Cave of Treasures

Historical source scan page 13

Assyria in metals and textile fabrics, the latter coming from the Bulgar Dagh, and the former from the great cotton-growing districts which lay along the Khabar. The cuneiform texts of a large number of these commercial documents and letters have been published by Sidney Smith (Cuneiform Texts from Cappadocian Tablets, London, 1921 and following years), and in Part I he has given (pages 6 and 7) a long list of words used in connection with the weaving industry, which can be paralleled in Syriac by words of precisely the same roots. And this will probably be found to apply to the other objects of daily life, for the Syriac writers of the early centuries of the Christian Era knew of hundreds of words used in the affairs and business of daily life which they had no opportunity to use when writing the lives of saints, commentaries on the Scriptures, and works of a purely religious character. Of the subsequent history of the Syriac Cave of Treasures very little is known. The knowledge of parts of it made its way into Armenia soon after the book was written, and more than one translation of it was made into Arabic, probably in the VIIth and VIIth centuries. In connection with the Arabic translations it must be noted that they all end with the account of the cruelties perpetrated by Archelaus and Salim after the death of Herod. (See Bezold's text, page 247.) The last paragraph of the Arabic text mentions the twelve Apostles who went about with Christ, and refers to His baptisim by John the Baptist, and says that He lived on the earth thirty-three years, and then ascended into heaven. Thus for the last twenty-six pages of the Syriac text there is no equivalent in the Arabic version or translation. And the same is substantially true for the Ethiopic text of the "Book of Adam and Eve" The section of the Syriac for which there is no rendering in Arabic or Ethiopic contains a series of statements addressed by the author to his "brother Nemesius." It is possible that these have been added to the work by a later writer, but I do not think so. As they do not deal with matters of genealogy, and do treat almost exclusively of the life of Christ and His crucifixion, it is probable that they failed to interest the Arab translator, and he left them untranslated. It may be, however, that the complete Arabic translation has not come down to us. Of the "brother Nemesius" mentioned above we know nothing. Judging by the form in which the author of the "Cave of Treasures" put his information before him, we might conclude that he was a friend whom he was specially anxious to convince of the truth of what he was going to write. Or, he may have been an opponent with whom he was conducting an argument on the birth, and life, and crucifixion of our Lord, and whom he was anxious to convert. Among the ancient celebrities who bore the name of Nemesius, the best known are Nemesius, the governor of Cappadocia, and friend of Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Sasima and Constantinople, and Nemesius, the Bishop of Emesa; both flourished in the latter half of the IVth century. The former was a pagan, but he was favourably disposed towards Christianity; whether Gregory succeeded in converting him is not known. It is clear from the "Cave of Treasures" that the Nemesius addressed by its author was a person of great importance, and some have thought that the 13 of 130