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E V E IX T U E L IG H T O F A X E W L Y D IS C O V E R E D
L A T IN T E X T - F O R M
BY
JO H A N N E S T R O M P
Leiden University
1 J.-P. Pettorelli, “La Vie latine d ’Adam et Ève,” Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi 56
(1104 -,(8 5 ( ووhereafter ALM A 1 8 ;) ووid., ‘V ie latine d ’Adam et Ève. La reeension de
Paris, BNF, lat.3832,” Archivum Latiniatis Medii Aevi 57 (152 -5 ,(( وووhereafter ALMA
1) ووو.
2 Georgian: C. K ‘u re‘ikidze (ed.), “Adamis apokrip‘uli c‘xovrebis k‘artuli versia,”
Pdlologiuri Dziebani 1 (1064), 07-136; the Georgian version has beeome widely aeeessi-
ble by its translation into Freneh: J.-P. M ahé, “Le Livre d ’Adam Géorgien,” in: R. van
den Broek and M J . V erm aseren (eds.). Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions Presented
to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Leiden 1081, 227-260; Armenian: M.E.
Stone, The Penitence ofAdam (CSCO 420-430. Seriptores arm eniaci 13-14), Louvain 1081.
3 Nam ely, a text based upon a limited num ber of Southern G erm an and Austrian
m anuseripts, published by w . M eyer, “Vita Adae et Evae,” Abhandlungen der philosophisch-
philologischen Classe der königlich bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 14, M ünehen 1878,
187-250; and a text based upon m anuscripts from England, published by J.H . Mozley,
“ T he ‘Vita A dae’,” Journal of Theological Studies 30 (1020), 121-140.
Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2002 Journal for the Study of Judaism , X X X III, 1
THE TEXTUAL HISTORY OE THE LIFE OF AD A M AND EVE
4 It should be noted that the Life of Adam and Eve, as one of the most widespread
a p o e r^ h a in the Christian ehureh, is im portant for the students of m any different dis-
eiplines, with divergent interests: obviously, students of late M edieval E uropean eulture
look at the Life with another interest than those studying G reeo-Rom an Judaism or
early Christianity· M y perspeetive on the Eatin Life is that of someone who seeks to
reeover the earliest written form of this writing. Several differenees of opinion between
M r. Pettorelli and myself m ay be explained on the ground of our different interests.
5 M. de Jonge and j . The Life of Adam and Eve and Related Literature (Guides
to Apoerypha and Pseudepigrapha), Sheffield 1997; see esp. 37-40, 44.
6 See J.-P. Pettorelli, “La Vie latine d ’Adam et Ève. Analyse de la tradition m anu-
serite,” Apocrypha 10 (1999), 220-320 (hereafter Apocrypha 1999), who has eounted 106
m anuscripts so far.
30 JOHANNES TROMP
capitals, although not in italics) are taken into o n sid e ra tio n . Therefore,
I shall use the following symhols: VLg = lat (the original Latin trans-
lation of the G reek text, or that G reek text) ؛VL = Meyer, ־E = ang
(the text-form as puhlished by M ozley) ؛VOr = armgeo (the original
A rm enian an d G eorgian franslations of the G reek text, or that G reek
text) ؛VG = gr (the extant G reek Life of Adam and Eve); VGII =
(the text-form represented by the G reek m anuscripts R and M , and
the Slavonic version).
