Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 47

STYLISTICS AND SOURCES OF THE POSTOLA SÖGUR 45
Ni›rstigningar saga (AM 645): A translation of the Descensus Christi ad Inferos
(the second part of the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus), Latin recension A (of two
Latin versions and one Greek).66 The Gesta Salvatoris (verk grø›erans) mentioned by
the translator of the saga (HMS II:1.10) is the common title for the Gospel of Nico-
demus (Acta Pilati and Descensus) prior to the 11th century.
Paul (AM 645): The primary source is the Acts of the Apostles. The final section (ch.
23 Unger) is from the Martyrium Pauli (or Passio Sancti Pauli Apostoli, as it is called
in some manuscripts) of Pseudo-Linus (BHL 6570).
Peter (AM 645, 630): The AM 645 4to text is a defective, „abridged version“ of the
text as found in AM 652/630 4to (or is an abridgement of a source text shared by the
compilers of the sagas in both manuscripts). The AM 652/630 saga is a compilation,
deriving its material from the gospels (or a gospel harmony) and Acts, the Clementine
Recognitions (most likely in adapted form), and various versions of the Acts and
Passions of Peter and Paul (Pseudo-Hegesippus, Pseudo-Marcellus, Pseudo-Linus,
etc.) thereby rendering it the most variedly derivative saga of all those contained in the
AM 645 4to and AM 652/630 4to manuscripts (cf. BHL 6063, 6570, 6644, 6646, 6648,
6655, 6659, 6664, 6667, 6668(?)). In its arrangement of its source material it resembles
the Pseudo-Abdian Passio of St. Peter (and in fact parts of it appear to have been de-
rived directly from Pseudo-Abdias).67
in the version which is read in the churches, is believed to have been written by the Venerable
Bede“ (see Ryan 1991:172; see also DAAA II,2:263).
A passage in the Icelandic version concerning the appropriateness of Judas’ ‘eternal death’
(see Post.:768.30-769.12) is parallel to Bede’s commentary in chapter 1 of his Expositio
Super Acta Apostolorum (PL 92:944C). See Roughton 2002:331-2.
66 The Descensus, which was not originally attached to the first part of the Gospel, the Acta
Pilati, but which may have been composed earlier, exists in three recensions, two Latin and
one Greek; Elliott 1993:165 dates both parts to the 5th-6th century, and mentions that Latin A
is older than the Greek, although the Acta Pilati was originally written in Greek.
The Descensus is published in Tischendorf 1876:210-434.
67 The Pseudo-Abdian Passio (BHL 6663-4) is found in the standard editions, and a version of
it is given in Mombritius II:357-366 (Actus et Passiones eorumdem Apostolorum Petri et
Pauli). The Pseudo-Abdian account is distinguished from the Icelandic one primarily by its
dependence for its passio section on the Passio Petri et Pauli of Pseudo-Hegesippus (BHL
6648; Book III, ch. 2 of the De excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae (a reworking of the De bello
judaico of Flavius Josephus), published in PL IS:2062-2310 (2169-2171 for the Passio),
where it is erroneously attributed to St. Ambrose rather than on the Passio sanctorum aposto-
lorum Petri et Pauli of Pseudo-Marcellus.
For further discussion of the Clementine material in the Icelandic sagas of St. Peter, see
Foote 1990:13.