The Library
1693 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
1–100
1 work
c. 80–120; survives in quotations
Greek
Anonymous
A gospel used by Greek-speaking Jewish Christians in Egypt, known only from about seven passages quoted by Clement, Origen, Didymus, and Jerome. In its fragments the Holy Spirit is Jesus' mother, and the risen Christ appears first to James, who had sworn to eat nothing until he saw him.
101–200
2 works
c. 100–150; survives in fragments
Aramaic
Anonymous
An Aramaic gospel close to Matthew but not identical, known from Jerome and marginal notes in medieval manuscripts. The rich young ruler scratches his head while his brothers go dressed in filth; the man with the withered hand says he was a mason and begs not to have to eat in shame.
c. 120–160; survives in fragments
Greek
Anonymous
Known from seven passages in Epiphanius. It begins not with a birth but with John the Baptist, whose locusts have become honey-cakes, and has Jesus say he came to abolish sacrifice — and that if you do not stop sacrificing, wrath will not stop for you.
201–300
1 work
c. 260–320
Greek
Anonymous
A romance in which young Clement follows Peter around the eastern Mediterranean, debates Simon Magus, and gradually recognises his own scattered family — carrying a distinctly Jewish-Christian theology inside the plot.
4 of 1693 works