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THE HOMERIC CENTONES 
 
 AND 
 
 THE ACTS OF PILATE 
 
aotiDon: C. J. OLAY AND SONS, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVEESITY PEESS WAEEHOUSE, 
 
 AVE MARIA LANE. 
 
 ©lasaoiD: 263, ARGYLE STEEET. 
 
 ILcipjiS: ¥. A. BROCKHAUS. 
 
 0.tia aotk: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 IBoraiaa; E. SEYMOUR HALE. 
 
THE HOMEEIG CENTONES 
 
 AND 
 
 THE ACTS OE PILATE 
 
 BY 
 
 j/eendel hakris, 
 
 UNIVEESITY LEOTUEEE IN PALiEOGEAPHY 
 AND TELLOW OF CLAEE COLLEGE, OAMBEIDGE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 0. J. CLAY AND SONS, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, 
 
 AVE MAEIA LANE. 
 
 1898 
 

 PRINTED BY J. AND 0. F. CLA1, 
 AT THE UNIVEKSITy PBESS. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 rilHE notes which are contained in the following pages have 
 been lying by me for several years, in the hope that I might 
 find it possible to complete and correct the investigation by a 
 study of the MSS. involved. But no such opportunity as I 
 desired has presented itself, and it has occurred to me that the 
 publication of this imperfect dissertation might enable some other 
 student to pursue more successfully an enquiry, my own share in 
 which I can only describe as preliminary and tentative. I am 
 much indebted to Mr Conybeare and Mr M'=Evoy for their kind- 
 ness in reading the proof-sheets. 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026672885 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Early Versifications of the Scriptures 1 — 18 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 Early Editions of the Centones and traces of their use by Milton 19 — 33 
 
 CHAPTEE IH. 
 
 Authorship and Date of the Homeric Centones .... 34 — 42 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Literary Parallelism between the Homeric Centones and the Acts 
 
 of Pilate 43—50 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 Homeric Structure of the Acts of Pilate 51 — 58 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 Homeric Structure of the Descensus ad Inferos .... 59 — 67 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 Justin Martyr and the Acta Pilati 68 — 75 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 Directions for Further Enquiry ....... 76 — 83 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 On the Early Versifications of the Scriptures. 
 
 The object of the present tract is the critical examination of a 
 metrical form of the Scriptures which was current in very early 
 times, and underwent a good deal of editing in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, though it has since been almost lost sight 
 of ; and to point out the reflex influence which this pseudo-poetry 
 exercised upon the literature and the legends of the Christian 
 Church. I refer, as my title shews, to the Homeric versifications 
 which pass under the name of Gentones, Homero-centrones, or 
 Homero-centra, in which, by a skilful adaptation and piecing 
 together of verses and half-verses of Homer, with a few necessary 
 modifications, the narrative of the Gospels was transferred from 
 its natural simplicity into a ridiculous mimicry of the reverberating 
 music of the Greek epic, which, no doubt, pleased the learned by 
 its ingenuity and deceived the unlearned by its affected state- 
 liness'. 
 
 The popularity of these compositions is not confined to any 
 particular age, and they are as much in demand in the sixteenth 
 century as in the second. 
 
 Some idea of the interest which has been taken in the Homeric 
 Centones since the invention of printing may be gathered from 
 the fact that they were published from the Aldine press as early 
 as A.D. 1504, two years before the appearance of the second 
 
 ' The proper name for such compositions is Kivrpavet, which passed into the 
 Latin as centones. At all events Tertullian and Jerome know them as Homero- 
 centones, Virgilio-centones. That the vulgar were really deceived by such composi- 
 tions appears from a specimen given by Irenaeus, who remarks, lis ovk av tCiv 
 avavoipyuiii awapiraydri iirb twv iwlov toiJtuc khI vojxlaaev oiirws airti, "O/iTipov iirl 
 raiirijs t-^s vwoBiaews veTotriKivai ; 6 S' luireipos rijs ' Of),i)piK7Js vTrodiaeas iinyviSiixeTai 
 fiiv T& Ivri, riiv S' iirbBeaiv oix iTtyvdnxerai, (ed. Mass. p. 46). 
 
 H. 1 
 
2 EARLY VERSIFICATIONS 
 
 edition of Homer, and within fourteen years of the editio princeps^; 
 and that the interest was well sustained appears from the rapid 
 succession of editions, of which no less than five were produced 
 between A.D. 1502 and A.D. 1609, the last of which is remarkable 
 on account of its being a school-book for use in the Jesuit order ^ ! 
 It is difficult to estimate the meaning of this rapid sequence of 
 editions ; it cannot be due to the critical value of the Centones in 
 regard to the text of Homer himself, for it will be difificult to 
 extract any philology or textual interpretation from the confused 
 mass of quotations which make up the story ; nor can it be that 
 any theological light was thought to be cast by them on the 
 problems of the early Christian faith and tradition ; for, although 
 we shall shew that they do furnish abundant and important 
 evidence on certain obscure religious and literary phenomena, 
 there is not the least reason for supposing that any of the conclu- 
 sions to which we shall presently direct our readers were suspected 
 by those who in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tortured 
 themselves in reading the tortured Gospel. Some explanation 
 may be found in the fact that the Centones were an attempt at 
 Christianizing Homer, especially in the interests of young scholars: 
 the nude pagan statue needed drapery which early Homeric 
 editors found ready to their hand in the rag-bag of the Centonists. 
 That this consideration really had some weight may be seen from 
 the prefatory matter in the Aldine edition as well as from the 
 patronage of the Jesuits. Aldus says expressly that he designed 
 his edition foi" the use of schools, in order that children of tender 
 age might not be corrupted by heathen poetry ; and he intimates 
 that certain evilly-disposed persons shewed special spite against 
 the production of the work, which they tried in every way to 
 hinder. Moreover, as we shall see presently, he arranged his 
 text and Latin translation in such a manner that the Greek and 
 Latin could be detached and bound up separately, which again 
 suggests the use of schools. As for the Jesuits, who are amongst 
 
 1 The editio princeps of Homer is the Florence edition of 1488, under the editorial 
 care of Demetrius Chalcondylas of Athens and Demetrius of Crete. The second is 
 the Aldine edition of 1504. A discussion of the early editions of the Centones will 
 be found infra, c. 2. 
 
 " A copy in my possession is actually marked " CoUegii Societ. Jesu Ingolstadii 
 anno 1609." One feels like saying of Homer what the Scriptures do of Samson, 
 "Duxerunt Gazam vinctum catenis et clausum in carcere molere fecerunt," Judg. 
 xvi. 21. 
 
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 3 
 
 the first and foremost in the history of educational progress, they 
 did not actually expel Homer ; the Ratio Studiorum shews that a 
 place was found for him in the curriculum, which seems not to 
 have been the case with Euripides and Sophocles. Probably 
 the younger students read the Centones, and the older the 
 complete poet'. 
 
 But probably the right way to appreciate the literary fond- 
 ness for the biblical Homeric Cento, at all events in early times, 
 is to regard it as a part of a much wider series of phenomena; 
 we may discuss it as a single case of the multiform witchcraft of 
 Homer over the human race, or we may regard the Centones as 
 a single link in the long chain of attempts at versification of the 
 Hebrew and Christian Scriptures ; or, combining the two points 
 of view, we may regard the verses as the most striking attempt 
 ever made to translate one Bible into the language of another. 
 
 We are not concerned in the present study with the influence 
 of Homer upon literature generally, though it is impossible to 
 explain some of the phenomena which occur in Hellenistic and 
 later Greek without some appreciation of his wonderful dominance. 
 Apart from the question of Biblical versifications and adaptations, 
 we need a proper feeling of his just and undying supremacy in 
 the world of letters — if indeed it be possible in the present day to 
 obtain such an adequate estimate — and to recall the time when 
 everyone knew the Iliad and Odyssey, or at all events the more 
 striking portions of them, and when almost everyone could quote 
 them. To take an instance, who would ever have thought of 
 commencing a dialogue between a Christian and a Jew in the 
 second century by a quotation from Homer ? yet we find that 
 Justin opens his discourse with Trypho by the playful quotation : 
 Tt's Se av icra-i, (jiipiare, ^por&v ; ovrax} irpocnrai^aiv avrw eXeyov' 
 nor is there any reason to suppose that the source of the quotation 
 would have been obscure to Trypho, who confesses to Justin that 
 he takes a great interest in the Socratic philosophy". Those were 
 days when even the Rabbis' had Homer under their pillows. Who, 
 
 1 ^(i^o iir&naa u/iSs : and very sour milk ! 
 
 2 If it should turn out, which I do not expect, that Trypho in the dialogue is a 
 mere imaginary lay-figure, we should simply say that Justin has borrowed an artistic 
 touch for his verbal conflict from the meeting of Glaueus and Diomed on the plains 
 of Troy. But it seems to me in every way likely that we have here the summary of 
 a real discourse, though perhaps based on a conventional method. 
 
 3 As Babbi Akiba ; see T. J. Sanh. 28". 
 
 1—2 
 
4 EARLY VEESIFICATIONS 
 
 again, would have expected that a Jewish proselyte would, in 
 translating the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, have gone out of his 
 way to employ Homeric diction ? Yet it is demonstrable that 
 Aquila of Pontus did this ; nor is it easy to avoid the double con- 
 clusion (i) that Homer was a part of the common-school education 
 in Pontus, (ii) that the Rabbinical protests against Greek learning 
 were, at least in the second century, to a great extent mere 
 fulmina bruta^. Or to take an instance which shews the 
 persistence as well as the seriousness of Homeric studies among 
 the early Christians, who would have expected that a Christian 
 martyr in the year 303 would have secured his decapitation by 
 meeting the demand to make a libation to the emperors with the 
 words, 
 
 OiiK ayaObv TroXvKoipavlr], el's KOtpavoi eaTca, 
 
 (II. B. 204; Euseb. Mart. Patl. c. 1)? 
 
 We can see from this instance how near the quotation was to 
 words that are canonically holy^ 
 
 The influence of Homer upon the early Jewish and Christian 
 writers is not confined to professedly philosophic writers like 
 Justin, nor to perverts like Aquila. It is patent in the New 
 Testament itself, and especially in the Apocalypse. For example, 
 when St John wrote the vision of the dragon which attempts to 
 destroy the Man-Child that is born into the world, he had in his 
 mind the vision of Calchas in the second book of the Iliad, who 
 narrates the devouring of a brood of nestlings and their mother by 
 a fiery-red dragon. We have only to compare the language 
 
 KUi CTTjfielov fieja Q)(j)dri iv rS ovpavm...Kal IBoi) SpaKav /liya^ 
 ■7rvpp6<;... (Apoc. xii. 1, 3) 
 
 with the verse of Homer (II. B. 308), 
 
 ' EvO e^dvi^ /Meja arffia' SpaKcov eVt v&ra Ba(f)0i,v6i, 
 
 and we see at once that the one passage is the literary origin of 
 the other. The object of the dragon is to devour the brood, but 
 
 ' A recent writer in the Jewish Quarterly Review saves the literary reputation 
 of the Eabbis by sacrificing their moral character; the books against which a 
 crusade was ordered were not the works of Homer but /Si^Xia i/iipov, presumably 
 erotic writings. To prove that Homer was not prohibited he gets rid of the evidence 
 that -he was read. 
 
 ^ The same quotation used theologically in Justin, Cohort. 17. 
 
OF THE SCRIPTUKES. 5 
 
 this is not permitted in the vision in the Apocalypse, where both 
 Mother and Child escape. It is interesting to observe that in the 
 Apocalyptic writer's mind, the mother is really a bird, for when 
 the dragon proceeds to persecute her, she takes to herself the two 
 wings of a great eagle, and flies into the desert. Moreover she 
 has a whole brood of nestlings, and not merely the single Man- 
 Child ; for the writer tells us that the dragon proceeded to make 
 war with the remnant of her seed, those, namely, who keep the 
 commands of God and the testimony of Jesus'. 
 
 A similar Homeric touch occurs in c. ix. 1, where a mighty 
 angel descends from heaven, cloud-robed and rainbow-crowned. 
 The writer had Iris, the messenger of the gods, in his mind, and 
 he avoided the pagan conception by turning his Iris into an 
 ornament of the descending angel. 
 
 Other traces of Homeric influence may be found in the 
 Apocalypse; we do not attempt to deal with the subject ex- 
 haustively, but only to impress the sense of the ubiquity of 
 Homer in all early literature ^ 
 
 Why should we doubt that the Odyssey penetrated into 
 Palestine when we know from the story of Ulysses Mac Laertes 
 that it reached Ireland'? And if Dionysius of Halicarnassus was 
 right in comparing the influence of Homer to the might of his 
 own " ocean stream, from which flow all other rivers and seas and 
 all fountains of waters^" by what reason is the Jordan or the 
 
 1 Ephrem Syrus uses the passage of the Apocalypse to describe the Innocents 
 in a Hymn on the Nativity (Lamy, ii. 471) : 
 
 Ingemuerunt eolumbae in Bethlehem, 
 Quod serpens earum proles destruxisset ; 
 Aquila in Aegyptum se contulit, 
 Ut illuc descendens acciperet promissiones. 
 
 And in our own times Mr Gore has argued that a knowledge of the infancy sections 
 in Matthew is implied in the Apocalypse. See Dissertations, p. 10. 
 
 " What occurs in the Apocalypse occurs also, perhaps, in the Lucan writings ; 
 and indeed it would be strange if an author, like St Luke, who has been credited 
 with an acquaintance with Dioscorides, should shew no influence of mightier models 
 of style and speech. In his recent work on the Philology of the Gospels Dr Blass 
 has argued that the expression iTriKeiXav ttjc vaSi/ in Acts xxvii. 41 is Homeric (of. 
 Odyssey, ix. 148, 546). And there is another important passage to be discussed in 
 the same connexion to which we may return later. 
 
 3 The Irish text will be found translated by Kuno Meyer : sea Merugud Uilix 
 Maiec Leirtis (London, Nutt, 1886). 
 
 * II. *. 195. 
 
6 EARLY VERSIFICATIONS 
 
 sea of Galilee exiled from this all-embracing stream, and its all- 
 supplying flow^ ? 
 
 We may, indeed, grant that Jewish literature has become a 
 shrunken stream discharging itself into a Dead Sea of Talmudical 
 precepts and legends, but the evidence of the stratification of 
 the literature shews that, like the sacred river itself, it was in 
 former days no such pigmy channel, but a mighty flood in touch 
 with the outmost main. We might reasonably doubt whether the 
 Jews would ever have given so much to the thought and religion 
 of the outside world, if we were required to assume that they had 
 taken nothing therefrom. Admitting then the extent of Homer's 
 influence, which we can trace from the Borysthenes^ to the 
 Shannon, and from Pontus to Massilia^ and reminding ourselves 
 of a fact of which all ancient literature furnishes so abundant 
 proofs, that there never was an author so paraphrased, parodied, 
 centonized and generally imitated as Homer, let us now turn and 
 look at the Centones from the other point of view : let us consider 
 them as a successful attempt at the verse-translation of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 As soon as we begin to think of the versification of the 
 Scriptures we realize that we are dealing again with no isolated 
 phenomenon. The Centones are only one of a series of similar 
 efforts, in which the resources of Greek lyric, epic, and tragedy, 
 were made to contribute to the presentation of the Biblical story 
 and of Jewish and Christian doctrine. 
 
 We recall, for example, the Ghristus Patiens, long supposed 
 to be a work of Gregory of Nazianzus, which tells the Gospel in 
 language borrowed from six plays of Euripides, viz., Medea, 
 Orestes, Bacchae, Hippolytus, Troades, and Rhesus ; the piece is 
 valuable, not so much for its presentation of the historical foun- 
 dations of the faith, as for the criticism of the incorporated dramas 
 of Euripides, especially the Rhesus \ 
 
 ^ Theodore of Tarsus, who had such influence in settling the religion of the 
 English, carried a copy of Homer with him wherever he travelled. An evangelist 
 with Homer up his sleeve would be a good hieroglyphic to represent a number of 
 developments in the faith and practice of the Church. 
 
 '^ Dion Cassius tells us of the passion of the Borysthenitae for Homer. 
 
 ° Massilia bad the honour of producing one of the standard texts of Homer. 
 
 ^ Mrs Browning in her essay on the Greek Christian poets follows a conjecture 
 which ascribes this composition to ApoUinarius, mainly because it is not good enough 
 to be the work of Gregory ; and makes a happy translation of the opening verses 
 
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 7 
 
 Then we have the Psalms in epic form from the hand of 
 Apollinarius, a striking figure in the procession, which Lord Byron 
 alliterating reviles, of those who 
 
 "boldly pilfer from the Pentateuch, 
 And undisturbed by conscientious qualms 
 Pervert the Prophets and purloin the Psalms." 
 
 Another poem in similar metre is Nonnus' famous paraphrase 
 of the Gospel of St John, which, as the critical apparatus of 
 Tischendorf's New Testament will shew, is not destitute of value 
 in the determination of the sacred text. 
 
 Over against these writers of Greek verse and others, their 
 contemporaries, whose works have not survived, we have a Latin 
 company, embracing such writers as Juvencus, the author of the 
 Evangelical History, Cyprian the author of the Latin Heptateuch, 
 Proba Faltonia^ who imitated the Homer Centones in the lan- 
 guage of Virgil, and a number of others. 
 
 It will be seen that there was a steady stream of Biblical 
 versification flowing in the early centuries of the Christian era. 
 
 Not only is this the case, but, what is more remarkable, we 
 find traces of a similar stream in the centuries which immediately 
 precede the Christian era. Not a single one of these works has 
 come down to us, but there are sufficient fragments preserved to 
 give us a very good idea of the literary activity of the time. 
 
 by way of comparison with the Medea of Euripides, which they imitate. "The 
 tragedy is, in fact, a specimen of Centoism, which is the adaptation of the phraseo- 
 logy of one work to the construction of another; and we have only to glance at it 
 to perceive the Medea of Euripides, dislocated into the Christus Patiens. Instead 
 of the ancient opening, 
 
 ' Oh, would ship Argo had not sailed away 
 To Colchos by the rough SymplegadesI 
 Nor ever had been felled, in Pelion's grove, 
 The pine, hewn for her side ! So she, my queen, 
 Medea had not touched this fatal shore. 
 Soul-struck by love of Jason!' 
 
 Apollinarius (I) opens it thus : 
 
 ' Oh, would the serpent had not glode along 
 To Eden's garden-land — nor ever had 
 The crafty dragon planted in that grove 
 A slimy snare I So she, rib-born of man. 
 The wretched misled mother of our race. 
 Had dared not to dare on beyond worst daring. 
 Soul- struck by love of— apples!'" 
 
8 EARLY VERSIFICATIONS 
 
 We know of three poets who occupied themselves with the 
 versification of the Old Testament, to say nothing of those who 
 wrote under the literary disguise of the Sibyl. These three are 
 Philo, the epic poet, who writes the history of the city of 
 Jerusalem ; Theodotus, who writes the story of Shechem as given 
 in the book of Genesis ; and Ezekiel, who dramatized the story of 
 the Exodus after the manner of a Greek play. Our knowledge of 
 all these writers is ultimately derived from the lost collections of 
 Alexander Polyhistor, though the actual quotations and references 
 occur in the pages of Josephus, Clement of Alexandria, and 
 Eusebius'. 
 
 It is difficult to place any of these writers later than the 
 second century before the Christian era. But if this be the case, 
 their evidence becomes particularly weighty in questions relating 
 to the religion and education of that time, and the prominence of 
 the Greek language and literature amongst the Jews. For ex- 
 ample, the tragedy of Ezekiel, which, to judge from the name, is 
 certainly the work of a Jew, is based not on the Hebrew text of 
 Exodus, but on the Septuagint. A very few verses placed side 
 by side with the account in Exodus will shew this". Closer 
 
 ' The proof of the indebtedness of these writers to Alexander Polyhistor is not 
 difficult. Eusebius in his Praeparatio Evangelica, lib. ix., makes copious extracts 
 from Polyhistor, and amongst these extracts are the fragments of Theodotus' poem 
 on Shechem, as quoted by Polyhistor. Later on in the same book, but still quoting 
 Polyhistor, he gives extracts from Ezekiel's drama of the Exodus. But a large 
 part of the very same extracts are found quoted by Clement in the Stromateis, who 
 follows closely the Eusebian text— and in one case even drops the connecting 
 formula of Polyhistor {/jieB' Irepa iiriX^yei) which we find in Eusebius, so as to take 
 two consecutive extracts in Eusebius continuously. It is clear, then, that Clement 
 is" working on the same collection of extracts, but with less regard to the continuity 
 of the verses. 
 
 The epic poet Philo is referred to by Josephus, Clement and Eusebius : from the 
 fact that Josephus and Clement quote him along with the historians Demetrius 
 and Eupolemus, and in the same order (Demetrius, Philo and Eupolemus), it is 
 plain that they are working on a common collection of excerpts from these writers, 
 and this collection must be the work of Alexander Polyhistor, from which Eusebius 
 takes his extracts. Cf. Freudenthal, Alexander Polyhistor, p. 12. 
 " Moses describes his exposure in the ark of bulrushes as follows : 
 
 oi) \a6ov(ra Si 
 
 iiT€^i$T]Ke, Kdtr/xov d/Mtpid^lffii fioi, 
 
 Trap aKpa irorafiovt Xatnof', els ^\os Saff6. 
 
 Mapia/i S' aSeX0^ /lov Kariiwrcvev TrAas" 
 
 K&ireira BvyaTtjp ^aaCKius a^pan 6fioO 
 
 KaTTJXOe Xovrpoti XP^^ (pcuSpOvai v^ov. 
 
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 9 
 
 examination shews that the acquaintance with the Septuagint 
 is more than would be expected from a mere versifier, working 
 on a text. Further the writer's acquaintance with Greek literature 
 is not limited to the Greek Bible, nor to a tragic poet or two ; he 
 knew his Homer also : the concluding verses of Eusebius's extract 
 could never have been written by anyone whose mind was not 
 saturated with Homeric language and ideas*. 
 
 ■irdvra yap to, irTrjv" o/mov 
 oTTicrdev avTov SeiXt&VT eireo'crvTO, 
 oiro? Be Trpoirdev, ravpo<; m? javpovfievof 
 e^aive Kpanrvov ^ijfia ^aaTa^mv TroSo'i. 
 
 How thoroughly Homeric this, though not written in the 
 metre of the epic, both in thought and language. We recognise 
 the comparison of the marching Greeks to a flight of birds 
 (II. B. 459), of Agamemnon to a /Sou? Tavpo<s {II. B. 480), while 
 the last line echoes the continual ttocti Kpaiirvoicn, of the Iliad. 
 
 Compare also the verse which describes the onslaught of the 
 Egyptians, 
 
 HeTToiOoTei; \ao2cn koI (jjpiicToii oTrXot?, 
 
 with II. M. 153, 
 
 Aaoicrcv KaOvirepOe TreTTOt^ore?, rjhe ^irj^iv, 
 
 and similar passages. 
 
 Nor could the writer have described Moses as striking the Red 
 Sea, in the words 
 
 "Erui/r' ipvOpa'i vwra koX ecrx''"'^^ /juicrov 
 
 should be compared with Ex. ii. 3, 4, ($7iKei> airiiv eh rb S\os irapi, riv irorafjt.di'' 
 Kal KareffKbirevev i] i,Se\:pT] airov fiaKpoOev, fuiBeiv tI t6 diroprijSfi.evoi' aire}. (taW/Si; 
 Sk ri 9uy&Trip #opaa) Xoiio'affffai iwl rhv TOTafidv, Kal al a^pai ai^riji irapiiropeiovTO irapa 
 rbv TTorafjJiv. 
 
 This coincidence in language shews clearly that Ezekiel is versifying the 
 Septuagint ; nor is his acquaintance limited to the passage which he is working 
 on, for he shews a general acquaintance with the lxx. : for example, Moses' rod 
 works miracles on the waters of Egypt, 
 
 irpCiTOV piv of/ta iroTi/uov pirrjireTai 
 
 vriyal re traaai., x iSdrav avixTiip,aTa- 
 the last expression is taken from the first chapter of Genesis. 
 
 1 He is describing the appearance of a splendid bird which appeared to the 
 Israelites (presumably an omen of Moses himself), twice as large as an eagle, and 
 splendidly coloured ; which all the other birds follow as a king. 
 
10 EARLY VERSIFICATIONS 
 
 unless he had been familiar with the Homeric 
 evpea v&ra OaXdaarj's. 
 
 When we turn from poet Ezekiel to poet Theodotus we see the 
 same phenomenon, with the advantage this time that the poem is 
 written in epic metre. 
 
 The writer is well acquainted with Homer, from whom he 
 borrows freely, generally disguising his theft by some slight 
 modification in the language. When Simeon and Levi slay 
 Hamor and the Shechemites they do it in right Trojan 
 style : 
 
 copovcrev i-jr avTov 
 UXrj^i re ol Ke<f>aX')jv, Seiprjv S' eXev iv ^ept Xairj, 
 Aeii|r6 8' eVt (TTraipovaav, iirel ttwo? aXXo<; opwpei. 
 To(f)pa Se koi Aevlv fievo<i da-xero'; eXKa^e ;;^atT')ys 
 AiTTOfievov yovvcov AvxefJ-, daTrera fiapyijvavra, 
 'HXaare Se KXTjlSa fiecrijv. Bv Se ^t0o? o^v 
 Z/irXdrfxya, Std aTepvmv, XtVe he i^v^i] Befiai; evdv<;. 
 
