THIRD PERIOD-A. D. 120 to 130.

CHAPTER X.

THE THREE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS.

THE PROTEVANGELION.

Of the extant gospels of the second century, the three most ancient are, the Protevangelion, or Book of James, the Gospel of the Infancy, and the Acts of Pilate, or Gospel of Nicodemus.

The Protevangelion was attributed to the apostle James, and was called by Origen, "The Book of James."

It is generally considered one of the oldest gospels of the second century; probably appearing about the third decade. The name, "First Gospel," would indicate it to be the first of certain writings of the kind.

The following is an abstract of its contents:

THE PROTEVANGELION.

CHAPTER 1.-An account of Joachim, and of the refusal of his offerings in the temple, which were despised, because he had no children.

CHAPS. 2 and 3.-Anna, the wife of Joachim, mourns her barrenness, and has a conversation upon the subject with her maid, Judith.

CHAPS. 4 to 7.-The angel announces to Anna that she is to have a child.

She brings forth a daughter, and calls her name Mary.

When Mary was nine months old, she walked nine steps. When she was a year old, Joachim gave a great feast to the priests, scribes, elders, and all the people of Israel.

When she was three years old, they took her to the temple, accompanied by the daughters of the Hebrews, carrying lamps.

CHAPS. 8 and 9.-She continued in the temple, and received her food from the hand of an angel. When she was twelve years old, the priests met in consultation, to determine what to do with her. Zacharias, the high priest, consulting the Lord, was told to summon the widowers with their rods, etc. The priest took the rods, and went into the temple to pray. After finishing his prayer, he came out and distributed the rods.

"The last rod was taken by Joseph, and behold, a dove proceeded out of the rod, and flew upon the head of Joseph." The high priest then designated Joseph as the one to take the virgin.

"But Joseph refused, saying: 'I am an old man, and have children; but she is young, and I fear lest I should appear ridiculous in Israel.'" The priest insisting, Joseph took her to his house, and then went away, to mind his trade of building.

CHAP. 10.-Mary selected by the priests to spin the true purple, for a new veil for the temple.

CHAP. 11.-The announcement to Mary by the angel. Similar to Luke.

CHAP. 12.-Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth. Similar to the account in Luke. She is now 14 years old.

CHAPS. 13 and 14.—Joseph, returning from building houses abroad, found the virgin with child, and reproached her. Mary protested her innocence, saying, she knew not how it had occurred.

Joseph was about to put her away, when an angel appeared, and dissuaded him from it. Joseph then took the virgin, glorifying God.

CHAPS. 15 and 16.-Joseph and Mary were brought before the priest, accused of having violated her virginity; Joseph having taken her merely to keep as a virgin.

Joseph was required to drink holy water, which he did, unharmed. He was then acquitted.

CHAPS. 17 and 18.-Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to be taxed. As Mary's time drew near, they were obliged to stop, three miles from Bethlehem.

Mary was taken into a cave, and left, with Joseph's sons, while Joseph went to Bethlehem after a midwife. On the way, he saw various prodigies. Fowls of the air, stopping in the midst of their flight; people sitting before a table at dinner, their hands on the table motionless; sheep standing still, the shepherd with his hand raised to smite them, his hand remaining motionless; kids with their mouths to the water, but not drinking.

CHAPS. 19 and 20.-Joseph met a mid-wife. As they approached the cave, a bright cloud overshadowed it, and going in, they found Jesus was born. Salome came to the cave, and desiring proof that Mary was a virgin, proof was vouchsafed. But as a result, Salome's hand immediately withered. She prayed to the Lord; an angel appeared, and told her to take the child, and her hand would be restored. She took the child, and her hand was made whole.

CHAP. 21.-Wise men came from the east to Bethlehem, inquiring for the King of the Jews. The interview between Herod and the wise men. Similar to Matthew.

