Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/89

Rh 10. The Gospel of Nicodemus, or Acts of Pilate.

Under this general title I include no fewer than six documents printed by Dr. Tischendorf, and representing two compositions which are often combined.

(1.) The Gospel of Nicodemus, Part I., which I put first, records the trial, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and involves a variety of incidents connected with those events. The writer draws largely from the evangelical narratives, all of which were before him, including the closing section of Mark. But while he uses the Gospels, he introduces a great many fictitious details of a purely mythical, or rather prodigious character. Some of the foreign elements were perhaps traditions, but the way in which they are worked up, shows that the writer was a genuine Hagadist, and consequently we must treat his story as a romance rather than as a history. The title adopted by Dr. Tischendorf, "Acts of our Lord Jesus Christ, wrought in the time of Pontius Pilate," differs considerably from several other forms of it. In one copy it is said the book was written in Hebrew by Nicodemus; and in another, that Pilate