''Palaea Historica'' ("Old Testament History") is an anonymous ninth century AD
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
chronicle which retells and expands on events in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
. The Greek text of ''Palaea'' survives in manuscripts dating from the 12th to 16th centuries
[{{cite book , url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/852745712 , last=Adler , first=William , editor-last1=Bauckham , editor-first1=Richard , editor-last2=Davila , editor-first2=James R. , editor-last3=Panayotov , editor-first3=Alexander , title=Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume 1 , publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. , date=2013 , pages=585 , chapter=Palaea Historica ("The Old Testament History"): A new translation and introduction , isbn=978-0-8028-2739-5, location=Grand Rapids, Michigan, oclc=852745712] as well as a
Slavonic translation. The work is of particular interest for
biblical studies
Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible (the Old Testament and New Testament).''Introduction to Biblical Studies, Second Edition'' by Steve Moyise (Oct 27, 2004) pages 11–12 Fo ...
because of its recasting of
Old Testament
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
personalities such as
Melchizedek
In the Bible, Melchizedek (, hbo, , malkī-ṣeḏeq, "king of righteousness" or "my king is righteousness"), also transliterated Melchisedech or Malki Tzedek, was the king of Salem and priest of (often translated as "most high God"). He is f ...
,
Abraham
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...
, and
Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
in addition to its inclusion of extra-biblical material alluded to in the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
, for example
Jannes and Jambres
In Jewish and Christian traditions, Jannes and Jambres (Hebrew: יניס Yoḥanai, ימבריס ''Yambres'') are the names given to magicians mentioned in the Book of Exodus. This naming tradition is well-attested in ancient and medieval literatur ...
(
2 Timothy
The Second Epistle to Timothy is one of the three pastoral epistles traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle.. Addressed to Timothy, a fellow missionary, it is traditionally considered to be the last epistle he wrote before his death.
Alt ...
3:8) and
Archangel Michael
Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...
contesting for the body of Moses (
Jude 1:9). It contains a version of the ''
Story of Melchizedek
The ''Story of Melchizedek'' or ''History of Melchizedek'' ( la, Historia de Melchisedech) is an anonymous apocryphal account of the life of Melchizedek originally written in Ancient Greek language, Greek. Melchizedek is a priest and king mentione ...
''.
Text
The opening in Greek as in found in Vassiliev's 1893 edition reads as follows:
Ἱστορία παλαιοῦ περιέχων ἀπὸ τοῦ ᾿Αδάμ.
Πρὸ πάντων καὶ up πάντων αὶδιὰ πάντων χρὴ τὸν
ἀληθῆ χριστιανὸν ἐπιγνῶναι τίς θεός χαὶ οσαχως θεός
αὶ χατὰ τί εἴρηται θεός Θεὸς ὁ πατὴρ ὁ ἄναρχος...
See also
* ''
Historia scholastica
The ''Historia Scholastica'' is a twelfth-century Biblical paraphrase written in Medieval Latin by Petrus Comestor. Sometimes called the "Medieval Popular Bible", it draws on the Bible and other sources, including the works of classical scholars an ...
''
* ''
Biblia pauperum
The (Latin for "Paupers' Bible") was a tradition of picture Bibles beginning probably with Ansgar, and a common printed block-book in the later Middle Ages to visualize the typological correspondences between the Old and New Testaments. Unlike ...
''
Further reading
* William Adler, "Parabiblical Traditions and Their Use in the Palaea Historica", in
Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation from Second Temple Literature through Judaism and Christianity in Late Antiquity', ed. Menahem Kister et al. (Leiden ; Boston: Brill, 2015), 1–39.
*David Flusser, "Palaea Historica: An Unknown Source of Biblical Legends", in
Studies in Aggadah and Folk-Literature', eds. J. Heinemann and D. Noy (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1971),
Notes
External links
* A. Vassiliev, ''
Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina'' (Moscow: Moscow University, 1893), pp. 188-292.
Greek-language chronicles containing universal histories
Medieval legends
Biblical paraphrases
9th-century Christian texts
Medieval Greek chronicles