The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew Overview

• • This text made “The Protoevangelium of James” (EP 5) and “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas” (EP 6) popular

    • Pseudo-Matthew 1-17 is based on the Protoevangelium of James

    • Pseudo-Matthew 26-34, 37-39, & 41 are based on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

      • But with a less evil and childish Jesus

    • *this edition only includes 18-25, 35-36, 40, & 42

• The Gospel of the Birth of Mary and Pseudo-Matthew are also strongly connected

• Pseudo-Matthew was not known in the East

• Used both the Protoevangelium and Infancy Gospel of Thomas for much of its content:

  • 1-17 - Based on the Protoevangelium of James

  • 18-25 - Original

  • 26-34 - Based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

  • 35-36 - Original

  • 37-39 - Based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

  • 40 - Original

  • 41 - Based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas

  • 42 - Original

pgs. 88-99 & http://gnosis.org/library/psudomat.htm

Chapters 1-12 Summarized (Based on The Protoevangelium of James—Differences Noted)

1. Joachim was married to Anna for 20 years without having any children. Joachim and Anna are the barren couple expecting seed like Abraham.

2. Joachim goes away for 5 months and only returns after an angel tells him that Anna has already conceived a child by his seed. Even though Joachim has been gone for 5 months, Anna’s child is nonetheless his and not of virgin birth (unless his seed was somehow miraculously supplied).

6. At 3 years old, Mary acts like a 30-year-old, prays all the time, and has a glorious and beautiful face to the point where people can barely look at it. Mary is especially glorious and pure and either perfect or almost perfect.

7. Abiathar offers a lot of gifts to Mary for her to marry her son, but she refuses because she claims she has vowed to stay a virgin perpetually. After all, she explains, Abel was righteous on account of his sacrifice and virginity, and Elijah was taken up because he was spotless.
Mary vowed to stay a virgin forever. Abel and Elijah’s righteousness were partly based on their virginity.

8:1-4. Mary turns 14, and the Pharisees say there had always been virgins who were brought up in Solomon’s Temple and then married when they turned 14. Mary makes sure that whoever takes her, however, must be a virgin, and then all the elders come with their rods. Abiathar is to put the rods of all of the unmarried men in the tribe of Judah in the Holy of Holies and then bring them back out and give them to everyone (Whoever has the shortest will take her): Joseph’s is chosen. However, Joseph doesn’t want to take Mary because he says he is old and she is younger than his youngest grandson. Mary makes whoever will marry her swear to keep her a virgin. At the same time, Joseph is selected, just as Aaron was proven to be a priest. He also has no reason to sleep with Mary while he is so old and she so young.

8:4-5. Some virgins who were supposed to care for Mary mock her by calling her the Queen of Virgins, but an angel rebukes them and tells them it is a true prophecy; they are ashamed and ask Mary to pray for them. This story tells those who doubt Mary’s virginity to be afraid. Perhaps this story is likewise supporting the idea of praying to Mary, although this is much less certain.

10-11. When Mary conceives, and Joseph comes back from a trip to see her, he finds her pregnant, but the virgins vouch for her virginity; Joseph still laments it. Only after an angel visits Joseph in a dream and says that she’s a virgin does Joseph believe and give thanks. People were staying with her who saw that she was always praying and could not be beguiled by another man.

12. Mary and Joseph are tested with the water at the Temple in front of an innumerable crowd, but even after Mary is proven to be a virgin, many believe, and many also doubt. Even before his birth, some would already know Jesus was born by a virgin, and others would have already doubted it.

Chapters 13-14 Translated

13. Both Mary and Joseph have to enroll in Bethlehem because they both come from Bethlehem and the family of David. This probably assumes Matthew’s genealogy of being for one of them and Luke’s for another, since they are both from the line of Judah and David.

