Ramón Martí version, 13th century Long unknown to Christians, the was first translated into
Latin by
Ramon Martí, a
Dominican friar, toward the end of the 13th century,
Strasbourg Manuscript In the
Strasbourg Manuscript, Mary was seduced by a soldier called Ben Pandera. The child Jesus shows great impudence by appearing bareheaded and disputing the
Law with teachers. The miracle working powers of Jesus are attributed to having stolen the
Name of God from the
Temple. Jesus claims messianic dignity and is accused of
sorcery by the Jews in front of Queen
Helena of Jerusalem, but Jesus raises a man from the dead in front of the Queen's eyes and is released. Jesus goes to
Galilee where he brings clay birds to life and makes a millstone float. (Klausner notes that the scarcely ever denies Gospel miracles, but merely changes good to evil.)
Judas Iscariot, the hero of the tale, learns the Divine Name as well, and Jesus and Judas fly through the sky engaged in
aerial combat, with Judas victorious. The now powerless Jesus is arrested and put to death by being hung upon a
carob tree, and buried. The body is taken away and his
ascension is claimed by his
apostles on the basis of the empty tomb. However, Jesus's body is found hidden in a garden and is dragged back to Jerusalem and shown to Queen Helena. The first section treats Jesus's life; later sections deal with the exploits of his
apostles. Supplementary chapters tell of
Nestorius and his attempts to keep Christians obeying Jewish custom, and the story of
Simeon Kepha who is construed to be the
Apostle Peter or Paul.
Huldreich version, 1705 A third major recension was published by Johann Jakob Ulrich (also Huldrich or Huldreich; 1683–1731) in Leyden, Holland, in 1705, with a Latin translation, as by "Johannes Jacobus Huldricus". This was based on a Hebrew manuscript, now lost, and has its own unique variants. A summary of it is presented by Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould,
The Lost and Hostile Gospels (1874, London) pages 102–115, who surmised (because of some of the errors and anecdotes) that it was of medieval German origin, perhaps not even predating Martin Luther (page 115). Baring-Gould noted (pages 69–71) that the Wagenseil version contains historical references that place its 'Yeshu' at least a century the Jesus and
Pontius Pilate of the New Testament, and the Huldreich version contains references that place its 'Yeshu' at least a full century the time of the Gospels.
Summary of the Huldreich version During the reign of
Herod the Great, a woman of the
Tribe of Benjamin named Miriam, sister of
Simeon son of Clopas, was married to a man named Pappos ben Yehuda, who kept her confined at home. A handsome man named Joseph Pandera helps Miriam escape, and they flee together from Jerusalem to Bethlehem where they are unrecognized. Several years passed, during which Miriam gave birth to Joseph's child named
Yeshua and several more sons and daughters. After Pappos is informed by a traveler that his wife Miriam is alive and cohabiting with another man, he goes before Herod and complains. Herod is outraged at the incident and orders the execution of Pandera and his children, who then flee to Egypt. When they aren't found, Herod orders all the infants in Bethlehem be massacred. After some time, a famine in Egypt forces Pandera and his family to return to Canaan. Pandera and Miriam move to
Nazareth and change their names, while Yeshua comes of age and travels to Jerusalem to study under Rabbi
Joshua ben Perachiah. During this time, he begins learning the secrets of
Merkabah mysticism and the name of God. When a ball is lost while playing near the
Temple Mount, Yeshua cries and removes his head covering, which was against rabbinic law. When challenged, Yeshu negates rabbinic authority. The rabbis then investigate Yeshua, and after traveling to Nazareth and learning from Miriam that he is a
mamzer, they shave his hair and wash it to prevent regrowth as a mark of his illegitimacy. After learning the truth of his origins from his mother, Yeshua murders Pandera in a rage and flees to the
Galilee. When Yeshua saw that the Jews were ostracizing and cursing him, he began preaching a heretical interpretation of the Torah. Over time he acquires five disciples: Simon, Mattai, Eliakim, Mordecai, and Todah, whose names he changes to
Simon Peter,
Matthew,
Luke,
Mark, and
Paul. Using the name of God, Yeshu performed several miracles, attracting many followers, including Yohanan whom he renamed John, whose heads Jesus would then shave and wash to bring into the fold. Learning that the son of Pandera still lived, Herod orders Yeshu's arrest. While he and most of his disciples are able to escape, Herod's men capture John and
