before Nebuchad-
nezzar, and all their power was weakened, and the people of Israel
became before him like pregnant women at the time of their travail.
He ordered them to gather together before him bound in fetters of
iron.1 He who was on the roof did not come down except with
bonds, and he who was in the sown field did not enter the city except
with fetters, and each one of them was seized in the spot where he
was, and none was left who did not come to King Nebuchadnezzar
who had fixed his throne at the gate of Jerusalem, the ramparts of
which he had ordered to be demolished instantly.2

When King Zedekiah heard this he was greatly agitated and the
pangs of travail overtook him like a woman in labour. He stretched
on his bed and spread his mantle over him and covered his face with
a kerchief, like a shrouded dead man. His servants took him with
the intention of crossing the Jordan with him and fleeing to save him.
And King Nebuchadnezzar gave orders that King Zedekiah be
brought before him, and Cyrus, his general, went to the residence of
Zedekiah, and saw it ornamented with silk, gold, and silver, and his
sleeping chamber perfumed with incense and fine aloes-wood,3 and
in it was the idol which he used to worship. And God put in the
hearts of the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar to pursue the servants
of King Zedekiah, and they overtook them with the bed-litter
on their shoulders in the valley 4 of the sea of Karmlis.5 They threw

1 Here ends the second short lacuna in M.

2 There are some verbal discrepancies in the above sentences in the texts
of the two MSS.

3 M. omits " fine aloes- wood."

4 So we translate sakir of P. which is obscure. M. has safir " falling
leaves " which is still more obscure. This variant could not have arisen
except from a text written in Arabic in which the letters fa and kaf are
only distinguished by an extraneous dot.

5 This Karmlis in P. and Karlis in M. is given above (p. 1 56) as a
river and not as a sea or a lake. What is referred to here may possibly be
the Dead Sea or the Lake of Tiberias.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 169

him from their shoulders, and took the mantle that was over him, and
presented him to Cyrus the first general : of the King Nebuchadnezzar.
The latter summoned the Chaldeans and ordered that Zedekiah's eyes
be put out and placed in his hands, and that his two children be
killed and placed one at his right side and the other at his left, and
that a collar be tied round his neck in order that he may be led like a
dog. They presented him in this state to King Nebuchadnezzar, who
commanded that he should be attached to the tail of his horse as far
as Babylon, and that there he should drive the mule that pulls the
stone of the flour-mill, and be given for food a small quantity only of
bread and water. The King Nebuchadnezzar ordered also that all
the elders of the children of Israel should be bound " and that their necks
should be tied to their feet until the bones of their necks were broken,
and that the pregnant women should have stones placed on their
wombs until they aborted.

The heart of Nebuchadnezzar was hardened against them like the
horses which neigh under the wheels, and he said to the Hebrews :
" Where is Jeremiah, the prophet of God, that I may ask him whether
I should return to my country and to my land, and inquire of him
concerning the ark of the Lord, in which are the tables written with
the finger of the Lord, and which, I have been told, proceeds before
you." And the congregation of the children of Israel cried with
weeping and said : " Where can we find the blessed prophet ? 3 The
prophet Jeremiah has been imprisoned by King Zedekiah, who ordered
that no bread and no water should be given to him until he dies."

While the Hebrews 4 were saying this, lo ! a spirit carried
Jeremiah and placed him before King Nebuchadnezzar, and he in-
formed him that the ark was no more ° because it was on the mountains
of Jericho and had disappeared owing to the great quantity of dust
that was heaped on it through the effect of the winds.6 As to the
tabernacle of the ark Zedekiah placed it under the idol of Baal.
Then the elders of the children of Israel cried and said : " Live, O
king, for ever and ever, and allow us to speak before you." And

1 In Arabic the Grasco-Roman batarikat,
~ M. adds " by their necks."

P. "blesses God whose sons have been imprisoned."
4 Read 'ibraniyun. 5 P. : he could not find.

6 P. only : " And dust was heaped on it by the winds."

170 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Nebuchadnezzar said to them : " Speak ; l it is your God who has
humbled and dejected you ; who is there to save you ? " And they
said to him : " This prophet whom you have summoned is young, do
not listen, therefore, to his words, and be not deceived by his personality,
as there is nothing to distinguish him from the other men of his own
age ; here there is a congregation of the children of Israel standing
before you : hand to them staves of olive-trees ; he whose staff comes
into leaf in his hand is the true prophet."

The king agreed, and summoned before him all the young men
of the children of Israel, and their number 2 was two hundred and
twenty thousand, and he handed to them staves of olive-trees. In
that very moment the angel carried Jeremiah and presented him to
King Nebuchadnezzar, while the staff which was in his hand had
come into leaf. When the king saw this, he was greatly astonished
and rose from his throne and bowed down to the ground before the
prophet Jeremiah and said to him : "Thou art the true prophet of
God ; go, therefore, and ask God, if it is He who has sent me to this
land ; if not, I shall decamp away from you." And the prophet
Jeremiah said to him : " Loosen the fetters of these bound men and
give them a little rest from their pain until I go and ask the Lord."
And King Nebuchadnezzar loosened their bonds, and the prophet
Jeremiah went to the temple of the Lord, and saw it sprinkled with
the blood of the young children, and he wept bitterly and said : O
God, King of all kings, and Lord of all lords,3 I beseech Thee and
implore Thee to-day to look from the height of heavens and show
mercy towards Thy people who are under the yoke of Nebuchadnez-
zar, and deliver them from the hands of their enemies and their
haters. O God of mercy and compassion have pity." And he
bowed down on his face to the ground in adoration, interceding in
favour of the people. And a voice came to him from the Lord,
saying : " O Jeremiah whom I have elected, thou hast interceded
sufficiently for this iniquitous nation and this harsh and insensible
people.4 Dost thou not know that I am a compassionate and merci-
ful God ? This people numbers more than eight hundred thousand
thousand souls,5 and in this sixth hour of the day take a lamp in thy

1 M. adds " what you wish." 2 Read wa'adadahum in P.

3 M. omits. 4 M. omits all these adjectives.

5 M. : " eight hundred thousand and eighty thousand thousand."

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 171

hand and walk in all Jerusalem and see if thou canst find a single man
among them in whom there is justice ; if thou findest such a one, 1 shall
cancel the deportation order for all the people, and shall not let them
go with Nebuchadnezzar ; if thou findest one whose mouth is
unpolluted by sacrifices to idols, I shall deliver the people from
servitude and shall not allow them to go into captivity ; l if thou
findest a single man who loves his brother ~ or his friend, I shall save
them all ; but if thou findest no one, enter the temple and place the
burning lamp on the candlestick, and it will not burn out until seventy
years have elapsed, when the people shall have returned, walking in
my ways, following my law and not forsaking what is due to me.3
When thou hast placed the burning lamp in its place, remove the
garment of light 4 from thee, and accompany the people into captivity
where they ° shall be under the power of Nebuchadnezzar for seventy
years."

When the prophet Jeremiah heard this from the Lord he went
out with a burning lamp in his hand. Some men from the people
said to him : " O father Jeremiah, why dost thou walk with a burning
lamp in daylight ? " And he answered : "I am in search of a man
in whom there is justice 6 and I am not able to find any." Some
others said to him : " O father Jeremiah why dost thou walk with a
lamp in daylight ? " And he answered : "I am in search of a man
whose mouth is unpolluted by sacrifices to idols, and I am not able to
find any." Yet some others said to him : " O Father Jeremiah why
dost thou walk with a lamp in daylight ? " And he answered : "I
am in search of a man in whom there is love for his friend or his
neighbour,' and I am not able to find any."

And Jeremiah searched among all the people, but he was unable
to find any man (with the above qualifications). Then he wept
bitterly, and went into the temple of God and placed the lamp
burning to itself on the candlestick ; and he entered the place8 in
which the holy vestments are kept, and brought out the garment of

1 M. omits the second part of the sentence.
- Read akhahu in P. M. omits it.

M. omits the two last sentences. 4 M. "of prophecy."

P. " you." 6 Read birrun.

M. omits " friend " and " neighbour."

P. "the house of the Lord."

172 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

the High Priest, and he mounted the terrace of the temple and
addressed the stone which was the head of the corner : 1 "To thee2
I say that thou hast been a great honour to all those that surround
thee and thou hast consolidated them,3 and thou art like the eternal
Son of God who shall come into the world : the faithful King, and
the Lord of the two testaments, the old and the new ; 4 for this
reason I shall say to thee that this temple shall only be demolished up
to the place of the corner-stone ; 5 this is the reason why thou hast
received this honour. Open now thy mouth and receive the garment
of the High Priest and keep it with thee until the time God wishes
and brings back Israel, his people." '

The stone immediately opened its mouth and received the broidered
coat of priesthood from the hand of the prophet Jeremiah. Then he
took the mitre on which was written the name of the Lord Sabaoth,
the Omnipotent, which Aaron and his sons used to place on their
heads at the divine service,7 and lifted it to heaven and said to the
sun : " To thee, I say, O owner of the great light, and O hidden 8
chief, I cannot see the like of thee in all the creatures of God, be
therefore the keeper of this head covering on the sides of which is
written the name of God the Omnipotent, keep it till the day in
which God brings back from captivity the children of Israel to this
place." And he threw the mitre towards it, and a ray of the sun

1CI. Matt xxi. 42.

2 Put in the feminine form all the verbs and adjectives in P.

3 P. "to all those that sin (sic) against thee and thou hast saved
them."

4 These sentences are to be ascribed to a Christian hand.

5Cf. Luke xxi. 6; Mk. xiii. 2. The corner-stone of the temple
seems to be referred by the author to Christ.

6 In the Apocalypse of Baruch (Pat. Syr. ii. 1076-1078) it is the
Angels who hide the sacred vessels. In the Second Book of the Maccabees,
however, it is Jeremiah who hides the ark, the tabernacle, and the altar of
incense. See Charles, Apocrypha aud Pseud. i. 133-134. See also
Harris, The Rest of the Words of Baruch, p. 23. In the following pages
our author seems to be more constantly under the influence of the Last
Words of Baruch, and there is no necessity to refer on every occasion to
Harris's edition which should be consulted by every reader of the present
Apocryphon.

7 The Arabic kuddas from Syr. kuddash is generally applied to the
Mass.

8 M. : heating or protecting.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 173

took it up.1 And Jeremiah hid 2 the rest of the belongings of the
house of the Lord.

When Jeremiah finished all this he removed from himself the
garment of light 3 in the middle of the temple, and put on sackcloth
and girded himself with a linen girdle on his loins, and worshipped
the Lord before the sanctuary, and bowed down his head to the
ground ; then he took the keys of the temple of the Lord and threw
them upon the door-post and said : " O threshold of the temple of the
Lord, receive these keys until the Lord brings back the people from
captivity." And immediately the high door-post received them from
the hand of the prophet Jeremiah.4

After this Jeremiah presented himself to the king of the Chaldeans.
When the people noticed that Jeremiah was wearing sackcloth, and
that his head was full of earth, a they all cried with wailing and
weeping, and threw earth on their heads, because they had ascertained
that the Lord had not forgiven them. They were aware of the fact
that when Jeremiah entered the temple and interceded in favour of
the people, if the Lord had pity on them and had accepted his prayer
and his intervention on their behalf, he came out to them wearing a
white garment and his head perfumed with scent down to his beard
and the opening of his robe.6

When Jeremiah finished these things, he said to Nebuchadnezzar :
" Ride on thy chariot and proceed to Babylon, because the Lord has
delivered this people to thee for punishment ; ' and no harm shall
befall thee." J And Nebuchadnezzar arose like a lion and went to
Babylon, his country. He ordered his generals and the head of his
army to gather together all the Jews9 and march them in front of

1 Here as below (p. 1 89) it is very difficult to ascertain what the author
had precisely in mind when using the words lailasan, kalansuah, isar,
mandil, and rida.

- M. omits the verb. z M. " of prophecy " as above.

4 The Talmud (Ta'ariith, c. 4, fol. 29) declares that it was the priests
who threw the keys towards heaven. So also The Rest of tfte Words of
Baruch (edit. Harris), p. 51. See Harris (ibid.), pp. 18-19.

5 M. : ashes.

6 M. adds : " And when he came out wearing sackcloth and ashes on
his head they knew that God had not pitied them."

1 M. omits " punishment." s M, omits this sentence.

- Read al-yahttd in P.

13

174 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

them. And the prophet Jeremiah walked in front of them weeping,1
with bare feet and a bare head.2 When the king noticed him he said
to him : " What fault hast thou, O prophet of God ? Come and
ride with me ; but it is not fitting to ride with the king while thou art
wearing sackcloth." J And the prophet Jeremiah answered him and
said : "I have sinned before the Lord more than all the people ; by
the living Lord, my God, I shall not remove this garment from me
until the Lord turns away His wrath and puts an end to the captivity
of His people." Then King Nebuchadnezzar ordered his generals
to make the prophet Jeremiah ride with them by force.

The Hebrew people walked to Babylon in great hardship and
pain,4 and in less than a month their dresses were spoiled, and became
like old and worn out skins, and their shoes were torn from their feet,
and the hair of their heads grew up and came down to their shoulders
like that of women, and the sun scorched their bodies to the point of
destruction, and mud and muck mounted their bodies and stuck to
them, and gave rise to blisters, wounds, and sores in their flesh ; and
the cold of the moon and of the stars affected them by night until they
fell down on their faces, and they lost their way in the intensity of
darkness that overtook them. They wept and fell upon one another,
and were on the point of dying from hunger and thirst ; they cried
with a sigh and lifted their eyes towards heaven and said : " What a
difference between this and the manna and the quails which God gave
to Moses, and the spring of sweet water that jetted forth from a rock
in the desert." Instead of this God caused dust to come on them
from heaven, and changed the sweet water into a brackish and bitter
water, until they were affected with a mange and scab for which there
was no remedy.

The pregnant women aborted 5 from the fatigue of the journey,
and those who suckled threw their young ones from their shoulders

1 P. omits " weeping."

2 It is curious that our author makes Jeremiah go to Babylon instead of
staying in Palestine. Jeremiah is also made to go to Babylon in 2 Baruch
in Charles' Apocrypha and Pseud, ii. 485, 499, and in Midr. 'Eser
Gainyyot (edit. Griinhut, iii. 1 4).