 Here we recognize the Homeric phrases irova dXKo'i eirei'^ev 
 (Od. \. 54), fiivo<; daxeroi; (Od. y. 19 etc.), rbv ^a)C virb kXtjISu 
 liianv (II. P. 309); cf. also II. ^. 116, 
 
 Ap^tXeii? Be epvaadfievo'i ^i<})0<: o^v 
 Tijyjre Kara KK-ijiSa 'Trap' av^eva, irdv Be ol eiacd 
 Ai) ^[(j)o<; dfjicj)i]Ke<;. 
 
 But we also see the artist at work concealing his art by the 
 substitution of feeble- alternatives. 
 
 So when the writer describes the impiety of the men of 
 Shechem and their lawless state, he contrasts them with the 
 Cyclopes, 
 
 ov yap aaro? 
 El? avToiii oa-ri<; Ke fjioKy KoXot ovBe fiev ia-6\6<;. 
 OvBe SUa^ iBiKu^ov dvd ttoXiv ovBe 6e/jLi,aTa<;, 
 
 where we recognize the refrain of Od. i. 215, 
 
 "Aypiov, oiiTe BiKa<s eil elBora ovre Oefxiarwi. 
 
OF THE SCRIPTUKES. 11 
 
 Surely, too, we must correct the printed text in the third 
 line of our first extract from en airaipovaav to eV aairaipovcrav 
 which recalls II. M. 203, 
 
 fwoi', eV ac77raipovTa. 
 
 How easily might this -writer have been an actual Centonist ! 
 
 This case of intimate acquaintance with Homer would be more 
 striking still if Schiirer were correct in supposing that the author 
 belonged to the city whose fortunes he describes. Schiirer in his 
 History of the Jewish People^ afiirms this on the ground that the 
 city is described as a holy city, 
 
 H S' lepr) liiKifiav Kara(^aiveTai, lepov acrv, 
 
 from whence we are to infer that the writer is a Samaritan. The 
 only objection would seem to be that the case is parallel to the 
 Homeric descriptions, such as aa-rv Ki'x^eiofj.ev 'iXiov Ipi]^ {11. <E>. 
 128), which renders the conclusion a little insecure. On the 
 other hand, the writer knew the geographical situation of the city 
 in the valley between Ebal and Gerizim : 
 
 ihl^ avTr]<! be fia\ ar^yi ov ovpea (paiver epvfjiva, 
 ^o^17S re irXriOovra Koi vXi;?' t&v Se /ie<r7]yv 
 'Ar/jaTTfTO? rerfirjT, apairi' 
 
 Perhaps, then, we shall at least be safe in regarding the writer as 
 a Palestinian. 
 
 That he was also acquainted with the Septuagint will appear 
 from a scrutiny of the proper names in the poem : he calls the 
 city "ZiKL/Ma, and the rulers of it 'E/^a>/> and Xvxefi, which agrees 
 closely with the Greek Bible; we have also 'A^pad/j,, 'Ia«w/8, 
 ^vfie&v, Aevl, and Aeiva, which at all events do not contradict 
 the theory of acquaintance with the Lxx. 
 
 The third writer to whom we alluded is Philo, the epic poet, 
 who writes the history of Jerusalem. He seems to have been 
 acquainted with the city, for he describes the great aqueduct 
 which, even in his day, brought water from beyond Bethlehem 
 into the sanctuary. The fragments preserved by Eusebius' are 
 
 1 Theil ii. 750, Eng. Trans, vol. in. p. 228. 
 '' Fraep. Evang. ix. 20, 24, 37. 
 
12 EARLY VERSIFICATIONS 
 
 very rough hexameters, and do not, at first sight, betray any trace 
 of acquaintance with Homer. But a closer study reveals the 
 same feature which we noted in previous cases. Take, for example, 
 the following lines : 
 
 Tola-iv e8o<; fiaKapicrrov o\r)<; fiiryai; kicrt,aev aicTwp 
 ' T'\jri(TTo<i, Koi irpoo'Qev d<f)' 'A^padfioio Kai Ictuk, 
 'laKO)^ eiiTe/cvoto t6ko<; ^Imarjcf), 09 oveipav 
 ©ecTTTio-T^?, aKr]'trTOV')(p'i ev AIjvtttoio 6povoiai, 
 Aivevaa<; \a6paia 'X^povov TrXTj/ifivpiSi /AOt'/a?;?. 
 
 Whatever may be said of the present state of the verses, and 
 certainly they need some correction, the conjunction eSo? eKTiaev 
 is Homeric, for it is the expression used of the founding of Thebes 
 by Amphion and Zethus : 
 
 Ot irpoiTOi ®ri^r)<; eBo<; eKTicrav eiTTairvKoio 
 
 (Od. X. 263), 
 
 and the parallel between the verses now shews that we ought to 
 expect the name of the eSo?, which leads us to correct the un- 
 necessary fieYa<! into Tea-e/u,, from which it may have been derived 
 by transposition of the letters, or we may write 'Pa/ieo-^? Kriaep 
 aKTcop, which would explain why one MS. reads fiiaa<; for iJ.iya<;, 
 and would bring the line into very close agreement with the 
 verse in Genesis (xlvii. 11), Kal KaraiKiaev 'Icocr^^ rov irarepa 
 axiTov Kal Toil? aSe\(f)Ov^ avTov Kal eScoKev aurot? KaTd<T')(eaiv ev 
 yf Aj/yvirrw, ev rfj ^eXricrTrj yy, ev jfj 'Pafieffcry Ka0d irpoaera^e 
 ^apad). 
 
 The last line of the extract is obscure; I suspect that we 
 have in Sti'evcra? Xadpaia an interpretation of the mysterious 
 Zaphnath Paaneah, which has been expanded, for metrical 
 necessity, by the concluding words, producing the line " Eddying 
 the secrets of Time, in the full-tide of destiny." But whether this 
 be the correct explanation or not, enough has been said to shew 
 that there is some ground for believing that Philo, the epic poet, 
 also was acquainted with the Greek Bible, and was a student of 
 Homer, which is, indeed, as we have said, the Greek Bible of an 
 earlier period. 
 
 Closely connected with this group of writers we must place 
 the earliest fragments of the Judsean Sibyl, which are, like the 
 poems of Ezekiel and the others, largely Homerized, and undergo 
 
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 13 
 
 exactly similar treatment at the hands of Alexander Polyhistor 
 and the subsequent writers who appropriate his excerpts. It is 
 interesting to notice the retranslation of the Sibylline poetry into 
 prose, and the changes which come over the narrative: the 
 principal passage to which we refer is Sib. ill. 97 — 113, to 
 which we append the Homeric parallels from the edition of 
 Rzach : 
 
 'Aw' OTTOT av /ieyaXoto deov TeXifOvrai, aireiKai, 
 
 "A9 ttot' iiT'qire'iK'qae ^poToi<;, OTe vvpyov erev^av, 
 
 'K.mprj iv ' Kaarvplrj' ofio^mvoi 8' ^erav HiravTet;. 
 
 Kal ^ovKovT dva^rjvai, es ovpavov aarepoevTa. ii.o.zn 
 
 AvTiKa S' a6dvaT0<; fieyaXTjv eired'jqKev dvdjKijv ii.r.2S2 
 
 HvevfjLaa-tv avrap eiretr dve/ioi /jieyav i»i|r60t CaiUm. ffymn.i 
 
 / in Jov. 30 J 
 
 irvpyov 
 'Pt>|rav Kol OvTjTolaiv eir aWiyXov? epbv wpaav. Od. y. I6I 
 
 '^ovveKa TOO ^a^vk&va ^porol iroXei ovvofi eOevro. iz. z. 334 
 Avrap i'Trel irvpyo^ t eireaev yXwaaai r dvOpcaTrmv zi. b. 804 
 TiavTohairal'! ^covjja-i Siecrrpatpov, avTi')^ diraaa 
 Taia PpoT&v ifKrjpovTO fiepi^ofievav ^aaiKet&v. 
 K.al Tore Br] SeKdri) yeverj fiepoTrav dvOpanrav, o^^t^o^g'r} 
 'Ef 01) Tvep KaTaKKv(Tfio<; i-jrl irporepovi yever dvSpa<;. 
 Kal ^aaiKevae K/jovo? koX Ttrai/ 'laTrero? re 72.0.479 
 
 Vairi<i reKva ^epiara Kal Ovpavov e^exaXecrcrav 
 "AvOpwTToc yai7}ii re Kal ovpavov ovvofia 0evre<i, 
 OvveKa Toi irpatTLcrrot, 'iaav fiepoircov dvOpdnrwv. 
 
 There is no doubt about the acquaintance of this writer with 
 the Homeric literature ; nor, in spite of the modification intro- 
 duced into the story, of the destruction of the tower by winds, is 
 there any reason to doubt that he is versifying the Biblical 
 account ; the fourth line versifies Gen. xi. 1, the eleventh line 
 Gen. xi. 9, while the mention of the ten generations from the 
 Flood agrees with the genealogy which follows in Gen. xi. 
 10 — 32. All of this is very instructive, for we see the attempt 
 already made to furnish Homeric parallels to the Biblical ac- 
 count; the author takes Homer very seriously, and is thus one 
 stage removed from the Centonist proper, who only wants literary 
 parallelism. 
 
 Now let us see how this Sibylline translation is taken. First 
 
14 EARLY VEESIFICATIONS 
 
 of all there are writers who simply quote it in verse form, either 
 directly as Theophilus, ad Autolycum ii. 31, or Tertullian, who 
 turns it word for word into Latin, as follows : 
 
 Ad Nationes, ii. 12, ea (sc. Sibylla) senario versu in hunc 
 sensum de Saturni prosapia et rebus eius exponit. decima, 
 inquit, genitura hominum ex quo cataclysmus prioribus accidit, 
 regnavit Saturnus et Titan et Japetus, Terrae et Coeli fortissimi 
 filii. 
 
 Next there is Alexander Polyhistor, who paraphrases the 
 versification back into plain prose as follows : 
 
 StySuXXa he (firjaiv 6fjLO<f)(ov(J0i' ovrcov iravrav dvOpwirmv nva<; 
 TovTwv •Kvp'^ov virepfieiyedt] olKoBofifjcrat, o-jrwi el<s rov ovpavbv 
 ava^QxTi' Tov Se 6eov dve/J,ov<; ifi<^v(Triaaino<s dvaTpeyjrai, avrov<; Kal 
 IBlav eKaaTW <f>covr)v Bovvai, Sib S^ ^a^vXeova rrjv ttoXiv KX/qOrfvai' 
 fiera Be top KaraK^vcrfibv Tirava Kal Ilpofi7j6ea yeveadai,. (Euseb. 
 Chron. i. 24 e Syncello.) 
 
 Polyhistor is borrowed by Josephus in the following manner : 
 
 Hepl Be TOV irvpyov tovtov kuX t»J? dX\o^eovia<; to)v dvOpanratv 
 fiepivrjTai, Kal %ij3vWa Xeyovaa ovtcoi;' TldvTcov 6fio<j)a)v(ov ovtwv 
 Twv dvdpcoirtav irvpyov wKoBofirjcrdv Tive<; vyjnjXoTaTov, co? iirl tov 
 ovpavov dva^Tjcrofievot Bi avTov' oi Be Oeol avefiovi eimrefiy^avTe'i 
 dvirpe'^av tov irvpyov Kal IBLav eKaaTfp ^(ovrjv eBtoKav Kal Bid 
 TOVTO BaySuXtSi/a crvve^r) KXrjBrjvai Trjv iroKlv. {Ant. Jlld. I. 4. 3.) 
 
 Observe how history is made, and poetry unmade. It would 
 not be easy for us, given the passage from Polyhistor, or Josephus, 
 with the statement that it was a Sibylline oracle, to collect the 
 disjecta membra poetae. Traces of the same Sibylline account 
 may be seen in the extracts of Abydenus preserved by Eusebius, 
 and in an extract of Eupolemus preserved by Polyhistor and copied 
 from Polyhistor, by Eusebius. The last passage is as follows : 
 
 (Euseb. Praep. Ev. IX. 17) EvTro'Xe/ios Be ev iw irepl 'lovBaicov 
 T^S ' A.(7<yvpia<; <^7}<Ti, iroKiv ^a^vXmva irpwTov fiev KTKrdijvai viro 
 Twv BiaawdevTwv eK rov KaTaKXvafiov' elvai Be avToii'; ytyavTat, 
 oiKoBofielv Be tov laiopovfievov irvpyov. HecovTO^ Be tovtov Bi^ 
 T^<? tov &eov evepyeiai, tov<; yiyavTa^ Biaairaprjvai KaG" oXrjv ti]v 
 yrjv. ^eKUTT] Be yevea (prjo-lv ev iroXei t^? BaySuXwi'/a? Kafiapivy 
 KTe. 
 
 The sequence shews clearly that we have here an abbreviated 
 paraphrase of the Sibylline verses, yet Polyhistor does not seem to 
 have recognized this, nor Eusebius. We see, on every hand, that 
 
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 15 
 
 the versification (in Homeric and other forms) of the Scripture im- 
 mediately takes rank as history, even when paraphrased hack into 
 prose, and appears as fresh evidence along with t}},e account from 
 which it is derived. This is true not only of the passage quoted 
 from the Sibyl; it applies to the three earlier writers whom we 
 quoted, all of whom appear as authorities in Clement, Josephus, 
 and Eusebius ! 
 
 Observe further, that whenever a portion of Scripture or other 
 material has been Homerized, there is a tendency to put it back 
 again into prose by way of paraphrase. We have seen this in the 
 case of the Sibylline verses, which are quoted by writers as 
 Sibylline and yet in prose. Another case of the same kind may 
 be seen in the pages of Hermas, to whom the Church (in the form 
 of the Cumsean Sibyl) reads some fearful prophecies, followed by 
 some sentences, which Hermas records, of a more gentle character, 
 as follows : 
 
 'ISoii 6 ^60? rwv Svvd/jLe(ov, o? dyavS Swd/jLei Koi Kparaia Kal 
 TTJ fieydXy avvecrei avrov «Tt'<ra9 tov Koafiov, Kal rf) ivSo^o) /SokX^ 
 irepi0el<s Trjv evirpeireiav rfj KTiaei avTov, Kal tc3 lcr')(ypm pijfiart 
 TTij^av TOV ovpavov Kal defieXtc6a'a<i ttjv yrjv eirl vSdrcov, Kal rfj 
 Ihla aocjiua Kal irpovoia KTiaaf Trjv dyiav eKK^rjaiav avrov, fjv Kal 
 7)v\6yrj<Tev, ISoii fxeOuTTdvet tov<; ovpavov<; Kal rd '6pr) Kal tov? 
 ^ovvovf Kal rd'; daXd(r<Ta<;, Kal Trdvra 6fj,a\d yuverat T0t9 ewXeK- 
 TOL'i avTov, "va dvoSa avTot? rrjv iirayyeXiav fjv eTrrjyyetXaTO fierd 
 TToXXr}!} B6^rj<s Kal %«/3av edv rr^prjamo'iv rd vofiifia tov 6eov d 
 -irapeXa^ov iv /jbeydXy irla-Tei. (Hermas, Vis. I.) 
 
 The obvious explanation of this passage, without which the 
 allusions of Hermas to the Sibyl are almost meaningless, is 
 that they are a paraphrase of a set of lost Sibylline verses'. We 
 suspect, indeed, that the dread prophecy which Hermas does not 
 quote was an intimation of the impending ruin of Kome, some- 
 thing like what we find in the eighth book of the Sibylline 
 Oracles, where the word pu>iir] is made to yield up the number of 
 the years of the life of the city from the foundation to the end ; 
 and since this number is 948, the fall of the city was expected by 
 
 I We find the same kind of thing going on in later writers. The verses of Greg, 
 of Nazianzus had a similar fate ; if at least we may judge from the ms. Bnrdett 
 Coutts, II. 7, where the hexameters on the genealogy of the Lord are accompanied 
 by an interlinear paraphrase in red ink. 
 
16 EARLY VERSIFICATIONS 
 
 the initiated in the year 196 A.D. Possibly Hermas may have had 
 something similar in mind. 
 
 Parallels to the language of Hermas may readily be found in 
 the existing Sibylline texts; we might, for instance, compare 
 Sib. VIII. 235 : 
 
 'Ti^aio-et Se <f)dpar/ya<;, oXei S" vyfrcofiara ^ovv&v, 
 
 "Ti/ro? 8' ovK en Xoiirbp ev avOpmirovai ^avelrat, 
 
 but the actual sequence of Hermas is, I think, not extant. For 
 another case of paraphrased Sibylline verses with a Homeric 
 base we might refer to Sib. V. 93—110, which is quoted in 
 Cod. Paris 1043, accompanied by a prose text. The verses are 
 these : — 
 
 "H^et 7aip Ile/so-i?? 67rt crov vdiro^ wctts ')(aKa^a, 
 Kat 7771' vda-av o\et Sua t dvOpwirovi icaKOTexvov<; 
 
 „ , . « V / . - \ O - li. *. 325 1 
 
 95 AifMiTi, KUL veKveaai iepoi<; irapa pm/ion od. y. 273/ 
 
 ^ap^apo^ptav adevapoij iroXvaCfiaToi} a<f)pova Xevacrcov, 
 UafMTrXrjOei yfrafiadijSov eTraiyi^av e? oXedpov 
 Kal TOT ear), iroXeav iroXvoX^o';, TroWa Ka/jLOva-a. Od.^.es 
 KXavaerai 'Acrt? oXtj ScSpeov yapiv, oi<; ano creXo 
 
 100 "ZTeylrafiivri Ke<f)aXr]v ix^pv, '^I'lrTOva-'' iirl yair)<;. 
 Auto? S' (bs Tlepawv eXaxev yaiav iroXefil^ei 
 KTeiva<! t dvhpa SKacrTov oXov ^iov i^aXaird^ai,, n' ^1 40 } 
 "O9 re fieveiv jMoipav TpiTUTrjv BeiXolcri ^poTolai. od^'97} 
 Autos 8' qk Svcrfiwv iaTTTrjaeTai aXfiuTi KOV(pq> 
 
 105 'Zv/j.'Tracrav yalav iroXiopKwv koI KaTeprj/iSv. 
 
 'AXX' OT dv ii'<Jro<; exVt KpaTepov Kal Tdp^o<; arjSe<:, 
 "Hfet Kal fjiaKdpcov ideXwv iroXiv i^aXaird^ai. iLA.io 
 
 Kal Kev Tii OeoOev ^atriXeii'i Trefj,^6el<; eVi tovtov 
 Ilaz/Tas oXel /Sao-tXet? fieydXov; Kal c^ooTa? dpicrTOV^. Od. s. 630 
 
 110 Et^' ouTOj? K/3t<7f9 eaTat, vir d<p6l,Tov dvOpmiroiaiv. 
 
 {Sib. V. 93—110, ed. Rzach.) 
 
 Of which the paraphrase is as follows : 
 
 ipfjiriveia' ISoi/ eli avTrjv top Hepa-fjv Xeyei epx^cOai aw t& 
 dvTixpl<^'^<P> ^<*'? ^vafjiwv fioXvvovTa ai/iaTi Kal vsKpoK top depa 
 Kal Ta dvaiaffTTjpia aiv irXrjOei ylrafufiadiScov ofioiov yjrdfifiov, 
 Kal X67et Trdaav Tr)v yrjv dprjveiv ttjv ^aaiXeiav t&v 'Ptofiaiwv Kal 
 fiBTa t6 viroiTTpeyfrai tov Tiepo'Tjv (xtto Bvafi&v Kal epx^o'Sai et? ttjv 
 dyiav iroXiv <tvv t<^ dvTiXP''<^'''<P ''*' fieTa to Trdaav Trjv yfjv 
 
OF THE SCRIPTURES. 17 
 
 iprjfiiba-ai KuKel KarapyeiaOat vtto t^? 7rapovaLa<; rov icvpiov rffiSiv 
 Ii7<70u X.piarov. Xeyei yap irpovofirjv Troifjcrai et? Trfv ayiav irokiv 
 rov Kvpiov et? icpicnv BiKaiav iv rrj Bevripa avrov Trapovaia. 
 
 Now the first thing we notice in this paraphrase is that the 
 translator begins with an interjected Ihov, just as we find in the 
 opening of the passage in Hermas. Then we see that the para- 
 phrase is not the work of the modern scribe, but is made from an 
 earlier form of the Greek text than that which is extant either in 
 the Paris extract or elsewhere. For example, the Paris extract 
 reads in 1. 94 'dp! dvhpSiv KaKOTe'xyw, which makes us suspect that 
 the a-vv rtp dvTi')(pi(7T(p of the paraphrase must have had an 
 equivalent in the original verses, different from the edited a.fj,a t 
 dvdpcoTrov} KaKOTe'xyov';. Then the paraphrast certainly found 
 something in his text which answered to ew? Bva-p,a)v p,oXvvovTa, 
 which implies the loss of a verse between 94 and 95. Tbv depa 
 of the paraphrast is probably a corruption for ra cipa ; the edited 
 texts shew no sign of this in the verses, reading 
 
 Trap" eKirdrfKoiai re ^wp-olt, 
 
 but the Paris extract has Trapet ipel sic ! ical Trapd ^wfioh, which 
 suggested to Rzach that the primitive verse contained as its close the 
 words iepolt irapa ^ap.olt. Whatever the original verse may have 
 been, it is clear that the paraphrase is not made immediately from 
 the companion Greek verse', and certainly not from the commonly 
 edited text.. Enough has been said to shew that there was a 
 tendency to paraphrase and explain Sibylline verses, so that these 
 stand with the previously noted prae-Christian versifications and 
 illustrate vividly the tendencies which we saw at work in them. 
 The question then arises (and it is a very important one), if it be 
 true that the Old Testament records became subject to versifica- 
 tion in the manner of Homer and other Greek poets ; and if these 
 versifications became the matter for paraphrase ; and if the verses 
 and paraphrases alike come to be quoted a's independent authori- 
 ties, distinct from the original texts, are there any similar 
 phenomena in connexion with the text of the New Testament and 
 in the early Patristic literature? Are there any Homerized 
 narratives of the Gospels ? Do these find their way in any manner 
 
 ' In D. 97 we have first the translation of ira/iirXtiBel into ffui> irKijBet, and then 
 the translator has carried over \j/aiw.dr]Sov into the paraphrase along with its rendering 
 6ii.oi.ov ^iiifiov, producing the curious result " a host of sand-fishes like sand ! " 
 
 H. 2 
 
18 EARLY VERSIFICATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 
 
 into prose? And have they any effect upon the faith or the 
 legendary opinions of the early Christian Church? We have 
 already begun to answer these questions in the previous pages. 
 The further working out of the enquiry will be seen in the 
 subsequent chapters. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Early Editions of the Centones, and Traces of 
 THEIR use by Milton. 
 
 We now come to the survey of the printed editions of the 
 Centones, and in particular of the editio princeps of Aldus, a rare 
 and interesting volume. 
 
 Between the years 1501 and 1504 there issued from the Aldine 
 Press four quarto volumes of Greek and Latin Christian Poetry, 
 bound up with some extraneous matter. 
 
 The first volume which is dated 1501 contains the works of 
 Prudentius bearing the date, and followed by the hymns of Prosper 
 of Aquitaine, after which comes a collection of Greeks hymns 
 described in the title-page as follows: 
 
 Cantica Joannis Damasceni in Theogoniam, Epiphaniam, 
 Pentecosten, in Diem Dominicum Pascae, in Ascensionem, in 
 Transfigurationem, in Annuntiationem. 
 
 Cosmae Hierosolymitani. Cantica tredecim. 
 
 Cantica Marci episcopi Idrontis in Magnum Sabbatum. 
 
 Canticum Theophanis in Annutionem (sic). 
 
 These titles are from the first leaf of Prudentius, and they are 
 repeated with some additions at the head of the collection of 
 Greek hymns. 
 
 The second volume has the following title-page : 
 
 Quae hoc libro continentur. 
 Sedulii mirabilium diuinoru libri quatuor carmine heroico. 
 Eiusdem Elegia, in qua finis pentametri est similis principio 
 hexametri. 
 
 Eiusde hymnus de Christo ab incarnatione usque ad ascesione. 
 Juvenci de Euangelica historia libri quatuor. 
 Aratoris Cardinalis historiae Apostolicae libri duo. 
 
 2—2 
 
20 EARLY EDITIONS OF THE CENTONES, 
 
 Probae Falconiae ceto ex Vergilio de nouo et ueteri testameto. 
 
 Homerocentra, hoc est centones ex Homero graece cum inter- 
 pretatione latina. 
 
 Opusculum ad Annutiationem beatiss. Virginis graece cum la- 
 tino in medio quaternionum omnium. 
 
 Lactantii Firmiani de Resurrectione Elegia. 
 
 Eiusdem de passione Domini carmine Heroico. 
 
 Cyprianus de ligno crucis uersu Heroico. 
 
 Tipherni deprecatoria ad Virginem Elegia. 
 
 Oratio ad eandem uersu heroico. 
 
 Oratio matutina ad Deum uersu heroico. 
 
 Sancti Damasi de laudibus Pauli apostoli uersus hexametri. 
 
 Elegia in Hierusalem. 
 
 Ode in Natali die Saluatoris. 
 
 In die palmarum. 
 
 De passione Domini. 
 
 Ad Christum ut perdat Turcas. 
 
