Apocrypha. Thus, the Gospel according to the Hebrews.

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1 Apocrypha This article deals with the group of disparate writings on biblical subjects appearing in the age of the New Testament or within immediate memory of it, and sometimes claiming a similar warrant. The simple test is their exclusion from the canonical writings. Contemporary interest in history and improved method in this area, important recent documentary finds and evidence that the texts were more ancient than had been hitherto believed, now ensure a respect for them previously denied. Another factor counts in Marian theology. They are at the origin of three feasts of Our Lady: the Conception, the Nativity and the Presentation. Their influence on literature, on art especially, has often been more marked than that of the canonical gospels. They tend to affect the fabric of private revelations. While often demonstrably unreliable on fact, they have influenced the development of doctrine, notably in the Assumption of Our Lady; they are particularly valuable as evidence of popular piety, which too is a factor in doctrinal growth. They are dealt with here in broadly identifiable categories. The Assumption Apocrypha are treated in a separate article. 1. Jewish Christian Apocrypha of the first and second centuries. Jewish Christian gospels of a Synoptic kind have been given different names: Gospel according to the Hebrews; Gospel of the Ebionites; Gospel of the Nazaraeans (Nazorites); Hebrew Gospel according to Matthew; Gospel of the Twelve (Apostles). What works actually correspond to these titles is not certain. Passages of Marian interest are the following: When Christ wished to come upon the earth to men, the good Father summoned a mighty heavenly power called Michael, and entrusted Christ to its care. And the power came into the world, and it was called Mary, and Christ was in her womb seven months. Such exchangeable appellations of angels and sacred figures occur in Jewish Christian literature. Origen had noted that the Holy Spirit was called Christ s mother, an error due probably to the feminine gender of Ruah. Even so did my mother, the Holy Spirit, take me by one of my hairs and carry me away on to the great mountain Tabor. Thus, the Gospel according to the Hebrews. The Gospel of the Nazaraeans has an interesting passage on the Mother of the Lord and his brothers: Behold, the mother of the Lord and his brothers said to him: John the Baptist baptizes unto the remission of sins, let us go and be baptized by him. But he said to them: wherein have I sinned that I should go and be baptized by him? Unless what I have said is ignorance. The Gospel of the Ebionites has a fragment which resembles the Synoptic account of Jesus true family. It also has heretical elements. Christ is said to be born of human seed and to be the adopted Son of God. After the baptism by

2 John the voice from heaven said, On this day have I begotten thee. A Gospel of Peter is mentioned by Origen who thought that from it or, the Book of James (the Protevangelium), came the idea that the Brothers of the Lord were sons of Joseph by a former marriage; the idea is in the Book of James. A fragment in the Gospel of Peter on the Passion and Resurrection makes no mention of Mary at the foot of the Cross. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, unlike the previous apocrypha which exist only in fragments, is textually complete, though partially in different versions. Theories on authorship differ, whether it is the work of a Jew with later Christian interpolations, or of a Christian working on Jewish documents. It was complete certainly before 200 A.D. The relevant Marian passage is in Ch. 19, v.8 of the Testament of Joseph, an unusual vision: And I saw that a virgin was born from Judah (and I saw in the midst of the horns a virgin) wearing a robe of fine linen (a many-colored robe); and from her was born a spotless lamb and he had at his right, as it were, a lion and all the beasts (and all the reptiles) rushed against him and the lamb overcame them, trampling on them. Variants are indicated but the word parthenos (virgin) is common to both versions. The fine linen, according to Rev 19:8, the distinctive attire of the Church, spouse of the Lamb. Psalm 44:14, echoed in the phrase a many-colored robe, refers in general to the spouse of the royal Messiah and was understood by the Fathers of the Church in terms of the Church as the spouse of Christ. We have then hint of the Mary-Church typology. The Ascension of Isaiah is a Jewish composition to which a Jewish Christian writer, probably in the second century, added a vision of the prophet. A passage on the miraculous appearance of the Christ child is a further interpolation of uncertain date. The prophet saw Mary of the house of David who was betrothed to Joseph of the same lineage. He tells of Mary s pregnancy, which, he says, was found when she was betrothed, and of Joseph s wish to put her away. But the angel of the Spirit appeared in this world; and after that, Joseph did not put Mary away. He kept her but did not reveal the matter to anyone. And he did not approach Mary but kept her as a holy virgin, although she was with child. And he did not yet live with her for two months. After two months Joseph was in his house with his wife Mary, the two of them alone. It came to pass, while they were alone, that Mary suddenly beheld with her eyes and saw a little child; and she was amazed. When her amazement wore off, her womb was found as it was before she was with child. And when her husband Joseph said to her What amazed you?, his eyes were opened; and he saw the child and praised God that the Lord had come to his portion. And a voice came to them: Tell this vision to no one. But the report concerning the child was noised abroad in Bethlehem. Some said, The Virgin Mary has given birth before she was married two months ; and many said: She has not given birth; the midwife has not gone up to her, and we heard no cries of pain.

