Towards a Re-Edition of the Ethiopic Dossier of the Apocalypse of Peter: A Few Remarks on the Ethiopic Manuscript Witnesses

The second-century Apocalypse of Peter (ApPt) is transmitted in its entirety only in an Arabic-based Ethiopic translation within a pseudoclementine dossier composed of The second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead and the A speech on the glorious and arcane mystery of the judgment of sinners and a dispute concerning this speech. The codicological analysis of the two manuscripts – BnF, éthiopien, d’Abbadie 51 (P), and Lake Ṭānā, Ṭānāsee 35 = Kebrān 35 (T) – transmitting the dossier shows that the Ethiopic ApPt dossier goes back to a larger collection. Moreover, there are clues that the blank of a few lines that interrupts, without any apparent omission or material loss, the text of ms P on fol. 141vb, is most probably due to team work. The colophon of ms T confirms the marked heterodox character of the Ethiopic dossier. After the important contributions by Dennis D. Buchholz and Paolo Marrassini, a new edition of the entire dossier is planned for the Corpus Christianorum Series Apocryphorum.