Protoevangelium of James

An early Christian infancy narrative that shaped later piety but was not adopted as New Testament Scripture.

The Protoevangelium of James is an early Christian infancy narrative from the mid-second century, at medium confidence. It shaped later devotion to Mary’s childhood and to the birth of Jesus. Later closed New Testament lists do not receive it as Scripture. Influence on art, liturgy, and legend is reception of a kind. Canonical status is the list. This dataset places it with related early Christian literature and with writings later lists leave outside the New Testament. It is not a secret earlier edition of Matthew or Luke.

Related literature / rejected as canonical Scripture in later closed NT lists.

Date

Mid-2nd century CE (medium confidence)

Confidence

medium

Languages

Greek

Traditional authorship

James

Authorship note

Circulated in James's name; not Scripture, though it shaped feasts of Mary

• P.Bodmer V · Papyrus Bodmer V

  3rd–4th centuries CE · Greek · Greek Protevangelium of James

  Papyrus Bodmer V is a Greek papyrus of the third or fourth century that copies the Protevangelium of James, also called the Infancy Gospel of James. It is the earliest substantial manuscript of that book. Later Greek and Oriental copies show that churches kept reading the stories of Mary’s birth and childhood. Those stories shaped liturgy and art. They were not entered in the New Testament lists of Athanasius, Carthage, or the later twenty-seven-book canon. Bodmer V is the early copy, not a canon decree.

• lists noncanonical

  Jewish canon

  The Protevangelium of James is not a book of the Tanakh. Josephus, near the end of the first century, describes twenty-two Jewish books his people trust and sets later writings in a lower rank. The later rabbinic Bible, counted as twenty-four books, likewise leaves The Protevangelium of James outside Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. The Protevangelium of James is a Christian infancy narrative about Mary. It is not a Jewish biblical book. Jewish copying or quotation, where it exists, is reception. It is not the same fact as a place in the Hebrew canon, and it is not a Christian council’s decision.

• preserves

  Greek churches

  Papyrus Bodmer V shows that Greek Christians were copying the Protevangelium of James by the third or fourth century. Origen refers to the Book of James for the brothers of Jesus. Churches used the stories in devotion. Canon lists did not add the book to the New Testament.

• ProtestantRelated literature

  Not a New Testament book.

• CatholicRelated literature

  Influential for later piety; not New Testament Scripture.

• OrthodoxRelated literature

  Not among the 27 New Testament books.

• EthiopianRelated literature

  Not named on the published EOTC 81 list used here.

• TanakhNot applicable

  Christian infancy narrative.

• LXXNot applicable

  Not an Old Testament book.

• Early ChristianRelated literature

  Second-century infancy narrative used for story, not as a closed-canon Gospel.

• Second TempleNot applicable

  Early Christian text.

No council, confession, or canon list in this dataset names Protoevangelium of James. Tradition status is recorded in the section above.

No direct quotation or literary dependence on another writing in this dataset is recorded for Protoevangelium of James.

No dated canon event in this dataset is tied to Protoevangelium of James.

• Westminster Confession I.2–3 names the 66-book Protestant canon and says the books commonly called Apocrypha are not of divine inspiration and are not part of the canon of Scripture.
• Council of Trent, Session IV (8 April 1546), lists the Catholic canonical books including the deuterocanonical writings received in the Vulgate.
• Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367), lists 22 Old Testament and 27 New Testament books and names some other writings as useful but not canonical.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church publishes an 81-book list that includes 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Meqabyan books.
• Josephus, Against Apion 1.8, speaks of 22 Jewish books and distinguishes later writings as not equally trusted.
• Brenton’s public-domain Septuagint translation includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, the Additions, and Maccabees as part of the Greek Old Testament corpus.
• Eusebius reports earlier Christian opinions on disputed books, including the Shepherd of Hermas and some apocalypses, without treating every quoted work as universally canonical.
• Papyrus Bodmer V is a third- or fourth-century Greek copy of the Protevangelium of James.