Hegesippus (170 A.D.) was the earliest Church historian, but his history has been destroyed. Eusebius tells us ("Hist.," iv. 22) that he was a Jew, and that he used the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Papias, according to Eusebius, also used it, for he quotes from it the story of the woman taken in adultery.
Irenæus (Hœr. i. 26) tells us that the Ebionites (Church of Jerusalem) used "that Gospel which is according to Matthew." As we have overwhelming evidence that the Ebionites used the Gospel according to the Hebrews, it is plain that the Gospel according to Matthew of Irenæus was the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Remains Justin Martyr, and now the din of battle grows loud. Did he know anything of the sayings (λόγια [Greek: logia] )? Had he ever heard of the Gospel according to the Apostles? Or did he, according to the conventional defence, know only our Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
The answer on the surface seems convincing. Justin never mentions the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John at all. He makes one hundred and ninety-seven quotations from the Old Testament, with the names of the authors and books attached. He alludes to "a man amongst us named John," as the author of the Revelations. He gives two hundred gospel quotations, and professes to get them from the sayings of our Lord, though he does not mention Matthew. He announces also that he is citing the "Memoirs of the Apostles," the alternative title apparently of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Are the sayings of our Lord quoted by Justin precisely similar to the words of Christ in our gospels? As a matter of fact, they differ considerably in the English translation, and still more in the Greek, as shown by Dr. Giles in his "Hebrew and Christian Records." It is replied that Justin quoted from our gospels and made mistakes.
Much has been made by the conventional defence of certain words used by Justin in reference to the works he was quoting from, "which are called gospels," but Schliermacher contends that the passage is an interpolation, and an instance in which a marginal note has been incorporated into the text. He urges, and so does Dr. Giles, that, at the date of Justin, ευαγγελια [Greek: euangelia] could not have been used in the plural for books. It is twice used in the singular by Justin elsewhere, and then means simply the Christian revelation (literally, glad tidings).
I propose now to give all that can be recovered from the writings of the Fathers of the Gospel according to the Apostles. To this I will add the "Sayings of our Lord" as quoted by Justin. If these are not from the Gospel of the Hebrews, at any rate we get a much earlier version of Christ's words than those read in our churches. For the Gospel according to the Hebrews, consult Renan, "Les Evangiles," chap. vi.; Hilgenfeld, "Novum Testamentum extra Canonem Receptum," Fasc. iv.; Nicholson, "The Gospel according to the Hebrews;" and Baring-Gould.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE HEBREWS.
Epiphanius has given us the opening verses:—
"There was a certain man, by name Jesus, and he of about thirty years, who chose us out.