Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2011
Among New Testament apocrypha few have been more consistently neglected by modern scholarship than the so-called Apocalypse of Paul. This represents a strange reversal in the fortunes of the book, since at one time it ruled an almost universal favorite. Diverse tokens of this its original popularity still exist. The first will be found in the multiplicity of its ancient versions, manuscripts of which have been coming to light with some regularity since the eighteenth century, when Assemani indicated the existence of Syriac and Arabic codices in the Vatican Library.
1 Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, III. 1, De Scr. Syr. Nestorianis, Rome, 1725, p. 282, no. 9.
2 Apocalypses Apocryphae, Leipzig, 1866, pp. 34–69.
3 JAOS, vol. VIII, 1866, pp. 183–212. Additional Syriac MBS. have come to light since Assemani and Perkins. Cf. A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn, 1922, p. 70 and n. 8. Baumstark fails to list the Mas. preserved in the library of the American Oriental Society at New Haven from which Perkins worked. Zingerle has published a German translation of the Syriac from Cod. Vat. Syr. 180 in Heidenheim's Vierteljahrsschrift für deutsch- und englisch-theologische Forschung und Kritik, vol. IV, 1871, pp. 139–183.
4 Texts and Studies, II, 3, Apocrypha Anecdota, Cambridge, 1893, pp. 1–42. The fragment on fol. 7a-8b of Cod. 362 in the Nationalbibliothek at Vienna was recognized as representing this version by E. Wieber, De apocalypsis S. Pauli codicibus, 1904, pp. 24–34. Two additional Latin Mss. are referred to by E. v. Dobschiitz, Texte u. Untersuchungen, XXXVIII. 4, Das Decretum Gelasianum, 1912, p. 302, n. 1.
5 Bibliographical data on the Armenian texts are not accessible at New Haven. The different recensions are translated into German and discussed by P. Vetter, Theologische Quartalschrift, vol. LXXXVIII, 1906, pp. 568–595, vol. LXXXIX, 1907, pp. 58–75.
6 Miscellaneous Coptic Texts, 1915; text, pp. 534–574, translation, pp. 1043–1084.
7 The Apocryphal New Testament, 1924, p. 525.
8 Visio S. Pauli, 1885.
9 Additional remarks about Slavonic texts will be found in Harnack, Geschichte der altchr. Lit., 1, 2, 1893, pp. 910–911. It is not evident from these remarks whether the texts referred to represent the original Apocalypse or its later epitomes.
10 Inferno, ii. 32; cf. K. Vossler, Die göttliche Komödie, 1907, pp. 756 ff.
11 JAOS, VIII, pp. 190–191.
12 JAOS, VIII, p. 191.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Cf. for instance Apocalypse of Baruch 21, 23.
16 Testament of Asher, 6, 4–6, transl. by Charles, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, 1908. The rival text would leave it entirely uncertain whether the encounter between the souls and the angels takes place here on earth at the side of the body, or upon the souls’ arrival in the other world.
17 Lk. 16, 22.
18 Strack-Billerbeck, Kommentar zum N. T. aus Talmud und Midrasch, vol. II, 1924, p. 225.
19 JAOS, VIII, p. 194: thou wilt be recompensed, all that is proper, for thy wickedness.
20 Flügel, Mani, 1862, p. 100.
21 JAOS, XLIII, p. 20.
22 Pavry, J. D. C., The Zoroastrian Doctrine of a Future Life, New York, 1929, p. 68Google Scholar, n. 42.
23 von Le Coq, A., Türkische Manichaia aus Chotscho, II, Abhandlungen, Berlin Academy, 1919Google Scholar, fragment T. II. D. 178 verso, 1–12. English translation by A. V. W. Jackson in Pavry, p. 48.
24 T. II. D. 169. iii, 16–22, Le Coq, p. 11, and Pavry, p. 48.
25 Ginza, transl. b y M. Lidzbarski, 1925, p. 424, 30 and elsewhere.
26 Ibid. p. 473 and elsewhere.
27 See above, pp. 213 f.
28 Ibid. p. 500, 20–30. For Hibil as one of the Mandaean saviours see my Anthropos and Son of Man, New York, 1927, pp 64–70Google Scholar.
