DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49369#0108
90
STORY OF ZOSIMUS
dwell in this land and clothed us with heavenly clothing, both us
and our wives, and gave us food from these trees and drink from
this fountain : and our wives dwell apart from us from year to
year. They do not come together with us save once, and they
do not sleep with us ’ (cf. c. x.). They are warned of the approach
of Lent by the withering of the trees, and the drying up of the
fountain (cf. c. xii.). They are subject to death (cf. c. xiii.). They
know of Christ through the promises of the prophets. Here a
summary of Jewish history from the time of Moses is inserted,
which contains an extract from the Conflict of Adam. They had
been shewn in a series of visions the circumstances of the birth
and life of Christ. Abba Gerasimus is finally compelled to leave
the island because he had tried to make his host tell a lie (cf. c. vi.).
This Ethiopic version of the story has taken great liberties
with its original. The Alexander-Romance and the Rest of the
words of Baruch, with other legends, have been used in the first
part of the story, and the Christian element in the second part
has been much enlarged. In the Ethiopic Romance of Alexander
(not that analysed by Dr Budge in his Alexander the Great) the
episode of the Greek hero’s visit to the Islands of the Blest occurs
in cc. viii., ix. (see Zotenberg’s analysis, Cat. MBS. Eth. p. 244).
He catches certain large but mild birds which he induces, by
tying pieces of meat in front of their eyes, to carry him over the
sea to the Islands in question : here the sun rises when it sets for
us : the water of the spring is sweet, and there are fountains of
wine. In the neighbourhood of this country, it would seem, he
meets Enoch and Elias in a ‘ spiritual tent’: after an interview, in
which they describe their manner of life, a fiery chariot comes and
takes them away.
Lastly, there is an Arabic version of the book : copies of this
exist at Paris. (Anc. fonds 170, 171. Supplement 91, 92, 93.)
For the purpose of comparison with our text, I will in the next
place print two extracts from two widely different books which
bear upon the story of the Lost Tribes. I have elsewhere (Psalms
of Solomon, notes on Ps. xi.: Revel, of Peter, p. 70) called attention
to the similarity that exists between these passages. One is
taken from the Ethiopic Conflict of Matthew, translated by Malan
(Conflicts of the Holy Apostles, p. 44) : this book itself goes back
STORY OF ZOSIMUS
dwell in this land and clothed us with heavenly clothing, both us
and our wives, and gave us food from these trees and drink from
this fountain : and our wives dwell apart from us from year to
year. They do not come together with us save once, and they
do not sleep with us ’ (cf. c. x.). They are warned of the approach
of Lent by the withering of the trees, and the drying up of the
fountain (cf. c. xii.). They are subject to death (cf. c. xiii.). They
know of Christ through the promises of the prophets. Here a
summary of Jewish history from the time of Moses is inserted,
which contains an extract from the Conflict of Adam. They had
been shewn in a series of visions the circumstances of the birth
and life of Christ. Abba Gerasimus is finally compelled to leave
the island because he had tried to make his host tell a lie (cf. c. vi.).
This Ethiopic version of the story has taken great liberties
with its original. The Alexander-Romance and the Rest of the
words of Baruch, with other legends, have been used in the first
part of the story, and the Christian element in the second part
has been much enlarged. In the Ethiopic Romance of Alexander
(not that analysed by Dr Budge in his Alexander the Great) the
episode of the Greek hero’s visit to the Islands of the Blest occurs
in cc. viii., ix. (see Zotenberg’s analysis, Cat. MBS. Eth. p. 244).
He catches certain large but mild birds which he induces, by
tying pieces of meat in front of their eyes, to carry him over the
sea to the Islands in question : here the sun rises when it sets for
us : the water of the spring is sweet, and there are fountains of
wine. In the neighbourhood of this country, it would seem, he
meets Enoch and Elias in a ‘ spiritual tent’: after an interview, in
which they describe their manner of life, a fiery chariot comes and
takes them away.
Lastly, there is an Arabic version of the book : copies of this
exist at Paris. (Anc. fonds 170, 171. Supplement 91, 92, 93.)
For the purpose of comparison with our text, I will in the next
place print two extracts from two widely different books which
bear upon the story of the Lost Tribes. I have elsewhere (Psalms
of Solomon, notes on Ps. xi.: Revel, of Peter, p. 70) called attention
to the similarity that exists between these passages. One is
taken from the Ethiopic Conflict of Matthew, translated by Malan
(Conflicts of the Holy Apostles, p. 44) : this book itself goes back