13. On their way, Mary claims to see one person weeping and another rejoicing, and Joseph rebukes her. An angel then appears and rebukes Joseph and says that the rejoicing people are the Gentiles who are brought near to the Lord, and the Jews are the ones weeping for leaving God. The angel who had rebuked Joseph then tells them that it is time to give birth and orders them to go into a cave that had never had the light of the sun shine in it. When they enter, it shines with a super bright light. When Jesus is born, he stands up, and the angels immediately worship him. Mary is shown by God that He will bring the nations into His people. Jesus also has an awesome birth, and angels surround and worship him upon his birth.

13. Prophets in Jerusalem point to a star that shines larger than any star has ever shown day and night over the cave. Not only did the Magi see the star, but the prophets point to the star as the Prophets of the TaNaKh point to Jesus.

14. Mary leaves the cave and goes to a stable to put Jesus in a manger, and an ox and ass adore him to fulfill Isaiah 1:3 and Habakkuk 3:2 LXX. The cave that Mary is purported to have given birth in, in apocryphal material, is explained away as being synonymous (but different from) the stable. Further, the clean ox represents Israel, and the unclean ass represents the Gentiles, both worshipping Jesus together.

Chapters 15-17 Summarized (Based on The Protoevangelium of James—Differences Noted)

15. Simeon, who comes to prophesy about Jesus, is 112 years-old. We now know that Simeon had waited for the salvation of Israel for an extraordinarily long time.

Chapters 18-24 Translated

18-19. Mary and Joseph travel to Egypt with 3 boys, a girl, and baby Jesus. They come to a cave to rest in it when many dragons come from the cave and scare the boys until Jesus gets off his mother’s lap and the dragons praise him; this fulfills Psalm 148:7. Jesus commands the dragons to hurt no one, but Mary and Joseph are afraid that Jesus will be hurt by the dragon. Jesus tells them that he is not a child but has always been perfect and that all the animals of the forest are docile before him. As they go through the desert, lions come and lead the way, and panthers and wolves join them (two oxen carry a wagon with their stuff). These animals show submission and worship Jesus and bow their heads. Mary is afraid, but Jesus tells her that they serve Mary and him. All this fulfills Isaiah 65:25. Maybe the dragons can be compared to the dragon in Revelation that attempts to destroy the virgin and her child? It is also noteworthy that Mary and Jesus are worshipped together in this narrative. It also has similarities to Jesus being with the wild animals in the desert after his baptism in Mark’s Gospel.

22-23. When Jesus and his family come to Egypt, they find no place to stay, so they enter a Temple that has 365 idols. As they enter, all the idols fall prostrate on the ground and shatter and break to pieces to fulfill Isaiah 19:1. This is just like when the Philistine idols fall prostrate before the Ark of the Covenant. The 365 idols that fall before Jesus may represent all the idols and false gods falling before him.

24. The governor hears what happens and goes with his army to worship Jesus with his army and friends, and says he must do what their gods do in lying prostration. He confesses Jesus is Lord. If not, he says, he will anger God as did Pharaoh and the Egyptians who did not believe in God and were drowned in the sea with all his army. Then everyone in the city believes in Jesus. Just as Mary and Joseph stay in Egypt as a safe refuge in contradistinction to the Hebrew Bible’s portrayal of it as an unsafe place, the ruler and his people worship Jesus and do not attack them.

Chapters 25-34 Summarized (Based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas—Differences Noted)

26. Jesus is 4 years-old playing by the Jordan River and making 7 pools when some kid spoils them, and Jesus calls him a son of Satan and strikes him dead. Joseph tells Mary to admonish Jesus, and she begs him not to do such things, so Jesus smites the back of the boy with his foot, and he comes back to life. Jesus then tells the boy that he will not go into the rest of his Father. Jesus was a super young child when he was playing with the pools and made the kid die for making the water bad, and listened to Mary’s pleas to at least give the kid life again—Jesus is just ever so slightly less malicious.

