Une nouvelle récension de la vie d'Abercius

The late 19th century discovery of a stele containing the so-called "inscription of Abercius" aroused much attention because it lent archaeological evidence to support the authenticity of the historical character of Abercius, the mid-second century bishop of Jerusalem, who was previously known only through the hagiographical Life of Abercius. This discovery brought about a renewed interest in the text of the Life itself. Previous to the publication of this article, there were two known recensions of the Life, but Élie Batareikh publishes here a third recension. Batareikh found the text in a manuscript from St. Saba among the documents of the library of the Greek Patriarchate in Jerusalem. In his introduction to the text, Batareikh provides a physical description of the manuscript itself, which contains the Lives of various saints as well as other writings about those saints. The editors have also included a facsimile of one page of the manuscript. Batareikh presents the edited Greek text of the Life of Abercius, though he notes that time constraints prevented him from collating it with the other recensions.