INTRODUCTION

The R<!v. G. J. Ouseley, by Gosj^l was 

written down, was •a son of Sir Ralph Ouseley, K.C.B., 

and was born in 1835 and died in 1906. He wap^. a 

priest, first in the Established Chufrch of Ireland, and 

afterwards in the Catholic Apostolic Church.# 

The third edition — and last before the present one — 

appeared in or about 1902, and contained a preface in 

which Mr. Ouseley** said that the Gospel had been 

received by him in numerous fragments at different 

times from Emmanuel Swedenborg (who was seen by 

trustworthy clairvoyants and afterwards identified from 

■a portrait shown to them), Anna Kingsford, Edward 

Maitland, “ and a priest of a former century giving 

his name as Placidus, of the Franciscan Order, after- 

wards a Carmelite. By them it was translated and 

given to the editors in the flesh, to be supplemented 

in their ’ (sic) “proper places, where indicated, from 

the Four Gospels (Authorised Version) revised where 

necessary by the same. ... By the Divine Spirit was 

the Gospel communicated to the four above-mentioned, 

and by them translated and given to the writers. ’’ By 

“editors” and “writers” he meant apparently Himself 

only. At any rate, there is nothing to show that any- 

one else was concerned in the production. Mr. Samuel 

llopgood Hart (editor of The Ferfect IVay, or The 

Finding of Christ, and other works by the late Dr* 

Anna Kingsford and Mr, Edward Maitland) says that 

Mr. Ouseley, whom he knew well, had a quaint. way of 

referring to himself in the plural, meaning thereby 

either the qualities (masculii^^ and feminine) within 

him, or the planes (inner and outer) of his being — his 

soul and bdSy ^respectively. ^ 

In a subse(|usr^t pamphlet Mr. Ouseley said that the 

unseen oommuiiicators impreesed ^he text on his mind

“ nol in 'my private study, nor i:i| any stance, but, for 

the *1fno8t *part, by thei^ dirAition, walking or sitting 

wit?i my. note-book in the open air, and often in dreams 

and visions of the night; and of the reality of their 

presence with me^ influencing me, I am *as certain is I 

am of my own existence and identity.” 

Mr.^Ouseley toM^Mr. Hart that he used *to receive 

visits during the night — in the stillness of the quiet 

h^TUr, while the night was in the midst of her course ” 

— from the above-mentioned Carmelite priest, who 

showed Wm a scroll, which he invited him to read, and* 

which appeared to be an original Christian Gospel. 

llr. Hart points out that Mr. Ouselej’s preface was,* 

to say •the least, badly expressed/ and in many places 

difficult or impossible to understand, affording in this 

respect a marked contrast with the Gospel itself. The 

obscurity is not surprising «in view of the fact that 

Mr. Ouseley was at the time — says Mr. Hart — old, 

deaf, physically feeble, having very bad eyesight, and 

with his mentality greatly impaired — more or less 

‘‘breaking up” with old age. But the contrast is 

instructive, showing, as it does, that he could not have 

“concocted” the Gospel himself (as has been unkindly 

suggested), even had he been so inclined; and there 

is no doubt that he had the integrity which became his 

calling. Moreover, although a great part of the text 

was admittedly taken from the Bible, there is also much 

that Jannot be found in any known source ; and if he 

really had concocted it, he would have had to invent 

the wonderful thoughts, ^and to clothe them in beautiful 

English, fit to stand beside the wording of the 

Authorised Version. 

^ As regards the statement that the text was received 

“ often iif dreams and visions of the night,” there are 

numerous references in Scripture to the communication 

of knowledge in that way. For instance : “ Now a thing 

was secretly brought Ho me, and mine ear received a 

little thereof. In thpughts from the visipit of the night, 

when deep sleep falleth on men ” (^ob, IV., 12, 13) 

and “Daniel had jinderstanding in vail visions and 

IX 

Those •who know something of the possibilities of 

mediumsRip and psychic faculty wi\! 'fin^ no di^culty 

in believing that the text may have been given to Mr. 

