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Authorship, Date, and Context
The Gospel of Bartholomew (designated in extant Greek and Latin manuscript witnesses as the Questions of Bartholomew, Quaestiones Bartholomaei) is presented pseudepigraphically as a collection of esoteric revelations imparted by the risen Christ to the Apostle Bartholomew. Saint Jerome, in the prologue to his Commentary on Matthew, explicitly includes an apocryphal Gospel of Bartholomew alongside those of the Egyptians, Thomas, and Matthias, likely following Origen. Modern textual scholarship, championed by Montague Rhodes James, André Wilmart, and Eugène Tisserant, demonstrates that the Questions of Bartholomew represents the substance of this ancient gospel.
Originally composed in Koine Greek in an Eastern Mediterranean Christian milieu (most plausibly Egypt or Syria), the underlying text is dated by critical consensus to between the third and fifth centuries CE (circa 250–400 CE). Cast in the popular late antique genre of the post-resurrection dialogue, the work weaves together popular Christian folklore, speculative angelology, and orthodox doctrinal affirmations concerning the harrowing of Hades (descensus ad inferos), Mary's divine maternity, and the literal subjection of demonic powers.
Structure
The work is formally structured into five well-demarcated dialogue chapters according to modern critical editions.
The contents encompass five discrete theological encounters: Chapter I recounts Christ's descent into Hades during the crucifixion, the rescue of Adam and the Old Testament patriarchs, and the numerical ratio of lost souls versus saved souls in paradise; Chapter II features the Virgin Mary's confidential narration to the apostles concerning the Annunciation and conception in the Jerusalem Temple, wherein mystical flames issue from her mouth; Chapter III relates the ascent to Mount Mauria/Mamre where the apostles behold the terrifying abyss rolled back like a parchment scroll; Chapter IV, forming the longest portion of the book, describes the summoning of Beliar/Satan from Tartarus in chains of fire, his physical trampling by Bartholomew, and his forced disclosure of angelic orders, elemental powers, and demonic snares; and Chapter V concludes the revelation with queries regarding mortal sins, the unforgivable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and Christ's final commissioning of the apostolate.
Themes and Key Passages
Primary theological motifs include the total victory of the crucified Redeemer over death and the underworld, the exalted Marian theology asserting that her womb contained the uncontainable Maker of heaven, the physical triumph of the apostolic ministry over Satanic dominion, and an intricate cosmology of cosmic angels governing winds, hail, snow, and oceans.
Overcoming his terror in chapter four, Bartholomew plants his foot firmly upon the neck of the fallen archangel, extracting the confession of his former glory: 'at the first I was called Satanael, which is interpreted a messenger of God, but when I rejected the image of God my name was called Satanas'
Summary by Parts
Descent into Hades and the fate of souls (Chapter I): Bartholomew asks Jesus where he went when he vanished from the cross; the Lord reveals his descent into the depths to break open the brazen gates of Hades and deliver Adam, while warning that out of thirty thousand daily dying souls, only a miniscule handful enter Abraham's bosom.
Mary's revelation of the Annunciation (Chapter II): Encouraged by Peter and John, Mary recounts receiving heavenly food from an angel in the sanctuary and partaking of a cosmic loaf and chalice; as she begins to speak of the unutterable mystery, fire bursts from her mouth, prompting Jesus to intervene to prevent cosmic incineration.
Vision of the boundless abyss (Chapter III): On Mount Mauria, the disciples request to see the foundation of the world; Christ commands the angels of the West to roll up the earth, exposing the terrifying subterranean abyss and throwing the disciples into profound dread.
The subjugation and confession of Beliar (Chapter IV): Bound by fiery chains, Beliar is dragged from the abyss by Michael; Jesus commands Bartholomew to tread upon the monster's neck, forcing Satan to reveal his original status as the first-created angel Satanael, the names of elemental spirits controlling the four winds, and the deceptive hooks with which demons ensnare human souls.
Deadly sins and apostolic commissioning (Chapter V): Jesus instructs the apostles on marital fidelity and the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, imparts his peace, and ascends into the celestial spheres.
Reception
The Gospel of Bartholomew was formally condemned as apocryphal and proscribed from ecclesiastical reading in the sixth-century Gelasian Decree, while patristic writers consistently rejected its authority. Despite canonical rejection, the work circulated widely among monastic and ascetical communities in the Greek, Slavic, and Latin worlds, profoundly influencing medieval vernacular piety and iconography concerning the harrowing of hell and demonic combat.
The text is preserved through diverse linguistic branches: Greek manuscripts in Vienna and Jerusalem (twelfth to thirteenth centuries), Old Church Slavonic codices (thirteenth to sixteenth centuries), and Latin witnesses (ninth-century Vatican palimpsest fragments and the complete eleventh-century Codex Casanatensis 1080 from Monte Amiata). Critical editions by André Wilmart and Eugène Tisserant in Revue Biblique (1913) and Ubaldo Moricca (1921–1922) established the text, popularized in English by Montague Rhodes James in The Apocryphal New Testament (1924).
Sources
- Montague Rhodes James, The Gospel of Bartholomew (The Apocryphal New Testament) (1924).
- Tony Burke; Rick Brannan, Questions of Bartholomew (e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha) (2019).