 Epigramma ad beatiss. Virginem. 
 
 Vita S. Martini episcopi a Seuero Sulpitio prosa oratione. 
 
 De miraculis S. Martini Dialogus, ab eodem. 
 
 De tralatione S. Martini, ab eodem. 
 
 Vita S. Nicolai a graeco in latinum a Leonardo Justiniano 
 patritio Veneto. 
 
 The volume, as printed, does not follow the order of the 
 primitive title; the Centones together with the verses on the 
 Annunciation are removed to the end, and the obvious conclusion 
 is that there was some delay in obtaining the copy of the Greek 
 verses or in doing them into Latin. The major part of the book 
 was in type as early as 1501, for in the middle of the book at the 
 end of the signature hh stands the subscription : 
 
 Venetiis apud Aldum. MDi mense Januario 
 
 (this would in the new style be the beginning of 1502); after the 
 subscription follow the works of Sulpitius Severus etc. Moreover, 
 Aldus' own preface, which is dated 
 
 Vefi Mense lunio M.Dll, 
 
 states expressly that the volume had been in print for a year 
 (' Christianos poetas, iam annum in thermis nostris excuses '). 
 
 We cannot very well be in error, therefore, in assigning the 
 
AND TRACES OF THEIR USE BY MILTON. 21 
 
 Homeric Centones which close the volume to the year 1502. 
 And that this is the right date will appear also from the privilege 
 for ten years' right of printing, granted to Aldus by the Venetian 
 Government, in which these very volumes are defined. The decree, 
 which was discovered by Baschet in the Venetian Archives, is 
 dated March 23, 1501. It is significant that it does not mention 
 the Homeric Centones as forming part of the book. 
 
 We possess two letters of Aldus to John Keuchlin, dated in 
 this very year, in which he speaks of forwarding the Homeric 
 Centones, and explains that the volumes containing Nonnus and 
 Gregory of Nazianzus are not yet ready. Of these letters the 
 first is dated August 18, 1502, and announces the despatch of the 
 first two volumes of the Christian Poets; the second, which speaks 
 of the delay of the other two volumes, to be described presently, 
 is dated December 24, 1502'. We assign, then, the first edition 
 of the Centones to the year 1502. 
 
 ' These letters will be found in Glarorum virorum epistolae ad Johannem 
 Beuchlinum, Tubingae, 1514; or in Geiger, Johann Beuchlin's Briefwechsel, 
 Stuttgart, 1875. The text is as follows: 
 
 Aldus Manutius Eomanus Joanni Eeuchlin Phoroeusi s. Amari me abs te 
 
 plurimum, mi Joannes, iampridem novi, non meo in te ullo ofiSoio sed humanitate 
 
 tua, quare, nisi te benevolentiamque tuam plurimi faciam, sim plane ingratus, sed et 
 
 facio plurimi et redamo magnopere. Ex libris autem quos petis mitto Julium 
 
 Pollucem, Stephanum de urbibus, Thuoydidem, Etymologioum magnum, Pruden- 
 
 tium christianum poetam cum quo et graeoa quaedam impressa sunt, Sedulium 
 
 item cum Juvenco et Aratore, cum quibus et Homerocentra ivvprimenda curavi. 
 
 Suidas non erat apud me et nunoius tuus dioebat non esse sibi plus pecuniae sed 
 
 rediturum se brevi Venetias et faoturum quod iusseris. Praeterea impressi sunt ex 
 
 Graeeis hi post opera Aristotelis quae a nobis quoque habes : Aristophanes comoe- 
 
 diae novem cum commentariis, Epistolae graecae sex et triginta autorum : Dios- 
 
 oorides ; Aratus cum Theonis commentariis una cum Julio Firmico ; Simplioius in 
 
 praedioamenta Aristotelis. Ammonius in quinque voces, Gregorii Nazianzeni 
 
 circiter octo millia carminum, Nonnus carmine heroico in evangelium secundum 
 
 Joannem, Apollonius poeta cum commentariis. Imprimuntur et quasi absolutae 
 
 sunt Sophoolis tragoediae septem cum commentariis, item Herodotus. De hebraiois 
 
 non est impressum quiequam. Quod tu componis placet, perge ut detur studiosis. 
 
 Impressi sunt praeterea latine Uteris parvis Virgilius, Horatius, Juvenalis, Persius, 
 
 Martialis, Lucanus, Catullus, TibuUus, Propertius, Epistolae familiares M. TuUi. 
 
 Imprimuntur iisdem characteribus Ovidii opera, Statins, Valerius Maximus, si ex 
 
 his aliquid placuerit, scribe. Interea vale meque ut facis ama. Venetiis. xviii 
 
 Augusti. Anno mdii. 
 
 Aldus Eomanus Joanni Eeuchlin salutem. 
 
 Delectari te plurimum Uteris et laboribus nostris, Capnion mi, suavissime, 
 quantum ipse delecter, non facile scripserim, turn quia principibus plaouisse viris 
 non infima laus est, tum etiam quia laus ista quoniam a te laudato viro proficis- 
 
22 EARLY EDITIONS OF THE CENTONES, 
 
 The preface to the volume dedicates the work to Daniel Clary 
 of Parma, Greek professor in the city of Ragousa. To him Aldus 
 had inscribed the editio princeps of Aristophanes in 1498, and to 
 him, two years later, he dedicated the second edition of Homer 
 (1504). The opening sentences are as follows : 
 
 Aldus Manutius Ro. Danieli Clario Parmensi in urbe Rhacusa 
 bonas literas publice profitenti s. P. D. Christianos poetas iam 
 annum in thermis nostris excuses tandem mi Clari emittimus, 
 tibique uiro Christianiss. et morum Magistro nuncupamus. qui 
 ne cito, ut ego statueram, et tu optabas, publicarentur, tot mihi 
 impedimento fuerunt, ut ipse mecum saepe sim admiratus, duxe- 
 rimque KaKoBaifiovcov id fieri opera, ne si in locum Gentilium 
 lasciuorumque poetarum, hi nostri Christiani poetae in scholis, 
 ubi teneri puerorum animis instituuntur, succederent, facile in 
 bonos plerique omnes euaderet. Quoniam quo semel est imbuta 
 recens seruabit odorem testa diu. Atque ideo a teneris assuescere 
 multum est 
 
 Vale mi Daniel cum Daniele Restio nostro homine integerr. 
 necno tam moribus quam Uteris ornatiss. meque amate ut facitis. 
 Ven mense lunio. M.Dii. 
 
 The preface brings out clearly the object of the edition, the 
 substitution of Christian poetry for pagan in the schools. And 
 this explains also the singular feature of the work, the occupation 
 of the middle of each quaternion of the Centones by a part of 
 another book which has nothing whatever to do with the Cen- 
 tones. The reader who takes up the famous Aldine volume which 
 we are describing will be puzzled to find that after reading a few 
 pages he suddenly passes from Homer into a prose acrostic treatise 
 on the praises of the Virgin. Two pages, Greek and Latin, are 
 occupied in this manner, and then after an intimation that the 
 
 oitur, faoit, ut me esse aliquem putem. Sed deum optimum maximum oro, ut 
 diu alter alterius studio delectari possimus in dies magis, quod non dubito 
 futurum si, quamdiu prodesse hominibus possit vita nostra, uterque vixerimus. 
 Libros omneis quos volebas, oui iussisti dedimus praeter Nonnum et Gregoriuvi ; 
 nondum enim ex ire in publicum possunt. Quod vero minoris istio nostros emere 
 libros queas miror. Certum est enim non minoris eo vendi illos Venetiis, quanti 
 oonstiterunt tibi, immo potiua pluris. Sed puto esse causam quoniam meroator 
 iste cum aooipiat a societate nostra Venetiis quam plurimos simul libros et minoris 
 quam venduntur singuli ut, quemadmodum aequum est, et ipse lucrari possit 
 aliquid, neo tamen solvat, (damns enim illi ad tempus) gratis eos fortasse habuisse 
 putat. Vale Venetiis 24 Decembris 1502. 
 
AND TRACES OF THEIR USE BY MILTON. 
 
 23 
 
 rest of the new tract is to be sought in the middle of the next 
 quaternion (Zeirei sic ! to Xoiirov eV tc3 /ieVw rov e<f>e^r]<! rerpa- 
 Siov), we return to the Centones. The explanation is to be sought, 
 as Renouard' points out, in the intention of Aldus to print the 
 opposing Greek and Latin parts of the text so that they could be 
 detached from one another, if need be, and bound up separately. 
 A little consideration will shew that if this is to be accomplished, 
 two successive quires must run as follows : 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Lat 
 
 Lat. 
 
 and every sheet can be printed on both sides, except the inside 
 one of each quaternion, which must be left blank. 
 
 When Aldus came to the middle of the first quaternion of the 
 Centones, instead of going on with the text, which should have 
 run 
 
 Trepi Tov evayjeXia/jLov 
 
 with corresponding Latin, he filled up the blank with some 
 unimportant liturgical prose material on the subject of the An- 
 nunciation, and continued this from quire to quire according to 
 need. 
 
 Such is the explanation of this peculiar feature of Aldus' 
 bilingual texts ; they were to be susceptible of division, presum- 
 ably for the convenience of educators. A similar change of 
 subject in the middle of successive quaternions will be found in 
 the third volume of the Aldine Christian poets, which contains the 
 works of Gregory of Nazianzus. Here the inserted text is the 
 
 ^ Annales de I'Impntnerie, i. 75. 
 
24 EARLY EDITIONS OF THE CENTONES, 
 
 Gospel of John, set up not from a current text of the Gospel, but 
 from a lectionary beginning, as usual, with the lesson for Easter 
 Day, and ending (in the last duernion oo) with John vi. 58 (o eK 
 Tov ovpavov KaTa/8a?) and an intimation that the rest was to be 
 sought in the next quaternion. But no more of the text appeared. 
 Nor is the reason far to seek. For Aldus intimates that he 
 intended the remainder of the lectionary to be employed in the 
 middle of the quires of the Nonnus, which was to be the fourth 
 volume of the series. The Greek of Nonnus was ready as early as 
 1501, but no Latin was ever accommodated to it^ and the volume 
 was finally issued without a date, probably about the same time 
 as the Gregory which bears the mark 
 
 Venetiis ex Aldi Academia mense lunio M.Diiii.^ 
 
 1 Benouard, Annales, i. 438. 
 
 2 This is, I believe, the first volume in which the Aldine Anchor and Dolphin 
 appear. The origin of this symbol can be found in the Poliphilus which Aldus 
 printed in 1599. For amongst the beautiful engraved plates which adorn this 
 edition will be found one which contains the famous symbol, described by Poli- 
 philus [Colonna] as 'Una ancora sopra la stangula della quale se rouoluea uno 
 Delphino,' or as it stands in the Old English version, "On the other side was 
 there ingrauen a cyrole, then an Anchor with a Dolphin winding about the 
 Strangula thereof, which I oonieetured should signifie thus 
 
 d.ei cuGYie BpAieoc 
 Semper festina tarde." 
 I suppose that Poliphilus means the circle to be an emblem of eternity ( = dei), the 
 dolphin of speed ( = ffire05e), and the anchor of resistance to motion ( = /SpaS^ws). A 
 comparison of the plate in Poliphilus with the Aldine device will make the identifi- 
 cation certain, and the text shews that it means ' Festina lente. ' But if any doubt 
 remained on the point, a reference to Erasmus' Adagia (2. 2. 1) will decide the 
 question. For Erasmus points out that the proverb was a favourite one with 
 Augustus and Titus, and in the case of the latter says : 
 
 lam uero dictum idem Tito Vespasiano placuisse, ex antiquissimis illius 
 nomismatis facile colligitur, quorum unum Aldus Manutius mihi spectandum 
 exhibuit argenteum veteris planeque Eomanae sculpturae, quod sibi douo missum 
 aiebat a Petro Bembo patritio Veneto, iuuene cum inter primes erudite, turn omnia 
 literariae antiquitatis diligentissima peruestigatore. Nomismatis character erat 
 huiusmodi : altera ex parte faciem Titi Vespasiani cum inscriptioue praefert, ex 
 altera ancoram, cuius medium ceu temonem Delphin obuolutus complectitur. Id 
 autem symboli nihil aliud sibi uelle, quam illud Augusti Caesaris dictum o-TreOSe 
 Ppaditos, indioio sunt monimenta literarum hieroglyphicarum 
 
 Soripsit de his rebus Plutarchus in oommentario de Osiride et Chaeremon apud 
 GraeooB, testimonio Suidae, cuius ex libris exoerpta suspioor ea, quae nos nuper 
 conspeximus huius generis monimenta, in quibus etiam haeo inerat piotura : Primo 
 loco oirculus : deinde ancora, quam mediam, ut dixi, Delphinus obtorto corpore 
 circumplectitur. Cir6ulu8 ut indioabat interpretamentum adscriptnm, quoniam 
 nullo finitur termino, sempiternum innuit tempos. Ancora quoniam nauim 
 
AND TRACES OF THEIR USE BY MILTON. 23 
 
 Eeturning now to the edition of the Homeric Centones con- 
 tained in the second volume of the series, we have first a preface 
 of Petrus Candidas (Uerpo^ KayStSo? o /lovaxcx; "AXSp tw 
 fiavovKiw ev TrpdrTeiv), who aflSrms that he had transcribed and 
 corrected the text for Aldus, and begs that it may speedily be 
 printed in order that he may present a copy to the Abbot Petrus 
 Delphinus : {KaVravra w? av IleTpo? o AeTi^tz/o?, o t^? ipijfiov koX 
 ra^ew? t'^? ^a/taXSoXeta? fiiya'i d^^d'i, TavT7}<; yovv rij? SQ)pea<;, 
 rfj'i dvBpo^ dr/ioTrjTi fidXiara TT/jeTroucriy?, iiir ifiov fieraSoBeLT]' 
 eppaxTo). 
 
 Then follow six elegiac lines 
 
 S/ctTTicDZ'o? Kaprepofidy^ov. 
 Et TO SoKeiv, iivdoicTiv eTrerpeTrev avrov "Op,ripo<i, 
 
 Aw lepol's Trdvra><;, ^9eXe Tavra •irpiireiv. 
 @avfia yap, elV aWco'; <ye XeXeyfieva, iroWbv aTr avrmv, 
 
 Tot? 6eioi,<; 'epyoi<; ijpfiocr dpeuoTepw;. 
 AXXa S ^ ofiTjpeltov fidXa y d^io^ ovto<; eTraivoov 
 "OcTTi'i dp' 6« rdSe fiiv 6eia /j,e6rjp/j,6craTo. 
 
 The author of these lines is Scipio Fortiguerra (Kaprepofjuaxo';), 
 one of the most learned of Aldus' Academy. He was bom at 
 Pistoia in 1466 and died at Florence in 1515'- He was a pupil of 
 Angelo Politiano, and his epigrams appear constantly in Aldus' 
 editions, along with much other serious work. He writes an 
 epigram for the Aldine Aristotle of 1495 : also ten Greek verses 
 for the Thesaurus Gornucopiae of 1496 ; four Greek lines in praise 
 of Aldus in the Diciionarium Oraecum of 1497. To him Aldus 
 dedicates the Juvenal and Persius of 1501 ; he writes a Greek 
 preface to the Homer of 1504 and in the same year Aldus 
 published his Oratio de laudibus litterarum Oraecarum; he also 
 prepared for the press the Aldine Demosthenes. 
 
 remoratur et alligat, sistitque, tarditatem indioat. Delphinus, quod hoc nullum 
 aliud animal celerius, aut impetu pernioiore, uelooitatem exprimit : quae si scite 
 connsotas, efficient huiusmodi sententiam, dei crireOSe Ppadias, id est, Semper festina 
 lente 
 
 Itaque dictum hoc <rireOde ^paS^us, ex ipsis usque priscae philosophiae mysteriis 
 profectum apparet, unde ascitum est a duobus omnium laudatissimis imperatoribus 
 ita ut alteri adagionis esset loco, alteri insignium vice, utriusque moribus ingenio- 
 que mire quadrans. Nunc uero in Aldum Manutium Eomanum, ceu tertium 
 haeredem, deuenit. 
 
 The same explanation will be found in Rabelais, Garg. 9. iv. 25. 
 
 1 Didot, AldeManuce, p. 453. 
 
26 EAKLY EDITIONS OF THE CENTONES, 
 
 Of his singular modesty and learning Erasmus speaks in a 
 letter dated Basle, March 1524, as follows: 
 
 "Quum primum adirem Italiam, iam perierat Philippus 
 Beroaldus Bononiensis cuius memoria turn mire Celebris erat et 
 gratiosa, et tamen ille decessit me, ut nunc sum, natu minor. 
 Huius cognatum eodem nomine et cognomine referentem ilium 
 vidi Romae: iuvenem moribus candidissimus, stilo et eruditione 
 non inferiorem illo maiore, iudicio multorum, ut et mihi visum 
 est, etiam superiorem. Hunc iuvenem fata e terris eripuerunt. 
 Bononiae primum videre contigit Scipionem Carteromachum, 
 reconditae et absolutae eruditionis hominera, sed usque adeo 
 alienum ab ostentatione, ut, ni provocasses, iurasses esse literarum 
 ignarum. Cum eo post Romae fuit mihi propior familiaritas. Et 
 decessit haud multo maior annis quadraginta duobus." 
 
 I think it is extremely likely that Fortiguerra, who assisted 
 Aldus in so many other publications, had also a hand in the 
 production of the Centones. 
 
 The Greek text, however, was furnished by a monk Petrus 
 Candidus, who was attached to the subdivision of the Benedictine 
 order known as the Camaldunenses, under the religious headship 
 of Petrus Delphinus. 
 
 For Petrus Delphinus we have plenty of biographical material. 
 He was bom at Venice in 1444 of noble parentage and at the 
 age of 18 joined the Camaldunensians in the monastery of 
 S. Michael Murianus at Venice. He became abbot in 1479 and 
 a year later he was elected General of the Order. His letters 
 were published, in part by himself in 1524 at Venice (a volume 
 which has become extremely rare), and in part, from a transcript 
 of Mabillon, in the collections of Martene and Durand. Amongst 
 the latter series I see no correspondence between himself and 
 Petrus Candidus. It may, however, be regarded as reasonably 
 certain that the monk in question is one of the famous family of 
 Decembrii who flourished in North Italy in the 15th and 16th 
 centuries. It cannot, however, have been Petrus Candidus 
 Decembrius, the translator of Appian (published at Venice in 
 1472), and papal secretary under Nicolas V.; for he died in 1477. 
 Probably it is some immediate relation of his, either a son or a 
 nephew. 
 
AND TEACES OP THEIR USE BY MILTON. 27 
 
 It appears, therefore, that the Centones must have been set up 
 from an Italian MS., perhaps a Venice MS. We have discussed 
 this interesting copy somewhat at length, but not more so than 
 its antiquity demanded ; if we have been diffuse the reader can 
 set it down to a love of Homer or of Aldus. We plead guilty to 
 both. 
 
 The remaining editions can be disposed of much more rapidly, 
 being, for the most part, mere reprints of the Aldine text. Accord- 
 ing to Fabricius, there are two octavo Frankfort editions, printed 
 by Peter Brubach, dated 1541' and 1554. These contain the 
 Homerocentra and the Virgiliocentones of Proba Faltonia, with 
 the paraphrase of Nonnus. 
 
 Next we have the 12° edition of Henry Stephen of 1578, with 
 the very same contents ; and then we come to the Jesuit octavo of 
 Claude Chapelet, published at Paris in 1609, of which we shall 
 have more to say presently. From this point we come to the 
 great Patristic Bibliothecae ; the Bibliotheca Patristica of De la 
 Bigne published them in 1624, and they appear in the Paris 
 Bibliotheca of 1644: and in later collections. 
 
 We are now going to shew that some one of these editions 
 must have been studied by Milton before he wrote his Paradise 
 Lost, and that traces of the early Greek and Latin Christian poets 
 are to be expected in his writings. 
 
 We must begin by premising certain facts which are well 
 known to the students of Milton; but a little recapitulation is 
 necessary in order to a clearer understanding of the case. 
 
 The Paradise Lost was finished in 1665, and appeared for 
 the first time in 1667. It is, however, well known that the 
 ground plan of the work had been laid long before, and that, in 
 particular, some of the finest lines in the book were written 
 many years before the main body of the poem, and when the 
 writer had not even decided finally upon the form which the 
 composition was to take. We know fi-om the explicit statement 
 of Milton's nephew Edward Phillips that the original plan pro- 
 posed was that of a sacred drama, and that " in the fourth book 
 of the Poem there are six {lege ten) verses, which several 
 years before the Poem was begun, were shewn to me, and to 
 some others, as designed for the very beginning of the said 
 
 ' I have not seen the second Brubach edition. ■ 
 
28 EARLY EDITIONS OF THE CENTONES, 
 
 Tragedy." The lines in question are the magnificent address of 
 Satan to the Sun 
 
 "0 thou ! that with surpassing glory crowned 
 Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God 
 Of this new World : at whose sight all the stars 
 Hide their diminished heads" etc.. 
 
 and this statement of Phillips in the memoir attached to the 
 Letters of State, written hy Mr John Milton, published in 1694, 
 is corroborated by Aubrey, who in 1680 wrote as follows: "In the 
 Book of Paradise Lost there are about six verses of Satan's ex- 
 clamation to the Sun which Mr E. Phi. remembers about fifteen 
 or sixteen years before ever his Poem was thought of; which 
 verses were intended for the beginning of a Tragoedie which he 
 had designed, but was diverted from it by other business.'' 
 
 Of this intended Tragedy we have the original drafts in the 
 Common-place Book of Milton preserved in the Library at Trinity 
 College, Cambridge. Concerning this book Masson remarks' 
 under the date 1639—1640: 
 
 " We have the means of knowing, that there was one book, or 
 continuous set of sheets of the same folio-sized paper, of which 
 
 Milton made particular use about this time [The scribblings] 
 
 form part of that volume of Milton's manuscripts which has for a 
 hundred and thirty years been one of the most precious treasures 
 of the Library of Trinity College in Cambridge. An examination 
 of the book, and of seven of its pages in particular, furnishes us 
 with the means of more exact information than was to be hoped 
 for respecting the course of Milton's literary plans and studies, not 
 only after his first removal to St Bride's churchyard, but also, as I 
 believe, during the whole term of his residence there and for some 
 time beyond 
 
 It seems to have been already determined by him that the 
 form should be that of a Tragedy with a Chorus, after the 
 Ancient Greek model, and the hesitation seems to have been 
 mainly as to the subject for such a tragedy. Whether should it 
 be from Scripture, or should it be from British History : and, on 
 either supposition, which out of all that might be found should be 
 selected ? " 
 
 The Trinity MS. contains a long list of special subjects selected 
 
 1 Life of Milton, vol. ii. p. 103. 
 
AND TRACES OF THEIR USE BY MILTON. 29 
 
 by Milton as possible material, under the two heads indicated, the 
 Scriptural subjects being apparently selected after a continuous 
 survey of the pages of the Bible, and the historical subjects from a 
 similar study of English History. 
 
 So far all is clear, and the only question that arises is about 
 the date to be assigned to the pages that contain the Biblical and 
 Historical suggested- subjects. Masson maintains that these pages 
 were written as early as 1640, and points out that the Mss. shew 
 traces of a change which came over Milton's handwriting after his 
 return from his Italian journey^ 
 
 "In specimens of Milton's autograph before the Italian journey, 
 including the draft of his Lycidas written in November 1637, the 
 small letter e is all but invariably shaped in the Greek form (e), 
 but after his return from Italy, and probably in consequence of his 
 stay there, his all but uniform habit was to shape it much as we 
 do now (e). This furnishes a useful test of date to be applied to 
 Milton's handwriting in many cases : and as applied to the 
 Jottings it is conclusive that they cannot have been made earlier 
 than 1639. The Greek form of the e is superseded in them by 
 our present form." 
 
 Sotheby, who has given lithographed facsimiles of the Milton 
 Jottings in his Rambles in the Elucidation of the Autograph of 
 Milton, does not speak quite so decidedly ; according to him^: 
 
 " Those to whom a comparison in the change of handwriting 
 at different periods is interesting will, on carefully going through 
 the pages of facsimiles from the Trinity College Manuscript, have 
 great difficulty in discovering a single instance of the use of the 
 Greek e in any of the writing before the date of 1639 ; but to 
 come to any decision as to the date of the Autograph of Milton 
 from that circumstance, would be very fallacious, as in the 
 marginal notes in the copy of Euripides belonging to Sir Henry 
 Halford, commenced in 1634, the plain e and the Greek e fre- 
 quently occur in the same word." 
 
 Upon the whole, however, the evidence seems to be that 
 somewhere about the year 1640, Milton began to make plans for 
 a sacred Tragedy, and amongst the subjects selected there are 
 several alternative outlines of the Paradise Lost, as well as a long 
 list of alternative Scriptural subjects. 
 
 ' Life, p. 121, note. " Rambles, p. 99. 
 
30 EAKLY EDITIONS OF THE CENTONES, 
 
 Now let US examine one or two features in these outlines ; the 
 third draft of Paradise Lost, on p. 35 of the MS., begins as 
 follows : 
 
 Paradise Lost. The Persons. 
 
 Moses vpoXoyb^ei,. 
 
 Justice. Mercie (erased). Heavenly Love (erased). 
 Mercie. 
 
