Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/28

xxiv soon stated. Men were curious to know more than the Canonical Gospels contained. Fragmentary stories or traditions were abroad, relating to Joseph and Mary and their families, to the birth and infancy, the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, to Pilate, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and so on. How pleasant if all these fragments could be rendered complete, and especially if the silence of the four Gospels could be supplemented! The wish was not a barren one, and from time to time writings appeared professing to supply the information which was wanted. Some of these writings may be considered introductory to the Evangelical narratives, others as appendices, but all as supplementary in one way or another. Joseph and Mary were no longer the obscure individuals the Gospels had left them; the incarnation, birth, and early life of Jesus no more remained imperfectly recorded; the last days of Christ's earthly life were set forth with wondrous minuteness of detail; the space between the death and resurrection of the Saviour was filled up with particulars of what happened in the unseen world, as well as at Jerusalem and elsewhere; Pilate was pursued into every nook and corner, all he did and said was noted down, and the steps of the Nemesis which haunted him beyond