3 A later phrase he was like any other child, lest anyone should know him (II: 17) recalls St. Ignatius of Antioch s opinion that Mary s virginity was unknown to the prince of this world. There is also an explicit mention of the virginitas in partu: the birth was painless. We did not hear any cries of pain, say the inhabitants; Mary s womb was unchanged. The absence of a midwife is also affirmed in the Odes of Solomon, a Jewish Christian hymnbook of first or early second century origin. They were discovered in a Syriac manuscript in 1909 and the original language has been the subject of much debate; it may have been Syriac. The Marian passage is in Ode 19: The womb of the Virgin took it and she received conception and brought forth: and the Virgin became a mother with great mercy; and she travailed and brought forth a Son without incurring pain. And it did not happen without purpose, and she had not sought a midwife, for he brought her to bear. She brought forth, as a man, of her own will, and she brought him forth as a sign and acquired him in great power. And she loved him in salvation, and guarded him in kindness and showed him in majesty. The phrase, acquired him in great power, may echo Gen 4:1 when Eve says, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. The sign may be a reference to Is 7:14; as a man could indicate Mary s consent, her cooperation with God. Book Eight of the Sibylline Oracles has material which may have been added in the late second century to a work of Jewish-Hellenistic origin: Mary is a pure virgin, (parthenos agne). Some unusual elements are added to the Lucan Annunciation narrative: And the maiden laughed, her cheeks flushed scarlet, gladly rejoicing and touched in her heart with shame; then she took courage. The Word flew into her body, was made flesh in time and brought forth to life in her womb, was molded to mortal form and became a boy by virgin birth-pangs. This, a great wonder to mortals, is not greater wonder to God the Father and to God the Son. When the child was born, delight came upon the earth, the heavenly throne laughed, and the world rejoiced; a new-shining star, Godappointed, was revered by the Magi. Some lines recovered from the so called Sibylline Theosophy, probably to be read towards the end of Book One, refer to the maid who will give birth to the Logos of God Most High but as wedded wife shall give to the Logos a name. A star will shine from the East. There is a touching addition to the story of the loaves and fishes: Christ had the twelve baskets of fragments gathered for the holy Virgin. There is a hint too of Mary s intercession: For he gave seven periods for penance to men astray, thanks to the Holy Virgin. 2. Mary in the Nativity and Infancy Gospels. The original title of The Book of James or Protevangelium was The Nativity of Mary. The name, The Book of James, was first used by Guillaume Postel in the