 Wisdome. [hymne of y° creation.] 
 Chorus of angels sing a 
 Act. 2. 
 etc. 
 
 Against the words ' Moses -rrpoXoyl^ei, ' is written : 
 
 ' recounting how he assumed his true bodie, that it corrupts 
 not because of his [being] with God in the mount [;] declares the 
 like of Enoch and Eliah, besides the purity of y" place that certaine 
 pure winds, dues', and clouds preserved from corruption [;] whence 
 exhorts to the sight of God, tells they cannot se Adam in the 
 state of innocence by reason of thire sin.' 
 
 The attention of the reader is invited to the words 'Moses 
 -rrpoXoyi^ei,^' 
 
 Now turn to the drafts of Scriptural subjects on p. 36 of the 
 Trinity MS. The subjects follow in the main the order of the 
 Scriptures, chapters and verses being generally given for reference. 
 But in the left-hand top corner of the page we have several 
 subjects suggested, without references, beginning as follows : 
 
 The Deluge. Sodom. 
 
 Dinah vide Euseb. praeparat. Evang. 1. 9. c. 22. 
 the persons 
 
 Dine 
 
 Debora rebeccas nurse 
 
 Jacob 
 
 Simeon 
 
 Levi 
 
 Hamor 
 Sichem 
 Counselors 2 
 Nuncius 
 Chorus. 
 
 ' He was working on some patristic explanation of the preservation of the 
 bodies of Saints by the dew of Paradise. Thus we find in the Descensus ad Inferos 
 Isaiah saying : "praedixi vobis exsurgent mortui, et resurgent qui in monumentis 
 sunt, et exsultabunt qui in terris sunt, quoniam ros, qui est a domino, sanitas est 
 illis." 
 
 " In the first draft of Paradise Lost (p. 35 of Common-plaee Book) the prologue 
 
AND TRACES OF THEIR USE BY MILTON. 31 
 
 Now here we have a tragedy planned, with distinct reference 
 to the poem of Theodotus on the destruction of Shechem. And 
 the only question to ask is this: Did Milton in reading the 
 Scriptures through in search of subjects remember that the 
 destruction of Shechem had been already done into an epic poem, 
 and that portions of it were to be found in Eusebius, or had he 
 seen the extracts of Eusebius arranged in order in the pages 
 of some volume of Poetae Graeci Christiani? That he was 
 influenced by Theodotus is certain, but was it the Theodotus 
 latent in Eusebius or the edited Theodotus? 
 
 When we recall the 'Moses -n-poXoyl^ei' of the designed 
 Tragedy of Paradise Lost, and observe that Ezekiel's tragedy 
 of the Exodus in the Jesuit volume of 1609 has precisely this 
 feature on its title-page, at the end of the list of persons, we can 
 hardly avoid the conclusion that Milton had been studying the 
 little volume in question or some very similar volume when he 
 made his forecast of possible Sacred Dramas. Nor is there any- 
 thing a priori unlikely in such a supposition, in the case of such 
 a voluminous reader as Milton was; nothing was more in his 
 manner than that he should examine into the previous attempts 
 which had been made at the versification of the Scriptures. A 
 little lower down in the MS. (p. 41) we find suggested for drama- 
 tization a New Testament subject as follows : 
 
 Christus Patiens. The scene in the Garden, beginning from 
 the coming thither till Judas betrays and the officers lead 
 him away. The rest by message and chorus. His agony 
 may receive noble expression. 
 
 The title shews that he knew the famous Euripidean poem, 
 commonly ascribed to Gregory of Nazianzus. There is then 
 nothing improbable in the supposition that Milton had made 
 himself acquainted with the Poetae Christiani of earlier days. 
 
 But here we find ourselves in a difficulty ; we observe Milton's 
 reference to Eusebius contains the chapter (c. 22). So far as I 
 know this implies a later date than 1628; for in the Stephen 
 edition of the Praeparatio (1544) the text is not divided into 
 chapters, while in the Paris text of 1628 the chapters appear. 
 
 is given to Michael, but corrected to Moses; so in the second draft. In the fourth 
 draft (on p. 49) the angel Gabriel prologizes, and the work is now called ' Adam 
 unparadised.' It is wonderfully suggestive of the actual work. 
 
32 EAKLY EDITIONS OF THE CENTONES, 
 
 Whether there is an edition intervening between these two I do 
 not know, but I think not. This would, at first sight, seem to 
 exclude the volume of 1609S as well as the Bibliotheca Patristica 
 of 1624^ and that of 1644. 
 
 I do not see my way to decide more definitely the question as 
 to the edition from which Milton drew. But it is sufficiently 
 clear that he did not neglect the Poetae Christiani. In some 
 form or other these must be included amongst the intellectual 
 treasures of which Hallam speaks so eloquently in his Introduction 
 to the Literature of Europe^ when he says that 'the remembrance 
 of early reading came across his dark and lonely path like the 
 moon emerging from the clouds. Then it was that the Muse was 
 truly his : not only as she poured her creative inspiration into his 
 mind, but as the daughter of Memory, coming with fragments of 
 
 ' There is indeed a chapter mark on the Latin side for the extracts from 
 Theodotus {Buangelicae Praeparat. lib. 9. c. 4), but this is an older capitulation 
 belonging to a Latin Eusebius. It is, of course, possible that Milton corrected the 
 Latin chapter quoted to the Greet capitulation ; he seems to have been fastidious 
 on such points ; for I remark in his treatise ' Of reformation touching Church 
 Discipline' such an expression as this 'Eusebius relates in his 3rd book, 35 chap., 
 after the Greek nvmber.' 
 
 " Its title, as far as the drama of Ezekiel is concerned, is as foUows : 
 
 CK TdlV K\lJfli€VTOS. 
 
 AXe^aj/ff, ffTpufi6,T(tjv a 
 irepl TTJs dvaaTpo(^7Js tou Mwutrews (rufdirerai ijfuv Kal 
 6 'Efe/ct^Xos 6 ruv 'lovSaiKuiv rpayCjjSiwv Trotijr^s iv 
 TW kiriypat^ofjUvi^ dpoLfiari, B|a7W7^. 
 
 e/c Tbjv ButrejSiou evayyeXiov 
 TrpoTrapa(7KevTjs )3tj3X. 0. 
 •jrepl TOVTOP (sic) M.djvffov iKTedijvat. Oirb ttjs pt/rjrpbs els rh ^\os 
 Kal inrb ttjs tov jSaffiX^us Bvyarpbi dvaipedijvai Kal 
 Tpa<p7JvaL iffTopu Kal 'EfeKt^Xos 6 Tiav Tpaycftdiwv 
 TTQi'^Tls SivatBev dvaXa^iav tt]v iffropiav airb tuv aiiv 
 'laKiup Tapayevofihiiiv eh "kiymrov irpbs 'IwffiJ^ 
 TO. ToG Sp&fiaTos Tp6<7(i)Tra 
 Mwir^j XoOs '0 Beds dirb pdrov 2k6tos 
 
 DeTT^iipa Pa^ou^X A77e\os XelTrei iSXXa. 
 
 E^e/ctT^Xov TOV Twv LovbaiKij>v, 
 Tpay(j>Sluv (sic) ttoitjtoC 'Efa7U7'!} 
 McoyCHC npoAorizei 
 
 This is set up from the 1609 edition, which itself is a reprint of Morel's editio 
 princeps of 1590 (Parisiis. E Typographia Steph. Prenosteau). Here, however, 
 we read \elirei b xipo! for XcIttei aXXa. The 1609 ed. had simply Xelrei. 
 " Vol. IV. 0. 5. 
 
AND TEACES OF THEIR USE BY MILTON. 33 
 
 ancient melodies ; the voice of Euripides and Homer and Tasso — 
 sounds that he had loved in youth and treasured up for the solace 
 of his age.' But the range of Milton's reading was not confined 
 to the classics of literature; he read Jewish poets as well as 
 Greek and Italian. Had these early singers any thought that their 
 music was passing into such a mighty resonator? For we may 
 liken Milton to his own loved organ, where 
 
 'from one blast of wind 
 To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes.' 
 
 H. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 The Authorship and Date of the Homeric Centones. 
 
 The Aldine edition of the Centones knows nothing of their 
 authorship, the only alhision to which, in the epigram of Forti- 
 guerra, is limited to the statement that the author was worthy of 
 more than Homeric praise. In the Jesuit edition of 1609, how- 
 ever, we have a short table of contents, containing information to 
 the following effect : 
 
 Homerici Centones, quos nonnulli ab Eudocia, Theodosii 
 iunioris Augusti uxore, contextos arbitrantur ; at ex Zonara etiam 
 et Cedreno constat Pelagium Patricium Zenonis Imperatoris 
 aetate Homerocentra composuisse, atque in catalogo Heidelberg- 
 ensis Palatinae num. cccxxvi. Patricius presbyter quidam 
 poematis Homericis versibus concinnati de Christi incarnatione, 
 vita et niorte, auctor asseritur, eodemque libro Eudociae epi- 
 gramma in ilia ofirjpoKevTpa continetur et num. CCCLXXXili. 
 Patricii Homerocentra seu Christias ex Iliade et Odissea Home- 
 rica : Verum Aldus Manutius nullo expresso nomine auctoris hos 
 Centones cum Latina interpretatione circa an. 1504. Venetiis 
 edidit, et H. Stephanus an. 1578. Graecfe tantum. 
 
 Immediately before the Centones are prefixed two extracts, 
 one from the Bibliotheca Sancta of Sixtus Senensis, attributing the 
 Centones to Eudocia, and describing the work as made ad imita- 
 tationem Probae Falconiae ; and the other an extract which is as 
 follows : 
 
 Ex Zonara, Annalium To. iii in vita Basilii Imperatoris et 
 Cedreno. 
 
 Zeno imperator Pelagium Patricium, virum eruditissimum et 
 optimum, per causam Paganismi sustulit ; cum re vera timeret ne 
 ab illo redargueretur. Extat historia ab eodem Pelagio scripta 
 
AUTHORSHIP AND DATE OF THE HOMERIC CENTONES. 35 
 
 versibus, ab Augusto Caesare orsa; Homerocentra etiam com- 
 posuit, aliaque plurima, laude digna. 
 
 We may at once dismiss the statement of Sixtus that the 
 Homeric verses are an imitation of the Virgil Centones of Proba. 
 The antiquity both of the Homer and the Virgil Centones may be 
 seen in the following way : St Jerome in his Preface to the Vulgate 
 addressed to Paulinus, speaks of them in the following contemptu- 
 ous language : 
 
 " Quasi non legerimus Homerocentonas et Vergiliocentonas ; 
 ac non sic etiam Maronem sine Christo possimus dicere Christia- 
 num quia scripsit 
 
 lam redit et virgo, redeunt Satumia regna; 
 lam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto ; 
 
 et Patrem loquentem ad Filium 
 
 Nate, meae vires, mea magna potentia solus; 
 et post verba Salvatoris in cruce : 
 
 Talia perstabat memorans, fixusque manebat. 
 
 Puerilia sunt haec et circulatorum ludo similia, docere quod 
 ignores ; imo (ut cum stomacho loquar) ne hoc quidem scire 
 quod nescias." 
 
 If now we refer to the printed text of the verses ascribed to 
 Proba, we shall find in the account of the Baptism 
 
 Tum genitor natum dictis compellat amicis, 
 Nate, meae vires, mea magna potentia solus; 
 
 and in the account of the Crucifixion 
 
 Post mihi non simili poena commissa luetis. 
 Talia perstabat memorans fixusque manebat. 
 
 It seems clear that the Latin Centones are older than Jerome, 
 and his reference practically carries the Greek verses also. He is 
 referring to real books. Proba has commonly been represented as 
 junior to Jerome. Her book is older. As to the supposed extracts 
 of Zonaras and Cedrenus given above, they are a brief and incorrect 
 summary of the statements of these writers. What Zonaras 
 actually says is that Eudocia completed the attempt of a certain 
 Patricius at writing Homeric Centones, and Cedrenus identifies 
 
 3—2 
 
36 AUTHORSHIP AND DATE 
 
 this Patricius with a Patricius Pelagius who was put to death by 
 the emperor Zeno^ 
 
 The data are inconsistent ; for there can be no hesitation in 
 affirming Eudocia to be the learned wife of Theodosius the second, 
 whose heroic poems and translations Photius mentions (though he 
 does not include the Homerocentra in his list)^ But Theodosius 
 II. (a.d. 408—450) is a quarter of a century earlier than Zeno 
 (a.d. 474). Hence we are obliged to correct the tradition, which 
 can hardly be valid unless Eudocia completed the work of some 
 other Patricius, of an earlier date than her own and apparently 
 unknown to fame. Now there is the highest probability in the 
 theory that such a collection as we possess in the Aldine edition 
 came into existence by successive stages of growth. The ambiguity 
 as to authorship appears in several other ways : for example, in the 
 Invmtaire Sommaire des MSS. du SuppUment Orec M. Omont 
 gives an account of a tenth century MS. in the National Library 
 (Cod. 388)' which ascribes the Oentones to three separate authors : 
 viz.: Patricius Episcopus, Eudocia Augusta, and Cosmas of 
 Jerusalem. The entry is as follows : ' De Homericis Centonibus : 
 Bt'ygXo? UarpiKiov (/. 2) Homeri Centones Patricii episcopi [add : 
 optimi philosophi], Eudociae Augustae et Cosmae Hierosolymitanae 
 (/. 4).' Here the prefixed Bt'/3Xo? on two leaves of the MS. 
 is, no doubt, the epigram from the Greek Anthology, which 
 describes the work of Patricius, and has itself been referred by 
 some to Eudocia. The epigram is so important for the con- 
 tents of Patricius' Centones that we transcribe it in full, with 
 the corresponding sections of the Edited Centones noted on the 
 margin ^ 
 
 "ViroOeai'i' aTraiXoyia ev<f)r}iJbo<} 'OfirjpoKevTpav. 
 
 Bi/S\o? JlarpiKtiOio 6eovBeo<} dprjTrjpo<;, 
 '^O? fiiya epyov epe^ev, 6/j,r)peCrj<; diro ySt/SX-Ov, 
 KvSaXifimv iirecov Tev^a<i ipLTi/xov doiBi]v, 
 Tlp7]^ia<i djyeXXovo'av dviKijToio Oeolo. 
 
 ^ From a recently published Konigsberg programme entitled " Eudociae Augustae 
 carminum reliquiae editae ab Arthuro Ludwich," I gather the information that 
 the prologue ascribed to Patricius in the MS. is followed by a second prologue of 
 Eudocia, which I add in a note on next page. 
 
 2 Photius, Bibliotheca, Codd. CLxxxiii. and olxxxiv. 
 
 ^ Anthologia Palatina (ed. Jacobs, i. 119). 
 
OF THE HOMERIC CENTONES. 
 
 37 
 
 De conceptione 
 
 et 
 de diuino partu 
 
 De Hepodis 
 infanticidio 
 
 De diuino 
 
 baptismate 
 
 De uocatioue 
 
 apostolorum 
 
 De paralytico 
 
 etc. 
 
 De caeco 
 
 De mulierc 
 sanguine fiuente 
 
 De filia lairi 
 
 et 
 De Lazaro ? 
 
 De mysterio 
 De crucifixione 
 
 De descensu 
 ad inferos 
 
 De Resurrectione 
 
 X2? /MoXev dvQpwTrmv e? ofirj'yvpLV, a><; Xd^e fiopcfjrjv 
 
 AvSpofie7}v, Kul yaa-Tp6<; d/j,e/j,(f>ioi; evBodi Kovprji; 
 
 KjOVTTTeTo rvrBo'i ioov, ov direiptTo^ ov %aSe kvkXo^. 
 
 Ho 0)9 irapOevmris 0eoKVfiovoi eairaae fia^ov, 
 
 HapOevioio jd\aKTO<; dva^Xv^ovTa peeOpov, 
 
 X2? KTavev HpwSi;? draKdi^pova^ eiairi ■iralha<;, 
 
 ^rjirio';, ddavuTOio deov Bi^ijfievoi olrov 
 ' fls /itJ' 'Iwai/j/i;? Xovo'ev trorafioio pee6poi,<;. 
 
 09 T6 hvcoieKa (f)WTa^ dfiv p.ova'i eXKa^^ eTalpov;. 
 
 Oaaav r dpria irdvTa deo^ TeKTijvaro yvla, 
 Noi'o-oy9 t' i^eXda-w; (TTV^epdi ^\e(f)dpa)v r dXacorvv, 
 
 Ho' b7r7r<B9 peiovra^ direa^eaev ai/iaro^ oXKoiif 
 
 Ayjrafiivr]!; eavolo iroKvKkavToio yvvaiKO^. 
 
 US' oo'aovs ixoiprjcnv vtt dpyaXirjai Safievrat; 
 
 Hyaiyev 69 </)ao9 avTi<; dirb ^(Oovioio ^epidpov. 
 
 il<; re Tradovi djiov ixvqfjurjia KoXXi-jrev dfifiiv 
 ' II9 re ^poTcov viro %6/3crt rdOr] KpvepoX<; evl Sea/ioZ?, 
 AvTOi iictiov oil yap Ti9 i'irt')(dovi(ov 'JTo\ep,i^ot, 
 
 Tyjri/ieSovTt deS, ore p/rj avT6<; ye KeXevor 
 'fi9 Qdvev, 6)9 'Ai'Sao aiSijpea prj^e Ovperpa, 
 Keidev Se ■yjrv'x^a'; 0eo7rei0ea<; ovpavov elcru) 
 'Hyayep d'X^pdvTOKrtv vir ivvealrjo-i TOKtjo';, 
 'Avarat; ev Tpirdrri ^aeaifi^poTa rjpi/yeveLri, 
 'Ap'x^iyovov ^darrj/Ma Oeov yeverijpoi; dvdp')(pv. 
 
 There is hardly a word of this that is not Homeric, and the 
 person who wrote it was indisputably capable of making Homeric 
 Centones. The Paris MS. assigns these verses definitely to 
 Patricius'- But the epigram also shews without a doubt that 
 
 1 As follows : to which is attached a prologue by Eudocia. 
 
 ToiJrovs ^kv i^^dero JIaTpiKLOs iiriffKoiros. 
 i) Sk airoKayla Ei)5o/c(as A.iyoi<!Tris t^s 'ABrivaias rfjs 
 ywaiKbs Oeodoffiov Aiyoi<rTov tov viov wioO 
 'ApKaSlov ^anXiuis avTi). 
 'H5e yitey icTopir] ffeorepirios iarlv cioidTJs. 
 IlaTplKios S', 8s T^^'Sc <ro0«s aveypdtj/aTO ^l§\ov, 
 "B1771 ixh aevaoio Siafiireph fifcos atmv 
 OilvcKa St; TrafiirpoiTOS ^/iiJffOTO Kidi/wv Ipyov. 
 'AW ?/i7n;s oil irdyxv ^TjyT-u/ta iravT &y6peiiev, 
 Oidi iJiiv apuovlriv iiriav i^iiXa^ev avaffati, 
 Oidi p.bvwv iiriiav ip.vi](Ta.TO Keicos ddSav, 
 'Oirirdffa x«^k«<»' W°P ci,/iefi<pios elirev 'Op,i)pov. 
 
38 AUTHORSHIP AND DATE 
 
 the Centones of Patricius covered nearly all the ground of the 
 edited verses. The treatment may have been scantier, but it is 
 difficult to believe that the subjects were very different from what 
 we possess in the Aldine text when we have so many of them 
 attested by the epigram. This is an important point, because if 
 Patricius is the first recorded Homerizer of the New Testament 
 we are not on that account to assume that his labour was a mere 
 spicilegium with regard to a subsequent harvest. Nor are we to 
 infer that the shortest text which we find extant in MSS. is 
 necessarily the text of Patricius, unless at all events it contains 
 the subjects with which he is credited in his own epigram. On 
 the other hand it is to be remembered that one peculiar feature 
 of Centonism is that it makes a complete work out of each subject 
 proposed for consideration, so that there is no necessary nexus 
 between one subject selected and the next. Consequently a book 
 
 'AX\' 4yi) i]/dTe\e(TTOV ayaK^eis us tSov Ipyov, 
 liaTpiKiov aeXiSas lepai fiera X"/"^ \a/3oDo"a, 
 "0<r<Ta //.h iv ^l^Xoiirep lirq iriXev oi Kara Kbtr/iov, 
 Hoit' afivSis Keivoio ao^rjs i^eipvffa ^tpXov. 
 "Oiraa 8' iKeivoi ^XetTrei', iyin vaSiv iv (Tt\ide<rai 
 Fpd^a Kal Apfiovirjif iepots iirhffcnv ^dojKa, 
 Ei Si ns alT{,b(fTO Kal rip,4as is \j/6yoi> JXkoi, 
 AoidSes oOveKa iroWal apii^Xov Karci ^i^Xov 
 Wfflv ' OfiTjpeiujv I-' iiriwv iroXX' o^ Oipus iffTiv, 
 "laroj Toud^ Sti irdvTes virodprja-TTJpes &vdyK7}S. 
 E^ 3^ Tts vfJi.POT6\oio ffa6(j)pova, ^aTiavdio 
 MoXtt^i/ ilaatuv fftperipijv rip^eiGv oiKovifiv, 
 Aoiadas oiivcKa Keivos ^0ti7jpdii)P airb ^i^Xiav 
 OO TTOTi avyxGi^cLS fftperipri iveSrjKaTO diXrtjj, 
 06 ^imv, oBveKa kuvos 'Op,ripdris Airo i^oXtt^s, 
 Keivos S' i^ iiriuv ^(peTipuv nolrjcrev aoiiriv 
 Tpiiuv T 'Apyduv re KaKTjv iviwovaav duY^i', 
 fis Te 7r6Xti' Hpidp-oio 5tiTrpa0ov viis ^Axaiuv, 
 AiVrji' Vpolav fx'»"'''"'> ^'' cipyaXiip re KvdoifKfi 
 Mapvafiivovs airrois re ffeois, airois re Kai AvSpas, 
 06s TTore xO'^'^^^'puvos dvrjp ain-qffev "Ofirjpos. 
 IJarplKios Si Ss rijvSe ffotp^v dveypd\j/aTo SiXrov, 
 'AvtI /xiv 'Apycluv (rTpaTirjs yivos eTimv 'EPpalicv, 
 'AvtI Si Sainovlris tc ko! dvnOioio ipaKayyos 
 'AdavdTovs ijeurc Kal vlia Kal yeveTrjpa. 
 'AXX' l/iwris ^ucAs /iiv i(pv ttAkos o/*^OT^poi(rt 
 HarpiKlif Kdfwl, Kal B-ijXvTipji rep ioiffTf)- 
 Keicos S' i\paTo /loOvos iv dvBptliTois fiiya kSSos, 
 "Os irdfiTrpuTos iir'^^aro K^eivSv ^dos ye Sbfioio 
 KaXiji' i^avdywv <t>'fiii,-qv Pporioto yevid\i]S. 
 
OF THE HOMERIC CENTONES. 39 
 
 of Centones readily grows : one has only to propose a fresh list of 
 subjects and versify them ; and the new composition can be at 
 once attached to the old, without shewing much evidence of junc- 
 tion where the separate parts are brought together. We must 
 not, therefore, assume that Patricius had those sections which we 
 find in the Aldine text, but are not alluded to in the epigram ; 
 such, for instance, as deal with the Fall of Man and the resulting 
 Divine economy. Questions of this kind must be reserved for a, 
 closer enquiry, and particularly for an enquiry based upon the 
 written traditions of the text^. Fortunately we are not limited in 
 our investigation to the discussion of the MSS., for we shall shew 
 presently in a conclusive manner reasons for believing in the 
 existence of a body of Homeric Centones long before the time of 
 Eudocia. Meanwhile it is sufficient to remember that we have 
 already three claimants for the' authorship — Patricius, Eudocia and 
 Cosmas ; of whom there is some reason to suspect Patricius to be 
 the first, but beyond this we have as yet no light with. regard to 
 the questions of date or authorship^ If the reference to Cosmas 
 be genuine, the work must have reached its final form in the 
 eighth century. But it is well to remember that the upper limit 
 of the enquiry as to date may be anywhere. The further back we 
 go, the greater is the acquaintance with Homer. Centonism was 
 rife, certainly, in the second century, both in Greek and in Latin. 
 The latter is proved by the testimony of Tertullian' as to the 
 transfer of Medea into Virgilian verse ; the former, by the interest- 
 ing specimen quoted by Irenaeus of the descent of Herakles into 
 Hades to fetch the dog Cerberus*. If k priori probability counts 
 for anything in an enquiry of this kind, it must be allowed that it 
 is in favour of an early Centonization of portions, at least, of the 
 Biblical narrative. The enquiry is an open one, let us see whither 
 it will lead us. 
 
 1 The principal mss. to be examined, besides Cod. Paris Suppl. 388 described 
 above, are 
 
 Cod. Eeg. 2867 (chart, manu. Angeli Vergecii), which ascribes the verses to 
 Eudocia Augusta. Cod. Eeg. 3047 and Cod. Eeg. 2755, which refers 
 them to Patricius, and perhaps Cod. Eeg. 2891 (cent, xvi.) and 
 2977. 
 ■" Eudocia has an obscure reference to Tatian. Which Tatian? 
 3 De Praescript. Haeret. 39. He also alludes in the same passage to the Homeric 
 Centonists. 
 
 ^ Irenaeus, i. ix. 4. 
 
