The Latin 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 (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

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'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Chinese Elm ''Ulmus parvifolia'' Christianity * Matthew the Apostle, one of ...

and

Luke Luke may refer to: People and fictional characters * Luke (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Luke (surname), including a list of people with the name * Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luk ...

. 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 History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

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 around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

nobleman, this one, according to Gijsel, being

Dagobert I Dagobert I (; 603/605 – 19 January 639) was King of the Franks. He ruled Austrasia (623–634) and Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dynasty to wield real royal power, after which the ...

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 (, ; 25 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 son of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex ...

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 Franks, Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Pippinids, Arnulfi ...

. 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 J ...

. 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 (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

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 an apocryphal gospel about the childhood of Jesus. The scholarly consensus dates it to the mid-to-late second century, with the oldest extant fragmentary manuscript dating to the fourth or fifth century, ...

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

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 Jerome, 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 Joachim was, according to Sacred tradition, the husband of Saint Anne, the father of Mary (mother of Jesus), and the maternal grandfather of Jesus. The story of Joachim and Anne first appears in the Gospel of James, part of the New Testament apoc ...

and

St. Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's na ...

, 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 (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Ma ...

; 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

, 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–Matthew 2:23, 23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the Biblical Magi, visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Saint Joseph, Joseph in a dream telling ...

(it is not known on what this is based), and subsequently an edited reproduction of the

. 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 donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a separate species, ''Equus asinus''. It was domes ...

being present at the

nativity of Jesus The Nativity or birth of Jesus Christ is found in the biblical gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew and Gospel of Luke, Luke. The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Palestine, in Herodian kingdom, Roman-controlled Judea, th ...

. 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'' ( or ''Legenda sanctorum'') is a collection of 153 hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in Europe during the Late Middle Ages. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.Hilary Maddo ...

. One of the consequences of this is the creation of derivative works, such as the '' Libellus de Nativitate Sanctae Mariae'', 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 ...

Rebellion of Dimas

There is a story found only in a single Latin manuscript of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, called the Rebellion of Dimas. It provides a backstory for the

penitent thief The Penitent Thief, also known as the Good Thief, Wise Thief, Grateful Thief, or Thief on the Cross, is one of two unnamed thieves in Luke's account of the crucifixion of Jesus in the New Testament. The Gospel of Luke describes him asking Jesu ...

(or "good thief") described in

's version of the crucifixion. The manuscript is found in the Grand Séminaire of

Namur, Belgium Namur (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Namur Province, Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of W ...

, and was created in the 12th century. The story probably originates from France, was originally written in Latin, and was created in the 12th century (matching the manuscript). The addition was well-known enough in Northern France for it to be included in a 14th-century collection of legends of the "good thief" compiled by

Jean d'Outremeuse Jean d'Outremeuse or ''Jean des Preis'' (1338 in Liège – 1400) was a writer and historian who wrote two romanticised historical works and a lapidary. ''La Geste de Liége'' is an account of the mythical history of his native city, Liège, writt ...

. In the story, Dimas is of noble blood and the son of Judean procurator. He and his father are assigned to guard the region around Bethlehem during the

Massacre of the Innocents The Massacre (or Slaughter) of the Innocents is a story recounted in the Nativity narrative of the Gospel of Matthew ( 2:16– 18) in which Herod the Great, king of Judea, orders the execution of all male children who are two years old and u ...

and stop any infants from escaping. Dimas intercepts Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus, but Joseph cleverly tells Dimas that he should be looking for a royal infant, not a poor family. Dimas lets the Holy Family escape; his father disowns him after his 'failure', and he is forced into a life of banditry. Much later, he is captured, and is tortured together with Jesus during the crucifixion before ultimately joining him in heaven.

Influence on the Quran

It is speculated that this work had a large influence on the earlier

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...

, the

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

, particularly Surah 19 from where the story of Jesus' birth at the foot of a palm tree is referenced.

References

External links

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
– Full text at ''The Gnostic Society Library''. * , summary and commentary by

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the Univers ...

in the 1924 book ''The Apocryphal New Testament'' (see also James's full translations of the

and