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

And then a series of miracles is narrated, which are nearly all identical with those in 1. 4. Wright. (Obsequies of the Holy Virgin, Contributions , p. 42.) The fragments printed and summarized by Wright in the Preface contain these incidents: The appearance of the Lord to his mother: her last words and death. Her soul is delivered to Michael. Peter begins to speak to Christ. The funeral procession. Jews are blinded, and he who tries to overset the bier has his arms fixed to it. They are restored. Peter gives him a staff with which he heals 5,000 blinded people. p. 42. First long fragment. Paul is speaking, and telling a long story about Solomon, who had been told by a demon that a certain young man would die. A form of this story occurs in the Testament of Solomon. The apostles ask Paul to go on speaking, 4 for our Lord hath sent thee to gladden us during these three days ’. Paul asks them what they will preach when they go forth: and is answered by Peter, John, and Andrew. He criticizes them as too severe, and recommends a gentler policy. They are angry. And as they were all sitting disputing before the entrance to Mary’s tomb, Jesus appeared and justified Paul’s view, as against the others.

He summoned Michael and bade him bring forth the body of Mary into the clouds. They were all carried to Paradise. The apostles then asked the Lord to show them the place of torment, reminding him of his promise that on the day of the departure of Mary they should see it. They were all taken on a cloud to the west. The Lord spoke to the angels of the pit, and the earth sprang upwards and they saw the pit. 1 The lost saw Michael and begged for respite. Mary and the apostles fell down and interceded for them. Michael spoke to them, telling them that at all the twelve hours of the day and of the night the angels intercede for creation. The angel of the waters intercedes for the waters. Here the fragment ends. p. 48. The next fragment is a story told by Michael to Mary, of the concealing of the bones of Joseph in the Nile by Pharaoh and their discovery by Moses. It seems as if this must have been told in answer to some inquiry of Mary’s about her own body, and therefore it should be placed earlier in order. p. 50. The last fragment is a curious story about Jesus testing the apostles, evidently during his life on earth. It is so puzzling and uncommon as to be worth quoting in full:

‘them according to their wish. And he sent by the hand of the apostles to them 2 (to ask) were these things not so ? And he said: These are the shepherds of the house of Israel, who are praying for the sheep, that they may be sanctified and made glorious before the sons of men: and themselves they are not able to sanctify, because they exalt themselves like the strong. Did I not give them many signs ? And the apostles said: Lord, lo they beseech and pray, and repent, and kneel upon their knees. Why dost thou not hear them? Our Lord says unto them: I too was willing to hear them, but there is deception in them (as) ye too know. And when Jesus wished to show the apostles for what reason he did not hear them, he took them up into a mountain and let them become hungry. And when the apostles had gone, they asked of him, and say unto him: Lord we are hungry; what have we then to eat in this desert? And Jesus told them to go to the trees which were before them. And he said to them: Go to those trees which are over against us, whose branches are many and fair and beautiful at a distance, and from them ye shall get food. And when the apostles went, they did not find fruit on the trees.

And they returned to Jesus, and said: Good Teacher, thou the thesis, that this visit of the apostles to Hell was known in Ireland at an early date, and that the Irish form must be derived somehow from this Syriac text. * Evidently the leaders of the Jews.

didst send us to those trees which are over against us, and we went and found on them no fruit, but only branches which were fair and beautiful, but there was no fruit on them. And Jesus said to them: Ye have not seen them, because the trees grow straight upwards. Go therefore at once, because the trees are bending themselves, and ye shall find on them fruit, and get yourselves food. And when they went, they found the trees bending down, but they did not find fruit upon them. And they returned again to Jesus in great distress, and say to him: What is this, Teacher, that we are mocked? For at first thou didst say to us, 4 Ye shall find trees which are straight, and there is fruit on them,’ and we found none. Why are we mocked ? But it is fitting that thou shouldest teach us what this is that has happened; for we think that what thou didst wish to teach us is false; for by a visible power the trees were laid hold of and bent down. If this be a temptation, make known to us what it is. And Jesus said to them: Go and sit under them, and ye shall see what it is that abides on them, but ye shall not be able to bend them again. And when the apostles went and sat under the trees, straightway the trees threw down stinking worms. And the apostles came again to Jesus and say to him: Teacher, dost thou wish to lead us astray or to turn us away from thee.’ . . .

The trees of course represent the leaders or priests of the Jews whose prayers are ineffectual because of their moral defects. The story has no parallel that I know of, and to my mind has a rather ancient complexion. This whole book of the Obsequies stands quite apart from the rest of the narratives: it had, we see, the framework, with the Jew attacking the bier and so forth ; but this framework was evidently used for the insertion of a number of quite extraneous discourses and stories, and what we have of these is so unusual that we must greatly regret the loss of the rest. The undoubted fact that this form of the story somehow penetrated to Ireland gives additional interest to the book. Wright assigned the manuscript to the latter part of the fifth century. Besides the forms we have reviewed there are versions in Arabic (ed. Enger, 1854), Aethiopic (Chaine, Corpus script . christ . Orient., 1909), Armenian (Vetter, Theol. Quartalschrift , 1902). These agree in their main features with the Syriac books and do not demand a detailed analysis. The Armenian, as usual, has its own peculiar and ‘unau¬ thorized’ additions. Our survey of the narratives shows that there are two great groups, one of which is represented in Coptic only—but not uniformly by all the Coptic authorities. In this there is a long interval between the death of Mary and her corporal assumption—206 days, from 21 Tobi to 16 Mesore (one authority gives only seven days, and one excludes a corporal assumption). Also we hear nothing of the summoning of the apostles from their missionary work: Peter and John are the only two who are prominent. Further, only one fragment (Copt. 4) has the story of a Jew smitten for touching the bier, and healed.

Also in all Mary is warned of her death by her Son, not by an angel. In the Greek, Latin, and Syriac (1, 2, 3) the death is announced by an angel; in Greek and Latin he brings a palm-branch (and so, too, in Copt. 4), but not in Syriac. The apostles are summoned from all parts of the world and from their graves, and tell how they came. The ‘governor’ figures largely in Syriac and appears in Greek. The controversy before him, which is only in the oriental versions, seems to have been borrowed from another writing: the real point of it is the hiding of the cross at the end. The Jew who attacks the bier (usually Jephonias, but Ruben in the latest text, Lat. A) is a constant feature: he also figures in the Coptic fragment 4. In Greek, Latin, and Copt. 4 he heals the blinded people with the palmbranch: in Syriac with Peter’s staff. The corporal assumption takes place very soon after the death. Less emphasis is laid upon it than in the Coptic texts. We begin with the five books which were formed into a corpus by the Manichaeans and substituted by them for our canonical Acts.

They are of different dates. Earliest are the Acts of Jo/m, not later than the middle of the second century. Next the Acts of Paul , composed by a presbyter of Asia before Tertullian’s time: cir. 160-170? The Acts of Peter , usually assigned to about the year 200. The Acts of Andrew , less well preserved than the rest, and probably to be dated well after 200; even after 250, perhaps. The Acts of Thomas , composed in Syriac, according to the weight of authority, date from the third century. Photius (890), who read all five and has written a criticism of them in his Bibliotheca or Myriobiblon , found them all attributed to one author, Leucius. But it is now agreed that Leucius (a supposed disciple of John) 1 was the ostensible author of the Acts of John only.

The length of this book is given in the Stichometry of Nicephorus as 2,500 lines: the same number as for St. Matthew’s Gospel. We have large portions of it in the original, and a Latin version (purged, it is important to note, of all traces of unorthodoxy) of some lost episodes, besides a few scattered fragments. These will be fitted together in what seems the most probable order. The best edition of the Greek remains is in Bonnet, Acta AposU Apocr . II. 1, 1898: the Latin is in Book V of the Historia Apostolica of Abdias (Fabricius, Cod. Apocr . N. T. : there is no modern edition). The beginning of the book is lost. It probably related in some form a trial, and banishment of John to Patmos. A dis¬ tinctly late Greek text printed by Bonnet (in two forms) as cc. 1-17 of his work tells how Domitian, on his accession, per¬ secuted the Jews. They accused the Christians in a letter to him: he accordingly persecuted the Christians. He heard of John’s teaching in Ephesus and sent for him: his ascetic habits on the voyage impressed his captors. He was brought before Domitian, and made to drink poison, which did not hurt him: the dregs of it killed a criminal on whom it was tried: and John revived him; he also raised a girl who was slain by an

of John, viz. by Epiphanius, Heresy 51. 6. The early heretics Cerinthus, Ebion, &c., &c., often opposed the Lord’s disciples, and ‘they were often opposed by Saint John and his companions, Leucius and many others *• unclean spirit. Domitian, who was much impressed, banished him to Patmos. Nerva recalled him. The second text tells how he escaped shipwreck on leaving Patmos, swimming on a cork; landed at Miletus, where a chapel was built in his honour, and went to Ephesus. All this is late: but an old story, known to Tertullian and to other Latin writers, but to no Greek, said that either Domitian at Rome or the Proconsul at Ephesus cast John into a caldron of boiling oil which did him no hurt. The scene of this was eventually fixed at the Latin Gate in Rome (hence the St. John Port Latin of our calendar, May 6th). We have no detailed account of this, but it is conjectured to have been told in the early part of the Leucian Acts. If so, it is odd that no Greek writer mentions it. Leaving for the time certain small fragments which may perhaps have preceded the extant episodes, I proceed to the first long episode (Bonnet, c. 18).

[John is going from Miletus to Ephesus .] a vision. Damonicus therefore, and Aristodemus his kinsman, and a certain very rich man Cleobius, and the wife of Marcellus, hardly prevailed to keep him for one day in Miletus, reposing themselves with him. And when very early in the morning they had set forth, and already about four miles of the journey were accomplished, a voice came from heaven in the hearing of all of us, saying: John, thou art about to give glory to thy Lord in Ephesus, whereof thou shalt know, thou and all the brethren that are with thee, and certain of them that are there, which shall believe by thy means. John therefore pondered, rejoicing in himself, what it should be that should befall (meet) him at Ephesus, and said: Lord, behold I go according to thy will: let that be done which thou desirest. of the Ephesians, a man of large substance, met us, and falling at John’s feet besought him, saying: Is thy name John? the God whom thou preachest hath sent thee to do good unto my wife, who hath been smitten with palsy now these seven days and lieth incurable. But glorify thou thy God by healing her, and have compassion on us. For as I was considering with myself what resolve to take in this matter, one stood by me and said: Lycomedes, cease from this thought which warreth against thee, for it is evil (hard): submit not thyself unto it. For I have compassion upon mine handmaid Cleopatra, and have sent from Miletus a man named John who shall raise her up and restore her to thee whole. Tarry not, therefore, thou servant of the God who hath manifested himself unto me, but hasten unto my wife who hath no more than breath. And straightway John went from the gate, with the brethren that were with

him and Lycomedes, unto his house. But Cleobius said to his young men: Go ye to my kinsman Callippus and receive of him comfortable entertainment—for I am come hither with his son—that we may find all things decent. wherein his wife lay, he caught hold again of his feet and said: See, lord, the withering of the beauty, see the youth, see the renowned flower of my poor wife, whereat all Ephesus was wont to marvel: wretched me, I have suffered envy, I have been humbled, the eye of mine enemies hath smitten me: I have never wronged any, though I might have injured many, for I looked before to this very thing, and took care, lest I should see any evil or any such ill fortune as this. What profit, then, hath Cleopatra from my anxiety? what have I gained by being known for a pious man until this day ? nay, I suffer more than the impious, in that I see thee, Cleopatra, lying in such plight. The sun in his course shall no more see me conversing with thee: I will go before thee, Cleopatra, and rid myself of life: I will not spare mine own safety though it be yet young. I will defend myself before Justice, that I have rightly deserted, for I may indict her as judging unrighteously. I will be avenged on her when I come before her as a ghost <bereft> of life. I will say to her: Thou didst force me to leave the light when thou didst rob me of Cleopatra: thou didst cause me to become a corpse when thou sentest me this ill fortune: thou didst compel me to insult Providence, by cutting off my joy in life (my con¬ fidence).

came near to the bed and cried aloud and lamented: but John pulled him away, and said: Cease from these lamentations and from thine unfitting words: thou must not disobey him that (?) appeared unto thee: for know that thou shalt receive thy consort again. Stand, therefore, with us that have come hither on her account and pray to the God whom thou sawest manifesting himself unto thee in dreams. What, then, is it, Lycomedes? Awake, thou also, and open thy soul. Cast off the heavy sleep from thee: beseech the Lord, entreat him for thy wife, and he will raise her up. But he fell upon the floor and lamented, fainting. 1 John therefore said with tears: Alas for the fresh (new) betraying of my vision! for the new temptation that is prepared for me! for the new device of him that contriveth against me I the voice from heaven that was borne unto me in the way, hath it devised this for me? was it this that it foreshowed me should come to pass here, betraying me to this great multi¬ tude of the citizens because of Lycomedes ? the man lieth with- 1 It is evident from what follows that Lycomedes died: but the text does not say so; some words may have fallen out.

out breath, and I know well that they will not suffer me to go out of the house alive. Why tarriest thou, Lord (or, what wilt thou do)? why hast thou shut off from us thy good promise? Do not, I beseech thee, Lord, do not give him cause to exult who rejoiceth in the suffering of others; give him not cause to dance who alway derideth us; but let thy holy name and thy mercy make haste. Raise up these two dead whose death is against me. ran together to the house of Lycomedes, hearing that he was dead. And John, beholding the great multitude that was come, said unto the Lord: Now is the time of refreshment and of confidence toward thee, O Christ; now is the time for us who are sick to have the help that is of thee, O physician who healest freely; keep thou mine entering in hither safe from derision. I beseech thee, Jesu, succour this great multitude that it may come to thee who art Lord of all things: behold the affliction, behold them that lie here. Do thou prepare, even from them that are assembled for that end, holy vessels for thy service, when they behold thy gift. For thyself hast said, O Christ, ‘ Ask, and it shall be given you’. We ask therefore of thee, O king, not gold, not silver, not substance, not possessions, nor aught of what is on earth and perisheth, but two souls, by whom thou shalt convert them that are here unto thy way, unto thy teaching, unto thy liberty (confidence), unto thy most excellent (or unfailing) promise: for when they perceive thy power in that those that have died are raised, they will be saved, some of them. Do thou thyself, therefore, give them hope in thee: and so go I unto Cleopatra and say: Arise in the name of Jesus Christ.

