The first writer, however, who mentions the Ascen- sion of Isaiah by name is Epiphanius, in the 4th cen- tury, who observes (Ha-res. xl.) that the apocryphal As-
REVELATIONS, SPURIOUS 1070 REVELATIONS, SPURIOUS
cension of Isaiah was adduced by the Archonites in sup- port of their opinions respecting the sei en heavens and i in ir archons, or ruling angels, as well as by the Egyp- tian Hieracas and his followers in confirmation of tlitir heretical opinions respecting the Holy Spirit; at the same time citing the passage from the AvafiaTtieov to which they refer (Ascens. of Isaiah ix, 27, 32 ■"•;; xi, 32,33). Jerome also (in Esai. Ixiv, 4) expressly names the- work, asserting it to be an apocryphal production originating in a passage in the New Test | 1 Cor. ii,9). St. Ambrose I Opp. i. 1 124 i cites a passage contained in it, bul only as a traditionary report, "plerique ferunt" (Ascens. of Isaiah v,4 8); and the author of the Tmpt r- fect Workon Matthew, a work of the 5th century erro- neously attributed to St Chrysostom (Chrysost Opp. li.iin. 1 1, evidently cites a passage from the same work i Ascens. of Isaiah i. 1. etc.). Alter this period all trace
of the I k is lost until the 11th century, when Euthym-
tus Zigabenus informs us that the Messalian heretics made use of that "abominable pseudepigraphal work the Vision of Isaiah" It was also used (most probably in a Latin version I by the Cathari in the West (T. Mo- nt ta, i ■'''". Catharos, eii. Rich. p. 218). The Vision of Isaiah is also named in a catalogue of canonical and apocryphal hooks in a Paris MS. (No. 1789), after the Quast et Resp. of Anastasius (Cotelerius, /'/'. Apost. i, 197, 349). Sixtua of Sienna (Bibl. Sand. 1666) states thai the Vision of Isaiah, as distinot from the A navasis (as he calls it), had been printed at Venice. Referring to this last publication, the late archbishop Laurence ob- serves that he had hoped to find in some bibliographical work a further notice of it, but that he had searched in vain; concluding, at the same time, that it must have been a publication extracted from the Ascension of Isai- ah or a Latin translation of the Vision, as the title of it given by Sixtus was " Visio Admirabilis Esaiae Prophetic in Raptu Mantis, qua? Divinse Trinitatis Arcana et Lap- si Generis Humani Redemptionem continet." Dr. Lau- rence observes also that the mode of Isaiah's death is further in accordance with a Jewish tradition recorded in the Talmud I Yebammoth, iv); and he supposes that Mohammed may have founded his own journey through seven different heavens on this same apocryphal work. He shows, a i the same time, by an extract from the Ra- bot/i, that the same idea of the precise number of seven heavens accorded with the Jewish creed.
There appeared now to lie little hopes of recovering the lost Ascension of Isaiah, when Dr. Laurence (then regius professor of Hebrew in the University of < Ixford) had the good fortune to purchase from a bookseller in Drury Lane an Ethiopic .MS. containing the identical book, together with the canonical book of Isaiah and the fourth Mailed in the Ethiopic the Jirst) book of Es- dras. It is entitled the Ascension of the Prophet Isai- ah, the firsl chapters containing the martyrdom, and the resl (for it is divided in the MS. into chapters and i he Ascension, or Vision, of Isaiah. At the end ol the canonical hook are the words, "Here ends the prophet Isaiah;" after which follows the Ascension, etc; concluding with the words, "Here ends Isaiah the prophet with his Ascension." Then follows a post- script, from which ii appears thai it was transcribed lor a priest named Aaron, at the cost of a piece of fine cloth twelve measures long and four broad. The Ascension of Isaiah was published by Dr. Laurence at Oxford in 1819, with a new Latin ami an English version. Thie discover} v as firsl applied to the illustration of Script- ure by i.' "M is (Comnuon rsaiah). S stime after- wards the indefatigable Dr. Angelo Mai ( Nova Col- lect. Script, Vet. e Vat. Codd. | Rome, 1828 |i published two Latin fragments as an appendix to bis Sermon. Ar'n in. Fragment. Antiquiss., which he conjectured to be portions of some ancient apocryphal writings. Niebubr, however, perceived them to be fragments of the Ascen- sion and Vision of Isaiah; and Dr. Nitzsch {Nachweis- er Bruchstucke, etc, in the Theohg. Stud, und Krttik. 1830) was enabled to compare them with the
two corresponding portions (ii, 14-iii. 12; vii, 1-19) of the Ethiopic version. Finally, in consequence of the more complete notice of the Venetian edition of the Latin version given by Panzer (Annal. Typog. viii, 473), Dr. Gieseler had a strict search made for it. which was eventually crowned with success, a copy being discov- ered in the library at Munich. This work, the date of whose impression was 1522, contained also the Gospel of Nicodemus and the Letter ofLentulus to the Raman Senate. The Latin version contains the Vision only. corresponding to the last chapters of the Ethiopic ver- sion.
The subject of the first part is the martyrdom of Isai- ah, who is here said to have been sawn asunder in con- sequence of the visions which he related to Hezekiah, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of that monarch, different from those in the canonical book. These relate principally to the coming of "Jesus Christ the Lord" from the seventh heaven: his being changed into the form of a man; the preaching of bis twelve apostles; his final rejection and suspension on a tree, in company with the workers of iniquity, on the day before the Sabbath; the spread of the Christian doctrine; the last judgment; and his return to the seventh heaven. Before this, however, the arch-fiend Berial is to on earth in the form of an impious monarch,?/;' murder- er of his mother, where, after his image is worshipped in every city for three years seven months and twenty- seven days, he and his powers arc to be dragged into Gehenna.