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