protevangelium

Updated: June 29, 2025

The Protevangelium of James, which it is thought might have been used in an earlier form than that which has come down to us, contains the legend of the cave, and has apparently a similar view to the Gospel last mentioned as to the perpetual virginity of Mary. It does not, however, appear to have been noticed that these Gospels satisfy most imperfectly the conditions of the problem.

William Sanday - The Gospels in the Second Century: An Examination of the Critical Part of a Work Entitled 'Supernatural Religion'

So far as the Protevangelium is concerned this may very probably have been the case; but what reason there is for assuming that the same document was also anterior to the third Gospel I am not aware. On the contrary, this very passage seems to suggest an opposite conclusion.

William Sanday - The Gospels in the Second Century: An Examination of the Critical Part of a Work Entitled 'Supernatural Religion'

Matthew, "are not accidentally inserted in this place, for we find that they are joined in the same manner to the address of the angel to Mary in the Protevangelium of St. James." But how about those words which succeed them in answer to the question of the Virgin, "How shall these things be?" I mean those quoted in the "Dialogue" beginning "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee," &c.

M. F. (Michael Ferrebee) Sadler - The Lost Gospel and Its Contents: Or, The Author of "Supernatural Religion" Refuted by Himself

I have little doubt that the translation given above is the right one. On the other hand, we are reminded that the narrative of the martyrdom of Zacharias enters into the Protevangelium of James. That apocryphal Gospel however contains nothing approaching to the words which coincide exactly with the text of St. Luke.

William Sanday - The Gospels in the Second Century: An Examination of the Critical Part of a Work Entitled 'Supernatural Religion'

If ever one author quotes another, Justin in this place quotes St. Luke. They cannot be taken from the Protevangelium, because the corresponding words in the Protevangelium are very different from those in St. Luke; and the only real difference between Justin's quotation and St. Luke is that St. Luke reads, "shall be called the Son of God;" whereas Justin has "is the Son of God."

M. F. (Michael Ferrebee) Sadler - The Lost Gospel and Its Contents: Or, The Author of "Supernatural Religion" Refuted by Himself

Olshausen and others: subsequent to the birth of Jesus, Joseph, though then the husband of Mary, relinquishes his matrimonial rights. Epiphanius, Protevangelium, Jacobi, and others: Joseph a decrepit old man, no longer to be thought of as a husband; the children attributed to him are of a former marriage.

Annie Besant - The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II.: Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History