R These sentences are not in M. in the place assigned to them by P,
and the two MSS. exhibit here considerable verbal differences.

4 Read d'ikin and sharrin in P. and dikin only in M.

5 Read tarahna and put all the other verbs and' pronouns in fern. plur.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 175

because their breasts dried up from the hunger and thirst that overtook
them, and could not give suck to their infants, and they cried with
bitter weeping and great grief and said : " O Lord, Thy judgments
are just, and everything Thou hast done to us is done with wisdom,1
because Thou hast requited us according to our deeds ; we have
sacrificed our children to the idols, and Thou art punishing us accord-
ing to our works. Because we have revolted against Thee and
sinned before Thee, all this calamity has befallen us, and we deserve
a punishment more severe than this." "

And Nebuchadnezzar brought them to Babylon, and he entered
his palace and kissed the faces of his children and his wife.3 He was
filled with joy in seeing them,4 and he narrated to them all that
happened to them from the day he left them and went out of the
country of the Chaldeans tof the day he came back to them. Then
he put on royal garments and ° sat for the trial of the Hebrews, and
the arrangement of the business of their work and hire.6 He counted
them and discovered that they had diminished by two hundred and
twenty thousand and fifty souls ; these had perished in the way from
fatigue, hunger, and thirst, not counting the infants who had died on
the arms of their mothers.

King Nebuchadnezzar ordered that the adults should do clay-
work and brickwork, that the old men should hew wood and
draw water, and that the women should spin and weave wool ; he
further ordered that they should all show their work every day like
slaves, and that every day they should be given a little food consisting
of bread and water. And the Hebrews served 7 in Babylon under
the yoke of slavery, and King Nebuchadnezzar built through them
many 8 villages, towers,9 houses, granaries, and forts on the shores of
the sea which surrounds Babylon.10 The Chaldeans used to go every
day to the river with their harps, and guitars, and used to ask the
Hebrews, saying : " Show us how you sing to your Lord and your

This sentence is missing in M.
" The last sentence is missing in P.
3 P. omits "wife." * P. " when he saluted them."

P. " the king did not take a rest but sat."
6 M. " toil." ? Rea(j k

8 Read kattiirah. 9 p omits

10 Which sea?

176 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

God." And the Hebrews used to answer l with weeping and sighing :
" How can we sing the praise of the Lord in a strange land ? "
The people of the Lord were greatly subdued and they cried while
weeping and sobbing, and said : " The Lord has justly inflicted upon
us this calamity, according to3 our deeds.4 Now, O Lord, look
upon us, with mercy, because our faces have been put to shame before
us ; Thou our Lord and our God, do not requite us according to the
iniquity of our deeds, because it is we who 5 have kindled Thy wrath,
and not listened to Thy prophets in Jerusalem."

The Hebrews toiled for the king in Babylon, and his servants 6
drove them about,7 and greatly tormented them. And Jeremiah the
prophet prayed night and day in Babylon, and interceded with God
in favour of the people, when he saw their tribulations and their
painsi8 As to Zedekiah he was tied to the chariot of Nebuchad-
nezzar until he reached Babylon, and there he was appointed to
drive the horse of the flour-mill for forty years 9 in captivity. He
was in great tribulation all this time ; then he died in wretchedness
and bodily exhaustion that he felt more than other people. And
Nebuchadnezzar showed mercy towards the Hebrews all the time
of his life.10

When Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon died, he was succeeded
by Cyrus the Persian, who greatly tormented the Hebrews with
hunger and thirst, and reduced the rations of the food which they were
given in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. He gave to each one of them
one loaf of bread once in two days, and diminished the quantity of water
to be given to them. He also increased their labours, and inflicted
upon them grievous harm, and their number began to dwindle. After

lReadfaj/akulu al'ibrdnlyun, 2 Ps. cxxxvii. 4.

3 This liwad seems to be a translation of the Syriac heldf,

* This phrase is obscure in M. 5 Read al-ladhln in P.

6 P. " and the Chaldeans."

7 The verb sahata used in this sense by P. is colloquial. M. omits it.

8 The author is consistent with himself in placing in Babylon the prayers
of Jeremiah, see above, p. 1 74.

9 This date seems to be improbable.

10 It is remarkable that Nebuchadnezzar is made in the document to play
the role of a good monarch acting under the orders of God. This reminds
one of the Romance of Alexander in which the Macedonian conqueror is
made in Syriac and Arabic literature to play the role of a pious man guided
by Divine Providence.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 177

they had numbered one hundred thousand thousand l and eighty
thousand thousand, nothing remained of them but eighty thousand
thousand.2

Some Hebrew children, seventy in number, used to learn with
Chaldean children.3 Among them was a young boy called Ezra.
His mother took him to the scribes while he was still very young, not
distinguishing good from evil. And the spirit of God was upon him.
And the children of the Hebrews and the children of the Chaldeans
used to go every day and carry water on their shoulders for their
teachers.4

When they went one day to carry water, the jar of Ezra fell
down 5 and broke. Then the children of the Chaldeans turned 6 to
the children of the Hebrews and said to them : " Fie ! O miserable,
weak, and despicable ones ! " And they clapped their hands and
said : " O Hebrews, you are weak people in whom there is no
energy." ' And they laughed at Ezra, who lifted his eyes towards
heaven, sobbed, wept bitterly, and said: "O my Lord, and God
Omnipotent, turn towards us and have mercy upon us for the sake of
Abraham Thy beloved, and Isaac Thy servant, and Israel Thy holy
one. Do not forget the covenant that Thou hast established with
Thy servants our fathers, and do not remove from us Thy face and
Thy mercy. We are hated by all nations, and despised and rejected
in this nation.' Now, O Lord, look upon us, and show us mercy
from Thyself. We have sinned before Thee, but Thou art forgiving
and merciful, O Lord. Thou forgivest sins and Thou desirest not
the death of sinners."

When Ezra finished his prayer, he took off his mantle and went

1 M. " eight hundred thousand thousand." All these numbers are
surely exaggerated.

- It is very remarkable that Cyrus who is represented in Jewish literature
in such a good light and is therein called " the friend of Jahweh " and
" Jaweh's anointed " should here have such a black character.

3 P. " under Chaldean masters."

4 Put the verb in the singular. Lit " scribes."

5 M. adds " in the sea." All this mention of the sea in Babylon where
there is no sea seems to suggest that the author was living in a place where
there was sea. This place is either west of Palestine or preferably Egypt.
See, however, Philostratus vit. Apol. Tyan., \. i, c. xx.

" There are many verbal differences in this paragraph between the two
MSS.

7 P. adds : " Amidst Thy creation." 8 M. omits the last sentence.

178 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

into the sea, and filled it with water as if it were a jar ; then he placed
it on his shoulder and walked with his fellow- students, and not a
single drop fell from it.1 When he reached the scribes,2 he began to
sprinkle the place with water from his mantle ; then he put it on
immediately, and it was as dry as before. When the teacher saw him,
he rose up and bowed down to the ground before him and said :
" Verily I say unto thee, O Ezra, my child, it is thou who shalt
deliver thy people from captivity."

And Ezra was growing every day in grace before God, and men,3
he and the other children of the Hebrews. A few days later the
children wished to go out to draw water as was their wont. The
children of the Chaldeans went out and said to one another : " Let
us separate ourselves from the children of the Hebrews, and not have
any intercourse with them, and not eat and drink with them, because
they do not worship our gods." 4 And they seceded from them, beat
them, sneered at them and insulted their God.* When Ezra saw
what had happened, he wept over his companions and implored God to
help them.6 Then he struck a rock with his feet, and water sprang
from it like a sea, and it increased in volume until it reached the feet of
the Chaldeans as if to drown them.7 The teacher rose up instantly
and knelt down before Ezra and kissed his hands and his feet and said
to him : " What is there between thee and these dogs ? Dost thou
wish to destroy all the town because of them ?

Then Ezra had pity on his teacher, when he noticed his weeping,
and he repaired to the spot where the rock was found and laid his
foot on it8 and said : "O earth, open thy mouth and swallow this
water, because the Lord has said, ' No second flood of water shall
come unto the earth,9 but that fire shall come which will consume the

1 In the Gospel of the Infancy (Cowper's the Apochryphal Gospels, p.
75, sixth edit.) a similar anecdote is attributed to Christ. See also ibid., pp.
453-454.

2 P. "the school."

3 Cf. Luke ii. 40. P. omits " and men."

4 This paragraph also is very differently worded in the two MSS.

5 P. omits the last sentence.

6 P. omits the last two sentences.

7 P. omits the last sentence, but adds : " while jetting forth from the stone
until it became like a flood."

8 P. omits. 9Cf. Gen. ix. II.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 179

earth to its foundations and purify it,1 in the last day." The earth
opened then its mouth at once and swallowed all the water. And
Ezra rose up and took all the children of the Hebrews, and removed
them from the school " of the Chaldeans.

After all this King Cyrus summoned the people of the Hebrews
before him, and said to them : " Bring me all your harps through
which you praise your God, and play them before me. And they
said to King Cyrus : " We fear to play them in a strange land,
because our God does not wish it." And Cyrus said to them : "As
you praised your God in Jerusalem so do here." And they answered
him saying : " The sons of Levi whom God has chosen take preced-
ence of us and play the harps." And King Cyrus summoned the
tribe of Levi before all the Hebrews and ordered that they should
begin and sing to the accompaniment of the harps.3 They came
before them and played the harp, and while shouting in unison they
clapped their hands and beat the earth with their feet. Then the
ground lifted immediately those who were standing on it, and mounted
upwards,4 as if to cause the children of Israel to descend upon their
own land, and their voices were heard that day in Jerusalem.

The Chaldeans feared a then and became disturbed, and a cloud
came down from heaven, and overshadowed the temple in Jerusalem.6
All those who were in Jerusalem ascertained in that day that the Lord
had mercy upon the people of Israel, and that He was willing to
deliver them from captivity. When Cyrus, king of the Chaldeans,
noticed what had happened through the play on the harps, he feared
greatly and said to the Hebrews : " Do not move the strings of your
harps with your hands ' as long as you are in these countries, until you
go to your own countries and praise your God in the town of
Jerusalem."

When the seventy years of the captivity had elapsed, there were

1 Read : yutahhiruha in P.

2 M. " and brought them to."

3 M. " and play the harps."

4 M. " And immediately the ground upon which they stood shook and
mounted upwards."

5 Read : fakhafa.

6 P. omits " in Jerusalem."

' M. " Do not take out your harps."
8 P. adds " as was your wont."

180 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

three young men : Ezra son of Yaratha,1 and Daniel son of Betariah,2
and Ezekiel son of Buzi,3 to whom God spoke, and who prophesied
in Babylon. They said to one another : " Let us take a lamb and go
out to the desert and there offer 4 a sacrifice to the God of Israel, as
our fathers were wont to do, for the remission of their sins, and God 5
used to send down to them from heaven a rod of fire and receive their
sacrifices after they had offered them." Let us go and do the same
because 7 the grace of God and His mercy have perhaps come near
us,8 and the Lord will send His angel to receive our sacrifice from us."
And they did this.

Then Ezra took wood of nard,9 wood of styrax, and wood of
ebony,10 in all three varieties of wood, placed a ram on the wood,
turned his face towards the sunrise,11 and looked towards Jerusalem,12
and prayed to God of Israel, saying : " O Lord God of our pious
fathers, the One and Eternal God, who heard Abel, the first murdered
man,13 and took his revenge from his brother Cain ; who created the

1 P. Neriah. A confusion with the father of Baruch. Yaratha may
be a mistake for Seraiah (Ezra vii. 1). The mistake may have arisen
through Arabic characters which do not differ considerably in the two
names ; this graphic difference is still slighter with Betariah, the father of
Daniel, who follows immediately.

" M. Retubah. I do not know anything about this man. Betariah may
be a mistake for Seraiah (Ezra vii. 1 ) caused by the very slight difference
in the letters of the Arabic script of the two names. See the following and
preceding notes.

3 P. Baradi. The difference between Buzi and Baradi is very slight
in Arabic script, and here and elsewhere it shows that the original from
which the Garshuni MS. of Paris emanates was written in Arabic characters.
The mistaken reading Baradi could hardly have arisen otherwise.

4 The verb as lada seems here to be a translation of the Syriac assek
used in the sense of " to offer " a sacrifice.

5 P. " an angel." tf P. adds " to God."
7 P. omits this sentence.

"Read minna. minnan of P. seems to be an echo of the Syriac
minnan.

9 The MSS. atraphis (arpafyafys).

10 There is no ebony in Babylon.

11 Note that the author makes mention here also as above in the case of
Nebuchadnezzar, of the direction of the East

12 Jerusalem is not East of Babylon. We might conclude from this
sentence that the author of the document was writing in a country situated
West of Palestine. Could this country be Egypt?

13 Lit. the first martyr. Can this denote a Christian hand ?

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 181

image of Seth beforehand according to His own image, and removed
from him the power of darkness ; who caused Enoch to ascend to
heaven with his body on account of the purity of his heart, and
taught him the secrets of heaven and what is to take place at the end
of the world ; * who delivered Noah because of his justice, and granted
to him the power of Adam before his fall and made him the lord of
everything which is under heaven : I pray Thee and beseech Thee, O
Lord, O Omnipotent God, to hear my supplication and listen to my
prayer," and to my tears. Remember the covenant which Thou hast
made with our father 3 Abraham when Thou saidst to him, ' If thy
sons keep My covenant, I will destroy their enemies.' 4 Now, O Lord,
I implore Thee to visit Thy servants, who are ready to die for 5 Thy
holy name. Listen to us to-day from the height 6 of Thy heaven,
and receive our sacrifice, smell its odour, and show pity and forgiveness
to Thy people."

