This new anthology of gospel literature contains texts that are not part of the New Testament but are of great importance for the study of Christian origins. Some of these apocryphal gospels are from the Nag Hammadi library, made available only recently. The sixteen texts constitute what remains of the non-canonical gospels form the first and second centuries. They transmit saying of Jesus and relate stories about Jesus.

The author shows that in early Christianity the memory of Jesus was kept alive in the traditions of worshiping communities who preserved his sayings along with stories attributed to him. Now, critical analysis is making it possible for us to examine more fully the history of the literature in which these Jesus traditions were transmitted. Cameron introduces the gospel literature and discusses the varieties of literary forms, the circumstances and dates of composition, and the significance of non-canonical texts for understanding the Bible. Scholars and students alike can benefit from these clear and accurate translations, valuable for the light they cast on the New Testament and absorbing as the earliest examples of christian literature. A select annotated bibliography gives suggestions for further study in one of the most important fields of modern religious scholarship.