the gospels that didn’t make the cut

The Gospels That Didn’t Make the Cut

St Timothy’s Episcopal ChurchStudy Brunch

Egyptian Discoveries

Google Map of Egypt and Environs

Location of Major Discoveries(in French)

Discoveries at Oxyrhyncus

• Major regional city from 4th century B.C.E. to 7th century C.E.

• Citizens dumped garbage in the desert west of town

• British excavation began 1896 and continues to today

• Huge find of texts (classical literary texts, Christian texts, everyday letters and transactions)

Location of Major Discoveries(in French)

Discoveries at Nag Hammadi

• 1945: Farmer Mohammed Ali Samman looking for earth for fertilizer

• Unearths jar with 12 bound codices• Codices contain “Gnostic” Christian texts

written in Coptic• From nearby monastery when such texts

were suppressed in 4th century

Characterization of Nag Hammadi Texts

• The universe was not created by the highest God

• Intense speculation about the true nature of divinity and the supracosmic realms

• Focused on – The soul's eventual break out from the created

order and – Patterns of spirituality contributing to this

• Saw nothing un-Christian in these views

Nag Hammadi Surrounding Terrain

Nag Hammadi Discovery Cave

Nag Hammadi Codices

Nag Hammadi Codex II

The Gospel of Mary from Oxyrhyncus

Chester Beatty Papyrus1 Corinthians 11:33-12:9