When Ezra finished his prayer with his brethren who were with
him, their supplication reached the throne of the Lord, and their words
penetrated the hearing of the Lord Sabaoth, who sent His angel, in the
figure of a man, to take up their offerings to the Lord. Michael, the
head of the angels, came down from heaven, and stood on their altar,
and burned the wood and the lamb with a rod of fire that he held in
his hand, and after the fire had consumed everything that was there, he
ascended to heaven. He stood up in the air,7 looked at 8 the three
young men, and blessed them with the heavenly blessing, and then
heaven opened and received him.

As to the prophet Jeremiah 9 he went while wearing sackcloth to
King Cyrus. He further interceded with the Lord in favour of the
people, and while standing in prayer before the Lord, he said : " O
Lord, O Lord, O God of my spirit and of my body,10 listen now to
the supplication of Thy servant on behalf of the tribulations of this

1 Was the author familiar with the Book of Enoch ?
- P. omits " prayer." 3 Read abina in P.

4 Not found verbatim in Gen.

P. " We are slaves unto death for . . ."

0 Remove the final aliph in P. 7P. adds "in the firmament."

3 P. " purified " or " appeared to."

9 Here also the author is consistent with himself in placing Jeremiah in
Babylon.

1J M. omits this sentence.

182 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

people against whom the days of Thy wrath have ended. Fulfil (Thy
promise about) the appointed time that Thou hast decreed for the de-
liverance of Thy people." And the Lord summoned the angel Michael
saying : " Make haste and go down to the land of the Chaldeans,
and save the people and take them out of their captivity. If the in-
habitants of Babylon impede them, I shall make heaven stick to the earth
and I shall cause My wrath to dwell in them until they allow them to go
from under their hands. Go also to the prophet Jeremiah, My elected
one, and impart this news to him ; take him to the king of Babylon,
and deliver the people from him. If the king of the Chaldeans impedes
them I shall destroy him with his people as I destroyed Pharaoh in
the times of yore with the Egyptians who were with him, and all his
chariots."

While the prophet Jeremiah was in the sepulchral vault l weeping
over the sins of the people,2 lo ! the angel Michael came to him and
said to him : " Peace be with you, O elected prophet of God.3 Grow
cheerful because it is time for cheerfulness." * And the prophet Jeremiah
looked at Michael, the angel of God, and said to him : " Here I am,

0 angel of the Lord. I recognised thy greeting, and thy words have
strengthened my bones. Where wast thou that thou didst not appear
to me till this day in which I am in great trouble with this people, like
a father with his children ? " And the angel said to the prophet
Jeremiah : " Here I am to-day before you in order to deliver your
people, because I have been sent by God for this purpose, on account
of your prayer which has been accepted.0 Thus says the Lord whom

1 serve,6 ' I have mercy on this people and I wish to send them back to
their land and their country in order that they may serve Me there.
If the kings of Babylon ' do not allow them to go, I shall wax angry
with them and destroy their land, in order to force them to send them
back, and if in spite of this they refuse I shall do with them what I did
with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.' "

After the angel Michael had said this to the prophet Jeremiah, he
addressed him thus : " You remain here until I go and summon all the

1 The word used is the Greek vaos. What does the author mean by
this term ?

2 P. omits this sentence. '3 P. omits this sentence.
4 P. adds " O man of God." 5 P. omits this sentence.
6 M. " thou set-rest. " 7 P. omits.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 183

people to you." And the angel Michael went out and took the form 1
of a Hebrew man, and assembled all the people of Israel in one place
as if they were one man, and he repaired to those who were making
bricks and clay and said to them : " You have worked sufficiently ; go
now to your father Jeremiah, because the Lord has saved you from this
toil." And he went to those who were hewing wood and drawing
water, and said the same thing to them. And he went to town to those
women who were weaving wool, and he said to them : " You have had
enough work and toil ; the Lord has saved you from your work, and
given you deliverance. Come on and go to your father Jeremiah.'
And none was left, but all gathered together. The angel Michael
gathered them all together with the prophet Jeremiah, - and all went to
King Cyrus and to the first general of the Chaldeans. And Jeremiah
said to Cyrus and to Emesis his first general.3 " Listen to the words
of the Lord, God of Israel." And he began to repeat to them the
words uttered to him by the angel Michael. And Cyrus and Emesis
said to the prophet Jeremiah : " And who is the God of Israel ?
You, O Hebrews, return to your work, and throw such words away
from you." And the king ordered the prophet Jeremiah to be flogged
before them ; and this was done in a cruel way.4 And King Cyrus
and Emesis went then out of the palace, and ordered the super-
intendents of the work of the Hebrews to strike the latter and torment
them until they did their duty. And Cyrus and Emesis rode and
went out themselves in order to torment the Hebrews.

In that very hour a cloud and mist appeared, the earth shook, a
big earthquake occurred, wind became fierce, the sun suffered eclipse
in the middle of the day, and darkness covered the earth. The
inhabitants of the earth mixed pell-mell, horsemen with the crowds,
and the feet of the horses that were ridden sunk deep into the earth
like pegs ; until all the Chaldeans cried to King Cyrus and to Emesis
and said to them : "Is not this sufficient for you ?° Do you wish
the Lord to do with us 6 as He did with the Amorites ? " As to King
Cyrus he fell from his horse and his backbone broke ; likewise the
first general Emesis fell and his right arm broke to the elbow-joint.

1 Read skubh in P.

~ In P. it is Jeremiah who gathers them together.

3 M. : vizier. 4 In P. " In your blasphemy."

c P. " with you." 8P. omits this sentence.

184 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Then the two cried : " O God of Abraham and God of Isaac
and God of Israel, God of the Hebrews, have pity on us ; we have
sinned against Thee, because we have not allowed Thy people to get
out of our land. We pray Thee and beseech Thee, O Lord, to
have mercy upon us and not to punish us for our sins. Pity us and
heal us, and we shall let them go to their land in joy and peace."
And the prophet Jeremiah had pity on them when he heard their
words and their sobs, and he approached King Cyrus and raised him
up from the ground and healed his bone which was broken ; he did
likewise heal the arm of the first general of the Chaldeans.

When the Lord noticed that their hearts had turned away from
that on which they were bent, He gave orders l and the earth and all
the inhabited globe became quiet, and the sun shone on the surface of
the earth. Then King Cyrus and Emesis summoned the Hebrews,
reckoned their working days, and paid them their wages in full, and
gave them much gold and silver.2 The king 3 helped then the prophet
Jeremiah to mount his own steed, and clothed him in royal garments,
and placed his crown upon his head, and delivered to him many
horses, mules, and camels,4 laden with provisions for the journey. He
further wrote letters to all the land of the Chaldeans ordering (its
inhabitants) to welcome the prophet Jeremiah and his people (when
they passed by them), and wish them Godspeed in joy and merriment,
and to honour them and render service to them until they left them.
And the king presented also the prophet Jeremiah with twelve5
slaves.

And the prophet Jeremiah left the towns of the Chaldeans with
all the people of the Hebrews. The number of the Hebrews who
went out of Babylon was eighty thousand thousand ; they had thus
diminished by a hundred thousand thousand during their stay in
captivity.8

When they left Babylon they began with prayers and supplica-
tions, saying : " Rise, rise, O Jerusalem, and rejoice, and wear thy

1 P. omits the verb. 2 M. omits " silver."

3 In all the following sentences the subject in P. is "the King," but in
M. the subject is the indefinite " they."

4 Read jimal in P. for himal. This variant could not have arisen
except through Arabic characters in which the letters jtin and ha are
distinguished only by an extraneous dot.

5 M. " ten." c P. adds " in Babylon."

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 185

diadem in joy and gladness, because thy children who had left thee
with tears,1 fear, and sadness,2 have come to thee with joy,3 and
jubilation." And the prophet Jeremiah went out to his land in joy
and gladness,4 and all the towns of the Chaldeans honoured him, and
horsemen were riding before him up to Jerusalem in order to praise it
and to honour it with the people ; and in this state they reached
Jerusalem.

As to the servant Abimelech, he awoke from his sleep and went
out of the place in which he was sleeping, and the stone that was
over him moved away.5 He looked at the basket 6 of grapes, figs,
and other fruits T and saw that their dust was still on them, and noticed
that the green foliage with which they were covered had become
longer and broader. And Abimelech said to himself : "I have not
overslept and my head is still heavy with sleep ; I shall get some
more rest and rise up and go to town, because it is time for me to
take some food to the prophet Jeremiah, my blessed father, who is in
prison."

When Abimelech awoke from his sleep, exactly seventy years had
elapsed.8 He carried the basket d of grapes, figs,10 and other fruits,
which were as fresh as when they were picked, and entered Jerusalem.
When he saw that its rampart was demolished and the town itself
destroyed, and when he noticed that vines and fig-trees were just
showing their buds, the palm-trees their spadices, and the sycamore
trees their sprouts, he was amazed and bewildered. When he went
inside the town and noticed that its streets had changed and its walls
had either altered or were demolished, and that the destroyed buildings
in it were reconstructed, and the reconstructed buildings in it destroyed,
and when he did not find in it anyone whom he could recognise, his
mind became confused, and he stood and said : " O my Lord and my
God, what is this delusion that has u overtaken me ? "

1 P. adds " in subjection." 2 Put a waw before the word in P.

3 P. " peace." 4 M. omits this sentence.

5 P. omits the last sentence. 6 M. " baskets."

7 R&Afakihah in P.

8Cf. the story of the "Seven Sleepers." In 4 Baruch (Charles'
Apocrypha and Pseud, ii. 533), Abimelech falls asleep in the garden of
Agrippa and does not awake for sixty-six years and not seventy. See
Harris, The Rest of the Words of Baruch, p. 1 3.

9 M. " baskets." 10 P. omits " figs." n Read al-lati.

186 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Then he saw an old man collecting firewood, and he went to
him, and the old man said to him : " What can I do for my son ? " *
And he said to him : " What did King Zedekiah do to-day with my
father, the prophet Jeremiah ? Did he free him from the dungeon ? "
And the old man said to him : " What are these words you are
uttering, my son ? Who is Zedekiah, and who is Jeremiah ? Seventy
years have elapsed this day from the day in which Nebuchadnezzar
destroyed Jerusalem, and carried the people into captivity to Babylon,
and the prophet Jeremiah was among them." And Abimelech said
to him : "Had you not been an old man I would have said to you
that you were mad. I went a little while ago 2 to the garden of my
master 3 and brought him fruits, but my eyes being somewhat heavy,
I slept 4 for a short time. Is it in this short time that the people were
carried into captivity ? Is it possible that darkness 5 has overtaken
them and covered them ? Or that the moon 6 has swallowed them
that I am unable to see any of them ? "

The old man answered then and said : " You are truly a holy
man, and God spared you the sight of the destruction of Jerusalem,
the great tribulations of the road and the subjection to Nebuchadnez-
zar.7 He has brought down sleep upon you in order that you may
see Jerusalem reconstructed as in the days of her glory. If you wish
to ascertain the truth 8 of my words : this is the first day in which
the prophet Jeremiah arrived accompanied by all the people ; this
should be a proof for you that Jerusalem has returned to its former
state. You are truly a holy man of the Lord, who had pity on you
and granted you rest for seventy years, until the people came back to
their place. O my son, these grapes and figs which are with you,
the present time is not their season. Look, my son — and you are a
holy man of God — look at the trees,9 how they are at this time of
year, and know that this is not the time for grapes and other fruits.

1 In M. " and he went to him and said to him " Father, is this the town
of Jerusalem?"

2 Read, innama ana in P. for anakama.

3 P. names here the master Hermis and distinguishes him from King
Zedekiah whose servant Ebedmelech was. See above, p. 167.

4 Read na'astu in P. 5M. "the darkness of the night."

6 P. " the firmament." "' P. omits the name. b P. omits.

9M. has here asjar the vulgar Arabic for ashjar (a sin instead of a
shin).

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 187

This month is the month of April,1 and this day is the first day in
which the prophet Jeremiah reached Jerusalem, after a stay of seventy
years in captivity. The words that you have uttered square with one
another. Lo, the people are coming now and with them branches of
palm-trees," and holding in their hands twigs of aromatic bushes and
olive-trees."

Then Abimelech saw the prophet Jeremiah riding the horse of the
king and shining like the sun, and he hastened to him and bowed down
before him. When Jeremiah saw him he dismounted from his horse,
embraced him, cried aloud to him and said : "Be welcome, be
welcome, O my beloved Abimelech ! Look at the honour that God
bestowed on you. He does this to anyone who is merciful and
charitable to his fellow- creatures. You had pity on me in the day of
my tribulations, and the Lord has overshadowed you with His holy
arm and placed you in a refreshing sleep till you saw Jerusalem re-
constructed and glorified for the second time. You have not tasted
of the food of subjection,3 nor have you borne the yoke of King
Nebuchadnezzar during the last seventy years which we spent in
captivity and persecution. God spared you this great hardship
because of your charitable deeds. Let all those who hear your story
do acts of charity and mercy with everybody,4 and God will spare
them all trouble." ;

When Jeremiah finished his address to him, they all entered
the town together. And Abimelech did not cease to be held in
honour by the prophet Jeremiah and by the rest of the people r' all
the time of his life. When the prophet Jeremiah entered the town
he glorified God with this canticle :

1 M. Ntsan (the Syriac and Hebrew month), but P. Barmudah, which
seems to prove the Egyptian origin of the MS. from which the prototype of
P. was derived. Barmudah extends from March 27th to April 25th.

-In Arabic Kulub an-nakhl "the pith of palm-trees." The same
expression is used in the Arabic Diatessaron of Ibn at-Tayib published by
Ciasca (p. 1 49) to express John xii. 1 3. I believe that the word emanates
from the Peshitta Old Testament (Lev. xxiii. 40) in which the Syriac words
are exactly libbawatha d-dhikle. The Arabic expression seems to be a
literal translation of the Syriac. See further Bulletin of the Bezan Club,
No. iii. pp. 14-17, 1926.

3 P. " death and troubles." 4 Read ahadin in P.

' M. omits this sentence. 6 P. omits this sentence.

