same with the ancient: the quotation in Irenæus, however, goes far to establish the identity, though it is not improbable that much of the original gospel has been lost. It was obviously written in the interests of Docetism; * the whole object of the gospel being to demonstrate, by a recital of infantine and boyish miracles, the super- or rather extra-human nature of our Lord, even from His earliest years, and thus practically to contravene the tenets of Cerinthus, Basilides, and others, who either denied the Divine nature of our Lord, or only admitted its existence after His baptism. fraud contributes the miracles, especially init.), Irenæus (Hær. 1. 20), and Hippolythat of Salome's withered hand and the tus (Ed. Miller, p. 101). It has been escape of Elizabeth; and a semi-gnostic doubted whether the present gospel is the Judaism, such as might be found among the later Ebionites, supplies the dress of the narrative, and much of the intercalary matter. The golden grains of history are but few. The names of the Virgin's parents may perhaps be relied on. It seems not improbable that she might have been as young as twelve or fourteen when married to Joseph, as we find her at a wedding-feast thirty years afterwards. She was not improbably poor, and might have worked for the temple; Celsus calls her xéρvnrıç, and in Luke 11. 24, the offerings made are those of the poorer class. The angel's visit to Joseph was after the Virgin's visit to Elizabeth. Joseph and Mary would seem to have lived at Nazareth before they went to Bethlehem. The place of the nativity was not improbably a cave,* such as are still used in the East to stable cattle in. The Magi seem to have arrived very soon after the Lord's birth. This is all that we dare regard as possible history. We now pass on to a nearly contemporary but far less respectable document. 2. The Gospel of Thomas.† As the Protevangel of James seems the parent of all the later Nativities of Mary, so this present document appears to be the source from which all the marvels of the Infancies are mainly derived. Its literary history is as follows. It was first published from a MS. of the fifteenth century by Cotelerius, in his notes to the Const. Apost. vi. 7, having been previously noticed by Simon (sur le Texte du N. T., p. 5), and Du Cange. Another MS. was found at Bologna, and published by Mingarelli in 1764. He was followed by Thilo, who used a Dresden MS. Tischendorf gives two texts-A, derived from the Bologna and Dresden texts; B, derived from a MS. in the possession of the monks at Mount Sinai. The Latin version is from a MS. in the Vatican. This gospel is of great antiquity, probably but little inferior to that of the Protevangel, being mentioned by Origen (Hom. 1. in Luc. *See especially Justin M., Trypho, § 78, where the same ancient legend is similarly maintained. † The title, as usual, varies very much in the MSS., or apparent references in ancient authors. In earlier times the title seems to have been evayyéλιον Θωμᾶ, οι κατὰ Θωμῶν; in later times, Θωμᾶ Ισραηλίτου ῥητά, οι λόγος εἰς τὰ παιδικὰ τοῦ Κυρίου. In this gospel, then, we can scarcely recognize more than two elements, pious fraud and disguised heresy: the third element in these productions, ancient traditions and a credulity that reproduces or embellishes them, finds here but little place. In fact, if we are to believe St. John, the whole of this and the similar gospels of the Infancy must be conceived all but avowed and self-conscious frauds. The evangelist tells us in very plain terms that the miracle at Cana was the first which our Lord performed; * all the ancient writers confirm this by their complete and unanimous silence; and even the early opponents of Christianity, who charged our Lord with having learnt His power of working miracles while a child in Egypt, never cite an instance of any display of it either in His childhood or boyhood.. The present gospel and its congeners are, on the contrary, nothing but catalogues of miracles and prodigies from the very cradle upwards, and it is only here and there that they pause to give us glimpses of what might have been historically true; of what tradition at least has not wholly passed over in silence, as, for instance, the son's dutiful † Such language as ἀναστρεφόμενος σωματικῶς ἐν Ναζαρέτ, ch. I. (Β.)—τοῦτο τὸ παιδίον γηγενὴς οὐκ tori, ch. VII. (A.)—TO Tαudíov TOUTO A BEDS IN show the animus of the writer. The assertion of ǎyyɛλos bɛov, ch. XVII. (A.)—seems very plainly to Cyril of Jerusalem (Catech. VI. 81), that it was written by Thomas, a disciple of Manes, has been abundantly disproved. *Chrysostom, in his commentary on this pas sage, tells us that there were some who interpreted the words as if it were the first miracle which Christ performed specially in Cana. These good people had not improbably a taste for the Infancy of Thomas which they could not quite give up. following of His reputed father's craft; *|with other boys on the roof of a house, one and even these feeble and broken reflections of possible history only come to us after being distorted through the media of vulgar and undignified legends. In this present gospel, indeed, the miracle-mongering is so gross, and the dogmatical propensions of the writer are so obvious, that it may be reasonably doubted whether, even at the time it first appeared, it was regarded as a regular historical compilation at all. The language is unusually barbarous, the style hopelessly bad, and the narrative itself unconnected and incoherent. The following is a summary of the contents of the document, marked A, in Tischendorf's edition. son. He