Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/8

 and what is said of the text concerns also the English translation of Apocryphal Acts based on Tischendorf's work. As an illustration we only refer to the fact that chaps. 39–41, 62–158 now found in the Acts of Thomas are wanting in Tischendorf's edition. The Acts of Paul and Thecla formerly regarded as a separate book, are now proven to be a part of the Acts of Paul, to which also belongs the so-called third epistle to the Corinthians. Without calling attention to many other points, it is obvious that the Apocryphal Acts, as far as they have been translated into English, need a thorough revision, if not a new translation. For the present we offer the oldest and therefore most important Acts. That these Acts cannot be ignored because they form an important contribution to the primitive literature of the Church, the reader can readily see from the special introductions and literature. In the preparation of the present volume the work edited by Edgar Hennecke has been of great help. I have also made free use of the English translation of the Apocryphal Acts by A. Walker in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library (Edinb. 1867), as far as was possible. In other respects the present work is entirely independent, and whatever its shortcomings may be, we have the satisfaction that it is the first effort to make the researches of Lipsius, Bonnet, Schmidt, etc. accessible to the English reader.

B P.

Newark, New Jersey, Nov. 1908.