“Armenian Infancy Gospel”
Translation from Spanish «Evangelios Apócrifos», Edmundo González-Blanco (1934)
The “Armenian Infancy Gospel” is an apocryphal gospel of the infancy of Jesus from the 6th century based on an older Syriac version that no longer exists. The gospel has two versions, a longer one (37 chapters) and a shorter one (28 chapters). The text includes stories about the life of the Virgin Mary, her marriage to Joseph, her miraculous birth to Jesus, Jesus’ childhood, and her later life like the other Infancy Gospels, but with some Distinctive features.
According to an Armenian source, missionaries brought apocryphal texts, including “The Infancy of the Lord,” to Armenia in 590 AD. The first known use of this gospel was by the Armenian philosopher Anania Shirakatsi. The Armenian syntax of the document appears to be based on a Semitic foundation, suggesting that the document is most likely an Armenian translation of a now-lost Syriac text.