23 And he came to her and touched her face and said: Cleo¬ patra, He saith, whom every ruler feareth, and every creature and every power, the abyss and all darkness, and unsmiling death, and the height of heaven, and the circles of hell [and the resurrec¬ tion of the dead, and the sight of the blind], and the whole power of the prince of this world, and the pride of the ruler: Arise, and be not an occasion unto many that desire not to believe, or an affliction unto souls that are able to hope and to be saved. And Cleopatra straightway cried with a loud voice: I arise, master: save thou thine handmaid. Now when she had arisen <who had lain incurable for> seven days, the city of the Ephesians was moved at the unlooked-for sight. And Cleopatra asked concerning her husband Lycomedes, but John said to her: Cleopatra, if thou keep thy soul unmoved and steadfast, thou shalt forthwith have Lycomedes thine husband standing here beside thee, if at least thou be not dis¬ turbed nor moved at that which hath befallen, having believed on my God, who by my means shall grant him unto thee alive.

Come therefore with me into thine other bedchamber, and thou shalt behold him, a dead corpse indeed, but raised again by the power of my God. and seeing Lycomedes dead for her sake, had no power to speak (suffered in her voice), and ground her teeth and bit her tongue, and closed her eyes, raining down tears: and with calmness gave heed to the apostle. But John had compassion on Cleo¬ patra when he saw that she neither raged nor was beside her¬ self, and called upon the perfect and condescending mercy, saying: Lord Jesus Christ, thou seest the pressure of sorrow , thou seest the need; thou seest Cleopatra shrieking her soul out in silence, for she constraineth within her the frenzy that cannot be borne; and I know that for Lycomedes’ sake she also will die upon his body. And she said quietly to John: That have I in mind, master, and nought else. And the apostle went to the couch whereon Lycomedes lay, and taking Cleopatra’s hand he said: Cleopatra, because of the multitude that is present, and thy kinsfolk that have come in, with strong crying, say thou to thine husband: Arise and glorify the name of God, for he giveth back the dead to the dead. And she went to her husband and said to him according as she was taught, and forthwith raised him up. And he, when he arose, fell on the floor and kissed John’s feet, but he raised him, saying: O man, kiss not my feet but the feet of God by whose power ye are both arisen.

25 But Lycomedes said to John: I entreat and adjure thee by the God in whose name thou hast raised us, to abide with us, together with all them that are with thee. Likewise Cleopatra also caught his feet and said the same. And John said to them: For to-morrow I will be with you. And they said to him again: We shall have no hope in thy God, but shall have been raised to no purpose, if thou abide not with us. And Cleobius with Aristodemus and Damonicus were touched in the soul and said to John: Let us abide with them, that they continue without offence towards the Lord. So he continued there with the brethren. multitude on John’s account; and as he discoursed to them that were there, Lycomedes, who had a friend who was a skilful painter, went hastily to him and said to him: You see me in a great hurry to come to you: come quickly to my house and paint the man whom I show you without his knowing it. And the painter, giving some one the necessary implements and colours, said to Lycomedes: Show him to me, and for the rest have no anxiety. And Lycomedes pointed out John to the painter, and brought him near him , and shut him up in a room from which the apostle of Christ could be seen. And Lycomedes was with the blessed man, feasting on the faith and the know-

ledge of our God, and rejoiced yet more in the thought that he should possess him in a portrait. and went away. And on the next he painted him in with his colours, and so delivered the portrait to Lycomedes to his great joy. And he took it and set it up in his own bedchamber and hung it with garlands: so that later John, when he perceived it, said to him: My beloved child, what is it that thou always doest when thou comest in from the bath into thy bedchamber alone? do not I pray with thee and the rest of the brethren? or is there something thou art hiding from us ? And as he said this and talked jestingly with him, he went into the bedchamber, and saw the portrait of an old man crowned with garlands, and lamps and altars set before it. And he called him and said: Lycomedes, what meanest thou by this matter of the portrait? can it be one of thy gods that is painted here? for I see that thou art still living in heathen fashion. And Lycomedes answered him: My only God is he who raised me up from death with my wife: but if, next to that God, it be right that the men who have benefited us should be called gods—it is thou, father, whom I have had painted in that portrait, whom I crown and love and reverence as having become my good guide.

said to him: Thou mockest me, child: am I like that in form, <excelling> thy Lord? how canst thou persuade me that the portrait is like me? And Lycomedes brought him a mirror. And when he had seen himself in the mirror and looked earnestly at the portrait, he said: As the Lord Jesus Christ liveth, the portrait is like me: yet not like me, child, but like my fleshly image; for if this painter, who hath imitated this my face, desireth to draw me in a portrait, he will be at a loss, (needing more than > the colours that are now given fto theej-, and boards and plaster (?) and glue (?), and the position of my shape, and old age and youth and all things that are seen with the eye. 29 But do thou become for me a good painter, Lycomedes. Thou hast colours which he giveth thee through me, who painteth all of us for himself, even Jesus, who knoweth the shapes and appearances and postures and dispositions and types of our souls. And the colours wherewith I bid thee paint are these: faith in God, knowledge, godly fear, friendship, communion, meekness, kindness, brotherly love, purity, simplicity, tran¬ quillity, fearlessness, grieflessness, sobriety, and the whole band of colours that painteth the likeness of thy soul, and even now raiseth up thy members that were cast down, and levelleth them that were lifted up, and tendeth thy bruises, and healeth thy wounds, and ordereth thine hair that was disarranged, and washeth thy face, and chasteneth thine eyes, and purgeth thy bowels, and emptieth thy belly, and cutteth off that which is

beneath it; and in a word, when the whole company and mingling of such colours is come together, into thy soul, it shall present it to our Lord Jesus Christ undaunted, whole (unsmoothed), and firm of shape. But this that thou hast now done is childish and imperfect: thou hast drawn a dead likeness of the dead. There need be no portion of text lost at this point: but possibly some few sentences have been omitted. The transition is abrupt and the new episode has not, as elsewhere, a title of its own. 30 And he commanded Verus (Berus), the brother that ministered to him, to gather the aged women that were in all Ephesus, and made ready, he and Cleopatra and Lycomedes, all things for the care of them. Verus, then, came to John, saying: Of the aged women that are here over threescore years old I have found four only sound in body, and of the rest some ... (a word gone) and some palsied and others sick. And when he heard that, John kept silence for a long time, and rubbed his face and said: O the slackness (weakness) of them that dwell in Ephesus! O the state of dissolution, and the weakness toward God! O devil, that hast so long mocked the faithful in Ephesus! Jesus, who giveth me grace and the gift to have my confidence in him, saith to me in silence: Send after the old women that are sick and come (be) with them into the theatre, and through me heal them: for there are some of them that will come unto this spectacle whom by these healings I will convert and make them useful for some end.

31 Now when all the multitude was come together to Lyco¬ medes, he dismissed them on John’s behalf, saying: To-morrow come ye to the theatre, as many as desire to see the power of God. And the multitude, on the morrow, while it was yet night, came to the theatre: so that the proconsul also heard of it and hasted and took his seat with all the people. And a certain praetor, Andronicus, who was the first of the Ephesians at that time, put it about that John had promised things impossible and incredible: But if, said he, he is able to do any such thing as I hear, let him come into the public theatre, when it is open, naked, and holding nothing in his hands, neither let him name that magical name which I have heard him utter. these words, commanded the aged women to be brought into the theatre: and when they were all brought into the midst, some of them upon beds and others lying in a deep sleep, and all the city had run together, and a great silence was made, John opened his mouth and began to say: in your city, or what is this great confidence which I have towards you, so that it may become manifest to this general assembly and to all of you (or, so that I manifest myself to). I have been sent, then, upon a mission which is not of man’s ordering, and

not upon any vain journey; neither am I a merchant that make bargains or exchanges; but Jesus Christ whom I preach, being compassionate and kind, desireth by my means to convert all of you who are held in unbelief and sold unto evil lusts, and to deliver you from error; and by his power will I con¬ found even the unbelief of your praetor, by raising up them that lie before you, whom ye all behold, in what plight and in what sicknesses they are. And to do this (to confound Andronicus) is not possible for me if they perish; therefore shall they fbe healedf. ye should take care for your souls—on which account I am come unto you—and not expect that this time will be for ever, for it is but a moment, and not lay up treasures upon the earth where all things do fade. Neither think that when ye have gotten children ye can rest upon them (?), and try not for their sakes to defraud and overreach. Neither, ye poor, be vexed if ye have not wherewith to minister unto pleasures; for men of substance when they are diseased call you happy. Neither, ye rich, rejoice that ye have much money, for by possessing these things ye provide for yourselves grief that ye cannot be rid of when ye lose them; and besides, while it is with you, ye are afraid lest some one attack you on account of it.

of thy body, and art of an high look, shalt see the end of the promise thereof in the grave; and thou that rejoicest in adultery, know that both law and nature avenge it upon thee, and before these, conscience; and thou, adulteress, that art an adversary of the law, knowest not whither thou shalt come in the end. And thou that sharest not with the needy, but hast monies laid up, when thou departest out of this body and hast need of some mercy when thou burnest in fire, shalt have none to pity thee; and thou the wrathful and passionate, know that thy conversation is like the brute beasts; and thou, drunkard and quarreller, learn that thou losest thy senses by being enslaved to a shameful and dirty desire. ivory and jewels, when night falleth, canst thou behold what thou lovest? thou that art vanquished by soft raiment, and then leavest life, will those things profit thee in the place whither thou goest? And let the murderer know that the condign punishment is laid up for him twofold after his departure hence. Likewise also thou poisoner, sorcerer, robber, defrauder, sodo¬ mite, thief, and as many as are of that band, ye shall come at last, as your works do lead you, unto unquenchable fire, and utter darkness, and the pit of punishment, and eternal threaten¬ ing. Wherefore, ye men of Ephesus, turn yourselves, knowing this also, that kings, rulers, tyrants, boasters, and they that

have conquered in wars, stripped of all things when they depart hence, do suffer pain, lodged in eternal misery. This sentence must be an abridgement of a much longer narration. The manuscript indicates no break at this point: but we must suppose a not inconsiderable loss of text. For one thing, Andronicus, who is here an unbeliever, appears as a convert in the next few lines. Now he is, as we shall see later, the husband of an eminent believer, Drusiana; and his and her conversion will have been told at some length; and I do not doubt that among other things there was a discourse of John persuading them to live in continence. 37 continued. Now the brethren from Miletus said unto John: We have continued a long time at Ephesus; if it seem good to thee, let us go also to Smyrna; for we hear already that the mighty works of God have reached it also. And Andronicus said to them: Whensoever the teacher willeth, then let us go. But John said: Let us first go unto the temple of Artemis, for per¬ chance there also, if we show ourselves, the servants of the Lord will be found.

