Christmas Stories in the Christian Apocrypha

Presepio (Nativity scene) is a centuries-old craft and one of the most famous traditions of Naples. This is Napoleon Presepio It was shown in Rome. Photo: Howard Hudson/Wikimedia Commons.

One of the most familiar images of the Christmas season is an iconic depiction of the birth of Jesus—which is featured in an array of public and private settings, including churches, parks, store windows and fireplace mantels.

This scene, first assembled by St. Francis of Associazione in 1223, is allegorical, meaning that its various elements are intended to reflect primarily religious—not historical, nor literary—truths. He reconciles two very different stories: Luke’s birth of Jesus in a stable, met by shepherds, and attended by an angelic host and Matthew’s Magi, led to Jesus’ family home shortly before Jesus’ second birthday.

For most people looking at the nativity scene, it shows the birth of Jesus as it happened, with farm animals, shepherds, angels, and the Magi standing in Jerusalem. But this collection is apocryphal, both in the broad sense that the full scene is not an accurate reflection of what the biblical texts say about the birth of Jesus and in the narrow sense that such conflation of Matthew and Luke is a common feature of unedited Christian infancy gospels.

In fact, these Gospels not only combine the biblical stories, they expand them, with additional traditions about the birth of Jesus that circulated in antiquity. Of course, most Christians throughout history were unaware of this distinction. Before widespread literacy, Christians told the story of Jesus’ birth without any awareness of which elements were scriptural and which were not.

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Christian apocrypha are rich in stories about the birth of Jesus. The oldest and most famous of these stories are those found in the Lord Proteevangelium (or “Proto-Gospel”) of James. Composed in the late second century, the text combines the childhood narratives of Matthew and Luke with other traditions, including stories of the Virgin Mary’s own birth and upbringing. Proteevangelium was exceptionally popular. A number of manuscripts of the text exist today in several languages, and they have deeply influenced Christian liturgy and teachings about Mary.

Proteevangelium was transferred to the West as part of Gospel of Pseudo-Matthewwhich added stories of the Holy Family’s stay in Egypt and, in some manuscripts, stories of Jesus’ childhood. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Other Pseudo-sweet The manuscripts contain a different account of Jesus’ birth than another lost gospel that scholars say A book about the birth of the Savior.

in the east, Proteevangelium was translated into Syriac and expanded with a different set of stories set in Egypt to form Life of the Blessed Virgin Marywhich was later translated into Arabic Arabic Childhood Gospel. Another saraik thing to do Proteevangelium Lies behind Armenian Childhood Gospel. Christians in the East also extended Matthew’s Magi traditions Revelation of the Magi, Signs of Aphroditeand On the star (erroneously attributed to Eusebius of Caesarea), each of which describes in its own way how the Magi learned that the star heralded the birth of a king.

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This small tripartite painting, Genesis with the prophets along with Isaiah and Ezekielis part of a massive altar called maestà. Contains many individual paintings, maestà The Italian city of Siena commissioned the artist Duccio di Bonignagna in 1308. It includes elements of the birth of Jesus from the Christian apocrypha, including the cave, the bull, the donkey, and the midwife. Photo: Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

If the readers of these apocryphal texts can see modern nativity scenes, they will be surprised to find the baby Jesus in the stable: in the Gospels as a child, the birth takes place in a cave outside of Jerusalem, given by Justin Martyr (also given in A conversation with Turfo 78), who died around 165 AD, may have expected to see a midwife in this scene. In fact, she regularly appears in Eastern Orthodox images of the newborn, helping Mary bathe the newborn.

As Proteevangelium Tells her, Joseph left Mary in the cave and went to Bethlehem to find a midwife. But as Joseph and the midwife approached the cave, they saw a bright cloud shadowing it. The cloud then disappeared into the cave and a great light appeared, which took back and revealed the baby Jesus. Extensions to each subsequent Proteevangelium interpret this scene in their own unique way, but they all try to show that Jesus was not born naturally, thus allowing Mary to remain a physical virgin after the birth.

Jesus is so controversial that some texts suggest that he can be understood in multiple forms. Armenian Childhood GospelFor example, it reports that the Magi saw him in a different way: as the Son of God on a throne, as the Son of Man surrounded by armies, and tortured, dead and alive.

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Apocryphal accounts agree with Luke that shepherds visited the Holy Family shortly after Jesus’ birth. In Western texts, the family then moves from the cave to a stable and places the baby in a manger. An ox and a donkey bow their knees and worship him, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 1:3, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s foal” (see Pseudo-sweet 14 and The birth of the Savior 86). Although an apocryphal ornament, animals became a common component in later Nativity depictions and can be observed in Nativity scenes today.

Tony Burke has challenged the claim that Christian apocrypha were actually rejected, suppressed, and destroyed throughout Christian history. Read more >>

Often, the cave remains the scene of later events, including the circumcision (from Luke 2:21) and the visit of the Magi. The Magi are commonly depicted in art and iconography as three richly influenced Persian kings. However, Matthew only calls them “Magi from the East” (Matthew 2:1) and does not say how many there were. The authors of the apocryphal texts did their best to clarify these matters. i Revelation of the Magithere are at least twelve Magi – the same number given in other Syriac traditions. Armenian Childhood Gospel It is said that there were three kings, and with them 12 commanders, each of whom had an army of a thousand men, which would indeed make a very numerous stable.

Many texts continue the story of the Magi and tell what happened when they returned to their homeland: i Blessed virgin life (=Arabic Childhood Gospel) they bring back a quarrelsome band of Jesus, whom they worship because it has miraculous properties. i Revelation of the Magi They share a vision-inducing food (some sort of magic mushroom?) given to them by the star. And I Signs of Aphrodite They return with a painting of Jesus and his mother. None of these apocryphal Magi traditions are still included in nativity scenes today, but some of them influenced medieval art and literature.

Christians of all times and places have delighted in the story of Jesus’ birth, so much so that they have longed to learn more about the first Christmas found in the biblical accounts. The Christmas nativity scene is the result of creative and pious writers’ efforts to fill in the blanks left by Matthew and Luke and to combine multiple traditions, biblical and non-biblical, into a lasting image. The nativity scene is a timeless representation of when God became man. It is also a testament to the human imagination and the art of storytelling.

This Daily Bible History article was originally published on December 10, 2014.

Tony Burke is an associate professor and author in the Department of Humanities at York University Secret Scriptures Revealed: A New Introduction to Christian Apocrypha (London: SPCK, 2013) Burke’s research interests include second-century Christian autobiographical literature (the Infancy Gospel), children and families in Roman antiquity, curses, and the study of exceptional Jewish and Christian texts. Follow his work at www.tonyburke.ca

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