188 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

" Rejoice, O Jerusalem ! * Arise and wear thy diadem. Thy
sons had gone out of thee with tears and sadness, and have
now come to thee in joy and jubilation. Let heaven rejoice and
earth jubilate over the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
who have returned to their land. Let our fathers 2 take their
harps in their hands, and sing before the Lord, because God has
brought back again their children who had been carried into
captivity in which they had almost perished ; Let Cherubim 3
and Seraphim sing and praise with us over the sons of Abraham,
and let them rejoice over the children of Israel who have returned
again to their land and their country."

When Jeremiah entered the door of the Temple, he said to the
door-post : " To thee I say, O * threshold of the house of God, bring
out the keys which 5 I had confided to thee." And it immediately
brought out the keys and delivered them to the prophet Jeremiah.
And he opened the door of the Temple and he went into it with all
the people, and they worshipped before the Lord. And he entered
the Holy of Holies where he saw the lamp burning as if it was fresh,
and its light was shining, in the way in which he had left it, without
diminution. It was with it that he had searched Jerusalem to discover
if there was in it a man in whom there was mercy, and he did not
find any. All of them worshipped God saying : " Holy, holy, holy !
Thou art, O Lord, a just Lord, in all Thy actions,6 and Thou hast
done everything with wisdom. Thou didst with us all this in order
to punish us in the measure of our sins, and Thou hast requited us in
proportion with our iniquities."

The prophet Jeremiah called the sons of Aaron and said to them :
" Arise now and offer sacrifices to the Lord, and be pure according to
the prescriptions of your priesthood." ; And he also went up to the
terrace of the house of the Lord, and he stood on the corner-stone,
and said : " To thee I say, O stone, Open thy mouth and bring out
thy trust : the garment of the High Priest, because we are in need of

1 M. "Arise, arise."

2 P. " Let our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob take their harps."

3 The first letter of the word " Cherubim " is a shin instead of a kaf'm
P. This also denotes the Egyptian (Coptic) origin of the prototype of P.

4 Read aiyyatuha in P. 5 Read al-lati.

0 M. " Thou art holy, O lord and just in all Thy actions."
7 Read kahnutikum.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 189

it." And it brought out the garment, and Jeremiah handed it to the
High Priest. And after that he went out before the sun, and said to
it : " To thee, I say, O sun, the great luminary of heaven, bring out
the mitre l which I confided to thee and on which is the name of the
Lord, the Holy One, because the Lord had mercy on His people,
and we are in need of it for the service of the altar." Then the
prophet Jeremiah stretched his hand towards the rays of the sun and
the mitre came down from it," and he handed it to the High Priest.
And he handed also to the High Priest the rest of the vestments of
the house of the Lord which 3 he had taken with him to Babylon.

[And the head of the priests who came with them from captivity
wore the priestly robe, the garment and the mitre on which was
written the name of the Lord, and the prophet Jeremiah put on the
garment of the prophetic office — which God had ordered him to
remove from him when he went into captivity and place in the Temple
until his return from the deportation to Babylon — and approached
the sanctuary of the Lord. The latter was filled with the glory of
God, which spread over all the Temple and the people, and the glory
of the Lord increased upon them with His mercy. And the God of
Israel dwelt among them with the Cherubim 4 and Seraphim].3 As to
the sons of Aaron they performed their duty, each one according to
his own rank and order, and shouted with their horns,6 and offered
sacrifices,' and the glory of the Lord descended and filled all the
house. And the fire came down from heaven and consumed the
holocaust. All the people observed as a feast the twenty-fifth day of
April * and glorified the Lord with great joy." *

as above (p. 173) it is very difficult to ascertain what was in
the author's mind in using such terms as tailasan, kalansuah, tzar, mandil,
and ridd '.

- M. " And Jeremiah spread his mantle and the mitre fell in it."

3 Read al-lati.

4 Here again P. writes " Cherubim " with an initial shin, which denotes
an Egyptian origin.

5 All this paragraph between brackets is missing in M.

6 P. adds "and harps."

7 In Arabic hamalu "they lifted" which denotes the Syriac assek
meaning " to lift " and " to offer sacrifice." (See above p. 1 80.)

&Here again M. has the Hebrew-Syriac Ntsan and P. the Coptic
Barmudah which indicates its Egyptian origin.

9 Mingana 240 ends here with the following colophon : " Glory, praise,
honour, and worship be to the Lord of hosts for ever and ever, Amen ! Here

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190 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

[And the prophet Jeremiah worshipped before the Lord and
said : " Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, and blessed be His name
for ever and ever. He remembered His holy covenant and His oath
to our father Abraham that his seed will last for ever.1 He looked
from the heights of heaven upon His people and the heirs of His
inheritance, He saw their grief and the sobbing of their hearts,
delivered them with His mighty arm and powerful hand, and brought
them back to His holy Temple. To Him be glory, honour, majesty,
and power, because He is the God of Israel, who destroyed His
enemies who turned their hearts away from His service, and sacrificed
to the idol of Baal, and worshipped it instead of God, their Lord, and
offered incense to gods made with hands, and offered the blood of
infants to the stars of heaven and to demons, and impeded them from
walking in the way of God, their Lord. For this reason God
delivered them to their enemies in order that they may wreak
vengeance upon them. They uprooted their memory from the earth,
and destroyed their seed from among the children of Israel, His
people."

[Then the prophet Jeremiah arose and turned 2 his face towards
the people, and congratulated them on their safety and beautiful
deliverance. He blessed them and made a covenant with them that
they shall not relinquish the service of God, their Lord, and worship
the idol of Baal for a second time. And they offered in that day
numerous sacrifices, burnt-offerings, holocausts, and they rejoiced
greatly in the house of the Lord, and thanked God immensely, and
glorified His name, saying : " Blessed be the name of the Lord, God
of Israel, who visited and delivered His people, and saved them from
the hardships of the Chaldeans ; who took them out of Babylon and

ends the story of the children of Israel and glory be to the Lord of lords,
and King of kings, for evermore, Amen ! And praise be to the Lord of
the worlds, Amen ! Here ends the story of the deportation of the children
of Israel from Jerusalem into Babylon. May God have pity on the weak
scribe, on the reader and the pious hearers. Amen ! Amen ! Amen ! "

I give in the lines above between brackets the translation of the
end of the story in the Paris MS. This end seems to be a later addition
and is much under the influence of the Gospel of St. Luke i. 67-73.

1 There is much resemblance between these words and the hymn of
Zacharias in Luke i. 67, 72-73.

" Read : amala.

JEREMIAH APOCRYPHON 191

brought them to His land and His inheritance, which He granted to
them ; who returned to them their kingdom, prophecy, and priest-
hood ; who did not allow His wrath to dwell with them for ever,
but had pity on them and delivered them."

[And the people did not cease to serve God with a good and
perfect service, and with offerings and sacrifices, in all the lifetime of
the prophet Jeremiah. And glory, praise, and thanks be to the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, now and for evermore, Amen !

[Here ends, by the assistance of the Holy Trinity, this great story
of the deportation of the children of Israel into Babylon. Remember,
O Lord, Thy sinning servant, Cyriacus,1 who is unworthy of the
name of man, because of the great number of his sins. He copied
this from a bad MS., and he who finds in it a mistake and corrects
it, God will forgive him his sins, because its scribe is the weakest, the
most imperfect, and the lowliest of all the (men) of the world.]

1 The copyist.

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(it) A New Life of John the Baptist.
PREFATORY NOTE.

I give in the following pages the text and the translation (ac-
companied by a critical apparatus) of an unknown life of John
the Baptist. I have edited the text from two MSS. of my own
collection, numbered Mingana Syr. 22 and Mingana Syr. 1 83, in the
custody of the Rendel Harris Library, Birmingham. (Hereafter
M. 22 and M. 183). In spite of a thorough search I have failed to
discover the existence of a third MS. in the public libraries of Europe
the catalogues of which are at my disposal.

The MSS. exhibit short lacunae, but fortunately these lacunas do
not affect identical passages, and by collating the two I was able to
establish a complete, continuous, and unbroken text. M. 22 is also
in many places in a bad state of preservation, and some words and
occasionally whole lines have disappeared from it, apart from the
lacuna of one leaf referred to in the present edition. This deficiency
has, however, been supplied from M. 183 and the words that are
missing in the former MS. are inserted between parentheses and
marked (a a). M. 22 is dated 1838 of the Greeks (A.D. 1527)
and M. 183 has no colophon, but on palaeographical grounds it may
be ascribed to about A.D. 1750. In spite of some important variants,
there is reason to believe that both MSS. represent a single recension
of the story, although M. 22 may be supposed to have been written
for the use of Egyptian Christians and M. 183 for that of Syrian
Christians.

If we are to believe the contents of the story, it was written by
Serapion, bishop of a town in Egypt, during the Patriarchate of
Theophilus who governed the sea of Alexandria in 385-412. But
from the mention of Theodosius the Great in connection with some
events of the narrative, it may be affirmed with a good deal of
probability that Serapion was writing in one of the years falling within
A.D. 385-395.

If the story is a translation from Greek, as in many passages it

234

JOHN THE BAPTIST 235

appears to be, the translator must have used his proper names such as
lAin Karim, Assuan and Horns in the form in which they were
known in his day. Without entering into minute details, I may
state, however, that the text seems to contain sentences that have been
interpolated by authors or copyists who might have lived at a date
much later than that of Serapion. Some notes that I have ventured
to add to the narrative will, I hope, help the reader to form his own
opinion on the value of the story in the domain of history, exegesis,
and Apocryphal literature.

In the edition I placed in the main body of the page the text of M.
22 and in the footnotes the various readings exhibited by M. 183, but
in the translation I followed the text of either of the two MSS. that
appeared to me to be more genuine and archaic. I have transcribed
the text in Garshuni (Arabic in Syriac characters) as it is found in the
MSS., and given a facsimile of each MS. to show the reader its
palaeographic peculiarities. The Arabic style used in the story is in
correctness and excellency of diction about equal to that used in the
" Apocryphal Jeremiah " published above.

TRANSLATION.

With the assistance of God and His divine guidance we begin to
write the life of the holy Man John the Baptist, son of Zacharias :
may his intercession be with us. Amen !

There was an aged priest- Levite l from the tribe of Judah,
whose name was Zacharias. He was a prophet who rose among
the children of Israel in the days of Herod, King of Judaea. He
had a God-loving wife, called Elizabeth,2 and she was from the
daughters of Aaron, from the tribe of Levi. She was barren and
had no children, and she and her husband were advanced in years.
They were both righteous and pious people, guiding their steps by all
the commandments and ordinances of God. And Zacharias was
officiating constantly in the Temple of the Lord. When it fell to him,

1 How could Zacharias have been at the same time a priest, a Levite,
and from the tribe of Judah? Can Judah be a mistake for Abiat and can
the preceding word Kabllah be translated by course, order (Luke i. 5, and
1 Chron. xxiv. 1 0) ?

2M. 22 uses the Greek form of the name and M. 183 the Syriac form
throughout.

236 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

during the turn of his division, to burn incense to the Lord, he
entered the Temple according to his habit, at the time of the burning
of the incense, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him immediately,
standing on the right of the altar. When Zacharias saw him he was
frightened and startled. But the angel said to him : "Do not be
afraid, but rather rejoice, O Zacharias ! God has heard your prayer,
and your wife Elizabeth shall conceive and bear you a son, who shall
be called John ; you shall have joy and delight, and many shall
rejoice over his birth. He shall be great before the Lord, and he
shall not drink any wine or strong drink, and he shall be filled with
the Holy Spirit while still in the womb of his mother, and shall
reconcile many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He
shall go before Him in the spirit and with the power of Elijah, in
order to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him."

Zacharias was astonished at these words, and doubt overtook him,
because no child had been born to him. He did not remember
Abraham, the head of the Patriarchs, to whom God gave Isaac, after
he had reached the age of a hundred years, nor his wife Sarah who
was also barren like his own wife. Zacharias said, therefore, to the
angel : " How can this happen to me while I am an old man, and my
wife is advanced in years ? "

And the angel answered and said to him : "I am the angel
Gabriel. I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this news.
And from now you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day
when this takes place, because you did not believe my words, which
will be fulfilled in due course." And he disappeared from his sight.

Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zacharias wondering at
his remaining so long in the Temple. When he came out he was
unable to speak to the people, and they perceived that he had seen a
vision in the Temple, and he kept making signs to them. And as
soon as his term of service was finished, he returned home. And
Elizabeth got information of the affair (from God).

In those days Elizabeth conceived, and lived in seclusion till the
fifth month,2 because she felt somewhat ashamed. She feared to

1 Many of these data and of those which follow are more or less faithfully
taken from the first chapter of Luke.

2 M. 183 has the " sixth month." This appears to be against Luke i. 24.
The discrepancy between the two texts can, however, be accounted for by

JOHN THE BAPTIST 237

appear in her old age while pregnant and milk dripping from her
breasts. She lived in a secluded room l of her own house, and
Zacharias also lived likewise. Between them stood a locked door,
and they did not speak at all to anyone in all those days.

When she reached her sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent
from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed
to a man named Joseph, from the house of David ; and the name of
the virgin was Mary. When the angel came into her presence he
said to her :

" Rejoice, O Mary, because you have been favoured with a grace
from God. You shall be with child and shall give birth to a son,
who shall be called Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called
1 Son of the Most High.'" And Mary said to the angel : " How
can this happen to me while I have not known any man ? " And
the angel said to her : " The Holy Spirit shall descend upon you,
and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you, because the
child that is born of you is holy and shall be called ' Son of God,' and
lo Elizabeth who is related to you is also expecting a child in her old
age, and it is now the sixth month with her who is called barren,
because with God there is nothing impossible." And she had no
doubt on the matter but said to the head of the angels : " I am the
servant of the Lord, let it be with me as you have said." He then
greeted her and disappeared.

Mary was astonished at the fact that Elizabeth was expecting a
child, and kept saying in her heart : " Thy acts are wonderful and
great, O God Omnipotent, because Thou hast given descendants to
an old and barren woman. I shall not cease walking until I have
met her and beheld the wonderful miracle which God has performed
in our times : a virgin giving birth to a child," and a barren woman
suckling." 3

In those days she rose up in haste and went into the hill-country,
to the town of Judah, and she entered the house of Zacharias, and

the fact that both of them may be referred to the end of the fifth month.
The particle ila " till " may designate either the beginning or the end of a
specified time. M. 22 takes this " till " to imply all (or the end of) the fifth
month, and M. 183 uses the same "till" to mean only the beginning of the
sixth month, or in other words the end of the fifth.

