Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/343



may be designated a supplementary gospel. Those which precede are mainly preliminary to the Evangelical narratives, of which the last scenes are here the starting point. The book professes to record the trial, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ; the miraculous and wonderful incidents which attended those events, and the conduct pursued by the friends and enemies of the Saviour. Inasmuch as the Gospels lie at the basis, and the writer was a person generally well informed, the truthful element in this composition is more marked than in any of the preceding. Whether the writer had any authentic documents of an official character to assist him is more than can be affirmed; it seems more likely that he used current traditions and with the help of the Gospels, reduced them as far as possible to an appearance of truth. We know that as early as the time of Justin Martyr there were