Which text from antiquity, that has since been lost to the mists of time, do you wish had survived?
For me - and indeed for many interested in historical Jesus scholarship and early Christianity - the greatest loss and gap in our knowledge is considered to be the Gospel of the Hebrews, thought to have been committed to final redaction in the early second century CE. This text has never been recovered, even though many still hope that it will pop up somewhere in the Middle East antiques market. If it ever did, scholars of early Christianity would literally pee their pants.
It is commonly thought that the so-called pericope adulterae, the justly famous tale of Jesus saving an adulterous woman from being stoned and which a number of scholars deem an interpolation to the Gospel of John, was contained in the Gospel of the Hebrews, for the apostolic father St. Papias (died AD 125) - who had personal dealings with the Apostle John - refers to a story of Jesus and a woman "accused of many sins" by the Jewish elders, which Eusebius tells us was also found in this gospel, long before it entered the canon of the New Testament. This was confirmed by St. Didymus the Blind (c. 313 – 398), who frequently read and referenced the Hebrew Gospel:
Thanks to some primitive scribal interpolaters, a part of this beautiful gospel has been preserved in the canonical New Testament.
The last known copies of the Gospel of the Hebrews are widely thought to have destroyed in the destruction of the Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima in the 7th century in Byzantine Palestine, during the Islamic Conquests by the Umayyad caliphate in 638. Until then, the Maritima library had been the most extensive ecclesiastical library of the time, containing more than 30,000 manuscripts, including Jewish Christian literature of which the Gospel of the Hebrews was the most priceless treasure.
This important writing was the product of the torah-observant Jewish followers of Jesus and thus preserved distinct traditions attributed to Jesus that had not come under Gentile influence. While it was never included in the orthodox canon and incorporated doctrinal ideas out of keeping with the mainstream (i.e. teaching that the Holy Spirit was Jesus's Divine Mother, for instance), the Gospel of the Hebrews was generally respected by the church fathers, many of whom - including St. Hegesippus, St. Jerome, Origen, St. Clement of Alexandria and St. Didymus the Blind, among others - retained copies of it and quoted, on occasion, from the text (which means that it has survived today only in their sparse quotations).
For this reason, the fourth century ecclesiastical historian Eusebius (Metzger 1997, pp. 203–5), placed the Gospel of the Hebrews in the list of Antilegomena, books classified as orthodox but uncanonical (as opposed to heretical), because they were not believed to have been written by the apostles or their immediate successors (Schneemelcher 1991, p. 47); "Moreover, many have also reckoned among these writings the Gospel according to the Hebrews, in which those especially from among the Hebrews who have accepted Christ find delight" (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.25.5).
Metzger 1997 (pp. 169–70; Metzger, p. 170) writes – "we can understand why its (the Gospel of the Hebrews) use was limited, chiefly among Jewish Christians (some of whom were regarded as heretical), and passed over by the Great Church in the period when the canon was closed."
Here are a few of the stray, surviving quotations from this gospel in the Patristic works:
For me - and indeed for many interested in historical Jesus scholarship and early Christianity - the greatest loss and gap in our knowledge is considered to be the Gospel of the Hebrews, thought to have been committed to final redaction in the early second century CE. This text has never been recovered, even though many still hope that it will pop up somewhere in the Middle East antiques market. If it ever did, scholars of early Christianity would literally pee their pants.
It is commonly thought that the so-called pericope adulterae, the justly famous tale of Jesus saving an adulterous woman from being stoned and which a number of scholars deem an interpolation to the Gospel of John, was contained in the Gospel of the Hebrews, for the apostolic father St. Papias (died AD 125) - who had personal dealings with the Apostle John - refers to a story of Jesus and a woman "accused of many sins" by the Jewish elders, which Eusebius tells us was also found in this gospel, long before it entered the canon of the New Testament. This was confirmed by St. Didymus the Blind (c. 313 – 398), who frequently read and referenced the Hebrew Gospel:
It is related in some gospels that a woman was condemned by the Jews because of a sin and was taken to the customary place of stoning, in order that she might be stoned.
We are told that when the Savior caught sight of her and saw that they were ready to stone her, he said to those who wanted to throw stones at her: Let the one who has not sinned, lift a stone and throw it. If someone is certain that he has not sinned, let him take a stone and hit her. And no one dared to do so.
When they examined themselves and they recognized that they too bore responsibility for certain actions, they did not dare to stone her. (Didymus the Blind, Commentary on Ecclesiastes 4.223.6–13)
We are told that when the Savior caught sight of her and saw that they were ready to stone her, he said to those who wanted to throw stones at her: Let the one who has not sinned, lift a stone and throw it. If someone is certain that he has not sinned, let him take a stone and hit her. And no one dared to do so.
