Gospel of Nicodemus / Acts of Pilate (Latin Gesta Pilati with the Descent into Hell)
Evangelium Nicodemi / Gesta Pilati
· Anonymous Latin compiler (Greek Acts of Pilate with the Descensus)
· c. 400-450 (Greek Acts of Pilate); Latin Gesta Pilati by c. 500
· apocryphon
Latin · domain: latin-apocrypha · researched 2026-11-14
translated. A complete English translation exists. This dossier is included as a control, not as a gap; it shows what the register counts as translated.
Why this is in the register
English is complete in two independent versions. Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 8 prints 'The Gospel of Nicodemus' at p. 416, followed by the Letter and Reports of Pilate, the Death of Pilate, the Narrative of Joseph and the Avenging of the Saviour through to p. 476 (https://archive.org/details/antenicenefather08buff). J.K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament (1993), prints 'The Gospel of Nicodemus', 'The Acts of Pilate' and 'Christ's Descent into Hell' in its Pilate Cycle (https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Apocryphal%20New%20Testament%20Elliott&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 HOLLIS Primo (query 'Gospel of Nicodemus': https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Gospel%20of%20Nicodemus&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 shows that the modern apparatus is either edition-only or non-English: H.C. Kim's Toronto Medieval Latin Texts edition of the Gesta Salvatoris (1973) gives the Latin without translation, and the 1997 Brepols volume is a French translation of Latin recension A. The two English versions above mean the Latin recension A is fully translated; the later medieval Latin recensions are a separate question (see the Descensus entry).
The passion-and-resurrection narrative that medieval Europe actually read: its harrowing of hell shaped the Descensus clause, the Easter drama and the Grail romances. It is a control here because both a 19th-century and a 1993 English version exist; what remains untranslated is the mass of later Latin recensions, entered separately.
language: en · complete translation, pp. 416-476 of the American reprint
The Apocryphal New Testament: The Gospel of Nicodemus, The Acts of Pilate, Christ's Descent into Hell · Oxford: Clarendon Press · J. Keith Elliott · 1993
language: en · complete modern translation of the Pilate cycle
L'Evangile de Nicodeme, ou Les actes faits sous Ponce Pilate (recension latine A) · Brepols, Apocryphes 9 · 1997
language: fr · first integral modern-language translation of the most widespread Latin form; French, not English
"The other Gospels : accounts of Jesus from outside the New Testament." New York : Oxford University Press, [2014]. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990139572760203941
"Faith at the Interface of Cultures : Law and Gospel, Johannine Communities, and Hebrews." Leiden, The Netherlands ; Boston : Brill, [2024]. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/99159343257103941
Cite: Tergwame, “Gospel of Nicodemus / Acts of Pilate (Latin Gesta Pilati with the Descent into Hell)”
(latin gap dossier), 2026.
https://naxiai.com/christian/gaps/latin-nicodemus-gesta-pilati