The date of the Gospel is about the middle of the 2nd cent., althougli some critics put it con- siderably earlier. Its place of origin was almost certainly Sj^ria.
T,TTTT\TiTr. n--^nrinnt. If. ;;t-7>,-- 77'/';';.- • r-nr l-^ mi'mhres de
Gospel I-/ St. J', lei- ; also editions by lieiidel Harris, the author of Supernatural tteliffion, Eutherford (extra volume of Ante Nicene Library); Stiilcken in Hennecke, XT Apokr. 27 S., Bandb. 72 IT. ; and numerous magazine articles.
A. 4. Fayflm Gospel Fragment.— A number of papyri were, in the year 1882, brouglit from Faytini, a province in Central Egypt, to Vienna, by the Archduke Rainer. Among these, Dr. Bickell of linisltriick discovered a small Gospel fragment, dialiiij,' with the incident in wliich Jesus foretold the dtnitil of Peter. The fragment, which is badly mutilated, was published in 1885 by Bickell, wlio confidently maintained that it w,as a part of a very ancient lost Gospel, of the class referred to in Lk 1'. Tlie contents of the fragment closely resemble the Synoptic narrative (Mk U^'-a.so^ 'Mt 26»'- s^- »•), with the omission of the verse containing Christ's promise to go before His disciples into Galilee after rising fi'om the dead. Owing to the condition of the papyrus, the text, especially at the beginning of the fragment, is very uncertain ; but, according to the reconstruction of Zalin [NT Kan. ii. 785), the tran.sIatiHi, is tis follows:
111 ill,, document to which the frag-
miiii .!;:!' I" longed is altogether uncertain. Bilk. 11- ..111111..11. tli;it it is a part of a Gospel of higli :uiticiaitv, li.is received the support of Har- nack, who inclines to regard it as an excerpt from either the Gospel acrordinq to the Hrhrrii-s or the Gospel according to the Egi/ptinns {TU v. 4. 40311"., Chrun. i. 590). On the other hand, Zalin believes
GOSPELS (APOCRYPHAL)
GOSPELS (APOCRYPHAL) 679
it to be an extract from a Patristic writing, a free quotation from Mark made by a preaclier or by the writer of a book for edification. Tliis would satis- factorily account for tlie omission of Mk 14^ (Mt 26'-). Tliat the fragment probably belonged to a writing of tliis kind is furtlier borne out by two striking deviations from the Synoptic pliraseology. Instead of d\4fiTup (cock) the fragment has the more classical aXeKTpvuif ; instead of the colour- less (puvetv (crow) it has the more descriptive word KOKKii^iv. ' The probability is that the canonical expression is the original, which a preacher re- placed in the one case by a more elegant word, in the other by one more signiiicant' (Zahn, NT Kan. ii. 788). Hennecke (NT Apolcr. 9) thinks it possible that the fragment may have been a part of a collection of sayings, but subscribes to Kriiger's judgment, that ' the possibility is not excluded that the fragment merely represents an e.xtract from one of our Gospels, or belonged to a Gospel har- mony, perhaps even is drawn from a homily, and that one is not justified in drawing far-reaching conclusions from it.'
LiTERATUKE. — Bipkell in Zeitschrift fiir Kathol. Theologie, 1886, iii. 498 if. ; Harnack, Zahn, Hennecke (in opp- «(.).
A. 5. Oxyrhyncus Gospel Fragment. — In the
year 1903 Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt discovered at Behnesa, the ancient Oxyrhyncus, in Central Egypt, a small portion of a Gospel containing the conclusion of a discourse by Jesus similar to a part of the Sermon on the Mount. This they published, alon" with a second collection of ' Say- ings,' in the following year. Tlie papyrus is in a very broken state, only a small part of that which it originally contained being decipherable. From the handwriting the discoverers adjudge the fragment to have been written not later than A.D. 250, although the original composition was much earlier.
The translation of the fragment, slightly altered from that given by Grenfell and Hunt (New Sayings, 40), is as follows :
' [Take nn thovght]frnm wnminfj inih'f rven, nor from eveninrj until momuirj, either for ynvr fninl irhat i/r nhall eat. or for
hlieswhieli ,,,;,w ln,l ,„„ „'.l lf,t:,ni '..'.' .ian,„'„l. irh.il ,1.,
ye[lack;\ .' . . II A. i ,.,iii,i ,„/,/ i., n.,,, j,,i„r,'' ii,- ii,„:,.''i
8aid,''l ielees.
He
ye, be !/.'•• -. ;: , ,,,,,,,, , ,■
The sayings here giviMi arc. tor tlie most part, parallel to passages found in Matthew and Luke, in a form generally somewhat shorter than the canonical version. Christ's answer to the question of the disciples as to when He should manifest Himself, 'Wlien ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed . . .,' recalls the saying reported in the Gospel according to the Egi/ptians : ' When ye trample upon the garment of shame,' etc., and suggests the conclusion that the fragment stood in intimate relation with that Gospel. The simpler form of the saying in the fragment, and the more direct allusion to Gn .3', point to an earlier date than that of the version in the Gospel according to the Egyptians. Though it is possible that the fragment represents a tradition independent of the Synoptics, it is more probable that tlie Gospel to which it belonged worked \i]) the material found in Matthew and Luke into new (•oiiil.inations, and added matter drawn from otlici- suhichs.
The date of the Gospi^l \vas | nuL.i I .ly somewhat earlier than the middle of the 2ih1 cintiiry.
B. Heretical and (i.\<jsT/r i;<>sj'els. —Only a few of the more important Gnostic Gospels are referred to in this article. Many are known to us by name merely, or by some indication of the circles in which they were current. Although the