Ladder of Jacob

Ladder of Jacob, James1920 supplied recensions and notes, printedpage 102

102 APPENDIX honour, because they made lying inventions. Thence- forth will they not have power to rule or to give pro- phecies, for their honour will be taken from them, and they will remain without glory. For he (the child) that is come taketh the power and might from them and recompenseth to Abraham the truth (righteousness) which he promised him. Then he {or For this child) roundeth off all that is sharp, and every rough thing maketh he smooth, and he casteth all unrighteousness into the depths of the sea : and he doeth wonders in heaven and on the earth. And he will be wounded in the midst of the house of the beloved {or the beloved house : evidently " the house of his friends," Zechariah xiii. 6). But when he is wounded, then also the saving and the end of all corruption draweth near. For they that have wounded him shall themselves receive a wound which shall not be healed for them for ever. But the wounded one shall all creatures worship, and upon him shall many hope, and everywhere, and among all the Gentiles, shall he be known. But they that have known his name shall not be put to shame. And his own might and his years shall not fail for ever. The beginning of this section contains an undoubted reference to a document of uncertain date — the Wonders in Persia or The Dispute at the Court of the Sassanidoe, of which the sage Aphroditianus is the hero. In it the story is told at great length of the miracles, of speaking idols in particular, which happened in Persia at the time of our Lord's birth. This story may be a good deal older than the document in which it is imbedded. The whole text is best edited by Bratke in Texte und Unterstichtmgen (1899) : also by Wirth, Ans Orienialischen Chroniken . I will note, in order to dismiss it, a passage of Epi- phanius {Hi^r. xxx. 16), which has been supposed to refer to the Ladder of Jacob. Epiphanius says that the Ebionites made use of a book called the Ascents of Jacobus {dva/3a9fxoL 'laKM(3ov) which represented him as inveighing against the Temple and its sacrifices. Nothing can be more obvious than that this refers to