Ouseley by persons ‘ ‘ on the other side*’ ’ ; and two of 

the four had been his own personal friends when in the 

flesh. But though we may absolutely acquii him of* 

concocting or inventing, we need not on that account 

follow him in the assumption (and there is nothing to 

show that it is an;fthing more) that the four com- 

municators of this Gospel were also its translators. 

There is, in fact, nothing to show that they had ever 

seen the original, much less translated it. If, as he 

says, it was communicated to them by the Divine Spirit, 

it seems more reasonable to suppose that it was given 

them in English, and that the scroll which Placidus 

showed to Mr. Ouseley had been received from someone 

whose identity Placidus was not at liberty to disclose. 

The very use of the expression “the Divine Spirit" 

suggests to the present editor a possibility on which he 

will have something to say hereafter, if and when he 

attempts a commentary on the text. 

The original Gospel, says Mr. Ouseley in his preface, 

“ is preserved in one of the Buddhist monasteries in 

Thibet, where it was hidden by some of the Essene com- 

munity* for safety from the Ifands of corrupters, and 

is now for the first time translated from the Aramaic.” 

The reference to "corrupters ” will be understood from 

a passage in a book by the late Archdeacon Wilberforq^ 

of Westminster, called " After Death Whaf? Ho 

says, " Some are not aware that, after the Council of 

Nicea, a.d. 525, the^ MSS. of the New Testament were 

considerably tampered with. Prof. Nestld, in his Intro- 

duction to ihi textual criticism of Greek Testameni^ 

tells us that ceiitfin scholars, call^ correctores, wore 

appointed by th^ ecclesiastical autl^orities, and actually 

•Living on the shores of the Dead Sea. They appear to have *ent it from 

Palestine to Thibet.— Ad. coiftfcissioned to correct the tex^ of Scripture in the 

intejest djf what was considei%d orthodoxy/’ 

fVhat, these “ correctores ” did was to cut out of the 

Gospels with minute care certain teachings of Our Lord’s 

which they did ^ot propose to follow— namely, those 

against the eating of flesh and taking of strong drink — 

and every thiiig N^ich might serve as an ‘argument 

against flesh-eating, ^uch as the ac(X)unts of our Lord’s 

interference, oiT several occasions, to save animals from 

ill-treatment, and %ven that interesting and important 

‘ teachingfi ever prominent in Eastern scriptures, of the^ 

essential unity of all life — every living thing (and there 

is flothing that does not live, in this wonderful universe/ 

down |o the very stones beneath our feet, as clair- 

voyants know). They cut out also a teaching which they 

oould not understand, about the great fact of rein- 

carnation — that the soul’s sustenance is obtained - like 

a seagull’s — by means of repeated dips into the ocean 

(of matter) or births in physical bodies ; for in this 

Gospel He says: ’‘As all creatures come forth from the 

unseen, so do they return to the unseen, and so will they 

come again, till they be purified. . . . The body that 

ye lay in the grave, or that is consumed by fire, is not 

the body that shall be ; but those who come shall receive 

other bodies, yet their own ” (XCIII., 2 and 4). 

The great significance of the corruption of the text 

lies rather in the nature of the matter struck out by 

the ^ correctors ” than in its amount, which, as will 

be seen from the “ list of new matter” at the end of 

this volume, is small cempared with the total contents, 

though it is scattered throughout the book — on many 

pages. 

It is evident that the ” correctors ” and those who 

appointed them were at least as unwilling to renounce 

their beef and beer — a convenient alliteration for flesh 

and alcohol — and as sjow to takes in the illuminating 

teaching of reincarnation, as the orthociox world is 

to-day. 

Now, what can have been the rea|Ofei for this sudden 

determination to Qorrupt Scriptures^ that had been accepted for centuries?