38 After two days, then, was the birthday of the idol temple. John therefore, when all were clad in white, alone put on black raiment and went up into the temple. And they took him and essayed to kill him. But John said: Ye are mad to set upon me, a man that is the servant of the only God. And he gat him up upon an high pedestal and said unto them: to the sea: every river that floweth in and every spring that runneth down, and the rains, and waves that press upon each other, and torrents full of rocks are made salt together by the bitter j*elementt (MS. promise!) that is therein. So ye also re¬ maining unchanged unto this day toward true godliness are become corrupted by your ancient rites of worship. How many wonders and healings of diseases have ye seen wrought through me ? And yet are ye blinded in your hearts and cannot recover sight. What is it, then, O men of Ephesus ? I have adventured now and come up even into this your idol temple. I will convict you of being most godless, and dead from the understanding of mankind. Behold, I stand here: ye all say that ye have a goddess, even Artemis: pray then unto her that I alone may die; or else I only, if ye are not able to do this, will call upon mine own god, and for your unbelief I will cause every one of you to die.

seen dead men raised up, cried out: Slay us not so, we beseech thee, John. We know that thou canst do it. And John said to them: If then ye desire not to die, let that which ye worship be confounded, fand wherefore it is confounded,! that ye also may depart from your ancient error. For now is it time that either ye be converted by my God, or I myself die by your goddess; for I will pray in your presence and entreat my God that mercy be shown unto you. 41 And having so said he prayed thus: O God that art God above all that are called gods, that until this day hast been set at nought in the city of the Ephesians; that didst put into my mind to come into this place, whereof I never thought; that dost convict every manner of worship by turning men unto thee; at whose name every idol fleeth and every evil spirit and every unclean power; now also by the flight of the evil spirit here at thy name, even of him that deceiveth this great multitude, show thou thy mercy in this place, for they have been made to err.

Artemis was parted into many pieces, and all the things that were dedicated in the temple fell, and f [MS. that which seemed good to him]f was rent asunder, and likewise of the images of the gods more than seven. And the half of the temple fell down, so that the priest was slain at one blow by the falling of the (? roof, ? beam). The multitude of the Ephesians therefore cried out: One is the God of John, one is the God that hath pity on us, for thou only art God: now are we turned to thee , beholding thy marvellous works! have mercy on us, O God, according to thy will, and save us from our great error! And some of them, lying on their faces, made supplication, and some kneeled and besought, and some rent their clothes and wept, and others tried to escape. said unto the Lord: Glory be to thee, my Jesus, the only God of truth, for that thou dost gain (receive) thy servants by divers devices. And having so said, he said to the people: Rise up from the floor, ye men of Ephesus, and pray to my God, and recognize the invisible power that cometh to manifestation, and the wonderful works which are wrought before your eyes. Artemis ought to have succoured herself: her servant ought to have been helped of her and not to have died. Where is the power of the evil spirit ? where are her sacrifices ? where her birthdays ? where her festivals? where are the garlands? where is all that sorcery and the poisoning (witchcraft) that is sister thereto ?

cast down the rest of the idol temple, crying: The God of John only do we know, and him hereafter do we worship, since he hath had mercy upon us! And as John came down from thence, much people took hold of him, saying: Help us, O John! Assist us that do perish in vain! Thou seest our purpose: thou seest the multitude following thee and hanging upon thee in hope toward thy God. We have seen the way wherein we went astray when we lost him: we have seen our gods that were set up in vain: we have seen the great and shameful derision that is come to them: but suffer us, we pray thee, to come unto thine house and to be succoured without hindrance. Receive us that are in bewilderment. 45 And John said to them: Men (of Ephesus), believe that for your sakes I have continued in Ephesus, and have put off my journey unto Smyrna and to the rest of the cities, that there also the servants of Christ may turn to him. But since jT not yet perfectly assured concerning youf, I have continued praying to my God and beseeching him that I should then depart from Ephesus when I have confirmed you in the faith : and whereas I see that this is come to pass and yet more is being fulfilled, I will not leave you until I have weaned you like children from the nurse’s milk, and have set you upon a firm rock.

house of Andronicus. And one of them that were gathered laid down the dead body of the priest of Artemis before the door [of the temple], for he was his kinsman, and came in quickly with the rest, saying nothing of it. John, therefore, after the discourse to the brethren, and the prayer and the thanksgiving (eucharist) and the laying of hands upon every one of the congregation, said by the spirit: There is one here who moved by faith in God hath laid down the priest of Artemis before the gate and is come in, and in the yearning of his soul, taking care first for himself, hath thought thus in himself: It is better for me to take thought for the living than for my kinsman that is dead: for I know that if I turn to the Lord and save mine own soul, John will not deny to raise up the dead also. And John arising from his place went to that into which that kinsman of the priest who had so thought was entered, and took him by the hand and said: Hadst thou this thought when thou earnest unto me, my child? And he, taken with trembling and affright, said: Yes, lord, and cast himself at his feet. And John said: Our Lord is Jesus Christ, who will show his power in thy dead kinsman by raising him up.

said: It is no great matter for a man that is master of great mysteries to continue wearying himself over small things: or what great thing is it to rid men of diseases of the body? And yet holding the young man by the hand he said: I say unto thee, child, go and raise the dead thyself, saying nothing but this only: John the servant of God saith to thee, Arise. And the young man went to his kinsman and said this only—and much people was with him—and entered in unto John, bringing him alive. And John, when he saw him that was raised, said: Now that thou art raised, thou dost not truly live, neither art partaker or heir of the true life: wilt thou belong unto him by whose name and power thou wast raised ? And now believe, and thou shall live unto all ages. And he forthwith believed upon the Lord Jesus and thereafter clave unto John. [Another manuscript (Q. Paris Gr. 1468, of the eleventh century) has another form of this story. John destroys the temple of Artemis, and then ‘we’ go to Smyrna and all the idols are broken: Bucolus, Poly carp, and Andronicus are left to preside over the district. There were there two priests of Artemis, brothers, and one died. The raising is told much as in the older text, but more shortly.

‘We’ remained four years in the region, which was wholly converted, and then returned to Ephesus.] must walk three miles outside the gates, neglected it not, but rose up early and set out upon the way, together with the brethren. And a certain countryman who was admonished by his father not to take to himself the wife of a fellow labourer of his who threatened to kill him—this young man would not endure the admonition of his father, but kicked him and left him without speech (sc. dead). And John, seeing what had befallen, said unto the Lord: Lord, was it on this account that thou didst bid me come out hither to-day ? 49 But the young man, beholding the violence (sharpness) of death, and looking to be taken, drew out the sickle that was in his girdle and started to run to his own abode; and John met him and said: Stand still, thou most shameless devil, and tell me whither thou runnest bearing a sickle that thirsteth for blood. And the young man was troubled and cast the iron on the ground, and said to him: I have done a wretched and barbarous deed and I know it, and so I determined to do an evil yet worse and more cruel, even to die myself at once. For because my father was alway curbing me to sobriety, that I should live without adultery, and chastely, I could not endure him to reprove me, and I kicked him and slew him, and when I saw what was done, I was hasting to the woman for whose sake I became my father’s murderer, with intent to kill her and her husband, and myself last of all: for I could not bear to be seen of the husband of the woman, and undergo the judgement of death.

50 And John said to him: That I may not by going away and leaving you in danger give place to him that desireth to laugh and sport with thee, come thou with me and show me thy father, where he lieth. And if I raise him up for thee, wilt thou here¬ after abstain from the woman that is become a snare to thee. And the young man said: If thou raisest up my father himself for me alive, and if I see him whole and tcontinuing f in life, I will here¬ after abstain from her. the old man lay dead, and many passers-by were standing near thereto. And John said to the youth: Thou wretched man, didst thou not spare even the old age of thy father ? And he, weeping and tearing his hair, said that he repented thereof; and John the servant of the Lord said: Thou didst show me I was to set forth for this place, thou knewest that this would come to pass, from whom nothing can be hid of things done in life, that givest me power to work every cure and healing by thy will: now also give me this old man alive, for thou seest that his mur¬ derer is become his own judge: and spare him, thou only Lord, that spared not his father (because he) counselled him for the best.

said: My Lord will not be weak to spread out his kind pity and his condescending mercy even unto thee: rise up therefore and give glory to God for the work that is come to pass fat this momentf. And the old man said: I arise, Lord. And he rose and sat up and said: I was released from a terrible life and had to bear the insults of my son, dreadful and many, and his want of natural affection, and to what end hast thou called me back, O man of the living God? (And John answered him: If) thou art raised only for the same end, it were better for thee to die; but raise thyself unto better things. And he took him and led him into the city, preaching unto him the grace of God, so that before he entered the gate the old man believed. raising of his father, and the saving of himself, took a sickle and mutilated himself, and ran to the house wherein he had his adulteress, and reproached her 9 saying : For thy sake I became the murderer of my father and of you two and of myself : there thou hast that which is alike guilty of all. For on me God hath had mercy, that I should know his power.

what he had done. But John said to him: He that put it into thine heart, young man, to kill thy father and become the adulterer of another man's wife, the same made thee think it a right deed to take away also the unruly members. But thou shouJdest have done away, not with the place of sin , but the thought which through those members showed itself harmful: for it is not the instruments that are injurious, but the unseen springs by which every shameful emotion is stirred and cometh to light. Repent therefore, my child, of this fault, and having learnt the wiles of Satan thou shalt have God to help thee in all the necessities of thy soul. And the young man kept silence and attended, having repented of his former sins, that he should obtain pardon from the goodness of God: and he did not separate from John. of the Ephesians, they of Smyrna sent unto him saying: We hear that the God whom thou preachest is not envious, and hath charged thee not to show partiality by abiding in one place. Since, then, thou art a preacher of such a God, come unto Smyrna and unto the other cities, that we may come to know thy God, and having known him may have our hope in him.

[Q has the above story also, and continues with an incident which is also quoted in a different form (and not as from these Acts) by John Cassian. Q has it thus: Now one day as John was seated, a partridge flew by and came and played in the dust before him; and John looked on it and wondered. And a certain priest came, who was one of his hearers, and came to John and saw the partridge playing in the dust before him, and was offended in himself and said: Can such and so great a man take pleasure in a partridge playing in the dust? But John perceiving in the spirit the thought of him, said to him: It were better for thee also, my child, to look at a partridge playing in the dust and not to defile thyself with shameful and profane practices: for he who awaiteth the conversion and repentance of all men hath brought thee here on this account: for I have no need of a partridge playing in the dust. For the partridge is thine own soul. Then the elder, hearing this and seeing that he was not hidden, but that the apostle of Christ had told him all that was in his heart, fell on his face on the earth and cried aloud, saying: Now know I that God dwelleth in thee, O blessed John! for he that tempteth thee tempteth him that cannot be tempted. And he entreated him to pray for him. And he instructed him and delivered him the rules (canons) and let him go to his house, glorifying God that is over all.

Cassian, Collation XXIV. 21, has it thus: It is told that the most blessed Evangelist John, when he was gently stroking a partridge with his hands, suddenly saw one in the habit of a hunter coming to him. He wondered that a man of such repute and fame should demean himself to such small and humble amusements, and said: Art thou that John whose eminent and widespread fame hath enticed me also with great desire to know thee? Why then art thou taken up with such mean amusements? The blessed John said to him: Wtiat is that which thou earnest in thy hands? A bow, said he. And why, said he, dost thou not bear it about always stretched? He answered him: I must not, lest by constant bending the strength of its vigour be wrung and grow soft and perish, and when there is need that the arrows be shot with much strength at some beast, the strength being lost by excess of continual tension, a forcible blow cannot be dealt. Just so, said the blessed John, let not this little and brief relaxation of my mind offend thee, young man, for unless it doth sometimes ease and relax by some remission the force of its tension, it will grow slack through unbroken rigour and will not be able to obey the power of the spirit.

