The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations

The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations is a bilingual sourcebook that presents more than forty noncanonical gospels with facing page English translations. The volume organizes infancy narratives, fragments from ministry and sayings traditions including agrapha, and passion and resurrection accounts. Each text has a historical and textual introduction, a selection of manuscript evidence, cross references to related ancient literature, and concise notes. Operating as editors, Ehrman and Plese model the format on the Loeb Classical Library. They provide original language texts in Coptic, Greek, and Latin with English translations on facing pages. They keep the apparatus selective and they do not claim to produce new critical editions of the base texts.^[1][2][3]

Oxford University Press published the volume in 2011. The book prints Coptic, Greek, and Latin witnesses with English on facing pages.^[1][4][5]

Oxford University Press issued an English only selection for general readers as The Other Gospels: Accounts of Jesus from Outside the New Testament. That volume adapts the translations and supplies new brief introductions geared to a broader audience.^[6][2]

Ehrman and Plese group the material into four sections. Infancy gospels include the Infancy Gospel of Thomas in a fuller Greek recension with an alternate beginning, the Proto-Gospel of James, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, Latin infancy compilations, and the History of Joseph the Carpenter. Ministry gospels include the Jewish Christian gospels transmitted in patristic quotations, the Gospel of the Egyptians, a possible gospel harmony, and a series of Greek papyrus fragments. Sayings traditions include the Gospel of Thomas with Greek fragments and a curated set of agrapha. Passion and resurrection materials include the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Judas, the Pilate cycle with correspondence and narratives, the Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea, and The Gospel according to Mary with Greek fragments.^[7]

The introductions survey attestation, probable date, transmission history, and major editions for each text. The editors note the lack of a definitive critical edition for several witnesses. They select fuller or widely used recensions for translation in cases where editorial reconstruction remains contested. The discussion of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas illustrates the approach. It reviews the Greek and versional witnesses, it describes the late medieval Greek manuscripts, and it explains the choice to present a fuller narrative in translation while recognizing the absence of a secure original form.^[8] The preface states an editorial model focused on accessibility for study. The apparatus is intentionally spare. Cross references direct readers to related New Testament passages and to standard reference works. The editors include over forty gospels as complete works, substantial fragments, short fragments, and patristically preserved excerpts. They exclude the Coptic Gospel of the Savior pending a final critical edition. They include exceptions for Thomas and Mary because of user demand and the need for unified coverage in one volume.^[1]

The book was generally well received, praised for its usefulness and organization as a scholarly resource. Brian Murdoch reviewed the volume in Literature and Theology. He emphasized the advantage of a single volume that makes disparate apocryphal material available with facing translations and introductions for teaching and research.^[9] Birger A. Pearson assessed the volume in Religious Studies Review. He characterized it as a highly useful edition for students and scholars because it consolidates introductions, original language texts, and translations across the major categories of apocryphal gospel literature.^[10] Library Journal noted the volume as a service to students of ancient Christian texts and languages and anticipated adoption in personal libraries and university syllabi.^[11]

• New Testament Apocrypha
• Gospel of Thomas
• Gospel of Peter
• Gospel of Mary