AVitli the exception of the Zaeharias group of incidents, the Protcvangclium is a well-designed unity, a skilfully constructed romance, in wliich the author, with "the help of material lying ready to his hand, achieved to liis own satisfaction the definite purpose which he had in view. What this purpose was it is not difficult to divine. It was to defend the orthodox conception of Christ's person against a double attack, and to give an answer to those who taunted Christians with the lowly if not shameful birth of Jesus. Accordingly, Mary was represented as of royal descent, the daughter of a wealthy man, brougnt up in the pure atmosphere of the Temple ; that was a sufficient answer to every calumny about her character, and to every sneer about her humble rank. Against the Gnostic Adew that Jesus, in being born of Mary, did not partake of her human nature, it was enough to mention that the infant took the breast from His mother. The whole strength of the author was, however, devoted to safei;uarding the Divinity of Jesus against Je^vish - Christian misconceptions. That end, he conceived, could be best attained by exalting the person of Mary, by revealing Iter as one who, from birth to womanhood, had retained an absolute purity and virginity. She was bom, in answer to prayer, to parents who had long been childless ; she was brought up in the Temple, and fed on heavenly food ; in virginity she con- ceived by the power of the Lord ; in virginity she gave biith ; in virginity she remained to the end. At every stage her virginity is raised above sus- picion ; the drinking of the water of the ordeal guarded her virginity in conception ; the witness of Salome established it in the birth ; while the statement, given under the authority of James, that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, was sufficient to remove any doubts of her virginity to the last.
The author of tlie Protcvan^elium, it is clear, wa- nil -Ii-wkIi ( 'In i.-tian. His ignorance of Jewish u>.i^i's i^ iiutalily liiiiayed in the representation of -Maiy a- a ti-iiipl.- \ i'rgin {an unheard of tliin" aiiioug the Juw.^), and in the water of the ordeal being administered to Joseph (see Nu 5). The Hebraistic colouring is due to the sources which the writer used. In certain of the incidents he is influenced by OT narratives (birth and dedication of Samuel, Aaron's rod, etc.), which he dovibtless read in the Greek version. Tlie canonical accounts of the Annunciation and Nativity have teen largely drawn upon. Cimvadys aiows. that the Protcvan- ycitMOT was the s..iiic.- of Matthew and Luke (Z)je Quelle d. lean, k'nnlh. ,f<,ir:<rl,;rhtcii), and that it was originally wiiitcn m llc-lnew {SK, 1889, p. 728 fF.), nave received no support. Tlie former \'iew Hennecke characterizes as ' kritische Gesch- macklosigkeit.'
The Protevangelium was condemned by the Western Church in the decrees of Damasus (382), Innocent I. (405), and Gelasius (496). Popular Cliristianity, however, demanded .something in the place of that which had lieen forbidden, and letters ■were forged, uw t.i .Iiiumh' from the bishops Chromatiusof A.iuil'ia ami Ileliodorusof Altinum, the other the anw. i ..i .!( lume, from which it appeared that tliu learneil Father had acceded to the bishops' request to translate into Latin the original Hebrew Matthew. This explains the appearance of The Gospel of pseudo-Matthew, which freely worked over the contents of the Protevan- gelium, gave an accoimt of the Flight to Egypt and the miracles ^vrought on the way, and added narratives drawn from the Childhood Gospel of Thonms. A detail, which is frequently represented
in Cliristian art, — the o.\ and the ass at the manger, — appears for the first time in this Gospel. The veneration of Mary, which received an impulse in the Protevangelium, has now grown to greater proportions ; she is "lorified as ' the Queen of the Virgins,' and her holy, nun-like manner of life is dwelt upon at considerable length. The date of ps.-Matt. is 6th century.
The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, also con- nected with Jerome by another forged letter, covers the same ground as the Protevangelium (with the exception of the Zacharias legend). The aim of the book is to exalt Mary as the spotless virgin ; after her betrothal to Joseph she does not go home ■Nvith him, but returns to her parents' house. There she receives the angel's message. The Gosjjel closes with the bare mention of the birth of Jesus. This new recension of the Protevangelium was doubtless due to an orthodox revulsion of feeling against the somewhat coarse and extravagant nature of pseudo-Matthew. The date is probably late in the 6th century.
LiTEE.tTURE.— Hilgenfeld, Einleitunn, 152 ; Tischendorf, Evan- nelia Apucr. xii-xxii ; Zahn, AT Kan. i. 914 f., ii. 774 ff.; Hamack, Altckr. Litt. i. 19£f., Chron. i. 5988.; von Lehner, Die Marienverehrung, 223 ff.; Conrady (works cited above); Mrs. Lewis, ' Apocrypha : Protevanj^. Jacobi ' {Stlidia Sinaitica, xi); Meyer in Hennecke, XT Apokr. 47 ff., Handb. 106fl.; Tasker, i.e.; tr. in AnteNicene Library, vol. xvi., Coivper, Orr (ST Apocr. Writings), etc.
C. (a) 2. Childhood Gospel of Thomas.— This
Gospel, whicli deals with the marvellous events of
Christ's (liil.lli 1, was widely read in early times
in all liiaiKlir^ nf the Christian Church. In its present tcim it .L.us not claim to be a Gospel ; it is "enorally rclcrrcd to as UaiSiKd. toO Ki'pioi/— Inci- dents in the Lord's Childhood. There is every- thing, however, in favour of the view that the original form of the writing was a Gospel in use in Gnostic circles, referred to by Origen and Hippolytus (see B. 3). Besides the appropriatene.ss of the citation of Hippolytus to a Childhood Gospel, the relation between the two writings is supported by a statement in hen;eus (i. 20. 1) that the followers of the Gnostic Marcus had in their apoc- ryphal books a story of Jesus as a boy putting His schoolmaster to confusion. This incident is found described twice over in the Childhood Gospel of Thomas. If the Gospel of Thomas, mentioned by Nicephorusin his Stichometry (date uncertain, 6tli- 8th cent.) as containing 1300 stichoi, had any rela- tion with that known to us, the copy which lay before him was more than twice as long as the longest now extant.