4 16th century; the author poses as James, probably James the brother of the Lord. Accepted scholarly opinion was completely upset by the discovery in 1958 of a third century papyrus of the work. The critical edition was made by Fr. de Strycker on the basis of three papyri, several manuscripts (including a ninth century palimpsest), Syrian, Sahidic and Armenian versions, and a Georgian version of an Armenian text. Until then, critical opinion, deriving from Harnack, saw the text as a composite product of three separate documents, of differing dates. According to Fr. de Strycker, the theory of the three documents is devoid of any foundation either in the domain of external or internal evidence. The whole work is from before 200 A. D. and may be decades earlier than this date. The influence of the Protevangelium has been considerable through a large family of texts which borrowed from it. The first seventeen chapters of the Latin gospel of Pseudo-Matthew draw on it as a principal source. The work is hagiography composed to match the piety of the age towards Mary. Obviously influenced by the gospels it has additional biographical elements Mary is a descendant of David. Her parents are named, Joachim and Anne, Old Testament names (Susanna, 4; and 1 Sam 1:19,20). They receive their child, Mary, in answer to prayers. Joseph, her husband, is an aged widower with children, he is chosen for her miraculously; the virginitas in partu is affirmed by a midwife. The Protevangelium differs from the gospel record in some points, the Annunciation is made in Jerusalem, but Jesus birth takes place in a cave near Bethlehem, and adds considerably elsewhere to the narrative, especially in the sequel for Joseph and Mary to the virginal conception. Three feasts of Mary, the Conception, the Nativity and the Presentation in the Temple, and the feasts of her parents derive from the apocrophon. The narrative of Anne s conception of Mary implies strongly that the conception must be virginal, from which special preservation from sin would follow. Doctrine was affected in another way. The Presentation of Mary in the Temple and the details added to it serve not only to emphasize Mary s holiness, but, by inspiring the feast, influenced continuous reflection and an immense homiletic literature in the Eastern Church. No such profound and permanent effect can be traced to the apocryphal gospels of the infancy: the Gospel of Thomas, described as an Israelite and philosopher; the Arabic gospel of the Infancy; and the Armenian gospel of the Infancy. The analysis of these compilations, of their origins and interrelations, would be a long enterprise. They aim at filling in the gap left by the canonical gospels between the Flight into Egypt and the Public Life of the Savior. Invention is at times unbridled and if the result here and there is touching, it is more often bizarre, distasteful and shocking. There is an occasional flash of

5 light. Thus, in the Armenian gospel, Joseph, as he sought the midwife, met Eve who came to see the promise of redemption fulfilled; in the Protevangelium, Joseph himself recalls that the serpent carne and found Eve alone and deceived her. The Arabic gospel narrates two miracles wrought by the Infant Jesus after a petition addressed to his Mother: a woman, oppressed by a demon, asks Mary to give her the divine Child, and when her request is granted, the demon is put to flight; three women whose brother has been changed into a mule beg Mary s pity. When the Mother places the Child on the mule, he returns to his human condition. The Gospel of Thomas concludes its account of the Finding in the Temple with words from Lk I :42: Blessed art thou among women, because God hath blessed the fruit of thy womb. For such glory and such excellence and wisdom we have neither seen nor heard at any time. The History of Joseph the Carpenter is an Egyptian composition sprung from the cult of the saint in that area. The work, at least in its present form, is now dated in the seventh century, a radical revision of the opinion deriving from Tischendorf, who placed it about the fourth century. The work is complete in Arabic and Bohairic, and exists in fragments in Sahidic, including some discovered in the present century. Variations in the versions point to a more ancient original text, possibly more detailed Greek according to some authorities, Sahidic for others. The book falls into two parts, of which the first (Ch I-II) deals with the early life of St. Joseph, the Holy Family and the infancy of Jesus, and the second (Ch 12-32) with the sickness, death and burial of the saint. Each part contains unusual elements. Joseph, a native of Bethlehem, was married at the age of forty. His wife died after forty nine years of marriage and, after one year, the priests of the Temple, casting lots among twelve old men of the tribe of Juda, entrusted Mary, then twelve years old, as fiancée to him, on whom the lot had fallen. She cared for James, the youngest of his six children, four sons and two daughters. There is no mention of the Annunciation or Visitation, nor later of the Magi. The mystery of the Incarnation took place two years after Mary's entry to Joseph s home and the saint s anxiety, poignantly described, was lifted by an angelic visitation. Mary s Child was due to the operation of the Holy Spirit. The sojourn in Egypt lasted one year. The second part of the work tells, with much detail, the story of Joseph approaching death at the age of one hundred and eleven, disturbed by strange fears. Mary and Jesus are present, and Jesus, by his prayer, assures relief. Joseph s soul is borne aloft by angels, led by Michael and Gabriel, and his body will be preserved from corruption. Those who commemorate the saint, honor his sanctuary, give alms in his name or write his life, or of his death, will be

