Since Matthias was elected an apostle after the Resurrection (Ac 123-26)^ i^ would be natural to use his name and tradition as the vehicle of more or less secret revelations made by the Risen Lord to the disciples. Hence we may provisionally rank his Gospel in our third class.
In a Coptic fragment, assigned by Revillout to the Gospel of the Twelve [Les Apoci'T/phes copies, 157 f . ), Matthias appears at the Last Supper. ' The Saviour set him with the twelve apostles, and the table was before them. When the Saviour stretched his hand towards the food, the table turned round, so that they stretched all their hands towards what the Saviour ate, and he blessed it. Matthias set dovra a platter on which was a cock. The salt was on the table. The Saviour stretched his hand to take the salt first, and as the table turned round all the apostles partook of it. Matthias said to Jesus, " Rabbi, you see this cock. AVhen the Jews saw me killing it, they said. They will kill your Master like that cock." Jesus sighed. He said, " O Matthias, they shall accomplish the word they have spoken. This cock will give the signal before the light dawns. It is the type of John the Baptist who heralded me in advance. I, I am the true light which has no darkness in it.
* This is also quoted (from Clement ?) as a word of Mattliias, by Nicephorus Callistus, HE iii. 15.
t The one item of evidence that makes one hesitate is Clement's version of Lk 19if- in Strom, iv. 6. 35, which begins, ' Zaccheeus (some say, Matthias) . . .' But even if this is any more than an instance of the frequent confusion between Matthias and Matthew, it might simply mean that, in the Gospel of BasOides or of Matthias, Matthias occupied the r61e of Zacchaeus. Elsewhere he became confused not only with Matthew but with Simon the Zealot (cf. Schermann, TU 3rd ser. i. 3 [1907], pp. 283-285).
502 GOSPELS (UNCANONICAL)
GOSPELS (UNCANONICAL)
When this cock died, they said of me that I would die, I wliom Mary conceived in her womb. I dwelt there with the cherubim and seraphim. I have come forth from the lieaven of heaven to earth. It was hard for tlie earth to bear my glory. I have become man for you. However, this cock will rise." Jesus touched the cock and said to it, "I bid you live, O cock, as you have done. Let your wings bear you up, and fly in the air, that you may give warning of the day on which I am be- trayed." The cock rose up on the platter. It flew away. Jesus said to Matthias, "Behold the cock you sacrificed three hours ago is risen. They shall crucify me, and my blood will be the salvation of the nations (and I will rise on the third day) . . . " ' This fragment mtnesses to the prestige of Matthias in the tradition of the early Church ; he is ad- mitted to the fellowship of the Last Supper of Jesus, beside the twelve apostles, instead of being merely (Ac l^"'^^) added to their company after the Resurrec- tion. It was an easy step from this to make him the author of a Gospel or the vehicle of esoteric revelations.
(c) The Gospel of Mary. — In SBA W (1896, p. 839 f. ) C. Schmidt describes three fragments from a still unedited Coptic MS of the 5th cent., and shows that the title of the first, ' Gospel of Mary,' covers them all. The alternative title, ' An Apoc- ryphon of John,' belongs to the second fragment, but this is intelligible, for the Mary literature tends to be connected with apostolic apocalypses (cf. p. 503). The passage in Ac 1", where Mary as- sociates with the apostles, formed a suggestive point of departure for this kind of religious romance.
The Gnostic references in these fragments tally so exactly with some of the data supplied by Irenseus in his refutation of the Barbelo Gnostics (i. 29) that Schmidt and Harnack infer without hesitation that this Gospel of Mary must have been a document of the sect and known to Irenseus. Hitherto, we had only the assertion of Epiphanius (xxvi. 8) that certain Gnostic sects issued a number of works in the name of Mary. The present find ratifies this assertion.
' Now it came to pass on one of these days when John, the brother of James — who are the sons of Zebedee — had gone up to the temple [cf. Ac 3'], that a Pharisee named Ananias (?) drew near to him and said to him, " Where is your Master, that you are not following him ? " He said to him, " He has gone (?) to the place whence he came." The Pharisee said to him, " By a deception has the Nazarene deceived you, for he has . . . and made you forsake the tradition of your fathers." When I heard this, I turned from the temple to the mountain, at a lonely spot, and was very sad in heart, and said, "How then was the Redeemer chosen, and why was he sent to the world by his Father who appointed him ? And who is his Father ? And how is that a30n created, to which we are to come?"' Suddenly heaven opens ; the Lord appears, explains matters, and with- draws—the audience being not only John but the disciples. They are dismayed at the prospect of having to preach Jesus to the heathen. ' "How can we go to the heathen and preach the gospel of the kingdom of the Son of Man ? If they refused to receive him, how will they receive us?" Then Mary* rose, embraced them all, and said to her brothers, " Weep not and sorrow not, neither doubt ; for his grace will be with you all and will protect you. Rather let us praise his goodness, that he has prepared us and made us men."' The discussion pro- ceeds, Mary remonstrating with the incredulous disci])les, and finally bursting into tears at a sharp rebuke from Peter. Levi stands up for her, however. But at this point our fragment unfortunately breaks off, and the next episode is an appearance of the risen Christ to John.