Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor is the designation used by modern scholarship for the anonymous 6th-century author who compiled a twelve-part history in the

Syriac language The Syriac language (; syc, / '), also known as Syriac Aramaic (''Syrian Aramaic'', ''Syro-Aramaic'') and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ (in its literary and liturgical form), is an Aramaic language, Aramaic dialect that emerged during ...

around 569. It contains portions of the otherwise lost ''Ecclesiastical History'' of the real

Zacharias Rhetor Zacharias of Mytilene (c. 465, Gaza – after 536), also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian. Life The life of Zacharias of Mytilene can be reconstructed only from a few scattered repo ...

. The history of Pseudo-Zacharias is found a single manuscript, on vellum, now

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Add MS 17202, dated to around 600. The title of the history as it appears in the manuscript is ''A Volume of Records of Events Which Have Happened in the World''. In addition to Zacharias Rhetor's ''Ecclesiastical History'', British Library Add MS 17202 also contains: *A work by Sylvester, bishop of Rome, on the conversion of the Emperor Constantine. *The finding of two 1st century relics belonging to Stephen and Nicodemus. *A story of miracles, the Legend of the

Seven Sleepers of Ephesus In the Islamic and Christianity, Christian traditions, the Seven Sleepers, otherwise known as the Sleepers of Ephesus and Companions of the Cave, is a Middle Ages, medieval legend about a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city o ...

. *A translation of

Joseph and Aseneth Joseph and Aseneth is a narrative that dates from between 200 BCE and 200 CE. The first part of the story (chapters 1-21), an expansion of Genesis 41:45, describes the diffident relationship between Aseneth, the daughter of an Egyptian priest of ...

, made by

Moses of Ingila Moses of Ingila (fl. mid-6th century) was a Syriac Christian author who translated a number of texts from Greek into the Syriac language. One surviving letter, preserved in British Library MS no. 17,202, prefaces the writing we call ''Joseph and A ...

in the mid 6th century. *Two covering letters to "Joseph and Aseneth". The first, by an anonymous individual, provides an account of how the ancient Greek manuscript Of Aseneth was found. The second letter is by the Syriac translator, Moses of Ingila. A translation from the Syriac of "Joseph and Aseneth" along with a first ever translation from the Syriac of the two covering letters can be found in

Simcha Jacobovici Simcha Jacobovici (; born April 4, 1953) is an Israeli-Canadian journalist and documentary film maker. Biography Simcha Jacobovici's parents were Holocaust survivors from Iași, Romania. He was born April 4, 1953, in Petah Tikva, Israel. In ...

and

Barrie Wilson Barrie A. Wilson is Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Humanities and Religious Studies, York University, Toronto, where he has taught since 1974. An historian of religion, he specializes in movements in early Christianity. Throughout the 199 ...

, The Lost Gospel.Simcha Jacobovici and Barrie Wilson, The Lost Gospel. New York: Pegasus, 2014.

References

{{reflist Gospel Books Christian manuscripts 6th-century manuscripts

Further reading

References