THE APOCALYPSE OF THE VIRGIN
A. GREEK
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 (see p. 222) there is a very diffuse account of paradise as seen by the Virgin.
B. ETHIOPIC
This is wholly different from the Greek. It was edited with a Latin version by Chaîne 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. Chaîne takes it to be a version from Arabic, and the Arabic he thinks was translated from Greek.