The only common point of the two stories is that St. John amuses 870 R himself with a partridge, and a spectator thinks it unworthy of him. The two morals differ wholly. The amount of text lost here is of quite uncertain length. It must have told of the doings at Smyrna, and also, it appears, at Laodicea (see the title of the next section). One of the episodes must have been the conversion of a woman of evil life (see below, ‘ the harlot that was chaste ’).] Our best manuscript prefixes a title to the next section: From Laodicea to Ephesus the second time . brethren had been at any time grieved by John, they were then grieved because he had said: Brethren, it is now time for me to go to Ephesus (for so have I agreed with them that dwell there) lest they become slack, now for a long time having no man to confirm them. But all of you must have your minds steadfast towards God, who never forsaketh us. But when they heard this from him, the brethren lamented because they were to be parted from him. And John said: Even if I be parted from you, yet Christ is alway with you: whom if ye love purely ye will haVe his fellowship without reproach, for if he be loved, he preventeth (anticipated) them that love him.

much money with the brethren for distribution, he went forth unto Ephesus, while all the brethren lamented and groaned. And there accompanied him, of Ephesus, both Andronicus and Drusiana and Lycomedes and Cleobius and their families . And there followed him Aristobula also, who had heard that her husband Tertullus had died on the way, and Aristippus with Xenophon, and the harlot that was chaste, and many others, whom he exhorted at all times to cleave to the Lord, and they would no more be parted from him. we were at a loss for a bed for John, we saw a droll matter. There was one bedstead lying somewhere there without coverings, whereon we spread the cloaks which we were wearing, and we prayed him to lie down upon it and rest, while the rest of us all slept upon the floor. But he when he lay down was troubled by the bugs, and as they continued to become yet more troublesome to him, when it was now about the middle of the night, in the hearing of us all he said to them: I say unto you, O bugs, be¬ have yourselves, one and all, and leave your abode for this night and remain quiet in one place, and keep your distance from the servants of God. And as we laughed, and went on talking for some time, John addressed himself to sleep; and we, talking low, gave him no disturbance (or, thanks to him we were not disturbed).

me Verus and Andronicus, and we saw at the door of the house which we had taken a great number of bugs standing, and while we wondered at the great sight of them, and all the brethren were roused up because of them, John continued sleeping. And when he was awaked we declared to him what we had seen. And he sat up on the bed and looked at them and said: Since ye have well behaved yourselves in hearkening to my rebuke, come unto your place. And when he had said this, and risen from the bed, the bugs running from the door hasted to the bed and climbed up by the legs thereof and disappeared into the joints. And John said again: This creature hearkened unto the voice of a man, and abode by itself and was quiet and trespassed not; but we which hear the voice and commandments of God disobey and are light-minded: and for how long ? 62 After these things we came to Ephesus: and the brethren there, who had for a long time known that John was coming, ran together to the house of Andronicus (where also he came to lodge), handling his feet and laying his hands upon their own faces and kissing them (and many rejoiced even to touch his vesture, and were healed by touching the clothes of the holy apostle. So the Latin , which has this section ; the Greek has: so that they even touched his garments).

among the brethren, a certain one, a messenger of Satan, became enamoured of Drusiana, though he saw and knew that she was the wife of Andronicus. To whom many said: It is not possible for thee to obtain that woman, seeing that for a long time she has even separated herself from her husband for godliness’ sake. Art thou only ignorant that Andronicus, not being aforetime that which now he is, a God-fearing man, shut her up in a tomb, saying: Either I must have thee as the wife whom I had before, or thou shalt die. And she chose rather to die than to do that foulness. If, then, she would not consent, for godliness’ sake, to cohabit with her lord and husband, but even persuaded him to be of the same mind as herself, will she consent to thee desiring to be her seducer? depart from this madness which hath no rest in thee: give up this deed which thou canst not bring to accomplishment. not convince him, but with shamelessness he courted her with messages; and fwhen he learnt the insults and disgraces which she returned, he spent his life in melancholyf (or better , she, when she learnt of this disgrace and insult at his hand, spent her life in heaviness). And after two days Drusiana took to her bed from heaviness, and was in a fever and said: Would that I had not now come home to my native place, I that have become an offence to a man ignorant of godliness! for if it were one who was filled with the word of God, he would not have gone to such a pitch of madness. But now (therefore) Lord, since I am become the occasion of a blow unto a soul devoid of knowledge, set me free from this chain and remove me unto thee quickly. And in the presence of John, who knew nothing at all of such a matter,

Drusiana departed out of life not wholly happy, yea, even troubled because of the spiritual hurt of the man. his soul, and wept opeidy, so that John checked him often and said to him: Upon a better hope hath Drusiana removed out of this unrighteous life. And Andronicus answered him: Yea, I am persuaded of it, O John, and I doubt not at all in regard of trust in my God: but this very thing do I hold fast, that she departed out of life pure. 66 And when she was carried forth, John took hold on Andro¬ nicus, and now that he knew the cause, he mourned more than Andronicus. And he kept silence, considering the provocation of the adversary, and for a space sat still. Then, the brethren being gathered there to hear what word he would speak of her that was departed, he began to say: with him, and the ship herself, arriveth in a calm and stormless harbour, then let him say that he is safe. And the husbandman that hath committed the seed to the earth, and toiled much in the care and protection of it, let him then take rest from his labours, when he layeth up the seed with manifold increase in his barns. Let him that enterpriseth to run in the course, then exult when he beareth home the prize. Let him that inscribeth his name for the boxing, then boast himself when he receiveth the crowns: and so in succession is it with all contests and crafts, when they do not fail in the end, fbut show themselves to be like that which they promisedf (corrupt).

of us practiseth, that it is then discerned whether it be indeed true, when it continueth like itself even until the end of life. For many obstacles fall into the way, and prepare disturbance for the minds of men: care, children, parents, glory, poverty, flattery, prime of life, beauty, conceit, lust, weaHh, anger, uplifting, slackness, envy, jealousy, neglect, fear, insolence, love, deceit, money, pretence, and other such obstacles, as many as there are in this life: as also the pilot sailing a prosperous course is opposed by the onset of contrary winds and a great storm and mighty waves out of calm, and the husbandman by untimely winter and blight and creeping things rising out of the earth, and they that strive in the games ‘just do not win’, and they that exercise crafts are hindered by the divers difficulties of them. look before at his ending and understand it in what manner it will come upon him, whether it will be vigorous and sober and without any obstacle, or disturbed and clinging to the things that are here, and bound down by desires. So is it right that a body should be praised as comely when it is wholly stripped, and a general as great when he hath accomplished every promise of the

war, and a physician as excellent when he hath succeeded in every cure, and a soul as full of faith and worthy (or receptive) of God when it hath paid its promise in full: not that soul which began well and was dissolved into all the things of this life and fell away, nor that which is numb, having made an effort to attain to better things, and then is borne down to temporal things, nor that which hath longed after the things of time more than those of eternity, nor that which exchangeth < enduring things for) those that endure not, nor that which hath honoured the works of dishonour that deserve shame, nor that which taketh pledges of Satan, nor that which hath received the serpent into its own house, nor that which suffereth reproach for God’s sake and then is [not] ashamed, nor that which with the mouth saith yea, but indeed approveth not itself: but that which hath prevailed not to be made weak by foul pleasure, not to be overcome by light-mindedness, not to be caught by the bait of love of money, not to be betrayed by vigour of body or wrath. that they should despise temporal things in respect of the eternal, he that was enamoured of Drusiana, being inflamed with an horrible lust and possession of the many-shaped Satan, bribed the steward of Andronicus who was a lover of money with a great sum:

and he opened the tomb and gave him opportunity to wreak the forbidden thing upon the dead body. Not having succeeded with her when alive, he was still importunate after her death to her body, and said: If thou wouldst not have to do with me while thou livedst, I will outrage thy corpse now thou art dead. With this design, and having managed for himself the wicked act by means of the abominable steward, he rushed with him to the sepulchre; they opened the door and began to strip the grave-clothes from the corpse, saying: What art thou profited, poor Drusiana ? couldest thou not have done this in life, which perchance would not have grieved thee, hadst thou done it willingly ?

71 And as these men were speaking thus, and only the ac¬ customed shift now remained on her body, a strange spectacle was seen, such as they deserve to suffer who do such deeds. A serpent appeared from some quarter and dealt the steward a single bite and slew him: but the young man it did not strike; but coiled about his feet, hissing terribly, and when he fell mounted on his body and sat upon him. 72 Now on the next day John came, accompanied by Andro¬ nicus and the brethren, to the sepulchre at dawn, it being now the third day from Drusiana’s death, that we might break bread there. And first, when they set out, the keys were sought for and could not be found; but John said to Andronicus: It is quite right that they should be lost, for Drusiana is not in the sepulchre; nevertheless, let us go, that thou mayest not be neglectful, and the doors shall be opened of themselves, even as the Lord hath done for us many such things. the master, the doors were opened, and we saw by the tomb of Drusiana a beautiful youth, smiling : and John, when he saw him, cried out and said: Art thou come before us hither too, beautiful one? and for what cause? And we heard a voice saying to him: For Drusiana’s sake, whom thou art to raise up—for I was within a little of finding her <shamed>—and for his sake that lieth dead beside her tomb.

And when the beautiful one had said this unto John he went up into the heavens in the sight of us all. And John, turning to the other side of the sepulchre, saw a young man—even Callimachus, one of the chief of the Ephesians—and a huge serpent sleeping upon him, and the steward of Andronicus, Fortunatus by name, lying dead. And at the sight of the two he stood perplexed, saying to the brethren: What meaneth such a sight? or wherefore hath not the Lord declared unto me what was done here, he who hath never neglected me ?

to Drusiana’s tomb, and seeing her lying in her shift only, said to John: I understand what has happened, thou blessed servant of God, John. This Callimachus was enamoured of my sister; and because he never won her, though he often assayed it, he hath bribed this mine accursed steward with a great sum, per¬ chance designing, as now we may see, to fulfil by his means the tragedy of his conspiracy, for indeed Callimachus avowed this to many, saying: If she will not consent to me when living, she shall be outraged when dead. And it may be, master, that the beautiful one knew it and suffered not her body to be in¬ sulted, and therefore have these died who made that attempt. And can it be that the voice that said unto thee, ‘Raise up Drusiana’, foreshowed this? because she departed out of this life in sorrow of mind. But I believe him that said that this is one of the men that have gone astray; for thou wast bidden to raise him up: for as to the other, I know that he is unworthy of salvation. But this one thing I beg of thee: raise up Calli¬ machus first, and he will confess to us what is come about.

beast: Get thee away from him that is to be a servant of Jesus Christ; and stood up and prayed over him thus: O God whose name is glorified by us, as of right: O God who subduest every injurious force: O God whose will is accomplished, who alway hearest us: now also let thy gift be accomplished in this young man; and if there be any dispensation to be wrought through him, manifest it unto us when he is raised up. And straightway the young man rose up, and for a whole hour kept silence. about his entry into the sepulchre, what it meant, and learning from him that which Andronicus had told him, namely, that he was enamoured of Drusiana, John inquired of him again if he had fulfilled his foul intent, to insult a body full of holiness. And he answered him: How could I accomplish it when this fearful beast struck down Fortunatus at a blow in my sight: and rightly, since he encouraged my frenzy, when I was already cured of that unreasonable and horrible madness: but me it stopped with affright, and brought me to that plight in which ye saw me before I arose. And another thing yet more wondrous I will tell thee, which yet went nigh to slay and was within a little of making me a corpse. When my soul was stirred up with folly and the uncontrollable malady was troubling me, and I had now torn away the grave-clothes in which she was clad, and I had then come out of the grave and laid them as thou seest, I went again to my unholy work:

and I saw a beautiful youth covering her with his mantle, and from his eyes sparks of light came forth unto her eyes; and he uttered words to me, saying: Callimachus, die that thou mayest live. Now who he was I knew not, O servant of God; but that now thou hast appeared here, I recognize that he was an angel of God, that I know well; and this I know of a truth that it is a true God that is proclaimed by thee, and of it I am persuaded. But I beseech thee, be not slack to deliver me from this calamity and this fearful crime, and to present me unto thy God as a man deceived with a shameful and foul deceit. Beseeching help therefore of thee, I take hold on thy feet. I would become one of them that hope in Christ, that the voice may prove true which said to me, ‘Die that thou mayest live’: and that voice hath also fulfilled its effect, for he is dead, that faithless, dis¬ orderly, godless one, and I have been raised by thee, I who will be faithful, God-fearing, knowing the truth, which I entreat thee may be shown me by thee.

whole spectacle of the salvation of man, said: What thy power is, Lord Jesu Christ, I know not, bewildered as I am at thy much compassion and boundless long-suffering. O what a greatness that came down into bondage! O unspeakable liberty brought into slavery by us! O incomprehensible glory that is come unto us! thou that hast kept the dead tabernacle safe from insult; that hast redeemed the man that stained himself with blood and chastened the soul of him that would defile the corruptible body; Father that hast had pity and compassion on the man that cared not for thee; We glorify thee, and praise and bless and thank thy great goodness and long-suffering, O holy Jesu, for thou only art God, and none else: whose is the might that cannot be conspired against, now and world without end. Amen. saluted (kissed) him, saying: Glory be to our God, my child, who hath had mercy on thee, and made me worthy to glorify his power, and thee also by a good course to depart from that thine abominable madness and drunkenness, and hath called thee unto his own rest and unto renewing of life. besought John, with the brethren, to raise up Drusiana also, saying: O John, let Drusiana arise and spend happily that short space (of life) which she gave up through grief about Callimachus, when she thought she had become a stumblingblock to him: and when the Lord will, he shall take her again to himself .

