ana translation

Ixxii
INTRODUCTION
This eighth Book and those that follow are the work of
a continuator,
and were completed in A.D. 569. He tells us that it " was found [i.e.,
apparently, the Greek of it] in the Gospel of "
Mara, Bishop of Amid
[died circ. 527].
Whether Mara, or this continuator, or some other,
translated it into Syriac, is uncertain. It seems to be extant neither
in Greek nor any other language. This Syriac version of the story in
this form belongs (as the date of the eighth Book above given proves)
to the sixth century,* and is earlier by nearly half a century than the
better known version by Paul of the story in its familiar form. Both
forms (it
is to be noted) claim to have been " found " by Syrian
ecclesiastics at Alexandria, j
3. Below (p. 46) I have referred to a version of the Paul-form of the
Pericope, appended to a very recent copy of the Gospels (Bodl. Or.
625) bearing date 1801, the work of a Malabar scribe, which I have
forborne to print, judging from internal evidence that it was merely a
translation from the Latin Vulgate probably connected with the action
of the Synod of Diamper. I have found, since p. 46 was written,
that in Deer. 2, cap. xiv of Actio in of that Synod, A.D. 1599, after
noting the defects of the Peshitta Bible, the Synod orders that they
are to be supplied
" according to the Chaldee copies which are emended
and the Vulgate Latin Edition " ;
and that this is to be done by Francisco
Roz, a Jesuit, Professor of Syriac in the Jesuits' College at Vaipicotta,
founded a few years previously (see Geddes, Hist, of Malabar
Church, as cited above, p. xlv, note f).
To him, therefore, we may without
hesitation attribute this translation of the Pericope. But there seems
to be no evidence that he fulfilled the directions of the Synod by translating
also our Four Epistles. Possibly the version of the Revelation,
of which two copies are among Dr. Buchanan's Malabar Syriac MSS
be the work of the same
in Cambridge University Library, J may
translator.
* The MS h (Br. M., Add. 17202), which contains the Chronicle, is probably to
be dated not later than A.D. 600.
t For Zacharias, see Land, Anecdota Syr., t. in, Introduction ;
also that of
Mr. Brooks (above mentioned)
: for Mara, Land (as before), pp. 245, 250 (v.
and
vii. of Chronicle, Book vni)
: for both, Assemani, B.O., t. ii, pp. 52, 54.
I CataL, Oo. 1, 11 (7) ;
Oo. 1, 21. Whether the Syriac version of the Eevelation
(with Commentary), of the same Library, Add. 1970, is identical with the above,
I have not ascertained. It professes to be translated from an Arabic translation
from the Latin. All these MSS are Nestorian, of the eighteenth century.