XI 

Perhaps the answer, is ^ be 

found in the story Sno\^ as “ the miraculous di^ught 

of fishes ” (St. Luke, V., a story which is, OR\the 

face of it, so improbable and so barren of * spiritual 

teaching as ^Imost to invite us to look beneath the 

surface. And if we do that, what^do we find? The 

significant words “from henceforth thou shait catch 

men.” With this clue, it is not djlfScult to see a hidden 

inner meaning of great interest and ^not without its 

humorous side. If the story relates not to fish but te 

men, then it is evidently a veiled account of some effort^ 

at propaganda by the early Church— an ettort which 

was outwardly suc.essful in bringing in people wil|ing 

to label themselves Christians ; but which in reality 

nearly swamped the' Church, as a large proportion of 

the new converts were lioj^elessly unable to practise some 

of its most important and distinctive teachings (” And 

they . . . filled both the ^hips,* so that they began to 

sink ”). 

If that is indeed the meaning of this strange story, 

then the mystics or Gnostics (knowers) of the early 

Church, who were driven out at that time, and have 

been lalielled as heretics ever since, are to be con- 

gratulated on their ingenuity in managing to insert in 

one of the Gospels an account of their own expulsion, 

so carefully veiled as to be accepted by their persecutors 

as part of the original Gospel - and wisely placed near 

the beginning, instead of at the end, where it®w^ould 

have been more open to 8usj)icion. 

At the time of the corruption of the Gospels the 

Epistles and Ilevelation were presumably already in 

existence, and if the Gosj>el8 were tampered with, so no 

doubt was the rest of the New Testament, which is,nw. 

equally destitute of the teacliings removed from the 

Gospels. It may well be that uncorrupted copies of the 

Epistles Reveftition were* similarly sent by the 

Essenes to the safety of a Buddhifit monastery, and that, 

when the w^ld has assimilated new Gospel, thoee, 

too, may be gi^n to us. 

• Tbe thipt were ihi^hurchei of India and thi West. Before the teaching 

was corrupted, these could ferry men across the ocean of births and deaths. 

Afterwaras they could still help them to lead better lives, but the wav to 

perfection was lost. The ship* had begun to sink. 

TA pr^ious edition contained a gshort second preface^, 

so tr|ie ail^ beautiful that the* thoughts expressed may 

well have come from the same source, whatever that 

was, as the Gospel itself. This preface, with slight 

verbal alteration, ^id omitting a reference* to an “ Order 

of At-one-ment,'*^ now probably extinct, ^is here 

reproduced as follows: — « 

“ Tlie all-pflying^ leve of Our Saviour embraces not 

only mankind, hut also the so-called lower creatures of 

God, sharers with*u^ of the one breath of life, and with 

4RS on th^ one road of ascent to that which is higher. 

Never has the providence with which the All-Merciful 

watehes over man and beast alike, been more impres- 

sively bjought home to us than in ^he saying of Jesus ; 

“ Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not 

one of them is forgotten before God.” liow were it pos- 

sible to doubt that the Saviour would have pity and 

compassion on the creatures who must bear their pain 

in silence? Would it not seem a blasphemy if it were 

said that He would behold without pity or succour the 

ill-treatment of helpless animals? Nay, rather, when 

He brought redemption to a world sunk in selfishness, 

hardheartedness and misery, and proclaimed the Gospel 

of an all-embracing love, there was a share in this 

redemption for all sufiering creatures ; since when man 

opened his heart to the divine love, there could he no 

room left in it for pitiless hardness towards the other 

creatuji^s of God, who have, like Himself, been called 

into life with a capacity for enjoyment and sufiering. 

Those who bear the n^ark of the Redeemer practise 

His all-pitying love ; and how little it is that the mini- 

mum of compassion for helpless creatures demands of 

us ! Only to inflict on them no torture ; to help them 

•wiheu they^are in trouble, or when they appeal to us for 

succouf; and if of necessity we take their life, to let 

it be a speedy death with the least pain— a gentle sleep. 

But, alas ! how little are*we penetrafcd with«these divine 

lessons of mercy and dompassion. How many grievous 

tortures are inflicte^ on them, under pretence of 

science, or to gratify an unnatural ^jl^tite, or cruel 

lusts, or the prompt^gs of vanity ! 

xiii 

As an aid to a hi^er Christianity, this fuller Gpspel 

is now presented ; giving the feminine tendiemefi^, as 

well as the masculine strength, of the Perfect Christ. 

