The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (or The Infancy Gospel of Matthew) is a part of the
New Testament apocrypha
The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cit ...
. In antiquity the text was called The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior. Pseudo-Matthew is one of a genre of "
Infancy gospel 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 or ...
s" that seek to fill out the details of the life of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
of
Nazareth
Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...
up to the age of 12, which are briefly given in the Gospels of
Matthew
Matthew may refer to:
* Matthew (given name)
* Matthew (surname)
* ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497
* ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith
* Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...
and
Luke
People
*Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known as ...
. In the West, it was the dominant source for pictorial cycles of the
Life of Mary
The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ. In both cases the n ...
, especially before the
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
.
Composition date
According to the research of J. Gijsel and R. Beyers (1997), the archetype of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew's Recensio-α dates to 800 AD and the composition date to the first half of the seventh century, maybe to around 600 and 625 AD.
Gijsel writes that Joachim's representation in Pseudo-Matthew is meant to evoke the model figure of a
Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...
nobleman, this one, according to Gijsel, being
Dagobert I
Dagobert I ( la, Dagobertus; 605/603 – 19 January 639 AD) was the king of Austrasia (623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dy ...
during his reign (629639). According to Berthold, the composition date of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew is around 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'' by
Aldhelm
Aldhelm ( ang, Ealdhelm, la, Aldhelmus Malmesberiensis) (c. 63925 May 709), Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, and a writer and scholar of Latin poetry, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the so ...
in 690 AD.
According to G. Schneider, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew was composed in the 8th or 9th century during the
Carolingian dynasty
The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...
.
The work expanded over time. The base content of Pseudo-Matthew shares many similarities with, and likely used as a source, the apocryphal
Gospel of James
The Gospel of James (or the Protoevangelium of James) is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, her upbringing and marriage to Joseph, the journey of the couple to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, a ...
. The attribution of the work to Matthew was not present in the earliest versions; the claim Matthew wrote the gospel was only added two centuries later, in the prologue correspondence between the bishops and Jerome. The similar Gospel of James had been condemned in Western Christianity by
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
due to its reference to Jesus having brothers; seemingly in an attempt to avoid a similar condemnation, the prologue was added wherein an authority no less than Jerome himself translates the work from Matthew and approves of it.
Similarly, the later sections which include a version of the
Infancy Gospel of Thomas
The ''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'' is a biographical gospel about the childhood of Jesus, believed to date at the latest to the second century.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is generally considered to be Gnostic in origin because of references ...
are not present in the oldest manuscripts, suggesting that the merging of the Gospel of Thomas content into the combined Pseudo-Matthew work happened later.
Content
The narrative is prefaced by a series of letters between the early Church father
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
and the Bishops Comatius and Heliodorus. In these letters the Bishops request that Jerome translate a "Hebrew volume, written by the hand of the most blessed Evangelist Matthew," concerning the birth of the virgin mother and the infancy of Jesus. Though the work is attributed to
St. Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is com ...
, it is unlikely that St. Jerome actually wrote or translated it: "no one who is acquainted with the style of Jerome's letters will think this one authentic."
The author of the pseudo-Jerome letter claims he compiled and translated the work, taking care to "render it word for word, exactly as it is in the Hebrew, since it is asserted that it was composed by the holy Evangelist Matthew, and written at the head of his Gospel," though he expressed doubt as to their authenticity.
The first half of the narrative tells the story of
St. Joachim and
St. Anne
According to Christianity, Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Gospel#Canonical gospels, canonical gospels. ...
, the parents of Mary; Joachim's sorrow and persecution on account of their lack of progeny, his exile and return to Anna with child, and the birth of Mary; her entering service as a temple virgin, her prayerful life and vow of chastity, and the choosing of Joseph as her husband and guardian upon her becoming too old to continue as a temple virgin; the
Annunciation
The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...
; Joseph's distress at finding her pregnant, and his eventual acceptance of her honesty; his and Mary's being tested in the temple, and the acceptance of the people in the temple of Mary's and Joseph's innocence.
The content of the text is primarily an edited reproduction of the
Gospel of James
The Gospel of James (or the Protoevangelium of James) is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, her upbringing and marriage to Joseph, the journey of the couple to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, a ...
, followed by an account of the
Flight into Egypt
The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew ( Matthew 2:13– 23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the i ...
(it is not known on what this is based), and subsequently an edited reproduction of the
Infancy Gospel of Thomas
The ''Infancy Gospel of Thomas'' is a biographical gospel about the childhood of Jesus, believed to date at the latest to the second century.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is generally considered to be Gnostic in origin because of references ...
. Essentially, it is a fairly successful attempt to merge these texts into a single work. To its sources, the Gospel adds the first known mention of an
ox and a
donkey
The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...
being present at the
nativity of Jesus
The nativity of Jesus, nativity of Christ, birth of Jesus or birth of Christ is described in the biblical gospels of Gospel of Luke, Luke and Gospel of Matthew, Matthew. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea (Roman ...
. The work also helped popularize the image of a very young Mary and relatively old Joseph from the Gospel of James.
It had a strong influence in medieval thought, partly due to its inclusion in the
Golden Legend
The ''Golden Legend'' (Latin: ''Legenda aurea'' or ''Legenda sanctorum'') is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.Hilary ...
. One of the consequences of this is the creation of derivative works, such as the ''
Libellus de Nativitate Sanctae Mariae
Libellus de Nativitate Sanctae Mariae (literally ''book of the birth of Saint Mary'') is a text concerning the events surrounding the birth of Mary, mother of Jesus. It essentially originates as part of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
The Gospel o ...
'', which consists of just the early part of the text concerning the birth of Mary. Another text to be based on Pseudo Matthew is the
Syriac Infancy Gospel, which includes many supernatural embellishments.
Events described in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew inspired "
The Cherry-Tree Carol
"The Cherry-Tree Carol" ( Roud 453) is a ballad with the rare distinction of being both a Christmas carol and one of the Child Ballads (no. 54). The song itself is very old, reportedly sung in some form at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early ...
".
Francis James Child
Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of ...
, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', v 2, p 1, Dover Publications, New York 1965
See also
*
List of Gospels
A gospel (a contraction of Old English , meaning "good news/glad tidings", comparable to Greek , ) is a written account of the career and teachings of Jesus. The term originally meant the Christian message itself, but came to be used for the bo ...
References
External links
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew– Full text at ''The Gnostic Society Library''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gospel Of Pseudo-Matthew
7th-century Christian texts
8th-century Christian texts
9th-century Christian texts
Pseudo-Matthew