behead him. Now claiming to be the son of God and God incarnate, Yeshu extolls his followers to perform graver blasphemies. The rabbis petition Herod for permission to try Yeshu for violating the Law of Moses, and the king acquiesces. The chief general, Judah ben Zechariah, then goes undercover and ingratiates himself to Yeshu, making him believe that he is a loyal follower. Whilst lodging among the people of
Ai, Yeshu takes a wife. After humiliating himself in exchange for a donkey and some bread, Yeshu rides for Jerusalem. Judah arrives ahead of Yeshu, convincing the people of the city to feign cooperation with Yeshu in order that he may let his guard down and be captured. Once finally convinced it is safe, Yeshu stays in the house of his supposed in-laws, and begins preaching and performing miracles within the city. When
Yom Kippur comes, Yeshu and his closest disciples do not fast, and engorge themselves on wine which had secretly been mixed with
"waters of forgetfulness". Having forgotten the name of God, Yeshu is powerless, and is arrested by Herod's men, and imprisoned. When Yeshu's followers arrive at the Temple for the pilgrimage of
Sukkot, they are ambushed and stoned to death outside the city. The Jews in the area of
Vermayza petition Herod not to execute Yeshu, that his suffering may be prolonged, but the king does not listen and has Yeshu hanged outside of Jerusalem just before
Passover. This provokes a rebellion in Jerusalem among Yeshu's followers, some of whom tell the people of Ai that Yeshu had been resurrected by a bout of heavenly fire three days after his execution. Even when Judah proclaims that Yeshu's corpse still remains in a filthy cistern in Jerusalem, the agents sent to confirm it deny it, and so the people of Ai rise in rebellion. To put down the revolt, Judah advises Yeshu's uncle, Simeon Clopas, to learn the name of God and perform miracles in Yeshu's name. Simeon compiles the Gospels, in which he included secret hints against Yeshu. Ultimately, Simeon commands his followers not to fight the Jews and then uses the name of God to fake an ascension into Heaven. After Herod's successor murders a hundred of Yeshu's relatives, Simeon tells his followers in Jerusalem to join him in Ai, where he will perform miracles. After conjuring a raincloud using the name of God, Simeon takes some of his followers up into the sky, only to drop them to their deaths. Those that travelled to Ai by land assume that the people have ascended to Heaven, and they settle in Ai, leaving the city of Jerusalem cleansed.
Krauss compilation, 1902 Samuel Krauss reprinted a version recounting that
Miriam had been betrothed to a nobleman by the name of Yochanan, who was both a descendant of the
House of David, and a God-fearing
Torah scholar. which contains English translations of several versions of the and lists all of the known manuscripts ().
English versions The first English translation was an anonymous 1823 edition by
Richard Carlile. In 1874,
Sabine Baring-Gould published
The Lost and Hostile Gospels, which included lengthy summaries of two versions of the – one called the Wagenseil and one called the Huldreich (so named from the editor of a 1705 Latin edition) – as well as quotations and descriptions of apocryphal and lost gospels of early Christian history. He regarded the as being a kind of early anti-Christian folklore, largely motivated by the oppression suffered by Jews. In 1903,
G.R.S. Mead, a well known
Theosophist, published
Did Jesus Live 100 BC?, which treated the as sufficiently authentic and reliable to postulate, on the basis of its mention of historic figures such as Queen Helene, that Jesus actually lived a century earlier than commonly believed. Baring-Gould (page 71) notes that, although the Wagenseil version named the Queen as Helene, she is also expressly described as the widow of
Alexander Jannaeus, who died BC 76, and whose widow was named
Salome Alexandra, who died in BC 67. In 1937, the Jewish New Testament scholar
Hugh J. Schonfield published
According to the Hebrews, which theorized that the was considerably more ancient than commonly thought and may have originally been derived from the
Gospel of the Hebrews, a lost (and presumably heretical) book mentioned by name, but not otherwise described, in some early Christian literature. However, scholarly consensus generally sees the as an unreliable source for the
historical Jesus. These books provided translations of the . Mead included some indelicate verses which Schonfield censored, but Schonfield was the more erudite scholar, and he identified Talmudic and Islamic passages that may have supplied the content of the . An English translation by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer, a Jewish musician and writer, is available in its entirety at the
Open Siddur Project. Along with the translation, a fully
vocalized and
cantillated version of the original Hebrew text is included. This translation was first published online in 2023. ==See also==