Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/98

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
xciv
INTRODUCTION.

their narratives behind them. It is very apparent that this second part was appended as a sort of Odyssey to follow the Iliad. I omit to say more of this fable at present, except that the names of the sons of Simeon are not given in the Greek text which Dr. Tischendorf has followed.

(4.) The Latin Gospel of Nicodemus, or Acts of Pilate, Part I., has a prologue similar to that of the first Greek text, but with some differences, as that Æneas is put for Ananias as translator. The second introduction is also given, and with certain variations. Nicodemus is said to have been the author. These prefaces vary considerably in the copies, some of which in fact either omit them altogether, or place the second at the end of the book. The edition printed in the "Orthodoxographa," in 1555, has no introduction, but at the end is a subscription which says that Theodosius the emperor found the book at Jerusalem in the prætorium of Pilate, and that it had been written in Hebrew by Nicodemus. The Latin text differs in sundry particulars from those in Greek, with which it will be interesting to compare it.

(5.) The second part of the Latin Nicodemus exhibits still further variations from the Greek, and in