29 Ginza, p. 516, 14–19. A girdle is also frequently mentioned, Ginza, p. 542, 27.
30 Das iranische Erlösungsmysterium, 1921, p. 54.
31 Ginza, p. 559.
32 On the meaning of the word, see Pavry, pp. 28–29.
33 Hadokht Nask, 2, 9–14; cf. Pavry's translation, pp. 84–85.
34 Artak Viraz Namak, 17, 12–15; cf. Pavry, p. 42.
35 Das Iranische Erlösungsmysterium, pp. 28–31.
36 Compare the passage quoted above, p. 218.
37 Compare the baptismal liturgy in Lidzbarski, Mandäische Liturgien, 1920, pp. 1–61.
38 Cf. Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, 3d ed., 1927, pp. 358–357.
39 Ginza, p. 184, 22.
40 Ibid. p. 525, 34–35.
41 Ibid. p. 187, 24–26.
42 Ibid. p. 517, 28.
43 For the fact that the seal in the Christian text must actually have been ‘held in the hand,’ see the notes attached to the text quoted above, p. 213.
44 Mandäische Liturgien, p. 154, 6–7.
45 Cf. Bihlmeyer, Die apostolischen Väter, 1929, pp. xviii-xx.
46 Cf. Rietschel, Lehrbuch der Liturgik, vol. II, 1909, pp. 86–37.
47 Ibid. pp. 50–52.
48 Cf. Lietzmann, Handbuch zum N. T., vol. III, 1st ed., 1913, ad loc. In later texts βεβιν is a technical term for baptism. It corresponds to the Mandaic .
49 Gihon is a river of oil in both G (Tischendorf, p. 52) and L (James, p. 24,15–20), but not in S.
50 See, for the heavenly unction, Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gnosis, 1002, pp. 200–201, and, for the heavenly baptism, Hippolytus, Philosophumena, v. 27, 1–3 and Ginza, p. 311, 37–40; p. 492, 25–30.
51 J. B. Harris, The Odes and Psalms of Solomon, vol. II, 2d ed., 1920, p. 361.
52 Mandäische Liturgien, p. 27, 10: Gieb ihnen drei Handvoll Wasser zu trinken.
53 Sethians, Hippolytus, Philosophumena v. 19, 21; Justinus, ibid. v. 27, 2.
54 De baptismo, 3–4.
55 Hippolytus, v. 7, 19; v. 9, 22.
56 Ignatius, Romans 7, 2.
57 Ode 11, 6.
58 Ginza, p. 517, 28.
59 F. J. Dölger, Sphragis, 1911, pp. 37–38.
60 W. Wright, Apocryphal Acts, 1871, vol. II, pp. 194–195.
61 JAOS, VIII, pp. 191–192.
62 Ibid. pp. 193–194.
63 Enoch 38, 2; 4 Esdras 7, 77; 8, 33. 36; II Baruch 14, 12; 24, 1.
64 Strack-Billerbeck, I, p. 430.
65 4 Esdras 7, 77; cf. 1 Timothy 5, 24.
66 Mt. 6, 20; Mk. 10, 21, etc.
67 For example, Ignatius, Smyrnaeans 11, 2: that your works may be perfected on earth and in heaven.
68 Wright, pp. 159–165.
69 Demonstratio 1, 12, Patrologia Syriaca, vol. I, coll. 27–32.
70 Das Johannesbuch der Mandäer, ed. M. Lidzbarski, vol. II, 1915, p. 179, 9–11.
71 Odes of Solomon, 41, 10; Aphraates, Dem. 10, 8, Patr. Syr. I, coll. 460 and 464; both based (?) on Wisdom of Solomon 7, 13b-14a.
