The Mysteries of Saint John the Apostle and Holy Virgin

A Coptic (Sahidic) apocalypse in British Museum MS. Oriental 7026, a manuscript dated AD 1006; author and date of composition unknown. The 'Holy Virgin' of the title is John himself, not Mary, as Budge notes. After the Resurrection the apostles are gathered on the Mount of Olives; at John's request a great Cherub, full of eyes, carries him through the heavens and answers his questions: the twelve rulers of the year and Michael's intercession for the waters, the fountain of dew and the Angel of Wrath whose tears of blood Michael wipes away, how the Father gave Adam the first grain of wheat from His own body, the tree of Paradise and Adam's lost glory, Eve hidden in Adam's rib, Solomon's book of remedies and Hezekiah's prayer, the hours, the stars and the souls of men and beasts. This is E. A. Wallis Budge's English in Coptic Apocrypha in the Dialect of Upper Egypt (British Museum, 1913); his notes are not reproduced, except that his gloss on 'Edem' and one Coptic star-name stand in the text as he prints them. Chapters are the leaves of the manuscript (folios 1 to 20), and verses are Budge's paragraphs. Not part of any church's canon.