APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS
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Gospels; but in general it ey be said that these writings were condemned by the Western Church until the Middle Ages, when a sufficient period of time had elapsed for their origin to be forgotten. Pseudo-Chrysostom (¢. 600) is said to have made use of the apocryphal Gospels of the Childhood of Jesus, and from the 10th cent. onwards they formed the material for legendary poems and miracle-plays, whilst some of their traditions were embodied in paintings and other works of art. The first of a series of Latin poems by Hroswitha (d. 968), a Saxon nun, is based on the fictitious accounts given in these Gospels of the perpetual virginity of Mary. Vincent of Beauvais, a Do- minican, did much to popularize these apocry- phal stories by including many of them in his Speculum Majus (c. 1250); the third part of this work, the Speculum Historiale, contains twelve chapters from the Gospel of pseudo-Matthew, and several from the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary. In the 14th cent. the Speculum MHistoriale was translated into French and other European lan- guages. In his Speculum Sanctorum de Voragine (d. 1298) made use of almost the whole of the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, and of a few chapters from the Gospel of pseudo - Matthew. This work, better known as the Legenda Aurea, and the Speculwm Historiale of Vincent were amongst the earliest printed books in the 15th cent.; they are the chief sources from which many popular Roman Catholic compilations of these stories are derived. Yet Vincent put the Gospels he made use of into the category of ‘doubtful’ writings; and amongst Roman Catholic divines who have denounced them as unauthoritative, Tappenhorn mentions Alcuin (d. 804), St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), and Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274). As recently as 1884, Pope Leo XIII. reaffirmed the judgment of the learned Pope Benedict XIv., whiok declares the Protevangelium of James and other works on the Nativity of Mary to: be ‘impure sources of tradition’ (de Festus B.M.V. lib. ii. cap. 9: ‘Cum plures scribere voluerint, ex turbidis fontibus, que tradiderunt, hausisse videntur’). Tappenhorn, whose work is published with episcopal authority, laments that these fictions are often accepted as embodying ‘ancient} and pious traditions.’ ‘The veil which the Holy Spirit in the Gospels has drawn over the birth and early life of the Mother of God, we ought not to try to remove by means of untrust- worthy, apocryphal narratives’ (Ausserbiblische Nachrichten, p. 18 f.).
Some of the fables of these Gospels are found in the Koran, as, ¢.g., the vow of Mary’s mother to consecrate her virgin daughter to the temple- service, the feeding of Mary by an angel, the use of rods to discover by lot a guardian for Mary, the making by the boy Jesus of twelve sparrows out of clay, etc. Kessiius, the famous commen- tator on the Koran, refers in his notes to more of these stories (ef. Forbes Robinson, Coptic Apocr. Gospels in ‘Texts and Studies,’ Iv. ii. ; 1896).
vy. CLASSIFICATION.—There is an article on the GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS in vol. iii. p. 544 /f., and an account of the Gospel of Marcion in art. LUKE (GOSPEL OF), 7b. p. 168f. Separate articles on the GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS (see above, p. 338 ff.), and on the Gospel of Tatian (see art. DIATESSARON, below, p. 451 ff.), appear in the present volume. In the present article the most important of the apocryphal Gospels, other than those above mentioned, will be treated in the following order :—
A. Gospels (or fragments of Gospels) which, in the opinion of some critics, embody an early tradi- tion, and rival the canonical Gospels. In regard to the date, character, and tendencies of these
APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS 423
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Gospels there has, however, been much contro- A. 1. EGYPTIANS, GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
versy ; they are known as—
1. Gospel according to the Egyptians. 2. Gospel according to Pater” TP, 3. Faytim Gospel Fragment.
B. Gospels which claim to fill up the gaps in our knowledge of the parents of Jesus, or of His infancy and childhood, viz.—
1. Protevangelium of James, including the Latin recensions known as— (a) Gospel of pseudo-Matthew, (6) Gospel of the Nativity of Mary. 2. Gospel according to Thomas. 3. Arabic Gospel of the Childhood. 4, Arabic History of Joseph the Carpenter. 5. The Departure of Mary (Transitus Maric).
C. Gospels whose heretical origin is universally acknowledged, viz.—
1. Gospel of the Twelve Apostles. 2. Gospel according to Philip.
8. Gospel according to Matthias. 4. Gospel according to Basilides.
D. Gospels of which almost nothing is known ex- cept theirname. These will be mentioned in alpha- betical order, and, as far as possible, described.
LitERATURE.—In 1552 Bibliander’s edition of the ‘ Protevan- gelium Jacobi’ appeared ; this work is also the only Gospel in the earliest collection of NT Apocrypha: Apocrypha, h.e. narrationes de Christo, Maria, Joseph, cognatione et familia Christi, extra Biblia, etc., 1564, added by M. Neander Soravi- ensis to his Catechesis Mart. Lutheri parva. Fabricius published the first critical edition in 1703: Codea apocryphus NT; this work is the basis of Jones’ A New and Full Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the NT, and of Birch’s Auctarium cod. apocr. NT’ Fabriciani. In 1832 Thilo’s Codes Apocryphus NT appeared with valuable Prolegomena; this work is the basis of Borberg’s Bibliothek der NT’ Apokryphen, and of Brunet’s Les évangiles apocryphes. A new impetus to the study of these writings was imparted by the publication of the results of Tischendorf’s learned researches: Evangelia Apocrypha, 1853, 2nd ed. 1876; this standard edition was pre- ceded by Tischendor?’s prize essay: de Evang. Apoer. origine et usu, 1851; in the same author's Wann wurden unsere Evangelien verfasst ? there is a chapter on ‘ Apocr. Literatur.’ Hilgenfeld’s NT’ extra canonem receptum, 4th ed. 1884, contains, in the section entitled ‘Librorum Deperditorum Fragmenta,’ learned notes on some of these Gospels.