The
Apocalypse of Sedrach.
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Introduction.
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The
translation is from Mr. M.
R. James’s text in
Texts and Studies
, ii. 3, p. 130ff.,
published from a fifteenth century
ms.
in the
Bodleian Library. The original, Mr. James conjecturally assigns
to the tenth or eleventh century. It is notable for its close
resemblance in several passages to 4 Esdras, to the Greek original of
which the author seems to have had direct access.
Like the Apocalypse of Esdras it deals with the subject
of intercession for sinners and the reluctance of the seer to
die. The parallel passages in 4 Esdras and the Apocalypse of
Esdras are pointed out in the margin of the translation.
Chapter I. consists of a few lines from the beginning
and end of a homily on love which appears in the
ms.
at the beginning of the Apocalypse, but which Mr. James
regards as “quite unimportant and quite
irrelevant.”