On the view here taken of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, tlie value of its fragments as a source of the life of Jesus is inconsiderable. It cannot justly lay claim to be an authority, as Oscar Holtzmann regards it, on the same level as the SynoiJtics. Some sayings, however, ascribed to Christ and not elsewhere recorded, have a genuine ring, giving us, if not the ipsissima verba of Jesus, at least true echoes of His voice. Christ is repre- sented as saying to His disciples : ' Never be glad, except when ye look upon your brother in love,' — a singularly beautiful precept condemning Schaden- freude, the disposition to rejoice in another's mis- fortune. The Gospel also reported a saying in which it was reckoned among the greatest offences that one should sadden the spirit of one's brother. Another striking saying, quoted from this Gospel by Clement of Alexandria (Strom, ii. 9. 45) and accepted by many as substantially a genuine utter- ance of Jesus, runs as follows : ' He that wonders shall reach the kingdom, and having reached the kingdom shall rest!' In another passage {Strom. V. 14. 96) Clement records the saying in a longer form, which agrees almost verbally with one of the Oxyrhynchus sayings : ' He who seeks shall not cease until he finds ; and when he finds, he shall be astonished, and being astonished he shall reach the kingdom, and having reached the kingdom he shall rest.'
The Ethical teaching of the Gospel, from all that we can gather, was in sympathy with the mind of Christ, stress being laid on brotherly love and for- giveness. Doctrinally, the Gospel occupies the position of the old Jewish Church. It exhibits Jesus as ' the Messiah sent from God, not as the Son of God conceived of the Holy Ghost in a special sense, but as the long expected jlessiah of David's
GOSPELS (APOCRYPHAL)
race, in whom proijliecy liiuls its fullilment ' (Haiid- mann, TU v. 3, p. 125).
LiTBRATiiRE.— Hilgenfeld, NT extra can. receptum, iv. p. Sfl. ; Nicholson, Gospei according to the Hebrews; Handmann, *Das Hebraer-evangeliuni ' (Z'Cr v. 3) ; Zahn, Gesch. d. JUT Kanons, ii. 642 £f. ; Harnack, Gesch. d. altchr. Litt. i. Bff., ClirmiologU, i. B31fl. ; Hennecke, JV2' Apokr. Hfl., Ilandb. 21ff. ; Menzies in Hastings' DB, Ext. Vol. 338 ff.; Adeney in Hibbert Journal, Oct. 1904.
A. 2. Gospel according to the Egyptians. — This Gospel, whose ancient diitr may Ije inferred from the fact that, like thy iln.y.ri ,irr„rding to the Hebrews, it bears no autlior's name, was current in native Christian circles in Egypt. Our information regarding it is very slight : it is mentioned by Origen in his discussion of the prologue in Luke's Gospel, and characterized by him, apparently on the ground of his own knowledge of it, as a he- retical writing (' Ecclesia quattuor evangelia habet, hsereses plurima, e quibus quoddam sciibitur "secundum ^Egyptios"' — tr. by Jerome). All that can with certainty be said to remain of the Gospel is a small ,i;roup of sayings, recorded by Clement of Alexandria m treating of the attitude of diU'erent Christian communities to marriage. References to the Gospel are also found in Hip- polytus (Philos. v. 7), who states that it was used by the sect of the Naassenes to suijport their peculiar views about the nature of the soul, and in Epiphanius (Hwr. 62. 2), who mentions its use by the Sabellians.
The fragments which remain are part of a con- versation between Jesus and Salome, and are all of the same character, dealing with the transient (if not sinful) nature of the sex relations. They read as follows :
1. ' Salome asked, " How long shall death reign ! " The Lord answered, "So long as ye women give birth." When Salome had said, " Then should I have done well, if 1 had not given birth?" the Lord answered, " Ent everi/ plant, but that which is bitter, cat ?i-r " ' fC]m Vr--:. Strom, iii. 6. 45).
2. * When Salome immup-'I .1 hi^^e things [the coming of
the Kingdom] shnnifi ■ i u-I, " When i/e trample on
the garinent ofs/m.' 'wo become one, and tfie
mate with the ,fc in 11 , . m. r ftmafe "' (Clem. Alex.
Strom, iii. 13. 92).
3. 'The .Saviour .1 / female"' (Clem. ,\|.
'-■^troy the works of the
ither
however, rejects No. :; as not Ii.iviti^- stoml in tli, inp to the Egyptians. If the third sa\ in- 1 n i m i tamly arguable that the first two do nm ■■■• nm ascetic direction than Mt 2250 (' In the r.sni n , 1 1 marry nor are given in marriage, hnl ir ,.- il:. uj-ls in heaven'). This view finds some supp. .i i i' i i ; ' <ifa Gospel discovered at Oxyrh^mcus in pi"' " ■ i' '! ' ■! IPnti, New Sayings, 44). That Cassian, tin i ! i . ih
Encratites, from whom Clement quotec I 1 1 1 li-ni
to support his ascetic condemnation of ni:-r. ; ■ . , i n- i ^l^r i-:i\ r. It is noteworthy that Clement rejected i. as^iaii s interpretation, and understood the sayings in a mystical sense. If, however, the Encratite sense of" the words be maintained, Harnack is certainly justified by Clement's attitude in concluding that ' Encratism cannot have been the aim of the Gospel, in fact cannot have been stamped upon it as its characlrri li. f.^liur