from gr). This tendency seems to culm inate in M a, w hich has no sequel
at all to lat 1-23.9
(h) In the second place, there is the m atter of the stories of the death
an d hu rial of A dam a n d o f EYe, alread y elahorately discussed hy
Pettorelli, above.10 T h e problem can be briefly described by saying that,
of two angelic liturgies present in gr an d geo, one preceding A d am ’s
assum ption into heaven (gr 33-3?), the other surrounding his burial
n ear Paradise (gr 38-42:2), only one is present in arm (namely that at
his burial), an d the other in lat (at A d am ’s assumption). If the com-
m only held view th at arm an d geo are closely linked, so as to repre-
sent, eventually, a single G reek text, then the agreem ent of geo with gr
against arm excludes the ^ s s ib ility that the shorter text of arm is m ore
primitive th an the text with b oth liturgies in gr geo.n
H owever, Pettorelli suggests th at the liturgy as described in Pr m ay
well reflect a m ore primitive stage of the writing, in which, after the
description of A d am ’s assum ption into heaven, angels are said to descend
to earth, and assist at his burial. A n im p o rtan t argum ent for this view
is the fact that in gr geo, b oth scenes are very clumsily connected, and
make the im pression that the text of gr geo is the result of editorial
activity.12 E urtherm ore, the shorter ang Meyer-text, Pettorelli claims,
cannot be explained as ju st an extract from the longer text as repre-
sented by Pr. the corcespondences are too small in n u m b er to make
the hypothesis of abbreviation plausible, an d the hypothesis does not
account for the fact th at the ang Meyer-text in some instances retains
narrative m aterial present in gr armgeo, b u t absent from Pr. Finally, the
structure of the story, especially th at p a rt dealing with Eve’s death and
burial, is essentially different in the Pr- an d ang Meyer-texts. Pettorelli
cautiously concludes with the suggestion th at Pr and ang Meyer repre-
sent two different stories.13
In response, I w ould suggest th at these differences betw een Pr and
9 T h at Ma breaks off after seetion 23 is not i^entional; see Pettorelli, ALMA 1 8 وو,
102: “sans doute a-t-il été eopié à partir d ’un m anuserit am puté”. Nonetheless, ft is not
without m eaning that the eopyist m ust have thought ft worthwhile to eopy an ineom-
plete exemplar.
10 “Deux témoins,” lb-10, 23-24.
11 j . T rom p, “Literary and Exegetieal Issues in the Story of A dam ’s D eath and Burial
(GLAE 31-42),” in: j . Erishman L. van R om pay (eds.). The Book of Genesis in Jewish
and Oriental Christian Interpretation, Louvain, 100?, 30-31.
12 Cf. D.-A. Bertrand, “Le destin ‘post-m ortem ’ des protoplastes selon la ‘Vie grecque
d’Adam et Eve,’” in: I m , littérature intertestamentaire. Colloque de Strasbourg (17-19 octobre 1983),
Paris 1085, 109-118.
13 “Deux témoins,” 9.
JOHANNES TROMP
ang Meyer can be explained as the result of two different ways in which
lat was handled by the respective editors responsible for the two branches
within the Latin tradition. I see no problem in regarding the text of
Pr as an abbreviated form of lat w hich m ay, by an d large, have agreed
with gr (the agreem ent of either Pr or ang Meyer w ith the other versions
w ould consequently result in the reconstruction of w hat was at least in lat).
It is also true th at the copyist responsible for the ang Meyer-text m ust
have in terv en ed in the text of his Vorlage in a rad ical way. T his,
however, m ay well be related to the reorganization of the entire con-
eluding p a rt of the Life according to the ang ^ ^ r - t e x t . W hereas m ost
text-forms an d versions conclude whh the death and burial of Adam
and of Eve, ang Meyer has a large appendix, in w hich Eve’s death and
burial are integrated into the two stelae legend (49-53). T he appendix
agrees with the tendency, characteristic of the ang Meyer-text, to elab-
orate on revelations (see also the vision of A dam in ang Meyer 25-29,
discussed below, in rection 2).
A pparently, the less than felicitous com bination of both scenes has
offended m ore than one read er and copyist, or m aybe even the some-
w hat longw inded conclusion to the w riting simply bored th e m . ئT he
copyist responsible for arm abbreviated the text in his own way, and
so did the copyist responsible for the text of Pr, presum ably also of lat.
T h e fact that the ang Meyer-texts are in some places abbreviated even
further, b u t also contain elaborations in other instances of the sam e
a c tio n , is in agreem ent with the free treatm en t of such texts as these,
and is c ^ ra c te ris tic of apocryphal literature in general .ئ
(c) In lat 42 (gr 13:3-5), Meyer an d ang include a section adapted from
a passage from the Gospel of Nicodemus, w hich in itself m ay be depend-
ent on a Greek text of the Life of Adam and Eve (Gospel of Nicodemus 19 =
Descensus ad inferos 3 ؛cf. armgeo; the addition in 14:1 in the G reek m an-
uscripts Q Z is sim ilar in subject m atter, b u t of independent origin).
