There are some apocryphal sayings of Christ preserved by Irenacus, but his most remarkable observation is that Christ `lived and taught beyond his fortieth or even fiftieth year.' This he founds partly on absurd inferences drawn from the character of his mission, partly on John viii. 57, and also on what he alleges to have been John's own testi mony, delivered to the presbyters of Asia. It is scarcely necessary to refute this absurd idea, which is in contradiction with all the statements in the genuine gospels. There is also an absurd saying attributed to Christ by Athenag,oras, Legat. pm Christianis, cap. 28.
There are various sayings ascribed to our Lord by Clemens Alexandrinus and several of the Fathers. One of the most remarkable is, ' Be ye skilful money-changers.' This is supposed to have been contained in the Gospel of the Nazarenes. Others think it to have been an early interpolation into the text of Scripture. Origen and Jerome cite it as a saying of Christ's.
In Origen, Contra Celsum, lib. i. is an apocry phal history of our Saviour and his parents, in which it is reproached to Christ that he was born in a mean village, of a poor woman who gained her livelihood by spinning, and was turned off by her husband, a carpenter. Celsus adds that Jesus was obliged by poverty to work as a servant in Egypt, where he learned many powerful arts, and thought that on this account he ought to be esteemed as a god. There was a similar account contained in some apocryphal books extant in the time of St. Augustine. It was probably a Jewish forgery. Augustine, Epiphanius, and others of the Fathers equally cite sayings and acts of Christ, which they probably met with in the early apocryphal gospels.
There is a spurious hymn of Christ's extant, ascribed to the Priscillianists by St. Augustine. There are also many such acts and sayings to be found in the Koran of Mahomet, and others in the writings of the Mohammedan doctors (see Toland's Nazerenus).
There is a prayer ascribed to our Saviour by the same persons, which is printed in Latin and Arabic in the learned Selden's Commentary on Eutychius's Annals of Alexandria, published at Oxford, in 165o, by Dr. Pococke. It contains a petition for pardon of sin, which is sufficient to stamp it as a forgery.
We must not omit to mention here the two curious acts of Christ recorded, the one by Eusebius, and the other by Evagrius. The first of these included a letter said to have been written to our Saviour by Agbarus (or Abgarus), king of Edessa, requesting him to come and heal a disease under which he laboured. The letter, together with the supposed reply of Christ, are preserved by Eusebius. This learned historian asserts that he obtained the documents, together with the history, from the public registers of the city of Edessa, where they existed in his time in the Syriac language, from which he translated them into Greek.
These letters are also mentioned by Ephraem Syrus, deacon of Edessa, at the close of the fourth century. Jerome refers to them in his comment on
Matt. x., and they are mentioned by Pope Gelasius, who rejects them as spurious and apocryphal. They are, however, referred to as genuine by Evagrius and later historians. Among modern writers the genuineness of these letters has been maintained by Dr. Parker, in the preface to his Demonstration o) the Law of Nattem, and the Christian Religion, part ii. § 16, p. 235 ; by Dr. Cave, in his Histories Literaria, vol. i. p. 23 ; and by Grabe, in his Spiel/es/um Patrum, particularly p. 319. On the other hand, most writers, including the great majority of Roman Catholic divines, reject them as spurious. Mr. Jones, in his valuable work on the Canonical Authority of the Nezv Testament, al though he does not venture to deny that the Acts were contained in the public registers of the city of Edessa, yet gives it, as a probable conjecture, in favour of which he adduces some strong reasons, drawn from internal evidence, that this whole chapter (viz. the 13th of the first book) in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius is itself an inter polation. [EPISTLES, SruErous.] The other apocryphal history related by Eva gnus, out of Procopius, states that Agbarus sent a limner to draw the picture of our Saviour, but that not being able to do it by reason of the brightness of Christ's countenance, our ' Saviour took a cloth, and laying it upon his divine and life-giving face, he impressed his likeness on it.' This story of Christ's picture is related by several, in the Second Council of Nice, and by other ancient writers, one of whom (Leo) asserts that he went to Edessa, and saw ' the image of Christ, not made with hands, worshipped by the people.' This is the first of the four likenesses of Christ mentioned by ancient writers. The second is that said to have been stamped on a handkerchief by Christ, and given to Veronica, who had followed him to his crucifixion. The third is the statue of Christ, stated by Euse bius to have been erected by the woman whom i.e had cured of an issue of blood, and which the learned historian acquaints us he saw at Cresarea Philippi (Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. vii. 8). Sozomen and Cassiodorus assert that the emperor Julian took down this statue and erected his own in its place. It is, however, stated by Asterius, a writer of the fourth century, that it was taken away by Maximinus, the predecessor of Constantine. The fourth picture is one which Nicodemus presented to Gamaliel, which was preserved at Berytus, and which having been crucified and pierctAd with a spear by the Jews, there issued out from the side blood and water. This is stated in a spurious treatise concerning the passion and image of Christ, falsely ascribed to Athanasius. Eusebius the his torian asserts (hoc. cit.) that he had here seen the pictures of Peter, Paul, and of Christ himself, in his time (See also Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. v. 21).