Semantic forms in Old Czech 'Apokryf o Jidasovi' (14th century 'Judas apocryphon')

The Judas apocryphon is a relatively complete text that survives among the fragments of Czech legends in verse from c. 1300, Legenda o Jidasovi. The l arger part concerns the life of Judas, as he is known from the Legenda aure a by Jacobus de Voraigne, who rescued the twelfth-century Historia Apocryph a from obscurity. Though the Historia did not serve as the model for the Ju das apocryphon, it constitutes a noteworthy parallel to it. The Judas apocr yphon differs from the Historia (as well as from the Legenda aurea) in a nu mber of respects, but in particular in the way the killing of Judas' unknow n father is depicted. The Judas apocryphon differs from the Historia also a s a whole; in the old-Czech versified apocryphon the fate of the betrayer o f the Lord is conveyed by an accentuated, polysemic form.