Les « histoires » syriaques de la Vierge: Traditions apocryphes anciennes et récentes

Abstract

A review of Syriac manuscripts of the History of the Virgin from the fifth and sixth centuries confirms their classification into two traditions. The «Palm» tradition, which has spread very little in the Syriac world, and the «Bethlehem» tradition. The latter assembles the narrative of the childhood of Mary (the Protevangelium Jacobi) and that of the youth of Jesus (the Infancy Gospel of Thomas) with the narrative in Six Books of the end of the life of the Virgin (the Transitus Mariae), thus demonstrating that the Syriac author wanted to constitute, as early on as in the most ancient witnesses to have reached us, a History of the Virgin in chronogical order, from the time of her birth to her last days. Existing classification proposals of these texts, based on doctrinal (Assumption and Dormition) or literary criteria (S1, S2, S3) having been found not satisfactory, a new classification is submitted. Later on, medieval traditions diverge. On the Eastern Syriac side, one finds a continuous narrative, while Western Syriac traditions’ narrative is divided into numbered books. Western Syriac traditions are found to present two recensions, both in Six Books like the Transitus of the ancient recensions, with which they are therefore frequently confused, although they are different.