of the boys falls, and is killed; the rest flee. "Thomas the Israelite makes known to all the brethren the mighty works (ueyaheta) of Jesus Christ. Jesus, when five years, was playing in a brook-course with other boys; he collected the waters in pools and made them clear by his word; out of the mud he made twelve sparrows. This being on the Sabbath day, a Jew tells his father Joseph; the father remonstrates, whereupon Jesus bids the sparrows to take wing. They do so, and the Jews are stricken with amazement (0außnonoavt). The son of Annas the scribe destroys the pools, whereupon Jesus rebukes him, and causes him to wither away. Joseph is blamed for having such a At another time a boy runs against Jesus, and is forthwith struck dead. The parents of the child complain so bitterly, that Joseph expostulates with Jesus; the complainers are struck blind; and Joseph, who goes so far as to pluck the child's ear, is told he has acted with folly. A schoolmaster, Zaccheus, who overheard the words of the child, desires to teach him, and begins This summary is enough to show that this by explaining the letters. Jesus asks him composition is useless for any purposes of how he can presume to teach B when he knows not A, and forthwith explains the mystery of A. Zaccheus is confounded, and gives him back to Joseph. When the Jews offer counsel to Zaccheus, Jesus laughs at them, but heals those whom he had cursed. All fear him. Another day, as he is playing just dead, who had been at work in a building; he raises him, and bids him go on with his work. All are amazed and glorify God." The gospel concludes with the narrative of Jesus teaching in the temple, nearly in the same form as in St. Luke. historical criticism; it is, however, worthy of attention as the parent of the other Infancies, Latin or Arabic; and is certainly noticeable in another point of view, as showing how remarkably, in little more perhaps than one hundred and fifty years, the true conception of our Lord's character could be debased and depraved. These two gospels seem very soon to have been translated and circulated both in the East and in the West. There appear to have been translations of the Protevangel and Gospel of Thomas, both in Syraic, Coptic, Arabic, and Latin; and these, as might easily be imagined, gave a general stimulus in other portions of the church to this kind of composition, and caused every floating legend to be turned to account, and woven | a long chapter. Joachim's presentation of into the apocryphal narrative. We have an himself to the priest on his return, and his interesting example of this process of legend- feast to the elderhood, is not noticed. When ary accretions in a western composition Mary was three years old she not only which we now proceed to consider. walked, but talked, and was more like a 3. The Book of the Nativity of Mary and grown person than an infant.* Her occuthe Infancy of the Saviour. This composi-pations were-from the morning to the third tion is now designated in Tischendorf's hour, prayer; from the third to the ninth, edition as the Pseudo-Matthæi Evangelium,* and seems very probably to have been the document alluded to in the pretended letters of Heliodorus and Chromatius to Jerome. It appeared to have originated within the precincts of the Church, but bears very distinct traces of corruptions in point of doctrine, and also, as the use of the Gospel of Thomas sufficiently proves, of a want of caution in the use of older documents. Ecclesiastical prejudices are seen plainly enough in the glorification of Mary (ch. VI. sq.), the praises of virginity † (ch. vII. sq.), and the reverence for the sacerdotal order. It perhaps is not very much later than the time of Jerome. The literary history is brief. It was first edited by Thilo, from a MS. at Paris, to which attention had been called by Cotelerius. Tischendorf afterwards discovered two more MSS. in Italy, which he judged so much superior to that at Paris as to make them the basis of his edition. These MSS. supply seventeen more chapters, derived, as it would seem, very directly from the Gospel of Thomas, which serve to continue the narrative after the return from Egypt. As the gospel is long, and to a great degree a reproduction of the gospels already analyzed, we will only pause to notice the new matter (derived, perhaps, from oriental sources) about the journey in Egypt, and, in other parts, the different legends that have been followed, or the new matter that has been interpolated. Joachim's piety, especially his division of his property into three parts,-for the poor, the faithful, and his own family,-is enlarged upon. When twenty years of age he marries Anna, and remains twenty years childless. The appearance of the angel to Joachim in the wilderness is expanded into This name has been usually given to the next document, the Nativity of Mary, but appears rightly given by Tischendorf to the present gospel. † The apocryphal writer makes the high-priest say, a sola Maria novus ordo vivendi inventus est que promittit Deo se virginem permanere." 