Gospel of the Hebrews

Not to be confused with Epistle to the Hebrews.

Origen is the ecclesiastical writer most closely associated with using the Gospel of the Hebrews as a prooftext for scriptural exegesis.[1]

The Gospel of the Hebrews (Koinē Greek: τὸ καθ' Ἑβραίους εὐαγγέλιον, romanized: tò kath' Hebraíous euangélion), or Gospel according to the Hebrews, is a lost Jewish–Christian gospel.[2] The text of the gospel is lost, with only fragments of it surviving as brief quotations by the early Church Fathers and in apocryphal writings. The fragments contain traditions of Jesus' pre-existence, incarnation, baptism, and probably of his temptation, along with some of his sayings.[3] Distinctive features include a Christology characterized by the belief that the Holy Spirit is Jesus' Divine Mother and a first resurrection appearance to James, the brother of Jesus, showing a high regard for James as the leader of the Jewish Christian church in Jerusalem.[4] It was probably composed in Greek in the first decades of the 2nd century, and is believed to have been used by Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Egypt during that century.[5]

The Gospel of the Hebrews is the only Jewish–Christian gospel which the Church Fathers referred to by name, believing there was only one Hebrew Gospel, perhaps in different versions.[6] This has created confusion as modern scholars believe that the Church Fathers were in reality quoting three different gospels. All are known today only from fragments preserved in quotations by the early Church Fathers.[7] Modern scholars have given these three different gospels the working name Gospel of the Hebrews, the Gospel of the Nazarenes and the Gospel of the Ebionites.

Passages from the gospel of the Hebrews were quoted or summarized by three Alexandrian Fathers – Clement, Origen and Didymus the Blind; it was also quoted by Jerome, either directly or through the commentaries of Origen.[8][2]

The gospel was used as a supplement to the canonical gospels to provide source material for their commentaries based on scripture.[9] Eusebius included it in his list of disputed writings known as the Antilegomena, noting that it was used by "Hebrews" within the Church; it fell out of use when the New Testament canon was codified at the end of the 4th century.[10]

  1. ^ Evans 2007, pp. 247–50.
  2. ^ a b Ehrman & Pleše 2011, p. 216.
  3. ^ Cameron 1992, pp. 105–6.
  4. ^ Koch 1990, p. 364.
  5. ^ Lapham 2003, pp. 159, 163.
  6. ^ Gregory 2008, pp. 56–9.
  7. ^ Lapham 2003, p. 9.
  8. ^ Howard 2000, p. 570.
  9. ^ Klijn 1992, pp. 4–8.
  10. ^ Metzger 1997, pp. 169–70, 203–5.