1 Syr. Kaitona. * Presumably Mary herself.

3 Presumably Elizabeth.

17

238 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

greeted Elizabeth. The latter went to her with great joy and delight,
and greeted her, saying : " Blessed are you among women and blessed
is the fruit of your womb."

The holy and pious virgin embraced then the true turtle-dove,
and the Word baptised John while still in the womb of his mother.
And David appeared in the middle and said : " Mercy and truth
have met together, and righteousness and peace have kissed each
other."1 And immediately after John moved in the womb, as if
wishing to come out and greet his master. After they had finished
their mutual greetings, the Virgin stayed with Elizabeth three months,
until the latter's time was near, and then returned to her home.

When the holy Elizabeth gave birth (to her son) there was a
great joy and delight in her house, and after eight days they went to
circumcise him, and wished to call him Zacharias. His mother,
however, said : " No, call him John." And they said to her :
" You have no relation of that name." And she said to them :
"Ask his father2 about his name." And he asked for a writing-
tablet and wrote thus : " His name is John." When he had written
this he recovered the use of his tongue forthwith, and he glorified God
who had granted him this great mercy, and uttered prophecies con-
cerning his son John the Baptist, and was cognisant of the gift that he
had received from God.

John grew up in a beautiful childhood and sucked his mother two
years.3 The grace of God was on his face, and he grew up fortified
by the Spirit. When Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judaea,
behold magians came from the East saying : " Where is he that is
born, the King of the Jews ? for we have seen his star in the East
and are come to worship Him." When Herod the king heard these
words he was troubled by what he had heard from the magians that
(that child) was the King of the Jews, and he immediately desired to
kill him.

Then the angel of the Lord appeared forthwith to Joseph and
said to him : " Arise and take the child and his mother and flee into
the land of Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word."4

lPs. Ixxxv. 10. 2Read abahu.

3 This was, and often is now, a general habit in the East.

4 Many of the above sentences are a more or less faithful rendering of the
second chapter of Matthew.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 239

Then Herod sought the Master in order to destroy Him, but he did
not find Him, and he began to kill all the children of Bethlehem.
And Elizabeth feared, 'that her son John might be killed like them,
and she took him immediately to Zacharias in the Temple, and she
said to him : *' My lord, let us go with our son John to some other
countries, in order to save him from Herod the unbeliever, who is
murdering children because of Jesus the Christ. Mary and Joseph
have already gone to the land of Egypt. Get up quickly that they
may not kill our son, and change1 our joy into grief." And
Zacharias answered and said to her : "I must not leave the service
of the Temple of the Lord and go to a foreign land the inhabitants of
which worship idols." And she said to him : " What should I do in
order to save my infant child ? " And the old man answered and said
to her : " Arise and go to the wilderness of ' Ain Karim,2 and by the
will of God you will be able to save your son. If they seek after
him, they will shed -my blood instead of his."

How great was the amount of grief that occurred at that time
when they separated from each other ! The holy Zacharias took the
child to his bosom, blessed him, kissed him and said : " Woe is me,
O my son John, O glory of my old age ! They have impeded me
from having any access to your face which is full of grace." He then
took him and went into the Temple, and blessed him, saying : "May
God protect you in your journey ! "

Immediately after Gabriel, the head of the angels, came down to
him from heaven holding a raiment and a leathern girdle, and said to
him : " O Zacharias, take these and put them on your son. God sent
them to him from heaven. This raiment is that of Elijah, and this
girdle that of Elisha." And the holy Zacharias took them from the
angel, prayed over them and gave them to his son, and fastened on

1 Read yarji.

- Dr. C. Schick (Zeitsch. des Deut. Pal. Vereins, 1899, p. 86) writes:
" Nach der Tradition ist 'Ain Karim, ein Dorf 1 4- Stunden wesdich von
Jerusalem, der Geburtsort Johannes des Taufers." He further identifies
wadi s-Sardr, half an hour west of 'Ain Karim, where there is a small
spring of water called Ain al-Habs, with the "wilderness" of Matt. iii. I,
in which John preached (ibid., p. 90). Schick discusses also the antiquity of
the tradition on pp. 88-90 of his article (q-v-\ The wilderness of Judaea in
which John dwelt is generally understood to mean the wild was** whirl h'es
to the west of the Dead Sea.

240 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

him the raiment which was of camel's hair with the leathern girdle.
He then brought him back to his mother and said to her : " Take him
and bring him into the desert, because the hand of the Lord is with
him. I have learnt from God that he will stay in the desert till the
day of his showing unto Israel."

The blessed Elizabeth took the child while weeping and Zacharias
also was weeping, and the latter said : "I know that I shall not see
you again in the flesh. Go in peace. May God guide you."
Elizabeth walked then away with her son, and went into the wilder-
ness of 'Ain Karim, and stayed there with him.

It happened that when King Herod sent troops to Jerusalem to
kill its children, they 1 came and began to kill children till the evening.
That day was the seventh of September.2 When they began to return
to their king, behold, Satan came to them and said : " How did you
leave the son of Zacharias without killing him ? He is hidden with
his father in the Temple. Do not spare him but kill him in order that
the king may not wax angry with you. Go for him, and if you do
not find the son, kill the father in his place."

The troops did what Satan taught them, and went to the Temple
early in the morning, and found Zacharias standing and serving the
Lord, and they said to him : " Where is thy son whom thou hast
hidden from us here ? " And he answered them : "I have no child
here." They said to him : " You have a child whom you have hidden
from the king." And he answered and said : " O cruel ones whose
king drinks blood like a lioness, how long will you shed 3 the blood
of innocent people ? " They said to him : " Bring out your child
so that we may kill him ; if not, we shall kill you in his place." And
the prophet answered and said : "As to my son, he has gone with
his mother to the wilderness, and I do not know his whereabouts."

Now when Zacharias has said goodbye to Elizabeth and his son
John, he had blessed him and made him a priest, and afterwards
delivered him to his mother, who said to him : " Pray over me O my

1 Read ajnaduhu.

27/«/, this month corresponds with September (old style). Inino Meno-
logium or Marty rologium of the Eastern Churches as printed in the Pat.
Orient, x. 1 -343 is the feast of the Holy Innocents referred to the seventh of
September. The author apparently is writing here in a purely historical way
without any reference to the ecclesiastical commemorations of saints.

3 Read tasfikuna.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 241

holy father, so that God may render my path in the wilderness easy."
And he said to her : " May He who made us beget our child in our
old age, direct your path." Then she took the child and went into
the wilderness in which no soul lived.

" O * blessed Elizabeth, your story is truly wonderful and praise-
worthy. You did not ask for an adult ' to accompany you, and you
knew neither the way nor a hiding place. You did not care to provide
food nor a little drinking water for the child. You did not say to his
father Zacharias : ' To whom are you sending me in the wilderness ? *
At that time there was neither a monastery in the desert nor a congrega-
tion of monks so that you may say : ' I shall go and stay with them
with my son.' Tell me, O blessed 3 Elizabeth : whom did you trust,
inasmuch as the evangelist testifies to the fact that you were advanced
in years without having had any child, and now you have been suckling
this child of yours for three years ? " Listen now to the answer of
the blessed Elizabeth :

" Why are you astonished at me that I am going alone into the
wilderness ? What should I fear while a kinsman of God is in my
arms ? Behold Gabriel is accompanying me and paving the way for
me." And she said : "I have confidence in the kiss that Mary, His
mother, gave me, because when I greeted her the babe leaped with joy
in my womb, and I heard both babes embracing each other in our
wombs." And Elizabeth added : " I went and put on my son a
raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle in order that the mountain
of the holy wilderness may (in future) be inhabited, and in order that
monasteries and congregations of monks may increase in it and that
sacrifice may be offered ° in it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If God assisted Hagar and her son when they wandered in the desert,
and they were only slaves, how will He not apply to us the precedent
that He has himself established beforehand ? "

In the above words we have described to you the merits of the
holy Elizabeth." Let us now proceed and commemorate the holy

1 Read ayyatuha. - Read kabiran. 3 Read ayyatuha.

4 The author stated above that John sucked his mother two years ; he
probably refers here to the beginning of the third year.

5 Read wa-yarfa'u.

6 All the above lines are therefore a literary digression on the part of
the author. The same thing happens below with regard to Zacharias.

242 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Zacharias, the martyr,1 and relate to you a few of his numerous
merits :

" I should wish to praise your true life, but I fear to hear a reproof
from you, similar to that you made to the blessed Elizabeth. I am
full of admiration for you, O pious Zacharias ! In the time when the
soldiers of Herod came to you and asked you saying : " Where is
your infant son, the child of your old age ? " — You did not deny the
fact and say : "I have no knowledge of such a child," but you simply
answered : *' His mother took him into the desert." And when
Zacharias uttered these words to the soldiers concerning his son, they
killed him inside the Temple, and the priests shrouded his body and
placed it near that of his father Berechiah in a hidden cemetery, from
fear of the wicked (king) ; and his blood boiled on the earth for fifty
years, until Titus son of Vespasian, the Emperor of the Romans, came
and destroyed Jerusalem and killed the Jewish priests for the blood of
Zacharias, as the Lord ordered him.2

As to the blessed John he wandered in the desert with his mother,
and God prepared for him locusts and wild honey as food, in accord-
ance with what his mother was told about him not to let any unclean
food enter his mouth. After five years the pious and blessed old
mother Elizabeth passed away,3 and the holy John sat weeping over
her, as he did not know how to shroud her and bury her, because on
the day of her death he was only seven years and six months old.
And Herod also died the same day as the blessed Elizabeth.4

The Lord Jesus Christ who with His eyes sees heaven and
earth saw His kinsman John sitting and weeping near his mother,
and He also began to weep for a long time, without anyone knowing
the cause of His weeping. When the mother of Jesus saw Him
weeping, she said to Him : " Whay are you weeping ? Did the old
man Joseph or any other one chide you ? " And the mouth that was
full of life answered : " No, O my mother, the real reason is that your

1 Possibly read as-shahid,

2 This sentence about Titus and Vespasian is missing in M. 22.

3 From Syriac ittriih.

4 Herod the Great died in 4 B.C., but the Chronology on which the
Christian era is based is of course erroneous. See the Encyclopedias and
the Dictionaries of the Bible under " Chronology." Can any historical value
be attached to our author's statement concerning the year of the death of
Herod?

JOHN THE BAPTIST 243

kinswoman, the old Elizabeth, has left my beloved John an orphan.
He is now weeping over her body which is lying in the mountain."

When the Virgin heard this she began to weep over her kins-
woman, and Jesus said to her : " Do not weep, O my virgin mother,
you will see her in this very hour." And while he was still speaking
with his mother, behold a luminous cloud came down and placed
itself between them. And Jesus said : " Call Salome and let us take
her with us." And they mounted the cloud which flew with them to
the wilderness of 'Ain Karim and to the spot where lay the body of
the blessed Elizabeth, and where the holy John was sitting.

The Saviour said then to the cloud : " Leave us here at this side
of the spot." And it immediately went, reached that spot, and
departed. Its noise, however, reached the ears of Mar : John, who,
seized with fear, left the body of his mother. A voice reached him
immediately and said to him : " Do not be afraid, O John. I am
Jesus Christ, your master. I am your kinsman Jesus, and I came to
you with my beloved mother in order to attend to the business of the
burial of the blessed Elizabeth, your happy mother, because she is my
mother's kinswoman." When the blessed and holy John heard this,
he turned back, and Christ the Lord and His virgin mother embraced
him. Then the Saviour said to His virgin mother : " Arise, you and
Salome, and wash the body." And they washed the body of the
blessed Elizabeth in the spring from which she used to draw water for
herself and her son. Then the holy virgin Mart " Mary got hold of
the blessed (John) and wept over him, and cursed Herod on account
of the numerous crimes which he had committed. Then Michael and
Gabriel came down from heaven and dug a grave ; and the Saviour
said to them : " Go and bring the soul of Zacharias, and the soul of
the priest Simeon,3 in order that they may sing while you bury the
body." And Michael brought immediately the souls of Zacharias
and Simeon, who shrouded the body of Elizabeth and sang for a long
time over it.

And the mother of Jesus and Salome wept, and the two priests
made the sign of the cross * on the body and prayed over it three times

1 Syriac word meaning " my Lord " used before the names of saints and
of ecclesiastical dignitaries.

Feminine of Mar explained in the previous note.

3 The man spoken of in Luke ii. 25 sqq.

4 Syr. rsham, which literally means " to imprint."

244 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

before they laid it to rest in the grave ; then they buried it, and sealed
the grave with the sign of the cross, and went back to their own places
in peace. And Jesus Christ and His mother stayed near the blessed
and the holy John seven days, and condoled with him at the death of
his mother, and taught him how to live in the desert. And the day
of the death of the blessed Elizabeth was the 1 5th of February.1

Then Jesus Christ said to His mother ; " Let us now go to the
place where I may proceed with my work." The Virgin Mary wept
immediately over the loneliness! of John, who was very young 2 and
said : " We will take him with Vis, since he is an orphan without any-
one." : But Jesus said to her : " This is not the will of My Father
who is in the heavens. He shall remain in the wilderness till the day
of his showing unto Israel. Instead of a desert full of wild beasts, he
will walk 4 in a desert full of angels and prophets, as if they were
multitudes of people. Here is also Gabriel, the head of the angels,
whom I have appointed to protect him and to grant to him power
from heaven. Further, I shall render the water of this spring of water
as sweet and delicious to him as the milk he sucked from his mother.
Who took care of him in his childhood ? Is it not I, O my mother,
who love him more than all the world ? Zacharias also loved him,
and I have ordered him to come to him and inquire after him, because
although his body is buried in the earth, his soul is alive.