66 spinning and working in wool; from the ninth downwards, prayer. Abiathar, the priest, seeks her in marriage for his son, but Mary refuses, vowing inflexible virginity. It is the Pharisees who object to her stay in the temple after her fourteenth year. Lots are cast to find the tribe from which her guardian is to come. The account of the choice of Joseph (who, as in the Protevangel, appears very reluctant) is studiously embellished. Mary has five virgins to live with her; an angel appears to her at the fountain, and again, three days afterwards, at her house, in the form of a young man of wondrous beauty. Joseph, meanwhile, is absent, engaged in the construction of houses on the sea-coast. Joseph and Mary are proved to be innocent, in the face of all Israel, with much solemnity. The speech of the Virgin about the two peoples is rudely interrupted by Joseph, but commended and explained by an angel. The virginity of Mary at Christ's birth is strongly asserted and somewhat disagreeably enlarged upon. On the third day Mary leaves the cave, and entering a stable, places the child in the manger; on the sixth day they enter Bethlehem, and on the eighth the child is circumcised. The Magi come at the end of the second year, soon after which the flight to Egypt takes place. On their way they enter a cave, which proves to be tenanted by dragons. The dragons worship the child, and fulfil Psalm CXLVIII. 7. Pards and lions do the same the latter act as guides and sumpter mules. A palm-tree is made to bend to yield up its fruit, and to disclose a fountain at its roots. As a reward, a bough of the palm is borne away by an angel, to be planted in Paradise. They approach Egypt, and, not finding an inn, enter a temple; the *One of the earliest descriptions of the Virgin's appearance unfortunately dates nearly a thousand years after her birth. Such, however, is Cedrenus' crine, oculis fulvis ac mediocribus, magno superaccount: "Erat staturâ mediocri, subfusca, fulvo cilio, naso mediocri, ac digitis longis vestes amplexabatur nullo colore tinctas." Ap., Hist. Byzant., Vol. VII., p. 148. idols (three hundred and fifty-five in num- | celibacies and mariolatries. There is so little ber) fall in ruin to the ground. Upon this substantially different from the Protevangel, Affrodisius, governor of the city, and all that a summary is superfluous. his host, hasten to the temple; struck by It is scarcely necessary to say that nothing can be made out of such an agglomeration of folly and fraud. The gospel is built up out of the Protevangel, certain oriental traditions, which we afterwards find in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy, and the Gospel of Thomas. The additions and embellishments are probably pure fiction, and for the most part do not seem referable to any ancient traditions. This gospel is usually found among the the miracle, and warned by Pharaoh's ex-works of Jerome, and has been edited sepaample, they worship and believe in Christ. rately by Fabricius, Thilo, and, after them, The seventeen remaining chapters are only by Tischendorf. It has gained no little celein effect the Gospel of Thomas, with some brity from having been admitted nearly entire few additions and embellishments. The prin- into the Aurea Legenda. cipal addition is the journey of Jesus from 5. Two other gospels complete the group, Jericho to the Jordan, when eight years old, the first of which-the Arabic Gospel of the along a road that was rendered impassable by Infancy-demands some little attention as a liones and her whelps. When Jesus ap-being in many respects an Oriental counterpears on it, the lions hasten to meet and part of the Latin gospel of the same name. adore him, and the whelps play at his feet. It appears similarly composed of three eleHe crosses the Jordan with these dangerous ments-the Protevangel, Eastern, or what companions, the waters dividing on the right might be also termed Egyptian, traditions, hand and on the left. and the Gospel of Thomas, with some additions, which might have formed a part of that ancient and now fragmentary composition. The Latin Infancy, however, contains far more of the Protevangel, while it very briefly notices the Egyptian miracles; the Arabic Infancy, on the contrary, as might easily be imagined, reflects much of the second element, while it retains but little of the first. The miracles in Egypt, 'indeed, occupy no less 4. Our fourth document is the Gospel of than sixteen chapters, and may just claim a the Nativity of Mary, a production more passing notice. If not edifying, they are at creditable and respectable than the preceding any rate somewhat amusing. The first and one, which, indeed, it was not improbably third parts need scarcely detain us. intended to displace. It is written in a sober This curious production is, with some reastyle, and is a very good specimen of a west-son, ascribed to the Nestorians, and is said ern adaptation of the Protevangel-in some to bear evident marks of having been transparts by way of abbreviation, in others by lated from the Syriac. It appears to have expansion. Several of the same dogmatical been extremely popular all over the East, prejudices, especially with regard to the vir- and even to have found its way into Persia, ginity of Mary, are as apparent as in the preceding Infancy, but the composition is very superior, both in taste and doctrine, and seems certainly to be referable to a Catholic writer, who might have written in good faith, and have sinned more from credulity than deliberation. The events noticed in the Protevangel subsequent to the Annunciation are disposed of by this writer in a single chapter, a remark, affecting to come from Jerome, *This is founded especially on the titles given to being added to the preceding chapter, in- our Lord, which vary according as Christ, or Jesus timating that it will be better to refer for Christ is the term made use of. If the former, it is ο δεσπότης Χριστός; if the latter, it was ὁ Κύριος these to the canonical Gospels. The work is 'Inoous. The book, moreover, is known to have a Nativity of Mary, and nothing else-in a been much used by the adherents of this sect. word, a respectably-written plea for early where the compiler alludes to the four canonical †This seems fairly deducible from ch. XXV., *For instance, as early as at the Annunciation, Gospels under the title of the "perfect gospel." the future destiny of the Virgin is declared-The reference at the end of ch. IX. of the Latin Na "Virgo concipies, virgo paries, virgo nutries."