THE GNOSTIC SOCIETY LIBRARY
THE APOCALYPSE OF THE VIRGIN. A. GREEK
From "The Apocryphal New Testament"
M.R. James-Translation and Notes
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924Introduction
We have this in Greek in a great many texts. The oldest I have found was edited by me in 1893.
A very brief summary of it will suffice, for it is a late and dreary production.
The Virgin at the Mount of Olives prays to be told about the torments of hell and the next world.
Michael is sent. He takes her to the west: the earth opens and discloses the lost who did not
worship the Trinity.
She sees a great darkness. At her prayer it is lifted and she sees souls tormented with boiling
pitch. No one has yet interceded for them, neither Abraham, John Baptist, Moses, nor Paul. They
are unbelievers.
They go to the south: there is a river of fire with souls immersed at various depths. Cursers of
their parents. Causers of abortion. False swearers. A man hung by the feet and devoured by
worms is a usurer. A woman hung by the ears, with serpents coming out of her mouth and biting
her, is a backbiter and gossip.
They go (again!) to the west. In a cloud of fire lie those who lay late on Sunday. On fiery seats
sit those who did not rise at the entry of the priest. On an iron tree hang blasphemers and
slanderers. A man hung by hands and feet is the evil steward (oeconomus) of a church. Wicked
priests, readers, bishops, widows of priests who married again, an 'archdeaconess', covetous
women, are severally described.
They go to the left-hand of paradise. In a river of pitch and fire are the Jews who crucified Jesus,
those who denied baptism those guilty of various impurities, sorcerers, murderers, they who
strangle their children. In a lake of fire are bad Christians.
A great appeal of the Virgin follows, in which she entreats all the saints to intercede, with her,
for the Christians. At last the Son appears, and grants the days of Pentecost as a season of rest to
the lost.
In some texts a visit of the Virgin to paradise follows this, but it is usually short and
uninteresting. In one of the Eastern books on the Assumption there is a very diffuse account of
paradise as seen by the Virgin.
APOCALYPSE OF THE VIRGIN. B. ETHIOPIC
This is wholly different from the Greek. It was edited with a Latin version by Chaine in 1909
(Corpus Scriptt. Christ. Orient. i. 7 ) with texts of the Protevangelium and a story of the
Assumption.
The Apocalypse is almost wholly borrowed from that of Paul. Chaine takes it to be a version
from Arabic, and the Arabic he thinks was translated from Greek. John is the narrator. The
Virgin called him to listen to a wonderful mystery which had been revealed to her: as she prayed