The Protevangelium Iacobi: Critical Edition, with Translation and Commentary

As a prehistory to the Nativity accounts of the gospels of Matthew and Luke the Protevangelium of James, dated to the second half of the second century, aimed to fill in alleged gaps in the canonical accounts of Jesus’ and his mother’s ancestry and births. Thus, it describes the birth of Mary, the mother of Christ, the Annunciation, the Nativity and the death of Zachariah, the high priest and father of John the Baptist. The edition of the original Greek text has an English version on its facing pages. There are also editorial notes to enable all interested parties to benefit from reading this important and influential text. The commentary challenges earlier attempts by showing the text as embedded in second-third century debates with an anti-gnostic (anti-Marcionite) agenda. Against earlier views it shows that the Protevangelium is primarily a theological work in narrative form and that the main issue is not so much Mariology, but a primitive Christology. It also shows that the Protevangelium presupposes much of the New Testament, albeit in a different form as the canonical (majority) text.