" As to Elizabeth his mother, she will constantly visit him and
comfort him, as if she was not dead at all. Blessed is she, O my
mother, because she bore my beloved. Her mouth will never suffer
putrefaction, because she kissed your pure lips ; and her tongue will
not be dismembered in the earth, because she prophesied concerning
you and said : " Happy is she who believed that the promise that she
received from the Lord would be fulfilled " 5 ; nor will her womb

1 In a Jacobite Menologium (Pat. Orient, x. 36) the feast of Elizabeth is
fixed on the 1 6th of December. In another Menologium her death is assigned
to the 1 0th of February (Pat. Orient, x. 1 40 index). In a Coptic- Arabic
Menologium her feast is on the 26th Tut ( = 23 September). See Pat.
Orient, x. 189, 233 (index) and 253. In the Ethiopia Menologium (Smith's
Diet, of Christian Antiquities, i. 606) her feast is on the 16th Jakatit
( = 10 February). I do not believe that any of the above dates (including
that given by our document) has any historical value.

2 Read saghiran. 3 Read ahadin.
4 Read yasir (with sin). 8 Luke i. 45.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 245

decay in the earth, because her body, like her soul, shall suffer no
putrefaction. And my beloved John will last for ever, and he will
see us and be comforted."

These words the Christ our Lord spoke to his mother, while John
was in the desert And they mounted the cloud, and John looked at
them and wept, and Mart 1 Mary wept also bitterly over him, saying :
" Woe is me, O John, because you are alone in the desert without
anyone.' Where is Zacharias, your father, and where is Elizabeth,
your mother ? Let them come and weep 3 with me to-day."

And Jesus Christ said to her : " Do not weep over this child, O
my mother. I shall not forget him." And while he was uttering
these word, behold the clouds lifted them up and brought them to
Nazareth. And He fulfilled there everything pertaining to humanity
except sin.

And John dwelt in the desert, and God and His angels were
with him. He lived in great asceticism and devotion. His only food
was grass 4 and wild honey. He prayed constantly, fasted much and
was in expectation of the salvation of Israel.

And Herod the Younger0 who reigned over Judea, lived with
his brother's wife, in the second year of his reign. He did not
marry her openly, but he used to find an opportune moment 6 to send
after her and usher her in his bedchamber which was full of corruption,
and there perpetrate their abomination.' At that time Gabriel, head
of the angels, taught John in the desert to say : " O King, you have
no right to live with the wife of your brother, while he is still alive." ;
And he repeated this, crying in the desert, as the angel had taught
him. In the night people could hear his voice, and Herodias used to
light a lamp and search the bedchamber, believing that somebody may
have intruded into it, but found nobody, and only heard the voice.

The two began then to have misgivings on account of this happen-

1 See note of p. 447. ~ Read ahadin.

0 Read in the dual form yatia and yabkia.

4 The author seems to identify the " locusts " used in the Gospel in
connection with the food of John, with a kind of grass. This is also the
opinion of some ancient writers.

5 I.e. Herod Antipas. This epithet is applied to him in order to dis-
tinguish him from Herod the Great, son of Antipater.

'RmdyifrniAnt. " Read nifdkahuma.

8 Mark vi. 1 8. Read hayyun.

246 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

ing, and Herodias said to Herod : " Arise and despatch troops to
the desert of 'Am Karim, in order that they may kill John, because
the voice we hear is his." God, however, was with the lad, and
delivered him from their hands. When she ascertained that through
him there would be no peace for her in her (iniquitous) act, she
persuaded the wicked king who gave her the following promise : "If
we happen to hear this voice again, we shall summon the magicians
and inform them to take hold of John and kill him secretly." And
the voice did not cease to worry them.

And the wicked Herodias said : " How can this John, a
wanderer in the desert and in the wilderness, a man whose body is
not fit to wear the clothing of men, but a raiment of camel's hair,
rebuke the king of his own country, whose authority extends to his
own region ? " Then Herodias said to the king : " What pleases you
to do, do it openly, and do not believe that anyone in this region will
blame you for it, except John, and when opportunity offers itself we
shall get rid of him." It is in this way that the adulteress set the
heart of Herod on their sin, and persuaded him to deliver his brother l
to death, and to marry her openly.

And John did not cease to rebuke Herod every day in the desert
until he was thirty years old. As to Jesus, He increased in wisdom,
stature, and grace with God and men,2 and did not show any deeds
of His Divinity, but acted with humility towards all men. And when
He was twelve years old, He began to rebuke the Teachers and
deceivers of the people. And in the fifteenth year of the reign of Ti-
berius Caesar, who reigned after Augustus, when Herod was tetrarch of
Galilee, and when Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, in that year
the word of God came unto John, son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.
He came into the countries that surround the Jordan 3 preaching and
saying : " Repent ye for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." 4 And
people from all the region of Judaea and Jerusalem went out to him
and were baptised by him in the Jordan confessing their sins.5

In those days the Saviour came to him from Galilee to the Jordan
and said to him : " Baptize me." When John saw God standing
before him and wishing to be baptized by him, he was seized with

1 Read akhahu. 2 Luke ii. 52. 3 Cf. Luke iii. 1 -3.

4 Matt. iii. 2. 5 Mark i. 5, Matt. iii. 5-6.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 247

great fright and said to him : " He who made the children of Israel
walk in the Red Sea and drink sweet water from a solid rock,1 stands
before His servant who is in need to be baptized with His Divine
hands, and says ' Baptize me '" ! And he began to turn away from
Him. But (Jesus) said to him : " Stop now ; it is thus that we must
fulfil all righteousness." :

Then both of them went down into the water, and the holy John
baptized Him, saying : "I baptize the One Whom the Father has
sent to establish 3 a great sacrament." 4 And immediately after the
heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, like a dove.
And John saw it face to face, and the Father cried saying : "This is my
beloved Son in whom I delight, obey Him." And our Saviour came
out of the water and went forthwith into the desert. As to John, he
remained near the Jordan, baptizing all those who came to him.

In that rime Herod rose against Philip his brother and intrigued
against him with the Emperor Caesar, saying : " The one whom you
have appointed to be the ruler of Trachoniris,5 who is Philip, has mis-
governed your region, and said : "I shall not pay tribute to the king
because I am also a king." Cassar waxed greatly angry and ordered
Herod to dispossess him of his region and to confiscate all his estate
and his house, and not to have any pity, not even on his soul. Herod
acted on the orders of the Emperor and plundered the region of his
brother Philip with his house and all his possessions, and reigned over
his region.

And Philip had a wife called Herodias, who had a daughter by
the same Philip, called Arcostiana.6 The mother was even more
adulteress than the daughter. When Philip became poorer than any-
body else, Herodias hated him greatly, and said to him : "I shall not
remain with you any more, but shall go to your new lord Herod who
is better than you." Then she wrote immediately to Herod saying :
" Herodias writes to Herod as follows : ' Now that you have all Syria

1 Read samma. 2 Matt. iii. 1 5.

3 Here are two pages in M. 22 filled with scribblings, diagrams, and com-
putations by various owners, but the text of the life of the Baptist is continuous.

4 Or : to fulfil a great mystery.

5 In the original : Antarachonia.

6 The name is given below as Uxoriana, which by its connection with the
Latin uxor seems to be more accurate. M. 1 83 has, however, Orcostiriana.
It is remarkable that the traditional Salome should appear under this
uncommon name.

246 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

under your sway and you reign over all the earth, you have not taken
me as your wife. I am very beautiful and better than all the women
of Judaea. I have also a daughter the like of whom I have never seen
in all the world for beauty and stature. I wish to be your wife. I
hated your brother l very much in order to strengthen your kingdom.' "

When these cunning words reached the wicked (king), he was
pleased with them, and he immediately gave orders that she and her
daughter be taken out of the house of Philip. When Philip saw that
his wife was being taken from him by force, he wept bitterly and said
to his daughter : " You stay with your father in case your mother is
taken from me." But the adulteress said to him : " I shall not stay
with you, but shall accompany my mother wherever she goes." They
were, therefore, taken both of them and presented to Herod, who was
greatly pleased with them,2 because he was an adulterer.

They performed marvels of diabolical cunning, and the wicked
king lived daily with both of them in adultery. Some people, how-
ever, brought their story to the knowledge of John the Baptist on
behalf of Philip, Herodias* husband. Now John was considered by
all as a prophet, and everybody praised him because he was teaching
the people and saying : " Bring forth fruits meet for repentance, because
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast
into the fire." 3

When John heard the news from Philip he was much afflicted at
the perdition of Herod and Herodias, and he immediately sent a
message to Herod and said to him : " John the Baptist, son of
Zacharias, tells you, O Herod, that you have no right to marry the
wife of your brother, while he is still alive." When Herod heard these
words he was much frightened and perplexed, and he went to Herodias
and said to her : " O Herodias, what shall we do ? It is the end of
our sinful union as it has been brought to the knowledge of John the
Baptist, and behold he has rebuked me. Woe to us, because our
sins have increased greatly and reached the ears of the prophets."

The wicked woman said then to him : " Long live you, O king !
Who is John, the wearer of camel's hair, to contradict and rebuke a
mighty monarch like you ? He surely deserves that somebody should

1 Read akhaka,

2 Read bikima, and place all the following verbs in the dual form.
3Mattiii. 8, 10.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 249

pull out and cut off his tongue." And he said to her : " What can
we do ? We cannot bear the rebuke of that great (prophet)." And
she answered and said to him : " Summon him here and I will kill
him, and we shall continue our mutual relations in peace." And she
performed before him obscene acts and immoral artifices, and Satan
filled his heart against the holy and just man Mar John l the Baptist,
and he dispatched soldiers against him, who seized him and cast him
in prison.

Then Herodias summoned him out of prison to her presence and
said to him : " What is your business with me, O chaste man, that
you wish to separate me from the king ? I conjure you by the God of
your father not to do this with me again. To tell you the truth, if
you are silent concerning me and do not rebuke me another time, I
shall deliver you from prison and bestow great favours upon you."
And the holy Mar John the Baptist said to her : " I say to you, O
Herodias, not to live with Herod while your husband Philip is alive."
When the wicked woman heard this, she was incensed with anger
against him and said to him : " You will surely die at my hands, and
I shall put the hair of your head in the pillow on which ~ I lay my
head with Herod, and I shall bury your head in the place where I
wash after having enjoyed myself with the king." John then said to
her : " The Lord will allow you to kill me but my head 3 you will
not see. It will remain after me, and proclaim your iniquity and shame
to all the world. Woe to you for my unjust murder, because your end
is at hand."

She then said to his keepers : " Take him and keep him in prison
with fetters, and if he escapes, you shall lose your souls." And the
soldiers took him and kept him in prison with chains. And Herodias
tried to induce Herod to kill him, but he said to her : "I cannot kill
him in this way. People will rise against me, drive me out, and bring
accusation against me to the Emperor, who will take my kingdom
from me as he took that of my brother Philip." And he said to her :

1 See note of p. 447. ~ Read allati.

z The Arabic text uses constantly the word ras " head " in feminine,
which is absolutely contrary to the genius of all the Semitic languages. This
proves that the work is of Egyptian origin, and that it emanates from a Greek
or a Coptic original, or at least that it was written by a Copt who was under
the influence of the language of Homer in which K6<f>a\TJ is feminine.

250 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

" Show me a better method of doing away with him." l And she said
to him : " I will tell you a word, and if you listen to it, you will have
an opportunity of killing him." And he said to her : " Tell it to me."
And she said to him : " Behold the envoys 2 of the king are with you,
arise and prepare a dinner for them, to which you will invite all your
high officials ; and your birthday falls also in these days. When people
become hilarious and begin to get drunk with wine, I shall send in my
daughter dressed in her best clothes, and she will dance before you,
O king, with her sweet face. When she has done this ask her, saying,
' Desire of me whatever you like,' and you will swear to her by the
life of the Emperor that you will give her whatever she wishes. She
will then ask for the head of John, and you will have an opportune
moment to cut off his head."

Herod was circumvented by the reasoning of the adulteress, and
began to fulfil her desires, as he loved her because of her beauty and
diabolical artifices. In that very day he prepared the dinner, and the
messengers of the Emperor were sitting next to him. When they
began to get drunk the accursed Uxoriana entered the room, and on
her were strings of gold and silver, perfumes and jewellery of high
value, and presented herself to all the company. She danced with a
diabolical passion, and Satan filled the hearts of the guests with evil
and passion through her iniquitous artfulness. All were pleased 3 with
her, and Herod was proud 4 and said to her : " Ask me for whatever
you like, and by the life of the Emperor Tiberius Caesar, I will give it
to you, even if it be the half of my kingdom and my possessions." 5
And she said what she was taught by her mother : "I wish here 6 to
have the head of John the Baptist, on a dish." The king began to be
very sad, on account of the oath he had taken by the life of the
Emperor, and he owned to the guests that he was unable to break his
oath.

He therefore dispatched an executioner, who went to the prison
and there cut off John's head on a dish, on the second of the month of

1This sentence is missing in M. 122.

2 Read rusul,

3 Read surra.
4 Or: thought.

5 The story is in many places a faithful rendering of Mark ,iv. 1 7-29.

6 Read hadha in M. 22.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 251

September,1 and he brought it to Herod, who handed it to the girl,
and the girl handed it to her mother. Now, before the messengers of
the king and the executioner had gone to him, to behead him, John
had said to his disciples : " Behold the king has sent men to cut off
my head. They have already left with unsheathed swords in their
hands, and with lanterns, lamps, and weapons." What is happening in
this hour will happen in the night in which Christ will be betrayed.
As to me, my head will be cut off and be shown on a dish, but the
Christ will be lifted up on the cross, in order that He may purify all
with His pure blood ; as to me I am going to my place, but woe to
the king who ordered my head to be cut off ; many calamities will
befall him, and the people of Israel will be scattered because of him.
As to you, do not be afraid, because no one will be able to do you
any harm." He then opened his mouth and blessed and glorified
God for his incomprehensible gifts, saying : "I bless Thee and praise
Thee, O invisible Father, O visible Son,3 and O comforting Holy
Spirit."