CHAPS. 22 to 24.-Herod having issued his order for the slaughter of the children, "Mary, hearing that the children were to be killed, being under much fear, took the child, and wrapped him up in swaddling cloths, and laid him in an ox-manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

Elizabeth, hearing that her son John was to be searched for, took him, and went up into the mountains. There a mountain opened and received them. Zacharias, because he would not disclose the hiding place of his son John, was murdered in the entrance of the temple. When Zacharias was killed, "the roofs of the temple howled, and were rent from the top to the bottom, and his blood was congealed to stone." CHAP. 25.-CONCLUSION. "I, James, wrote this history in Jerusalem; and when the disturbance was, I retired into a desert place, until the death of Herod. And the disturbance ceased at Jerusalem.”

OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS.

The account in the Protevangelion, of the murder of Zacharias, father of John the Baptist, was generally accredited by the fathers. It is mentioned and endorsed by Tertullian,' by Origen,2 by Epipha

(1.) Scorpiac, adv. Gnost., c. 8. (2.) Hom.26, Matt. 23, fol, 49.

nius,' by Theophylact, and others.

The Protevangelion says, Zacharias was killed at the entrance of the temple, and his blood was hardened into stone.-(Ch. 24.)

Tertullian says, Zacharias was killed between the altar and the temple, and the drops of his blood made indelible impressions on the stones.

As has been already mentioned, the circumstance of Joseph being an old man when Mary was betrothed to him, and having had children by a former wife, was accredited by the fathers generally. The Protevangelion was here supported by the Gospel of Peter.

Origen, it is true, only refers to it as believed by some, but others adopt it implicitly. Eusebius says James was called the brother of Christ, because he was also called the son of Joseph.3 Epiphanius says the same, and in another place, that Joseph was about fourscore years old when he married Mary; and had six children before that time, by a former wife; and again, writing against a sect which denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, he says:

"Joseph was very old when he married Mary, and had been many years a widower; that he was the brother of Cleophas, the son of James, surnamed Panther; that he had his first wife of the tribe of Judah, and by her six children, to wit, four sons and two daughters. His eldest son was James, surnamed Oblias, [this probably taken from

(1.) De Vit. Prophet. vol. 2, p. 250, (attributed to Epiphanius.)

(2.) In Matt.

(3.) Ecc. Hist., 2. 1.

(4.) Hæres. 29; Naz. sec. 3, 4.

(5.) Hæres. 51; Alogor. sec. 10.

Eusebius, Ecc. Hist. 2. 23], that he begat him when he was about forty years old; after him he had another son named Jose, then Simeon and Judas, and then his two daughters Mary and Salome: after his wife's death, he continued many years a widower, and about fourscore years old, married Mary."-[Epiph. Hæres., 78, sec. 8.

So also was the account in the Protevangelion accepted as true by Hilary,' by Chrysostom (A. D. 407), Cyril (A. D. 375), by Euthymius and Theophylact, and generally, as Bishop Pearson says, by all the Latin fathers till Ambrose (A. D. 390), and the Greek fathers afterward.

Epiphanius refers, also, to the death of Zacharias, but there is a wide departure from the account in the Protevangelion.

"It was," he says, "the occasion of the death of Zacharias in the temple, that when he had seen a vision, he through surprise was willing to disclose it, and his mouth was stopped. That which he saw, was at the time of offering incense; and it was a man standing in the form of an ass.

"When he had gone out, and had a mind to speak thus to the people, 'Wo unto you, whom do ye worship?' he who had appeared to him in the temple, took away the use of his speech. Afterward, when he recovered it, and was able to speak, he declared this to the Jews, and they slew him. They add, that on this very account, the high priest was appointed by their lawgiver to carry little bells, that whensoever he went into the temple to sacrifice, he whom they worshiped, hearing the noise of the bells, might have time enough to hide himself, and not be caught in that ugly shape and figure."--[Epiph. Hær., 79. 5.

That Mary, at three years of age, was taken to the temple, and remained there eleven years, was received as true by Euodius, Gregory of Nyssen, (380), Damascene, (725), Germanus, Bishop of Con

(1.) In Matth. 1.

(2.) On the Creed, p. 175, Art. 3.