[Enrico] Norelli proposes that we should identify this
text with a group mentioned by Irenaeus, which he identifies as “the elders,”
and associates with the apostle John. IT is a speculative proposal, to be sure,
and we know so little about this supposed group of “elders” that they are
almost a blank slate. Irenaeus does frequently associates these elders with
eschatological ideas of a material kingdom of God in the earthly Paradise, as
does the Book of Mary’s Repose. And yet, much of the same ideas regarding
an eschatological earthly paradise appears in Ephrem’s Hymns on Paradise,
indicating that they seem to have had a broader currency. . . . While they
certainly provide a possible early—second century!—context for the Book of
Mary’s Response, any such connection must be recognized as highly
speculative and still unproven. (Stephen J. Shoemaker, The Dormition and
Assumption of the Virgin Mary [Apocryphes: Collection De Poche De
L’Aelac 17; Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2023], 15)
.
. . it has also been argued that the Book of Mary’s Repose is written in
an extremely archaic form of Classical Ethiopic, which is perhaps the oldest
form of this language that is extant. The grammar and vocabulary of the text
are in fact often irregular, and these qualities likely reflect to some degree
the antiquity of the translation’s language. Presumably, the translation was
made from Greek directly into Ethiopic at a very early state, most likely in
the sixth century during the Axumite period. (Ibid., 22-23)
Other
elements also suggest such an early date, including Joseph’s confession that he
initially thought that perhaps he had raped the Virgin Mary while drunk one
night, and Mary’s fear before death because she had sinned. These remarks are
sharply at variance with the belief in Mary’s sinlessness, for instance, while
the notion that she might have sinned seems to have been limited to the second
and third centuries. By the fourth century, agreement on her sinlessness had
become fairly widespread. (Ibid., 29)