Page:LostApocryphaOfTheOldTestamentMRJames.djvu/75

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THE OLD TESTAMENT
57

is actually connected with Elijah and is closer to the Latin fragment than the second.

My other fragment was printed in the Journal Asiatique, 1917, p. 454, by Abbé F. Nau from a Paris MS. (gr. 4) of the thirteenth century. It occurs along with an extract from the Revelation of (pseudo) Methodius, and some descriptions of Antichrist from Chrysostom and from the Bible and elsewhere.

"It is contained in apocryphal writings that Elias the prophet spake concerning Antichrist, of what aspect he is to appear at that time. His head a flame of fire: his right eye mingled with blood, but the left bright (χάροπόσ) having two pupils: his eyebrows (-lashes) white, and his lower lip large: his right thigh thin and his feet broad, and the great toe of his foot hath been broken."

Something nearly identical with this description of Antichrist is to be found in several other places, in the Testament of the Lord (Syriac) xi., in the Testament in Galilee (ed. Guerrier and Grebaut, Ethiopic), 6, and in a Latin fragment from Trèves printed by me in Apocrypha anecdota (i., p. 153). I show them in tabular form.

Test. of the Lord Test. in Galilee Latin Fragment
His head as a burning flame. Head as a flame of fire. His eyes "fellini" like a cat's (?).
Right eye mingled with blood. Right eye mingled with blood. Right eye mingled with blood.
Left eye of a blue-grey or green colour having two pupils. Left eye dead. The two pupils of the eyes are <gap> Left eye joyful (gaudiensχαροπόσ).
Eyelashes white. White in his eyelids. Eyelashes white.
Lower lip large. Lower lip large. Lower lip large.
Right thigh thin. Omitted. † His legs lean.
Feet broad. Omitted. Omitted.
Great toe broken and oblong (or thin). Toes and joints of his feet twisted. Great toe broken.
He is the scythe of desolation. He is the scythe of perdition. He is the scythe of desolation.