6 blessed. They will be entrusted to him in life and at death have their sins wiped out, a remarkable sign of devotion to the saint in early times. The poor are to give Joseph s name to their sons, ensuring thus preservation from famine and disease. Mary s threefold virginity is emphasized. Joseph refers to the seal of her virginity which she preserved, and if the title, Mother of God, is not used, her Son is called by Joseph my Lord and my God, my Savior and truly the Son of God. The apocrophon most diffused in the West, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, in its first seventeen chapters, draws heavily on the Protevangelium and, in chapters twenty-five to the end, on the Gospel of Thomas. There are omissions and much additional material, the latter sometimes reflecting patristic thought. The accepted date was the eighth century, but the most recent critical editor, G. Gijsel, colleague of E. de Strycker, places it about 550, hoping to reach a more precise year when the history of this basic adaptation of the Protevangelium is disentangled from that of translations which in fact preceded it. A short Liber de Nativitate Mariae, spuriously attributed to St. Jerome, may have been composed by Paschasius Radbert. 3. Apocrypha of the Passion and Resurrection. Mary figures in the dialogues which make up the Questions of Bartholomew, which may represent the Gospel of Bartholomew, mentioned by St. Jerome. Through a complicated textual ancestry, scholars point to a third or fourth century Egyptian origin. Marian piety at the time is strikingly illustrated. Already, titles of Mary begin to appear. She is called Kecharitomene (highly favored) almost as a proper name. Tabernacle of the most High, Salvation of the world, Mother, Queen, Servant, Mother of the heavenly King. Mary is asked by Bartholomew on behalf of the apostles how thou didst conceive the incomprehensible, or how thou didst bear him that cannot be carried, or how thou didst bring forth so much greatness. Here is an early expression of Mary s role in divine revelation, of her influence on the Apostles. They ask her to pray, after which she recounts the Annunciation in a strangely amplified form, alleging that God himself had told her three years before the event: I will send my Word unto thee. Her intercession is assumed when Peter asks her to entreat the Lord that he would reveal unto us the things that are in the heavens, and the Mary- Eve contrast is recalled when Peter says to Mary: Thou art she who hast brought to naught the transgression of Eve, changing it from shame into joy. In Coptic only, there is further material, attributed to Bartholomew, a book of the resurrection, notable for an account of the risen Christ's appearance to Mary. When Mary made her act of faith, Jesus addresses her in terms of praise and of such theological import that the precise dating of the Coptic version would be

7 helpful: Hail to thee who hast borne the life of the whole world. Hail, my Mother, my saintly Ark... The whole of paradise rejoices because of thee. I tell thee, my Mother, whoever loves thee, loves life. Another set of fourth century documents bears the title Gospel of Nicodemus or Acts of Pilate, originating in the belief that Pilate had sent to the Roman emperor an account of the trial and death of Christ. Again, the textual history is complicated. Inset in the alleged story of the trial of Jesus by the Roman governor is an accusation by the Jews that the Savior was illegitimate. Chapter X of the long recension enlarges the story of the carrying of the Cross: Mary, informed by John, met Jesus on the way, cried out in anguish and fainted (whence the fourth Station of the Cross). A long poignant lament by Mary at the foot of the Cross is given. With the cycle of Pilate stories is also grouped the Gospel of Gamaliel, which also recounts Mary s lament, compared to that of Jacob for Joseph, and, with much detail, an apparition of the risen Jesus to his Mother. 4. Acts and Apocalypses. The Acts of John, in their extant condition, have no reference to Mary. The Acts of Paul, composed by a priest in Asia Minor in the second century (c ), mention Mary s virginity in the part dealing with St. Thecla, and in the apocryphal letter of the saint to the Corinthians. A Greek papyrus, published in 1959, clears up a problem raised by the previously known manuscripts, the Holy Ghost being sent forth from heaven from the Father unto her by the angel Gabriel. The papyrus reads: Our Lord Jesus Christ was born of Mary, of the race of David, the Holy Spirit having been sent to her from heaven by the Father that he might appear in this world and free all flesh by his flesh. The Acts of Peter, possibly originating also in Asia Minor sometime after 150 and before 200 have a lengthy passage on the virginal motherhood. The author adduces a number of texts which he calls prophetic: Who shall declare his generation (Is 53:8); In the last times shall a child be born of the Holy Ghost: his mother knoweth not a man, neither doth any man say that he is his father (a composite text from Mt 1:18-19 and Lk 1 :34-35); Behold a virgin shall conceive in the womb (Is 7:14; Neither did we hear her voice, neither did a mid-wife come in (the Ascension of Isaiah); A stone was cut out without hands, and smote all the kingdoms (Dan 2:34, commonly applied by the Fathers to the virginal conception). Before this last quotation, occurs an alleged prophecy, echo of Jn 3:13, which seems to favor Docetism, that His Body was not real: Born not of the womb of a woman, but from a heavenly place he came down. The general context does not favor Docetism. The strange medley of prophetic quotations shows the author s deficiency; his belief in the virginal conception is rock solid.