And John without delay went unto her tomb and took her hand and said: Upon thee that art the only God do I call, the more than great, the unutterable, the incomprehensible: unto whom every power of principalities is subjected: unto whom all authority boweth: before whom all pride falleth down and keepeth silence: whom devils hearing of tremble: whom all creation perceiving keepeth its bounds. Let thy name be glorified by us, and raise up Drusiana, that Callimachus may yet more be confirmed unto thee who dispensest that which unto men is without a way and impossible, but to thee only possible, even salvation and resurrection: and that Drusiana may now come forth in peace, having about her not any the least hindrance —now that the young man is turned unto thee—in her course toward thee.

80 And after these words John said unto Drusiana: Drusiana, arise. And she arose and came out of the tomb; and when she saw herself in her shift only, she was perplexed at the thing, and learned the whole accurately from Andronicus, the while John lay upon his face, and Callimachus with voice and tears glorified God, and she also rejoiced, glorifying him in like manner. Fortunatus lying, and said unto John: Father, let this man also rise, even if he did assay to become my betrayer. But Callimachus, when he heard her say that, said: Do not, I beseech thee, Drusiana, for the voice which I heard took no thought of him, but declared concerning thee only, and I saw and believed: for if he had been good, perchance God would have had mercy on him also and would have raised him by means of the blessed John: fh e knewf therefore that the man was come to a bad end [ Lot . he judged him worthy to die whom he did not declare worthy to rise again]. And John said to him: We have not learned, my child, to render evil for evil: for God, though we have done much ill and no good toward him, hath not given retribution unto us, but repentance, and though we were ignorant of his name he did not neglect us but had mercy on us, and when we blasphemed him, he did not punish but pitied us,

and when we disbelieved him he bore us no grudge, and when we persecuted his brethren he did not recompense us evil but put into our minds repentance and abstinence from evil, and exhorted us to come unto him, as he hath thee also, my son Callimachus, and not remembering thy former evil hath made thee his servant, waiting upon his mercy. Wherefore if thou allowest not me to raise up Fortunatus, it is for Drusiana so to do. soul unto the body of Fortunatus and said: Jesu Christ, God of the ages, God of truth, that hast granted me to see wonders and signs, and given to me to become partaker of thy name; that didst breathe thyself into me with thy many-shaped counte¬ nance, and hadst mercy on me in many ways; that didst protect me by thy great goodness when I was oppressed by Andronicus that was of old my husband; that didst give me thy servant Andronicus to be my brother; that hast kept me thine handmaid pure unto this day; that didst raise me up by thy servant John, and when I was raised didst show me him that was made to stumble free from stumbling; that hast given me perfect rest in thee, and lightened me of the secret madness; whom I have loved and affectioned: I pray thee, O Christ, refuse not thy Drusiana that asketh thee to raise up Fortunatus, even though he assayed to become my betrayer.

83 And taking the hand of the dead man she said: Rise up, Fortunatus, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Fortu¬ natus arose, and when he saw John in the sepulchre, and Andro¬ nicus, and Drusiana raised from the dead, and Callimachus a believer, and the rest of the brethren glorifying God, he said: O, to what have the powers of these clever men attained I I did not want to be raised, but would rather die, so as not to see them. And with these words he fled and went out of the sepulchre. 84 And John, when he saw the unchanged mind (soul) of Fortunatus, said: O nature that is not changed for the better! O fountain of the soul that abideth in foulness! O essence of corruption full of darkness! O death exulting in them that are thine! O fruitless tree full of fire! O tree that bearest coals for fruit! O matter that dwellest with the madness of matter (al. O wood of trees full of unwholesome shoots) and neighbour of unbelief! Thou hast proved who thou art, and thou art always convicted, with thy children. And thou knowest not how to praise the better things: for thou hast them not. Therefore, such as is thy way (? fruit), such also is thy root and thy nature. Be thou destroyed from among them that trust in the Lord: from their thoughts, from their mind, from their souls, from their bodies, from their acts, their life, their conversation, from their fbusinessf, their occupations, their counsel, from the resur¬ rection unto (or rest in) God, from their sweet savour wherein

Al —1A V 1 k .1_ n ml • /»«.. a. • _ P_Al holy bath, from the eucharist, from the food of the flesh, from drink, from clothing, from love, from care, from abstinence, from righteousness: from all these, thou most unholy Satan, enemy of God, shall Jesus Christ our God and <the judge) of all that are like thee and have thy character, make thee to perish. bare it into the sepulchre to break it; and said: We glorify thy name, which converteth us from error and ruthless deceit: we glorify thee who hast shown before our eyes that which we have seen: we bear witness to thy loving-kindness which appeareth in divers ways: we praise thy merciful name, O Lord (we thank thee), who hast convicted them that are convicted of thee: we give thanks to thee, O Lord Jesu Christ, that we are persuaded of thy <grace> which is unchanging: we give thanks to thee who hadst need of our nature that should be saved: we give thanks to thee that hast given us this sure <faith>, for thou art <God> alone, both now and ever. We thy servants give thee thanks, O holy one, who are assembled with <good> intent and are gathered out of the world (or risen from death).

out of the sepulchre after imparting unto all the brethren of the eucharist of the Lord. And when he was come unto Andronicus’ house he said to the brethren: Brethren, a spirit within me hath divined that Fortunatus is about to die of blackness (poisoning of the blood) from the bite of the serpent; but let some one go quickly and learn if it is so indeed. And one of the young men ran and found him dead and the blackness spreading over him, and it had reached his heart: and came and told John that he had been dead three hours. And John said: Thou hast thy child, O devil. sentence is in the best manuscript. In Bonnet’s edition it introduces the last section of the Acts, which follows immediately in the manu¬ script. It may belong to either episode. The Latin has: And that day he spent joyfully with the brethren. There cannot be much of a gap between this and the next section, which is perhaps the most interesting in the Acts. The greater part of this episode is preserved only in one very corrupt fourteenth-century manuscript at Vienna. Two important passages (93-5 (part) and 97-8 (part)) were read at the Second Nicene Council and are preserved in the Acts thereof: a few lines of the Hymn are also cited in Latin by Augustine (Ep. 237 (253) to Ceretius): he found it current separately among the Priscillianists. The whole discourse is the best popular exposition we have of the Docetic view of our Lord’s person.

- 11nAnnlnwnJ knnntina n.nainnn ko/1 eni/1 . HPlui T ATfl appeared unto me in the tomb in the likeness of John, and in that of a youth. Forasmuch, therefore, as they were perplexed and were, in a manner, not yet stab!ished in the faith, so as to endure it steadfastly, John said (or John bearing it patiently, said) 2 incredible as concerning your perception of the <Lord>, inasmuch as we also, whom he chose for himself to be apostles, were tried in many ways: I, indeed, am neither able to set forth unto you nor to write the things which I both saw and heard: and now is it needful that I should fit them for your hearing; and accord¬ ing as each of you is able to contain it I will impart unto you those things whereof ye are able to become hearers, that ye may see the glory that is about him, which was and is, both now and for ever. For when he had chosen Peter and Andrew, which were brethren, he cometh unto me and James my brother, saying: I have need of you, come unto me. And my brother hearing that, said: John, what would this child have that is upon the sea-shore and called us? And I said: What child? And he said to me again: That which beckoneth to us. And I answered: Because of our long watch we have kept at sea, thou seest not aright, my brother James; but seest thou not the man that standeth there, comely and fair and of a cheerful countenance? But he said to me: Him I see not, brother; but let us go forth and we shall see what he would have.

him also helping along with us to settle the ship: and when we departed from that place, being minded to follow him, again he was seen of me as having <a head) rather bald, but the beard thick and flowing, but of James as a youth whose beard was newly come. We were therefore perplexed, both of us, as to what that which we had seen should mean. And after that, as we followed him, both of us were by little and little <yet more) perplexed as we considered the matter. Yet unto me there then appeared this yet more wonderful thing: for I would try to see him privily, and I never at any time saw his eyes closing (winking), but only open. And oft-times he would appear to me as a small man and uncomely, and fthen againf as one reaching unto heaven. Also there was in him another marvel: when I sat at meat he would take me upon his own breast; and sometimes his breast was felt of me to be smooth and tender, and sometimes hard like unto stones, so that I was perplexed in myself and said: WTierefore is this so unto me? And as I considered this, he . . .

and Peter unto the mountain where he was wont to pray, and Again in like manner he bringeth us three up into the mountain, saying: Come ye with me. And we went again: and we saw him at a distance praying. I, therefore, because he loved me, drew nigh unto him softly, as though he could not see me, and stood looking upon his hinder parts: and I saw that he was not in any wise clad with garments, but was seen of us naked, and not in any wise as a man, and that his feet were whiter than any snow, so that the earth there was lighted up by his feet, and that his head touched the heaven: so that I was afraid and cried out, and he, turning about, appeared as a man of small stature, and caught hold on my beard and pulled it and said to me: John, be not faithless but believing, and not curious. And I said unto him: But what have I done, Lord? And I say unto you, brethren, I suffered so great pain in that place where he took hold on my beard for thirty days, that I said to him: Lord, if thy twitch when thou wast in sport hath given me so great pain, what were it if thou hadst given me a buffet? And he said unto me: Let it be thine henceforth not to tempt him that cannot be tempted.

the Lord, and beckoned unto me that I should come unto them and leave the Lord alone. And I went, and they both said unto me: He (the old man) that was speaking with the Lord upon the top of the mount , who was he ? for we heard both of them speaking. And I, having in mind his great grace, and his unity which hath many faces, and his wisdom which without ceasing looketh upon us, said: That shall ye learn if ye inquire of him. sleeping in one house, I alone having wrapped myself in my mantle, watched (or watched from beneath my mantle) what he should do: and first I heard him say: John, go thou to sleep. And I thereon feigning to sleep saw another like unto him [sleeping], whom also I heard say unto my Lord: Jesus, they whom thou hast chosen believe not yet on thee (or do they not yet, &c.?). And my Lord said unto him: Thou sayest well: for they are men. 93 Another glory also will I tell you, brethren: Sometimes when I would lay hold on him, I met with a material and solid body, and at other times, again, when I felt him, the substance was immaterial and as if it existed not at all. And if at any time he were bidden by some one of the Pharisees and went to the bidding, we went with him, and there was set before each one of us a loaf by them that had bidden us, and with us he also received one; and his own he would bless and part it among us: and of that little every one was filled, and our own loaves were saved whole, so that they which bade him were amazed.

A 1 -iU. 1 • __1_-r_11_ 1 _!±U l_i_ X J_ - _1 A __i.1_ him as it were lifting himself up from the earth: and I never saw it. And these things I speak unto you, brethren, for the encouragement of your faith toward him; for we must at the present keep silence concerning his mighty and wonderful works, inasmuch as they are unspeakable and, it may be, cannot at all be either uttered or heard. were governed by (had their law from) the lawless serpent,f he gathered all of us together and said: Before I am delivered up unto them let us sing an hymn to the Father, and so go forth to that which lieth before us. He bade us therefore make as it were a ring, holding one another’s hands, and himself standing in the midst he said: Answer Amen unto me. He began, then, to sing an hymn and to say: Glory be to thee, Father. And we, going about in a ring, answered him: Amen. Glory be to thee, Word: Glory be to thee, Grace. Amen. Glory be to thee, Spirit: Glory be to thee, Holy One: Glory be to thy glory. Amen.

We praise thee, O Father; we give thanks to thee, O Light, wherein darkness dwelleth not. Amen. 95 Now whereas (or wherefore) we give thanks, I say: I would be saved, and I would save. Amen. I would be loosed, and I would loose. Amen. I would be wounded, and I would wound. Amen. I would be born, and I would bear. Amen. I would eat, and I would be eaten. Amen. I would hear, and I would be heard. Amen. I would be thought, being wholly thought. Amen. I would be washed, and I would wash. Amen. Grace danceth. I would pipe; dance ye all. Amen. I would mourn: lament ye all. Amen. The number Eight (lit. one ogdoad) singeth praise with us. Amen. The number Twelve danceth on high. Amen. |The Whole on high hath part in our dancing. Amen. Whoso danceth not, knoweth not what cometh to pass. Amen. I would flee, and I would stay. Amen. I would adorn, and I would be adorned. Amen. I would be united, and I would unite. Amen. A house I have not, and I have houses. Amen. A place I have not, and I have places. Amen. A temple I have not, and I have temples. Amen.

