Besides the works already quoted, see F. Cumont, Die or. Rel. im rom. Heidentiim, Lieipzig, 1910; P. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-romische Kuhur, Tubingen, 1907 ; R. Reitzenstein, Die hellenistischen Mysterienreligionen, Leipzig, 1910, also Poimandres Stud, z, griech.-dgypt. u. fruhchristl. Lit., do.
* The sacramental usage in the Acts is not fixed: the 14 points occur in various combinations.
1904; F. J. Dolger, Sphraqis, eine altchr. Tdufbezeichnung in ihren Beziehungen zur prof, und relig. Kultur des AUertums, Paderborn, 1911; F. Haase, Zur bardesanischen Gnosis, Leipzig, 1910.
6. Later Acts. — Besides the five Apocryphal Acts which have been discussed, there are several others of later date, but they are comparatively unimportant. The most valuable is the 'Acts of Phihp,' which is edited by Bonnet in Acta Apocrypha, ii. 2. It describes the adventures of Phihp in Phrygia, Asia, Samaria, etc., in the company of his sister Mariamne. It may be as early as the 3rd cent., and belongs either to a mildly Gnostic sect or to the same Modahstic Christia,nity as the Acts of Peter. It is discussed by Lipsius in Die apok. Apostelgeschichten, Supple- naent, pp. 65-70, and by Zahn, Forschungen, vi. 18-24. Besides this a series of Acts, growing ever shorter and less valuable, can be found attached to the name of every Apostle or Teacher in NT times in the Ada Sanctorum, arranged under the date assigned in the calendar to the saint in question.
7. Catholic recensions. — In the course of the Manichcean controversy the view was adopted that the miracles in the 'Leucian' Acts were prenuine, but that the doctrine connected with them was heretical. This view finds its clearest expression in the Prologue of pseudo-MeUitus :
' Volo sqllicitam esse fraternit atem vestram de Leucio quodam qui scripsit Apostolorum actus, loannis evangelistae et sancti Andreae vel Thomae apostoli qui de virtutibus quidem quae per eos dominus fecit, plurima vera dixit, de doctrina vero multa mentitus est.'
The result was a series of Catholic recensions which left out, speaking generally, the speeches, and preserved or even added to all the mu-acles. Of these Cathohc recensions, which are very nurnerous, the most famous are the 'Prochorus' edition of the Acts of John (the text is best given by Zahn, Acta Joannis, Erlangen, 1880), and the so-called 'Abdias' collection. The disentangle- ment of various recensions of the separate Acts is very difficult, and not very profitable.
The materials for a more detailed statement of the Catholic recensions can be found in Harnack, Ge.?chichte der altchrist- lichen Litteratur, Leipzig, i. (1893) p. 12.3 ff., and in R. A. Lipsius, Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten, 1883-87.
KiRSOPP Lake and J. de Zwaan.* ADAM ('A5d/x). — Adam was the tirst man (□■ix = man) and the parent of the human race. — 1. When the writer of Jude (v.") thinks it worth noting that Enoch (q.v.) was 'the seventh from Adam' (e/35o/xos airb 'A8dfx), he probably has in mind the sacredness of the number seven. It seems to him an interesting point that God, who rested from His work on the seventh day, found a man to walk in holy fellowship with Him in the seventh generation.
2. In 1 Co ll^f- and 1 Ti 2"f- the doctrine of the headship of man and the complete subjection (wda-a virorayrj) of Woman is based upon the story of creation. Man was not created for woman, but woman for man ; Adam was created first and sinned second. Eve was created second and sinned first ; therefore let woman ever remember that she is morally as well as physically weaker than man, and let her never attempt either to teach or to have dominion over him (avdevreiv dvdp6s). With the premisses of this argument one may compare the words of Sirach (25-'') : ' From a woman was the beginning of sin (d-n-d ywaiKds dpxv d/j,apTias), and because of her we all die.' St. Paul did not take pleasure in this quaint philosophy of history, as many of the Rabbis did ; but, with all his reverence for womanhood, he felt that the accepted
* The section on the Acts of Thomas is from the pen of de Zwaan ; the rest of the art. ia by Kirsopp Lake.
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ADAM
ADAM
belief in ■woman's creation after and her fall before man's clearly established her inferiority. It was not a personal and empirical, but a traditional and dogmatic, judgment.
3. St. Paul had, and knew that many others had, a religious experience so vivid and intense that ordinary terms seemed inadequate to do it justice. It was the result of a Divine creative act. If any man was in Christ, there was ' a new crea- tion ' (KaLVT) KTiais) ; old things were passed awsA^ ; behold, they were become new (2 Co 5'''). Not legalism or its absence, but 'a new creation' (Gal 6^^) was of avail. Reflexion on this profound spiritual change and all tiiat it involved convinced the Apostle that Christ was the Head and Founder of a new humanity ; that His life and death, followed by the gift of His Spirit, not merely marked a new epoch in history, introducing a new society, philosophy, ethics, and literature, but created a new world. ' Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive.' As St. Paul brooded on the stupen- dous series of events of which Christ was the cause, on the immeasurable ditierence which His brief presence made in the life of mankind, there inevi- tably took shape in his mind a grand antithesis be- tween the first and the second creation, between the first and the last representative Man, between the intrusion of sin and death into the world and the Divine gift of righteousness and life, between the ravages of one man's disobedience and the redemptive power of one Man's perfect obedience (Ro 5|-^-2').