Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/103

One of the stories told in the second part of Nicodemus has been so amazingly popular that it really deserves a separate note. I refer to the legend of Seth, in which we read of the tree of life and the oil of mercy. I have already illustrated this to some extent, but I wish now to add the following observations. The story to which allusion is made may be safely said to be of Jewish origin, or to rest upon a Jewish foundation, and, if the documents were extant, would be traced to the legends and traditions of the Jews in the first ages after Christ. There is tolerably clear indication that the writer of the second part of Nicodemus copied it bodily from some book with which he was acquainted. We read in the first Latin text of the story that Michael told Seth that the Son of God should come after 5500 years (chapter iii. (xix.)). In chapter xii. Pilate speaks to the Jews of a certain great book (Bibliotheca) which they have; and soon after the high priests tell Pilate that they have found in the first book of the Septuagint the place where Michael told Seth of the coming of Christ in 5500 years. They add, among other things, that having taken the sum of the successive generations they find the 5500 years which the book says Michael spoke of to Seth. It is