There appeared now to be little hopes of re covering the lost Ascension of Isaiah, when Dr. Laurence (then Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford) had the good fortune to purchase from a bookseller in Drury Lane an Ethiopic MS. containing the identical book, to gether with the canonical book of Isaiah and the fourth (called in the Ethiopic the first) book of Esdras. It is entitled the Ascension of the Pro phet Isaiah, the first five chapters containing the martyrdom, and the six last (for it is divided in the MS. into chapters and verses) the Ascension or Vision of Isaiah. At the end of the canonical book are the words, 6 Here ends the Prophet Isaiah ;' after which follows The Ascension,' etc., concluding with the words, Here ends Isaiah the Prophet, with his Ascension.' Then follows a postscript, from which it appears that it was transcribed for a priest named Aaron, at the cost of a piece of fine cloth, twelve measures long and four broad. The Ascension of Isaiah was published by Dr. Laurence at Oxford in 1849, with a new Latin and an English version. This discovery was first applied to the illustration of Scripture by Dr. Gesenius (Comm. on Isaiah). Sometime afterwards the indefatigatle Dr. An gelo Mai (Nova Collect. Script. Vet. e Pat. Cad., Rom. 1828) published two Latin fragments as an appendix to his Sermon. Arian. Fragment. A ntigniss., which he conjectured to be portions of some ancient apocryphal writings. Niebuhr, however, perceived them to be fragments of the Ascension and Vision of Isaiah ; and Dr. Nitzsche (Nachweisung zzveyer Bruckstiicke, etc., in the Theolog. Stud. und Kritik. 183o) was enabled to compare them with the two corresponding por tions (ii. 12 ; Vii. I-I9) of the Ethiopic version. Finally, in consequence of the more complete notice of the Venetian edition of the Latin version given by Panzer (Annal. Typos., viii. p. 473), Dr. Gieseler had a strict search made for it, which was eventually crowned with suc cess, a copy being discovered in the Library at Munich. This work, the date of whose impression was 1522, contained also the Gospel of Nicodemus, and the Letter of Lentnlus to the Roman Senate. The Latin version contains the Vision only, cor responding to the last seven chapters of the Ethi opic version.
The subject of the first part is the martyrdom of Isaiah, who is here said to have been sawn asunder in consequence of the visions which he related to Hezekiah, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of that monarch, and which are recorded in tbe first four chapters. These relate princi pally to the coming of Jesus Christ the Lord' from the seventh heaven ; his being changed into the form of a man ; the preaching of his twelve apostles ; his final rejection and suspension on a tree, in company with the workers of iniquity, on the day before the sabbath ; the spread of the Christian doctrine ; the last judgment ; and his return to the seventh heaven. Before this, how ever, the arch-fiend Berial is to descend on earth, in the form of an impious monarch, the murderer of his mother, where, after his image is worshipped in every city for three years, seven months, and twenty-seven days, he and his powers are to be dragged into Gehenna.
The second portion of the work gives a prolix account of the prophet's ascent through seven heavens, each more resplendent and more glorious than the other. It contains distinct prophetical allusions to the miraculous birth of Christ of the Virgin Mary at Bethlehem ; his crucifixion, re surrection, and ascension ; and the worship of 'the Father, his beloved Christ, and the Holy Spirit' The mode of the propbet's own death is also an nounced to him. The whole work., observes its
learned translator, is 'singularly characterised by simplicity of narration, by occasional sublimity of description, and by richness as well as vigour of imagination.' Dr. Laurence conceives that the writer had no design of imposing upon the world a spurious production of his own as that of the prophet, but rather of composing a work, avow edly fictitious, but accommodated to the character, and consistent with the prophecies, of him to whom it is ascribed.
As to the age of this work, Dr. Laurence sup poses, from the obvious reference to Nero, and the period of three years, seven months, and twenty seven days, and again of three hundred and thirty two days, after which Berial was to be dragged to Gehenna, that the work was written after the deat of Nero (which took place on the 9th June A.I 68), but before the close of the year 69. Lilclo hovvever, looks upon these numbers as purely arb trary and apocalyptical, and maintains that tt dogmatical character of the work, the allusion the corruptions of the churcb, the absence of a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, and tl Chiliastic view, all point to a later period. A that can be considered as certain respecting its da is, that the first portion was extant before the tin of Origen, and the whole before Epiphanius. has been doubted whether the work does not coi sist of two independent productions, which we afterwards united into one, as in the Ethiopic ve sion ; but this is a question impossible to decide the absence of the original. The Latin fragmen discovered by Mai correspond literally with tl Ethiopic, while they not only differ from the Ven tian edition in single phrases, but the latter col tains passages so striking as to induce the suppos tion that it is derived from a later recension of tl original text.
The author was evidently a jewish Christian, appears from the use made of the Talmudic legend already referred to, as well as by his r presenting the false accuser of Isaiah as a Samaritai The work also abounds in Gnostic, Valentiniai and Ophitic notions, such as the account of tl seven heavens, and the presiding angels of the fir five, the gradual transmutation of Christ until h envelopment in the human form, and finally tt docetic conception of his history on earth. A this has induced Liicke (zit supra) to consider tt whole to be a Gnostic production of the zd 3d. century, of which, however, the martyrdo was first written. Dr. Laurence finds so strong resemblance between the account of the sevt heavens here, and in the Testament of Le (Twelve Patriarchs), that he suspects the latter betray a little plagiarism.' If this learned divit -were right in his conjecture respecting the ear age of this production, it would doubtless afford additional testimony (if such were wanting) to tl antiquity of the belief in the miraculous conceptic and the proper deity of Jesus, who is here milt the Beloved, the Lord, the Lord God, and tl Lord Christ. In respect, however, to another pa sage, in which the Son and Holy Spirit are repr seined as worshipping God, the learned prela truly observes that this takes place only in tl character of angels, which they had assumed.