Gospel of the Hebrews

Euangelium Hebraeorum

Standard abbreviation: Gos. Heb.

Other titles: the Hebrew Gospel, the Gospel written in Hebrew Letters

Clavis numbers: ECCA 155; CANT 11

Category: Agrapha and Fragments

Compiled by: David B. Sloan, John Carroll University, and Michael J. Kok, Morling College Perth Campus.

Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Sloan, David B., and Michael J. Kok, “Gospel of the Hebrews.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/gospel-of-the-hebrews/.

Created October 2026.

1. SUMMARY

The Gospel According to the Hebrews is a non-extant text referenced by numerous Patristic and Medieval Christian writers. The title attached to it presupposes that its author(s) and/or intended readers were ethnically Jewish. The fourth-century Christian historian Eusebius (ca. 260/65–339 CE) classifies it as a “disputed” book (Hist. eccl. 3.25.5), and pointed out that it was used by the Jewish-Christian Ebionites to the exclusion of other early Christian writings (3.27.4). Earlier, Irenaeus alleges that the Ebionites preferred (their version of?) the Gospel of Matthew over the other texts in the fourfold Gospel canon (Haer. 1.26.2; 3.11.7). Eusebius identifies Papias, the early second-century bishop of Hierapolis, as the earliest witness of the Gospel According to the Hebrews, which Eusebius mentions after quoting Papias’s comments on Matthew’s “oracles in the Hebrew language” (Hist. eccl. 3.39.16–17). There is debate, however, whether Papias had read an account about a woman who was slandered before Jesus as someone who committed many sins, or had heard an oral anecdote that Eusebius deemed to be similar to the account in the Gospel According to the Hebrews (3.39.17). Eusebius identifies the late second-century chronicler Hegesippus (ca. 110–180 CE) as another witness to the Gospel According to the Hebrews, noting that he had extracted material from this text, “the Syriac” (a Syriac recension of the Gospel According to the Hebrews or a separate Syriac Gospel?), and “unwritten Jewish tradition” (4.22.8).

The earliest writers to quote the Gospel According to the Hebrews are three Christian scholars from Alexandria. Clement (ca. 150–215 CE) comments on a wisdom saying, in which the person who wonders or who seeks and finds will be rewarded with rulership and rest (Strom. 3.9.45.5; 5.14.96.3). The longer form of the saying is also paralleled in Logion 2 of the Gospel of Thomas. Origen (ca. 185–253 CE) expounds on the scene in the Gospel According to the Hebrews where Jesus’ mother, the Holy Spirit, lifts him up by his hairs and brings him to Mount Tabor (Comm. Jo. 2.12; Hom. Jer. 15.4). Jerome multiply attests this tradition (Comm. Mic. 7.5–7; Comm. Isa. 40.9–11; Comm. Ezech. 16.13). This may be the setting of either Jesus’ temptation or transfiguration. Didymus “the Blind” (ca. 313–398 CE) extrapolates from the Gospel According to the Hebrews that the tax collector Levi was not Matthew, but Matthias, the figure who replaced Judas in the group of the twelve apostles according to Acts 1:26 (Comm. Ps.). Further, Didymus may provide additional evidence that the Gospel According to the Hebrews had a story about a woman who was accused of a capital transgression before Jesus’ intervention on her behalf, for he found a variant, and potentially older, version of the Pericope Adulterae “in certain Gospels” and one of those plural Gospels was arguably the Gospel According to the Hebrews (Comm. Eccl.).

The assignment of additional fragments to the Gospel According to the Hebrews is debated among scholars. Eusebius locates a saying about Jesus’ choice of the good ones who were given to him by his heavenly Father and a variant version of the parable of talents to a Gospel that existed “in the Hebrew language” or that was penned “in Hebrew letters” (Theoph. 4.12 [Syr]; 4.22). The fragments that Epiphanius of Salamis (ca. 310/320–403 CE), Jerome of Stridon (ca. 342/347–420 CE), and the Latin translator of Origen’s Commentary on Matthew’s Gospel (ca. fifth to ninth century CE) attribute to the Gospel According to the Hebrews, as well as the variant readings assigned to To Ioudaïkon or “The Jewish [Gospel],” are summarized in the e-Clavis entries on the Gospel of the Ebionites and the Gospel of the Nazarenes. There is a supposed summary of the Gospel According to the Hebrews as a whole in the Discourse on Mary Theotokos, a text that is misattributed to Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 313–386 CE) and actually postdates the publication of Epiphanius’s Ancoratus (ca. 374 CE). The Discourse on Mary Theotokos also states that the Gospel According to the Hebrews affirmed Christ’s heavenly pre-existence in the form of a “power” called “Michael” before entering Mary’s womb. A catalogue in the appendix of the Chronography of Nicephorus (ca. 758–829 CE) lists the Gospel According to the Hebrews as consisting of around 2200 lines.

