Transcript The Gospels That Didn’t Make the Cut

The Gospels That Didn’t Make
the Cut
St Timothy’s Episcopal Church
Study 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 Papyrus
1 Corinthians 11:33-12:9