of the surviving manuscripts. Modern English translations of the edited texts
are also provided.
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Abbreviations
A Book of Miracles
A Book of Miracles: MS no. 645 4to of the Arna-
Magnæan Collection in the University Library
of Copenhagen, ed. Anne Holtsmark
AB
Analecta Bollandiana
AM
Den Arnamagnæanske Samling/Stofnun Árna
Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum
BAV
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
BdA
Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal
Biskupa sögur
Biskupa sögur, vol. 2, ed. Ásdís Egilsdóttir
BL
British Library
BM
Bibliothèque municipale
BnF
Bibliothèque nationale de France
BNM
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
Bodl
Bodleian Library
BStB
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
CCC
Corpus Christi College
CCSA
Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum
CCSL
Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
CSAE
Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England
DBL
Dansk biografisk Lexikon tillige omfattende Norge for
tidsrummet 1537– 1814, ed. Carl F. Bricka
DI
Diplomatarium Islandicum. Íslenzkt fornbréfasafn,
ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al.
DKB
Det Kongelige Bibliotek
EIMF
Early Icelandic Manuscripts in Facsimile
GkS
Gamle kongelige Samling
xviii Abbreviations
HAB
Herzog August Bibliothek
Heilagra manna
Heilagra manna søgur. Fortællinger og legender om
sögur
hellige mænd og kvinder, ed. Carl R. Unger
Helgensagaer
AM 623 4to: Helgensagaer, ed. Finnur Jónsson
Isländska
Isländska handskriften No. 645 4to i den
handskriften 645 Arnamagnæanska samlingen på universitetsbiblioteket i
København i diplomatariskt aftryck, ed. Ludvig Larsson
ÍH
Íslenzk handrit. Icelandic Manuscripts, series in folio,
quarto and octavo
ÍÆ
Íslenzkar æviskrár frá landnámstímum til ársloka 1940
( 1948– 1976), ed. Páll Eggert Ólason, Jón Guðnason,
and Ólafur Þ. Kristjánsson
JÁM
Jarðabók Árna Magnússonar og Páls Vídalíns
JS
Jón Sigurðsson Collection
Kb
Kungliga biblioteket
KLNM
Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for nordisk middelalder
MiAg
Miscellanea Agostiniana, ed. Germain Morin
MRTS
Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies
MS
Maríu saga. Legender om Jomfru Maria og hendes
jertegn, ed. Carl R. Unger
NkS
Ny kongelige Samling
ONP
Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog. A Dictionary
of Old Norse Prose
PG
Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca,
ed. Jacques-Paul Migne et al.
PL
Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina,
ed. Jacques-Paul Migne et al.
PLS
Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina
Supplementum, ed. Adalbert Hamman et al.
Postola sögur
Postola sögur. Legendariske fortællinger om
apostlernes liv, deres kamp for kristendommens
udbredelse samt deres martyrdød, ed. Carl R. Unger
SÁM
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á Íslandi
SPK
Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz
StB
Stiftsbibliothek
SSFS
Samlingar utgivna av Svenska Fornskriftsällskapet
SUGNL
Samfund til udgivelse af gammel nordisk litteratur
TC
Trinity College
TNL
The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of
the History of the North Germanic Languages,
ed. Oskar Bandle et al.
Abbreviations xix
TONIS
Toronto Old Norse-Icelandic Series
Two Old English Two Old English Apocrypha and their Manuscript Source.
Apocrypha
The Gospel of Nicodemus and the Avenging of the Saviour,
ed. James E. Cross
UB
Universitetsbiblioteket
UL
University Library
ÖNB
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
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Niðrstigningar saga
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1 The Latin Evangelium Nicodemi
in Medieval Europe
In spite of being one of the most influential religious narratives on devotional
and secular literature and on the visual arts of the Middle Ages, as well as pos-
sibly representing the best known New Testament apocryphon along with the
Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew, much of the earliest textual history of the
Evangelium Nicodemi has yet to be written.1
The intrinsic composite nature of its most common and best known textual
form throughout medieval and modern times seems to have resulted from the
merging and conflation of two separate narratives, the Acta Pilati (“Acts of
Pilate”) and the Descensus Christi ad inferos (“Christ’s Descent into Hell”).
