DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49369#0145
ON THE APOCALYPSE OF SEDRACH.
The fifth and last of the complete texts which are here printed
is at once later in form and earlier in substance than any of the
other four. Later in form, for its language degenerates not seldom
into modern Greek; earlier in substance, for it is a humble
descendant of the Book of Job, the Fourth Book of Esdras and
the Apocalypse of Baruch. Like those books, it is an attempt to
justify the ways of God to man : and, as in the case of the two
last-named books, this attempt takes the shape of a colloquy
between God and a man eminent for piety. Of the three ancient
books mentioned one is more closely followed in this late Apoca-
lypse than the rest; namely, the Fourth Book of Esdras. In
more than one passage, indeed, the lost Greek text of that work
has plainly been used. This fact alone would, I think, be some
justification for printing the book: another justification is afforded
by the consideration that it is necessary to print all documents
of an Apocalyptic kind in order to form a complete idea of the
development of this branch of literature.
In a former number of this series I have briefly described this
book and printed some passages from it1. It will be necessary in
this place to repeat the particulars there given as to the manu-
script source of the text. There is but one copy known to me, in
the Bodleian, Cod. Misc. Gr. 56 (Auct. E. 4. 11 : olim 3060), given
by Tho. Cecill Earl of Exeter in 1618 : it is of the xvth century,
on paper, and in two hands, of which the second and latest has
written only our document—the 11th and last item in the volume.
The text is full of itacisms and in places very corrupt, par-
1 Texts and Studies, n. ii. pp. 31—33, 66.
The fifth and last of the complete texts which are here printed
is at once later in form and earlier in substance than any of the
other four. Later in form, for its language degenerates not seldom
into modern Greek; earlier in substance, for it is a humble
descendant of the Book of Job, the Fourth Book of Esdras and
the Apocalypse of Baruch. Like those books, it is an attempt to
justify the ways of God to man : and, as in the case of the two
last-named books, this attempt takes the shape of a colloquy
between God and a man eminent for piety. Of the three ancient
books mentioned one is more closely followed in this late Apoca-
lypse than the rest; namely, the Fourth Book of Esdras. In
more than one passage, indeed, the lost Greek text of that work
has plainly been used. This fact alone would, I think, be some
justification for printing the book: another justification is afforded
by the consideration that it is necessary to print all documents
of an Apocalyptic kind in order to form a complete idea of the
development of this branch of literature.
In a former number of this series I have briefly described this
book and printed some passages from it1. It will be necessary in
this place to repeat the particulars there given as to the manu-
script source of the text. There is but one copy known to me, in
the Bodleian, Cod. Misc. Gr. 56 (Auct. E. 4. 11 : olim 3060), given
by Tho. Cecill Earl of Exeter in 1618 : it is of the xvth century,
on paper, and in two hands, of which the second and latest has
written only our document—the 11th and last item in the volume.
The text is full of itacisms and in places very corrupt, par-
1 Texts and Studies, n. ii. pp. 31—33, 66.