72 Acts of Thomas, Wright, p. 189.
73 Panarion, Haeresis 5, 3–4.
74 Ginza, p. 438, 15–17.
75 Mandäische Liturgien, p. 107, 8–9.
76 II, 158–160, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXIV, Pahlavi texts, ed. Max Müller, vol. III, 1885, p. 22.
77 For further Pahlavi parallels cf. Pavry, pp. 23–26.
78 Yasht 24, 54; cf. Pavry, p. 11. The process which in the Pahlavi texts has resulted in the personification of the individual's deeds is similar to that which gave rise to the personal Daena. It is therefore not surprising to find that the good deeds which the righteous sees in the Menuki Khrat, II, 123–126 appear in the form of a maiden.
79 Flügel, p. 100.
80 Cf. JAOS, vol. VIII, p. 192: And there approached him wicked angels… and those good angels ruled over that righteous one; and p. 194: And I saw that the good angels descended to meet him… and there came also those evil angels. And those good angels saw that it (the soul) had not one good work; and when they fled away from it, those evil angels took the rule over it. The best Iranian parallel is to be found in the Rivayat of Kama Bahra: When life is separated from the body, the wicked Ahriman, together with all the demons, tries to capture the soul… Cf. Pavry, p. 19. The importance attaching, as far back as Sassanian times, to the rites performed for the soul during the period when it is presumed still to remain in this world, indicates that the idea of a competition for the possession of the soul is ancient, though not reported in the Pahlavi writings.
81 JAOS, vol. VIII, p. 194: and those evil angels took the rule over it, and pulled it out in severe anger and haste. And when it (the soul) went out, they turned it back three times.
82 Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus, Texte und Untersuchungen, vol. XV, 1897.
83 JAOS, vol. VIII, p. 192.
84 Ibid. p. 194.
85 JAOS, vol. VIII, pp. 193–194. This passage is lacking in G L S A.
86 Ibid. p. 193.
87 S here uses the ambiguous term ‘spirit of God,’ but the sense of the passage is clear. L C read merely ‘spirit’.
88 Ibid. p. 195.
89 See Stade-Bertholet, Biblische Theologie des A. T., vol. II, 1911, pp. 378–379, and Bousset-Gressmann, Die Religion des Judentums, 3d ed., 1926, p. 324.
90 Mt. 18, 10; Acts 12, 15.
91 The term normally refers to the angels as servants of God, but the guardians of the Apocalypse, indicating as they do that they have no power over themselves, are clearly appointed to their office by God and thus really serve him in serving men.
92 Apocalypse of Moses 37 f. (= Vita Adae 47).
93 Strack-Billerbeck, vol. II, 1924, p. 707. The parentheses containing explanatory matter in German are inserted by the editors.
94 See Dhalla, Zoroastrian Theology, New York, 1914, pp. 143–144Google Scholar; A. V. W. Jackson, Die iranische Religion, in Geiger u. Kuhn, Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, vol. II, 1896–1904, p. 648.
95 Dhalla, p. 148.
96 Ed. Peshutar and Darab Sanjana, Bombay, 1874–1912, vol. VI, p. 353; cf. Dhalla, p. 244.
97 Pavry, p. 86 and note 75.
98 XXXVII, 6–8, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXIV, Pahlavi Texts, vol. III, 1885, p. 290.
99 Cf. above, p. 212.
100 The Excavations at Dura-Europos, ed. Baur, and , Rostovtzeff, New Haven, 1931, pp. 201–216Google Scholar.
101 Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, Beiheft 3, Giessen, 1926Google Scholar.
102 Panarion, Haer. 38, 2. It is mentioned as being the property of the Cainites, who, while an Ophite sect, seem also to have been of Asiatic provenience.
103 Ropes, J. H., The Singular Problem of the Epistle to the Galatians, Harvard Theological Studies XIV, 1929Google Scholar.
104 Stählin, Die altchr. griech. Litteratur, 1924, p. 1214.
105 Cf. above, p. 240.
106 Tractatus 98 in Johannem.
107 Historia vii. 19.