Medieval and Irish commentators on the Gospel According to the Hebrews are often indebted to Jerome’s testimonies. Several fragments that Jerome assigns to a “Hebrew” Gospel are attested in these later sources, and one of Jerome’s fragments is attributed to the Ioudaïkon. For example, Jerome’s tradition about the resurrection appearance to James (Vir. ill. 2) is repeated by pseudo-Abdias (Hist. ap. 7.1), Gregory of Tours (Hist. 1.22), the Irish Reference Bible (MS Clm. 14277, fol. 285^r, 12–20), Sedulius Scottus (Collect. in ep. Paul., In 1 Cor. 15), and Jacobus de Voragine (Leg. aur. 67). There are also several unique passages about Jesus’ infancy, ministry, passion, or resurrection attributed to a varyingly titled “Hebrew” Gospel that have been collected in A. F. J. Klijn’s Jewish-Christian Gospel Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 1992). Starting with Haimo of Auxerre in the ninth century (Comm. Isa. 53,12), the “Gospel of the Nazarenes” was coined as a title, and other titles were used due to Jerome’s influence.

To reconstruct the Gospel According to the Hebrews, scholars have to differentiate between authentic and spurious references. References in sources post-dating Jerome are doubtful, as these writers arguably did not have direct access to the Gospel According to the Hebrews, re-attributed certain traditions or exegetical comments from Jerome to the Gospel According to the Hebrews, or misidentified apocryphal sources as the Gospel According to the Hebrews. There is debate about how many Jewish Gospels may have circulated under the title of the Gospel According to the Hebrews. Some scholars would defend the view held by most Christians throughout history that there was a single Gospel According to the Hebrews that was known to the Patristic writers in different translations or recensions. Other scholars re-assign the fragments that Epiphanius and Jerome attributed to the Gospel According to the Hebrews to other hypothetical Jewish Gospels, the reasons for which are reviewed in the e-Clavis entries on the Gospel of the Ebionites and the Gospel of the Nazarenes. For instance, there are two fragments about Jesus’ baptism (Epiphanius, Pan. 30.13.7–8; Jerome, Comm. Isa. 11.1–3), and one fragment about a dialogue Jesus has about the necessity of undergoing baptism (Jerome, Pelag. 3.2). The question is whether all three fragments can be fitted into a single Gospel, or whether they were taken from two or three different Jewish Gospels. Since scholars only have fragments to work with, the debate over the number of Jewish Gospels and the authenticity of certain fragments will doubtless continue.

Named Historical Figures and Characters: Holy Spirit, James (the Righteous), John (the Baptist), Mary (Virgin), Matthias (apostle), Matthew (a postle).

Geographical Locations: Capernaum, Jerusalem, Jordan River, Sea of Tiberias.

2. RESOURCES

“Gospel of the Hebrews.” Early Christian Writings. Administered by Peter Kirby.

“Gospel of the Hebrews.” Wikipedia.

Ecclesiastical History in Greek. Perseus Project.

Panarion in Greek. Perseus Project.

“Sanctus Hieronymus (c. 347–420).” The Latin Library.

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

3.1 Editions (compiling the testimonia)

Ehrman, Bart D. and Pleše, Zlatko. The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 (pp. 218–21).

Otero, Aurelio de Santos, ed. and trans. Los evangelios apócrifos; colección de textos griegos y latinos, versión crítica, estudios introductorios y comentarios. BAC 148. 6th rev. ed. Madrid: Biblioteca de autores cristianos, 1998 (Greek texts and Spanish trans., pp. 29–53).

Preuschen, Erwin. Antilegomena: Die Reste der ausserkanonischen Evangelien und urchristlichen Überlieferungen. Giessen: J. Ricker, 1901 (Greek text, pp. 9–11; discussion, pp. 110–12).

Schlarb, Egbert, and Dieter Lührmann. “Hebräerevangelium.” In Fragmente apokryph gewordener Evangelien in griechischer und lateinischer Sprache. Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 2000 (pp. 40–55).