40 AUTHORSHIP AND DATE 
 
 Before we turn to the demonstration of the antiquity of the 
 ground-form which underlies the Homeric Centones, it will be 
 convenient to make a few remarks on the constitution of a Cento. 
 
 First of all, a subject is proposed to the pseudo-poet, which he 
 expands and dilates upon in Homeric language. This is the 
 reason for the division of the Edited Centones into a series of 
 chapters. They are not really chapters, but set subjects ; and it 
 is even probable that some of the titles have disappeared from the 
 published text, so as to confuse the separate poems. 
 
 Then, in considering the Cento as a work of art, it is evident 
 that it would cease to be interesting if many consecutive verses of 
 Homer were quoted ; and it is, therefore, not usual to quote more 
 than two or three adjacent verses. Where this is not adhered to, 
 the Centonist loses his reward of praise ; for the credit of the 
 work, and the charm, where it has a charm, is in the junction of 
 disconnected verses, and the adaptation of old sentences to new 
 meanings. Occasionally we shall find our Biblical Homeric Cen- 
 tones to fall under condemnation on this head. 
 
 There is an ingenious Cento in the Greek Anthology^ which 
 will furnish a good instance of how the work ought to be done : 
 the subject proposed is " The man that first heard an Echo," and 
 the verses are as follows : 
 
 'O TrpcBTO? 'H^j^ovs aKovaas. 
 II. B. 110 'fl (pC\oi, ^pcoe<; Aavaol,, 6epd-rrovTe<; "Apijoi, 
 Od. 8. 140 '^evao/iai rj ervfiov epeco; KeKerai Be fie Ovfiov 
 Od. e. 238 'Aypov eir ia')(aTiri<; odi SevSpea fiuKpa 7re<j>vKei, 
 
 (Irl ^8 1 ^"'^' iv-TrXoKa/ioi; Seivrj 6eo<i avhrjeacra, 
 
 Od ' 24Q l'^ ^^°* ^^ yvvij- Tol Be <^de'y<yovTO KaXevvTe<;. 
 
 Od. I. 497 Et Be (jidey^afievov tov rj avBijaavro'i aKovarj, 
 
 Od. fi. 453 AvTt? a/3tf»;\a)s eiprffjuiva fivdoXoyevei. 
 
 II. K. 432 'AWa rirj rot ravra Bte^epeeaOe eKaara ; 
 
 Od. T. 478 Trjv S' OVT aOprjaai Svva/jL dvTiov, ovre vorj(7ai,. 
 
 II. T. 250 'O-mrolov k eXirricrOa eTro<!, toIov k €7raKov<7ai<;. 
 
 The references will enable the reader to see how closely Homer 
 has been followed; many verses are quite unaltered, and others 
 very slightly : in the third verse, for example, dypov has been 
 ' Ed. Jacobs, ii. 134. 
 
OF THE HOMERIC CENTONES. 41 
 
 substituted for vrjaov^. No consecutive verses of Homer occur. 
 Irenaeus' verses on the descent of Herakles follow Homer still 
 more closely, but here the subject was an easier one. We have, 
 however, consecutive verses used, a fact which the writer tries to 
 disguise. The lines are as follows : 
 
 Od. K. 76 'n? elnrmv dveirefiTre Soficop ^apia aTevd')(pvTa 
 
 Od. (j), 26 ftw^' 'Hpa/cXija, fieydXmv iTru'a-Topa epyeop 
 
 II. T. 123 Eivpvadev<;, XOeveKoio Trai.'? Tlepa-rjidBao, 
 
 II. @. 368 'Ef 'Epi^£v<; d^ovra Kvva arrvyepov 'AiSao. 
 
 Od. ^. 130 Br) S' "fiev &<TTe Xiaiv opeaLrpoi^o'; d\Ki TreiroiOwi;, 
 
 II. fl. 327 K-apiraXifiO}^ dva daTV (plXot S' a/j,a Trai'Te? eirovTO, 
 
 Od. X. 38 ^v/M<f>ai T i]Weob re ttoXvtXtjtoI, re jepovTei;, 
 
 II. n. 328 OiKTp 6Xo<f>vp6fievoi, cocrel ddvarovSe Kiovra. 
 
 Od. X. 625 '^pfielai 8' direTrefiTrev, IBs <yXavKdo7ri<; 'Adijvr}- 
 
 II. B. 409 "HfSee yap /card Ov/xov dBeX<f)e6v, cJ? iiroveiro. 
 
 It would have been natural to quote directly from II. @. 
 367 as well as 368 
 
 Ei/re /miv et? 'AiSao TrvXdprao ■jrpovTrefi'yfrep, 
 
 but this was too obvious a verse, and the composer disdained to 
 employ it. 
 
 We notice that in each of these cases, the writer contented 
 himself with making a new poem of ten verses. Perhaps this was 
 the conventional limit of the professional Centonist. 
 
 But it is in the adaptation of Homer to a non- Homeric subject 
 that the skill of the composer is most apparent. It was easy to 
 write of Herakles and Cerberus, because they were Homeric 
 characters ; but when one has to illustrate non-Hellenic scenes, 
 and Semitic surroundings, then comes the test of the artist, and if 
 any praise be due to ingenuity, the composers of the Biblical 
 Centones bear the palm away from all competitors. For example, 
 the lame man whom Christ heals is introduced in the words 
 
 II. P. 465 'Oyjre Se Sj; fxiv eTaipo<s dvrjp iSev o^daX/Moicrt, 
 II. %. 411 'KcoXevav, utto 8e kv^imm pmovTo dpaoal. 
 
 It is the limping Hephaestus in disguise ! 
 * The woman of Samaria, going into the city to inform the 
 
 1 The Epigram is discussed and praised by Henry Stephen in his Parodiae 
 Morales. 
 
42 AUTHORSHIP AND DATE OF THE HOMERIC CENTONES. 
 
 men of the place concerning the Prophet with whom she has 
 conversed, begins her speech as follows: 
 Od. 6. 11 Aevr' aye ^tKi/Miov ■^yijTope^ ^Be /leSovre^. 
 
 It is Athene, whom Homer introduced disguised as a herald, 
 announcing to the Phaecians the arrival of Odysseus, who now, 
 by the substitution of the single word XiKificav for ^aiijKmv, 
 appears in the Oriental garb of the Samaritan woman * ! 
 
 When Thomas makes enquiry as to the reality of the Lord's 
 resurrection, and is shewn the marks of the wounds 
 Od. T. 391 OiX^v S' dfi^pdcravTo, koL dfi(paSd epya yevovro. 
 
 It is an adaptation of the boar-mark on Odysseus' thigh, by 
 which the old nurse recognizes him ! 
 
 The five thousand who eat bread by miracle are described, 
 with a slight liberty taken in the computation by the words 
 Od. y. 7 'Ez/i/ea S' eSpai, ecrav, "TrevTr/Koaioi S' ip eKdcrrj] 
 [Eifaro Koi 'irpov')(ovro eKoaTodt evvea ravpov?]. 
 
 The line describes the banquet on the shore of Pylos, when 
 Telemachus comes there in search of his father ! And so on, in a 
 variety of other borrowed lines, which were made to reflect the 
 subject which the Centonist was engaged upon. Sometimes this 
 reflection was natural enough ; there was no difficulty, for example, 
 in making Eumaeus the swineherd of the Galilean Lake, or in 
 depicting a suitable banquet for the marriage at Cana, though it 
 certainly is a little audacious on the part of the writer to tell us 
 that, in the latter case, the board was decked with swine's flesh : 
 
 II. '^. 32 IToWot B' dpyi6BovTe<; ue?, 0aXeOovre<: dXoKJ)'^, 
 ^vofiepoi ravvovTo Bia <f>Xoyb<s 'H^aierTOto. 
 
 How ingenious is the translation of the sentence in the Gospel, 
 where our Lord commanded that something to eat should be given 
 to the revived maiden : 
 Od. f. 209 Kai re Bor, dfi^liroXoi, Kovpy ^pSxriv re -jroaiv re. 
 
 It is the command of Nausicaa to her maidens to entertain 
 Odysseus, with the single change of Kovpy for ^elvtp. 
 
 But we shall see plenty of cases of the power of the writer to 
 Homerize whatever subject he laid his hands on. The Centones, 
 though they naturally shew some chasms between the verses, are 
 a marvel of ingenuity, such as, probably, could not be duplicated 
 in the whole range of ancient and modern literature. 
 ' Reading Hvxe/n. for 2uxap as in the Lewis Codex. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 On the literary parallelism between the Homeric 
 Centones and the Acts of Pilate. 
 
 We now turn aside to examine a famous apocryphal docu- 
 ment which has exercised a great influence upon art, literature 
 and theology, the so-called Acta Pilati^. The work in the forms 
 in which it has come down to us is, in all probability, a product of 
 the fourth century ; but the recensions of it are in barbarous 
 Greek, and differ inter se; nor has any attempt as yet been 
 successful to reconstruct the earlier form of the Pilate legends 
 which underlies the extant texts and versions. 
 
 We may confine ourselves, to begin with, to the text as edited 
 by Tischendorf, who much enriched the critical apparatus for the 
 study of the Acta, and printed a critical text of the different 
 recensions which he detected amongst his MSS. To be more 
 exact, we should say that Tischendorf's text comprises a division 
 of the subject into two parts, which he names respectively the 
 Gesta Pilati and the Descensus ad Inferos; of the first of these 
 Tischendorf prints two Greek recensions (A and B), and a Latin 
 text ; and of the latter he prints two Latin texts (A and B) and a 
 Greek text. I may say at once that there is nothing final about 
 the editing of these texts, and that a fresh examination of the 
 whole subject is much needed. But we need not concern our- 
 selves immediately with the critical difficulties that beset the 
 Editor of the Acta, and which are far greater than a superficial 
 student would imagine. We shall refer to the Tischendorf text, 
 as found in his Evangelia Apocrypha (ed. ii), as the standard. 
 
 ' Known in the West as the Gospel of Nicodemus. When Erasmus and Colet 
 visited Canterbury Cathedral, they saw a copy of this Gospel chained to one of the 
 pillars for public reading. 
 
44 THE LITERARY PARALLELISM BETWEEN 
 
 The first part of the book is concerned Avith the account of the 
 apprehension and trial of Jesus before Pilate, and his subsequent 
 crucifixion. When the trial is under way, Nicodemus comes 
 forward to speak in our Lord's behalf, and he is followed by a 
 number of persons who have been the subjects of our Lord's 
 miraculous healing, and in almost every instance they are intro- 
 duced by the same formula. The procession begins by a paralytic 
 who has been healed, who is seen by an examination of the story 
 which he tells to be the paralytic of thirty-eight years at the 
 pool of Bethesda, compounded with the man sick of the palsy 
 who was carried on his bed and laid down before Jesus. The 
 account opens as follows : 
 
 els Be tS)V 'lovSaiav 7rapairr]B'qcra<! rj^Lov tov 
 
 rji^efiova \6yov eiTrelv. 
 The next case is that of a blind man, who is introduced as 
 follows : 
 
 KaX aWo? 'lovSato? irapa-TrrjSijcra^ Xeyei. 
 
 He is followed by a cripple, described similarly, 
 Kal a\Xo<; 'louSajo? TrapaTrr)S'^(7a<i eliTev. 
 
 The next case is that of a leper, who is more briefly introduced 
 by the words, 
 
 Koi aXko<i elirev. 
 
 Now the key-word to the structure of the story lies in this 
 repeated formula and its peculiar ■n-apaTrrjSija-a';. It only occurs 
 in recension A, but there is no doubt about its accuracy here, 
 however much we might at first sight wish to correct it to 
 irpoirrjSdm or some more natural word; for in c. xii. the text 
 refers again to the procession of witnesses and speaks of them as 
 TOV ^iKoSrjfiov Kal aXXov<; erepov; ttoWoi;?, oiTive<s irapaTrrjBijaav- 
 res ktL Many of the MSS. of the recension have made attempts 
 to explain the peculiar word, as for example, by the addition of 
 el<! TO fiiaov. It does not, however, need any correction ; it is a 
 proper word to describe the coming forward of a witness, as may 
 be seen by a reference to Sextus Empiricus^ 
 
 In recension B the prologues to the stories told by the chain 
 of witnesses have been entirely changed, and we have instead of 
 the previous forms such sentences as 
 
 ' Adv. mathematicos, p. 556. 31. I owe the reference to Prof. Robinson. 
 
THE HOMERIC CENTONES AND THE ACTS OF PILATE. 45 
 
 Tavra el'TrovTo'i tov ^ iKoBijfwv eVepo? iyepdeh 
 'EyS/aato? \676t. 
 
 ETepo9 "TraXiv aradeli (leaov elirev. 
 ' Erepo? etTre. 
 "A\Xo9 evnev. 
 
 The relative simplicity of these sentences suggests that they 
 are a later development of the story, after a process of editing and 
 perhaps of re-translation. The characteristic irapa'jrrjSrja-a'i has 
 disappeared, being replaced by eyep6ei<;, araOeU ek rb fieaov, or 
 altogether omitted. 
 
 When we examine the extant versions of the Acta, we find a 
 similar disappearance in the Coptic, where the prologues are now 
 
 Alius porro ex Judaeis accessit ad Pilatum dicens: 
 
 Item alius Judaeus aiebat: 
 
 Alius etiam ad Pilatum accedens dixit : 
 
 in which ■jrapaTrrjSrja-a'; has been equated to the Coptic equivalent 
 of accessit ad Pilatum. 
 
 The Latin version, however, has preserved something of the 
 original trait, and gives us 
 
 Ex Judaeis quidam alius autem exsiliens rogat: 
 Et alius quidam Judaeus exsiliens dixit: 
 Et alius Judaeus exsiliens dixit: 
 Et alius dixit: 
 
 where the MSS. of the version will, however, be found occasionally 
 correcting exsiliens into prosiliens or exiens : or substituting such 
 paraphrases as rogavit festinanter. 
 
 Now let us turn to the account of our Lord's miracles in the 
 Homeric Centones. A number of sections are devoted to the 
 various miracles, which are edited in the following order: 
 
 •jrepl TOV irapaXvTov. 
 
 irepl TOV iv tj} aroa 'ZoXofiSiVTO'i eTepov trapaXvTov. 
 
 TTepl Trji OvyaTpoi tov eKaTOVTO.p'x^ov. 
 
 •Trepl TOV '^coXov tov koI ^r)pav e^j^ovTos ')(eipa. 
 
 irepX TOV TvcfiXov, 
 
 irepl TOV Baip,ov&VTO<;. 
 
 Now, without stopping to investigate which particular miracle 
 or combination of miracles is intended in each case (for the writer 
 of the Centones compounds his miracles freely), let us examine 
 
46 THE LITERARY PARALLELISM BETWEEN 
 
 the opening sentences of the separate accounts ; and we shall find 
 in them the traces of a common introductory verse, which binds 
 the series of subjects together. The story of the paralytic, after 
 a conventional allusion to the Rosy-fingered Dawn, proceeds with 
 
 Od. <r. 1 'H\^6 S' eVt irrco'xpi iravSij/jLiO';, 09 Kara darv 
 Ketr' oKiy^ireXifov, 
 
 The story of the blind man opens with the lines 
 
 "AWo? S' av9i,<! TTTW'Xp'i avrjp aXaX^fievot eKBcov 
 'Eo-T);/c6t, fieya irevOo'; evl (TTrjOeaaiv ae^mv. 
 
 The story of the demoniac opens with 
 
 'Aw' aWos Tf? Trrci)-)(p<; dvrjp akaX'qfievo<; iXOcov 
 Aecrfim ev dpyaXeo) BeBero Kparep aXyea iraa'^av. 
 
 There is no mistaking the significance of these introductory 
 verses; the writer planned a procession of poor men, and the 
 typical verse for introducing them is the Homeric line 
 
 'Aw' aWo9 Tt? TTTwj^o? avr\p aXaX-ijfievo'i eXdcov. Od. <l>, 327. 
 
 Now, when we compare the sequence of the miracles in the 
 Centones and their typical formula of introduction with the pro- 
 cession of witnesses in the Acta who have been healed by Christ, 
 and note the formula with which their testimony is introduced, we 
 shall see that there is some reason to suspect a connexion between 
 the two compositions. The obvious suggestion is that the two 
 formulae 
 
 Kal aWo? 'louSatos •jrapaTrr)B'>j<Ta<; 
 
 and "AW05 av6L<} tttmj^o? dvrjp a\,aXijfj,€vo<i eXOoov 
 
 are equivalent : and this may very easily be the case if dXaXij- 
 fxevof had been read or understood as aXKojievo'i. The sentence 
 in the Acta would be thus a prose paraphrase of a Homeric line ; 
 and the different recensions of the Acta would arise from different 
 treatment of the original verse, or from subsequent corrections or 
 translations of the first prose paraphrase'. 
 
 But if our suggestion be a correct one for the explanation of 
 the phenomena, we clearly cannot limit ourselves to the study of 
 a single line ; we must examine for further coincidences of treat- 
 
 ' For the existence of the primitive ■n-Toixis we shall find suspicious evidence 
 presently, when we come to examine a parallel formula in the Descevsits ad Inferos 
 {riXBev Irepos TOTreivAs ivOpairoi). 
 
THE HOMERIC CENTONES AND THE ACTS OF PILATE. 
 
 47 
 
 ment by the two documents, and we must demonstrate more 
 thoroughly the existence of Homeric influence on the Acta. This 
 we shall be able abundantly to do. For example, we may shew at 
 once that there is a parallelism between the two documents in 
 the matter of the miracles which they discuss. Let us compare 
 the following sequences: 
 
 Acta Pilati. 
 
 1. The paralytic of 
 38 years who is brought 
 on his bed to Jesus. 
 
 2. The blind man 
 who cried 'Have mercy 
 on me, Son of David.' 
 
 3. The deformed 
 man. 
 
 4. The leper. 
 
 5 . The woman named 
 Bernice who had the 
 twelve years' flux. 
 
 6. A multitude of 
 men and women who 
 affirm the Lord to be a 
 prophet with power over 
 demons, 
 
 7. and others who 
 testify to the raising of 
 Lazarus. 
 
 Edited Centones. 
 
 1. A paralytic. 
 
 2. Another paralytic 
 in Solomon's Porch. 
 
 3. The daughter of 
 the Centurion {sic/). 
 
 4. The lame man 
 with the withered hand. 
 
 5. The blind man. 
 
 6. The demoniac. 
 
 7. Mulier sanguine 
 fluens. 
 
 8. The Samaritan 
 woman. 
 
 9. The seven loaves. 
 
 10. The raising of 
 Lazarus. 
 
 Centones from the epigram on 
 Patricius. 
 
 1. De paralytico etc. 
 
 2. De caeco etc. 
 
 3. De muliere san- 
 guine fluente. 
 
 4? De filia Jairi et 
 de Lazaro. 
 
 A study of the successive subjects shews that they are 
 connected one with the other. Each series begins with the 
 paralytics and ends with the raising of Lazarus. It is true that 
 there are two separate treatments of the subject of the paralytics 
 in the Edited Centones, but there are two paralytic stories rolled 
 into one in the Acta Pilati. Each has the paralytic of John v. : 
 the Acta betray him by the reference to the 38 years; the 
 Centones by the allusion of the poet to the sick man as lying 
 TOT/Tot? iv Xe'xeeaa'L vir aWova-p ipiSovirq), an expression which 
 probably arose out of the five porches in the Gospel*. Between 
 the two extremes of the lists there is some variation. But it is 
 noticeable that as far as we are able to trace the order of Patricius 
 it agrees with the order in the Acta, and only differs from that of 
 the Edited Centones in that the case of the daughter of Jairus, 
 which we have supposed included in the allusion to Christ's 
 resurrection miracles, appears in the printed texts as a separate 
 
 1 The expression TpijTots ^i' Xex^^"'"'' would seem to exclude the identification 
 with the lame man in Solomon's Porch. 
 
48 THE LITERARY PARALLELISM BETWEEN 
 
 subject at an earlier point in the lists. But the resemblance 
 between the Centones and the Acta is too decided to be the 
 result of accident'. 
 
 We may also, by the examination of the text of the Acta in 
 the neighbourhood of the matter previously quoted, satisfy our- 
 selves that there is more Homer underneath. The very next 
 sentence in the account of Nicodemus and the procession of 
 witnesses is a typical one. The entrance of Nicodemus to the 
 court is followed by a speech d^im, eva-e^rj, iceXeva-ov fiot, elirelv 
 6X[yov<; \6yov<!. In the second recension it runs thus; heojjiai 
 (Tov Trj<; fieyaXeioTTjTO'; aov iaaai fie eliretv tt/jo? ae oXvya riva 
 fy^fiara : and something similar appears in the introduction of the 
 first witness, where the recension (A) records ^ftou top rfyeixova 
 \6yov elireiv, and recension (B) heofiai crov, Kvpie fiov IltXaTe, 
 aKovaov KOfiov, with the significant variant KeXevaov /Me, '^ye/icov, 
 eva \6yov elirelv, in which we recognize the features of the speech 
 of Nicodemus in recension A. How did all this confusion come 
 about, and what made the writer think of addressing Pilate by 
 the title of evo-e/S???, which would have been too much either for 
 conventional politeness or Christian partiality for the governor ? 
 The probable solution is that we have here a variety of workings 
 in prose of a line not very dissimilar from the Homeric verse 
 
 {II. A. 74) Tl 'A;y;i\6i), iceXeaL /tte, hd(^iKe, fivdijaacrffai, 
 
 where we catch the original of KeXevaov, and also see the hard 
 word from which the eiae^rji; arosel What follows in the Acta 
 would then be, naturally enough, an adaptation of the answer of 
 Achilles to Calchas' request 
 
 Baparjaa'i fiaXa etTTe to deoirpoTTiov oirep oiaOa. 
 
 1 There is nothing in the Acta as far as I know to answer to the Samaritan 
 woman ; nor any mention of the miracle of the loaves ; but it is worthy of notice 
 that one ms. of the Acta has substituted the following sentence for the allusion to 
 the raising of Lazarus: 
 
 Ik irivTS apruiv x'^tdSas I8pe\j/e irhre, 
 Kal h ivTi, Aprois x'X'iiSos r^o-o-apos Kai 
 
 But this is perhaps, not to be pressed as a coincidence with the Centones. 
 ' Here Psellus has in his paraphrase 
 
 i3 T(? Aii Trpoff^iX^ff-Tare 'A^iXXeO, iceXeiJets /ie i^eimiv Kal <(>pd<rai. 
 
THE HOMERIC CENTONES AND THE ACTS OF PILATE. 49 
 
 What we actually find in the Acta is in rec. A 
 
 ei Tt diXeit elirelv, eliri, 
 
 and in rec. B el-rre '6 ri ^ovXr/, 
 
 either of which might be a summary of the Homeric line. 
 
 It is interesting also to note that it is in the conception of a 
 Homeric base that we find the solution to many of the perplexing 
 variants in the MSS. of the Acta Pilati. Here is one striking 
 specimen from the story of the Paralytic. The Acta in recension 
 A tell us that the paralytic's account of himself was as follows : 
 
 Kai rive<; veaviaicoi KaTeXerjo-avre'i fie i^daTaaav 
 fie fiera rij? kKLv'T}'! koI dir'^ryayov /le Trpo? avrov. 
 
 One of the best MSS. reads ■maTOTaroi for veavia-Koi. No 
 paleography will explain the variant, but a reference to the story 
 as told in the Centones will shew that both words should stand 
 in the text, and that iria-ToraToi, veavio-Koi is the prose paraphrase 
 of the Homeric epirjpe<i iraipot, the verses borrowed being 
 
 TOP fiev eireiO virohivre Sua) eplrjpei eToipoi^ 
 avTov Kev Trpoirdpoide ttoS&v ^dXov ev KovLrjcrt,^, 
 
 Now if the previous suggestions and arguments are correct, it 
 means that there is an earlier Homeric Gospel somewhere behind 
 the Centones and behind the Acta. A common document there 
 must be somewhere ; and no conceivable skill could have made the 
 Centones out of a consecutive prose Gospel which has disappeared, 
 in such a way as to preserve the sequences of that Gospel. Even 
 in dealing with the actual Gospel, the subject matter has to be 
 treated very freely, and in fact the Gospel is rather accommodated 
 to Homer, than Homer to the Gospel : it is true that such verses 
 are selected and strung together, as will illustrate some Gospel 
 event, but even the man who had Homer most at his fingers' ends 
 could not always find lines of Homer that would move pari passu 
 with the story. Consequently there can be nothing between the 
 Centones and the Gospel which they disguise, except some earlier 
 
 1 PseUus renders II. T. 47 
 
 Tijy Ba\a(!(!av eimrXeiiras xal halpovs eiapfiluXTovs avvayayui', 
 which does not help us much. 
 
 2 Another remarkable variant is found in the Mas. of rec. A in c. v. We have 
 dfiu, eitrep-fi, Ki\evffiv fioi eliretv KaBapoiis \byovi. This points to « primitive varia- 
 tion of the text of the Homeric parallel to ivainfia nveiaaadaL (cf. Od. j3. 159). 
 
 H. 4 
 
50 THE HOMERIC CENTONES AND THE ACTS OF PILATE. 
 
 form of the Centones themselves. A prose ground-text is not to 
 be thought of. 
 
