Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/96

xcii conscious or unconscious imitation due to the story of Virgil of the descent of Æneas to the Underworld, as found in the Æneid. Again, in the first translation the reader will see that Ananias renders the Hebrew into Greek in the time of Theodosius and Valentinian, but here it is said that the book was translated into Greek as soon as it was written in Hebrew. The copy now under notice is a later revision of the first, and frequently omits expressions to be found in the older document, among which may be mentioned the Hebrew quotations. The Greek is less barbarous, but is still corrupt. A few of the defects of the former book are remedied, but most of them remain, and therefore, for example, they both omit our Lord's appearance before the high priest, the denial of Peter, and other incidents. In the later copy the woman healed by Christ is duly called Berenice or Veronica, which the older book omits. The earlier book says he was to be crucified in the garden where he was taken, but the later drops the statement in stricter harmony with tradition, places the crucifixion at Calvary and introduces a number of additional details.

I suppose this recension of the book to be not older than the sixth century, and to be the work of