229.9 Ac8th Library call number, likely using the Dewey Decimal system for Apocrypha.

Phil. Abbreviation for Philology or Philosophy.

11/24 handlam A handwritten acquisition or processing note dated November 1924.

PREFACE.

THE Poem which forms the subject of this monograph was first published and translated by the late William Wright, Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge, in his Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (2 vols. London, 1871). Since then the SyriacA dialect of Middle Aramaic that served as a major literary and liturgical language for Middle Eastern Christians. text has been re-edited in the third volume of the Acts of Martyrs and Saints original: "Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum" (Paris, 1892), and two German translations, with copious explanatory remarks, have appeared—that of Karl Macke in the Theological Quarterly Journal original: "Theologische Quartalschrift" (Tübingen) for 1874, pp. 3—70, and that of Lipsius in his work The Apocryphal Stories and Legends of the Apostles original: "Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden" vol. i. (Brunswick, 1883) pp. 292—300, vol. ii. pt. ii. (1884) p. 422.

As Prof. Wright's book has for several years been out of print, it seemed all the more desirable to re-publish the poem in a convenient form. If the piece were an integral part of the Apocryphal Acts, there might be some objection to thus detaching it from the context in which it stands ; but, as a matter of fact, it is an independent composition and may therefore be treated separately. When we consider its antiquity and its highly original character, it must appear extraordinary that it should hitherto have attracted so little attention among theologians ; if I succeed in exciting any further interest in this master-piece of religious poetry, the main object of my work will have been attained. At the same time I venture to hope that I have been able to contribute something fresh towards the elucidation of the text, in particular towards the comprehension of the metreThe rhythmic structure or pattern of beats in a line of poetry., which is necessarily of great importance in textual criticism. Since the first editor, Prof. Wright, is universally acknowledged to have been one of the highest authorities in the department of Syriac literature, it may seem presumptuous, in a pupil of his, to think of supplementing, or modifying, the conclusions at which he arrived. I may therefore be allowed to state explicitly that the

p 48123 Accession number or library inventory mark.