The Lost and Hostile Gospels

What It's About

In the first centuries after Christ, many more gospels circulated than the four that made it into the New Testament. Most of them are now lost, surviving only as quotations and descriptions in the writings of the early Church Fathers. Baring-Gould gathers these fragments and describes what each gospel contained, who used it, and why it was eventually set aside. The second part of the book turns to the "hostile" side: the accounts of Jesus written by opponents of Christianity. These include the Jewish Toledoth Jeschu and the arguments of the pagan philosopher Celsus, which are known mainly through Origen's reply to him.

Key Concepts

The book shows how much Christian writing was in circulation before the canon was settled, and how gospels favoured by Jewish Christian and heretical groups differed from the accepted ones. It also treats the hostile writings as evidence of how early critics saw Jesus and the new faith. Baring-Gould was an Anglican clergyman, and his approach reflects 1870s scholarship. Later manuscript discoveries have since changed the picture, and the Toledoth Jeschu is now regarded as a late polemical legend rather than reliable history.

About the Author

Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) was an English Anglican priest, scholar and antiquarian. He spent most of his life as a country parson in Devon, and he was known for his wide learning and his interest in folklore, history and theology.