Questions of Bartholomew
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The Questions of Bartholomew is not to be confused with the book called
History
The text survives as Greek, Latin, and
The text appears to have been quite popular, judging by how well it survived, perhaps due to depictions of the supernatural. For example, the text implies that
The text draws heavily on Jewish mysticism (such as the Book of Enoch), seeking to provide an explanation of the more supernatural aspects of Christian thought at the time. However, rather than a more clinical treatment that would be expected for such a treatise, it approaches these topics in a tabloid manner, evidently seeking to be a popular work rather than one for official church teaching.
Narrative
Initially, the text describes how Jesus descended into hell in his own words, and then jumps to discussing the virginal conception when Mary arrives amongst the apostles. Next, the apostles ask for a vision of hell, and angels roll up the earth to let them, and then return the earth when they have glimpsed it.
Satan's Testimony
Finally, Bartholomew asks to see
Salpsan
The work is unique for the detail of introducing a direct son to Satan, named Salpsan.[3] He is notably absent from the Latin version, appearing only in the Greek text.[4]
And I [Satan] looked about and saw the six hundred who were under me senseless. And I awakened my son Salpsan and took him to counsel how I might deceive the man on whose account I was cast out of the heavens.
Satan and his son here have been interpreted as a counterpart to the Father and Son in Christianity.[3] Although Salpsan was previously considered a possible reference to the Antichrist, authors have linked him instead to the Enochian tradition of the Watchers and their monstrous offspring.[4] He is also compared to Cain in accounts where the latter is sired by the fallen angel Samael after seducing Eve.[5]
See also
- Decretum Gelasianum
- Gospel of Bartholomew
- Iblis
- New Testament apocrypha
References
- ^ The Gospel of Bartholomew From "The Apocryphal New Testament," by M. R. James (trans), Oxford, 1924, hosted on Gnosis.org
- ^ The Poetics of Slavdom: The Mythopoeic Foundations of Yugoslavia, Volume 2, p.518, by Zdenko Zlatar, Peter Lang, 2007
- ^ a b Christ and Satan: A Critical Edition, p. 27, Robert Emmett Finnegan, Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1977
- ^ a b Kathryn Powell, D. G. Scragg, Apocryphal Texts and Traditions in Anglo-Saxon England
- ^ Leonard R. N. Ashley, The Complete Book of Devils and Demons