These texts seem to have originated and circulated independently for an unas-
certained time before being combined together – sometime between Late
Antiquity and the High Middle Ages – to form a single pseudoepigraphical gos-
pel depicting the history of Christ’s Passion and his legendary Harrowing of
Hell. In one of the concluding lines of the text, the composition of the original
Hebrew gospel is allegedly ascribed to Nicodemus, the Pharisee and covert dis-
ciple of Christ, who, according to John 19:32–42, assisted Joseph of Arimathea
in the atonement and entombment of Christ’s corpse.2 On account of this attribu-
tion, the text came to be known in the Low Middle Ages and early modern times
as Evangelium Nicodemi (“The Gospel of Nicodemus”), although its first title in
manuscripts ranging from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries is Gesta Pilati
(“Deeds of Pilate”).3
The text of the so-called Acta Pilati constitutes the first sixteen chapters
of the Evangelium Nicodemi and relates to the events leading to the Cruci-
fixion and to the wondrous outcomes, which took place in Galilee. The nar-
rative starts with Christ’s Trial before Pilate, continues with his Crucifixion,
Entomb ment, and Resurrection before moving on to his apparition to the
4 Niðrstigningar saga
disciples in Galilee, and ends with Christ’s miraculous liberation of Joseph
of Arimathea from his imprisonment. The original text of the Acta Pilati was
in all probability composed in Greek between the second and the fourth centu-
ries and translated remarkably early into Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Coptic,
Georgian, and Syriac.4 In his editi
on of the Greek text, which is regrettably
transmitted exclusively in later manuscripts dating from the twelfth century,
Constantin von Tischendorf identified two main recensions: a shorter ver-
sion, designated as Greek A and transmitted in fifteen manuscripts, and a
longer redaction, Greek B, which survives today in some thirty codices.5
Tischendorf also demonstrated that Greek B was only subsequently ampli-
fied with additional narrative material and that, therefore, Greek A must rep-
resent the oldest redaction of the two.6
A typical text of Greek A opens with a prologue dating Christ’s Passion to
the years of the Emperor Tiberius (†AD 37), which is at times preceded by an
additional prologue attributing the discovery of the Hebrew apocryphon and
its subsequent translation into Greek to a certain Ananias, a praetorian guard
in Jerusalem during the reign of the Emperor Theodosius II, nicknamed the
Calligrapher († AD 450).7
The first extant Latin translation of the Acta Pilati survives in the so-called
Codex Vindobonensis (Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. lat. 563, ff. 122–77), a voluminous
manuscript composed of six codicological units, palimpsested with various
patristic texts at the Benedictine Abbey of Neuwiller-lès-Saverne in Alsace dur-
ing the first half of the eleventh century.8 The scriptio inferior of section four
contains remarkably old texts, such as the oldest surviving fragments of the
Latin Infancy Gospel of Thomas and portions of the Gospel of Matthew from
the Vetus Latina. In the same section are also extant chapters I–VI, IX–X, and
XIII–XVI of the Latin Acta Pilati, which make up two-fifths of the entire text.9
Elias A. Lowe has dated the Latin uncial of section four to the fifth century and
suggested as a possible place of composition an unidentified scriptorium in
northern Italy.10 The text of the Acta Pilati in the Vienna palimpsest is clearly
derived from Greek A, as it maintains the prologue of the first type, where the
newly converted Praetorian Guard (here transliterated as Aeneas) is mentioned
as the discoverer and first translator of the pseudo gospel, and the prologue of
the second type, which dates Christ’s Passion to the nineteenth year of rule of
the Emperor Tiberius.
If some important omissions relate the first surviving witnesses of the
Evangelium Nicodemi to the Vienna palimpsest, their greatest departure from
it is represented by their inclusion of the Descensus Christi ad inferos. Its
omission in the Vienna palimpsest remains yet unclarified. A Greek version
of the Descensus may have already been in circulation as far back as the
The Latin Evangelium Nicodemi in Medieval Europe 5
second century, since numerous Greek homilists (most eminently Eusebius of
Alexandria) were acquainted with the same theme of catabasis. Never theless,
none of their homilies seem to be specifically indebted to the text of the
Descensus.11 It is consequently possible that the Vienna palimpsest never in-
cluded a Latin translation of the Descensus Christi ad inferos.
From the fifth century onwards, the text of the Latin Acta Pilati must have
undergone substantial revisions under the hand of learned scribes and copy-
ists, who were interested in additional apocryphal details concerning the life
of Christ. Its most noteworthy acquisition may well be represented by the
Descensus Christi ad inferos, which comprises the last eleven chapters of
Evangelium Nicodemi. Its text was in all probability appended to the Acta
Pilati as a sequel narrative to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, provid-
ing it with the glorious and wondrous events of Christ’s immediate afterlife,
namely, his Descent and Harrowing of Hell.
The narrative of the Descensus starts with the encounter of the Jews and
Joseph of Arimathea with Carinus and Leucius, the two sons of Simeon the
Elder, who were long dead and in terrible pain, dwelling in the darkness of
Hell before being liberated by Christ. They begin relating with fear their
experience and testifying that on the very day Christ was crucified, a great
light illuminated the whole realm of Hell, announcing Christ’s imminent
and much awaited arrival. At the sight of this divine light, the patriarchs and
prophets who had been long imprisoned in Hell – most notably, John the
Baptist, David, Micah, Habakkuk, and Isaiah – rejoiced greatly and began
recalling the words and psalms they pronounced when alive on earth, pre-
dicting the coming of the Messiah. Inferus (a personification of Hell) dis-
putes Christ’s divinity with Satan and warns his old companion of the
immense and almighty powers of Christ. After this debate, in a hasty passage,
Christ descends into Hell, defeats Satan, and frees the souls of the righteous
from the bondage of sin. Starting with Adam, Christ delivers the patriarchs
and prophets to the archangel Michael, who finally guides them to the eter-
nal bliss of Paradise.
