The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament/Other Legends
Other Legends
There are, of course, many other legends woven about the Old Testament history which may have been the themes of apocryphal books. Such, for instance, is the Story of the Captivity, which is current in Arabic. Two versions of it are accessible, one in the Revue de l'Orient Chrétien for 1910–11, the other in Amélineau's Contes de l'Égypte Chrétienne, II. It is a picturesque embroidery of the Bible story, of which Jeremiah is the hero, and it shows a knowledge of the Paralipomena of that prophet. Another is the Slavonic tale of Babylon, translated by Wesselovsky in the Archiv für Slavische Philologie, II. Neither could possibly be at all early in date, I think; the second might fairly be called a folk-tale. There are, besides, lives of Biblical heroes such as Joseph, David, and Job, in Arabic and other Eastern tongues, which have not as yet been looked into, and which may prove to contain old elements. But to stray much further than I have done into late workings-up of earlier matter would be inappropriate. I hope and believe that in the present collection not much that is of really old date will be found to have been passed over.