Scarcely less significant are the 64 leaves of Syriac discovered and published (1909) as (Odes and Psalms of Solomon,' by J. Rendel Harris. Of these the Psalms are a Pharisaic collection (? 50 a.c.), long known in another form, but the Odes, unknown for 1,700 years, are Christian, at least in their recension, and recall the Palestinian soul of the 1st century in its deeper mystical musing's, its higher poetic flights, and its wider spiritual visions, with frequent suggestion of the Fourth Gospel, as the
Other early Christian documents have been unearthed, too numerous to mention, such as the (Gospel of Peter,' a (Revelation of Peter,' also various (Acts,' as of Peter, John and Paul (secured at Akhmim by Reinhardt, 1896), the (Book of Revelation,' ascribed to Bartholomew, and various others,— all evidently products of religious fancy. Some were exceedingly popu lar in their day, like a modern *best seller,' as also a noted book of devotion, (The Ring of Pope Xystus,' written not later than 150, but first translated into English and edited, in 1910, by F. C. Conybeare.
Also certain long-lost works of the Fathers have come lately to light, as in 1904 the 'Apostolic Preaching> of Irenzus, notable for establishing New Testament incidents from Old Testament prophecies; also 37 passages from an unsuspected treatise of Origen on Revela tion were found 1911 in the Meteoron Mon astery in north Greece. Far richer, however, the wealth exhumed of Christian Sermons (250-600), bearing witness in general to a fervid imagination directed with rhetorical skill, to a highly mechanical and extravagant orthodoxy, and much more to an all-pervading tendency to symbolic interpretation* of Scripture stories, —a very clear indiCation of the atmosphere in which these were born. Deficient as they were in lcnowledge, the preachers of old do not yield in mental power to their successors of to-day. Numberless Amulets (bearing Gospel versions like beads, with prayers for healing) show that paganism and magic, especially in the use of the *Name had departed not wholly from the first Christian centuries and returned powerfully in the later. Much of the phraseology of peti tion is dignified and impressive, eloquent with invocations still heard in Church service.
The great hymn of Clement of Alexandria, long accounted the oldest of Christian songs, consisting almost wholly of a succession of poetic epithets of the Jesus, is now at last rivalled in antiquity by one similarly discovered at Oxyrhynchus. Almost as old is the famous Syriac (Hymn of the Soul,' quite extraordinary in its sustained symbolism and imagery. Com plete Coptic Psalters (6th or 7th century) have been recently uncovered. These ancient hymns disclose a strong movement toward Mariolatry, as the devotee mused on the mystery of the Virgin birth. Many Christian letters recently deciphered give welcome and intimate glimpses at the early disciples; along with which are others pagan, but so nearly like the Christian in language and spirit as to be scarcely dis tinguishable. One gets the impression that these souls were Christian because they were noble, rather than noble because they were Christian. In the descent toward the 7th century the early simplicity degenerates into mock modesty and hunibleness. Christian epitaphs, found in great numbers, are strangely enough often hard to discriminate from the pagan, though in general sounding a clearer note of hope. Some have established model forms in use even to this day. Least attractive of all such religious relics are the (LibelIV certifi cates of Christianity disclaimed, of which Krebs detected the first (1893) in the British Museum, Grenfell and Hunt the fourth in 1904, dating from the Decian persecution (ca. 250), and Meyer published 19 others (1911) ; still later the number has risen to about 30, mostly from Theadelphia. It remains possible that such disclaimers may have proceeded from sincere pagans falsely reported as Christians. It is remarlcable that the persecuting emperors, Trajan (112), Aurelius (176), Septimus Severus (202), Decius (250), were among the noblest that adorned the Roman throne; they regarded the new religion as anti-patriotic.
.While Egypt has yielded papyri, it is Asia Minor, and particularly Phrygia, that has most ennched the fund of inscriptions. Palestine might indeed have been expected to spealc most eloquently of early Christianity; but nay; though 11 cities have been excavated and called to witness, they are dumb; the decipherments of Dalman, Sclunidt, and others do not hark back beyond the 4th century. The greatest single interpreter of Grxco-Roman life is Pompefi, but its testimony is too early to il luminate Protochristianity. It is the stupendous excavations at Rome that shed light upon the 1st century, whence dates the earliest Christian inscription (72) of the oldest Catacombs (of Domitilla, Priscilla, Commodilla, (crypt) Lucina) while the majority are of the 4th cen tury and the latest from the time of Alaric (410). The ,output of Catacomb-inscriptions has been enormous in number (15,000 of De Rossi alone) rather than significant or instruc tive. The temper of the peoplels revealed as peaceful, trustful, hopeful, their religion as centred in the worship of Christ as God (under form of a beautiful shepherd youth) and as abounding in symbols, their morality as pure, their ritual as simple, their art as classic and excellent. Connections with the New Testa ment or Palestine, if any at all, seem very remote.