3.2 Modern Translations

3.2.2.1 English

Cameron, Ron. The Other Gospels: Non-Canonical Gospel Texts. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1982 (pp. 83–86).

Ehrman, Bart D. and Pleše, Zlatko. The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 (pp. 218–21).

Elliott, J. K. The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Literature in an English Translation. 1993. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005 (pp. 3–8).

Gregory, Andrew F. The Gospel according to the Hebrews and the Gospel of the Ebionites. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017 (pp. 31–168).

James, Montague Rhodes. The Apocryphal New Testament: Being the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses. Oxford: Clarendon, 1924; corrected edition, 1953 (pp. 1–8).

Vielhauer, Philipp, and Georg Strecker. “Jewish Christian Gospels.” Pages 117–65 in New Testament Apocrypha. Vol. 1: Gospels and Related Writings. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Translated by R. McL. Wilson. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991 (pp. 172–78).

3.2.2.2 French

Bertrand, Daniel A. “Évangile des Hébreux.” Pages 459–62 in vol. 1 of Écrits apocryphes chrétiens. Edited by François Bovon and Pierre Geoltrain. Paris: Gallimard, 1997.

3.2.2.3 German

Frey, Jörg. “Die Fragmente des Hebräerevangelium.” Pages 593–606 in Antike christliche Apokyrphen in deutscher Übersetzung. I. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. Teilband 1. Edited by Christoph Markschies and Jens Schröter. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.

Klostermann, Erich. Apocrypha. Bd. 2: Evangelien. KIT 8. 3rd ed. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1929 (pp. 5–11).

Meyer, A. “Hebräerevangelium.” Pages 21–38 in Handbuch zu Neutestamentlichen apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung. Edited by Edgar Hennecke. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1904.

Vielhauer, Philipp. “Judenchristlichen Evangelien.” Pages 75–108 in Neutestamentliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung, Bd. 1: und Verwandtes. Edited by Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1959.

3.2.2.4 Italian

Erbetta, Mario. Gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento. 3 vols. Italy: Marietti, 1975–1981 (vol. 1.1, pp. 114–31).

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. 373–82).

3.2.2.5 Spanish

3.3 General Works

3.3.1 Jewish Christian Gospels

Broadhead, Edwin K. The Gospel of Matthew on the Landscape of Antiquity. WUNT 378. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017.

———. Jewish Ways of Following Jesus: Redrawing the Religious Map of Antiquity. WUNT 266. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.

Danielou, Jean. A History of Early Christian Doctrine. Vol. 1: The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Translated by John A. Baker. London and Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964.

———. Théologie du Judéo-Christianisme. Tournai, Desclée & Cie, 1958.

Edwards, James R. The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009.

Evans, Craig. “The Jewish Christian Gospel Tradition.” Pages 241–77 in Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries. Edited by Oskar Skarsaune and Reider Hvalvik. Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007.

Frey, Jörg. “Zur Vielgestaltigkeit judenchristlicher Evangelienüberlieferungen.” Pages 94–137 in Jesus in apokryphen Evangelienüberlieferungen. Edited by Jörg Frey and Jens Schröter. WUNT 254. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.

Goulder, Michael D. “A Poor Man’s Christology.” NTS 45 (1999): 332–48.

Gregory, Andrew F. “Jewish-Christian Gospel Traditions and the New Testament.” Pages 41–59 in Christian Apocrypha: Receptions of the New Testament in Ancient Christian Apocrypha. Edited by Tobias Nicklas and Jean-Michel Roessli. NTP 26. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014.

. “Jewish-Christian Gospels.” ExpT 118.11 (2007): 521–29.

. “Jewish-Christian Gospels.” Pages 54–67 in The Non-Canonical Gospels, ed. Paul Foster. London: T & T Clark, 2008.

. “Hindrance or Help: Does the Modern Category of ‘Jewish-Christian Gospel’ Distort Our Understanding of the Texts to Which it Refers?” JSNT 28 (2006): 387–413.

Hort, F. J. A. Judaistic Christianity. London: Macmillan & Co, 1904.

Joseph, Simon J. Jesus and the Temple: The Crucifixion in its Jewish Context. SNTS MS 165. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Klijn, Albertus F. J. Jewish Christian Gospel Tradition. Leiden: Brill, 1992.

