Primary source · Koine Greek
The Protoevangelium of James
Anonymous (ascribed to James) · c. AD 145–160
What this text is
The second-century infancy gospel that supplies the names Joachim and Anne and the whole narrative of Mary's birth and childhood — non-canonical, immensely influential, and our earliest attestation of Saint Anne.
Public-domain translations
ANF translation (Walker, 1886, public domain)
And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard thy prayer, and thou shalt conceive, and shall bring forth; and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world.
Manuscript witnesses
Papyrus Bodmer V (Fondation Bodmer, Geneva)
3rd–4th c.Complete Greek codex titled 'Birth of Mary, Revelation of James' — recovered in Egypt, published 1958; the oldest surviving copy.
Codex Vaticanus gr. 455 and the medieval Greek tradition
10th c. onwardOver one hundred Greek manuscripts, the base of Tischendorf's chapter numbering.
Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha
1876Standard pre-critical edition; superseded textually by de Strycker but still universally cited.
Provenance
Syria or Egypt; the earliest complete copy was found in Egypt
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- La forme la plus ancienne du Protévangile de JacquesÉmile de Strycker, 1961The critical edition built on Papyrus Bodmer V, with full apparatus.
- The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and TranslationsBart D. Ehrman & Zlatko Pleše, 2011Greek text with facing translation and balanced introduction.