Apocryphal Gospels

A new translation of the oldest non-canonical Christian gospels In the early years of Christianity, several groups produced 'hidden' or 'apocryphal' gospels, alternative versions of the story of Christ. Sometimes these texts complemented the four canonical gospels of the New Testament, sometimes they subverted them and often they were completely different. Here, in the widest selection of non-canonical gospels gathered in one volume - which also includes two modern forgeries - we see the young Jesus making live birds from clay, hear his secret words of wisdom, discover gnostic cosmologies and witness the Harrowing of Hell. Preserved by their readers and attacked by their detractors, these gospels shine a fascinating light on the early Christian Church.Translated with an Introduction by Simon Gathercole

A deeply impressive scholarly achievement, with first-class translations of many notoriously complex texts, This hugely useful volume is the best sort of scholarship . . . We are deeply in his debt, This will become the standard version both for the general reader and for scholars

Simon Gathercole (External Editor) Simon Gathercole received a double First in Classics and Theology at Cambridge, and studied further at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and the Universities of Tübingen and Durham. He has written several books on the New Testament and apocryphal Christian literature, and is editor of the journal New Testament Studies. He is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity in the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.