SECOND CENTURY.

XV. APOCRYPHAL AND UNCANONICAL

GOSPELS, &c.

Besides the books which form the canon of the New Testament, there are still extant several Gospels, Acts, and other writings, which profess to be the production of the Apostles or of their contemporaries. As these compositions are very rarely met with, even among the clergy themselves, it may not be amiss to give a list of such as have been preserved. They are, nearly all, to be found in volumes bearing the following title:

Codex Apocryphus novi Testamenti, collectus, castigatus, testimoniisque, censuris, et animadversionibus illustratus, a Johanne Alberto Fabricio, S. S. Theol. D. Professore Publ. et h. t. Gymnasii Rectore, editio secunda, emendatior et tertio etiam tomo, separatim venali, aucta. Hamburgi; sumptu viduæ Benjam. Schilleri et Joh. Christoph. Kisneri, Ao 1719.

A new edition of these Apocryphal writings was afterwards meditated by Thilo, a German scholar, and in 1823 appeared a volume with the following title:

Acta S. Thomæ Apostoli, ex codd. Pariss. primum edidit et adnotationibus illustravit Joannes Carolus Thilo, Phil. Doctor et Theol. professor P. E. in Acade

mia Fridericiana. Præmissa est notitia uberior novæ codicis Apocryphi Fabriciani editionis. Lipsiæ, 1823, sumptibus Frid. Christ. Gulielmi Vogelii.

The first volume of the more complete edition which Thilo promised was published in 1832, under the following title:

Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti. E libris editis et manuscriptis, maxime Gallicanis, Germanicis, et Italicis, collectus, recensitus, notisque et prolegomenis illustratus, opera et studio Joannis Caroli Thilo, Phil. et Theol. doctoris hujusque in Academia Fridericia Halensi Professoris. Tomus primus. Lipsiæ, 1832. Sumptibus Frid. Christ. Guilielmi Vogelii; (containing altogether 1056 pages).

This volume is, however, all that has yet appeared, and as it contains some pieces not found in the collection of Fabricius, which, on the other hand, contains several not edited by Thilo, it is necessary for the student to procure all the volumes abovementioned. The principal works which they contain are comprized in the following list:

Protevangelium JACOBI MINORIS.

The Greek title is Διήγησις και ἱστορια πως εγεννηθη ἡ ὑπεραγια θεοτοκος εις ήμων σωτηριαν. In Greek. Thilo, pp. 161-274. Fabric. vol. i, pp. 66—126.

Evangelium THOME ISRAELITE de his quæ adhuc puer patravit Dominus.

The Greek title is Θωμα Ισραηλιτου φιλοσοφου ρητα εις τα Taidia Tоu Kupiov. In Greek. Thilo, pp. 277-315; (called Evangelium infantiæ in Fabricius, where it occurs less complete at vol. i, pp. 159–167.

Evangelium DE NATIVITATE S. MARIÆ.

In Latin only. Thilo, pp. 319-336. Fabric. vol. i, pp. 19-38.

Historia JOSEPHI FABRI lignarii.

This work is in Arabic only, and is found in Thilo, pp. 1–61.

Evangelium infantiæ Servatoris.

In Arabic only. Thilo pp. 65-131. The Latin translation only, by H. Sike, of this Gospel is given in Fabricius, vol. i, pp. 168-212.

Evangelium MARCIONIS.

In Greek. Thilo, pp. 401-486.

Evangelium NICODEMI.

The Greek title is Υπομνηματα του Κυρίου ἡμων Ιησου Χριστου, ά επραχθησαν επι Ποντιου Πιλάτου ἡγεμονευοντος της Ιουδαίας. In Greek. Thilo, pp. 487-816. The Latin translation only, less complete, is found in Fabricius, vol. i, pp. 238-298.

ACTA S. THOMÆ, Græce.

The Greek title is Περιοδος και μαρτυριον του Αγιου Θωμα του Αποστολου.

It is in Greek, and is found only in the volume of Thilo beforementioned.

Epistolæ duæ ad Tiberium imperatorem, PILATO attributæ.

Latin only in Fabricius, vol. i, pp. 298-301.

Epistola LENTULI ad Senatum Romanum.

Latin only in Fabricius, vol. i, p. 301.

Scripta et dicta quæ ad JESUM CHRISTUM relata

Notitia et Fragmenta EVANGELIORUM (XL fere)

APOCRYPHORUM.

In Fabricius, vol. i, pp. 335–386.

ABDIE Apostolica Historia.

Latin only in Fabricius, vol. ii, pp. 402-742.

Notitia et fragmenta ACTUUM APOSTOLICORUM apocryphorum.

Fab. vol. ii, pp. 743-832.

IGNATII epistola ad S. Mariam virginem.

Fab. vol ii, pp. 841-2.

Beatæ virginis MARLE responsio ad Ignatium.

Fab. vol. ii, pp. 843-4.

EJUSDEM epistola ad Messanenses.

Fab. vol. ii, pp. 849-850.

EJUSDEM epistola ad Florentinos.

Fab. vol. ii, p. 852.

PAULI epistola ad Laodicenses, Gr. et Lat.

Fab. vol. ii, pp. 873-879.

Epistolæ PAULI et SENECA, Latine.

Fab. vol. ii, pp. 892-904.

Epistola PETRI ad Jacobum, Gr.

Fab. vol. ii, pp. 907—913.

Liturgia SS. Apostolis JACOBO, PETRO, JOANNI, MATTHEO, MARCO, et LUCE tributæ, Gr. et Lat.

Fab. vol. iii, pp. 1–336.

besides an immense mass of notices concerning other writings of an inferior character, all relating to the Apostolic times.

or

Although we may not deny that the uncanonical Apocryphal Gospels, as they are commonly called, are of very great antiquity, and perhaps even contain some accounts founded upon fact, and not recorded in our canonical books, yet it seems to be admitted that many of them are to be considered as pious frauds. The following remarks of MOSHEIM are not irrelevant :

It is generally true, that delusions travel in a train, and that one mistake produces many. The Christians who adopted this austere system [Asceticism] had certainly made a very false step, and done much injury to their excellent and most reasonable religion. But they did not stop here: another erroneous practice was adopted by them, which, though it was not so general as the other, was yet extremely pernicious, and proved a source of numberless evils to the Christian Church. The Platonists and Pythagoreans held it as a maxim, that it was not only lawful, but even praise-worthy, to deceive, and even to use the expedient of a lie, in order to advance the cause of truth and piety. The Jews, who lived in Egypt, had learned and received this maxim from them, before the coming of Christ, as appears incontestably from a multitude of ancient records; and the Christians were infected from both these sources with the same pernicious error, as appears from the number of books attributed falsely to great and venerable names, from the Sibylline verses, and several supposititious productions which were spread abroad in this [the second] and the following century, It does not indeed seem probable, that all these pious frauds were chargeable upon the prfessors of real Christianity, upon those who entertained just and rational sentiments of the religion of Jesus. The greatest part of these ficti