The Apocryphal Gospels
Translated and with an introduction
by SIMON GATHERCOLE
(PENGUIN CLASSICS, 480 PP, £10.99)
Tablet bookshop price £9.89 • tel 020 7799 4064

Christianity begins with a body ­presumed missing, which is then raised from the dead. (“Okay, so we killed him, but only for three days,” runs the New York Jewish joke.) Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish ­rabboni, or teacher, had dared to confound the Temple authorities by returning to life. Written in the early years of Christianity, the apocryphal gospels provide non-canonical accounts of the Resurrection, the nature of Christ’s betrayal, his trial, Crucifixion and ministry on earth. While many of the texts were cited as Scripture by the early Christians, others trespassed subversively on the four gospels by intruding dissident extra-biblical detail. The 26-page Gospel of Judas, dating from the ­second century, views Judas Iscariot as the true recipient of Jesus’ revelation and the other disciples as mere deviant priest figures. (Thus the most despised betrayer in human history is accorded an unlikely moral authority.)