hus the future anticipated in the Assumption is a period of triumphant wickedness and oppression ; but just when the saints have given an example of passive endurance, at once most hopeless and most splendid, the Most High will Himself intervene and deliver His people.
ν. THE END OF THE WorK.—The Milan Pal- impsest breaks off in the middle of a sentence, and the question arises how much is lost. The
urely internal evidence would suggest that very fittle is lacking. Moses has finished his prophecy and is about to die: there is nothing more to be said. With this also goes the fact that all the leaves of the quire containing the fragment of the Assumption are preserved. If the missing portion consisted of several whole quires and not merely a single leaf or pair of leaves, it is some- what strange that the final quire of the extant fragments is intact.t
* We know from the parable in St. Luke (16%) that Eleazar (or, in the Greek form, Lazarus) is an appropriate name to give to the representative of the poor but pious Israelite.
Ὁ The Stichometry of Nicephorus does not greatly help us to discover how much is missing at the end. The numberof συίχοι there given for the ᾿Ανάλνγψις is, αὖ —i.¢, 1400. If this be correct, about 1000 στίχο are lost, equivalent to 20 leaves: Yutas the number assigned to the preceding work on the list (the Διαθέκη Maveies) is on any hypothesis corrupt, too much reliance must not be placed on the Ggures for the Assuenption.
450 MOSOLLAMUS
MOTE
But a number of Greek patrintic references (collected in Charles 107-110) indicate that the book was in circulation with an Spread con-
taining the dispute of Michael and Satan over the body of Moses after the latter’s death, followed by his triumphant ‘assumption’ into heaven. A detail of this dispute is alluded to in the canonical Epistle of St. ade (v.*). Especially clear is a quotation in Gelasius of Cyzicum: ‘In the book of the Assumption of Moses, Michael the archangel, disputing with the devil, saith, For from His holy Spurit we all were created. And again he saith, From before God went forth His Spirit, and the world was made.’* The formula of quotation is identical with that used by the same author (ap. Mansi ii. 844) for quoting i. 14 of our Assumption.
It is difficult to decide whether the Latin of the Assumption ever contained the Appendix. On the one hand, it is hard to imagine nes the book could have reached a Latin-speaking com- munity without the Appendix having been associ- ated with it. Yet the work could only have been spoiled by the addition, and there is a certain im- probability that the accidental loss of a couple of
uires from the Milan Palimpsest should improve the artistic unity of the book. The interest of the Assumption as we have it is wholly taken up with the fate of the chosen people, present and future, but the Appendix is concerned with the personal fate of Moses.t
Lirgraturs.—Full Bibliography in Oharles xvili- xxviii. Editions: Ceriani, Monumenta iene et Profana, vol. |. fasc. i. pp. 55-64 (1864) ; eitigentens, NT extra Canonem receptum, lst ed. (1866), 2nd ed. (1876); Volkmar, Mose Prophetie und Himmelfahrt (1867); Schmidt and Merx, Die Assumptio Mosis, mit Einleitung .. . (Merx, Archiv J. wissen. Erforechung des AT, τ᾿ ii. pp. 111-152] (1868).
See also Rénsch in Zeitschr. f. Wissen. Theol. xi. 76-108, 466- 468, xii. 213-228, xiv. 89-92, xvii. 542-562, xxviii. 102-104; Schirer, Οὐ ΡῈ iii. 2186, (HJP πὶ. iii. 78ff.]; O. Olemen in Kautzsch’s Apocr. u. Pseudepigr. (1899).
F. C. BURKITT.
MOSOLLAMUS.—4. (A Μοσόλλαμος, B Μεσολαβώς, AV Mosollamon), 1 Es 8“ (LXX “)=MESHULLAM, Ezr 815, 2, (Μοσόλλαμος, AV Mosollam), 1 Es 94= MESHULLAM, Ezr 10”.
MOST HIGH (δὴν, properly upper Jos 16°, or uppermost Gn 407, Dt 2619 (‘high’), 28!(‘on high’) ; Aram. μὴν Kt., axdy Keré, Alig in Dn 728%: 35. 1] γὴν the Heb. form, as plur. of majesty : ὕψιστοΞ).--- An epithet, or title, of dignity, applied to God, and occurring in the OT as follows:—God Most High (oy Sx) Gm 1418. 19 20.22, Pg 78%; (dy ode) Ps 57? 78%; J” Most High, Ps 7"; the Most High (jy, without the art., only in poetry), Nu 2416 (Balaam’s prophecy), Dt 328 (Song of Moses), Is 1414 (words put into the mouth of the king of Babylon), Ps 1818 (=2 S 2212) 217 46* 50" 771° 7817 895 875 911. 9 021 1074, La 3®-*; as a predicate, Ps 47? 8318 0793 And in Daniel: God Most High, 3% 4? 512; the Most High, 417 ™ 2. 82. 34725; and in the expression ‘saints of the Most High’ (yivby), 1718. 33. 35, 311. According to Philo of Byblus (ap. Euseb. Prep. Ev. i. 10 §§ 11, 12; ef. Lenormant, Origines?, i. 540), there was in the Phenician theogony a god Llitn, father of heaven and earth, who was slain in an encounter with wild beasts, and afterwards divin- ized (κατὰ τούτους γίνεταί τις ᾿Ελιοῦν καλούμενος Ὕψιστος, καὶ θήλεια λεγομένη Βηρούθ, of καὶ κατῴκουν περὶ Βύβλον, ἐξ ὧν γεννᾶται ᾿Επίγειος ἣ Αὐτόχθων, ὃν ὕστερον ἐκάλεσαν
* From Mansi, il. 857: ἐν βιβλίῳ δὲ ᾿Αναλήψιως Maveiog Μιχαὴλ ὁ ἀρχάγγιλος διαλεγόμενος τῷ διαβόλω λίγω" ἀπὸ γὰρ πνιύματος ἁγίου αὐτοῦ πάντις ἰπτίσθημεν. καὶ πάλιν λέγει" ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ ϑιοῦ ἰξῆλθε τὸ πνεῦμα αὐποῦ, καὶ ἐ κόσμος ἰγένιτο. The second part of the quotation is not given by Fabricius and Charles.