It will be for the Church of tha future, when revising 

the entire scliptures, to give this \Gk)spel its proper 

primary^ place, as an original and complete “ Gospel of 

the Holy Christ ; retaining the others as a confirma- 

tion from four other witnesses, ‘ in orcfer that every 

word (so far as contained in them) may be established, 

for those who are not in a condition to receive the 

goodness, purity, and truth of this one. 

Like all other inspired writings (but not necessarily 

infallible in every word), these writings from within the 

veil must be taken c-i their own internal evidence of a 

higher teaching. For inspiration of the Spirit no more 

implies infallibility than the divine breath of life, 

inbreathed by man, impli^ freedom from all accidents, 

diseases, and miseries incidental to mortal life. 

It is a faithless and perverse generation, as of old, 

that asks for a sign, and there shall no sign be given; 

for if the very writers of the Aramaic original were 

raised from the dead, and testified to their authorship, 

unbelieving critics would still ask for a sign ; and the 

more signs they were given, the more they would ask 

for in the hardness of their hearts. The sign is the 

truth, and the pure in heart will it.” 

Here ends the second preface. It should be mentioned 

that, wherever the text of the original is substantially 

identical with that of the canonical Gospels, the familiar 

wording was retained by the t:i^n8lator, whoever he may 

have been ; and as the new matter forms but a com- 

paratively small proportion of the whole, the greater 

part of this Gospel will be found in the Bible, with 

which a hasty reader might think it to J>e neerty* 

identical. But anyone who will take the tro^lble to 

study it with the aid of the Lists of New and of Partly 

New Mattel, with ^hich he is*here provided, will soon 

see how numerous and important are the differences. 

Not only is the^ much new mattervill through, often in 

small pieces, but^ the last seven chapters are almost 

entirely new; and in a number of instances familiar 

mattAr a^^ars with illuminatitig Siffereuces, as in Ihe 

curaing or the fig-tree, i#i which the real actor, as it 

turns out; was not Jesus but Peter, who by his rash 

act drew from Our Lord a prophecy of l\is own future 

rashness, ajid of Ine desertion of the other disciples 

(LXIX., 1-6). There is one story here which occurs also 

in an apocryphal Go^el, but with this difference, that 

the version there given is improbable* and meaningless, 

while the story h^re told rings true and is beautiful. 

The former is to tfie effect that the child Jesus made 

sparrows ^ clay and caused them to fly — a thing which 

no holy person would do, even if he could ; for he cer- 

tainly would not make an exhibition of unusual powers, 

either cfiit of vanity or to gratify the curiosity of 

spectators. On the other Hand, the action recorded in 

Chapter VI., 7 and 8, is just what we should expect — 

that He would set at liberty birds which had been 

snared, and that, if these were too frightened or dazed 

to fly away, He would give them the energy and courage 

to do so. It is not difficult to see which is tlie true story 

and which the corruption — dictated doubtless, as in the 

case of the canonical Gospels, by a determination to 

suppress any record of our Lord’s love and })rotection for 

animals, lest it should reflect on the flesh-eating habits 

of the ‘'correctors” and their employers. 

In two cases, the “ correctors,” when cutting out what 

they disliked, incautiously allowed words to remain which 

are m^ningless without the missing matter, and thus 

convict them, as it were, out of their own mouth. The 

reply to Nicodemus — ” If 9 have told you earthly things 

and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you 

heavenly things ” — is unintelligible as it occurs in St. 

John’s Gospel (III., 12), for what earthly things has 

Jesu? Ibipen laying ? He has been speaking only of the 

kingdom of heaven, and the Spirit. But in the Gospel 

of the Holy Twelve (Chapter XXXV^I.) Jesus has been 

explaining earthly tlwngs — about reincarnation — how 

the spirit of man comes into and goes out of this world 

again and again like**the wind, whence |fftd whither we 

known not. As Fitzgerald beautifully puts it in Omar 

Khayyam : * * 

XY 

“ Into this univv rse, and why not knowiilg, 

Nor whence, like w^ater, willy-nilly flowing. 