———. “Patristic Evidence for Jewish Christian and Aramaic Gospel Tradition.” Pages 169–77 in Text and Interpretation. Edited by Ernes Best and Robert McLachlan. Wilson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Klijn, Albertus F. J. and Reinink, Gerrit J. Patristic Evidence for Jewish-Christian Sects. NovTSup 36. Leiden: Brill, 1973.

Köhler, Wolf-Dietrich. Die Rezeption des Matthäusevangeliums in der Zeit vor Irenäus. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1987.

Lichtenberger, Hermann. “Syncretistic Features in Jewish and Jewish-Christian Baptism Movements.” Pages 85–97 in Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways AD 70 to 135. Edited by James Dunn. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992.

Luomanen, Petri. Recovering Jewish-Christian Sects and Gospels. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

———. “Ebionites and Nazarenes.” In Jewish Christianity Reconsidered: Rethinking Ancient Groups and Texts. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007.

———. “Jewish-Christian Gospels.” Pages 95–114 in Early New Testament Apocrypha, ed. J. Christopher Edwards. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2022.

Massaux, Édouard. The Influence of the Gospel of Saint Matthew on Christian Literature before St. Irenaeus: The Later Christian Writings. New Gospel Studies 5.2. Translated by Norman J. Belval and Suzanne Hechte. Edited by Arthur J. Bellinzoni. Macon: Mercer University Press, 1990.

Mattila, Sharon. “A Question Too Often Neglected.” NTS 41.2 (1995): 199–217.

Mimouni, Simon Claude. Early Judaeo-Christianity: Historical Essays. Translation of Le Judéo-christianisme ancien: Essais historiques (Paris: Cerf, 1998) by Robyn Fréchet. Leuven: Peeters, 2012.

———. Les Fragments évangéliques judéo-chrétiens apocryphisés: recherches et perspectives. CahRB 66. Paris: Gabalda, 2006.

Neirynck, Frans. “The Apocryphal Gospels and the Gospel of Mark.” Pages 123–75 in The New Testament in Early Christianity. Edited by J.-M. Sevrin. BETL 86. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1974.

Paget, James Carleton. Jews, Christians and Jewish Christians in Antiquity. WUNT 251. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.

Perkins, Pheme. “Jewish Christian Gospels: Primitive Tradition Imagined.” Pages 197–248 in The Apocryphal Gospels: The Apocryphal Gospels within the Context of Early Christian Theology. Edited by Jens Schröter. Leuven: Peeters, 2013.

Pritz, R. A. Nazarene Jewish Christianity: From the End of the New Testament Period Until Its Disappearance in the Fourth Century. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1988.

Reed, Annette Yoshiko. Jewish-Christianity and the History of Judaism: Collected Essays. TSAJ 171. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018.

Schmidtke, Alfred. Neue Fragmente und Untersuchungen zu den judenchristlichen Evangelien: Ein Beitrag zur Literatur und Geschichte der Judenchristen. TU 37.1. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1911.

Schoeps, Hans-Joachim. Jewish Christianity: Factional Disputes in the Early Church. Translated by Douglas A. Hare. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1969.

———. Theologie und Geschichte Des Judenchristentums. Tübingen: Mohr, 1949.

Simon, Marcel, Verus Israel: Étude sur les relations entre Chrétiens et Juifs dans l’Empire Romain (135–425). Paris: Editions de Boccard, 1948.

Taylor, Joan E. “The Phenomenon of Early Jewish-Christianity: Reality or Scholarly Invention?” VC 44 (1990): 313–34.

Waitz, Hans. “Neue Untersuchung über die sogen. Judenchristlichen Evangelien.” ZNW 36 (1937): 60–81.

3.3.2 Gospel of the Hebrews

Bauckham, Richard. “The Origin of the Ebionites.” Pages 162–81 in The Image of the Judaeo-Christians in Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature. Edited by Peter J. Tomson and Doris Lambers-Petry. WUNT 158. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2003.

Beatrice, Pier Franco. “The ‘Gospel according to the Hebrews’ in the Apostolic Fathers.” NovT 48.2 (2006): 147–95.

Bertrand, Daniel A. “L’Évangile des Ebionites: une harmonie évangelique antérieur au Diatessaron.” NTS 26 (1980): 548–63.

Coogan, Jeremiah. “The Ways that Parted in the Library: The Gospels according to Matthew and according to the Hebrews in Late Ancient Heresiology.” JEH 73 (2022): 1–18.

Danielou, Jean. A History of Early Christian Doctrine. Vol. 1: The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Translated by John A. Baker. London and Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964.