All known medieval manuscripts transmitting the Latin Evangelium
Nicodemi have been catalogued by Zbigniew Izydorczyk, who counts a total
of 436 medieval codices, including the Vienna palimpsest.12 Besides Latin A
and Latin B, Izydorczyk has identified two more recensions, labelled as Latin
C and Latin T, based on common features of lexicon, style, and literary mo-
tifs. It should be noted that these exclusively represent the main possible
subgroups of Latin manuscripts, as there still exist a remarkable number of
hybrid compilations into which two or more textual typologies of the pseudo
gospel were conflated.13
6 Niðrstigningar saga
Latin A
The most extensively diffused version of the Latin Evangelium Nicodemi was
undoubtedly Latin A, which numbers today roughly 387 codices out of the
436, making up to almost nine-tenths of the entire tradition. Latin A conse-
quently represents the Majority Text within the surviving manuscripts, a no-
menclature borrowed from Biblical philology.14 Previous research regarded the
so-called Codex Einsidlensis (Einsiedeln, StB, 326, ff. 11r–29v), a manuscript
produced in Fulda in the tenth century and edited by Hack C. Kim, hereafter
referred to by the letter K, as the best representative witness of Latin A. To fa-
cilitate the comparison of the texts, edited and unedited Latin and vernacular
versions of the apocryphon will be assigned the chapters and paragraph num-
bers employed by Kim in his edition of K.15
One of the main characteristics of the Majority Text is the omission of the
first prologue, mentioning Aeneas as the occasional, fortuitous discoverer of
the pseudo gospel; another, on the other hand, is the inclusion of the prologue
of the second type, dating Christ’s Passion to the years of the Emperor Tiberius,
identical to that transmitted in the Vienna palimpsest:
Factum est in anno XVIII imperatoris Tyberii Caesaris, imperatoris Romanorum,
et Herodis filii Herodis imperatoris Galileae, anno XVIIII principatus eius, VIII
Kal. Aprilis, quod est XXV dies mensis Martii, consolatu Rufini et Rubellionis,
in anno quarto ducentesimae secundae Olympiadis, sub principatu sacerdotum
Iudaeorum Ioseph et Caifae, et quanta
post crucem et passionem Domini historia-
tus est Nichodemus, acta a principibus sacerdotum et reliquis Iudaeis, mandauit
ipse Nichodemus litteris ebraicis.16
(It happened in the eighteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius, ruler of the Romans,
and of Herod, son of Herod, ruler of Galilee, in the nineteenth year of his rule,
on the eighth calends of April, which is the twenty-fifth day of March, in the
consulate of Rufinus and Rubellio, in the fourth year of the two hundred and
second Olympiad, under the rule of the Jewish priests Joseph and Caiaphas, that
Nicodemus recorded what happened after the Crucifixion and Passion of the Lord,
and what was done by the high priests and the rest of the Jews. Nicodemus wrote
it himself in the Hebrew script.)17
Besides the prologue, the most noteworthy characteristic of the Majority
Text is, as mentioned above, its inclusion of the Descensus Christi ad inferos,
which is altogether missing from the Vienna palimpsest, as well as in the earli-
est Greek manuscripts, and consequently in all Oriental recensions derived
directly from the Greek text. All of these texts transmit the Acta Pilati.
The Latin Evangelium Nicodemi in Medieval Europe 7
Izydorczyk suggests the fifth century as a reasonable terminus post quem for
the merging of the two texts. Before this time, he maintains, the Majority Text
could not have acquired the two interpolated sections central in the develop-
ment of its plot – the Latin Vita Adae et Evae and the pseudo-Augustinian
Sermo CLX De Pascha II – since neither of them were yet available.18
The Old Testament apocryphon Vita Adae et Evae, which relates Seth’s leg-
endary journey to Paradise in search of the Oil of Mercy, is woven into the end
of paragraph XIX.1, where Michael’s prophecy of the coming of the Messiah
is reported almost verbatim.19
Nullo modo poteris ex eo accipere nisi in nouissimis temporibus quando conple-
ti fuerint V milia et D anni. Tunc ueniet super terram amantissimus Dei Filius
Christus qui faciet resurgere corpus Adae et conresuscitare corpora mortuorum ac
sanare omnem infirmitatem. Et ipse ueniens in Iordane baptizabitur. Cum autem
egressus fuerit de aqua Iordanis, tunc de oleo misericordiae suae unguet omnes
credentes in se, et erit oleum illud misericordiae in generationem qui nascendi
sunt ex aqua et spiritu in uitam aeternam. Amen. Tunc descendens in terram aman-
tissimus Dei Filius Christus.20
(In no way can you receive [the Oil of Mercy] from Him until future times, when
5,500 years shall be completed. Then shall come upon earth the beloved Christ,
Niorstigningar Saga Page 2