29. As Jesus is walking, a boy runs against Jesus and gets on his shoulder to hurt him, so Jesus tells the boy he will not return whole from the way he goes, and he dies. Joseph is disappointed in Jesus, asks why he does what he does, and says that parents are complaining to him. Jesus says that no son is wise if his father has not taught him with the knowledge of the age. After everyone speaks badly of Jesus to Joseph, Jesus takes the boy that he told would not return whole up by the ear and speaks to him like a father, and the boy is revived. Jesus is slightly less malicious in then it is explained that the boy who runs into Jesus was trying to hurt him. Again, he is still clearly bad and childish. Yet Jesus at least gives life to the child after killing him and teaches him how he always should have been taught. People need to have the Gnostic knowledge of the age. Jesus had been making children of evil parents die because their parents had taught them to do their own evil.

30. Zacchaeus tells Mary and Joseph that they hold Jesus higher than the tradition of the elders, and Joseph says that no one can teach Jesus anything. Jesus overhears and says he does not have an earthly father and will make all of Zacchaeus’ descendants cease when he is exalted. He goes on to say that he saw and spoke with Abraham and then calls everyone else less than him. Mary and Joseph did not teach Jesus the traditions of the elders from a young age, and so he became careless about them when he was older.
Jesus claims to be pre-existent.

31. Zacchaeus takes Jesus to Levi (Matthew?) to teach him, and Levi smites Jesus on the head with a rod when Jesus refuses to repeat “aleph” after him. Jesus tells him that he first ought to explain what Aleph even is and why it has 8 triangles in it, and then he will believe it when he talks about Beth. Levi feels stupid and says that he should be hung on a cross and that fire and torment do nothing to Jesus, so he must have been from before the flood. Jesus has some esoteric understanding of even the elementary, and Levi claims Jesus must have pre-existed.

31. Jesus tells all the children of Israel that the fruitful shall bear fruit, the blind see, the lame walk, the poor enjoy good things, and the dead revive. Then, everyone is restored, and everyone healed. Jesus is shown to be good and do good things. Unlike in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, it is not only those whom Jesus cursed who are healed, but everyone with some type of curse or sickness.

PARS ALTERA

Chapters 35-36 Translated

35-36. Jesus goes to a cave with a lioness and her cubs by the Jordan River. When the lions see Jesus, they come to him and worship him. The people only see Jesus going into the cave and say that he’s going into the cave because he sinned. Jesus then comes out and tells the people, “How much better are the beasts than you, seeing that they recognize their Lord and glorify him; while you men, who have been made in the image and likeness of God, do not know him. Beasts know me and are tame; men see me and do not acknowledge me.” Jesus crosses through the Jordan River with his lions, telling them not to hurt anyone. The waters of the Jordan River part on the right and left. Jesus is like Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha, before whom God split the waters.

Chapters 37-39 Translated (Based on The Infancy Gospel of Thomas—Differences Noted)

38. Joseph tells Mary that Jesus makes him sorrowful until death, and he thinks someone might smite him to death because of his evil. Mary tells Joseph not to believe that, but that the one who sent him will protect him from all evil. Joseph is worried about Jesus, but Mary is confident and knowledgeable about what will happen with him.

39. Joseph and Mary put Jesus in school for the third time; he enters, takes the book out of the teacher’s hand, and teaches (what is not written in it). The teacher says that Jesus is the real teacher: Who can understand his words? This supposedly fulfills the word that “The river of God is full of water. You have prepared their food, for thus is the preparation thereof.” Jesus fulfills some uncited scripture and shows he is greater than all the teachers once and for all.

Chapter 40 Translated

40. Jesus and his family go to Capernaum and see a dead man named Joseph. Jesus asks Joseph if he will heal him because he has the same name, but Joseph says he can’t do anything. Jesus tells him he just needs to put the handkerchief that is on his head on him and say “Christ save you”, and he will be revived; Joseph does this but says “Jesus save you”, and he rises from the dead. Joseph is like the Apostles in Acts who have handkerchiefs that had touched them brought to the infirm.