———. Théologie du Judéo-Christianisme. Tournai, Desclée & Cie, 1958.

Edwards, James R. “The Gospel of the Ebionites and the Gospel of Luke.” NTS 48 (2002): 568–86.

———. The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009.

Frey, Jörg. “Die Fragmente judenchristlicher Evangelien.” Pages 560–92 in Antike christliche Apokyrphen in deutscher Übersetzung. I. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. Teilband 1. Edited by Christoph Markschies and Jens Schröter. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.

. “Die Fragmente des Hebräerevangelium.” Pages 593–606 in Antike christliche Apokyrphen in deutscher Übersetzung. I. Band: Evangelien und Verwandtes. Teilband 1. Edited by Christoph Markschies and Jens Schröter. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012.

. “The Gospel of the Hebrews.” In The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries, Volume 2: From Thomas to Tertullian: Christian Literary Receptions of Jesus in the Second and Third Centuries CE, ed. Jens Schröter et al. London: T&T Clark, 2025.

. “Texts about Jesus: Non-canonical Gospels and Related Literature.” Pages 13–47 in The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Apocrypha, edited by Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

. “Whence the Gospel according to the Hebrews?” Pages 97–116 in Texts in Context: Essays on Dating and Contextualising Christian Writings from the Second and Early Third Centuries, ed. Josef Verheyden, Jens Schröter, and Tobias Nicklas. BETL 319. Leuven: Peeters, 2021.

Häkkinen, Sakari. “Ebionites.” Pages 247–75 in A Companion to Second Century Christian “Heretics.” SVC 76. Edited by Antti Marjanen and Petri Luomanen. Leiden: Brill, 2005.

Handmann, Rudolf. Das Hebräer-Evangelium: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Kritik des hebräischen Matthäus. TU 5.3. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1888.

Klauck, Hans Josef. Apocryphal Gospels: An Introduction. Translated by Brian McNeil. London: T&T Clark, 2003 (pp. 38–43).

Köhler, Wolf-Dietrich. Die Rezeption des Matthäusevangeliums in der Zeit vor Irenäus. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1987.

Kok, Michael J. “Did Papias of Hierapolis Use the Gospel according to the Hebrews as a Source?” JECS 25.1 (2017): 29–53.

. “The Heresiological Portrayals of the Ebionites and the Nazoraeans and Their Reception of Paul.” Pages 287–311 in Paul within Judaism: Perspectives on Paul and Jewish Identity. Edited by Michael Bird, Ruben A. Bühner, Jörg Frey, and Brian Rosner. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

———. Tax Collector to Gospel Writer: Patristic Traditions about the Evangelist Matthew. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2023.

Lagrange, M.-J. “L’Evangile selon les Hebreux.” RB 31 (1922): 161–81, 321–49.

Nicholson, Edward B. The Gospel according to the Hebrews: Its Fragments Translated and Annotated with a Critical Analysis of the External and Internal Evidence Relating to It. London: Kegan Paul, 1879.

Paget, James Carleton. Jews, Christians and Jewish Christians in Antiquity. WUNT 251. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.

Schmidt, P. L. “‘Und es war geschneben auf Hebräisch, Griechisch und Lateinisch’ Hieronymus, das Hebräer-Evangelium und seine mittelalterliche Rezeption.” Filologia Mediolatina 5 (1998): 49–93.

Schmidtke, Alfred. “Zum Hebräerevangelium.” ZNW 35 (1936): 24–44.

Sloan, David B. “What if the Gospel of the Hebrews was Q?” Paper presented to the Q Section at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Boston, November 2017. http://reconstructingq.com/gospel-of-the-hebrews.pdf.

Waitz, Hans. “Neue Untersuchung über die sogen. Judenchristlichen Evangelien.” ZNW 36 (1937): 60–81.

———. “Die judenchristliche Evangelien in der altkirchlichen Literatur.” Pages 10–17 in Neutestamentliche Apokryphen. Edited by E. Hennecke. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1924.

. “Hebräerevangelium.” Pages 48–55 in Neutestamentliche Apokryphen. Edited by E. Hennecke. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1924.

Wilson, Stephen G. Related Strangers: Jews and Christians 70–170 CE. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995.

Zahn, Theodor. Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Kanons: Zweiter Band: Urkunden und Belege zum ersten und dritten Band. Zweite Hälfte. Erlangen and Leipzig: A. Deichert’sche Verlagsbuchh Nacht, 1892 (pp. 724–42).