My LORD’s BibleThe Gospel according to the Hebrews (Fragments) 1
A lost Jewish-Christian gospel known only from quotations in later church writers such as Clement, Origen, and Jerome; actual author unknown, likely in existence by the mid-2nd century AD at the latest. Survives only as scattered secondhand fragments, preserving sayings of Jesus distinct from the canonical gospels.
1He that wondereth shall reign, and he that reigneth shall rest.
2He shall not cease from seeking until he find, and having found, he will be amazed, and having been amazed will reign, and having reigned will rest.
3Even now did my mother the Holy Spirit take me by one of mine hairs, and carried me away unto the great mountain Thabor.
4Even now my mother the Holy Spirit took me and carried me up unto the great mountain Thabor.
5I choose for myself them that are good (or well pleasing): the good are they whom my Father which in heaven giveth (or hath given) me.
6The Gospel written in Hebrew characters which has reached our hands turns the threat not against the man who hid the talent, but against him who had lived riotously (for it told of three servants, one who devoured his master's substance with harlots and flute-girls, another who multiplied it by trading, and another who hid the talent; and made the one to be accepted, another only rebuked, and another to be shut up in prison).
7Now the Lord, when he had given the linen cloth unto the servant of the priest, went unto James and appeared to him (for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour wherein he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see him risen again from among them that sleep), and again after a little, 'Bring ye, saith the Lord, a table and bread', and immediately it is added, 'He took bread and blessed and brake and gave it unto James the Just and said unto him: My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of Man is risen from among them that sleep'.
8But I saw him in the flesh after the resurrection, and believe that he is in the flesh: and when he came to Peter and those who were with Peter, he said to them: Lo, feel me and see that I am not a bodiless spirit (demon). And forthwith they touched him and believed.
9For 'super-substantial' bread I found mahar, which means 'of the morrow', so that the sense is: Our bread of the morrow, that is, of the future, give us this day.
10Our bread of the morrow give us this day; that is, 'the bread which thou wilt give us in thy kingdom, give us this day'.
11This man who has the withered hand is described as a mason, who prays for help in such words as these: 'I was a mason seeking a livelihood with my hands: I pray thee, Jesu, to restore me mine health, that I may not beg meanly for my food.'
12Matthew, who wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew speech, put it thus: Osanna barrama, i.e. Osanna in the highest.
13For 'son of Barachias' I find 'of Joiada' written.
14This Barabbas is interpreted 'son of their master' (teacher).
15We read that a lintel of the temple of immense size was broken and divided.
16We read, not that the veil of the temple was rent, but that a lintel of the temple of wondrous size fell.
17There shall descend upon him the whole fount of the Holy Spirit. . . . And it came to pass when the Lord was come up out of the water, the whole fount of the Holy Spirit descended and rested upon him, and said unto him: My son, in all the prophets was I waiting for thee that thou shouldst come, and I might rest in thee. For thou art my rest, thou art my first begotten son, that reignest for ever.
18My mother the Holy Spirit.
19A bodiless demon.
20My mother, the Holy Spirit.
21If a man have grieved the spirit of his brother.
22Behold, the mother of the Lord and his brethren said unto him: John Baptist baptizeth unto the remission of sins; let us go and be baptized of him. But he said unto them: Wherein (what) have I sinned, that I should go and be baptized of him? unless peradventure this very thing that I have said is a sin of ignorance.
23If thy brother (saith he) have sinned by a word and made thee amends, seven times in a day receive thou him. Simon his disciple said unto him: Seven times in a day? The Lord answered and said unto him: Yea, I say unto thee, unto seventy times seven times. For in the prophets also, after they were anointed by the Holy Spirit, the word of sin was found.
24The second of the rich men (it saith) said unto him: Master, what good thing can I do and live? He said unto him: O man, fulfil (do) the law and the prophets.
25He answered him: I have kept them. He said unto him: Go, sell all that thou ownest, and distribute it unto the poor, and come, follow me. But the rich man began to scratch his head, and it pleased him not. And the Lord said unto him: How sayest thou: I have kept the law and the prophets? For it is written in the law: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, and lo, many of thy brethren, sons of Abraham, are clad in filth, dying for hunger, and thine house is full of many good things, and nought at all goeth out of it unto them.
26And he turned and said unto Simon his disciple who was sitting by him: Simon, son of Joanna, it is easier for a camel to enter in by a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
27The Jewish copy has not 'unto the holy city' but 'in Jerusalem'.
28The word 'without cause' is not inserted in some copies, nor in the Jewish.
29If ye be in my bosom and do not the will of my Father which is in heaven, out of my bosom will I cast you away.
30The Jewish has '(wise) more than serpents' instead of 'as serpents'.
31The Jewish has: 'is ravished (or plundered).'
32The Jewish: 'I give thee thanks.'
33The Jewish has not: three days and three nights (in the heart of the earth).
34The Jewish: Corban by which ye shall be profited by us.
35The Jewish: (Simon) son of John.
36Immediately after the seventy times seven: For in the prophets, after they were anointed with the Holy Spirit, there was found in them a word (matter) of sin.
37The Jewish: and he denied and swore and cursed.
38The Jewish: And he delivered unto them armed men, that they might sit over against the cave and keep it day and night.
39At this word of the Lord many thousands of Jews that stood round about the Cross believed.
40It is read that rays issued from his eyes whereby they were terrified and put to flight.