In all these authorities two recensions may be traced. The Greek Papyri, the Ethiopic, the Slavonic, and the fuller Latin Version follow the second recension of the Greek ; the Greek Legend and the Latin fragments support the first Greek recension. Charles in his edition of the Asc. Is. (1900) has produced a critical text founded on all these autliorities. To this work the present writer would express his deep indebtedness.
Literature. — I. Critical Inquiries. — R. Laurence, Ascen- sio Isaice Vatix, Oxford, 1819, pp. 141-180 ; K. I. Nitzsch, SK, 1830, pp. 209-246 ; G. C. F. Liicke, Einleit. in die Offenbaruvc desJnhannes^, Bonn, 1852, pp. 274-302; A. Dillmann, .4 seen."
102
ASCETICISM
ASIAECH
IsauE, Leipzig, 1877, pp. v-xviii ; G. T. Stokes, art. ' Isaiah, Ascension of,' in DCB ui. [1S82] 29S-301 ; W. J. Deane, Pseudepigrapha, Edinburgh, 1891, pp. 236-275 ; A. Harnack, Gesch. der altehristl. Litteratur, Leipzig, 1893fE., i. 854-SoG, ii. 573-579, 714; C. Clemen, ' Die Himnielfahrt des Jesaja,' Zirr, 1896, pp. 388-415, also 1897, pp. 455-465; J. A. Robinson, art. 'Isaiah, Ascension of,' in fr/)B,ii. 499-501 ; G. Beer,in Kautzsch's Apok. und Pseudepig., Tiibingen, 1900, ii. 119-123; R. H. Charles, Ascension of Isaiah, translated from the Ethiopic Version, which, together icilh the New Greek Fragment, the Latin Versions, and the Latin Translation of the Slavonic, is here pub- lished in full, London, 1900, also Apocrypha and Pseudepi- grapha, Oxford, 1913, ii. 155-158 ; E. Littmann, JE vi. [1904] 642 f.
IL EDITIONS. — (a) Ethiopic Version. — R. Laurence, A. Dillmann, and R. H. Charles, opp. cit. supra. (6) Latin Versions. — (i.) J. K. L. Gieseler, in a Gottingen programme, 1832; (ii.) A. Mai, Scriptorum veterum nova collectio, Rome, 1825-38, iii. 238 f. ; both are given in the editions of Dillmann and Charles as above, (c) Greek Versions. — (i.) The Greek Legend — a free recension : O. v. Gebhardt, in Hilgenfeld's Z»'T, 1878, p. 330 ff.; R. H. Charles, Asc. of Isaiah, pp. xviii-xxxiii, 141-148 ; (ii.) Papyrus fragment : Grenfell and Hunt, Ascension of Isaiah, London, 1901 ; R. H. Charles, .4sc. o//«aia/i, pp. xxviii-xxxi, 84-95. (.d) Slavonic Version.— R. H. Charles, Asc. of Isaiah, pp. xxiv-xxvii, 98-139.
A. Ll. Davies. ASCETICISM.— See Abs-hnence.
ASHER.— See Tribes.
ASHES.— See Heifer and Mourning.
ASIA {'Affla). — Asia had a great variety of mean- ings in ancient writers. It might denote (1) the western coast-land of Asia Minor ; (2) the kingdom of Troy (poetical) ; (3) the kingdom of the early Seleucids, i.e. Asia Minor and Syria (frequent in 1 and 2 Mac.) ; (4) the kingdom of Pergamum (Livy) ; (5) the Koman province Asia ; (6) the Asiatic conti- nent (Pliny). In Strabo's time — the beginning of the 1st cent. A.D. — the province was ij Idlojs Ka\ov/jL4vT) 'Aa-la [Geog. p. 118), and in the NT (where the name is found 22 times — 15 times in Acts, 4 times in the Pauline Epistles, once in 1 Peter, twice in Rev.) Asia almost invariably denotes proconsular Asia. St. Paul the Roman citizen naturally as- sumed the Imperial standpoint, and made use of Roman political designations, while the Hellenic Luke, though he frequently employed geograph- ical terms in their popular non-Roman sense, was probably to some extent influenced by St. Paul's practice of using the technical phraseology of the Empire.
The province of Asia was founded after the death of Attains III. of Pergamum (133 B.C.), who be- queathed his kingdom by will to the Roman Re- public. The province was much smaller than the kingdom had been, until, on the death of Mithri- dates (120 B.C.), Phrygia Major was added to it. Cicero indicates its extent in the words : * Namque, ut opinor, Asia vestra constat ex Phrygia, Caria, Mysia, Lydia' {Flac. 27); but the Troad and the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Patmos, and Cos should be added. Pergamum, so long a royal city, naturally became the capital of the province,- and officially retained this position till the beginning of the 2nd cent. A.D. ; but long before that time Ephesus (g.v.) was recognized as the real adminis- trative centre. When the provinces were arranged by Augustus in 27 B.C., Asia was given to the Senate ; it was therefore governed by procoUvSuls {ivduTraroi, Ac 19^**). Its beauty, wealth, and culture made it the most desirable of all provinces.
The only passage in which St. Luke certainly uses 'Asia' in the popular Greek sense is Ac 2'', where he names Asia and Phrygia together as distinct countries, whereas in Roman provincial language the greater part of Phrygia belonged to Asia. In such an expression as ' the places on the coast of Asia' (Ac 27^) the sense is doubtful ; but it is probable that, where the historian refers to Jews of Asia (Ac 6» 21^^ 24'8), to ' all the dwellers in Asia '(19"*; cf. 19^'-), and to St. Paul's .sojourn
in Asia (19^^ 20'^* '^), he has the province in view, St, Paul almost certainly uses the word in its Roman sense when he speaks of ' the firstfruits of Asia ' (Ro 16^ RV), the churches of Asia (1 Co W^), afflictions in Asia (2 Co P), apostates in Asia (2 Ti
Though the Roman meaning of Asia is generally assumed by adherents of the S. Galatian theory, it is not incompatible with the other view. Thus Light- foot, an advocate of the N, Galatian theory, holds that, while St. Luke usually gives geographical terms their popular significance, ' the case of Asia is an exception. The foundation of this province dating very far back, its official name had to a great extent superseded the local designations of the districts which it comprised. Hence Asia in the NT is always Proconsular Asia' {Gal.^, 1876, p. 19, n. 6). Only those who find ' the Phrygian and Galatic region ' (Ac 16*) in the north of Pisidian Antioch are obliged (like Conybeare-Howson, i, 324) to assume that Asia ' is simply viewed as the west- ern portion of Asia Minor,' for the Paroreios be- longed to proconsular Asia, in which preaching was expressly forbidden (Ac 16*). See Phrygia and Galatia,