There were several editions of Jerome's pre tended translation published in the fifteenth cen tury, one of them by Caxton. It is printed by Thilo from a Paris MS. of the fourteenth century, and divided by him imo twenty-four chapters, after a MS. of the fifteenth century in the same li brary. One of the chief objects of the writer of these gospels seems to be to assert the Davidical origin of the Virgin, in opposition to the NIani chees.
It has been supposed that the first author of these ancient legends was a Hellenistic Jew, who lived in the second century, but that they were added to and interpolated by Seleucus at the end of the third, who became their reputed author; and that still further additions were made by the Nestorians, or some late Christians in India. Lardner (Credibility, vol. viii) so far differs from Mr. Jones as to believe the author not to have been a Jew. The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary was received by many of the ancient heretics, and is mentioned by Epiphanius, St. Augustine, and Gelasius. The Gnostics and Manichees en deavored to found on its authority some of their peculiar opinions (such as that Christ was not the Son of God before his baptism, and that he was not of the tribe of Judah, but of that of Levi).
(6) Gospel of Marcion. Although the gospel of Marcion, or rather that of St. Luke as cor rupted by that heretic in the second century, is no longer extant. Professor Hahn has endeavored to restore it from the extracts found in ancient writers, especially Tertullian and Epiphanius. This work has been published by Thilo.
(7) Greek Gospel of St. John. Thilo has also published a collation of a corrupted Greek gos pel of St. John, found in the archives of the Knights Templars in Paris. This work was first noticed (in 1828) by the Danish Bishop Muenter, as well as by Abbe Gregoire, ex-bishop of Blois. It is a vellum MS. in large 4to, said by per sons skilled in palxography to have been executed in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, and to have been copied from a Mount Athos MS. of the twelfth. The writing is in gold letters. It is divided into nineteen sections, which are called gospels, and is on this account supposed to have been designed for liturgical use. These sections, corresponding in most instances with our chap ters (of which,however, the twentieth and twenty first are omitted, are subdivided into verses, the same as those now in use, and said to have been first invented by Robert Stephen (See VERSES). The omissions and interpolations (which latter are in barbarous Greek) represent the heresies and mysteries of the Knights Templars. Notwithstand ing all this, Thilo considers it to be modern, and fabricated since the commencement of the eight eenth century.
(8) Gospel of Nicodemus. One of the most curious of the apocryphal gospels is the Gospel of Nicodemus, or Acts of Pilate. It is a kind of theological romance partly founded on the ca nonical gospels. The first part, to the end of ch. xv., is little more than a paraphrastic account of the trial and death of Christ, embellished with fabulous additions. From that to the end (ch.
xxviii) is a detailed account of Christ's descent into hell to liberate the spirits in prison, the his tory of which is said to have been obtained front Lenthius and Charinus, sons of Simeon, who were two of those 'saints who slept,' but were raised from the dead, and came into the holy city after the resurrection. This part of the history is so far valuable, that it throws some light upon the ancient ideas currentamong Christians on this sub ject. It is therefore considered by Birch (Auctor sum, Proleg. p. vi.) to be as valuable in this re
spect as the writings of the Fathers.
(9) Lost Gospels. Of the gospels no longer extant, we know little more than that they once existed. We read in Irenmus, Epiphanius, Ori gen, Eusebius, and other ecclesiastical writers, of the Gospels of Eve or of Perfection,of Barnabas (ancient and modern), of Bartholomew, of Bas ilides, of Hesychius, of Judas Iscariot, of the Valentinians, of Apollos, of Cerinthus, of the Twelve Apostles, and several others. Some of these were derived from the Gnostics and other heretics; others, as the Gospel of Matthias, are supposed by Mill, Grabe, and most learned men to have been genuine gospels now lost. Those of which we have the fullest details are the Gospel of the Egyptians and that of the Nazarenes. This latter is most probably the same with that of the Hebrews, which was used by the Ebionites. It was supposed by St. Jerome to have been a gen uine Gospel of St. Matthew, who, he says, wrote it in the Hebrew language and letters. He copied it himself from the original in the library of Cmsarea, translated it into Greek and Latin, and has given many extracts from it. Grabe con ceived this gospel to have been composed by Jewish converts soon after our Lord's ascension, before the composition of the canonical Gospel of St. Matthew. Baronius, Grotius, Father Si mon. and Du Pin, look upon it as the Gospel of St. Matthew—interpolated, however, by the Naz arenes. Baronius and Grabe think that it was cited by Ignatius, or the author of the Epistles ascribed to him. Others look upon it as a trans lation altered from the Greek of St. Matthew. Mr. Jones thinks that this gospel was referred to by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians. It is referred to by Hegesippus (Euseb. Eccl. Hist. iv: 22), Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. ii, p. 28o), Origen (Comm. on John; Hons. viii, in Mott.), and Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. :25, 27, 39). anius (then secs. 29, 3o) acquaints us that it was held in great repute by the ancient Judaizing Christians, and that it began thus: 'It came to pass in the days of Herod king of Judma that John came baptizing with the baptism of repent ance in the river Jordan,' etc. It consequently wanted the genealogy and the first two chapters.
(10) The Gospel of the Egyptians is cited by Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. iii, pp. 445, 452, 453, 465), Origen (Hons. in Luc. p. t), Am brose, Jerome (Prol. to his Comm. on Matt.), and Epiphanius (Mares. lxii, sec. 2). Grabe, Mill, Du Pin, and Father Simon, who thought highly of this gospel, looked upon it as one of the works referred to by St. Luke in the commencement of his gospel. Mill ascribes its origin to the Es senes, and supposes this and the former gospel to have been composed in or a little before A. D. 58. It is cited by the Pseudo-Clement (Second Epistle to the Corinthians, or Chevallier's Trans lation. 1833), who is generally supposed to have written not before the third century. (See Car. Chr. Schmidt's C 0014S 071111111114 vet. Apocr. extra Biblio; Kleuker, De Apoc. Novi Testamenti; Hencke, De Pilati octis probab.; W. L. Brunn, tie indole, crtote et 11511 libr. Apoer. vulgo inscripti Evangel. Nicodenti, Berlin, 1794: Birch's Alicia Fasc. t, Hafn. 18o4. Hone's Apocryphal New Testament, London, 1820, which in its ex ternal form was designed to be an imitation of the English New Testament, is of no critical use. The Orthodoxographa of Grynxus, 7 vols. in 2, fol. Basil, 1569. of which there was formerly a copy in the British Museum, which exists there no longer, but there is a fine copy in Air. Dar ling's valuable Clerical Library.) W. \V.