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JOHN R. LEVISON, Texts in Transition: The Greek Life of Adam and Eve (SBLEJL 16; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000). Pp. x + 123. $29.95.
The Life of Adam and Eve (sometimes referred to as the Apocalypse of Moses) was probably composed in Hebrew by a Jewish author, perhaps toward the end of the first century A.D. Its subsequent popularity is attested to by its translation into Greek, Latin, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and Coptic. The Hebrew is now lost. John Levison's specific interest is in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve (GLAE). More specifically, L. wants to study the differences in what he calls the various "text forms" of the GLAE. His methodological point is to emphasize the importance of studying these different text forms in their own right and not simply as a way of getting at an Urtext.
Levison divides his book into two parts. The first part contains a discussion of representative manuscripts of the different text forms of the GLAE and a description and an evaluation of their salient characteristics. Following M. Nagel's Ph.D....