THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
mentators called docetic, following the classification of its users by Serapion as cited by Eusebius (ut sup.)- That it is Gnostic is clear, that it is docetic is vigorously denied by McGiffert, who is not, however, strongly supported by other scholars. Docetism is on the surface of the document: to deny that quality requires strenuous argumentation. The docetism is of an early type. The reports referred to above (§ 1) all indicate that this book was outside the circle of ecclesiastically permitted writings. That it should be lost is therefore less strange than that it lingered so long as to become the object of copyist's care in the eighth century. Its recovery, however, showed it in pseudepigraphic company, and this company was in high favor in Egypt at a late date.
2. The Apocalypse: This work is one of those which received frequent and to some extent favorable mention in early Christian literature, and left
their impress of ideas and even of extl ■Early pression upon it, and yet vanished
under the stress of authority acquired by the canonical New Testament. The Muratorian Canon (q.v.) mentions it as a book which " some of our number will not have read in the churches "; Clement of Alexandria commented on it (Eusebius, Hist, eccl., VI., xiv. 1), and three passages from it are quoted in fragments of his " Miscellanies," in one of which it is " Scripture "; Methodius (q.v.) cited it as inspired; Eusebius (ut sup., III., iii. 2, xxv. 4) pronounced against it, as against the gospel and the Preaching, though not as being heretical in tendency; Macarius Magnes (see Macarius, 3) used it, possibly citing from Porphyry of the third century, and speaks of it as in agreement with prophecy and the Gospel. The Nicephoran list of apocryphal books (c. 850) says that it contained 300 lines (about equal in size to Galatians, which has 311) and this agrees approximately with the length as given in Codex Claromontanus (D2) of the fourth century and with other evidence. After having been used with more or less reserve, sometimes being absolutely rejected, in Rome, Egypt, and Asia Minor, it survived in Palestine and Egypt till the eighth or ninth century. Certain fragments were known through the citations indicated above before the rediscovery (given in J. E. Grabe, Spicilegium, i. 74, Oxford, 1698; and in J. A. Robinson and M. R. James, The Gospel and Revelation of Peter, pp. 94-96, London, 1892). The knowledge of this book was greatly extended by the discovery, on the same manuscript as that which contained the fragment of the gospel, of a considerable part of the Apocalypse also.
The newly recovered fragment of about 140 lines (nearly half the reported length of the book) consists of three parts: (1) the conclusion of an eschatological discourse, (2) a vision of paradise, and
(3) part of a vision of hell. The es-
' chatological part predicts false proph-
2. Contents.
ets, and the coming of God for the relief of the saints and the judgment of the lawless. The vision of paradise comes after the Lord had taken the twelve disciples into a mountain to pray, and is given them for encouragement in their preaching. While they are at prayer two of the righteous ap-
pear as glorious forms, and then a, view of paradise with its inhabitants is granted. The vision of hell is more extended, and shows the punishment of blasphemers of various sorts, of adulterers, murderers and abortionists, persecutors of the saints, false witnesses, the wealthy and uncharitable, usurers, lewd persons, idolaters, and apostates from Christianity. The situation in which the book is placed is apparently a period after the resurrection of Christ and before the ascension, during which he instructs his disciples in order to their encouragement and equipment for the world-mission which (impliedly, according to the fourth complete sentence) they have already received.
The literary influence of this Apocalypse is very far-reaching and important. Its general ideas affiliate with those of such books as Enoch and the Apocalypse of Baruch. But it has a much closer connection with (1) The Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2) the Sibylline Oracles 3. Literary (ii 6_30j \5^-2\2,), the vision of Josa-
Date °e; phat in " History of Barlaam and Josaphat " and (4) II Peter. It appears to be very probable that the Testament is an expanded paraphrase of the first part of the Apocalypse, and that from it a fair idea can be gained of the content of the lost first part of the original. The Sibylline lines show close relationship with both the Testament and the Apocalypse, following the latter in the part where the Testament fails, and so making tenable the conclusion that the Sibyl employed as its source the Apocalypse. The description of paradise in the vision of Josaphat so reproduces not only the ideas but the language of the Apocalypse that identity of theme does not suffice to explain the close resemblances in expression. Finally, the connection between the verbal statements of II Peter and the Apocalypse (conveniently exhibited in DB, iii. 814-815) has made it clear either (1) that the writer of II Peter borrowed from the Apocalypse, (2) that both are by the same writer, or (3) that the authors were of the same school. Other Christian books which were influenced by the Apocalypse of Peter are the Apocalypse of Paul and the Apocalypse of Esdras, the Acts of Thomas, and the Passion of Perpetua. The notes of citation show that the document was composed in the second century, and the place of composition may have been either Palestine or Egypt.
3. The Preaching: (Gk. Kerugma Petrou, Lat. Prcedicatio Petri et Pauli): This book is cited by Eusebius (Hist, eccl., III., iii.) as one of the four spurious works attributed to Peter; Clement of Alexandria (Strom., i. 29, ii. 15, vi. 5-7, 15; Eng. transl. in ANF, vol. b\) uses it as a genuine writing of Peter; Origen (In Johannem, xiu. 17) quotes Heracleon as employing one of the passages used by Clement, but is generally unfavorable in his attitude to the book; still earlier use seems assured on the part of Justin Martyr, Aristides, and the author of the Epistle to Diognetus, and later use by Apollonius of Asia Minor. It is possibly the same as the " Preaching of Peter and Paul " quoted by Lactantius (" Divine Institutes," iv. 21; Eng. transl. in ANF, vii. 123). The extant fragments