 The same conclusion is arrived at by a study of the Acta, 
 which suggest a metrical basis of their composition. We say 
 then, tentatively, and with the intention of making a more 
 complete demonstration in a subsequent chapter, that a common 
 metrical Gospel underlies the different recensions of the Acta 
 Pilati and the extant Centones. It was probably a Greek 
 metrical document or at all events a Homerized story; it may 
 have passed through any number of translations or paraphrases, 
 but the starting point would seem to be a text which reproduced 
 Homer directly. 
 
 We shall now shew that the whole of the structure of the 
 Acts of Pilate is Homeric; and that actual fragments of Homer 
 may still be traced in the extant recensions of these Acts. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Homeric Structure of the Acts op Pilate. 
 
 A VERY slight examination of the extant tradition of the Acta 
 Pilati will suffice to shew that the book divides into two parts, 
 of which the first is occupied with the trial and condemnation 
 of our Lord, and the second with the history of His descent to 
 the underworld. Accordingly we find that in the Greek text of 
 Tischendorf the first sixteen chapters of the Acta Pilati are 
 given by themselves in a double recension, while the last eleven 
 chapters are also edited separately in a single recension. In the 
 Latin text on the other hand we have the first sixteen chapters 
 in a single recension and the last part of the book in a double 
 recension. 
 
 The titles attached by Tischendorf are as follows : 
 
 i. Greek. 'Tirofiv^fiara rov Kvpiov T^fiSiv 'I-ricrov H-piaTov 
 ■7rpaj(devTa iirl Uovtlov HiXdrov, 
 
 with the current editorial heading Acta Pilati, A, and 
 
 AiTjyrja-tv irepl rov "rradov; rov Kvptov r/fiuiv ^Irjcrov X.picrTov Kal 
 Trj<; dyua<; avTOV dvaa-Tdcre(o<;. 
 
 And these two separate recensions are followed by the editorial 
 title for the remaining chapters : 
 
 Evangelium Nicodemi, Pars ii, 
 
 sive 
 Descensus Christi ad inferos, 
 
 with current heading Acta Pilati, Pars ii. 
 
 4—2 
 
52 HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE ACTS OF PILATE. 
 
 ii. Latin. The Latio Acts are headed by Tisehendorf (from 
 Gregory of Tours) Oesta Pilati; while the concluding chapters 
 are described as 
 
 Evangelii Nicodemi pars altera, 
 
 sive 
 Descensus Christi ad Inferos 
 Latine A et B, 
 
 with the same title in the head-lines. 
 
 Now, without stopping to discuss the form which these titles 
 take in the manuscripts, we can see that the composition must 
 fall into two parts, or how could we explain the double recensions 
 in the Greek and Latin respectively. Even if the book had been 
 primitively a single composition, there must have been a dividing 
 line in the structure which permitted the detachment of the first 
 part with a subsequent bifurcation in its Greek textual history, 
 as well as a separate circulation of the second part with a similar 
 bifurcation in its Latin textual history. And if the work were 
 not primitively a single composition, the two parts out of which 
 the final text was compounded are probably the parts indicated 
 by the fluctuation in the textual transmission. 
 
 We say then that the Acta Pilati consist of two parts, of 
 which the first relates to the Passion and Resurrection of our 
 Lord, and the second to the Descent into Hades : and these two 
 parts are respectively the Iliad and Odyssey of the composer or 
 composers of the Acts of Pilate. 
 
 It is strange that no one of modern critics has seen that this 
 is the real distinction between the two parts of the composition. 
 With the exception of Mr B. H. Cowper, I know of no one who 
 has made this clear, and he does not seem to have followed up 
 the clue. All that he says is that it is very apparent that this 
 second part was appended as a sort of Odyssey to follow the 
 Iliad\ and that the imaginary Ananias who professes to have 
 translated the Acta out of Hebrew, is altered in some copies to 
 Aeneas, because " the name of Aeneas was very likely a conscious 
 or unconscious imitation due to the story of Virgil of the descent 
 of Aeneas to the underworld as found in the Ae7ieid\" 
 
 ' B. H. Cowper, The Apocryphal Gospels, p. xciv. 
 ^ Id. p. xoii. 
 
HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE ACTS OF PILATE. 53 
 
 Mr Cowper's idea that the two parts of the Nicodemus Gospel 
 stand to one another in the relation of Iliad and Odyssey may 
 be re-inforced by the study of the title that we find given in a 
 Palatine MS. to the Homeric Centones with which we have been 
 comparing our Acts of Pilate. We have (teste Sylburg)' 
 
 Patricii Homerocentra, seu Ghristiadem, 
 ex Iliade et Odyssea. 
 
 Now, to describe the Centones as a Christiad means something 
 more than the statement that the work is a Christian work made 
 up out of verses from the Iliad : it implies imitation of the 
 jnethod of Homer as well as the use of his language. It means 
 that the death of Christ has replaced the death of Hector, which 
 is the artistic goal of the Iliad. We shall see presently how 
 truly this may be said, not only of the Centones, but also of the 
 Acta Pilati. Either work may be described as a Christiad : the 
 first part of the Acta being a Christ-Iliad, the second a Christ- 
 Odyssey. 
 
 We will shew this conclusively by discussing the scene in 
 which Joseph begs the body of Jesus from Pilate as described in 
 the second recension of the Acta Pilati (B, xi.). We transcribe 
 the passage, for convenience sake : 
 
 11/305 eairepav Se ttJ? TrapaaKev'fj'i KaTavTwcrrji; Icocrr]^ rt? avrjp 
 evyepr)<; Kal 7r\ovaio<;, deocrePr)<; 'lowSato?, evpojv tov ^iKoSr]/j,ov, bv 
 irpo(j)6da'av 6 X6yo<; iS'qXcoae, Xeyet avrai' OlSa on ^(ovra tov 
 'lr}(TOvv rjyaira<; Kal Tov<i \6yov<! avrov TjSeo)? rjKove'i, Kal ttjoo? tov<! 
 'IovSai,ov<; elBov ae. fla')(pfievov virep avrov' el BoKei aoi ovv, 
 iropevOwjiev tt/jos tov HiKaTov Kal alT'r}ad)fie6a to (ra>fia 'lr]crov 
 Trpo? Ta(f)i]v, OTi fieyaXr] iaTlv dfiapTia KelaOai avTov aTa^ov. 
 AeSoiKa, Xeyei 6 NtAfoS»;/xo?, fi-JTrmf opyiadevTO^ tov YliXdrov 
 TrdQoi Ti KaKov Et Se (7v fi6vo<i direXOav Kal alTrjaa'i \d^rj<i tov 
 TeQvrjKOTa, tots Koyo) cvvoSevdco aoi Kal Ta tt/oo? KTjSeiav irdvTa 
 (TvvBiaTrpd^ofiai. TavTa elirovTOi tov Nt/<:oS?;/xoii o Icixrrjff) dTevi(Ta<: 
 eh TOV ovpavbv Touf 6<f)6a\/Mov^ kuI ev^d/j,evo<; fir] Sia/MupTTJaai Trj<! 
 alT7]<r€0}<;, dTrijXdev 7rpo9 tov UiXutov, Kal irpoaayopevaa'; eKa- 
 Oecrdr). elTd <^r)cn 7rpb<} avTov Aiofiai, aov, Kvpie fiov, ei ti 
 Trapa to Bokovv ttj /xeyaXeioTriTi aov alTijaofiai, fit) opyiaOrjvai 
 fji,ob- 6 Se e<^rf Kai Tt iaTiv b alTeh ; Xeyei 'laa'^tj)- 'Ir/a-ovv tov 
 Pevov, TOV KoKov avdptoirov, bv virb <f)66vov oi \ovoaloi KaTrjveyKav 
 
 I Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. lib. ii. 7. 4. 
 
54 HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE ACTS OF PILATE. 
 
 619 TO (TTavpSxj-ai, tovtov irapaKoXSi "va fioi Soo? Trpo? ra^-qv. 
 Xeyei 6 IltXaTO?- Kal tI '^er^ovev on fiapTvptjOivTa tovtov vtto 
 T?j9 yevea<! avTov eVi /tayeioi? ical ev i/TToi/rta ovTa \afielv ttjv 
 ^aa-iXeiav tov Kala-apot Kal ovTm irap fffiSiV eh ddvuTov Ik- 
 So0ePTa, Ti/Mota-dai a?>6i<; tovtov veKpov eiTi,Tpe-<^miJ,ev ; 6 he loxrijij} 
 7repl\viro<! yev6fj,evo<! koX SaKpva-a<; rotv iroal irpoa-e-rreae tov 
 HiXaTov, Mri <roi, Xeycov, Kvpie fjiov, iirl veKpw <j)66vo<s Ti,<i eVt- 
 yevrjTai' iraiya yap KaKia ev ttj TeXevTrj Set avvairoXKva-aao tov 
 avOpcoTTOv. iyo) Be olSa Trjv fieydXeioTrjTci aov, iroaa ecnrovoaaa<; 
 KKJTe fir) (TTavp&crai tov ^Irjaovv, Kal iroa-a tt/jo? 'louSaiou? virep 
 avTOv etTTtt?, Ta fiev irapaiv5>v, to, Se Kal dvfiovfievo^, Kal vaTepov 
 TTW? Ta<i X^^P"''^ atrevf^a's, Kal fi7]8afjbm exei-v fiepov aTre^rjvo) 
 fieTa tS>v OeXovTcov airoKTavOrjvai, avTov' e^' oh airaai, oeo/iai 
 (TOV /MTj a7ro(7Tpa<j)rjvai ttjv aXTrjaiv fiov. oStw roivvv e'TriKeifievov 
 lBa)v 6 IltXaTO? TOV 'Icaa-rjcj) Kal UeTevovTa Kal haKpvovTa, fjyeipev 
 avTov Xeycov "AiriOf x^P'^^^f"'"'^ """^ '''"^ tolovtov veKpov, Kai 
 TOVTOV Xa^wv TrpcLTTe oaa av ^ovXrj- Kal Tore o 'Icoa-rjcf) evx^piff- 
 TTjaav Tw TiiXaT^ Kal KaTa(})iXrja-a'i avTov ra? ^et/ja? Kai Ta 
 IfiaTia, i^Xdev Trj Kaphia /lev p^aip«Bi' w? tov irodovfievov tvxov, 
 Tov<; 6(f)0aXfiov<; Se <f>epmv eTt, SaKpvovTa<;. 
 
 Now in this curious expansion of the simple statements of the 
 Scripture, we can see that Pilate has been turned into Achilles, 
 that Joseph is the good old Priam, begging the body of Hector, 
 and that the whole story is based upon the dramatic passages of 
 the twenty-fourth book of the Iliad. 
 
 If Joseph lifts his eyes to heaven, and prays for success in his 
 purposed visit, it is because Priam has made similar petitions to 
 Zeus : 
 
 evxeT eireiTa ffta? fiea-m epKe'i, Xet/Se Be oivov 
 ovpavov elaaviBmv, ical ^(avqcra'; e'iro<i 7}vha' 
 Zev TTOLTep, "IBrjdev fieSemv, KvSiaTe, fiiyio'Te, 
 Ao9 fi €9 'AxiXXijoii ^iXov eXOelv ^S' eXeeivov. 
 
 11. O. 306—309. 
 
 If Joseph (quite without any suggestion to that effect from the 
 Scriptures) will have Nicodemus to accompany him in his visit to 
 Pilate, it is because in Homer Idaeus accompanies Priam in the 
 expedition. But as Idaeus is left outside by Priam, the same 
 thing is accomplished for Nicodemus in the following manner: 
 Nicodemus expresses his fear lest Pilate should do them some 
 
HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE ACTS OF PILATE. 65 
 
 hann, which is borrowed from the language of the disguised 
 Hermes, who pretends to be afraid of Achilles : 
 
 Tov fiep iyoi SelBoiKa, koX alBiofiai -irepi Krjpi 
 avkeveiv, /j,i] /xoi ti kukop fieroiria-Be yevtjTai. 
 
 II. n. 435, 436. 
 The Acta record that Joseph enters and sits with Pilate and 
 proffers his request ; dreading refusal, Joseph falls upon his knees 
 at Pilate's feet, and Pilate raises him and grants his petition. 
 Whereupon Joseph kisses Pilate's hands and raiment, and departs, 
 with tears still in his eyes, but with joy in his heart. It is but a 
 slight modification of the Homeric account, which makes Priam 
 embrace the knees of Achilles, and Achilles raise him and set him 
 on a seat at his side. We may especially compare : 
 
 Xepcrlv A;j^t\X»Jo9 Xa/3e yovvaTa koI Kvcre ')(elpa<;. 
 
 II. fl. 477, 478. 
 Toi/ Kai \i<T<rofievo<{ Tlpiafio<; tt/oo? /jlvOov eetirev. 
 
 Id. 485. 
 AvTiK aTTO dpovov wpTO, jepovTa Se j(^eipb(; avia-Tr). 
 
 Id. 515. 
 'Aw ar/e Sr) Kar ap e^ev iirl Opovov, aXyea S' ep.Trrj'i 
 Ev 6vp,u> KaraKelarffai edaofiev a')(yvp,evoi irep. 
 
 Id. 522, 523. 
 
 Surely there can be no reasonable doubt that this description 
 of the begging of the Lord's body is cast in a Homeric mould. It 
 may be urged that this part of the story does not appear in 
 recension A, which has occasionally superior marks of antiquity to 
 the alternative recension ; it is, however, by no means always the 
 case that recension A is the earlier and better text, and, even if it 
 were, we should still have to ask what it was that prompted such 
 Homerizing on the part of the reviser who made the other recen- 
 sion. Must it not have been Homer that suggested Homer ? And 
 would it not be natural to assume that it was the existence of 
 Homeric touches in the story that prompted Homeric amplifications 
 by scribes and editors ? 
 
 The same phenomena appear when we examine the way in 
 which the Biblical account of the wailing over the dead Christ 
 has been expanded by the use of the narrative of the wailing of 
 
56 HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE ACTS OF PILATE. 
 
 the Trojan women over Hector ; and here we have the advantage 
 of being able to shew an actual line of Homer lurking in the text 
 of the Acta, and not merely the appropriation of Homeric ideas. 
 Turning to the second recension of the Acta we find, in c. x., the 
 lamentation of the Blessed Virgin and the women who were with 
 her. The account is as follows, in curious Greek, which, it is 
 needless to say, cannot be the primitive form, nor of early date : 
 
 aKovcracra r/ OeoTOKO^ koX ISovcra avTov oXiyoyjrvxV"'^ '^*'' 
 eireaev e'f oiriaw eh rrjv yfjv Koi eKeno iKavrjv aipav' kol ai 
 yvvaiKei, ocrai ^KoXovdrjaav avrfj, IvTafievai yvpiodev avTrj<; 
 eKXaioV d(j}' ov Se aveirvevtre Kal rfyepOrj, e^oijae (ficovfj fieyaXj] 
 Xeyovaa' Kvpie /mov, vie /j,ov, trov to KaXKo<; eBv rrj^ /lop^rjs aov ; 
 TTw? VTTOfievco Oecopelv ae ToiavTa •jraa'^^ovTa ; xal ravra \eyovaa 
 Kare^aive fierd rwv 6vv')(wv to irpoawirov aiiTrji; Kal CTViTTe to 
 tTTrjdo's' KTe. 
 
 The lamentation is developed at much greater length in some 
 of the Mss., as was to be expected, for the subject was one which 
 could be expanded from tragic writers as well as from Homer. 
 But that the sentences which we have quoted are Homeric in 
 their origin, no one will, I think, venture to deny, for the actual 
 line Iliad X. 475 is in the text : cf 
 
 ri S' eVel ovv a/j/irvvTO, Kal 6? <f>peva 6vfio<; dyepdt] 
 afi^XijSrjv yoocoaa fieTo, Tpcofjaiv eenrev. 
 
 II. X. 475, 476. 
 
 The changes made are very slight ; dfnrvvTo has been replaced 
 by the prose form dve-rrvevae'^i and the Homeric "gathering again 
 of the spirits" has, by an easy confusion, been misunderstood" 
 {rjyepdri for dyepOrj) so as to represent the Blessed Virgin as rising 
 from the ground where she had fallen. Who does not see Andro- 
 mache and Hecuba in the description of the wailing of Mary ? 
 
 Nor is this borrowed verse the only coincidence ; that the 
 writer is here using Homer's account of the swoon of Andromache 
 may be seen from the language of the following passage : 
 
 ' Psellus' paraphrase of Homer helps ns here ; we have X. 467 "Eirtae Se i^ 
 iiriirii) • tV Si ^vx^v 6,iriwvevae, 475 ofirj; 5^ iirel oiv aviwvevae, koX els rijv diAvoiaji ^ 
 'pvx^l iyivcTo. 
 
 2 Cf. the previous case suggested by us, of iXaXriiiivoi taken in the sense of 
 
HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE ACTS OF PILATE. 57 
 
 Trjv Se KUT 6^6aXfi6i)v ipe^evvrj vv^ iKaXv\Jrev, 
 
 where we see the origin of the e-n-eaev ef ott/o-w of the Acta. 
 Moreover the Homeric Centones again come to our aid here, for 
 they have a special section devoted to the luctiis sepulcrales, and 
 help us to determine the origin of some further details of the 
 Acta^. A comparison shews that a great part of the lamentation 
 in the Centones underlies the account of the Acta Pilati. 
 
 By the same comparison we come to suspect that the verses in 
 which the Centonist describes the sorrow and doubt of the Virgin 
 as she looks forward to her own future, 
 
 11(5? ai' eVetr' otto treto, (j)i\ov reico<;, av6i Xnrolfitjv ; 
 Tlrj yap iyw, (piXe reKvov, 'ica ; rev ScofiaO' iKWfjiai; 
 
 are the basis of the language of the Acta': %w/3i? <jov, vie fiov, tl 
 iyco yevija-o/JLai ; Tr<S<s ^rjaai %a)pi? aov ; Trora-rrr^v j3iOT^p Sid^o) ; 
 {Acta, B, X.). But by this time it is abundantly clear, at all 
 events as regards the first part of the composition, that the Acta 
 lean on a Homeric base. And this conclusion shews us, as we 
 have already intimated, the right way to attack the otherwise 
 insoluble problems presented by their varying recensions and 
 MSS. 
 
 For example, returning to the account of the paralytic, we 
 find him relating the pain in which he lay, 
 
 KaTeKeifiT]v ev oSvvrj ttovcov. 
 
 The expression is a peculiar one, and that there has been some 
 difficulty with it appears from the variation in the texts ; for 
 example, the Latin copies read ' in dolore pessimo,' ' in periculo et 
 parturitione dolorum,' ' pericula plurima in parturitione dolorura ' ; 
 here ' periculum ' seems to have arisen from a substitution of 
 KtpBvva for Kal ev obvvy : ' parturitio ' is the equivalent for wBlvet, 
 
 1 The MSS. vary a good deal ; some of them having expanded the lamentation 
 to a great length; but even in these expansions Homer is not lost sight of; Hecuba's 
 ol/iot yXvKirare vU appears frequently. 
 
 2 From the Acta I suppose it passed into the Old English poem, known as the 
 Sowlehele : 
 
 " So ful ioham of sorwe, as any womman may beo, 
 That ischal my deore child in all this pyne seo; 
 How schal I, sone deore, how hadde I yought liuen withouten the?" 
 
58 HOMERIC STRUCTUEE OF THE ACTS OF PILATE. 
 
 which we should naturally suspect to be a corruption of oSvvr). 
 But on turning to Homer we iind the expression which has given 
 rise to all the trouble to be the end of a line describing the 
 anguish of the Cyclops, 
 
 K.vKXaip' Be trrei'aj^ftw re ical mSiveov 6Svvr)(Ti, 
 
 which at once explains the pleonasm of the Greek text, and the 
 confusion of the Latin. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 Homeric Structure of the Descensus ad Inferos. 
 
 We will now demonstrate that the same phenomena are found, 
 though in a less striking degree, in the Descensus ad Inferos, 
 which we have characterized as the Christian Odyssey. 
 
 It is the distinguishing religious feature of the Odyssey that it 
 furnishes us with a glimpse into the state of the dead ; upon two 
 separate occasions we have the curtain drawn back from the 
 invisible world. The first occasion is when Odysseus descends to 
 interview Tiresias concerning the fortunes of his household and 
 his own future. The second is when Hermes conducts to the 
 nether world the souls of the suitors whom Odysseus has slain on 
 his return to Ithaca. Both of these accounts furnish instructive 
 parallels to the method of composition employed by the author of 
 the Descensus. In each of the Nixviai of Homer we have a 
 succession of shades of the great dead who pass before us and give 
 us their reminiscences of the life of the world above. The first 
 account is in the eleventh book of the Odyssey ; Odysseus, having 
 gone to the far land of the Cimmerians, by the furthest ocean 
 stream, fills a trench with the blood of slain victims, and around 
 this trench the thirsty shades gather, and by drinking the blood 
 acquire the power of truthful speech. First comes the shade of 
 Elpenor, his comrade who has recently died and, being left un- 
 . buried, has not yet been able to pass the gates of Hades. Then 
 comes Tiresias the prophet, and after him the mother of Odysseus 
 drinks the black blood and recognizes her son. This interview 
 being ended, the story becomes a dream of Famous Women, who, 
 in succession, tell their fortunes in life ; Alkmena, Antiope and 
 the like, mothers of heroes and demigods. Then comes a proces- 
 sion of the famous men, Agamemnon, Achilles and Ajax Telamon ; 
 great souls whose fellowship in the next world Homer taught 
 
60 HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE DESCENSUS AD INFEROS. 
 
 Socrates to look forward to, who would talk with him of Justice 
 and Injustice, with personal illustrations from the 'deep damna- 
 tion of their taking off.' Not very different is the procession of 
 souls in the last book of the Odyssey, where again we meet with 
 Agamemnon and Achilles. 
 
 Now let us turn to the Descensus ad Inferos, and examine 
 either of its divergent Latin recensions ; for the extant Greek 
 text has not a great many marks of antiquity or originality. We 
 find that the main idea of the writer, over and above the descrip- 
 tion of Christ's descent into Hades, is to make the dead pass in 
 review as they do in Homer. His Christ finds, as we should 
 naturally expect, a model in Odysseus, who descends to Hades 
 and returns ; but there are indications in the story that the 
 writer did not merely call up in his mind a general resemblance, 
 but that he deliberately set himself to work in Homeric parallels. 
 Take for instance the case of Elpenor, the yet unburied comrade 
 of Odysseus. When he appears, he is greeted with the question : 
 ' How camest thou thither, so swift and on foot ? More swiftly 
 than I in my dark ship.' Where can we find a parallel to Elpenor 
 in the Biblical account ? Evidently the comrade in question must 
 be the penitent thief, who might reasonably be regarded as one of 
 our Lord's companions. It is true that there will be a slight 
 difficulty because, in the Gospel, Christ dies before the thief. But 
 this does not trouble our atithor ; he sends the thief on in advance : 
 the first recension sends him straight to Paradise to anticipate the 
 liberated Saints from beneath ; the second recension makes him 
 knock at the barricaded doors of hell before the descending Lord. 
 Satan opens the door a very little and lets him in. In reply to 
 questions put to him, the thief replies ; ' Ego veni praeconcitus : 
 ipse vero post me venit continue.' 
 
 After Elpenor we come to the prophet Tiresias ; and here the 
 suggestion was an easy one, to bring in a sequence of imprisoned 
 prophets. It is not easy to determine what was the primitive 
 form of the Bescensus : but it is certain that it contained a figure 
 that answered to Tiresias ; for the first recension introduces 
 Isaiah, as exclaiming, when the light shines in upon the prisoners: 
 ' This is the light of which I prophesied ' ; he is followed by the 
 aged Simeon and by John the Baptist, who explain their pro- 
 phecies. Later on we have David as a prophet in the company. 
 The second receusion introduces Isaiah and John the Baptist with 
 
HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE DESCENSUS AD INFEROS. 61 
 
 David, as prophets who have foretold the harrowing of hell. 
 Jeremiah is also brought in, examining his own prophecies and 
 declaring that ' This is he of whom I prophesied to the effect that 
 he appeared on earth and walked with men.' It must be allowed, 
 I think, that there was an imitation of Tiresias in the original 
 Descensus. 
 
 On the whole I think there is ground for saying, from the 
 general character of the narrative, that the Odyssey has been 
 imitated. 
 
 The next point is the enquiry after a possible metrical base 
 for the story, or at least after the existence of paraphrased lines of 
 Homer. 
 
 The language does not yield a great deal of direct coincidence 
 with Homer, perhaps because we are further from the original 
 document. We may begin by examining it for the conventional 
 introductory formulae which we found employed in the first part 
 of the Acta. 
 
 John the Baptist is introduced with the expression 
 
 Rec. A. Et posthac supervenit quasi heremicola 
 = elra ijXdev et? to fiia-ov aXXo<; airo rfj<; ip'^fiov acTKrirr)^. 
 
 Rec. B. Tunc apparnit alius iuxta eum quasi eremicola. 
 
 Comparing with this the formula that introduces the penitent 
 thief, 
 
 Rec. A. Supervenit alius vir miserrimus 
 
 = TjXOev erepof; rairei.vo'i dv6pay7ro<;, 
 
 we have suspicious traces of the formula used in the primitive 
 Acta ("A\\o9 av0i<! TTTwxo? dvrjp aXdX.rjf^evo'i ikOmv), not only on 
 account of the equation between the aXXoy, erepof and alius, and 
 the Ta-jreivcx; dv0pa}iro^, TTTrnxot dvijp, d<TK'nTrj<; and vir miserrimus, 
 but also because we remember the substitution of such terms as 
 fiiaov <TTa6el<; by early editors for the obscure d\a\r)fievov and 
 compare ■^XOev eh to fiecrov of rec. A. 
 