A lamp am I to thee that beholdest me. Amen. A mirror am I to thee that perceivest me. Amen. A door am I to thee that knockest at me. Amen. A way am I to thee a wayfarer. <Amen>. 96 Now answer thou (or as thou respondest) unto my dancing. Behold thyself in me who speak, and seeing what I do, keep silence about my mysteries. Thou that dancest, perceive what I do, for thine is this passion of the manhood, which I am about to suffer. For thou couldest not at all have understood what thou sufferest if I had not been sent unto thee, as the word of the Father. Thou that sawest what I suffer sawest me as suffering, and seeing it thou didst not abide but wert wholly moved, fmoved to make wisef. Thou hast me as a bed, rest upon me. Who I am, thou shalt know when I depart. What now I am seen to be, that I am not. Thou shalt see when thou comest. If thou hadst known how to suffer, thou wouldest have been able not to suffer. Learn thou to suffer, and thou shalt be able not to suffer. What thou knowest not, I myself will teach thee. Thy God am I, not the God of the traitor. I would keep tune with holy souls. In me know thou the word of wisdom. Again with me say thou: Glory be to thee, Father; glory to thee, Word; glory to thee, Holy Ghost. fAnd if thou wouldst know concerning me, what I was, know thatf with a word did I deceive all things and I was no whit deceived. I have leaped: but do thou understand the whole, and having understood it, say: Glory be to thee, Father. Amen.

forth. And we as men gone astray or dazed with sleep fled this way and that. I, then, when I saw him suffer, did not even abide by his suffering, but fled unto the Mount of Olives, weeping at that which had befallen. And when he was crucified on the Friday, at the sixth hour of the day, darkness came upon all the earth. And my Lord standing in the midst of the cave and enlightening it, said: John, unto the multitude below in Jerusalem I am being crucified and pierced with lances and reeds, and gall and vinegar is given me to drink. But unto thee I speak, and what I speak hear thou. I put it into thy mind to come up into this mountain, that thou mightest hear those things which it behoveth a disciple to learn from his teacher and a man from his God. fixed (set up), and about the cross a great multitude, fnot having one form: and in it (the cross) was one form and one likenesst [so the MS.; I would read : and therein was one form and one likeness: and in the cross another multitude, not having one form]. And the Lord himself I beheld above the cross, not having any shape, but only a voice: and a voice not such as was familiar to us, but one sweet and kind and truly of God, saying unto me : John, it Is needful that one should hear these things from me, for I have need of one that will hear. This cross of light is sometimes called the (or a) word by me for your

sakes, sometimes mind, sometimes Jesus, sometimes Christ, some¬ times door, sometimes a way, sometimes bread, sometimes seed, sometimes resurrection, sometimes Son, sometimes Father, sometimes Spirit, sometimes life, sometimes truth, sometimes faith, sometimes grace. And by these names it is called as toward men: but that which it is in truth, as conceived of in itself and as spoken of unto you (MS. us), it is the marking-off of all things, and the firm uplifting of things fixed out of things unstable, and the harmony of wisdom, and indeed wisdom in harmony [this last clause in the MS. is joined to the next: ‘and being wisdom in harmony’]. There are <places> of the right hand and the left, powers also, authorities, lordships and demons, workings, threatenings, wraths, devils, Satan, and the lower root whence the nature of the things that come into being pro¬ ceeded. 99 This cross, then, is that which fixed all things apart ( al. joined all things unto itself) by the (or a) word, and separate off the things that are from those that are below (lit. the things from birth and below it), and then also, being one, streamed forth into all things (or, made all flow forth. I suggested: com¬ pacted all into <one». But this is not the cross of wood which thou wilt see when thou goest down hence: neither am I he that is on the cross, whom now thou seest not, but only hearest his (or a) voice. I was reckoned to be that which I am not, not being what I was unto many others: but they will call me (say of me) something else which is vile and not worthy of me. As, then, the place of rest is neither seen nor spoken of, much more shall I, the Lord thereof, be neither seen <nor spoken of).

100 Now the multitude of one aspect (al. <not> of one aspect) that is about the cross is the lower nature: and they whom thou seest in the cross, if they have not one form, it is because not yet hath every member of him that came down been com¬ prehended. But when the human nature (or the upper nature) is taken up, and the race which draweth near unto me and obeyeth my voice, he that now heareth me shall be united therewith, and shall no more be that which now he is, but above them, as I also now am. For so long as thou callest not thyself mine, I am not that which I am (or was): but if thou hear me, thou, hearing, shalt be as I am, and I shall be that which I was, when I <have> thee as I am with myself. For from me thou art that (which I am). Care not therefore for the many, and them that are outside the mystery despise; for know thou that I am wholly with the Father, and the Father with me. me have I suffered: nay, that suffering also which I showed unto thee and the rest in the dance, I will that it be called a mystery. For what thou art, thou seest, for I showed it thee; but what I am I alone know, and no man else. Suffer me then

to keep that which is mine, and that which is thine behold thou through me, and behold me in truth, that I am, not what I said, but what thou art able to know, because thou art akin thereto . Thou hearest that I suffered, yet did I not suffer; that I suffered not, yet did I suffer; that I was pierced, yet I was not smitten; hanged, and I was not hanged; that blood flowed from me, and it flowed not; and, in a word, what they say of me, that befell me not, but what they say not, that did I suffer. Now what those things are I signify unto thee, for I know that thou wilt understand. Perceive thou therefore in me the praising ( al . slaying al . rest) of the (or a) Word (Logos), the piercing of the Word, the blood of the Word, the wound of the Word, the hanging up of the Word, the suffering of the Word, the nailing (fixing) of the Word, the death of the Word. And so speak I, separating off the manhood. Perceive thou therefore in the first place of the Word; then shalt thou perceive the Lord, and in the third place the man, and what he hath suffered.

which I know not how to say as he would have me, he was taken up, no one of the multitudes having beheld him. And when I went down I laughed them all to scorn, inasmuch as he had told me the things which they have said concerning him; hold¬ ing fast this one thing in myself, that the Lord contrived all things symbolically and by a dispensation toward men, for their conversion and salvation. and his kindly affection toward us, let us worship him as those unto whom he hath shown mercy, not with our fingers, nor our mouth, nor our tongue, nor with any part whatsoever of our body, but with the disposition of our soul—even him who became a man apart from this body; and let us watch because (or we shall find that) now also he keepeth ward over prisons for our sake, and over tombs, in bonds and dungeons, in re¬ proaches and insults, by sea and on dry land, in scourgings, condemnations, conspiracies, frauds, punishments, and in a word, he is with all of us, and himself suffereth with us when we suffer, brethren. When he is called upon by each one of us, he endureth not to shut his ears to us, but as being everywhere he hearkeneth to all of us; and now both to me and to Drusiana,—forasmuch as he is the God of them that are shut up—bringing us help by his own compassion.

man whom I preach unto you to worship, but God unchangeable, God invincible, God higher than all authority and all power, and elder and mightier than all angels and creatures that are named, and all aeons. If then ye abide in him, and are builded up in him, ye shall possess your soul indestructible. John departed, with Andronicus, to walk. And Drusiana also followed afar off with all the brethren , that they might behold the acts that were done by him, and hear his speech at all times in the Lord. The remaining episode which is extant in the Greek is the conclusion of the book, the Death or Assumption of John. Before it must be placed the stories which we have only in the Latin (of ‘ Abdias ’ and another text by 4 Mellitus ’, i. e. Melito), and the two or three isolated fragments. (Lat. XIV.) Now on the next (or another) day Craton, a philosopher, had proclaimed in the market-place that he would give an example of the contempt of riches: and the spectacle was after this manner. He had persuaded two young men, the richest of the city, who were brothers, to spend their whole inheritance and buy each of them a jewel, and these they brake in pieces publicly in the sight of the people. And while they were doing this, it happened by chance that the apostle passed by. And calling Craton the philosopher to him, he said:

That is a foolish despising of the world which is praised by the mouths of men, but long ago condemned by the judgement of God. For as that is a vain medicine whereby the disease is not extirpated, so is it a vain teaching by which the faults of souls and of conduct are not cured. But indeed my master taught a youth who desired to attain to eternal life, in these words; saying that if he would be perfect, he should sell all his goods and give to the poor, and so doing he would gain treasure in heaven and find the life that has no ending. And Craton said to him: Here the fruit of covetousness is set forth in the midst of men, and hath been broken to pieces. But if God is indeed thy master and willeth this to be, that the sum of the price of these jewels should be given to the poor, cause thou the gems to be restored whole, that what I have done for the praise of men, thou mayest do for the glory of him whom thou callest thy master. Then the blessed John gathered together the fragments of the gems, and holding them in his hands, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said: Lord Jesu Christ, unto whom nothing is impossible: who when the world was broken by the tree of concupiscence, didst restore it again in thy faithfulness by the tree of the cross:

who didst give to one born blind the eyes which nature had denied him, who didst recall Lazarus, dead and buried, after the fourth day unto the light; and has subjected all diseases and all sicknesses unto the word of thy power: so also now do with these precious stones which these, not knowing the fruits of almsgiving, have broken in pieces for the praise of men: recover thou them, Lord, now by the hands of thine angels, that by their value the work of mercy may be fulfilled, and make these men believe in thee the un¬ begotten Father through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord, with the Holy Ghost the illuminator and sanctifier of

the whole Church, world without end^And^J-^^en?^ who were with the apostle ha joined in one that no fragments of the gems were forthw^» so ^om t hem. A d mark at all that they had .’? ee " b I?ofnlesseeing this, fell at the Craton the philosopher, wrth ^d P^^ g {or immediately) fC 1 °i, t p" tSwah them all, and began himself publicly to preaclTthe^ith of our ^esns C^ ^ spaUe , sold P XV. Those two brothers, thereto q{ their inheritance, the gems which they had boug y thereafter a very great and gave the price. to . the P°° > . • d to the apostle. multitude of believers began to be P d ned that P aft er the same And when all this was don , 1 “ PP of the Ephesians 1 sold example, two honourable men oi t y needy, and followed all their goods and distributcd th preaching the word of the apostle as he vent thl city of Per- God. But it came to pass, ™ walking abroad arrayed in gamum, that ^ey Tj b ^h the glory o? this world: whence silken raiment and shining d ^ v itli the arrow of the devil

it happened that they were pierced with a single and became sad, seein g thems^ves P« *0* and prosperous, cloak while their °wn ^ervants were P^ ^ q{ the dev il, But the apostle of Chnst pe g minds and y0U r coun¬ said: I see that ye have tha tobevmg the teaching of my Lord tenances on this account, > ? d to the poor. Now, if ye Jesus Christ, ye have given all ye had ^ of go i d , silver, desire to recover that which y forme rods each G f you and precious stones, bring , v»e called upon tbe name a bundle. And when they had done so. to g, g^d. And of the Lord Jesus Christ, ■an 1 5^ smaU ston es from the seathe apostle said to th ein * , , ^ 4.^; s a i so he called upon the store? And when they had ^Jf"’ re turned into gems. majesty of the ^ ord V a t rned to P those men and said to them. Then the blessed J °hp turn o . u for seven days, and Go about to the goldsmiths and je a nd true jewels,

Finally, when ye voursellpc ^ des / redto have earthly wellth. the name of Jesus Christ, they were heMed^ve did & dri calIed u P?. n and restore light to the blind rIS +L- y dld d ? ve out deviIs you, and ye are become wretched thlS gra ? e . ls taken from And whereas there wM s^h fe,! ’ f Were m ' ght y and great, your bidding they kft the^en the devils that at will be in fear of the devfls + wT po l sessed ’ now ye servant of Mammon • and Mni tkat lovet h money is the but are possessed of them. For it is out of reason that for one belly there should be laid up so much food as would suffice a thousand, and for one body so many garments as would furnish clothing for a thousand men. In vain, therefore, is that stored up which cometh not into use, and for whom it is kept, no man knoweth, as the Holy Ghost saith by the prophet: In vain is every man troubled who heapeth up riches and knoweth not for whom he gathereth them. Naked did our birth from women bring us into this light, destitute of food and drink: naked will the earth receive us which brought us forth. We possess in common the riches of the heaven; the brightness of the sun is equal for the

rich and the poor, and likewise the light of the moon and the stars, the softness of the air and the drops of rain, and the gate of the church and the fount of sanctification, and the forgiveness of sins, and the sharing in the altar, and the eating of the body and drinking of the blood of Christ, and the anointing of the chrism, and the grace of the giver, and the visitation of the Lord, and the pardon of sin: in all these the dispensing of the Creator is equal, without respect of persons. Neither doth the rich man use these gifts after one manner and the poor after another.

