Reference: Gospels, Apocryphal
Hastings
According to Lu 1:1-4, there were a number of accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus in circulation among the Christians of the 1st century. Among these were not only the sources of our canonical Gospels, but also a number of other writings purporting to come from various companions of Jesus and to record His life and words. In process of time these were lost, or but partially preserved. The Gospels were supplemented by others, until there resulted a literature that stands related to the NT Canon much as the OT Apocrypha stand related to the OT Canon. As a whole, however, it never attained the importance of the OT Apocrypha. Individual Gospels seem to have been used as authoritative, but none of them was ever accepted generally.
I. The Origin of the Apocryphal Gospels.