When they examined themselves and they recognized that they too bore responsibility for certain actions, they did not dare to stone her. (Didymus the Blind, Commentary on Ecclesiastes 4.223.6–13)
Thanks to some primitive scribal interpolaters, a part of this beautiful gospel has been preserved in the canonical New Testament.
The last known copies of the Gospel of the Hebrews are widely thought to have destroyed in the destruction of the Theological Library of Caesarea Maritima in the 7th century in Byzantine Palestine, during the Islamic Conquests by the Umayyad caliphate in 638. Until then, the Maritima library had been the most extensive ecclesiastical library of the time, containing more than 30,000 manuscripts, including Jewish Christian literature of which the Gospel of the Hebrews was the most priceless treasure.
This important writing was the product of the torah-observant Jewish followers of Jesus and thus preserved distinct traditions attributed to Jesus that had not come under Gentile influence. While it was never included in the orthodox canon and incorporated doctrinal ideas out of keeping with the mainstream (i.e. teaching that the Holy Spirit was Jesus's Divine Mother, for instance), the Gospel of the Hebrews was generally respected by the church fathers, many of whom - including St. Hegesippus, St. Jerome, Origen, St. Clement of Alexandria and St. Didymus the Blind, among others - retained copies of it and quoted, on occasion, from the text (which means that it has survived today only in their sparse quotations).
For this reason, the fourth century ecclesiastical historian Eusebius (Metzger 1997, pp. 203–5), placed the Gospel of the Hebrews in the list of Antilegomena, books classified as orthodox but uncanonical (as opposed to heretical), because they were not believed to have been written by the apostles or their immediate successors (Schneemelcher 1991, p. 47); "Moreover, many have also reckoned among these writings the Gospel according to the Hebrews, in which those especially from among the Hebrews who have accepted Christ find delight" (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.25.5).
Metzger 1997 (pp. 169–70; Metzger, p. 170) writes – "we can understand why its (the Gospel of the Hebrews) use was limited, chiefly among Jewish Christians (some of whom were regarded as heretical), and passed over by the Great Church in the period when the canon was closed."
Here are a few of the stray, surviving quotations from this gospel in the Patristic works:
And never be ye joyful, save when you look upon your brother with love. (Jerome, Commentary on Ephesians 3)
.In the Gospel according to the Hebrews ...there is counted among the most grievous offenses: He that has grieved the spirit of his brother. (Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel 6)
“So also in the Gospel to the Hebrews it is written, ‘He that wonders shall reign, and he that has reigned shall rest.’ (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.9)
"For the Lord Jesus Himself, being asked by a certain person when his kingdom would come, said, 'When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female, neither male or female'." (2 Clement 12:2)
.In the Gospel according to the Hebrews ...there is counted among the most grievous offenses: He that has grieved the spirit of his brother. (Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel 6)
“So also in the Gospel to the Hebrews it is written, ‘He that wonders shall reign, and he that has reigned shall rest.’ (Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.9)
"For the Lord Jesus Himself, being asked by a certain person when his kingdom would come, said, 'When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female, neither male or female'." (2 Clement 12:2)
["This same saying, which obviously left no traces in the canonical gospels, is known to us also from the rather close parallel, only slightly modified, versions of the logion 22 of the Gospel of Thomas, and of the so-called Gospel of the Egyptians. Perhaps we shall not stray far from the truth if we suppose that it too was originally part of the Gospel of the Hebrews, like the other three sayings of unknown origin recorded in 2 Clem. 4,5,155 5,2-4,156 and 13,2. 2 Clem.12 offers another clear example of a discussion concerning the authentic meaning of a saying of Jesus transmitted in the Gospel of the Hebrews" (Pier Franco Beatrice, The "Gospel According to the Hebrews" in the Apostolic Fathers, Novum Testamentum Vol. 48, Fasc. 2 (2006))].
"Two rich men approached Jesus along the way. The second rich man asked Jesus, "Rabbi, what good thing can I do that I may live?" He (Jesus) said to him, "Man, fulfill the Law and the Prophets." He answered him, "I have done (so)." Jesus said, "Go, sell all that you have, and distribute to the poor; and come, follow me." But the rich man began to fidget (some copies read, 'began to scratch his head'), for it did not please him.
And the Lord said to him, "How can you say, 'I have fulfilled the Law and the Prophets', when it is written in the Law: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself', and many of your brothers, sons of Abraham, are covered with filth, dying of hunger, and your house is full of many good things, none of which goes out to them?" And he (Jesus) turned and said to Simon his disciple, who was sitting by him, "Simon son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Origen, Commentary on Matthew 19:16-30)
And the Lord said to him, "How can you say, 'I have fulfilled the Law and the Prophets', when it is written in the Law: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself', and many of your brothers, sons of Abraham, are covered with filth, dying of hunger, and your house is full of many good things, none of which goes out to them?" And he (Jesus) turned and said to Simon his disciple, who was sitting by him, "Simon son of John, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Origen, Commentary on Matthew 19:16-30)
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