PREFACE
It is a matter of common knowledge that there exist such things as Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, Revelations—in fact apocryphal representatives of every one of the classes of writings which form the New Testament. Bible dictionaries, encyclopaedias, manuals, and text-books have made the fact familiar. Moreover, without much trouble it is possible for the less incurious to get hold of translations of a good many of these books. But I do not think I am speaking inaccurately when I say that there is at present no one book in existence which will supply the English reader—or for that matter any reader, of Latin, Greek, or Oriental languages—with a comprehensive view of all that is meant by the phrase, ‘the apocryphal literature of the New Testament’.
The object of the present volume is to give that comprehensive view. It contains fresh versions of all the really important texts, and full summaries, with extracts, of those which do not need to be translated word for word. Further, it attempts to put the reader in possession of the results of the very fruitful researches of the last generation. In those thirty years a great mass of material has been added to the available stock, and, what is not less important, there has been a sifting of what is early from what is late, and an order and chronology of the writings, which is not likely to be seriously disturbed, has been settled.
From the historical and the literary point of view, then, it is worth while to present the apocryphal literature of the New Testament afresh; but it is also worth while from the religious point of view. People may still be heard to say, ‘After all, these Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, as you call them, are just as interesting as the old ones. It was only by accident or caprice that they were not put into the New Testament’. The best answer to such loose talk has always been, and is now, to produce the writings and let them tell their own story. It will very quickly be seen that there is
