Another Judas Apocryphon?
April 20th, 2008 by 
Tony
While researching Syriac manuscripts for the Infancy Gospel of Thomas I came across a reference in a manuscript catalogue (W. Wright and S. A. Cook, A Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, 2 vol. Cambridge: University Press, 1901) to a text called “History of the silver which Judas received from the Jews as the price of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I have never heard of this text before and thought I’d ask here if anyone knows anything about it.
The manuscript is Cambridge Add. 2881. It is dated 1484 and comes from Damascus. It is written in Garshuni (i.e., Arabic in Syriac letters) with some portions in Arabic, but not the Judas text. The Judas text runs from f. 136b-138b. Also included here are several other apocryphal texts: Acts of Thomas (f. 53b), The Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ to his Disciples on the Mount of Olives (f. 103b), the Abgar Correspondence (f. 158b), The Relation of Pontius Pilate regarding the dealings of the Jews with our Lord, written in the year 18 of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius (f. 160a), and History of the Decease of the Virgin Mary (f. 223a).
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April 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Three stories with similar titles can be found in three BnF Syriaque manuscripts (all Syriac in Syriac script):
1. Ms. 309, f. 51b (Histoire de trente deniers de Judas)
2. Ms. 197, f. 93 (Sur les trente pièces d’argent de Judas Iscariote)
3. Ms. 215, f. 82v (Sur les trente pièces d’argent de Judas Iscariote).
For the last two, the catalogue (http://www.bnf.fr/pages/zNavigat/frame/catalogues_num.htm) also quotes the first line. For Ms. 215, it would be
ܐܚܘܬܐ ܕܡܢ ܐܝܟܐ ܐܢܘܢ ܙܘܙ̈ܐ ܕܫܩ̇ܠ ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ ܛܝܡ̈ܘܗܝ ܕܡܫܝܚܐ
The entry for Ms. 309 also refers to R. Duval’s “Histoire d’Édesse”, p. 105. This I assume refers to Duval’s articles on the history of Edessa which appeared in Journal Asiatique in 1891 and 1892 and were published in book form in 1892. No mention of Judas in them, as far as I can tell, but will investigate further. Perhaps there will be a connection with the letters of king Abgar to Jesus which Duval does mention quite a bit.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Dang it, close. It’s the chapter right after the Abgar correspondence: Journal Asiatique, vol. 18, 1891, pp. 256-259, Chapitre VI: Légends Judéo-Chrétienns (you can get the chapter here: http://members.chello.sk/ceplo/Judas.pdf). If the Duval’s story is indeed the one recorded in Cambridge 2881 and BnF Syriac 197, 215 and 309, then it’s more or less the same story as the one in “The Book of the Bee” (http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/bb/bb44.htm). Of course, one would have to check to be sure. I don’t know about Cambridge, but BnF has an excellent reproduction service.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Thanks “bulbul.” I was considering doing something with the text but have no proficiency in Garshuni. Syriac however…
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
My pleasure, Tony. But I’m somewhat confused now: are you sure that the Judas text in Cambridge 2881 is Karshuni/Arabic? From your original post I had the impression that the bulk of the volume was, but these particular folios weren’t. If the Judas text is indeed Karshuni/Arabic, I might give it a go.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
The catalogue editor says the Ms is in “an unsightly cursive Karshuni, but some pages are written in a better Egyptian Arabic hand” (so I meant that the Judas text was not in Arabic) and the incipit is definitely not Syriac.