The Apocryphal New Testament (1924)/Infancy Gospels
INFANCY GOSPELS
Under this heading I have put together the narratives of the birth of the Virgin, and birth and childhood of our Lord.
The texts which may be called ‘original’ are two, the Book of James (Protevangelium), and the Gospel of Thomas.
The Book of James we have largely in its original form. The Gospel of Thomas seems to be the skeleton of the original, the stories retained, the speeches, which conveyed the doctrinal teaching of the book, almost entirely removed. It is in fact an expurgated edition.
All the other texts are variants and embroideries upon these: some contain details which probably are derived from the original text of the Gospel of Thomas.