This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
THE
SUPPRESSED
GOSPELS AND EPISTLES
OF THE ORIGINAL
NEW TESTAMENT
OF
JESUS THE CHRIST
AND OTHER PORTIONS OF THE ANCIENT HOLY SCRIPTURES.
NOW EXTANT, ATTRIBUTED TO
HIS APOSTLES, AND THEIR DISCIPLES,
AND VENERATED BY THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES DURING
THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES,
BUT SINCE, AFTER VIOLENT DISPUTATIONS
FORBIDDEN BY THE
BISHOPS OF THE NICENE COUNCIL,
IN THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE
AND OMITTED FROM THE CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANT
EDITIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, BY ITS COMPILERS
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL TONGUES, WITH HISTORICAL
REFERENCES TO THEIR AUTHENTICITY,
BY
ARCHBISHOP WAKE
AND OTHER
LEARNED DIVINES
THE ORDER OF ALL THE
FORBIDDEN BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
WITH THEIR PROPER NAMES, AND NUMBER OF CHAPTERS
CONTENTS:
Mary
Protevangelion
I. Infancy
II. Infancy
Nicodemus
Christ and Abgarus
Laodiceans
Paul and Seneca
Acts of Paul and Thecla
I. Clement
II. Clement
Barnabas
Ephesians
Magnesians
Trallians
Romans
Philadelphians
Smyrnaeans
Polycarp
Philippians
I. Hermas--Visions
II. Hermas--Commands
III. Hermas--Similitudes
PREFACE.
To uphold the "right of private judgment," and our "Christian liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free;" to add fuel to the fire of
investigation, and in the crucible of deep inquiry, melt from the gold
of pure religion, the dross of man's invention; to appeal from the
erring tribunals of a fallible Priesthood, and restore to its original
state the mutilated Testament of the Saviour; also to induce all earnest
thinkers to search not a part, but the whole of the Scriptures, if
therein they think they will find eternal life; I, as an advocate of
free thought and untrammelled opinion, dispute the authority of those
uncharitable, bickering, and ignorant Ecclesiastics who first suppressed
these gospels and epistles; and I join issue with their Catholic and
Protestant successors who have since excluded them from the New
Testament, of which they formed a part; and were venerated by the
Primitive Churches, during the first four hundred years of the Christian
Era.
My opposition is based on two grounds; first, the right of every rational
being to become a "Priest unto himself," and by the test of enlightened
reason, to form his own unbiassed judgment of all things natural and
spiritual: second, that the reputation of the Bishops who extracted
these books from the original New Testament, under the pretence of being
Apocryphal, and forbade them to be read by the people, is proved by
authentic impartial history too odious to entitle them to any deference.
Since the Nicene Council, by a pious fraud, which I shall further allude
to, suppressed these books, several of them have been reissued from time
to time by various translators, who differed considerably in their
versions, as the historical references attached to them in the following
pages will demonstrate. But to the late Mr. William Hone we are indebted
for their complete publication for the first time in one volume, about
the year 1820; which edition, diligently revised, and purified of many
errors both in the text and the notes attached thereto, I have
re-published in numbers to enable all classes of the nation to purchase
and peruse them. As, however, instead of being called by their own
designation "Apocryphal," (which yet remains to be proved), they were
re-entitled THE FORBIDDEN BOOKS, and, from communications received,
appear to have agitated a portion of the great mass of ignorant bigotry
which mars the fair form of Religion in these sect-ridden dominions, I
have modified the title to its present shape with the hope that in spite
of illiberal clerical influence, my fellow Christians will read and
inwardly digest the sublime precepts they inculcate;--as pure, as holy,
and as charitable as those principles of Christianity taught in the
Scriptures they; now read by permission; although their minds may, after
mature reflection, doubt the truth of the miraculous records therein
given.
To ensure these Gospels and Epistles an unprejudiced and serious
attention, which they are entitled to, equally with those now patronised
by Church authority, I will briefly refer to that disgraceful epoch in
Roman Ecclesiastical Annals, when the New Testament was mutilated, and
priestly craft was employed for excluding these books from its pages.
HONE, in the preface to his first edition of the Apocryphal New
Testament, so called, without satisfactory grounds, by the Council of
Nice, in the reign of the Emperor Constantine, thus opens the subject:--
"After the writings contained in the New Testament were selected from the
numerous Gospels and Epistles then in existence, what became of the Books
that were rejected by the compilers?"
