of the quotations from the Gospels alone would be enough to shew this. Whatever editorial touches the Acts of Thomas may have received, the Scripture allusions have been left in their original form, for they follow the Old Syriac, not the Peshitta. Notably this is the case with the Lord's Prayer, which as I remarked above is quoted in full, and in agreement with the very striking renderings of Cureton's text. The example of Aphraates warns us, it is true, from dating a Syriac work early because its doctrinal statements appear too primitive for the 4th century, but in the case of the Acts of Thomas we have to take into account the popularity of the book even in orthodox circles. There are clear references to it in Ephraim[1], and Jacob of Serug wrote a poem on the Palace which St Thomas built in Heaven for the King of India. I do not think we shall be far wrong if we put the date of our Acts before the middle of the 3rd century. Of course they have suffered a little in transmission. Here and there a too definitely unorthodox clause has
- ↑ Carm. Nisib. 42.