8 In writings kindred to these Acts, the Passion of St. Andrew and the Passion of Bartholomew, there is reference to the virginal motherhood with the patristic image of the virgin earth. The author of the second work speaks of Mary as the first to take the vow of virginity. Both writings may have been influenced by St. Irenaeus. The Apocalypse of Peter contains nothing about Our Lady, but the Apocalypse of Paul does. This work, from the latter half of the fourth century, describing Paul s visions when he was taken up to the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2), was widely popular, known to St. Augustine, and quoted by Dante. There is manuscript variation and the Latin version enlarges on the references to Mary: a) in XLI stating that those who are cast into the sealed well of the abyss are they who have not confessed that the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus Christ (the Greek version adds the word Theotokos) b) in XLVI, describing the vision of the Virgin Mary, coming in glory accompanied by angels, greeting Paul as one dearly beloved of God and angels and men, and informing him of his high repute among the blessed. The saints besought Jesus, her Son and Lord, that they might see Paul in the flesh, because he had led so many into the Kingdom. Then Latin manuscripts add: But I say unto thee, Paul, that for this cause I come first to meet them that have performed the will of my Son and my Lord Jesus Christ, even I come first to meet him and leave them not as strangers until they meet with him in peace. This is a remarkable statement of the power of Mary, of her status in the realm of the blessed. There are Apocalypses of the Virgin, kindred to the Assumption Apocrypha, but branching off to a special theme, Mary s visit to the lower regions and her prayers on behalf of the damned. As in the Assumption Apocrypha, St. Michael is prominent in these compositions. Dialogue between him and Mary is a device, as a dialogue between her and her divine Son. The Ethiopian version shows the influence of the Apocalypse of Paul. Abundant evidence is found in these texts of Mary s intercession which, in the loosely defined Byzantine picture of the hereafter, could embrace those in hell. One present-day specialist, A. A. Wenger, dates them earlier than the first editors; there is still much scope for research. 5. Nag Hammadi Apocrypha. Two of the Coptic Gnostic texts found in the neighborhood of Nag Hammadi in 1945 are gospels : the Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel of Philip, clearly dependent on the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke, interprets the gospel persons symbolically. Mary and Joseph are spoken of as the parents of Jesus, but the Virgin Mother is presented as a heavenly power, the Holy Spirit. Jesus true Father is the Father in heaven. Examples are: Adam came into being from two virgins, from the Spirit and from the virgin earth. Christ, therefore, was born from a virgin to rectify the fall which occurred at the

9 beginning. It was he, Joseph, who made the cross from the trees which he planted. His own offspring hung on that which he planted. His offspring was Jesus, and the planting was the cross... The Gospel of Philip may in part go back to the second century. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings or logia of Jesus which in its present Coptic version is dated, at latest, about the first half of the fifth century. The primitive text may go back to 140 A. D., and come from sources still more ancient. A number of the logia refer to Mary. Logion 79 adds LK 23:29 to Lk 11 : In Logion 99, Jesus, in answer to the word from his disciples that his brothers and mother were standing outside, said: Those here who do the will of my Father, they are my brothers and my mother; these are they who shall enter the kingdom of my Father. Logion 101 reads: Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become my disciple. And whoever does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become my disciple, for my mother gave me falsehood but my true mother gave me life. Logion 105 reads: Whoever knows father and mother shall be called the son of a harlot. The concluding passage, Logion 114, reads thus Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary go out from among us, because women are not worthy of the Life. Jesus said: See, I shall lead her, so that I shall make her male, that she too may become a living spirit, resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 6. A different document is the Epistula Apostolorum, of which an Ethiopic version was found in Fragmentary Coptic papyri and later Latin fragments also exist. Scholars differ on the date, some placing it in the second century. It contains a story also found in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, of the boy Jesus challenging his teacher when asked to say Alpha, he would have answered First you tell me what Beta is. Much more important is the creedal statement in the beginning of the work: We believe that the word that became flesh through the holy Virgin Mary, was carried (conceived) in her womb by the Holy Spirit, was born not of the lust of the flesh but by the will of God, was wrapped in swaddling clothes, made known at Bethlehem; and that he was reared and grew up, as we saw.