T h e text of Pr differs from that of armgeo an d lat, in that it does not
give ،،5,500 years” as the period for w hich A dam will have to w ait
before his baptism , b u t “until the im titution of a consul, during the
14 Cf. De Jonge and T rom p, The Life of Adam and Eve, 38. A glance at the synoptic
presentation of a num ber of manuseripts by J.R . Le vison. Texts in Transition. The Greek
Life of A dam and Eve (Early Judaism and its Literature lb), A tlanta 2000, 03-1 Id,
reveals that, even within the G reek tradition, all texts have the tendeney to abbreviate
this p art of the story in some way or another.
15 J.-C . Piea^l, L · continent apocryphe. Essai sur les littératures juive et chrétienne, ^Lurnhout
1000, 284-287; j . T rom p, “Z ur Edition a p o k r^ h e r Texte, am Beispiel des grieehisehen
Lebens Adams und Evas” (forthcoming).
THE TEXTUAL HISTORY OE THE LIFE OF AD A M AND EVE
16 So also ang, where, however, the reading is attenuated by the addition of tamen.
34 JOHANNES TROMP
17 O n the next page, the copyist has begun to write Gospel of Nicodemus A 18-19;
FettoreUi, ALM A 1999, 7.
JOHANNES TROMP
m ajor witness to the G reek text-form from w hich the three jointly
deseend.
18 This passage is heavily abbreviated in slav, whieh will here be left out of eonsid-
eration. LCA T are separated from R M by their reading φυλασσόντων in 7:2 (the other
manuscripts, exeept B, but including R M , read διατηρούντας, διατηρούντων or διατη-
ρούντον).
19 So S VÁPB N IJ Q Z HEW F; D G K X are not extant.
THE TEXTUAL HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF AD A M AND EV E 37
is also found in armgeo: “for you are like beasts” ؛the readings in R M
are reeognizable as m ere seribal Yariants: διότι αγοητως εσται (= έστέ)
R ؛ως ανοητοι εσται (= έστέ) Μ . T he next words in R M are έφθόνησεν
γάρ υμάς ό θεός. Sueh words are absent from L C A T , b u t they are pre-
sent in geo {arm differs somewhat): “G od was jealous of you,” followed
by the phrase: “an d he has not ^ r m i t t e d you” ؛after w hieh armgeo
again join the G reek text (RM om it 18:2-3 ؛the m otif of G o d ’s jeal-
ousy is repeated in 44[18]:4 arm, an d occurs there for the first time in
lat ؛at this instanee, ft is absent from RM ).
T h e addition of the phrase έφθόνησεν γάρ υμάς 6 θεός im m ediately
after the phrase λυπουμαι περ'ι υμων, m ight suggest the likelihood of
^ M having h ad in eom m on with armgeo an aneestor that was no anees-
tor of L C A T . T h ere is no reason why the aneestor of L C A T (which
evidently aims at a full text) w ould have left this p artieular phrase out,
whereas the omission of 18:2-3 in R M is perfeetly e o i^ re h e n sib le in
the light of this text’s tendeney to give a eoneise ^ e s e n ta tio n of the
story. T h e simplest explanation for this state of affairs is th at the anees-
tor of L C A T R M armgeo eontained the addition οτι ώς κτήνη έστέ, and
that the editor of R M armgeo subsequently ad ded the explanatory phrase
έφθόνησεν γάρ υμάς 6 θεός ؛in a next stage, the thrifty eopyist responsi-
ble for R M om itted 18:2-3, w hieh he m ay have frft to be an unnee-
essary m ^ titio n of 16:4.
