Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/105

Rh famous amongst the Mohammedans, Sabeans, Samaritans, Ethiopians, Syrians (see Fabricius, "Codex Pseudepigr. Vet. Test." i. 139-157). The journey of Seth to Paradise is then, I suppose, a Jewish Hagadah or pleasant fiction. A curious recension of it is contained in the Greek "Apocalypse of Moses," published by Dr. Tischendorf ("Apocalypses Apocryphæ"). The story is also found in the book called "The Repentance of Adam" (A. Maury, "Croyances et Legendes," p. 294). This last I have not read, but the "Apocalypse of Moses" is a Christian production, and possibly the author of the Appendix to Nicodemus drew this part of his materials from it; whether or no, its existence in these different works makes one doubt the right of any of them to its origination.

An interesting account of the history of the legend of the Oil of Mercy will be found in an article entitled "The Tree of Life," translated from the German of Dr. Piper, in the Journal of Sacred Literature (Oct. 1864). I do not agree with Dr. Piper in referring our document to the second century, but I have pleasure in referring to his curious narration, which first appeared in the "Evangelischer Kalender," for 1863.