But wretched and unhappy is the man who would have some¬ thing more than sufficeth him: for of this come heats of fevers, rigours of cold, divers pains in all the members of the body, and he can neither be fed with food nor sated with drink; that covet¬ ousness may learn that money will not profit it, which being laid up bringeth to the keepers thereof anxiety by day and night, and suffereth them not even for an hour to be quiet and secure. For while they guard their houses against thieves, till their estate, ply the plough, pay taxes, build storehouses, strive for gain, try to baffle the attacks of the strong, and to strip the weak, exercise their wrath on whom they can, and hardly bear it from others, shrink not from playing at tables and from public shows, fear not to defile or to be defiled, suddenly do they depart out of this world, naked, bearing only their own sins with them, for which they shall suffer eternal punishment. XVII. While the apostle was thus speaking, behold there was brought to him by his mother, who was a widow, a young man who thirty days before had first married a wife. And the people which were waiting upon the burial came with the widowed mother and cast themselves at the apostle’s feet all together with groans, weeping, and mourning, and besought him that in the name of his God, as he had done with Drusiana, so he would raise up this young man also. And there was so great weeping of them all that the apostle himself could hardly refrain from crying and tears. He cast himself down, therefore, in prayer, and wept a long time: and rising from prayer spread out his hands to heaven, and for a long space prayed within himself. And when he had so done

of the Lord that like as he hath • ^j 0U save as k the apostle you also from death unto sSatL'n and^h* 0 “fc he wouldrafse wlnehnow are blotted out °f the book ofltfe. 8 y ° Ur SOuls together ‘ wit^ Atdcus 11 ^^^ 66 " raised and a,] the P e ople, apostle’s feet and besought ‘“l’ Cast themselves at the Lord. Unto whom^W 0 ly them with the thirty days they should offe^penitenef to an *wer: that for pray especially that the rods of gold m,Vht G and ln tha t space and likewise the stones retunAn t?I ght return to their nature were made. And it came to pass wh erein they accomplished, and neither the rods were turn j hl ? t ?’ days were the gems into pebbles, Atticus and turned lnto wood nor apostle: Thou hast aiways taught mT" °? me and said to the ness, and bidden that nL mercy, and Poached forgive- God willeth th^ a man should 1 < - sho . uId Spare anot her. And if shall he, as he is God, both forgiveTrTd 1 man ’ how much more founded for our sin: and whereas w/hi^ 6 I ? e ?’ . We are con ' which lusted after the world we d^n^ Cned Wlth our eyes weep. We pray thee Tnrd™ do re P ent with eyes that in deed that nfercy whic^in wo^d y th hee (, ap *° St , le of God ' show Th | n the holy John said unto themes th haSt alwa ys promised.

«»'- I L w r3 ,, GS d „S5 e i'hS •■*»». b»,,« rM „ when the Lord Jesus Christ taught us concerning the penitent, he said: Verily I say unto you, there is great joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth and turneth himself from his sins: and there is more joy over him than over ninety and nine which have not sinned. Wherefore I would have you know that the Lord accepteth the repentance of these men. And he turned unto Atticus and Eugenius and said: Go, carry back the rods unto the wood whence ye took them, for now are they returned to their own nature, and the stones unto the sea-shore, for they are become common stones as they were before. And when this was accomplished, they received again the grace which they had lost, so that again they cast out devils as before time and healed the sick and enlightened the blind, and daily the Lord did many mighty works by their means. XIX tells shortly the destruction of the temple of Ephesus and the conversion of 12,000 people. Then follows the episode of the poison-cup in a form which probably represents the story in the Leucian Acts. (We have seen that the late Greek texts place it at the beginning, in the presence of Domitian.)

XX. Now when Aristodemus, who was chief priest of all those idols, saw this, filled with a wicked spirit, he stirred up sedition among the people, so that one people prepared themselves to fight against the other. And John turned to him and said: Tell me, Aristodemus, what can I do to take away the anger from thy soul ? And Aristodemus said: If thou wilt have me believe in thy God, I will give thee poison to drink, and if thou drink it, and die not, it will appear that thy God is true. The apostle answered: If thou give me poison to drink, when I call on the name of my Lord, it will not be able to harm me. Aristodemus said again: I will that thou first see others drink it and die straightway, that so thy heart may recoil from that cup. And the blessed John said: I have told thee already that I am prepared to drink it, that thou mayest believe on the Lord Jesus Christ when thou seest me whole after the cup of poison. Aristodemus therefore went to the proconsul and asked of him two men who were to undergo the sentence of death. And when he had set them in the midst of the market-place before all the people, in the sight of the apostle he made them drink the poison: and as soon as they had drunk it, they gave up the ghost.

Then Aristodemus turned to John and said: Hearken to me and depart from thy teaching wherewith thou callest away the people from the worship of the gods; or take and drink this, that thou mayest show that thy God is almighty, if after thou hast drunk, thou canst remain whole. Then .the blessed John, as they lay dead which had drunk the poison, like a fearless and brave man took the cup, and making the sign of the cross, spake thus: My God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose word the heavens were established, unto whom all things are subject, whom all creation serveth,

whom all power obeyeth, feareth, and trembleth, when we call on thee for succour: whose name the serpent hearing is still, the dragon fleeth, the viper is quiet, the toad (which is called a frog) is still and strengthless, the scorpion is quenched, the basilisk vanquished, and the phalangia (spider) doth no hurt; in a word, all venomous things, and the fiercest reptiles and noisome beasts, are pierced (or covered with darkness). [Ps.- Mellitus adds: and all roots hurtful to the health of men dry up.] Do thou, I say, quench the venom of this poison, put out the deadly workings thereof, and void it of the strength which it hath in it: and grant in thy sight unto all these whom thou hast created, eyes that they may see, and ears that they may hear, and a heart that they may understand thy greatness. And when he had thus said, he armed his mouth and all his body with the sign of the cross and drank all that was in the cup. And after be had drunk, he said: I ask that they for whose sake I have drunk, be turned unto thee, O Lord, and by thine en¬ lightening receive the salvation which is in thee. And when for the space of three hours the people saw that John was of a cheerful countenance, and that there was no sign at all of paleness or fear in him, they began to cry out with a loud voice: He is the one true God whom John worshippeth.

XXI. But Aristodemus even so believed not, though the people reproached him: but turned unto John and said: This one thing I lack—if thou in the name of thy God raise up these that have died by this poison, my mind will be cleansed of all doubt. When he said that, the people rose against Aristodemus, saying: We will burn thee and thine house if thou goest on to trouble the apostle further with thy words. John, therefore, seeing that there was a fierce sedition, asked for silence, and said in the hearing of all: The first of the virtues of God which we ought to imitate is patience, by which we are able to bear with the foolishness of unbelievers. Wherefore if Aristo¬ demus is still held by unbelief, let us loose the knots of his unbelief. He shall be compelled, even though late, to acknow¬ ledge his creator; for I will not cease from this work until a remedy shall bring help to his wounds, and like physicians which have in their hands a sick man needing medicine, so also, if Aristodemus be not yet cured by that which hath now been done, he shall be cured by that which I will now do. And he called Aristodemus to him, and gave him his coat, and he himself stood clad only in his mantle. And Aristodemus said to him: Wherefore hast thou given me thy coat? John said to him: That thou mayest even so be put to shame and depart from thine unbelief. And Aristodemus said: And how shall thy coat make me to depart from unbelief? The apostle answered: Go and cast it upon the bodies of the dead, and thou shalt say thus: The apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ hath sent me that

in his name ye may rise again, that all may know that life and death are servants of my Lord Jesus Christ. Which when Aristodemus had done, and had seen them rise, he worshipped John, and ran quickly to the proconsul and began to say with a loud voice: Hear me, hear me, thou proconsul; I think thou rememberest that I have often stirred up thy wrath against John and devised many things against him daily, wherefore I fear lest I feel his wrath: for he is a god hidden in the form of a man, and hath drunk poison, and not only continueth whole, but them also which had died by the poison he hath recalled to life by my means, by the touch of his coat, and they have no mark of death upon them. Which when the proconsul heard he said: And what wilt thou have me to do? Aristodemus answered: Let us go and fall at his feet and ask pardon, and whatever he commandeth us let us do. Then they came together and cast them¬ selves down and besought forgiveness: and he received them and offered prayer and thanksgiving to God, and he ordained them a fast of a week, and when it was fulfilled he baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Almighty Father, and the Holy Ghost the illuminator. [And w T hen they were baptized, with all their house and their servants and their kindred, they brake all their idols and built a church in the name of Saint John: wherein he himself was taken up, in manner following:]

This bracketed sentence, of late complexion, serves to introduce the last episode of the book. Here we may insert a notice of three detached fragments of the Acts. a. The upper portion of a papyrus leaf of the fourth century, Oxyrhynchas papyri , no. 850 (vol. vi, 1908). The order of the two pages is doubted by the editors, who suggest that the recto should follow the verso . • . . . Andronicus and his wife . • . . (this is the title of the following episode) 11. 1, 2 And when a few days had passed, John went forth with many of the brethren to ... . 3 .... to cross a bridge under which a deep river ran 4 (and as John) went to the brethren 5 (behold a man) came towards him clad in the manner of a soldier 6 and standing before him said: John, into 7 (my) hands thou shall shortly come. And John (in wrath) 8 (said): the Lord shall quench thy threatening and thy wrath and 9 (thy trans)gression. And lo he vanished away. (When therefore) 11 (them) gathered together, he said: Rise up my breth- 12 (ren) let us bow our knees unto the Lord and

12, 13 brought to nought the unseen working of the great enemy 14 bowed his knees together with them . .. said 15 • • • • God Here is the appearance of a demon disguised as a soldier who threatens John, perhaps predicting his arrest, and is routed, John is about to pray with the brethren. 4 to Zeuxis, having risen and taken up a (cup) 5 • . . . who didst compel me with 6, 7 thinking to strangle himself: that dost turn things despaired of unto thee: 7, 8 that makest known .... the things that 8 are known to no man: that weepest for the afflicted 9 that raisest up those that have been put to death 10 of the helpless: Jesu the comforter of the 11 we praise thee and worship and give thanks 12 for all thy gifts: and for thy present dispensation 13, 14 and ministry. And unto Zeuxis only he gave of the eucharist, and afterward gave to them that would receive 15 looking on him durst not: but the proconsul 16 (? sending a) centurion in the midst of the assembly (church ?) saith to John 17 : Servant of the unnameable (God

18 hath brought letters from Caesar 19 (? in which is contained: Domitianus Caesar) and the sen(ate .... Zeuxis has tried to hang himself. He has been delivered and a service of thanksgiving is held. The proconsul is already there and has seen the miracle: he brings letters from the emperor. The editor questions whether there is room in the lower part of the recto to finish John’s prayer and introduce the episode of Zeuxis. But the author, while often very prolix, can also get over much ground in few lines. And it is equally difficult to see how the emperor’s letter should be dismissed and done with in half a page and a story about Andronicus follow immediately. The interest of the fragment for the general course of the story lies in this, that it confirms our belief that John was represented as coming under the notice of the emperor; and probably either exile or the caldron of oil, or both, were the sequels of the transaction: I doubt, however, whether the trial was laid at Rome. h and c are quotations preserved in a barbarous Latin Apocryphon called the Epistle of Titus, mainly a declamation about virginity, which

exists in one manuscript at Wurzburg (eighth century)* Dom Donatien de Bruyne printed them in the Revue Btntdictine for 1908 (pp. 149-60). 6. Or is that outside the law which we are taught, how the very devils [when they] confessed to Dyrus (read Verus) the deacon as to the coming of John: consider what they said: Many will come to us in the last times to turn us out of our vessels (i. e. the bodies possessed by them), saying that they are pure and clean from women and are not held by desire of them: whom (MS. while) if we desired, we (could) possess them also. This should come from an early part of the book. I take it to precede John’s first visit to Ephesus. My rendering indicates the obscurity of the original. c is so confused (and wearisome) that it defies translation. It is a diatribe of John’s against matrimony and begins thus: Receive therefore in thy heart the admonition of the blessed John, who, when he was bidden to a marriage, came not save for the sake of chastity, and consider what he said: Little children, while yet your flesh is pure and ye have your body untouched and not destroyed, and are not defiled by Satan, the great enemy and shameless (foe) of chastity: know therefore more fully the mystery of the nuptial union: it is the experiment of the serpent, the ignorance of teaching, injury of the seed, the gift of death,

. . . (thirty-one (!) clauses follow, many of which are quite corrupt; the last are) the impediment which separateth from the Lord, the beginning of disobedience, the end of life, and death. Hearing this, little children, join yourselves together in an inseparable marriage, holy and true, waiting for the one true incomparable bridegroom from heaven, even Christ, the ever¬ lasting bridegroom. If, then, the apostle severed a marriage, lest it should be an occasion of sin . . . &c. This is the most avowedly Encratite passage in the Acts: true, John persuaded Andronicus and others to dissolve their marriage in all but name: but there is nowhere else such a wealth of abuse of the institution of marriage as such. The speech belongs to an episode of which we know nothing; it cannot refer to Andronicus or Lycomedes, who were both married when first we hear of them. A third quotation in the Epistle of Titus is taken from an extant part of the Acts, the last prayer of John. The last episode of these Acts (as is the case with several others of the Apocryphal Acts) was preserved separately for reading in church on the Saint’s day. We have it in at least nine Greek manuscripts, and in many versions: Latin, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Slavonic.

in the Lord. And on the morrow, being the Lord’s day, and all the brethren being gathered together, he began to say unto them: Brethren and fellow-servants and coheirs and partakers with me in the kingdom of the Lord, ye know the Lord, how many mighty works he hath granted you by my means, how many wonders, healings, signs, how great spiritual gifts, teachings, governing, refreshings, ministries, knowledges, glories, graces, gifts, beliefs, communions, all which ye have seen given you by him in your sight, yet not seen by these eyes nor heard by these ears. Be ye therefore stablished in him, remembering him in your every deed, knowing the mystery of the dispensation which hath come to pass towards men, for what cause the Lord hath accomplished it. He beseecheth you by me, brethren, and entreateth you, desiring to remain without grief, without insult, not conspired against, not chastened: for he knoweth even the insult that cometh of you, he knoweth even dishonour, he knoweth even conspiracy, he knoweth even chastisement, from them that hearken not to his commandments. the merciful, the holy, the pure, the undefiled, the immaterial, the only, the one, the unchangeable, the simple, the guileless, the unwrathful, even our God Jesus Christ, who is above every name that we can utter or conceive, and more exalted. Let him rejoice with us because we walk aright, let him be glad because we live purely, let him be refreshed because our conversa¬ tion is sober.