This question naturally occurs on every investigation as to the period
when and the persons by whom the New Testament was formed. It has been
supposed by many that the volume was compiled by the first Council of
Nice, which, according to Jortin (Rem. on Eccl. vol. ii. p. 177),
originated thus: Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and Arius, who was a
presbyter in his diocese, disputed together about the nature of Christ;
and the bishop being displeased at the notions of Arius, and finding
that they were adopted by other persons, "was very angry." He commanded
Arius to come over to his sentiments, and to quit his own; as if a man
could change his opinions as easily as he can change his coat! He then
called a Council of War, consisting of nearly, a hundred bishops, and
deposed, excommunicated, and anathematized Arius, and with him several
ecclesiastics, two of whom were bishops. Constantine sent a letter, in
which he reprimanded the bishops for disturbing the, church with their
insignificant disputes. But the affair was gone too far to be thus
composed. To settle this and other points, the Nicene Council was
summoned, consisting of about 318 bishops. The first thing they did was
to quarrel, and to express their resentments, and to present accusations
to the Emperor against one another. "The Emperor burnt all their libels,
and exhorted them to peace and unity."(See Mosheim's Eccle. Hist.) These
were the kind of spiritual shepherds of whom Sabinus, the Bishop
Heraclea affirms, that excepting Constantine himself, and Eusebius
Pamphilus, they "were a set of illiterate creatures, that understood
nothing." And now intelligent Catholics, especially Protestants who are
content to read only the books of the Testament authorized by the Council
of Nice, and agreed to ever since by your own bishops, although they and
you profess to dissent from the Papacy, hear what Pappus in his Synodican
to that Council says of their crafty contrivance when they separated the
books of the original New Testament:--He tells us, that having
"promiscuously put all the books that were referred to the Council for
deliberation under the communion-table in a church, they besought the
Lord that the inspired writings might get on the table, while the
spurious ones remained underneath; and that it happened accordingly!"
(See Com. Mace's N. T. p. 875.) Therefore, good reader, every Christian
sect from the fourth century to the present period, have been blessed
with the books that climbed upon the communion-table, and in consequence
were deemed inspired and canonical; at the same time have been forbidden
to read the Gospels and Epistles herein published, because they could
not perform the same feat, but remained under the table, and were
condemned accordingly, as uninspired and apocryphal writings. If you
believe this popish legend, you will not read the good books I lay before
you, but still continue to possess only HALF THE TESTAMENT, instead of
the PERFECT ONE, which will enable you to burst the trammels of
priestcraft, and by the light of God's whole truth become free. In
conclusion, I implore you to examine for yourselves, and observe the
testimony of Archbishop Wake and other learned divines and historians
appended thereto; and subscribe myself,
Your well-wisher,
EDWARD HANCOCK.
FORBIDDEN BOOKS
OF THE
NEW TESTAMENT.
THE GOSPEL OF THE BIRTH OF MARY.
CHAPTER I.
1 The Parentage of Mary.
7 Joachim her father, and Anna her mother,
go to Jerusalem to the feast of the dedication.
9 Issachar, the high priest, reproaches Joachim
for being childless.
THE blessed and ever glorious
Virgin Mary, sprung from
the royal race and family of David,
was born in the city of Nazareth,
and educated at Jerusalem, in the
temple of the Lord.
2 Her father's name was Joachim,
and her mother's Anna.
The family of her father was of
Galilee and the city of Nazareth.
The family of her mother was of
Bethlehem.
3 Their lives were plain and
right in the sight of the Lord,
pious and faultless before men;
for they divided all their substance
into three parts;
4 One of which they devoted to
the temple and officers of the
temple; another they distributed
among strangers, and persons in
poor circumstances; and the third
they reserved for themselves and
the uses of their own family.
5 In this manner they lived for
about twenty years chastely, in the
favour of God, and the esteem of
men, without any children.
6 But they vowed, if God should
favour them with any issue, they
would devote it to the service of
the Lord; on which account they
went at every feast in the year to
the temple of the Lord.
7 And it came to pass, that
when the feast of the dedication
drew near, Joachim, with some
others of his tribe, went up to
Jerusalem, and at that time,
Isachar was high-priest;
8 Who, when he saw Joachim
along with the rest of his
neighbours, bringrng his offerings,
despised both him and his offerings,
and asked him,
9 Why he, who had no children,
would presume to appear among
those who had? Adding, that his
offerings could never be acceptable
to God, who was judged by him
unworthy to have children; the
Scripture having said, Cursed is
every one who shall not beget a
male in Israel.
10 He further said, that he ought
first to be free from that curse by
begetting some issue, and then
come with his offerings into the
presence of God.
11 But Joachim being much
confounded with the shame of such
reproach, retired to the shepherds
who were with the cattle in their
pastures;
12 For he was not inclined to
return home, lest his neighbours,
who were present and heard all
this from the high-priest, should
publicly reproach him in the same
manner.