Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

PREFACE. XI
death of Alexander were freely drawn upon by
the translator and scribe, but in their hands they
became a means not only of instruction, but also
of edification for the reader. In their works the
story of Alexander's victory in the chariot races
disappears, for the Oriental never truly appreciated
athletics; Greek gods are transformed into Old
Testament personages such as Enoch and Elijah;
speeches of heathen kings are couched in Biblical
language; Philip of Macedon figures as a martyr,
and Alexander himself becomes a Christian teacher,
having a profound knowledge of Old Testament
history, and is eventually described as a saint who
was worthy to receive revelations from the Divine
Spirit of God Almighty, and to preach the Christian
doctrine of the Resurrection. Never was heathen
king or profane history so thoroughly transformed.
As the various Oriental versions of the legendary
history of Alexander become available for general
study, it will be possible to separate fact from
fiction, to harmonize differences, and also to classify
the various legends and trace them to their re-
spective sources.
Since the publication of the Syriac version of
the Pseudo-Callisthenes by myself in 1889, two
important works on the Alexander story by Prof.
Noeldeke and Dr. Ausfeld have appeared. In Bd-