Gavin McDowell has The Rewritten Bible in Late Antiquity. We can read it legally; thank you Brill. This concerns the Pirqe ascribed to rabbi Eliezer, and its contacts with good ol' Jubilees and that Cave-of-Treasures. I haven't read all of it yet. I just got to it.
One point worthy of mention is that the Cave, Syriac itself; relied upon the Life of Adam and Eve, which is not. McDowell does not think that this Life was ever translated into that language. I deem that statement in want of a footnote - better, a paragraph.
Yes yes, I know: proving a negative is a mug's game, don't do it, so don't demand of others to do it.
What can instead be done is some hint that the Cave had access to Greek lore directly elsewhere.
Movses Khorenatsi and John bar Penkaye each can be tagged as men who did not read languages beyond Armenian and Syriac, respectively; unable to cite lore outside what had been translated into their languages already. I say "can be" because, I mean, this is just a blog; but I am pretty sure most Movses forewords, and Yulia Furman, can be brought to back me up here.
McDowell is not writing a blog. If I needed him in hardcopy, I'd have to front $110 minus a penny, plus a tax and shipping.
If the Cave could read Greek, we are good. If not... then the Life had to exist in Syriac. In this case the reason it ceased in Syriac is simply that the Cave supplanted it.
