even in the most heretical sects. But the difficulty vanishes when we look at the Syriac, which has not 'this man' but 'this deed,' i.e. the ἔργον τῆς αἰσχύνης mentioned three lines before[1]. In Syriac writing gaβrâ 'man' and ʿ'βâdâ 'deed' are almost exactly alike, different as they sound. Thus the unsatisfactory expression in the Greek is easily explicable as a translator's misreading: on any other hypothesis it would be difficult to account for its presence.
These are but two instances out of many, and in what follows I shall feel justified in assuming the Acts of Thomas to be an original Syriac composition. I need only add that the same view is held by Nöldeke, and (as I have learnt quite lately) it was also maintained by the late Prof. R. L. Bensly.
But if these Acts be of Syriac origin we are dealing with a work immensely important for the history of Christian thought in the Euphrates Valley. To begin with, the work is one of the oldest non-biblical monuments of Syriac literature. The text
- ↑ Cf. also Wright 29920.
