The Apocryphal New Testament

XXV

of the fourth century), but also that they do not represent the views of a large school of thought, but of a small and obscure sect.

The Greek form of the romance consists of twenty socalled Homilies—the Clementine Homilies, The Latin is a version of another form, expurgated and translated by Rufinus in the fourth century. It is in ten books, and is called the Clementine Recognitions, The Syriac, never yet translated, mingles the two forms together.

There are Epitomes and other off-shoots of this literature much later in date, which need not detain us. But with this same Clement’s name are associated certain Revelations made to him by Peter which deserve a passing notice. Of these, again, there are several forms, extant in Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopia, and not yet discriminated nor edited fully. Some of them treat of the whole history of the world from its creation to its end, with prophecies of such late events as the rise and progress of Islam. In one of the Ethiopic recensions the old Apocalypse of Peter was found embedded. Others are wholly devoted to ordinances for Church government.

A fourth group should perhaps just be mentioned, the works ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, Paul’s Athenian convert. They consist of treatises on mystical theology, and letters: there is also a long Epistle to Timothy on the deaths of Peter and Paul. None of these are older than the fifth century. The theological treatises have had a great influence on Christian speculation: but they need a great deal of exposition by a specialist to make them intelligible.

Mention of a good many later books will be found under various heads in the body of this work. The names of a few which have escaped other notice may be given here.

There are Lives of St. John Baptist, by Mark, and by a supposed disciple, Eurippus, which have been edited by F. Nau in the Patrologia Orientalis with a French version.

An account of the death of Zacharias, and his being raised in order to be baptized by Christ, along with John, exists in Slavonic, and was translated by Berendts ( Zacharias - Apokryphen), I have summarized it in my Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament,

A document called the ‘Priesthood of Jesus’ is given by the twelfth-century lexicographer Suidas, s. v. Jesus . It

was rendered into Latin by Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, in the thirteenth century. It is a late production, telling how…