Selected Noncanonical Gospels

018

	Date of Composition	Language of Composition	Where Written	Earliest Extant Copies
Precanonical Gospels
Signs (Hypothetical-thought to be imbedded in John)	mid-1st century	Greek	not known	none
Sayings Gospel Q (Hypothetical-thought to be imbedded in Matthew and Luke)	mid-1st century	Greek	Galilee	none
Infancy Gospels
James	c. 150	Greek	not known	150 copies in several languages(4th–5th cent.)
Thomas	2nd century	Greek	not known	6th century Syriac manuscripts
Sayings Gospels
Gospel of Thomas	mid-1st century–mid-2nd century	Greek	Syria?	Nag Hammadi (Coptic) (3rd–4th cent.)
Secret Book of James	c. 100–150	Greek	not known	Nag Hammadi (Coptic) (3rd–4th cent.)
Dialogue of the Savior	c. 150	Greek	not known	Nag Hammadi (Coptic) (3rd–4th cent.)
Gospel of Mary (Magdelene)	late 1st century—early-2nd century	Greek	Egypt or Syria?	Two 3rd cent. Greek and a 5th cent. Coptic manuscript

There are about two dozen noncanonical gospels from the second to sixth centuries. This chart shows some of the earliest and most important.