Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/87

Rh (3.) The Epistle of Lentulus. — This epistle is avowedly addressed to the Roman people and Senate, but is a late mediæval forgery. No such person as Lentulus, or Publius Lentulus, was "president of the people of Jerusalem;" no ancient writer ever mentions the epistle, which is only extant in Latin copies exhibiting all sorts of differences. It may have been intended to authenticate one of the many alleged portraits of Christ, which were manufactured in the Middle Ages.

(4.) The Prayer of Jesus, the Son of Mary. — I derive this from Jones on the Canon; but I have not exactly followed his translation. He took it from the Commentary of Selden upon Eutychius's Arabic Annals of Alexandria. Selden found it among certain Arabic forms of prayer, and published it in Arabic, with a Latin version. The document speaks for itself, and I need only say, with Jones: "I suppose no one at all acquainted with Christianity can believe this prayer genuine, and composed by our blessed Saviour." (Jones on the Canon, vol. ii. p. 25. Oxford edition, 1827).