-ch. tivity to the Gospels seems to point in the same direction. IX. traces having been discovered of a Persian Infancy which certainly had some points in common with the present. There appear some reasons for supposing that it was drawn up to be read at festivals, and belonged to a class of documents which were never regarded, even by those who compiled them, as in any degree of the same historical character as the canonical Scriptures. In fact, both in this and in the Latin gospels, we seem fast man. Further on their way, a bride who passing into a later era of apocryphal literature has been rendered dumb by sorcerers is healed; -when pious fabrications were deemed useful and in the next place at which they arrive, and edifying, and when legendary compila- another sufferer, whom Satan was accustomed tions found favor in the eyes of the faithful, to embarce in the form of a serpent, is freed even though they might seem a little to overstep the bounds of truth and probability. History and even tradition now recede further into the background, and pious fraud begins to reign supreme. from her misery by a kiss from the holy child. A maiden who was white with leprosy is cleansed with the water with which the child was washed, and desires to accompany them. The same water cures a prince's This gospel was first published in 1697, by son. The travellers then meet with three Dr. Henry Sike, then an Oriental scholar of women leading and tending a mule, which some pretension, and afterwards professor of turns out to be their brother, whom wicked Hebrew in our University. Sike purchased women had changed into that shape. On the MS. at Leyden, at a public sale, his at- their entreaty the Lady Mary places the child tention having been previously called to it by upon the mule, who straightway becomes a two quotations from it, which Hinckelmann young man. To prevent further mischief, had made in his preface to the Koran. Thilo he is married with much solemnity to the republished both the Arabic and Sike's trans- maiden that was with them. As they jour`lation in his Codex Apocryphus, after having ney onward, they come upon a company of submitted both original and translation to robbers sleeping, two of whom, however, the emendations of Professor Rödiger. Tis-Titus and Dumachus, perceive the travellers. chendorf published only the translation, again Titus, with some difficulty, bribes Dumachus retouched by Fleischer. The style of the to be silent, and the holy family pass unmooriginal is said to resemble that of the Erpenian Arabic version of the New Testament; but as the age of the latter is uncertain, this literary fact is of but little use in fixing the date of this gospel. It would seem most probably to belong to the close of the fifth, or early part of the sixth, century. lested. These two, our Lord teils his mother, will be crucified on each side of him, Titus, of course, occupying the right-hand position. Near Matarea, Jesus calls forth a fountain, in which Mary washes his coat; from his sweat comes balsam. They then go on to Memphis, and see Pharoah; there they abide three years. Then follows a series of miracles which took place on the return to Judea, all of a similar character; they may have been derived from the Gospel of Thomas when in its complete state, but they differ from the miracles recorded in that gospel in being far more of a beneficent character. Only two or three recal to us the freakish and malevolent child of the earlier narrative. The first part contains a few additions to the Protevangel, the most noticeable of which is that the infant Jesus, when lying in his cradle, announced to his mother that he was the Son of God. The details of the journey into Egypt form, however, the portion which most deserves attention. These we will briefly notice. When the holy family arrive in Egypt, they go for lodging to a temple; the idol announces that an unknown God has arrived, and straightway falls down and is 5. The next composition which, though destroyed. The son of the priest, who was perhaps a little earlier, may be placed here as grievously afflicted by devils, is healed by a completing this group, is The History of newly-washed portion of our Lord's swad-Joseph. Like the last production, it is in ling clothes, which he places on his head.* Arabic, and has enough Oriental richness On their journey they come to a den of rob- about it, and, at times, enough simplicity, to bers, the occupants of which flee, thinking render it tolerably readable. It was, perhaps, that a king with his army was coming. In the next city, a demoniac young woman is healed, out of whom Satan departs in a form possibly only too common-that of a young We may, perhaps, compare with this, Acts XIX. 12; or the Evangelical narrative, Matt. ix. 20, sq., Mark v. 25, sq., Luke vIII. 43, sq., may have suggested the fable. originally written in Coptic, and seems to have been drawn up in its present form to be read at the festival of Joseph,t who was Fragments in Coptic of this composition are still extant; see Thilo, Codex Apocr., p. xxII. † According to the Acta Sanct. for March 19, vol. III., p. 7, the Catholics of the East observed July 20 as the festival of Joseph, and read his life |