The narratives in the Koran about Jesus, who is regarded as a forerunner of Mohammed, are drawn largely from apocryphal sources, either directly from the so-called Arahic Gospel of the. Infancy, or indirectly from the popular tales which had an
--- parents are named Banna,— of her dedication to tlie Temple, of the choice of Joseph to be her protector, etc. Jesus is represented as working miracles in His childhood ; His making of birds out of clay (Gospel of Thomas) is mentioned. The Koran represents strongly Docetic views in its denial that Jesus died upon the Cross. In Sura 4. 156 the Jews are reported as sa.iing : ' We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of Mar^', theMessenger of God ' ; to which the answer is immediately given : ' Vet they did not kill and crucify Him, but a phantasm appeared to them. ... In truth they did not kill Him, but God raised Him to Himself ; for God is strong and wise.' Other legends about Jesus, not mentioned in the Koran, were collected by Moslem commentators, notably by Kessasus. See art. Christ m Moham- medan Literature in Appendix to vol. ii.
vii. Classification. — The classification here adopted follows that given by Harnack {Gesch. d. altchr. Liu. i. 4 f. ) and by Tasker (Hastings' DB, Extra Vol. 422 f . ).
1. Gospel according to the Hebrews.
2. Gospel according to the Egj-ptians.
3. Gospel of Peter.
4. FayOm Gospel Fragment.
6. Oxyrhyncus Gospel Fragment. 3. Heretical and Gnostic Gospels, wTitten to establish peculio conceptions of the person and life of Jesus. 1. Gospel of Marcion.
2. Gospel of the Twelve Apostles.
3. Gospel of Thomas.
4. Gospel of Philip.
C. Suppleniental Gospels, written to throw light on the dark parts of Christ's history.
(a) Gospels of the Childhood, together with those dealing
with the parents of Jesus.
1. Protevangelium of James with the recensions—
(1) Gospel of pseudo-Matthew.
(2) Gospel of the Nativity of Mary.
2. Childhood Gospel of Thomas.
3. Arabic Gospel of the Childhood.
4. History of Joseph the Canjcnter.
5. The Departure of Mary.
(b) Gospels dealing with the Passion and the post-Resurrection
veral Gospels are worked
life of Jesus.
1. Gospel of Nicodemus.
2. Legend of Abgar. D. Gospel Harmonies, in
together into one. Gospel of Tatian (Diatessanm).
A. 1. Gospel according to the Hebrews. — The
earliest mention of this Gospel occurs in the 'Tiro- /jLvrifiaTa of Ilegesippus about the year 180 (Euseb. HE iv. 22. S). The name 'according to the Hebrews ' is not original ; in the circle-s in which the Gospel was current, it apparently had no dis- tinctive name, that which it now bears having been given to it by outsiders to indicate that it was the Gospel m use among Hebrew Christians, the de- scendants of the ongmal Church in Judiea. There IS soini jirnbil ility in the view, which is strongly
1\ i( I l\ li iiittk ( C Aran. i. 637 f.), that the t I I \ n u in the Jewish-CIiristian com- 1 uiiit\ 11 \l \ 11 lilt and that the title was given to It to di tui^ui h it fiom the Gospel used by the native Chiistian community, the Gospel according to tht Egyptians The language m which the Gospel ■N\a& written (as we learn from Jerome, contia Pdng m 2) was West Aramaic, the lan- guage of Christ and His Apostles, — a circumstance which betrays its influence on the narrative in the fact that the Holy Spirit is represented as ferakle (' My Mother the Holy Spirit,' the Aramaic rului being feminine). The Gospel was translated into Latin and Greek by Jerome, who had a very high opinion of it, and was inclined to regard it as the original Matthew ; but it is more than probable that it had already circulated in a Greek version in difterent parts of the Church, and found consider- able recognition. It was wrongly identified by Jerome with the Ebionitic Gospel — the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles, also attributed to Matthew — which was written originally in Greek, and was in use among tlie Gnostic Ebionites.
As the fragments which have been preserved to us show, the Gospel according to the Hebrews was of the Synoptic type. Whether it contained a story of the Nativity is uncertain, but (considering the Jewish-Christian standpoint of the book) highly improbable. Included, however, were tlie Baptism, the Temptation, the Lord's Prayer, the Healing of the man with the withered hand, the pericope adultera; (or something .similar), the injunction to forgive unto seventy times seven, the conversation with the Rich Young Ruler, the entrance into Jeru- salem, the parable of the Pounds, the Trial, the denial of Peter, appearances after the Resurrection, and sayings of Jesus not elsewhere recorded. As a rule, the fragments show a somewhat closer resem- blance to Mt. tlian to the other Synoptics, but there are also details which have their nearer parallels in Luke.
the Synoptics are in several cases remark- point, 'in the opinion of many scholars, to an earlier and more reliable tradition. In the narrative of the Baptism, Jesus, in answer to the proposal of His mother and brethren that they should go and be bajitized by John for the remission of sins, says : ' In what have 1 sinned, that J should go and be baptized, by him? Unless perhaps this which I have said be itjnorance,' — an utterance which is generally interpreted as meaning that Jesus, though conscious of no sin, was humble enough not to make the claim of sinlessness. (This passage, regarded by some as primitive and authentic, is better under- stood as the product of refie.\ion at a time when Christ's baptism