The Hymn of the Soul

Chronology of Early Christian Literature up to Eusebius original title: "Chronologie der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius" vol. i. (Leipzig, 1897) pp. 545—549. Here it is enough to say that these Acts are extant both in Syriac and in Greek¹, but it is still disputed in which language they were originally composed. In the Greek Acts of Saint Thomas the Poem with which we are concerned is absent, nor is any trace of it to be found in the Berlin manuscript of the Syriac text (Sachau Collection, No. 222)—see the Acts of the Martyrs and Saints original title: "Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum" vol. iii. (Paris, 1892) p. 110 note². Hence the controversy as to the original language of the Acts does not in any way affect the Poem, for even those who believe the Acts to have been first composed in Greek admit that the Poem is not a translation but a purely Syriac work. This, as NöldekeTheodor Nöldeke (1836–1930) was a pioneering German orientalist and a leading authority on Semitic languages. pointed out in 1871, is evident from the style and, in particular, from the metrical character of the piece. In these respects it differs greatly from the other hymns and prayers which the Acts contain. Both external and internal evidence therefore lead us to the conclusion that the Poem was borrowed from some extraneous source and inserted—at what period we cannot say—into the Acts. Happily it is not of any great importance to decide how it found its way into this context; the question which interests us is how it originated. We are here entirely dependent on internal evidence; for, as every Syriac scholar must see at once that the piece is much older than the 10th century, the date affixed to the manuscript tells us nothing which we might not have safely assumed.

The considerations of which we have to take account, in conducting this inquiry, may be briefly summed up as follows. Obscure as many passages undoubtedly are, the general drift of the Poem is quite clear, and cannot be better described than in the words of Nöldeke—“We have here an ancient GnosticGnosticism was a diverse religious movement in the early Christian era that emphasized "gnosis" (secret knowledge) as the path to salvation from the material world. hymn relating to the Soul, which is sent from its heavenly home to the earth³, and there forgets both its origin and its mission until it is

¹ Edited by Max Bonnet, Acts of Thomas original title: "Acta Thomae" (Leipzig, 1883).
² My friend Mr F. C. Burkitt informs me that after a very careful search he was unable to discover any part of the Poem among the fragments of the Syriac Acts of St Thomas in the Library of the Convent on Mount Sinai.
³ The choice of “Egypt” as the type of this world, the abode of evil, and particularly of “slavery” (couplet 44), is no doubt ultimately based upon the Old Testament. Nöldeke points out that a similar metaphorical use of “Egypt” is