Let him be without care because we live continently, let him be pleased because we communicate one with another , let him smile because we are chaste, let him be merry because we love him. These things I now speak unto you, brethren, because I am hasting unto the work set before me, and already being perfected by the Lord. For what else could I have to say unto you? Ye have the pledge of our God, ye have the earnest of his goodness, ye have his presence that cannot be shunned. If, then, ye sin no more, he forgiveth you that ye did in ignorance: but if after that ye have known him and he hath had mercy on you, ye walk again in the like deeds, both the former will be laid to your charge, and also ye will not have a part nor mercy before him.

108 And when he had spoken this unto them, he prayed thus: O Jesu who hast woven this crown with thy weaving, who hast joined together these many blossoms into the unfading flower of thy countenance, who hast sown in them these words: thou only tender of thy servants, and physician who healest freely: only doer of good and despiser of none, only merciful and lover of men, only saviour and righteous, only seer of all, who art in all and everywhere present and containing all things and filling all things: Christ Jesu, God, Lord, that with thy gifts and thy mercy shelterest them that trust in thee, that knowest clearly the wiles and the assaults of him that is every¬ where our adversary, which he deviseth against us: do thou only, O Lord, succour thy servants by thy visitation. Even so, Lord. this bread, name ^ve ^e only O Lord Jesu? We gloniy^y PU llb b And he T brake d the bread and gave unto ^ h ° f "^^“i be d dee e p rr And They" dug he spoke’unto : them^the^rardcj Tod and exhorted them that were come with him out “ *“ e S.°l“difying and perfecting:«h,mb^i

untonch J hl Wh ° hast . kept me until this hour for thyself and untouched by union with a woman: who when in mv vouth I desired to marry didst appear unto me and say to me^ John rh ia l e ? eed °{ t h ee: who didst prepare for me also a sickness of body: who when for the third time I would marry ddst forthwith prevent me, and then at the third hour ofthedav I wouinT mC °£ 4h f S f a: John - if thou hadst not been ™/ would have suffered thee to marry: who for two years didst en£ * m X ( ° r af 5 ict * mine e >' es )> a nd grant me io mourn and nffnd lnd h pfs who + m the thi . rd year didst open the eyes of my mmd and also pant me my visible eyes: who when I saw clearly d dst ordain that it should be grievous to me to look uoon a leftd ian: who didst save me from the temporal fantasy and [u d ,™ u nto that which endureth always: who didst rid me of the hitt ma , dn ess that is in the flesh: who didst take me from he bitter death and establish me on thee alone: who didst Si? 1 ’® 1 ' disease of my soul and cut off the open deed* Hidst dldS u affllc f ; and banish him that raised tumult in me* who didst make my love of thee spotless: who didst make mv ioiiffn°

faith Shee who n did U st br0 H en: ^ di , dSt give me "doubting * n ™ ee » ™ ho dldst order and make clear my inclination of th i? U 2 lvest unto every man the due reward of his works, who didst put into my soul that I should have thJ 9 ° SS M S10n ^ aVe , thee ^ for what is more predous thin j* . ow therefore Lord, whereas I have accomplished the Was en trusted, account thou me worthy of thy rest, and grant me that end in thee which is salvation unspeakable and unutterable. , * 14 And “ I come unto thee, let the fire go backward let the darkness be overcome, let the gulf be without strenJuT let the furnace die out, let Gehenna be quenched. Let angels friiir™ let devils fear, let rulers be broken, let po^rs fafl* £ ?he places of the right hand stand fast, let them of the left hand K? L v t the , devil b , e muzzled, let Satan be derided let his wrath be burned out, let his madness be stilled, let his vengeance be ashamed, let his assault be in pain, let his children be smitten and all his roots plucked up. And grant me to accomplish the journey unto thee without suffering insolence or provocation, and to receive that which thou hast promised unto them that live purely and have loved thee only.

said: Thou art with me, O Lord Jesu Christ: and laid himself down in the trench where he had strown his garments: and having said unto us: Peace be with you, brethren, he gave up his spirit rejoicing. The less good Greek manuscripts and some versions are not content with this simple ending. The Latin says that after the prayer a great light appeared over the apostle for the space of an hour, so bright that no one could look at it. (Then he laid himself down and gave up the ghost.) We who were there rejoiced, some of us, and some mourned. . . . And forthwith manna issuing from the tomb was seen of all, which manna that place produceth even unto this day, &c. But perhaps the best conclusion is that of one Greek manuscript: We brought a linen cloth and spread it upon him, and went into the city. And on the day following we went forth and found not his body, for it was translated by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto whom be glory, &c. Another says: On the morrow we dug in the place, and him we found not, but only his sandals, and the earth moving (lit. springing up like a well), and after that we remembered that which was spoken by the Lord unto Peter, &c.

Augustine (on John xxi) reports the belief that in his time the earth over the grave was seen to move as if stirred by John’s breathing. ACTS OF PAUL (See Appendix II) This book, Tertullian tells us, was composed shortly before his time in honour of Paul by a presbyter of Asia, who was convicted of the imposture and degraded from his office. The date of it may therefore be about a. d. 160 . The author was an orthodox Christian. Our authorities for it are: 1. The sadly mutilated Coptic MS. at Heidelberg, of the sixth century at latest. 2. The Acts of Paul and Thecla, a single episode which has been preserved complete in Greek and many versions: parts of it exist in the Coptic. 3. The correspondence with the Corinthians, partly preserved in the Coptic, and current separately in Armenian and Latin. 4. The Martyrdom, the concluding episode of the Acts, preserved separately (as in the case of John and others) in Greek and other versions. 5. Detached fragments or quotations. The length of the whole book is given as 3,600 lines (Stichometry of Nicephorus), or 3,560 (Stichometry of the Codex Claromontanus): the Canonical Acts are given by the same two authorities respectively as 2,800 and 2,600. We have, perhaps, 1,800 lines of the Acts of Paul.

The text of the Coptic MS. is miserably defective, and the restora¬ tion of it, in the episodes which are preserved in it alone, is a most difficult process: Professor Carl Schmidt has done practically all that can be expected, with infinite labour and great acuteness. In treating the defective episodes I shall follow him closely, but shall not attempt to represent all the broken lines. The first extant page of the Coptic MS. seems to be p. 9. p. 9. Paul went into (the house) at the place where the (dead) was. But Phila the wife of Panchares (Anchares, MS., see below) was very wroth and said to her husband in (great anger): Hus¬ band, thou hast gone .... the wild beasts, thou hast not begotten .... thy son .... where is mine V p. 10.(he hath not) desired food .... to bury him. But (Panchares) stood in the sight of all and made his prayer at the ninth hour, until the people of the city came to bear the boy out. When he had prayed, Paul (came) and saw . . . . and of Jesus Christ .... the boy . • • • the prayer. p. 11 (a small piece only).multitude .... eight

days .... they thought that he raised up the (boy). But when Paul had remained p. 12. They asked? him? .... the men listened to him . . . . they sent for Panchares .... and cried out, saying : We believe, Panchares, .... but save the city from .... many things, which they said. Panchares said unto them: Judge ye whether your good deeds (?) p. 13.is not possible .... but to (testify) .... God who hath .... his Son according to ... . salvation, and I also believe that, my brethren, there is no other God, save Jesus Christ the son of the Blessed, unto whom is glory for ever , Amen. But when they saw that he would not turn to them, they pursued Paul, and caught him, and brought him back into the city, ill-using (?) him, and cast stones at him and thrust him out of their city and out of their country. But Panchares would not return evil for evil: he shut the door of his house and went in with his wife .... fasting. But when it was evening Paul came to him and said: p. 14. God hath .... Jesus Christ. These are the last words of the episode. The situation is a little cleared by a sentence in the Greek Acts of Titus ascribed to Zenas (not earlier than the fifth century?): ‘They arrived at Antioch and found Barnabas the son of Panchares, whom Paul raised up.* Barnabas may be a mistake, but Panchares is, I doubt not, right: for the Coptic definite article is p prefixed to the word, and the Coptic translator

finding Panchares in his text has confused the initial of it with his own definite article, and cut it out. We have, then, a husband Panchares and wife Phila at Antioch (in Pisidia perhaps: this is disputed), and their son (possibly named Barnabas) is dead. Phila reproaches Panchares with want of parental affection. I take it that he is a believer, and has not mourned over his son, perhaps knowing that Paul was at hand and hoping for his help. Panchares prays till his fellow-townsmen come to carry out the body for burial. Paul arrives: at some point he raises the dead: but the people are irritated and some catastrophe threatens them at Paul’s hands. Panchares makes a profession of faith, the result of which is Paul’s ill-treatment and banishment. But Paul returns secretly and reassures Panchares. The next episode is that of Paul and Thecla, in which the Greek text exists, and will be followed. In the Coptic it has a title: After the flight from Antioch , when he would go to Iconium. It is possible that in this episode the author of the Acts may have used a local legend, current in his time, of a real Christian martyr Thecla. It is otherwise difficult to account for the very great popularity of the cult of St. Thecla, which spread over East and West, and made her the most famous of virgin martyrs. Moreover, one historical personage is introduced into the story, namely, Queen Tryphaena, who was the widow, it seems, of Cotys, King of Thrace, and the mother of Polemo II, King of Pontus. She was a great-niece of the Emperor Claudius. Professor W. M. Ramsay has contended that there was a written story of Thecla which was adapted by the author of the Acts: but his view is not generally accepted.

Antioch, there journeyed with him Demas and Hermogenes the coppersmith, which were full of hypocrisy, and flattered Paul as though they loved him. But Paul, looking only unto the goodness of Christ, did them no evil, but loved them well, so that he assayed to make sweet unto them all the oracles of the Lord, and of the teaching and the interpretation (of the Gospel) and of the birth and resurrection of the Beloved, and related unto them word by word all the great works of Christ, how they were revealed unto him (Copt, adds: how that Christ was born of Mary the virgin, and of the seed of David). that Paul was come to Iconium, went out with his children Simmias and Zeno and his wife Lectra to meet him, that he might receive him into his house: for Titus 1 had told him what manner of man Paul was in appearance; for he had not seen him in the flesh, but only in the spirit. his coming in every city which he was to visit. Lystra and stood expecting him, and looked upon them that came, according to the description of Titus. And he saw Paul coming, a man little of stature, thin-haired upon the head, crooked in the legs, of good state of body, with eyebrows joining, and nose somewhat hooked, full of grace: for sometimes he appeared like a man, and sometimes he had the face of an angel.

said: Hail, thou servant of the blessed God. And he said: Grace be with thee and with thine house. But Demas and Hermogenes were envious, and stirred up their hypocrisy yet more, so that Demas said: Are we not servants of the Blessed, that thou didst not salute us so? And Onesiphorus said: I see not in you any fruit of righteousness, but if ye be such, come ye also into my house and refresh yourselves. there was great joy, and bowing of knees and breaking of bread, and the word of God concerning abstinence (or continence) and the resurrection; for Paul said: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are they that keep the flesh chaste, for they shall become the temple of God. Blessed are they that abstain (or the continent), for unto them shall God speak. Blessed are they that have renounced this world, for they shall be well-pleasing unto God. Blessed are they that possess their wives as though they had them not, for they shall inherit God. Blessed are they that have the fear of God, for they shall become angels of God. they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that receive the wisdom of Jesus Christ, for they shall be called sons of the Most High.