As early as 1906 R. Reitzenstein suggested in his study on “Poimandres” that the “holy word” spoken by the god in § 18 of that tractate comes from an older source. “Es sind Worte einer älteren heiligen Schrift; das zeigen die weiteren Zitate …” But Reitzenstein was unable to say anything more about this older source of “holy scripture” which he was suggesting. W. Scott firmly believed that the first line of the “holy word” came into the hands of the Hermetist from the Book of Genesis, but he was certain only about the first, and not about the second part of the quotation, where he thought the author “had in mind” God's covenant with man in Gen. 9:11ff. or the speech of God in Plato, Tim. 42a. Scott took the quotations in “Poimandres” § 21 also as insertions, but made no real effort to inquire about their origin.

The new mythological, magical, and liturgical texts which are published by M. Virolleaud in Ugaritica V are very important. I want to thank Professor Schaeffer for giving me the opportunity to work on these texts. One very important text from this group is text 612 (RS 24.249). M. Virolleaud thinks that we are missing about ten lines from the lower edge or the central portion of the text. This text is the most complete ritual calendar that we have from Ugarit for any one month. Texts 3 and 173 (in Gordon, UT) give us more than one month but they are also very fragmentary. Text 613 (RS 24.253) of the new texts is also a text that covers more than one month but it does not seem to use the same structure as the other texts. At any rate, I think that it is important to use text 612 as a basis for this study, and therefore at the outset I want to give my translation.

For all practical purposes, the lengthy and comprehensive essay of Leopold Cohn published in 1898 introduced Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum to modern scholars. To demonstrate that the existing Latin text was a translation from the Greek, Cohn listed individual words presumably transliterated from the Greek (metra, holocaustomata, epomis, cataracte, eremus, etc.), noted that many biblical names were written according to their Greek forms (Abel, Enoc, Noe, Jesus, etc.), and pointed out a few LXX readings implying, as he thought, the use of the Greek Bible. However, on the basis of other names, the frequent use of et to join sentences, as well as the occurrence of idioms as et factum est, responderunt dicentes, etc., Cohn concluded that the work must have been originally written in Hebrew. While these considerations may have some indicative force, they do not really prove the point at issue. It is imperative, therefore, that we uncover more decisive proofs for determining the languages in which LAB has been transmitted.