Although these o b l a t i o n s m ay seem to be indieative of the genealog-
ieal priority of the text-form of R M as eom pared to armgeo (and lat),
there are signifieant obstaeles to that eonelusion. As has been argued
by G.A. A nderson, the P e i ^ e ie - s to r y as found in R M (44)29:7-13 is
m ore likely to be an A b rév iatio n (and m plaeem ent) of the story as
found in armgeo lat in 1-21, than the other w ay a ro u n d .^٥ Sinee ft w ould
seem to m e that ft is unlikely that armgeo lat as a whole refleet a m ore
primitive stage of the w riting th an gr (in th at ease, the textual evidenee
pointing at the seeondary nature of L C A T and R M over against the
rest of the G reek tradition w ould have to be ignored), one m ay have
to aeeept a m ore eom plex solution, involving either the hypothetical
existenee of a separate writing as the independent souree of both R M
and armgeo lat, or the use of the longer version of the Life (inelud-
ing the Penitenee) by the eopyist responsible for the text of R M . T he
20 “ T he Original Form of the Life of Adam and Eve: a Froposal,” in: Anderson et at.,
Literature on Adam and Eve, 215-231; cf. M. de Jonge, “ The Literary D evelopm ent of the
JOHANNES TROMP
latter alternative entails m ore e o !^ lie a tio n s: the au thor of the R M -text
would have chosen to copy a short form of the Life, b u t insert an
extraet from another form of the sam e work, and move it to a plaee
he found m ore c ita b le . If, however, the P e^ten ee-story was adopted
independently from a third w riting by both the authors of the R M -
and the armgeo lat-text, this eom plieation does not arise. In any event,
some seenario of this kind m ust be assum ed to aeeount for the pres-
enee of the abbreviated Penitence-story in R M 29:7-13, as well as the
seeondary nature of armgeo lat as eom pared to L C A T (and possibly RM )
on the o th er.^
It now rem ains to be exeluded th at lat is the souree of armgeo and
R M . In so far as the Latin text represented by ang Meyer is eoneerned,
this has been shown by M .E. Stone.22 T h e text of Rr in 42:1-5 is obvi-
ously related to that of armgeo, and is, with its C hristianized tendeney,
seeondary to the eorm sponding passage in LAC R 13:3-5.23 Therefore,
lat eannot be the souree of R M
It is now possible to sketeh a history of the textual developm ent of
the Life of Adam and Eve in the armgeo lat b ran eh , ineluding MaPr. It
seems to m e that the following points, m ost of them eited by Pettorelli
in the artiele preeeding this one, allow the following m eonstruetion of
the genealogieal relationships within the armgeo lat braneh.
1. T h e addition of Miserere mei, domine in 19:1, an d th at of the prayer
to G od in 35(9):2 show th at all extant Latin texts derive from a text-
form in w hieh these additions were m ade: lat. This text-form is not
the one underlying the original A rm enian an d G eorgian franslations
of the Life of Adam and Eve.
2. Conversely, lat is not depen d en t on armgeo, beeause of 40(13):1.
In that instanee, armgeo rem ark th at Seth an d Eve supplieated G od to
send them an angel. This phrase is supplem ented in Pr (cf. ang Meyer)
by the phrase eis dare oleum misencordie sue, w hich eorresponds to gr και
δώσει αύτοίς το ελαιον το>؟έλέου.
3. T h e explieit m ention of C ain an d Abel in 22(2):3(1) in Pr ang
Meyer shows th at these texts deseend from a single aneestor that is not
'on th a t m o m e n t’
f o i s t ia n i z a ti o n o f 42(13): Id
Conclusions
28 T o M eyer’s honour, it should be noted that his eonjeeture surgamus in 3:4 is now
confirmed by Pr.
29 The South-G erm an redaetion has been published by J.-P. Pettorelli in “La Vie
latine d ’Adam et Ève,” Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi (Bulletin du Cange) 56 ( 1 8 ) وو,
6-164, esp. 41-62. M r. Pettorelli expeets to publish his edition of the Rhinelandish
recension of the Life of Adam and Eve in this and next year’s issues of the Archivum
Ijitinitatis Medii Aevii (Bulletin D u Cange).
آلﻣﺂورلم؛
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