Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/101

Rh belong to the period I mention. The original official Acts perished; the first forged Acts, which continued to exist in the fourth century perished; the Acts forged by order of Maximin also perished; and those now in existence were practically a new composition, so new that they had to be launched as a discovery made in the reign of Theodosius, if not by Theodosius himself.

Dr. Tischendorf thinks that "the Acts of Pilate which have come down to us are not different in the main from those which Justin shows already existed in the second century, save that they are to be regarded as having been gradually and in many ways changed and interpolated." He supposes the great alteration to have taken place about 424. (De Evangeliorum Apocryphorum Origine et Usu, 1851. pp. 67 et seqq.)

M. Alfred Maury has written an erudite dissertation on this book (Revue de Philologie, etc. tom. ii. no. 5), and concludes that, as we have it, it was written early in the fifth century, perhaps by a converted Jew who made use of an older apocryph or older legends; and that it was indirectly aimed against Apollinarius, who denied the descent into hell.