 Next let us see whether there is any suggestion of Calchas' 
 formula for beginning his speech (KeXeai fie, Su(j>t\6, /u.v0rj<raa-dai). 
 The Descensus ad Inferos, which professes to be written in the 
 names of Leucius and Karinus, opens with a petition on the part 
 of the writers that they may be allowed to record what they have 
 seen : we have it in the following forms : 
 
62 HOMEEIC STRUCTURE OF THE DESCENSUS AD INFEROS. 
 
 Greek. Kvpie 'Irjo-ov XpKrre, rj dvacrTatri<; koI fj ^mr/ rod 
 Kofffiov, So? ■^fiiv '^dptv iva Sirjiyrjac^iieffa kts. 
 
 Latin (A). Domine Jesu Christe, mortuorum resurrectio et 
 vita, permitte nobis loqui mysteria etc. 
 
 Latin (B). Ego Karinus. Domine Jesu Christe, fili Dei vivi, 
 permitte me {sic) loqui mirabilia. 
 
 That these forms are derived from the primitive Homeric line 
 may be suspected from the second Latin recension, where the 
 translator has adroitly, on account of the assonance, replaced 
 Sd<f>iXe by Dei fili. 
 
 Now let us return to the edited Centones and see the way in 
 which the subject has been treated. We shall not find any special 
 section devoted to it ; but an examination of the section headed 
 De Genturione will shew two versifications of the Descent into 
 Hades embedded in the text. And in the section De Sepultura 
 there is a long discourse between our Lord and Hades, who appeals 
 to Him for mercy. The section De Genturione begins with the 
 testimony of the Centurion to our Lord, continues with Christ's 
 prayer for His murderers, and with a metrical expansion of the 
 great TereXea-rai of the Gospel : 
 
 "HSjj yap TereXearo a fioi </)t\o? ^^e\e dvfi6<;. 
 
 After this come the verses describing the death of the Lord and 
 the descent into Hades, where are the Iron Gates and the Thres- 
 hold of Brass : 
 
 "^vxn ^' f'« pedewv iTTafievt], aiBo<s Se ^e^rjKei 
 'YrjXe fiaX' rj-)(^i ^dQiaTov diro ')(dov6<! iari ^dpadpov, 
 Tftjj/ aXKaiv ^fj^a? IBeeiv KaTaredveimTav 
 "Ev6a aiSjjpeial re irvkai koX ')(a\,Keo<s ovSo^, 
 K.npTepo<!' epp7)^€v Be vruXa? Kal fiaKpov cy)(ria. 
 Ol S' alel Trepl vexpov ofilXeov ft)? ore fivlai 
 Xradfia eVt ^po/jbimcri Trept<y\ayea<s Kara TreWa? 
 "Uplj iv eapivy ore yXdyoii dyyea Bevei. 
 
 Notice the main points emphasized, the descent of the Lord, 
 the shattering of the Gates of Hades (this is imitated from the 
 valorous deeds of Hector in the Battle for the Ships) and the 
 gathering of the Souls of the Dead around Him. 
 
 The Centones then return to an earlier stage of the Evangelic 
 narrative and describe the mocking speeches addressed to our 
 
HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE DESCENSUS AD INFEROS. 63 
 
 Lord upon the Cross, and the piercing of His side with the spear. 
 After this we have a number of lines describing the portents of 
 nature at the Crucifixion, thunders, lightnings, earthquakes ; and 
 this leads up to the statement that the Dead became aware of 
 what had happened, and Pluto trembled on his throne. 
 
 ESBeiaev S" virevepOev dva^ 'AlScovev^, 
 Aeto-a? S' e'/c dpovov oXto koI 'ia')(e fiaXa \i'yeia><;. 
 
 D, fiof a(f>ap B' coi^e Ovpat koI airSiaev 6)^7Ja. 
 
 tlXOov etreiff' ocra (f>i)XKa koX avdea yiverai &pri, 
 "^v^al VTrep ipe^ovi veKvcov KaTaTe9vr}a>T(ov 
 'Kyyvfievai' irepX K avrbv d'yrj'yepaO^ oa-aai apia-rai. 
 'Hvaev Be Biairpvaiov veKvecrcn yeycovmii, 
 KapTraXifiax; ep')(e<T6e, i<ya) 8' oBov '^yefiovevao), 
 "FivOa Ke irarpo'i ifiov Te/jievo<i, redaXvid t' aXeo'^. 
 
 n? apa ^(ovrja-ai;, ^ji^a-aTO' toiB' u/jl eirovTO. 
 
 Compare this account with the former and we see that it is a 
 separate attempt at versification of the Descensus, but on very 
 similar lines ; we are told that great fear was caused to the lord 
 of Hades, so that he opened the Gates and loosed the Bar (this is 
 plainly different from the account which makes the Lord Christ 
 break open the Gates) ; the gathering of the Souls in Hades is 
 now compared with inanimate nature and not with animate ; 
 finally, the word is given, Follow me to Paradise. The two 
 accounts are therefore slightly differen^b 
 
 Now it is curious that the Latin versions also shew a variety 
 of treatment. The first account gives no mention of the breaking 
 open of the Gates, in the second account they are shattered. The 
 first account, after reciting the anthem of the Saints, "Aperi 
 portas tuas )it intret rex gloriae," concludes by saying that the 
 Lord entered "et aeternas tenebras illustravit et indissolubilia 
 vincula disrupit," from which we naturally conclude that Hades 
 has opened the door. 
 
 In the second account the gates and bars are smashed. 
 
 The first recension tells us that all the emancipated saints 
 followed the Lord ("omnes sancti secuti sunt eum," with which 
 compare ■ff^'qcraTO' rolB' H/i eirovro). The Lord then delivers 
 them to Michael the Archangel, and all the saints follow him to 
 Paradise ("et omnes sancti sequebantur Michaelem archangelum 
 et introduxit eos in paradisi gratiam gloriosam "). The second 
 
64 HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE DESCENSUS AD INFEROS. 
 
 recension has no mention of Paradise, but contents itself with 
 saying, "exivimus exinde omnes cum Domino." There is not 
 even an allusion to the entry into Paradise of the penitent thief, 
 who has merely descended to share the common escape of the 
 Saints. 
 
 It will be seen from the comparison that the first versification 
 agrees most nearly with the second recension of the Descensus 
 and the second versification with the first recension. It is diffi- 
 cult to believe that these curious relations between the documents, 
 coupled with so many similarities in the common treatment, could 
 have arisen unless there were some internal nexus between the 
 Centones and the Descensus, and some common nucleus out of 
 which they were all derived. 
 
 But was this nucleus metrical ? The answer is that it has 
 been shewn to be Homeric, and we have had reason in the 
 previous pages to see how much that involves. Moreover the 
 prose legends contain suspicious suggestions of borrowed and 
 imitated verses. We might almost connect, without further 
 discussion, the account of the breaking open of the doors of Hades 
 with the line in which Hector breaks into the Greek fortification : 
 
 epprj^ev Se irvXav Kal fiaxpov O'^^fja, 
 
 if it were not that there is a somewhat similar expression in the 
 Psalms, intimately associated with the Descent into Hades in 
 Patristic literature, and qf tually referred to in one of the recen- 
 sions ; namely, Ps. cvi. 16 a-yvirpiyjre 7rwX,a? ■^dXKa.i; Koi /ioyXoir? 
 a-iSr)pov<; crvviOXacrev. The same Psalm seems to be referred to in 
 the first recension, where the words " tenebras illustravit et indis- 
 solubilia vincula disrupit " may be compared with i^rjyayev avrov<} 
 e'/c aKOTOv; koX <TKia<i Oavarov, koX roix; Bea/jiov'; avTtov Biepprj^ev 
 (Ps. cvi. 14). 
 
 Now the reference to the Psalm does not exclude the Homeric 
 parallel to which it would naturally lead the Centonist, but it 
 makes it more difficult for us to say that the Descensus in its 
 allusions to the bars of hell is drawing on a versified story. 
 
 Any one who reads the Descensus carefully will, I think, allow 
 that there is a good deal of poetical feeling in the language ; and 
 there are not wanting cases where a parallel from Homer suggests 
 itself readily. For example, when Hades complains of having had 
 to disgorge Lazarus, he says that Lazarus 
 
HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE DESCENSUS AD INFEROS. 65 
 
 excutiens se ut aquila per omnem agilitatem 
 
 et celeritatem salivit exiens a nobis, 
 
 where " salivit ut aquila " is very like the Homeric 
 
 aXeU S<; t atero? v-^iTTerriei,'} Od. a. 538 ; 
 
 when the saints hear Hades and Satan quarrelling, 
 
 tunc audientes haec omnes sancti iterum 
 exultaverunt in gaudio, 
 
 which reminds one of 
 
 eye\a<rae Be ol <f)i\oi> TJrop 
 yrjOoavvrj SO' oparo deovf epiSi ^vvi6vTa<;. II. <I>. 389. 
 
 When Hades and Satan decide upon resistance, we have Hades 
 addressing Satan as follows : 
 
 Si potens es praeliator, pugna adversum regem gloriae, 
 
 which is not unlike Sarpedon's advice to Glaucus, 
 
 T\avKe •jreirov, TroXefitcrra fier avSpdcri, vvv ere jxaXa vph 
 Al'^/jLTjrrjv T e/j,evai, koX OapaaXeov TrdKefiiaTrjv. II. H. 492, 493. 
 
 Reviewing the whole of the argument in this chapter, the fact 
 that the Descensus is a true Odyssey, the suspicious traces of the 
 recurrence of conventional formulae employed in the Centones 
 and in the Acta Pilati, the parallelism between the double 
 versification and the double prose narration, etc., we are inclined 
 to think that the case is made out for a primitive metrical 
 Descensus ; although it must be allowed that the evidence is not 
 as striking or as conclusive as in the first part of the Nicodemus 
 Gospel. Whether this is due to the fact that the text of the 
 Descensus has gone through more hands, or to the fact that the 
 composer worked with more liberty, is of course impossible to say. 
 
 We may now say further that, if the existence of a primitive 
 nucleus for the Centones and the Acta be granted, such a nucleus 
 must have been early : for it is on the one side the parent of all 
 the recensions of the Centones, of which Eudocia's must be 
 referred to the beginning of the fifth century ; and on the other 
 side it is the parent of all the recensions of the Acta, including 
 the Coptic version of the 5th or 6th century, and a Latin version, 
 of which a palimpsest exists, written in the sixth century. 
 
 Moreover there are considerations of another kind which 
 indicate an extreme antiquity. The student of the Centones will 
 H. 5 
 
66 HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE DESCENSUS AB INFEROS. 
 
 have noticed a feature in the accounts of the miracles, the running 
 together of separate narratives of the Gospel, without any regard 
 to historical accuracy. Take, for instance, the treatment of the 
 paralytic ; the account in the Acta is clearly a combination of two 
 cases; the one the paralytic of John v., the other from the 
 Synoptic Gospels. But in the Centones we not only have two 
 separate accounts of the healing of a paraljiiic, with distinct titles, 
 but the separate accounts are, in all probability, compounds. 
 For example, the second account professes to be the account of 
 the healing of a sick man in the porch ; the porch is an adapta- 
 tion of the five porches of John v. But when we turn to the 
 first account we again find that the writer has versified the detail 
 of the sick man in the porch, by cleverly using the line 
 
 T/37;T0t? ev \e')(ee<T(Tiv vir alOovari ipiSoinrq>. Od. y. 399. 
 
 But he also introduces the detail that the man was carried by his 
 friends and laid down at the feet of the Lord, which does not 
 belong to St John*. So that we may be confident that the 
 paralytic in the primitive nucleus was a combination of sufferers. 
 
 The same thing is true of the account which is headed irepl 
 TOW %o)Xo{; Tov KoX ^rjpav e')(pvTO'i jjjetpa, as the title, whether it be 
 primitive or not, frankly indicates. 
 
 The blind men also are a combination; the account in the 
 Acta Pilati expressly says that the man was born blind, which is 
 from the Fourth Gospel, and that he cried, "Have mercy upon 
 me. Son of David," which is from the Synoptics. The blind man 
 in the Centones is a little harder to identity: possibly the state- 
 ment that " he cried out the more " when reproved, underlies the 
 verse 
 
 "O5 Toaov avhrjaaax oaov aXKoi irevrriKOvra (Mark x. 48). II. E. 786. 
 The verses also play repeatedly on the Odpaei, with which the 
 blind man is encouraged by the bystanders (Mark x. 49). But 
 when we are told that the man when healed had the eyesight of 
 an eagle, 
 
 TldvToa-e iratrTaivtov, war alerov ov pd re <j)a<Ttp 
 'O^vTUTop SepKea-Oai virovpaviav TreTerjvav, II. P. 674, 675; 
 
 • I even suspect that the story also contains a reminiBcenoe of the cure of the 
 leper, for the line 
 
 Airbs S', at k m\iia', liaerat, oiU tis diXXos, Od. i. 520, 
 which occurs in both accounts in the Centones, is very Biblical. 
 
HOMERIC STRUCTURE OF THE DESCENSUS AD INFEROS. 67 
 
 this is merely an expansion of the statement in Mark viii. 25 kuI 
 eve^Xe-jrep rrfXavyw atravTa. 
 
 Further it is to the same chapter (viii. 26) that we owe the 
 injunction 
 
 NOv 8' ep'X^ev 7rpo<; S&fia, ical 'l<T')(eo, firjS' ovo/Mijvriif Od. \. 251. 
 M^jSe TO) eK^dcrdai, fi'^T dvBp&p, ycn^re yvvaiK&v. Od. v. 308. 
 
 There is no doubt, then, that the section "de caeco" is a 
 combination, though I do not see in the extant verses the allusion 
 to iic ryeverrj';, which one would expect from the comparison with 
 the account in the Acta. There is, however, no doubt about the 
 method of composition. 
 
 Now let us turn to the account of the Haemorrhoousa. The 
 writer has combined two cases of the Lord's compassion upon 
 women, the stories of the S3rrophenician and of the twelve years' 
 flux. Accordingly he begins with 
 
 "Eff/ee Se Trarpos loto yvvr) ^OLViaa-' ivl oIkw. Od. o. 417. 
 
 There is no reason that I can see to ascribe this line to any 
 other cause than the eclectic treatment of the writer. The case, 
 however, is a particularly interesting one, because, as we shall see 
 by a comparison of authorities, the Haemorrhoousa was certainly 
 a feature of the original nucleus. And it is equally certain that 
 in the first narration she was a double personality. We see this 
 pretty clearly in the Oentones, we can also shew it as follows for 
 the Acta. Here we are told the name of the sufferer, which 
 appears in Greek as BepvUrj and in Latin as Veronica. It has 
 commonly been supposed that the latter name was a confusion or 
 anagram of Vera icon, and that it had to do with the story of the 
 miraculous pictures of our Lord. But this is a misapprehension, 
 as Lipsius has shewn. The name has its origin at an earlier date 
 than any of the well-known Veronica stories. Its origin is sus- 
 pected to be Gnostic, and it is the name, not primarily of the 
 Haemorrhoousa, but of the Canaanite woman or her daughter. 
 In the Clementine Homilies, for example, it is the name given to 
 the daughter', probably because the writer had from some source 
 or tradition assigned the name of Justa to the mother. The 
 confusion between the two cases is then probably an early one. 
 1 Clem. Horn. in. 73, iv. 1, 4, 6. 
 
 5—2 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 Justin Martyr and the Acta Pilati. 
 
 We ought next to enquire whether the previous investigations 
 have a bearing upon certain well-known passages in Justin Martyr, 
 in which he appears to refer to Acts of Pilate. 
 
 Amongst the many services which Tischendorf did to the 
 cause of Patristic criticism, one of the greatest was the accession 
 of new material which he brought to the study of the Acts of 
 Pilate, by which he easily demonstrated the antiquity of the 
 extant Acta by means of early versions dating from at least as far 
 back as the 5th century. Whatever be the original language of 
 the Acta, we find them in Latin in a Vienna palimpsest of the 
 5th or 6th century, and in a Coptic papyrus of at least an 
 equal age. And it is clear that a text which we find extant and 
 translated at so early a period must have a good claim for having 
 existed at a much earlier period in its primitive form. Accordingly 
 Tischendorf argued in the first edition of his Apocryphal Gospels 
 that there was a continuous chain of evidence connecting the 
 current Acta Pilati with the earliest times. For, according to his 
 view, Justin Martyr quoted them in the middle of the second 
 century, Tertullian in the beginning of the third; Maximin the 
 Emperor circulated forged Acts of Pilate in the beginning of the 
 fourth century, probably with the object of discrediting the Acts 
 which were quoted by the Christians; further we have in the 
 same century allusions to the Acta by Eusebius and Epiphanius ; 
 the next century brings us the testimony of Orosius ; and in the 
 sixth century we find them referred to by Gregory of Tours. But 
 as our earliest copies belong to this period, we are, according to 
 Tischendorf, entitled to assume the continuous existence of the 
 
JUSTIN MARTYR AND THE ACTA PILATI. 69 
 
 Acts of Pilate from a period earlier than that of Justin. Moreover, 
 if this reasoning were correct there would be a strong tendency 
 towards a belief that some at least of the non-canonical matters 
 mentioned in the Acta Pilati were genuine history: and not only 
 so, but where the account is based upon the four canonical Gospels, 
 there is a great accession to the evidence for their currency. I 
 suppose it was the sense of the importance of the results that 
 would flow from the establishment of such views of the antiquity 
 of the Acta, that led Tischendorf to write his tract Pilati circa 
 Christum judicio quid lucis afferatur ex Actis Pilati, in which 
 he attempted to shew that there was a probability of truth in 
 many of the non-evangelical statements which are contained in 
 the Acta. It is difficult to understand how any serious person 
 could, after a close study of the texts, have come to any such 
 conclusion. But it would seem that Tischendorf clung tena- 
 ciously to the belief that our published Acts contained nothing 
 foreign to the second century and might therefore very well have 
 been the Acts to which Justin refers ; that the supposed references 
 of Justin could be found, with sufficient nearness, in the extant 
 texts; and that consequently the Acts belonged to a period in 
 which valuable traditional information might still be current 
 concerning the trial and death of the Lord. 
 
 Probably the best exposure of the weakness of this position 
 will be found in R. A. Lipsius' Critical Investigation of the Acts of 
 Pilate^, and in Schol ten's Discussion of the Earliest Testimony to 
 the New Testament Writings^. Lipsius analyses the Acta into the 
 following documents : first, there was the original Acta Pilati, 
 which contained the first eleven chapters of the text with the 
 omission of the prologue, and which may also have extended as far 
 as the sixteenth chapter. It professed to be derived from a Hebrew 
 original written by Nicodemus. Secondly, there was a Descensus 
 ad Inferos current under the names of Leucius and Charinus, who 
 are the supposed sons of Simeon who received the child Jesus into 
 his arms ; they have been permitted to return fi-om the dead to 
 tell the story of the Descent into Hades. Thirdly, these documents 
 are worked over in the time of Theodosius and Valentinian in the 
 name of a certain official named Ananias or Aeneas, to whom is 
 
 ' Die Pilatus-Acten kritisoh untersuoht von Prof. Dr E. A. Lipsius, neue ver- 
 mehrte Ausgabe. Kiel, 1886. 
 
 * Soholten, Die altesten Zeugniste betreffend die Schriften des neuen Testaments. 
 
70 JUSTIN MARTYR AND THE ACTA PILATI. 
 
 due the first prologue to the Acta, the combination of the two 
 previous writings, and perhaps the addition of chapters 12 — 16 
 of the existing Acts^. The documents thus united were worked 
 over again at a time not earlier than the second half of the fifth 
 century ; the Latin Mss. also shew certain . additional chapters 
 which Lipsius assigns to a slightly earlier period. For the 
 purposes of criticism, however, attention must be fixed on the first 
 three stages of the text, which comprise the production of what 
 we call our Chxist-Iliad and Chxist-Odyssey, and their combination 
 into a single work. The main point to be noticed is that Lipsius 
 maintains that the primitive Acta do not go back further than the 
 middle of the fourth century^ 
 
 Scholten, with whom Lipsius largely agrees, criticises the 
 Greek of the Acts and the legal and other customs which are 
 assumed in the narration, the titles of honour which are used in 
 the address to the procurator, etc., and shews that they belong 
 rather to the fourth century than the second. And although 
 there are some of his criticisms that may fairly be questioned, the 
 conclusion would seem to be very well established that the Acta, 
 as we know them, betray a date at least as late as the fourth 
 century for their period of composition'. 
 
 ' In confirmation of the detachment of these chapters it should be noticed that 
 they are characterised by a series of striking Hebraisms, such as the following : 
 c. xii. opov upiaav. 
 0. xiv. r] (pXvapla aihri rjv ^0Xuap^(roTe. 
 
 iKbiTTovTO KOTeritv pAyav. 
 u. XV. Pov\iiv KaKrjv i^ov\ev<rdiie8a. 
 XiSirij i\\mij9i))>,ev . 
 
 iav d.Koiff'Q twv irfKXTTayfjiATitjv, tpvy^ ^edyei. 
 c. xvi. yivaaKovres yvdxrcffOe. 
 Possibly these expressions may furnish the key to the self-asserted Hebrew origin 
 of the Acta. 
 
 ^ Pilatus-Acten, p. 40. "Mag einiges in obigen als Merkmal spatercr Abfas- 
 sung angefiihrte auch erst auf Bechnung der Bearbeitung vom Jahre 425 kommen, 
 mogen selbst die Kapitel 12 — 16 erst vom Bearbeiter hinzugefiigt sein, so wird 
 doch hierdurch unser oben gewonnenes Ergebniss nicht umgestossen, das auch 
 die Grundschrift unserer Pilatus-Acten erst um die Mitte des 4 Jahrhunderts en- 
 standen sei." 
 
 ° Such contentions as those of Lipsius (I.e. p. 40), who finds arguments of a 
 later date than the second century in the use of the last twelve verses of St Mark, 
 and in the description of the temple that was forty and six years in building as 
 Solomon's temple, may safely be set on one side. The evidence for the antiquity 
 of the closing section of St Mark has much increased in late years, and a recent 
 discovery by Mr Oonybeare has probably found an author for it in the early part 
 
JUSTIN MABTYR AND THE ACTA PILATI. 71 
 
 Certainly the edited Acta do not belong to the second century. 
 In their present form the preface of Ananias the Protictor couples 
 them with the legends of the Invention of the Cross, which are 
 assigned to Menander the Protictor in a Sinai MS. which I have 
 examined ; and both sets of legends agree in the feature of the 
 insertion of Hebrew sentences disguised in Greek letters. This 
 arouses our suspicion that in the last form of the Acta we have 
 traces of an Edessene hand. But however that may be, it is very 
 unlikely that the study of the extant Acts will indicate a higher 
 date than the fourth century. But it will be asked, does this 
 conclusion hold for the Grundschrift, and are the quotations of 
 Justin to be regarded as imaginary ? Let us address ourselves to 
 these points, in order that we may see what light is thrown upon 
 the subject by the investigations in the previous pages. 
 
 We premise that by far the major part of the arguments 
 against the antiquity of the Grundschrift of the Acta Pilati fall to 
 the ground at once, if that primitive writing were either wholly or 
 in part metrical in character. We may, in dating the period of 
 composition of the texts, make the most of late Greek and late 
 customs involved in the Greek, but these considerations are of no 
 weight at all against Homer. The problem of origins is entirely 
 changed by the introduction of the idea of a poetical or semi- 
 poetical source. The same may be said of certain confusions and 
 misunderstandings of the Gospels which are found in the Acta, 
 which are due to the license of the original writer, who is anxious 
 to combine any Biblical features that find a Homeric echo, and is 
 not scrupulous either in his historical treatment, nor in the actual 
 quotations upon which he bases his story. 
 
 Moreover the problem of the chronology has much changed by 
 the consideration that we are to find a common origin for certain 
 parts of the Centones and of the Acta. On either side the 
 analysis takes us back farther than was formerly supposed, and 
 the common origin must claim a very respectable antiquity. 
 
 Now let us turn to the actual references in Justin to the 
 Acta Pilati. 
 
 of the second century ; and as for Solomon's temple, the same mistake which we 
 find in the Acta was made in the second century by Heracleon the Gnostic. The 
 first book of the Sibylline oracles twice calls the Temple of Herod vabi XaXondivtos 
 {vv. 376, 393), but this part of the Oracles was, in Friedlieb's judgment, not written 
 before the end of the second century. 
 
72 JUSTIN MARTYR AND THE ACTA PILATI. 
 
 There are two such references, both of them in the First 
 Apology ; the first is in c. 35 and runs as follows : 
 
 Kat lyap ft)5 eiirev 6 'irpo<f>riTr]<;, Biaavpovre'! avTov eKadiaav 
 iirl l3i]fiaTo<; koI elirev K.pivov rjfilv. to Se "D^pv^dv p,ov 'xei^pa'; 
 KoX TToSa? e^ijyr}(7i,<; rmv iv ra a-ravptp TrayevTcov ev rat? X^P"^'' '^^^ 
 Tol<s iroaiv ijXav ■)]V' koX p-era to vTavpSxrai avTov h^aXov KXfjpov 
 eirl Tov ip,aTi<rp,ov avTOV, Kal ip-epicravTO eavrol<; oi aTavpmaavTei; 
 avTov Kal TavTa oTi yeyovep hvvaade p,adelv ex tmv eVt IlovTiov 
 TltXaTov yevopivtov aKTCov. 
 
