Page:LostApocryphaOfTheOldTestamentMRJames.djvu/95

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THE OLD TESTAMENT
77

me rather as the beginning of a life of John than as the conclusion of a life of his father.

We have thus no clear evidence that there was an apocryphal book of the minor prophet Zechariah.

A story given by Sozomen (lib. ix. Hist. Eccl.) of the finding of the body of Zechariah in his time shall be mentioned, only to be dismissed.

It is to the effect that, with the body, the remains of a child in princely robes and crown were found; and when questions were asked as to the meaning of this, Zacharias Abbot of Gerara produced an uncanonical Hebrew book, in which it was recorded that on the seventh day after King Joash had slain Zechariah (the son of Jehoiada) his favourite child died: he recognized that this blow was a divine judgment, and had the boy buried in the prophet's grave. The story does not concern our Zechariah, and the book, whatever it was, was not supposed to be written by any one of the name.


Baruch

Baruch is the only other name in the lists which remains to be dealt with. We have plenty of books attributed to him besides that in our official Apocrypha: there is the Syriac Apocalypse and the Greek one (both of which are to be found in Dr. Charles's Pseudepigrapha), and also the Rest of the Words of Baruch or Paralipomena of Jeremiah, which has been edited by Dr. Rendel Harris: a translation of the Armenian version is in Issaverdens' collection. Justin the Gnostic—a heretic only known from the treatise of Hippolytus—had a book setting forth his peculiar system, in which an angelic being named Baruch figured, and the book bore his name; but that is hardly relevant here. There is an Ethiopic Apocalypse never printed (Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 16,223) which, Dillmann says, deals in part with the history of the Abyssinian Church.

There are also scattered quotations not traceable in the existing books of Baruch.

(a) Cyprian, Testimonia iii. 29 (not in all MSS,), has