Let us now proceed to describe the story of the head of the blessed
Mar John the Baptist. When it was brought before Herodias, the
eyes of the holy John were open and his ears were hearing as in his
lifetime.4 The adulteress spoke then with ire before the head as
follows : " O accursed one, who were not ashamed to look at the
king in the face and answer him, I shall put out your eyes with my

1 Ilul. M. 1 83 has : "On the twenty-ninth of the month of August
The Armenian Synaxarium printed in Pat. Or. v. 454 fixes also the feast
of the Decollation of the Baptist on the 1 9th of Navasard ( = 29th August).
So also is the case with the Syrian Menologia and Martyrologia printed in
Pat. Or. x. pp. 45, 85, 101, 106, 1 12, 129, and 131. In the Menologium
printed ibid, on p. 53 this feast is assigned to the 15th of December. The
same feast is assigned to the 7th of January on pp. 54, 69, 94, 103, 1 09, 1 1 7,
and 129. In a Greek life of the saint printed in Pat. Or. iv. 527-541 the
head is reported to have been cut off on the 29th of the month of Dystros,
which in Graeco-Arab calendars of Gaza corresponds with 1 5th or 25th of
March. None of the above dates seems to me to have any historical value.
In the Greek Synaxarium of Constantinople printed by the Jesuit Delehaye in
1 902 (Col. 934) the Baptist is also murdered on the 29th of August. For
the date of the festival of the Decollation of the Baptist in the different
churches of the West, see Smith's and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian
Antiquities, i. 882-883. Cf. Acta SS. for June 24th, pp. '701-702.

- Cf . John xviii. 3. 3 Read ru'iya. 4 Read alladhi.

252 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

hands and place them on a dish, and I shall cut off the tongue which
used to say to the king that it was unlawful for him to marry Herodias,
his brother's wife. As to the hair of your head and of your beard I
shall pluck it and place it under the feet of my bedstead."

She said all this with malice and wickedness, and she stretched her
hand to hold the head of Mar John the Baptist and do with it what
she had said. But immediately after the head of the blessed John let
the locks of its hair rise from the dish, and it flew to the middle of the
convivial room before the king and his high officials. In that very
moment the roof of the house was opened and the head of John flew
in the air. As to Herodias her eyes were put out and fell on the
floor and the roof of her room l fell upon her, and the earth opened
her mouth and swallowed her up to her neck, and she went alive to
the depth of hell. As to her daughter she became mad and broke all
the utensils of the dinner party. In her madness she went to the icy
pond and danced on it, and by order of the Lord the ice broke under
her and she sank to her neck. In vain did the soldiers endeavour to
pull her up, because the Lord did not wish her deliverance. Then
they cut off her head with the very sword that was used to kill John
the Baptist. Then a fish cast her out of the pond, dead.2 May God
not have mercy upon her !

In that moment Herod also had a sudden stroke before his guests.
When his agent noticed these great miracles, he repaired quickly to the
prison, took the body of the saint and gave it to his disciples, who took
it to the town of Sebaste where they buried it,3 near the bodyi of the
prophet Elisha. As to his head, it flew over Jerusalem, and cried for
three years to the town, saying : " It is not lawful for you, O Herod,
to marry the wife of your brother while he is still alive." After it
had cried for three years, it went to all the world shouting and pro-

1 From Syr. kaitona as above.

2 In the apocryphal Letter of Herod to Pilate it is written: "My
daughter Herodias was playing upon the water (i.e. the ice) and fell in up to
her neck. And her mother caught at her head to save her, and it was cut
off, and the water swept her body away. My wife is sitting with the head
on her knees weeping." James' The Apocryphal New Testament, pp. 1 55-
1 56. The Syriac text of the letter has been edited by Rahmani, Studia
Syriaca, ii, 17-18.

3 Even in the time of Yakut, the well known Muslim geographer, the grave
of John the Baptist was shown at Sebaste (Muljam al Buldan, iii. 33, edit.
Wiistenfeld).

JOHN THE BAPTIST 253

claiming the horrible crime of Herod, and repeating the words : " It
is not lawful for you, O Herod, to marry the wife of your brother
while he is still alive."

Fifteen years after it had been cut off it ceased proclaiming, and
rested on the town of Horns.1 The faithful who were in that town
took it and buried it with great pomp. A long time after, a church
was built on it, which is still standing in our time. And the head of
the holy John the Baptist was buried there fifteen years after the
resurrection of Christ, the Lord, and it remained there down to our
own days.2

As to the body of the holy John the Baptist, the saint whose feast
we are celebrating to-day,3 it remained in Sebaste — which is Nabulus
of Samaria4 — for four hundred years. Then a pagan king, whose name
was Julian, reigned over the world. He had been a Christian at the
beginning of his reign, but after that Satan filled his heart and he for-
sook the faith of our Lord the Christ and worshipped fire. He ordered
temples and places of worship to be built in every place where idols could
be worshipped, and intimated that such a temple should be erected in
the town of Sebaste where lay the body of the holy Baptist. People,
however, were unable to comply with the order and to worship idols
in that place, on account of the (holy) bodies that were buried there.

They, therefore, assembled and informed the Emperor that as
bodies of holy men were buried there, they had been delayed in their

1 The well known north Syrian town. Hims would be a more exact
pronunciation of the word. The same Arab geographer, Yakut, tells us
(ibid. ii. 335) that a fourth part of the Church of St. John at Horns was
turned into a mosque at the time of the Arab conquest. According to the
Coptic MS. No. 97 of kef.R.L. (Crum's Catalogue, p. 50) the relics of the
Baptist were discovered near Emesa by the brothers Gesius and Isidorus.
See further parallels in Acta SS. June 24th., pp. 712 sqq.

2 The author was therefore writing before die sixth century or the time in
which a head supposed to be that of John the Baptist was sent to Constantinople.
See Barsalibi's Treatise against the Melchites and my notes on it (pp. 43-
44). In the author's time of writing, which according to the present story is,
by necessity, a year within A.D. 385-395, the head of the saint was still at Emesa.

3 The present history is, therefore, a kind of homily or panegyric
pronounced or written by Bishop Serapion.

* The clause "which is Nabulus of Samaria," only found in M. 183 and
not in M. 22, is apparently an addition of a late copyist. In a preceding
passage where the text of M. 22 has no lacuna the same clause is missing in
it although found as in the present case in M. 1 83, which on the whole seems
to represent a more modern recension of the story.

18

254 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

building of the temples. Then he said to them : " Go and burn (the
bodies) with fire." The Lord, however, did not allow the fire to come
near the place where lay the coffins of the prophets, but the same fire
consumed a great number of the pagans who had kindled it, and great
treasures were brought to light there. Above one of the coffins was
seen a vessel containing a leathern girdle, a raiment of camel's hair, a
frock, and two leathern belts. The faithful who were in that place
understood immediately that the coffins belonged l to John the Baptist
and to the prophet Elisha, and they wished to remove them from there,
but from fear of the wicked Emperor they were not able to do so.2
When, however, God destroyed him with a death more wretched
than that of any other, pious men assembled there and carried the
two coffins to the sea with the intention of bringing them to Alexandria,
to the holy Father, the Patriarch Athanasius,3 because they said :
' There is in these days no one in the world worthy to take care of
these except Father Athanasius, the Patriarch of Alexandria."

When they reached the sea they found a boat bound for
Alexandria, and they boarded it with the coffins. They journeyed
on the sea and landed on the shores of Alexandria, but as they weri
unable to disclose their affair to any one because the time was not
convenient for that, they went direct to the Patriarch and related to
him all that had occurred, and how they were moved by the Holy
Spirit to bring the coffins to him. He was greatly pleased with them
and went by night to the boat with his brother, and they took the
remains in a kerchief and brought them with them, and (the Patriarch)
placed them with him in a place in his dwelling, and ;he did not
disclose their whereabouts to anyone. And this Father wished to
build a church to John the Baptist, and he was not able to do so
because of the troubles caused by the wicked ones.4

The bodies remained therefore hidden in the place5 in which
Father Athanasius had secretly placed them, until the time of his

1 Read hiya for hum. The construction of the Arabic sentence denotes
a Syriac or a Greek original.

2 This is against the statement of Theodoret who relates that the coffin of
the saint was broken and his remains were burnt and their ashes scattered.
Pat. Gr. Ixxxii. 1091. See above p. 43.

3 Athanasius was Patriarch of Alexandria from 328 to 373.

4 Arians ?

5 The word here used generally means "fountain." Can it refer to
baptismal font ?

JOHN THE BAPTIST 255

death. After his death he was succeeded by Father Peter,1 whose
throne was occupied after his death by Father Timothy,2 who
ordained my humble self, your Father Serapion,3 to this see, without
merits on my part

After his death, he was succeeded by Father Theophilus * who
is now sitting on the (Patriarchal) see, In his time the grace of
God increased, and the faith was strengthened through the pious
Theodosius 5 and God united the Emperor and the Patriarch with
ties of love. The former threw open the temples in which were
treasures, and especially the great temple of Alexandria, in which
there was great quantity of gold and silver. And the pious
Theodosius honoured the Patriarch, made him superintendent of all
the treasures, and said to him : " O Father Theophilus, take these
and enrich the churches with them, from this town to Aswan,1 for the
glory of God and His saints." After this he began to build churches.
The first church to be built was one under the name of the holy Mar
John the Baptist in the great city of Alexandria. He adorned it
and made it a great church and wished to place in it the body of the
holy Mar John the Baptist. When he had finished it completely, he
thought of consecrating it,' and he sent immediately to all the bishops
under his jurisdiction to congregate for the consecration of the church.

The invitation was also sent to my weakness, and I went with
the rest of the bishops to the Pope,8 the Father Theophilus of

1 Peter ii. succeeded Athanasius from 373 to 380.

2 Timothy succeeded Peter from 380 to 385.

8 1 cannot ascertain the identity of this Serapion, who was evidently a
bishop of a town in Egypt. For chronological reasons he cannot apparently
be identified with Serapion Scholasticus, bishop of Thmuis, nor with Serapion,
bishop of Tentyra.

4 Theophilus was Patriarch of Alexandria from 385 to 4 1 2. He is credited
with an Apocryphal vision which describes the flight of Christ into Egypt and
the mode of life of the holy family in that country. Cf. Baumstark, Gesch. d.
Syr. Lit. p. 70, and Syr. MS. Mingana, No. 5 ff. 1-18 b and No. 39 ff. 56 b-
70 b, both in the custody of Rendel Harris Library, Birmingham.

0 Theodosius died in 395.

6 Or : Assuan. A town in Upper Egypt and Capital of the Egyptian
province of Nubia and of the district called in antiquity Yebu, " land of
elephants." The island of Elephantine is included in it, and in Greek times
it was called Syene.

7 Read bitakrisiha.

8 The word "Pope" was in early times applied to the Patriarchs of
Alexandria and not of Rome.

256 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

Alexandria. When it came to his knowledge that all the bishops
were nearing the city of Alexandria, he was pleased with us, like one
who had found much booty. He came out to meet us accompanied
by all the (clergy) who were in the city. We entered the city and
stayed some days with him. After this he began to consecrate : the
church, and he took us and showed 2 it to us, and we found in it
wonderful buildings,3 and he said to us : " O my children, this is the
place designated for the purpose by Athanasius, whom time did not
favour." And Father Theophilus added : "I was walking with
them while I was a simple acolyte at that time and serving him.
And when he came to this place, he said to me : " O my son,
Theophilus, if you can find opportunity, build in this place a church
to Mar John the Baptist and place his bones in it, and after I had
built this place, I remembered the saying of the man of God, the
Father Athanasius, especially when I bethought me that my Father
was like the prophet David, who wished to build a house to God,
but was not favoured with it, on account of wars in which he was
continually engaged, and God said to him : " Thou shalt not build a
house for me, but the one who comes out of thy loins shall build it for
me,"* and this was Solomon. Since I have finished with the wars
against the pagans, I considered myself worthy of building this church
which is under the name of the holy Mar John the Baptist, the
morning star."

When the second of the month of June came, he took us to the
place where the body was placed, and we did not know the right
spot, but after praying nocturns God showed it to him. And when
he brought it out, he called all the inhabitants of the town and they
assembled to him with many lanterns and lamps so that the night
shone like day. He let the bishops carry the coffin on their heads
and the Patriarch preceded them, and the deacons were singing with
majesty and splendour, until we brought the coffin to the church in
great pomp. When we entered the church, the Patriarch took hold
of the coffin, embraced it, and allowed all the people to be blessed by
the holy body, which he placed afterwards inside the church on a
chair at a corner of the altar. He then prepared to consecrate the

1 Read bi-takris. 2 Read arana.

1 Read abniatan 'ajlbatan.

4 1 Chron. xxriii. 3, 6 ; Cf. 2 Sam. Tii. 1 3 ; 1 Kings v. 3.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 257

church in that day, and we said mass, and all of us received the
sacrament from the Patriarch, and it was the second day of the month
Baouna?

After this the Patriarch said goodbye to us, and we left the town,
each one of us going to his own country, in the peace of God.
Amen.2 And the body of the holy Mar John the Baptist wrought
miracles, prodigies, and wonders of healings in the people of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The miracles (which we will mention below) will bear
witness to this.

Praise, glory, and power are due to you, O Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit who is one in nature, now, always, and for ever
and ever.

lln M. 183 heziran (June). The second day of the Coptic month
Baouna corresponds with our 27th of May. In the Arab Coptic Menologia
(Pat. Or. x. 204), the feast of the finding of the bones of the Baptist actually
falls on the second day of Baouna or the 27th of May. That a church was
built in Alexandria in order to contain the supposed relics of the Baptist sent
from Sebaste to Athanasius is attested by Rufinus, Hist. Eccl. xi. 28 ; Theo-
doret, Hist. Eccl. iii. 3 ; Theophanes, Chronographia, i. 1 1 7 (edit. Classen).
It seems therefore to be historical that a church was built in Alexandria
under the name of the Baptist by Theodosius the Great on the site of the
temple of Serapis, and finished under the reign of Arcadius. On the other
hand it seems to me false to assert that the church contained any bones of the
saint. See Barsalibi's Treatise against the Melchites on p. 43, and for further
details see Smith's and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, i.
881-884. The Ada SS. for June 24 (pp. 71 1-808) contain a full repertory
of traditions concerning the history of the Baptist's relics.

