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49 Lit., proportion or analogy.
51 Deut. xxxii. 8 according to the LXX.
53 John x. 16. [The correct text of John x. 16 is: "one flock, one shepherd." but it was altered quite early.-R.]
58 As a specimen of the eschatology of these documents, Tischendorf gives the following extracts from the termination of MS. E:-
Hear, righteous John: All these shall be assembled, and they shall be in the pit of lamentation: and I shall set my throne in the place, and shall sit with the twelve apostles and the four and twenty elders, and thou thyself an elder on account of thy blameless life; and to finish three services thou shalt receive a white rob and an unfading crown from the hand of the Lord, and thou shalt sit with the four and twenty elders, etc. And after this the angels shall come forth, having a golden censer and shining lamps; and they shall gather together on the Lord's right hand those who have lived well, and done His will, and He shall make them to dwell for ever and ever in light and joy, and they shall obtain life everlasting. And when He shall separate the sheep from the goats, that is, the righteous from the sinners, the righteous on the right, and the sinners on the left; then shall He send the angel Raguel, saying: Go and sound the trumpet for the angels of cold and snow and ice, and bring together every kind of wrath upon those that stand on the left. Because I will not pardon them when they see the glory of God, the impious and unrepentant, and the priests who did not what was commanded. You who have tears, weep for the sinners. And Temeluch shall call out to Taruch: Open the punishments, thou keeper of the ksy; oen the judgments; open the worm that dieth not, and the wicked dragon; make ready Hades; open the darkness; let loose the fiery river, and the frightful darkness in the depths of Hades. Then the pitiful sinners, seeing thei r works, and having no consolation, shall go down weeping into streatms as it were of blood. And there is none to pity them, netiher father to help, nor mother to compassionate, but rather the angels going against them, and saying: Ye poor wretches, why are you weeping? In the world you had no compassion on the weak, you did not help them. And these go away into everlasting punishment. There you will not be able to bear the sight of Him who was born of the virgin; you lived unrepenting in the world, and you will get no pity, but everlasting punishment. And Temeluch says to Taruch: Rouse up the fat three-headed serpent; sound the trumpet for the frightful wild beasts to gether them together to feed upon them (i.e., the sinners); to open the twelve plagues, that all the creeping things may be brought together against the impious and unrepenting. And Temeluch will gather together the multittude of the sinners, and will kick the earth; and the earth will be split up in diverse places, and the sinners will be melted in frightful punishments. Then shall God send Michael, the leader of His hosts; and having sealed the place, Temeluch shall strike them with the previous cross, and the earth shall be brought together as before. Then their angels lamented exceedingly, then the all-holy Virgin and all the saints wept for them, and they shall do them no good. And John says: Why are the sinners thus punished? And I heard a voice saying to me: They walked in the world each other after his own will, and therefore are they thus punished.
Blessed is the man who reads the writing: blessed is he who has transcribed it, and given it to other Catholic churches: blessed are all who fear God. Hear ye priests, and ye readers; hear ye people, etc.
1 The titles vary considerably. In two MSS. the author is said the be James the Lord's brother; in one, John Archbishop of Thessalonica, who lived in the seventh century.
4 A place near Rome; one MS. calls it Tiberis.
6 A canon is a part of the Church service consisting of nine odes. The canon of the third day is the canon for Tuesday.
9 Burning-MS. B. [This MS. is in Venice; see Tischendorf, Apocalypses Apocryphoe, p. xliii., for designations of MSS.-R.]
10 Lit., chiliarch, i.e., commander of a thousand.
12 Matt. xxi. 9; Luke xix. 38; Ps. cxviii. 26.
14 Lit., a going forth of illumination.
15 Perhaps the true reading is: thou shalt dwell where there is peace and joy of the holy angels.
17 Four of the MSS. give a different account here: While the apostles were going forth from the city of Jerusalem carrying the couch, suddenly twelve clouds of light snatched up the apostles, with the body of our Lady, and translated them to paradise.
19 One MS. has: To find mercy and remission of sins from our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 MS. B, the assumption. [For the list of MSS. used by Tischendorf, see his Apocal. Apocr., p. xliii.-R.]
2 MS. C adds: And cause all the apostles to be present at my departure.
4 Protevangelium of James, ch. 8, p. 363.
5 MS. C has: When, therefore, thou shalt see my archangel Gabriel coming to thee with a palm which I shall send to thee from heaven, know that I shall soon come to thee, my disciples, and angels, etc.
6 MS. C: And she began to give great thanks to God in these words: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoinced in God my Saviour.
8 MS. A, raised. Levavit instead of lavit.
10 MS. c inserts: of the second day after the angel had come to her with the palm.
12 It was Joseph, theo ther candidate for the apostleship, who was called Justus (Acts i. 23).
13 MS. C adds: And she showed them the palm which the Lord had sent her from heaven by His angel.
14 MS. C has: just as the Holy Spirit appeared in a cloud to His disciples, viz., Peter, James, and John, when HE was transfigured, so, etc.
16 MS. C: By the divine vengeance, at that very instant they began to strike and slay each other with their weapons, and struck their heads against the walls like madmen.
17 MS. C inserts: a scribe of the tribe of Dan.
18 MS. C adds: and firmly to promise that, if he were made whole by their prayers, he would become Christian.