And out of it, as wind along the waste,’ 

I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.** 

The thought here is so close to that ii the Holy Twelve 

that it iiiiglit well be taken from it. And if it be true, 

as some think, that the elder brethren of mankind — the 

“just men made jperfect *' {Hebrews, XII., 23) — are 

ever on the outlook to enlighten the world, and some- 

times assist poets by suggesting thoughts greater than 

these could reach for themselves, then who shall say 

that this may not be a case in point, and that the 

»comparison of man’s coming into and going out of tnis 

world to water and wind, willy-nilly flowing and blow- 

ing, may not have been suggested to Fitzgerald by one 

who knew this Gospel, and was reproducing our Lord’s 

thought. 

Again, Mark XI., 16, says that (after overthrowing 

the tables of the moneycliangers) He “ would not suffer 

that any man should carry any vessel through the 

temple.” What can this mean? Surely vessels of water 

for cleansing would have been harmless enough, in fact, 

most necessary where blood had been spilled. But the 

Holy Twelve (LXX., 1-3) supplies the explanation, 

telling us that, after driving out the dealers in birds 

and hejiNts, He loosed the unfortunate creatures (describ- 

ing the teuiple as “ tilled with all manner of abomina- 

tions ”), and would not suffer “ any vessel of fdooo*’’ to 

be carrie<t through tlie temple. 

rhcre seem to have been more than four Gospels 

originally written, and apparently this was not one of 

the familiar four, because, though it contains much 

that is in them also, the order in which the matter 

occurs is not the same as in any of them. 

The headings of the chapters (previously called 

“Lections”) have been largely rewritten, quotations 

corrected, and a few ^obvious slips ^ in proof-reading set 

right. Other Hi Be, the text of the Gospel is reprinted 

almost exactly. 

E. FRANCIS UDNY 

July, 1923. 

xvi 

CONTENTS 

Page 

Invocation .... v 

Foreword ' vi 

Introduction .... .... .... .... vii 

Prologue .... ... 1 

Gospel 2 

Letter of Apollos 167 

List of Chapter Headings xvii 

Lisf of New Matter in this Gospel ....xxviii 

List of Partly New Matter, with 

references to the Authorised 

Version xxix 

Notes 

.... XXXI 

IN THE NAME OF THE 

ALL HbLY. AMUN. 

♦f|\EllE beginneth the Gospel of the perfect life of 

Jesu-Maria, the Chr^t, the offspring of David 

through Josepli and Mary after the flesh, and the Son 

of God. through divine love and wisdom, after the Spirit. 

PROlAKiUE. 

From the ages of ages is the eternal Thought, and the 

Thought is the Word, and the Word the Act, and 

tlieve Three are One in the Eternal Law. and tiie Law is 

witli Go({, and the Tiaw, proceeds from Cod. All things 

are created by faivv, and without It is not anything 

created tliat existeth. In the Word is Life and Sub- 

stance, the Fire and the Light. The Love and the 

Wisdom are One, for the salvation of all. And the 

liight ^hinetli in •iaj‘kiie>s. and ihe darkness concealeth 

it not. The Word is the one Life-giving Fire, which 

sianing into the world, becoineth the fine and light of 

every soul that entereth into the world. I am in the 

world, and tJie world is in Me, and the world* know^tff 

it not. I come to my own House, and my friends receive 

Me not. But as many as receive and obey, to them is 

given the pother to J.ecome the Sons and daughters of 

God, even to them who believe in the Holy Name, who 

are born—not^of the will of the biood and flesh, but of 

God. And the VHord is incarnate and dwellelh among 

us, whose Glory we beheld, full of Grace. Behold the 

Goodness, and tlm* I’vuth and the L^autv of God 1 

2 

THE GOSPEL OF THe|hOLY TWELVE ; 

THE COSPELOF THE HOLY TWELVE.