d. A collection in Syriac belonging perhaps to the 5th or 6th

century in which other legends about early ages are kept together, is called =Spelunca thesaurorum=. We are here told about the sepulchre of the patriarch Lamech and the treasures preserved there from which the wise men obtained the gifts which they presented to the infant Saviour. The Ethiopic _Vita Adami_ is an expansion of the book just referred to. This book is manifestly a legendary account of the changes wrought upon all relations of life in our first parents by means of the fall (hence the title: “Conflict of Adam and Eve”), and Golgotha is named as Adam’s burying place. A second and shorter part treats of the Sethite patriarchs down to Noah. The still shorter third part relates the post-diluvian history down to the time of Christ.[83]

§ 32.4. =New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphs.=--The Gnostics especially produced these in great abundance. Epiphanius speaks of them as numbering thousands. But the Catholics, too, were unable to resist the temptation to build up the truth by these doubtful means.

I. =Apocryphal Gospels.=

1. =Complete Gospels= existed in considerable numbers, _i.e._ embracing the period of Christ’s earthly labours, more or less corrupted in the interests of Gnostic or Ebionitic heresy, or independently composed Gospels; but only of a few of these do we possess any knowledge.[84] The most important of these are the following: _The Gosp. of the Egyptians_, esteemed by the Encratites, according to Origen one of the writings referred to in Luke i. 1; also _the Gosp. of the XII. Apostles_, generally called by the Fathers Εὐαγγ. καθ’ Ἑβραίους originally written in Aramaic; and finally, _the Gosp. of Marcion_ (§ 27, 11). The most important of these is the Gospel of the Hebrews, on account of its relation to our canonical Gospel of Matthew, which is generally supposed to have been written originally in Aramaic.[85] Jerome who translated the Hebrew Gospel says of it: _Vocatur a plerisque Matthæi authenticum_; but this is not his own opinion, nor was it that of Origen and Eusebius. The extant fragments show many divergences as well as many similarities, partly in the form of apocryphal amplifications, partly of changes made for dogmatic reasons.

2. Gospels dealing with particular Periods--referring to the days preceding the birth of Jesus and the period of the infancy or to the closing days of His life, where the heretical elements are wanting or are subordinated to the general interests of Christianity. Of these there was a large number and much of their legendary or fabulous material, especially about the family history of the mother of Jesus (§ 57, 2), has passed over into the tradition of the Catholic Church. Among them may be mentioned;

a. _The Protevangel. Jacobi minoris_, perhaps the oldest, certainly the most esteemed and most widely spread, written in Greek, beginning with the story of Mary’s birth and reaching down to the death of the children of Bethlehem;

b. The _Ev. Pseudo Matthæi_, similar in its contents, but continued down to the period of Jesus’ youth, and now existing only in a Lat. translation;

c. The _Ev. de nativitate Mariæ_, only in Lat., containing the history of Mary down to the birth of Jesus;

d. The _Hist. Josephi fabri lignarii_ down to his death, dating probably from the 4th cent., only now in an Arabic version;

e. The _Ev. Infantiæ Salvatoris_, only in Arabic, a compilation with no particular dogmatic tendency;

f. Also the so-called _Ascension of Mary_ (§ 57, 2) soon became the subject of apocryphal treatment, for which John was claimed as the authority (John