Date of composition

• Late first century into the 100s.
• It was later included in the Nag Hammadi Gnostic collection of the 300s.

Biography of Jesus?

• No. A dialogue between Jesus, his Original Apostles (mainly Matthew and Judas), and Mary. [He refers to her as his sister, perhaps meaning Mary Magdalene.]

Type of Apocrypha (heretical or in error (made up))

• Heresy. Contains Gnostic teachings about salvation.

Length

• We have 11 double-spaced pages.
• What we have is significantly damaged, and not all of it can be read, so we don't know the original length.

Summary

• See "Biography of Jesus" above.
• The writing appears to be a compilation of other writings since it consists of different writing styles.

Noteworthy from the book

1. Written in a question-and-answer format.
2. Refers frequently to secret teachings, a staple of Gnostic teaching.