Gospel of the Hebrews
[2] The text of the gospel is lost, with only fragments of it surviving as brief quotations by the early Church Fathers and in apocryphal writings.
[6] This has created confusion as modern scholars believe that the Church Fathers were, in reality, quoting three different gospels.
[9] Eusebius included it in his list of disputed writings known as the Antilegomena, noting that it was used by "Hebrews" within the Church; it fell out of use when the New Testament canon was codified at the end of the 4th century.
[13] Some of the fragments suggest a syncretic gnostic influence, while others support close ties to traditional Jewish Wisdom literature.
It consisted of a narrative of the life of Jesus which included his baptism, temptation, transfiguration, Last Supper, crucifixion, and resurrection.
The events in the life of Jesus have been interpreted in a way that reflects Jewish ideas present in a Hellenistic cultural environment.
[14] There is wide agreement about seven quotations cited by Philipp Vielhauer in the critical 3rd German edition of Wilhelm Schneemelcher's New Testament Apocrypha, translated by George Ogg.
The "rest" that the Holy Spirit finds in the Son may reflect the Christian gnostic idea of the pre-existent Redeemer who finally becomes incarnate in Jesus.
[12] [Fragment 7] The Gospel according to the Hebrews...records after the resurrection: And when the Lord had given the linen cloth to the servant of the priest, he went to James and appeared to him.
And immediately it is added: He took the bread, blessed it and brake it and gave it to James the Just and said to him: My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of man is risen from among them that sleep.Fragment 7 emphasizes the importance of James, the brother of Jesus and head of the Jewish–Christian movement in Jerusalem after Jesus' death, thereby testifying to the Jewish character of the community of the gospel.
The translations below are from Vielhauer & Strecker (1991), except "b2" which is from Klauck (2003):[n 10] [Fragment a] (Scripture) seems to call Matthew "Levi" in the Gospel of Luke.
[17][n 11] [Fragment b1] And he (Papias) has adduced another story of a woman who was accused of many sins before the Lord, which is contained in the Gospel according to the Hebrews.The citation by Eusebius of a story he found in the writings of Papias is believed to refer to an alternate version of the account in John's gospel of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery.
[n 14] The gospel emphasizes the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 11:2[22] in Jesus' baptism, but also adopts elements of Jewish Wisdom theology.
[n 17][n 18] "Rest" is not only to be understood as the ultimate goal of the seeker after truth, which leads to salvation; it is also descriptive of a unity with the wisdom which lies at the heart of the Godhead.
Eusebius reports that the 2nd century Church Father Hegesippus used the gospel as a source for writing his Hypomneumata ("Memoranda") in Rome (c. 175–180).
[n 26] Subsequent to the closing of the canon, the gospel is mentioned in a homily "On the Virgin Mary" attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem in a collection of apocryphal stories believed to have been written in Coptic in the first half of the 6th century.
[n 29] The early Church Fathers believed there was only one Jewish–Christian gospel, perhaps in different versions; however, scholars have long recognized the possibility there were at least two or three.
