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Infancy gospels (Greek: protoevangelion) are a genre of religious texts that arose in the 2nd century. They are part of New Testament apocrypha, and provide accounts of the birth and early life of Jesus. The texts are of various and uncertain origin, and are generally non-canonical in major modern branches of Christianity. They include the Gospel of James, which introduces the concept of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (not to be confused with the unrelated Gospel of Thomas), both of which cover many miraculous incidents from the life of Mary and the childhood of Jesus that are not included in the canonical gospels. Although the Life of John the Baptist focuses on John the Baptist rather than Jesus or his immediate family, it is also included in the genre as its events would be contemporary with Jesus's early life.

Gospel of James

The Gospel of James, also known as the Protoevangelium of James, and the Infancy Gospel of James, is an apocryphal gospel most likely written around the year 145 AD, expanding the infancy stories contained in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It also presents a narrative concerning the birth and upbringing of Mary herself. It is the oldest source to mention the virginity of Mary not only prior to, but during (and after) the birth of Jesus. The ancient manuscripts that preserve the book have different titles, including "The Birth of Mary", "The Story of the Birth of Saint Mary, Mother of God", and "The Birth of Mary; The Revelation of James". It is also referred to as "Genesis of Mary".

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a group of texts of uncertain date and contents, and the title is an arbitrary construction of modern scholars. Up until 1945 it was primarily referred to as the "Gospel of Thomas".

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The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a biographical gospel about the childhood of Jesus, believed to date at the latest to the second century. It does not form part of any biblical canon.

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is thought to be Gnostic in origin. Later references (by Hippolytus of Rome and Origen of Alexandria) to a "Gospel of Thomas" are not at all referring to this Infancy Gospel, as many modern scholars have thought, but rather to the wholly different Gospel of Thomas.

Proto-orthodox Christians regarded the Infancy Gospel of Thomas as inauthentic and heretical. Eusebius rejected it as a heretical "fiction" in the third book of his fourth-century Church History, and Pope Gelasius I included it in his list of heretical books in the fifth century.

Although non-canonical in mainstream Christianity, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas contains many miracles and stories of Jesus referenced in the Qur'an, such as Jesus giving life to clay birds.

Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew is a part of the New Testament apocrypha, and was an important source for establishing details of the life of Mary, especially before the Late Middle Ages. According to the research of J. Gijsel / R. Beyers (1997) the archetype of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew Recensio-α dates to 800 AD and the composition dates to the first half of the seventh century, maybe to around 600 and 625 AD. Gijsel furthermore points out that Joachim's representation in Pseudo-Matthew is meant to evoke the model figure of a Merovingian nobleman, this one, according to Gijsel, being Dagobert I during his reign (629–639). According to Berthold, the composition date of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew was circa 650 AD at the earliest, due to the fact that it "shows literary dependence on Vita Agnetis of Pseudo-Ambrose", which itself was used in De Virginitate in 690 AD. According to G. Schneider, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew was composed in the 8th or 9th century during the Carolingian dynasty. Pseudo-Matthew shares many similarities with, and likely used as sources, the apocryphal Gospel of James and Infancy Gospel of Thomas.

Syriac Infancy Gospel

The Syriac Infancy Gospel, also known as the Arabic Infancy Gospel, is another New Testament apocryphal writing concerning the infancy of Jesus. It may have been compiled as early as the sixth century, and was partly based on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and Protevangelium of James. There are only two surviving manuscripts dating from 1299 AD and the 15th/16th century in Arabic.

History of Joseph the Carpenter

The History of Joseph the Carpenter (Historia Josephi Fabri Lignari) is a compilation of traditions concerning Mary, Joseph, and the "holy family", probably composed in Byzantine Egypt in Greek in the late sixth or early seventh centuries, but surviving only in Coptic and Arabic language translations. The text bears witness to the belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary.

It is one of the texts within the New Testament apocrypha concerned with the period of Jesus' life before he was 12.

The Life of John the Baptist

The Life of John the Baptist is a book from the New Testament apocrypha, allegedly written in Greek by Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis in 390 AD. The text is an expanded biography of the biblical John the Baptist. While it does not focus primarily on the life of Jesus, it is considered an infancy gospel due to its focus on events that would have occurred around the same time as Jesus's childhood.

References

1. Gambero, Luigi (11 June 1999). Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought. Ignatius Press. ISBN 9780898706864 – via Google Books.
2. Ehrman, Bart D. (2 October 2003). Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199743681 – via Internet Archive. lost scriptures.
3. Brent Nongbri, The Archaeology of Early Christian Manuscripts Archived 2020-02-23 at the Wayback Machine, Ancient Near East Today (ANET), American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), April 2019, Vol. VII, No. 4. Accessed 18 April 2019
4. See Ehrman & Plebe 2011:19.
5. David R. Cartlidge, James Keith Elliott, Art and the Christian Apocrypha, p 32 (and pp. 21–46 generally), 2001, Routledge, London; ISBN 0-415-23391-7
6. Ehrman, Bart; Plese, Zlatko (21 July 2011). The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 75. ISBN 9780199732104.
7. Gijsel, Libri di Nativitate de Mariae, pp. 65–67, 287–288.
8. Ehrman, Bart; Plese, Zlatko (21 July 2011). The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 75. ISBN 9780199732104. M. Berthold has argued that Pseudo-Matthew shows literary dependence on the Vita Agnetis of Pseudo-Ambrose, which was used in De Virginitate of Aldhelm of Malmesbury in 690.
9. Evangelia infantiae apokrypha – Apokryphe Kindheitsevangelien, Gerhard Schneider, in: Fontes christiani, Bd. 18, Freiburg, 1995. pp. 61ff & 65.
10. Wittka, Gerd. "Die Weihnachtsverkundigung in den apokryphen Kindheitsevangelien". 3.2.1 Genese des Evangeliums: "Es liegt in zwei arabischen Handschriften vor" translation: "There are two handwritten manuscripts in arabic"
11. "Arabic Infancy Gospel // 3.1. Manuscripts". 5 February 2016. MS 2: Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, codex orientalis 387 , fols. 2r–48v (from the year 1299 AD)
12. "Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodl. Or. 350". 30 December 2018. Date: estimated 15th/16th century
13. Bart D. Ehrman, Zlatko Pleše The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations Oxford University Press, US 2011 p 158, quote "In its present form, the History of Joseph the Carpenter is thus a compilation of various traditions concerning Mary and the "holy family," most likely composed in Byzantine Egypt in the late sixth or early seventh century."
14. A. Mingana (Woodbrooke Studies: Christian Documents in Syriac, Arabic, and Garshuni, vol. 1, Cambridge 1927, pp. 138–287).
15. Čéplö, Slavomir. “The Life of John the Baptist by Serapion.” Pages 262–92 in vol. 1 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016 (translation based on (Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingana Syr. 369, fols. 142r–149v (1481).) and (Vatican, Biblioteca apostolica, Sbath 125, no foliation (1440)).
16. Landau, Burke & (2016). New Testament Apocrypha, v1. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-8028-7289-0.

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