THE TEXTUAL HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE IN THE LIGHT OF A NEWLY DISCOVERED LATIN TEXT-FORM by JOHANNES TROMP Leiden University The publication of the text of two manuscripts of the Latin Life of Adam and Eve by J.-P. Pettorelli gives cause for a reassessment of the position of the Latin version in the textual history of this apocryphal writing.1 For many years, it has been usual to treat the Latin Life as a witness to the original writing on an equal basis to the Greek Life of Adam and Eve . Since the publication of the Georgian and Armenian versions, in 1964 and 1981, 2 however, the Latin Life has gradually been sinking in the critics’ esteem, at least as far as its claim to chronolog- ical and genealogical priority is concerned. While this may still be justi able for the Latin version as it was known before the discovery of two hitherto unknown Latin manuscripts, 3 the existence of the text represented by these latter manuscripts may restore the Latin tradition 1 J.-P. Pettorelli, “La Vie latine d’Adam et Ève,” Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi 56 (1998), 5-104 (hereafter ALMA 1998); id., “Vie latine d’Adam et Ève. La recension de Paris, BNF, lat.3832,” Archivum Latiniatis Medii Aevi 57 (1999), 5-52 (hereafter ALMA 1999). 2 Georgian: C. K‘urc‘ikidze (ed.), “Adamis apokrip‘uli c‘xovrebis k‘artuli versia,” P‘ilologiuri Dziebani 1 (1964), 97-136; the Georgian version has become widely accessi- ble by its translation into French: J.-P. Mahé, “Le Livre d’Adam Géorgien,” in: R. van den Broek and M.J. Vermaseren (eds.), Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions Presented to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday , Leiden 1981, 227-260; Armenian: M.E. Stone, The Penitence of Adam (CSCO 429-430. Scriptores armeniaci 13-14), Louvain 1981. 3 Namely, a text based upon a limited number of Southern German and Austrian manuscripts, published by W. Meyer, “Vita Adae et Evae,” Abhandlungen der philosophisch- philologischen Classe der königlich bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 14, München 1878, 187-250; and a text based upon manuscripts from England, published by J.H. Mozley, “The ‘Vita Adae’,” Journal of Theological Studies 30 (1929), 121-149. ©Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2002 Journal for the Study of Judaism, XXXIII, 1 the textual history of the LIFEOF ADAMAND EVE 29 as a whole to an important position within the textual history of the Life of Adam and Eve .4 As Pettorelli has set out in the article preceding this one (in this issue of this journal), manuscripts Pr (Paris) and Ma (Milan) represent a text-form of the Latin Life of Adam and Eve that had to be assumed in order to explain the coming into being of the text-form represented by the rest of the known tradition. The text-form to which Pr and Ma are witnesses stands closely to what must have been the rst Latin translation of a Greek text of the Life of Adam and Eve (designated by Pettorelli as VLg). That Greek text in turn must have been very simi- lar to the Greek text underlying the Armenian and Georgian transla- tions (designated by Pettorelli as VOr). In this note, I shall rst discuss the ways in which the existence of the text represented by the newly discovered manuscripts should mod- ify the views, as expressed by Marinus de Jonge and myself a few years ago, on the textual character of the Latin Life of Adam and Eve (section 1).5 Next, I shall sketch an outline of the contents of VLg, compared to VOr on the one hand, and to the rest of the Latin tradition on the other (section 2). After that, it may be possible to de ne somewhat more exactly the relationship of VLg to the extant Greek tradition, more speci cally to VGII (section 3). It should be noted that all arguments and conclusions in this con- tribution are of necessity provisional. There are still scores of Latin manuscripts of the Life of Adam and Eve to be examined, 6 and it is of course unknown what surprises they may still have in store. In this article, other symbols will be used than those proposed by Pettorelli. His use of capitals in italics to designate the versions is less suitable when the Greek manuscripts (also commonly designated with 4 It should be noted that the Life of Adam and Eve , as one of the most widespread apocrypha in the Christian church, is important for the students of many di Verent dis- ciplines, with divergent interests: obviously, students of late Medieval European culture look at the Life with another interest than those studying Greco-Roman Judaism or early Christianity. My perspective on the Latin Life is that of someone who seeks to recover the earliest written form of this writing. Several di Verences of opinion between Mr. Pettorelli and myself may be explained on the ground of our di Verent interests. 5 M. de Jonge and J. Tromp, The Life of Adam and Eve and Related Literature (Guides to Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha), She Yeld 1997; see esp. 37-40, 44. 6 See J.-P. Pettorelli, “La Vie latine d’Adam et Ève. Analyse de la tradition manu- scrite,” Apocrypha 10 (1999), 220-320 (hereafter Apocrypha 1999), who has counted 106 manuscripts so far..