I have been asked several times if there are any Christian books not contained in the New Testament. There are many such books that did not make it in the Bible Canon in 325 A.D.
Origen mentions the Book of James (and the Gospel of Peter) as stating that the ' brethren of the Lord' were sons of Joseph by a former wife. This is the first mention of it, and shows us that the book is as old as the second century. To collect later references to it is unnecessary.
It is generally agreed that the story of the death of Zacharias (chs. xxii-xxiv) does not properly belong to the text. Origen and other early writers give a different account of the cause of His death: it was, they say, because, after the Nativity, he still allowed Mary to take her place among the virgins in the Temple.
Difficulty is also caused by the sudden introduction of Joseph as the narrator in ch. xviii. 2 sqq. We cannot be sure whether this means that a fragment of a 'Joseph-apocryphon' has been introduced at this point; or, if so, how far it extends. We are sure, from a sentence of Clement of Alexandria, that some story of a midwife being present at the Nativity was current in the second century.
We have the book in the original Greek and in several oriental' versions, the oldest of which is the Syriac. But, oddly enough, there is no Latin version. The matter is found in an expanded and altered form in the 'Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew', but we have yet to find an old Latin translation of the present text. Such a thing seems to have existed, for a book identifiable with ours is condemned in the Gelasian Decree.
In the early chapters the Old Testament is extensively drawn upon, and imitated; but the author is not familiar with Jewish life or usages.
The best recent edition of this book is a French one, by Amann. There is as yet no really critical edition of the text, in which all manuscripts and versions are made use of. I follow Tischendorf's in the main.
Text
I. I In the histories of the twelve tribes of Israel it is written that there was one Ioacim, exceeding rich: and he offered his gifts twofold, saying: That which is of my superfluity shall be for the whole people, and that which is for my forgiveness shall be for tile Lord, for a propitiation unto me.
2 Now the great day of the Lord drew nigh and the children of Israel offered their gifts. And Reuben stood over against him saying: It is not lawful for thee to offer thy gifts first,-forasmuch as thou hast gotten no seed in Israel. 8 And Ioacim was sore grieved, and went unto the record of the twelve tribes of the people, saying: I will look upon the record of the twelve tribes of Israel, whether I only have not gotten seed in Israel. And he searched, and found concerning all the righteous that they had raised up seed in Israel. And he remembered the patriarch Abraham, how in the last days God gave him a son, even Isaac. 4 And Ioacim was sore grieved, and showed not himself to his wife, but betook himself into the wilderness, and pitched his tent there, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying within himself: I will not go down either for meat or for drink until the Lord my God visit me, and my prayer shall be unto me meat and drink.
II Now his wife Anna lamented with two lamentations, and bewailed herself with two bewailings, saying: I will bewail my widowhood, and I will bewail my childlessness.