 The second is in c. 48 : 
 
 "Oti he Kal depairevaeiv irdcra'; voaov^ Kal veKpow dveyepelv o 
 rip,eT6po<; Xpto-ros "Trpoe^rjTevffi], aKovaaTe twv XeXeypivcov. eo'Ti 
 Se TavTa' Tfj irapovala avTov aXelTai j^wXo? ft)9 eXa^os, Kai Tpavrj 
 eaTai yXaxrcra poyiKdXmv. TV<pXol ava^eyfrovcri Kal Xeirpol 
 KadapiaOijaovTai Kal veKpol ava(TTrj(TOV(Ttv Kal irepbTraTricrova-iv. 
 "Ort he TavTa iiroLriaev, 6« t&v eTrl UovtIov UtXarov yevop,evmv 
 aKTCov^ padelv hvvaffde. 
 
 To these two certain allusions to the Acta Pilati, a third was 
 added by Tischendorf which is more doubtful : it is in c. 38 : 
 
 Kai irdXiv OTav Xiyr], AvtoI e/3aXov KXfjpov eirl tov lp,ariap6v 
 pov Kal wpv^dv pov TroSa? Kal x^lpai;. iyob he eKOiprjOrfv Kal 
 VTTVwa-a Kal dveaTrjv, OTt Kvpi,o<; dvreXd^eTo p,ov. Kat irdXiv OTav 
 Xeyy, 'EXdXria-av iv x^lXeatv, eKLvriaav KetjjaXrjv, XeyovTe^- 'Pv- 
 ffdaOco eavrov. " A.Tiva irdvTa yeyovev viro t&v 'lovSaimv t<5 
 TLpiffTS, t09 padelv hvvaade. ^TavpcodevTO<; yap avTov e^ea-Tpetf)ov 
 Ta %6iXj; Kal eKivovv ra? Ke(^aXa<s XeyovTe<;' 'O veKpov<; dveyeLpa<; 
 pvadaOoi eavrov. 
 
 Here the recurrence of the phrase hvvaa-0e padelv, which we 
 find in the two previous quotations, taken with the enumeration 
 of certain things as done by the Jews to Jesus, which is precisely 
 in the manner of the first quotation, invites the supposition that 
 the source, from which the Roman people can get the necessary 
 corroboration to the prophetic Scriptures, is the Acta Pilati. 
 
 ' The MBS. have aiirSc, but the emendation of Casaubon to &KTbiii is certain, in 
 view of the previous quotation : cf. fiaeeiv divaade, which seems to be used of a 
 written book. Justin twice refers to the writings of Moses in this way : Apol. i. 62 
 o el po6\e<T6e jxaSeh, 4k twv (rvYtpan/iATUv iKelfov dxpi^ws fM6'^(re<r6e, and i. 63 ret 5' 
 iirSfieva i^ iKdvuv ^ov\6iievoi liaSeiv SivaaOe. 
 
JUSTIN MARTYR AND THE ACTA PILATI. 73 
 
 Now concerning these passages and their supposed references 
 to the Acta, Tischendorf says decidedly "quaecumque enim inde 
 protulerunt veteres, quorum imprimis videndi sunt Justinus et 
 Tertullianus, eadem in nostris inveniuntur Actis \" 
 
 Lipsius on the contrary maintains that there is no trace in our 
 Acts of Pilate of the matters alluded to by Justin. The 35th 
 chapter of the Apology is according to him made up as follows : 
 Kplvov rjfuv from Isaiah Iviii. 2; the piercing of the hands and 
 feet from Ps. xxi. 17 ; and the casting lots for the raiment from 
 the Synoptics : not one of these details is, however, to be found in 
 the extant Acts of Pilate. The 48th chapter of the Apology 
 combines the prophecy of Isaiah (xxxv. 5, 6) with Matt. xi. 5 ; but 
 the combination of sicknesses healed by Jesus is not found in the 
 Acta, which make no mention of the healing of the dumb, and 
 only furnish one allusion to the raising of the dead. Finally, the 
 supposed reference in the 38th chapter of the Apology is a free 
 combination of Matt, xxvii. 39 and Mark xv. 29 with a prophetic 
 gnosis on the Passion: it is conceivable that Justin might have 
 been thinking of some uncanonical Gospel, but with the Acts of 
 Pilate the matters described have no connexion whatever. 
 
 Scholten does not believe that any Acts of Pilate were in the 
 hands of either Justin or Tertullian ; but that Justin merely 
 assumed that some such official report must have been sent, and 
 Tertullian follows Justin's assumption. In support of this view it 
 is to be noted that Justin also refers to the returns of the Census 
 under Quirinus, and uses the very same formula {fiaOelv Svvaa-de) 
 as we find him employing in the case of the supposed Acta Pilati. 
 Certainly he had never seen such Census papers, and he was 
 merely assuming that some such documents must exist in the 
 Roman archives. And it is significant that there are no quota- 
 tions in Justin which we can certainly say came from the Acta of 
 which he speaks. 
 
 The case, then, stands thus ; either Justin's reference is wholly 
 imaginary (which, in view of his deliberate and repeated state- 
 ments, I am slow to believe), or the reference which he makes is a 
 general one, similar in character to his allusion to the Sibyl and 
 Hystaspes, whose writings certainly existed and were known to 
 Justin though he does not quote them directly. The supposition, 
 
 ' Evangelia Apocrypha, ed. ii. p. Ixiii. 
 
74 JUSTIN MARTYR AND THE ACTA PILATI. 
 
 therefore, is invited' that perhaps Justin might have alluded 
 either to a metrical document, or to the first paraphrase of a 
 metrical document, or to a story which was Homerized in a 
 general sense. Such a reference is certainly possible and might 
 have been made in perfectly good faith. 
 
 It is not however any longer a question of finding quotations 
 from the New Testament in the Acta, as Tischendorf wished to 
 convict Justin of doing : for as we ascend to the original nucleus 
 of the Acta, whatever its date may be, the direct quotations 
 disappear ; and indeed one element of the, at first sight, hopeless 
 entanglement of the later Acts consists in attempts which have 
 been made to restore the Biblical expressions and sequences which 
 were wanting in the first form of the story. We naturally should 
 not look for Biblical quotations in a metrical account, nor in a 
 prose account based directly on a metrical one, or Homeric in 
 character. 
 
 Nor must we forget, in discussing the probability of the use of 
 real Acta Pilati by Justin, that one reason which has been com- 
 monly assigned for dating the existence of these Acts and their 
 composition at a much later period has entirely disappeared in 
 the course of our analysis. 
 
 It has often been said that the Acta were fabricated in order 
 to cover the allusions in early Christian writings : but the ex- 
 amination of the genesis of these Pilate legends shews them to be, 
 in the fourth century form, not an original product, but a para- 
 phrase of and sequence to a previously existing work. On this 
 account, therefore, the probability is much increased that Justin 
 really did read a book and not merely allude to a hypothetical 
 document. Moreover it is certain that the main structure of the 
 work to which Justin referred (if a real work be required) was 
 exactly parallel to the composition of the existing Acta Pilati; 
 viz. the miraculous cures which Jesus wrought and the sufferings 
 which He underwent. It is a trivial criticism that would object, 
 that we have in the Acta no case of healing of the dumb to 
 answer to the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the tongue of the 
 stammerer, or that the extant Acta only speak of one case of 
 raising of the dead, or that the casting of lots for the raiment is 
 not in the prose Acts. If we may judge from the Centones (with 
 which the epigram of Patricius may be compared), the dead raised 
 were more than a single case ; and even if it be held that the 
 
JUSTIN MARTYR AND THE ACTA PILATI. T5 
 
 supposed primitive nucleus must have been a short document, 
 there are not wanting indications that the extant prose is in some 
 respects an abbreviation of the primitive document '. 
 
 Without attempting to give a final and dogmatic statement on 
 the question, I should say that the allusions in Justin are pro- 
 bably from a real document, but that in any case they are 
 allusions and not quotations. It is not impossible that he may 
 have derived his information from a document which is a lineal 
 ancestor of our extant Acta. Whether Justin, on this suppo- 
 sition, was deceived as to the composition of the book to which he 
 referred, is not easy to say ; if the book had already passed from 
 a verse form into a prose paraphrase, or if it were a prose narra- 
 tive affected by paraphrased lines of Homer, the illusion would 
 readily be accounted for: but I can find any intellectual aber- 
 ration credible in the case of Justin, after his blunder with regard 
 to the Semo Sancus inscription at Rome. And we must re- 
 member that he belonged to a generation which drank down 
 Sibyllism like water, and that Sibyllism and Homerism are, as we 
 have shewn, first cousins. 
 
 The final settlement of the question must be left for further 
 investigations ; if our study has not been exhaustive, it may none 
 the less furnish suggestions to those who are interested in the 
 problems involved. 
 
 1 The Centones have also the Casting of Lots for the raiment very well 
 described. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 Directions fob further enquiry. 
 
 We have now reached a point at which our advance is barred, 
 and must seek for the resolution of our difficulties by changing 
 and extending the methods of investigation. 
 
 It may be, I think, taken for granted that we have proved 
 (a) that there is high probability that the New Testament 
 Scriptures were versified at a very early date, (b) that there are 
 actual references to such versifications which go back at least into 
 the second century. We have also shewn that the existing Acts 
 of Pilate are Homerized, that Pilate is Achilles, and Joseph Priam, 
 etc. ; and that the very idea of the Descent into Hades is Homeric, 
 and that the story itself copies the leading features of the Homeric 
 Descents. But while we have proved this so far as to actually 
 detect disguised lines of Homer in the existing Acta, we have not 
 made a complete demonstration that all recensions of the Acta 
 Pilati are alike affected by it. Nor have we been able to perfectly 
 establish what we have stated in a suspicion, that an actual 
 Homerized narrative of the Passion and the Descent into Hades 
 was what Justin refen'ed to in his enigmatical allusions to Acts of 
 Pilate. We must, therefore, try to resolve the questions at issue 
 by working on some new lines of enquiry. 
 
 Since the foregoing pages were written, Mr Conybeare has 
 discussed in a very valuable paper the evidence which is furnished 
 by the Armenian Acts of Pilate. 
 
 It is important to remark that he concedes the Homerization 
 of the Acta, so far as relates to recension B of Tischendorf. But 
 he apparently doubts the general application of the criticism, and 
 suspects that in recension A we have very early quotations from 
 lost Gospels, which would hardly be found in the striking form in 
 which they occur, unless the documents which present them had 
 drawn directly from some very early strata of Christian tradition. 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER ENQUIRY. 77 
 
 We have thus to enquire whether our observed and recorded 
 traces of Homerization in the conception and language of the 
 Acta may not be a later stage in the tradition of these perplexing 
 records. In other words we must go back to the Acta Pilati and 
 find some fresh ways of interrogating them. There is great need 
 for a fresh examination of the documents and for a fresh criticism 
 of the text. 
 
 One direction for enquiry is that we ask whether the diver- 
 gences between the existing copies and what are roughly defined 
 as recensions may not be due in some degree to the fact of re- 
 translation, and in particular whether there has been retranslation 
 from a Semitic source. 
 
 The Acts, as we have them, affirm positively that they have 
 been taken over from Hebrew. Thus in recension A we have 
 the Preface of Ananias the Protictor in which he affirms that he 
 found these Hypomnemata written in Hebrew, and with God's 
 goodwill did them into Greek. The preface is usually condemned 
 as an artifice, belonging to a late period in the propagation of the 
 legends. The preface to recension B has something of the same 
 kind, declaring that Nicodemus, who was a Roman toparch(!), 
 called to him a Jew named Aeneas and besought him (e'f^TT/o-e) to 
 compose a record of things which had happened. And Nicodemus 
 himself translated the account into the Romaic dialect (by which 
 he means Greek). The preface has a very late appearance, and 
 yet it has some traces of being itself a translation : i^ijTrja-e, for 
 example, looks like a bad translation of the Syriac !<Lui>- But 
 while we may be able to detach the prefaces and condemn them 
 as late accretions (perhaps belonging to the same school of 
 fabricators who are responsible for the legends of the Invention 
 of the Cross), can we go so far as to say that there are no traces 
 of Semitic hands in any part of the legends ? 
 
 Now we must not adduce in evidence the existence of tran- 
 scribed Hebrew phrases like 
 
 ixravvcb /Mefi^pofirj ^apovxctf'^fJ'a ahovat, 
 
 for these are actually translated to Pilate in the document. If 
 the document were a Hebrew one, they would not have to be 
 translated at all ; certainly they would hardly render 
 
78 DIRKCTIONS FOE FURTHER ENQUIRY. 
 
 by the words awaov hrj, 6 iv toI<; vylnarol^' eiXoyrffievo^ o 
 ep-)(ofievo<: iv ovofjuaTi tcvpiov without making a ridiculous re- 
 petition. . The occurrence of Hebrew words in the legends proves 
 nothing as to the origin ; it may rather be an argument against a 
 Hebrew original. 
 
 On the other hand there are in certain chapters of re- 
 cension A some remarkable Hebraisms which can hardly be 
 artificial ; for which either an explanation must be found, or 
 allowance made. 
 
 In c. xii. we have 
 
 TO) Se cra^^drm opov iopiaav KTe: 
 in c. xiv. 
 
 et? Tt oZp r] t^Xvapla avTrj rjv etfiXvaprjcraTe ; 
 and again eKoinovro Koirerov fiiyav: 
 
 in c. XV. o'ihajxev oti ^ovXtjv KaKrjv e^ovXevcrdfj,eda: 
 
 and to these four instances of the verb with cognate accusative we 
 add three of the substantive verb with iafinitive, viz. : 
 
 c. XV. XvTrr] eXvinjdTjfiev oti yrijaco ro aw/ia: 
 
 eav dKov(Tri...Tmv TrpoaTayfidrcov, <j>vyy <f>evyer. 
 
 c. xvi. yiVcoa-KOVTe^ yvwaeaQe, oIko<} 'la/coJyS, on yiypairTai. 
 
 None of these features are found in recension B, and they 
 all are found in chapters which may be, according to Lipsius, an 
 accretion on the main document. 
 
 Still it should be noted that such forms occur, and an attempt 
 should be made to find an explanation for them. 
 
 If the critical analysis of the Acta which has been proposed by 
 Lipsius be trustworthy, we ought to be able to isolate the nucleus 
 of the documents, and test them again philologically for translation 
 or re-translation. 
 
 While we have not been able exhaustively to resolve these 
 residual problems, we may hope that so much light has been 
 thrown upon the documents in the course of the investigations 
 which we have made, that it may be possible, before very long, to 
 disentangle the history and to determine the contents of the 
 primitive Acta; and there, for the present, we must leave the 
 matter. 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER ENQUIRY. 79 
 
 As for the Gentones, a further attempt should be made to 
 extract the nucleus from the late forms in which the verses have 
 come down to us. We may be sure that behind Eudocia's collec- 
 tion there lies a shorter and rougher body of verses, for she tells 
 us so. The question is whether we can detach Patricius' verses 
 from Eudocia's, and whether behind Patricius we can find traces 
 of an earlier form. There are many things in the extant 
 Centones which suggest that the original writer was versifying 
 a New Testament which had an early text. One such case has 
 already been quoted in the previous pages, where we found the 
 woman of Samaria making speeches to the people of Sychem. As 
 my friend Mr M°Evoy points out, this implies a text such as 
 Jerome described which had Sychem for By char. And we may 
 add that this is also the reading of the Lewis Gospels. But there 
 are other suspicious traces of early readings. Let us examine the 
 account of our Lord's baptism, which is a special centre for curious 
 textual and doctrinal developments. The last four verses of the 
 account are as follows : 
 
 Od. I. 527 Eu^j^fiTo x^^p' opeyeop eh ovpavov da-repoevTa, 
 
 II. ■^. 874 "Tyfri, 8' vTTO ve<f)€0)v elSe Tprjpava ireKeiav, 
 
 II. T. 362 Al'iyXi; S' ovpavov lice, ryeXacrcre Be Traaa irepl x^av, 
 
 II. 4>. 382 "A.ylroppov S' dpa KVfia Kareaavro icaXa peeOpa. 
 
 From the third of these verses it appears that the Centonist 
 knew the detail contained in many early Biblical texts according 
 to which a fire was kindled in the Jordan, or, at all events, that 
 there was some remarkable luminous appearance at the Baptism. 
 
 Another direction in which we may find a survival of early 
 legendary matter is in the coincidences between the Gentones and 
 the Infancy Gospels. When Christ is bom, we are told that his 
 mother swaddled him and washed him. 
 
 Od. i|r. 325 MrjTTjp ri fiiv eriKTe kuI erpe^e Tvrdbv iovTU, 
 Od. e. 264 EifiaTci t afi^iiaaro ffvwSea koX Xovaaro. 
 
 Two false quantities in the last line arise from the reckless 
 borrowing of a verse in which stood the words afi<f)iea-acra and 
 \ova-aa-a. This can hardly be Eudocia's work, one would think, 
 for she appears to have been both scholar and critic, and would 
 hardly have transferred Calypso's care of her person on her fare- 
 well to Ulysses to the Blessed Virgin's care of her child in such a 
 
80 DIEECTIONS FOE FURTHER ENQUIRY. 
 
 clumsy manner. And why this detail as to washing ? Was it 
 merely to complete the verse ? Or is it not because the washing 
 of the infant Christ is one of the favourite subjects in the Infancy 
 Gospels ? 
 
 We shall also find that the famous Cave of the Nativity of 
 which the Canonical Gospels know nothing is in the Centones. 
 The verses quoted are as follows : 
 
 Od. 6. 77 KiiTiK ap' 6t9 evpv aireo's rfKvde Trapdevoi; ayvij, 
 II. K. 568 ^drvy e^' iirireiri 66c irep /itaz/wj^e? "ttttoi 
 "Eiaraaav. 
 
 Here again Calypso appears as the Blessed Virgin, and the 
 Centonist has spoiled the metre of his second line by substituting 
 for Ato/i.»;S609, which in any case had to be got rid of, the metri- 
 cally non-equivalent fuovvxe<>. This is not Eudocia's hand, we 
 may be sure. And in any case, the cave is there, which is best 
 explained by reference to the Infancy Gospels. Here, then, we 
 come across suspicious traces of early readings and traditions in 
 the Gospel. And it makes it more clear than ever that some 
 fresh attempt should be made to disentangle from the existing 
 Centones the original form out of which they have grown. 
 
 There is another point that requires a little attention before 
 we take leave of our readers. It will be remembered by those 
 who read our first studies on the text of the Codex Bezae, that 
 the impulse to the enquiry after the influence of Homer on 
 Christian doctrine and on Christian documents came to us in 
 connexion with a curious gloss in the story of our Lord's entomb- 
 ment, which we suspected to be metrical, and to be taken fi-om a 
 Latin Homerizer or Centonist. Something similar had been half 
 suspected by Scrivener, who, in speaking of the 'stone which twenty 
 men could hardly lift,' said that 'it was conceived somewhat in 
 the Homeric spirit.' 
 
 Since we wrote our chapter on the traces of the Latin 
 Centonist in the Codex Bezae, the whole problem of the genesis 
 of the New Testament text has been reflected in the discussion 
 of the origin of this gloss. Dr Chase claimed it as a convincing 
 case of retranslation from the Syriac, and brought forward an 
 illustration from Josephus in which similar language was used of 
 the opening of the doors of the temple, together with what one 
 can only describe as a little sermon on the analogies between the 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER ENQUIRY. 81 
 
 temple at Jerusalem and the tomb in which our Lord was laid. 
 On the other hand, Dr Blass has vigorously defended the passage 
 as a genuine Lucan fragment preserved in the Eoman recension 
 of the Gospel. In his recent work The Philology of the Gospels, 
 he suggests a Greek original for the supposed gloss, in preference 
 to my imagined Latin, thus taking us right back to Odyssey ix. 
 240 without the mediation of a Centonist. Naturally the exis- 
 tence of the latter would have been fatal to his theory that the 
 sentence was due to Luke himself According to Blass, then, we 
 are to look for the key in the words of Homer : 
 
 Avrap eireLT etridrjKe Ovpebv fieyav v-^6a deipa<i, 
 'O^pi/jLov ovK av Tov <ye Svco ical eiKocr dfia^at, 
 E(70\at reTpaKVKKoi dir ovSeo<s 6')(Xia'(Teiav. 
 
 Here, says Blass, you have the verb iiridTjicev used in Luke 
 [rec. /3] while Matthew and Mark use TrpoaKvXico. He then 
 makes apologies (which are quite unnecessary) for the quotation 
 of Homer by the learned physician. So it seems as if the whole 
 question of the New Testament text is involved in the story of 
 this single gloss. 
 
 We do not propose to decide the question or questions involved, 
 at the present stage of the enquiry : but we will add some fresh 
 material for the study of the passage (whether it be a gloss or an 
 original fragment of St Luke). 
 
 For it appears that such big stones described in similar 
 Homeric or quasi-Homeric language turn up much more fre- 
 quently than would have been suspected. 
 
 We have to begin with the parallel adduced by Dr Chase from 
 Josephus {B. J. VI. 5. 3) 
 
 77 Se dvaTo\iKrj irvX/q tov ivBorepov, 'X^oXk'tj fiev ovaa koi 
 oTi^apanaTT), KXeiofievTj Se irepl SeiXrjv fj,6Xi<i vtt dvBpwv 
 eiKO<ri...ol}(f>Sr) Kara vvkt6<; Spav eKrrjv avTOfidT(o<; rjvem'yp.ev'q. 
 
 The big stone also turns up in the Koran c. 28, where we have 
 an instructive note of Sale's, taken from the Moslem commen- 
 tators : 
 
 So [Moses] watered [their sheep] by rolling away a stone 
 of prodigious weight which had been laid over the mouth of 
 the well by the shepherds and required no less than seven 
 men (though some name a much larger number) to remove 
 it. 
 H. 6 
 
82 DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER ENQUIRY. 
 
 The Midrash upon the size of the stone which Moses removed 
 cannot have been invented by the commentators upon the Koran. 
 They probably got it from Jewish writers. 
 
 Turning to Aphrahat (iv. 6) we find him saying of the stone 
 which covers the well in Gen. xxix., which Jacob rolls away, that 
 it was so heavy that ' many shepherds were not able to take it 
 away so as to open the well until Jacob came.' And St Ephrem 
 also, in 'his commentary on Genesis, has a remark on the size of 
 the stone which Jacob removed from the well : 
 
 OOOD . i^s^q ^taw.'Sql r^rC^ji^o.i r<^r<l^ .ca.=> r^dca 
 
 .«A 
 
 i.e. he accomplished this triumph before her (sc. Rachel) in that, 
 by means of the Son who was hidden within him, he rolled away 
 the stone which very many men could hardly lift. 
 
 The great stone moved by Jacob is also commented on by Cyril 
 of Alexandria {Glaph., P. G. 69, 167): 
 
 hv(Ta')(6rj^ fiev yap r^ (jjpiaTi \ido<: eTre/ceiTO bv ifKeunrf 
 fiev oar) Troifievcov d6poiaL<i airea'aXeve fJuoXi'i' eBpa Be tovto 
 Ka\ /jlovoi; 6 'la/cwyS. 
 
 It appears, then, as a conventional Midrashic element in the 
 Old Testament, both in Genesis and in Exodus. A somewhat 
 similar instance will be found in the Christian martyrol6gy {Acts 
 of S. Nereus and 8. Achilles) : 
 
 ov jMrjv aXKa Kol eKVLTepov ^apvrepov \idov, 'dv e^Sofioi 
 avSp6<; fiera ^las eKOV(f)i^ov, et<i tov wfiov avrov i7ri9evTO<s, 
 auTo? iirl 8vo fiiXia caairep iXacppa dy^ypa e^dara^^ev koI 
 iv avTw tS tottw eOeTO ev w ev^aaOai eiwOei. 
 
 The last two passages are at least valuable for the clearing of 
 -one point. In the Codex Bezae, we had what seemed an un- 
 natural construction in the Greek in the words XeLOov ov fjioyK; 
 e'tKocri eKvXiov. There is no need to resort to retranslation from 
 the Syriac to justify the use of the imperfect, when we have a 
 similar usage both in Cyril and in the Acts of Nereus and 
 Achilles. 
 
DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER ENQUIRY. 83 
 
 Here, then, is a modest increment of parallels for the discussion 
 of the Bezan gloss. 
 
 There are plenty of big stones to be found that they may be 
 placed side by side with that of Joseph of Arimathea ; and the 
 Biblical commentators and writers of Midrash keep a stock of 
 them. It would be presumptuous to say that they are all 
 Homeric. Yet the parallels with Homer are often so close that 
 we can hardly help suspecting that some of them came from the 
 cave of the Cyclops. But whether the particular one, whose 
 dimensions are regarded as phenomenal in the Codex Bezae, belongs 
 to that group which Homer has set rolling, is still an open question. 
 And of the whole problem presented by the gloss, we can only 
 say at present in biblical language, that it is ' a burdensome stone 
 for all peoples,' and in quasi-biblical terms that 'twenty critics 
 have not yet succeeded in moving it.' 
 
 CAMBEIDQB: PBINTED by j. and C. F. OLiY, AT THE UNIVEKSITT EBESS. 
 
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