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B. H. S. An abbreviation for "Book of the Hymn of the Soul."

INTRODUCTION

The text here edited is based upon a single manuscript, British Museum Additional 14645, bearing the date 1247 of the Greek EraThis refers to the Seleucid Era; the date corresponds to 936 AD. and containing a collection of Lives of Saints. For a full description, see Wright’s Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum, No. 952 original: "DCCCCLII" (pp. 1111—1116). Foremost in the collection are placed the Acts of Saint Thomas, or, as the Syriac heading calls them, “The Acts of Judas Thomas the Apostle,” which occupy 49 leaves. The Poem begins on folio 30 versoThe "b" side or back of the 30th leaf of the manuscript., and is introduced in the following manner. The Apostle, we are told, in the course of his journeys through India, was arrested and cast into prison by order of a king named Mazdai. In the prison he offers up a prayer, at the conclusion of which we read—“And whilst he was praying, all those who were in the prison saw that he was praying and begged of him to pray for them too. And when he had prayed and sat down, Judas In Syriac tradition, the Apostle Thomas is often called Judas the Twin. began to chant this hymn. The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle in the country of the Indians.” Here follows the Poem, with the subscription—“The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle, which he spake in the prison, is ended.” But the Poem itself contains not the remotest allusion to the circumstances described in the preceding narrative, nor is there anything in the remainder of the narrative to indicate that the narrator was acquainted with the Poem. The question therefore arises, Was the Poem composed by the author of the Acts or was it derived from some other source?

This is not the place to discuss the origin and history of the Acts of St Thomas, for which the reader may refer to Lipsius, The Apocryphal Acts and Legends of the Apostles original: "Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden" volume 1, pages 225—347, volume 2, part 2, pages 423—425, and to Harnack, The... The text breaks off here; it likely refers to Adolf von Harnack's "Die Chronologie der altchristlichen Litteratur" (The Chronology of Early Christian Literature).