fragments bring us even closer to the authors’ original compositions. Because I am interested in pursuing this archetype, I have reproduced the Greek or Aramaic idiom when it seemed feasible. This, of course, produces a text that nowhere existed, as such, but it brings us closer to the original than would be possible through a straight translation of the Ethiopic alone. At the same time, I have avoided bringing into my translation occasional words and phrases from an Aramaic original that cannot