The Gospel of the Hebrews thus mattered greatly in the scriptural tradition, and in 1866, Hilgenfeld had collected the 33 surviving fragments in his survey of all available extra-canonical New Testament texts. The work also earned the attention of the versatile scholar Nicholson, the long-serving head of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Amply acknowledging his debt to Hilgenfeld, Nicholson surveyed all the available fragments of Hebrews as well as Patristic references and likely parallels, and hypothesized that the work had the same author as Matthew’s canonical gospel. That argument is almost certainly incorrect, and in modern times it has been dismantled by such scholars as Bart Ehrman.Professor Jenkins is trying to determine whether Nicholson's 1879 book is the first published monograph on a non-canonical gospel. If you know of an earlier one, drop a comment to his post.
For earlier posts in his Lost and Found Scriptues series, see here and links. Cross-file under New Testament Apocrypha and Lost Books.
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