A Possible Restoration from a Middle Persian Source of the Answer of Jesus to Pilate's Inquiry 'What is Truth?'

Abstract

THE IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES of the Griunwedel-Le Coq expedition to Chinese Turkestan (HIandschriftenreste in EstrangeloSchrift aus Turfan, F. W. K. Muller, 1904) have restored the lost Manichaean literature. These Middle Persian remains brought rich material for philological study which has not been overrated in the many discussions in which their linguistic value has occupied chief place. Of deep historical interest are fragments of an apparently urchristliche Ueberlieferung from an Aramaic source of the Crucifixion (darobadageftig) of Jesus (Tolman, PAPA 39. xlv ff.). They are not translations from the extra-Canonical Gospels, especially the Petrine Gospel, as Muller seems erroneously to infer. Although this tradition appears to touch at some points that preserved in the Gospel of the Pseudo-Peter, yet there is abundant evidence of its absolute independence. We note a striking absence of anachronisms which betray the apocryphal narratives; e. g. pad 'e'v ambat, 'on one of the Sabbath', i. e. 'on the first day of the week' (wrongly an einem Sabbatstag, Bartholomae, Zum Air. Wb. p. 88) corresponding to the Hebrew ?rM jnV: in place of the apocryphal 'on the Lord's Day', Gospel of Peter, v. 35. Marked differences in phraseology from that of the tradition of the Canonical Gospels appear; e. g. pad mu'rgvaig sar, 'at the beginning of the song of birds', describing the dawn of the day of Resurrection. Supplementary facts are recorded, e. g. the mention of Arsaniah among the women at the tomb, qerd Maryam Salotm 't 'Arsani'dh. In Fragment M. 18 occur three significant words; Rasteft Bagpuhar 'ast which would naturally be rendered 'Truth is the Son of God'. Such a translation suggests that here may be preserved at least an echo of the reply made by Jesus to the familiar question of the Roman procurator, 'What is Truth?' The Manichaean tradition, like that of the Gospel of Peter,