ken interpretation of Origen (_Hom. I. in
Luc._). Lipsius, on the other hand, accepts the statements of Jerome
(Smith and Wace, _Dict. of Christian Biography_, ii. 709-712), and is of
opinion that this gospel, in the form in which it was known to
Epiphanius, Jerome and Origen, was "a recast of an older original,"
which, written originally in Aramaic, was nearly related to the Logia
used by St Matthew and the Ebionitic writing used by St Luke, "which
itself was only a later redaction of the Logia."

According to the most recent investigations we may conclude that the
Gospel according to the Hebrews was current among the Nazarenes and
Ebionites as early as 100-125, since Ignatius was familiar with the
phrase "I am no bodiless demon"--a phrase which, according to Jerome
(_Comm. in Is._ xviii.), belonged to this Gospel.

The name "Gospel according to the Hebrews" cannot have been original;
for if it had been so named because of its general use among the
Hebrews, yet the Hebrews themselves would not have used this
designation. It may have been known simply as "the Gospel." The language
was Western Aramaic, the mother tongue of Jesus and his apostles. Two
forms of Western Aramaic survive: the Jerusalem form of the dialect, in
the Aramaic portions of Daniel and Ezra; and the Galilean, in isolated
expressions in the Talmud (3rd century), and in a fragmentary 5th
century translation of the Bible. The quotations from the Old Testament
are made from the Massoretic text.

This gospel must have been translated at an early date into Greek, as
Clement and Origen cite it as generally accessible, and Eusebius
recounts that many reckoned it among the received books The gospel is
synoptic in character and is closely related to Matthew, though in the
Resurrection accounts it has affinities with Luke. Like Mark it seems to
have had no history of the birth of Christ, and to have begun with the
baptism. (For the literature see Hennecke, _NTliche Apok. Handbuch_,
21-23.)

_Gospel of Peter._--Before 1892 we had some knowlege of this gospel.
Thus Serapion, bishop of Antioch (A.D. 190-203) found it in use in the
church of Rhossus in Cilicia, and condemned it as Docetic (Eusebius,
_H.E._ vi. 12). Again, Origen (_In Matt._ tom. xvii. 10) says that it
represented the brethren of Christ as his half-brothers In 1885 a long
fragment was discovered at Akhmim, and published by Bouriant in 1892,
and subsequently by Lods, Robinson, Harnack, Zahn, Schub