Download - 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
The Gospel of Mary from Oxyrhyncus
Chester Beatty Papyrus1 Corinthians 11:33-12:9
