Gospel of Matthias

Euangelium Matthiae

Standard abbreviation: Gos. Mth.

Other titles: Traditions of Matthias

Clavis numbers: ECCA 813; CANT 17

Category: Agrapha and Fragments

Compiled by Brandon W. Hawk, Rhode Island College

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Hawk, Brandon W. “Gospel of Matthias.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/gospel-of-matthias.

Created February 2023. Current as of January 2024.

1. SUMMARY

The Gospel of Matthias is an elusive work of questionable origin or even existence. Any surviving remains exist only in scattered references. Rather than resting on a single, coherent work, these references probably go back to early “Traditions of Matthias” (Traditiones Matthiae), a title often used in scholarship. The most substantial fragments purported to be from this work appear in four brief teachings recorded in Clement of Alexandria’s Stromateis 2.9.45, 3.4.6, 7.13.82, and 7.17.108. If Clement’s brief testimonies are to be taken as affirmation for such an apocryphon, it would have been composed sometime before the third century. Other early and medieval references generally discuss the work in terms of heresy, especially so-called “Gnosticism.” For example, it is condemned as heretical in lists by Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Ambrose, Jerome, and in the Gelasian Decree. No other evidence survives to substantiate the existence of a “Gospel of Matthias” or “Traditions of Matthias.”

Named Historical Figures and Characters: none.

Geographical Locations: none.

2. RESOURCES

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Manuscripts and Editions

Stählin, Otto, Ludwig Früchtel, and Ursula Treu. Clemens Alexandrinus. Bd. 2: Stromateis Buch I–VI. GCS 15. 1906. 2nd ed. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1960 (fragment 1, p. 137; fragment 2, p. 208; fragment 4, pp. 263–64).

Stählin, Otto, Ludwig Früchtel, and Ursula Treu. Clemens Alexandrinus. Bd. 3: Stromateis Buch VII–VIII, Excerpta ex Theodoto, Eclogae propheticae, Quis dives salvetur, Fragmenta. GCS 17. 1909. 2nd ed. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1970 (fragment 3, p. 58).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.1 English

Elliott, J. K. The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993 (pp. 19–20).

Peuch, Henri-Charles, and Beate Blatz. “The Gospel according to Matthias. The Traditions of Matthias.” Pages 382–86 in vol. 1 of New Testament Apocrypha. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Translated by Robert McL. Wilson. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991.

3.2.2 French

Bertrand, Daniel A. “Traditions de Matthias.” Pages 467–71 in vol. 1 of Écrits apocryphes chrétiens. Edited by François Bovon and Pierre Geoltrain. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade 516. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1997.

3.3.3 German

Peuch, Henri-Charles, and Beate Blatz. Pages 306–309 in Neutestamentliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung, Bd. 1. Evangelien und Verwandtes. Edited by Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher. 5th German edition. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1989 (ET: Pages 382–86 in New Testament Apocrypha. vol. 1: Writings Related to the Apostles, Apocalypses and Related Subjects. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Translated by Robert McL. Wilson. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1991).

3.3.4 Italian

Bonaccorsi, P. Giuseppe. Vangeli Apocrifi. Vol. 1. Florence: Libreria Editrice Fiorentina, 1948 (pp. xvi–xvii, 28–31).

Erbetta, Mario. Gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 3 vols. Italy: Marietti, 1975–1981 (vol. 1, pp. 288–90).

Moraldi, Luigi. Apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 2 vols. Classici delle religioni, Sezione quarta, La religione cattolica 24. Turin: Unione Tipografico-Editrice Torinese, 1971 (vol. 1, pp. 385–86).

3.3 General Works

Harnack, Adolf von. Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur bis Eusebius. 2 vols., 1893–1897. Reprint: Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1958 (vol. 2.1, pp. 595–98).

Zahn, Theodor. Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Kanons. Zweiter Band: Zweiter hälft. Erlangen: Georg Bühme, 1892 (pp. 751–61).