' The story ends here. What follows appears to be by a later hand.

258 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

In the name of God, one in nature, and three in persons and
attributes, and by the help and assistance of God we will narrate
the miracles of the precursor, Saint John the Baptist, which 1 God
wrought through him on the day of the consecration 2 of his Church.
May his intercession be with us ! Amen.

The First Miracle.

There was in the town a girl of a respectable family, the pangs of
whose labour had lasted three days without having been delivered of
her child, as it was her first babe. The midwives who were present
said s to her parents : " The babe has died in her womb, and she
cannot live." All began to weep over her because she was much
loved by them. When men who were carrying the body of Mar
John the Baptist to the church reached the house of the girl singing,
she asked her parents : " What are these voices ? " They answered
her : "A Christian was martyred for the name of Jesus Christ,
and the Christians are carrying his body and observing a feast
for him."

Now the girl and her parents were pagans. And she said to
them : ** Carry me to this window so that I may see the body."
And four attendants carried her and brought her to the spot she had
desired. When she looked down she saw a great and indescribable
pomp, and she cried aloud : " O my Lord Jesus Christ for whose
holy name this man has been martyred, deliver me from this calamity
of mine, through the intercession of this holy man, in order that all
may know that you, Jesus Christ, are the only God." While she
was saying these words, the babe who was in her womb came out
while she was being carried, and he was found to be alive. People
were amazed and cried, saying : " Jesus Christ, the God of this
martyr,4 is the only God." And all of them believed and gave to the
infant the name of John, and were baptised in the Church of Mar
John the Baptist, and remained Christian till the day in which they
passed away in the peace of the Lord. Amen.

1 Read al-lati. 2 As usual read takrls.

1 Read kunna yakulna. 4 Read ash-shah'td.

JOHN THE BAPTIST 259

The Second Miracle.

A rich official * of the town had a daughter betrothed to a man.
A great wedding was prepared ~ for her because she was very rich.
On the night in which her husband was to be with her, the holy
Mar John, the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, appeared to her in
great glory, and she was frightened, but he said to her : " Do you
know who I am ? " And she answered : " No, my lord." And
he said : " I am John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ When
you rise to-morrow go to my church, and take the sign and abundance
of your salvation from what you will see on my grave where my body
lies." And he disappeared from her sight.

And she rose in the night and went and sat near the door of the
church till the morning. When the door of the church was opened
she made haste and entered and went to the place in which the coffin
was buried. She immediately saw on the grave of the holy Mar
John the Baptist a garment of sackcloth, a belt of leather, and a veil.
When she noticed them she was amazed and said : " This garment
is not for a worldly life," and she ascertained that God wanted her to
be a virgin. She then threw immediately in the church the garment
of gold that she was wearing, and put on that which she saw on the
grave, and went out glorifying God and His saint, Mar John the
Baptist, and she became a virgin till the day of her death through
the intercession of John the Baptist. May this intercession be with
us ! Amen.

The Third Miracle.

There was in the town a cripple who worshipped idols. Every-
one 3 knew him, children and grown ups. When he walked he used
to drag his feet on the ground and wrap tightly on them a piece of
leather in order that they might not move to and fro. He used to sit
every day at the door of the church in order to receive alms from the
church-goers.

One day he made bold to enter the church, in order to put oil on
his feet from the lamp of the martyr Mar John the Baptist. For this
purpose he loosened the leather that was wrapped on his feet and

1 Greek apxcov through the Syriac arkona.

- Or : he prepared. 3 Read ahadin.

260 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

oiled them from the oil of the lamp. Immediately after his limbs
became strong. When he noticed the miracle he raised himself up
and cried, saying : " The God of Mar John the Baptist is the one
true God." He then received the baptism and became a Christian
till he died in the peace of the Lord. Amen.

The Fourth Miracle.

There was in the town a woman afflicted with dropsy, and her
body was swollen all over. She was very rich, but no physician *
was able to heal her. She rose up and went to the church of the
holy Mar John the Baptist and was oiled with the oil of the lamp
which burns before the body of the saint, towards the sanctuary ; and
she slept there. While she was asleep her body was torn open and
all the foul matter went out of it, and she awakened from her sleep
sound and in good health. And she went home glorifying God — to
whom be everlasting glory ! Amen.

The Fifth Miracle.

There were two blind men in the town who were friendly to each
other2 and ate jointly from the same alms. They went3 to the
church of the holy Mar John the Baptist and oiled their eyes with the
oil of the lamp that burns over the body of the saint. The eyes of
one of them saw but not those of the other. The latter had a heavy
heart, stood up and confessed to God, saying : " O my Lord Jesus
have pity on the weakness of my faith, and give light to my eyes as
Thou gavest to those of my friend, because to Thee belong power,
glory, and honour for ever and ever. Amen." He recited this
.prayer to the Lord on the grave of the blessed saint Mar John the
Baptist, and he immediately saw, and he and all the onlookers
•glorified God.

Glory, power, and majesty be to the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit who is consubstantial, One God, now, always, and for
ever and ever ! Amen.

:Read ahadun. "Read liba'dihima.

JOHN THE BAPTIST

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JOHN THE BAPTIST 267

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JOHN THE BAPTIST 269

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JOHN THE BAPTIST 271

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287

(iii) Uncanonical Psalms.

PREFATORY NOTE.

I give in the following pages the text and the translation of five
uncanonical Psalms. Psalm 1 is found in many MSS. of the Syriac
Psalter x where it is known as Ps. cli. and where it is often introduced
as follows : " This Psalm was said by David on himself, when he
fought Goliath." It is a translation from Greek, but I have remarked
in a footnote that its first verse seems, in thought but not in phraseology,
to be reminiscent of the corresponding verse of the famous Gnostic
" Hymn of the Soul." If this comparison were proved to be possible,
we would be allowed to hold the contrary view, viz. that the " Hymn "
itself was under the influence of the " Psalm" ; this, however, is a
question on which we cannot dwell at present as it is beyond the scope
of our present studies.

The four other Psalms are only found in the interesting work entitled
Durrasha, " Discipline," or more generally mawatha, " Centuries,"
of the Nestorian writer Elijah of Anbar who died about 940. The
work is represented by some other MSS.2 all of which are, however,
much later than the one marked Mingana Syr. 3 1 in the custody of
the Rendel Harris Library, Birmingham.3 The MS. has unfortunately
lost a few of its final leaves and is consequently undated, but on palaeo-
graphic grounds it may be assigned to about A.D. 1 340. It formerly
belonged to the Nestorian writer Isho'yahb bar Mukaddam4 who
died about 1 445, and who in an inscription on fol. 90b informs us
that he collated a large part of it with an autograph of the author
himself. There is reason to believe that at least six out of the eight
other MSS. in existence are mere transcripts of this Mingana Syr.
31. A fascimile of the pages containing the Psalms accompanies the

1 See, for instance, vol. i. pp. 35, 124, 125, 137, 138, 140,405 of
Wright's Catalogue of the B.M. MSS.

<J Mentioned by Baumstark, Gesch. d. Syr. Lit. 238.

3 It was lately acquired by me in Kurdistan.

4 See about him Baumstark, *ibid. , p. 329,

288

UNCANONICAL PSALMS 289

translation. I have also compared the translation with Syr. MS.
Mingana 51 (ff. 100M05a) of about A.D. 1550, in the custody of
Rendel Harris Library, Birmingham.

The source of the author for some of these uncanonical Psalms is
unknown to me, but there is no doubt that he was drawing upon
excellent material at his disposal. There is in the matter of elevation
of thought and diction considerable difference between all these un-
canonical Psalms, and in reading those numbered 2 and 3 we almost
feel that we are perusing the Bible itself. Their Hebrew parallelism
is perfect and there are grounds for believing that they are a direct
translation from Hebrew or Aramaic Psalms 1 , 4-5 refer more or
less distinctly to the deliverance of David from the wild beasts of
1 Sam. xvii. 34-36.

TRANSLATION.

The Five Psalms of David, which are not written in the Series

of the Psalms.

1.

Thanksgivings of David.

I was the youngest of my brothers, and a child in the house of my
father.1 I shepherded the sheep of my father, and met a lion and
also a wolf,'2 and I slew them and rent them. My hands made an
organ, and my fingers fitted a harp. Who will show me to my Lord ?
— He, my Lord, became my God.3 He sent his angel and removed
me from the sheep of my father, and anointed me with the oil of
unction.4 The Lord was not pleased with my elder and handsome
brothers, and I went to meet the Philistine, who cursed me by his
idols ; but I unsheathed his sword, cut off his head, and banished the
insult from the children of Israel.

1 Compare this verse with the beginning of the Edessene Gnostic hymn
of the Soul : " While I was a small child, and dwelling in my kingdom in
the house of my father." Bedjan's Acta, iii. 110.

" From 1 Sam. xvii. 34-36 we know that David was met by a lion
and a bear and not a wolf. The variant may be explained by the graphic
resemblance that exists in Syriac between the words bear and wolf. This
verse is missing in Greek.

3 The Greek is : " Who will show it to my Lord ? He is the Lord,
He heareth me."

4 The Greek is : "Of His unction."

290 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

' 2.

Prayer of Hezekiah when Surrounded by Enemies.

Praise God with a loud voice, and proclaim His glory in the
congregation of many people. Praise His magnificence in the
assembly of the just, and make known His majesty in the company
of the pious. Extol His praise, and narrate His exalted dignity in
unison with the righteous. Unite your souls l with the good and with
the meek in order to magnify the Most High. Gather together in
order to proclaim His might, and be not tired in showing forth His
salvation, His power, and His glory to all the children. It is in order
that the majesty of the Lord may be made manifest that Wisdom has
been given, and it is in order that it may proclaim His works that it
has been made known to men ; for the spreading of His might among
the children, and instructing the weak-hearted in His glory :
those who are remote from its good advices, and far from its
doors. Because the Lord of Jacob is high, and His majesty is on all
His servants.2 The Most High shall be as pleased with the one who
magnifies Him as with the one who offers pure flour, and the one
who offers he-goats and calves, and the one who makes the altar
smell with the odour of many holocausts, and as with the incense from
the hands of the righteous. His voice is heard from thy 3 righteous
doors, and there is admonition from the voice of the pious, and true
satisfaction from their food and their drink, when taken in fellowship.
Their resting place is in the law of the Most High, and their speech
is for the proclamation of His might. How remote is His word from
the wicked, and how difficult it is for all evildoers to understand it !
Behold the eye of the Lord looks upon the righteous, and He will
increase His mercy on those who praise Him, and from the time of
evil He will deliver their soul. Blessed be the Lord who delivered
the needy from the hand of the strangers, and saved the meek from the
hand of the evildoers, who raises power 4 from Jacob, and the judge of
the Gentiles from Israel, in order that He may lengthen His sojourn in
Zion and adorn all our people of Jerusalem.

1 Or : yourselves. 2 Or : His works.

a I.e. Wisdom (fern.). 4 Lit. " Horn."

UNCANONICAL PSALMS 291

3.

When the People Received Permission from Cyrus to Re-
turn to their Country.

O Lord, I have cried to Thee : listen to me ; I have lifted my
hands to the habitations of Thy holiness : incline Thy ear to me, and
grant me my request, and do not refuse my prayer. Build my soul,
and do not destroy it, and do not expose it before the unrighteous.
Remove from me those who would requite me with evil, O Lord,
just judge. Do not judge me according to my sins, because all flesh
does not triumph before Thee. Make me, O Lord, understand Thy
law and teach me Thy judgments, and many will hear Thy works
and the Gentiles will bear witness 1 to Thy majesty. Remember me,
and do not forget me, and do not inflict on me calamities more than I
can bear." Cast away from me the sins of my youth,3 and let them
not remember my chastisement. Purify me, O Lord, from the evil
leper,4 and let him not keep walking to me. Dry up his roots from me,
and let not his leaves stretch over me. O Lord, Thou art great, and
that is why my prayer is answered. Whom should I implore to give
me anything, and what is the power of the sons of men before Thee,
O Lord, my trust ? I cried to the Lord, and He answered me and
made whole the wound of my heart. I lay down and slept, I
dreamed and was helped, and Thou, O Lord, hast sustained me.
They have wounded my heart, but I shall receive (joy) because the
Lord has delivered me : let me rejoice now in their confusion ! I
trusted in Thee and I shall not be confounded : grant honour for
ever, and for ever and ever save Israel, Thy elect, and the children of
Jacob, Thy chosen.

4.

Said by David when Fighting the Lion and the Wolf which
took a Sheep from his Flock.

O my God, O my God, come to my help. Help me and save
me. Deliver my soul from the murderer. Let me not go down to
Sheol in the mouth of the lion, and let the wolf devour me not. Is

]Or: thank.

- Lit. " Do not make me enter the things that are harder than I am."

3Cf.Ps.xxY. 7. 4 Or: leprosy.

292 WOODBROOKE STUDIES

it not sufficient for them that they lay in wait for the flock of my
father, and took out a lamb from the flock of my father, that they wish
now to destroy my soul ? Have pity, O Lord, and deliver Thy
elect from destruction, in order that he may repeat Thy praises in all
his moments, and glorify the name of Thy Majesty. When Thou hast
delivered him from the hands of the lion which destroys and the wolf
which devours, and Thou hast returned the booty from the hands of
the beasts. O my Lord,1 send speedily a deliverer from before Thee,
and pull me out of the open abyss that wishes to secure me in its
depths.

5.

Said by David when Thanking God who saved him from
the Lion and the Wolf both of which he Killed.

Praise the Lord, O ye all the peoples ; magnify Him and bless
His name, because He has delivered the soul of His elect from the
hands of death, and saved His chosen from destruction. And He
delivered me from the snare of Sheol, and my soul also from the
unfathomable pit. Because if my salvation had not come from Him
but a very short time before it did come, I would have been cut into
two pieces for two beasts. He sent, however, His angel who closed
the open jaws which were about to devour me, and saved my life
from destruction. Let my soul magnify Him and exalt Him for all
His favours that He did and is doing for me.

irThe Hebrew word Adonai.

UNCANONICAL PSALMS

293

294

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