DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49369#0104
ON THE STORY OF ZOSIMUS.
The publication of this narrative is but the first step towards
the opening of a considerable literature, as yet little known, which
bears upon the famous legends of the Lost Ten Tribes, and of the
Terrestrial Paradise1. It is so large a subject that I cannot
undertake in this short Introduction to do more than point to
some of the documents which it will be desirable further to
investigate with the view of throwing light upon these myths:
and one of these myths, that of the Lost Tribes, has gained so
large an acceptance in our own day, that it will not be without
interest to collect some of the earlier Christian literature of the
subject. It will be right in the first place to set down the facts,
as far as they are known to me, which relate to the document
before us.
It is here printed on the authority of two MSS., one of which
is late and imperfect. That on which I depend principally for
the text is Cod. Par. Gr. 1217, of the xiith century, in which
the book occupies if. 145—153, being preceded by the life of S.
Theodora, and followed by that of SS. Theophanes and Pansemne.
This MS. is cited as A in the apparatus criticus : its text is at
least intelligible throughout.
o o
My other authority, cited as B, is the Bodleian MS. Canonic.
Gr. 19, of the xvth or xvith century, which had already furnished
a copy of the Testament of Abraham. Its text of Zosimus is,
as I have said, only a fragment, extending to within a few words
1 For the Jewish literature on the Tribes-legend, see Mr Neubauer’s excellent
articles in the Jewish Quarterly Review, 1888—89.
The publication of this narrative is but the first step towards
the opening of a considerable literature, as yet little known, which
bears upon the famous legends of the Lost Ten Tribes, and of the
Terrestrial Paradise1. It is so large a subject that I cannot
undertake in this short Introduction to do more than point to
some of the documents which it will be desirable further to
investigate with the view of throwing light upon these myths:
and one of these myths, that of the Lost Tribes, has gained so
large an acceptance in our own day, that it will not be without
interest to collect some of the earlier Christian literature of the
subject. It will be right in the first place to set down the facts,
as far as they are known to me, which relate to the document
before us.
It is here printed on the authority of two MSS., one of which
is late and imperfect. That on which I depend principally for
the text is Cod. Par. Gr. 1217, of the xiith century, in which
the book occupies if. 145—153, being preceded by the life of S.
Theodora, and followed by that of SS. Theophanes and Pansemne.
This MS. is cited as A in the apparatus criticus : its text is at
least intelligible throughout.
o o
My other authority, cited as B, is the Bodleian MS. Canonic.
Gr. 19, of the xvth or xvith century, which had already furnished
a copy of the Testament of Abraham. Its text of Zosimus is,
as I have said, only a fragment, extending to within a few words
1 For the Jewish literature on the Tribes-legend, see Mr Neubauer’s excellent
articles in the Jewish Quarterly Review, 1888—89.