Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/83

Rh written till much later than Sozomen (A.D. 440). No ancient copy of the book has been discovered, and the first allusion to it which seems to be identified is that of Solomon of Bassora (A.D. 1222).

Chapters l.-lii. deserve special consideration in connection with the date of this compilation. Other traces of modern origin might be thought referrible to transcribers, but these chapters indicate a development of Arabic science which is utterly inconsistent with an early date. Could the chapters in question have been produced prior to the ninth or tenth century? The ninth century is the era to which the rise of scientific studies among the Arabs is assigned; and here we have a formidable array of scientific terms and topics. In default of evidence to the contrary I must conclude that what I may call the science of the book forbids us to ascribe it to a period earlier than that which I have mentioned for the rise of scientific studies among the Arabs.

Even if the idea of a Syriac origin be still pleaded for, we shall not be able to go back beyond the eighth century, when the scientific writings of the Greeks were studied and translated by Syrians.