Apocalypse of Elijah Traditions (Earlier / Patristic References)

James1920 historical fragment dossier, printedpage 54

54 THE LOST APOCRYPHA OF of passages from Isaiah (Ixiv. 4, Ixv. 16, 17) in current use in the first century. Pseudo-Philo has it (xxvi. 13), and this makes it easier to beheve that Origen was right when he said it occurred in the Apocalypse of E lias. It is also found, as Jerome says, in the Ascension of Isaiah (xi. 34), but in the Latin and Slavonic, not the Ethiopic version. Resch, in his Agrapha, p. 154 ff., has a long dis- quisition on the subject, and among the parallels he adduces is one which deserves to be repeated here. Clement of Alexandria {ProtrepL, § 44, p. 6g, Stahelin, 76, Potter) has this passage : " Wherefore the Scripture with reason makes this promise to them that have believed : ' but the Saints of the Lord shall inherit the glory of God and His power.' " " Tell me what glory, O blessed one?" "That which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it come up upon the heart of man : and they shall rejoice at the kingdom {Ittl ry ySao-tAe/u) of their Lord for ever. Amen." This is apparently the conclusion of a book : with it we should compare (as Resch does) a passage in the Apostolical Constitutions (vii. 32, p. 212), which is an amplification of the end of the Didache, and runs thus \ " Then shall the wicked depart into everlasting punishment : but the righteous shall go into life eternal, inheriting those things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they come up upon the heart of man, which God hath prepared for them that love Him, and shall rejoice in the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus." The other Pauline passage referred to this book is Ephesians v. 14 : " Awake, thou that sleepest," etc., of which Epiphanius {Har. xlii. i) says : " This is con- tained in Elias." Others derive it from a book of Jeremiah, as we shall see. Hippolytus {on Daniel iv. 56) gives it to Isaiah, where Esaias may be an error for Elias. There is nothing to confirm or invalidate Epiphanius' s statement. Two other fragments definitely attributed to the Apocalvpse of Elias have made their appearance in recent years.