GOSPELS, APOCRYPHAL

"Thou hast preached unto them that sleep." And a response was heard from the cross, "Yea."'

4. The Gospel of Nicodemus. — This Gospel embodies the so-called Acts of Pilate, an alleged official report of the procurator to Tiberius concerning Jesus. Tertullian (Apol. V. 2) was apparently acquainted with such a report, and some similar document was known to Eusebius (HE ii. 2) and to Epiphanius (,Hoer, i. 1); but the Acts of PUate known to Eusebius was probably still another and heathen writing. Tischendort held that the Acts of Pilate was known to Justin; but that is doubtful.

Our present Gospel of Nicodemus, embodying this al-leged report of Pilate, was not Itself written until the 5th cent., and therefore is of small historical importance except as it may be regarded as embodying older (but untrustworthy) material. As it now stands it gives an elaborate account of the trial of Jesus, His descent to Hades, resurrection, and ascension. Altogether it contains twenty-seven chapters, each one of which is marked by the general tendency to elaborate the Gospel accounts for homiletic purposes. Beyond its exposition of Jesus' descent into Hades it contains little of doctrinal importance. It is not improbable, however, that chs. 17-27, which narrate this alleged event, are later than chs. 1-16. The Gospel may none the less fairly be said to represent the behef in this visit of Jesus to departed spirits which marked the early and mediseval Church. It is also in harmony with the ante-Anselmic doctrine of the Atonement, in accordance with which Jesus gave Himself a ransom to Satan.

The first sixteen chapters abound in anecdotes con-cerning Jesus and His trial, in which the question of the legitimacy of Jesus' birth is estabhshed by twelve witnesses of the marriage of Mary and Joseph. It relates also that at the trial of Jesus a number of persons, including Nicodemus and Veronica, appeared to testify in His behalf. The accounts of the crucifixion are clearly based upon Lk 23. The story of the burial is further elaborated by the introduction of a number of Biblical characters, who undertake to prove the genuine-ness of the resurrection.

Although the Gospel of Nicodemus was of a nature to acquire great popularity, and has had a profound in-fluence upon the various poetical and homiletic presenta-tions of the events supposed to have taken place between the death and resurrection of Jesus, and although the Acts of Pilate has been treated more seriously than the evidence in its favour warrants, the Gospel is obviously of the class of Jewish Haggadah or legend. It is thus one form of the literature deaUng with martyrs, and apparently never was used as possessing serious his-torical or doctrinal authority until the 13th century.

5. The Protevangelium of James. — This book in its present form was used by Epiphanius in the latter part of the 4th cent., if not by others of the Church Fathers. It is not improbable that it was referred to by Origen under the name of the Book of James. As Clement of Alexandria and Justin Martyr both referred to incidents connected with the birth of Jesus which are related in the ProtevangeUum, it is not impossible that the writing circulated in the middle of the 2nd century.

The Protevangelium purports to be an account of the birth of Mary and of her early life in the Temple, whither she was brought by her parents when she was three years of age, and where at twelve years of age she was married to Joseph, then an old man with children. It includes also an account of the Annuncia-tion and the visit of Mary to EUsabeth, of the trial by ordeal of Joseph and Mary on the charge of having been secretly married, of the birth of Jesus in a cave, and accompanying miracles of the most extravagant sort. The writing closes with an account of the martyrdom of Zacharias and the death of Herod.

It is probable that the chapters dealing with the birth of Jesus are of independent origin from the others.

GOSPELS, APOCRYPHAL

although it is not improbable that even the remainder of the Protevangelium is a composite work, probably of the Jewish Christians, which has been edited in the interests of Gnosticism. The original cannot well be later than the middle of the 2nd cent., while the Gnostic revision was probably a century later.

From the critical point of view the Protevangelium is important as testifying to insistence in the middle of the 2nd cent, upon the miraculous birth of Jesus. It is also of interest as lying behind the two Latin Gospels of pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Jesus; although it may be fairly questioned whether these two later Gospels are derived directly from the ProtevangeUum or from its source.

6. The Gospel according to Thomas. — Hippolytus quotes from a Gospel according to Thomas which was being used by the Naassenes. The Gospel was also known to Origen and to Eusebius, who classes it with the heretical writings. It was subsequently held in high regard by the Manichaeans. It exists to-day in Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions, which, however, do not altogether agree, and all of which are apparently ab-breviated recensions of the original Gospel.

The Gospel of Thomas is an account of the childhood of Jesus, and consists largely of stories of His miraculous power and knowledge, the most interesting of the latter being the account of Jesus' visit to school, and of the former, the well-known story of His causing twelve sparrows of clay to fly.

The book is undoubtedly of Gnostic origin, and its chief motive seems to be to show that Jesus was possessed of Divine power before His baptism. The original Gospel of Thomas, the nature of which is, how-ever, very much in dispute, may have been in existence in the middle of the 2nd century. Its present form is later than the 6th century.

7. The Arabic Gospel of the Childhood of Jesus.— The Arabic Gospel is a translation of a Syriac compilation of stories concerning the child Jesus. Its earlier sections are apparently derived from the Protevan-gelium, and its later ftom the Gospel of Thomas.

This Gospel supplies still further stories concerning the infancy of Jesus, and begins by declaring that Jesus, as He was lying in His cradle, said to Mary, ' I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Logos, whom thou hast brought forth.' The miracles which it narrates are probably the most fantastic of all in the Gospels of the infancy of Jesus. From the fact that it uses other apocryphal Gospels, it can hardly have been written prior to the 7th or Sth century.

8. The Gospel of Philip.— The only clear allusion to the existence of such abookisa reference in Pistis Sophia. From this it might be inferred that from the 3rd cent, such a Gospel circulated among the Gnostics in Egypt. It is of even less historical value than the Protevan-gelium.

9 . The Arabic History of Joseph the Carpenter.— This Gospel undertakes to explain the non-appearance of Joseph in the account of the canonical Gospels. It describes in detail Joseph's death and burial, as well as the lamentation and eulogy spoken over him by Jesus. It is at some points parallel with the Prot-evangelium, but carries the miraculous element of the birth a step farther, in that it makes Jesus say of Mary, ' I chose her of my own will, with the concurrence of my Father and the counsel of the Holy Spirit.' Such a formulary points to the 4th cent, as the time of com-position, but it could hardly have been written later than the Sth cent., as Jesus is said to have promised Mary the same sort of death as other mortals suffer. The work is probably a re-working of Jewish-Christian material, and is not strongly marked by Gnostic quaUties.

10. The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles.— This Gospel is identified by Jerome with the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Tliis, however, is probably a mistake on his

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