Page:The Apocryphal New Testament (1924).djvu/71



By this curious name, which means ‘unwritten things’, it is usual to designate sayings and traditions of Christ which are not recorded in our Gospels, and are not capable of being traced to their source. But collectors of them—especially Resch—have swept into their net all manner of fragments which do not come under the original definition.

Many of these appear in other parts of this volume: but there is a residue for which a place must be found here.

I distinguish two classes. First, those which are found as additions to the text of our Gospels, in manuscripts of the Gospels; second, those which are quoted by other writers.

1. At Matt. xx. 28, Codex Bezae (D of the Gospels, at Cambridge) and some Latin and Syriac authorities add: But ye seek (or seek ye) to increase from smallness and from the greater to become less. And when ye go in and are invited to dine, do not recline in the prominent place lest haply one more illustrious than thou come in, and he that bade thee to dinner say to thee: Go yet lower down; and thou shalt be put to shame. But if thou recline in the lesser place, and a lesser man come in, he that bade thee to dinner will say to thee: Get thee yet higher up; and this will be profitable to thee.

Cf. Luke xiv. 8-10.

2. At Luke vi. 4, Codex Bezae has: On the same day, seeing one working on the sabbath, he said unto him: Man, if indeed thou knowest what thou doest, thou art blessed: but if thou knowest not, thou art cursed, and a transgressor of the law.

3. At Matt. iii. 17, the fourth-century Latin Codex Vercellensis has: And when he was being baptized, a very great light shone round about from the water, so that all that had come thither feared.

The Codex Sangermanensis (g1) has: And when Jesus was being baptized, a great light shone from the water, so that all that were gathered together feared.

The same addition is found in many early writers. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho, 88) says, ‘a fire was kindled in Jordan’. Ephraem Syrus (fourth century) has, ‘a light rising over the water’. See also the Gospel of the Ebionites.

4. At Mark xvi. 3, after the words “roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre’, the early Codex Bobiensis k (at Turin) has: But suddenly at the third hour of the day (or by day)

870 D