The Lost and Hostile Gospels / An Essay on the Toledoth Jeschu, and the Petrine and Pauline Gospels of the First Three Centuries of Which Fragments Remain

by S. Baring-Gould

1. The Gospel of St. Peter.

2. The Gospel of the Egyptians.

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I. The Gospel Of The Hebrews.

1. The Fragments extant.

Eusebius quotes Papias, Irenaeus and Origen, as authorities for his statement that St. Matthew wrote his Gospel first in Hebrew.

Papias, a contemporary of Polycarp, who was a disciple of St. John, and who carefully collected all information he could obtain concerning the apostles, declares that “Matthew wrote his Gospel in the Hebrew dialect,[137] and that every one translated it as he was able.”[138]

Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, and therefore also likely to have trustworthy information on this matter, says, “Matthew among the Hebrews wrote a Gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel at Rome, and founding the Church there.”[139]