Like the four scraps recentlj' discovered (op. cit. x. [1913] 1224), this extract cannot be assigned to any of the 2nd cent, uncanonical Gospels. That it belonged to this century is questioned by the editors, who point out that the ecclesiastical vogue of the canonical Gospels, which became strong to- Avards the close of the 2nd cent., Avould make it difficult for any document covering the same ground to gain acceptance, and that ' after about A.D. 180 authors of apocryphal Gospels renerally avoided competition Avith the uncanonical Gospels by placing their supposed revelations in the period of the Childhood or after the Resurrection.' If our fragment does not belong to the Gospel of the Egyptians, it at any rate betrays no dogmatic or heretical tendency. On the other hand, the author's acquaintance Avith the local customs of the JeAvish temple in the 1st cent, seems defective (cf. J. Horst in *S'A', 1914, p. 451 f., and Preuschen in ZNTW, 1908, pp. 1-12), though more favourable verdicts have been passed occasionally on this feature of the fragment (cf. A. Biichler in JQR XX. [1907-08], 330 f.; Sulzbach in ZNTW, 1908, p. 175 f.; and L. Blau, ib. pp. 204-215).
(iii.) A tattered leaf of papyrus, ' copied probably in the earlier decades of the 4th cent.,' contain- ing fragments of a Gnostic Gospel, has been pub- lished by Hunti in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, viii. [1911], p. 16 f. From Avhat can be deciphered, it is clear that the contents must have come from some Valentinian or Marcosian source. Not only
* This is one of the most remarkable features in the fragment. The uncanonical Gospels of the 2nd cent, very rarely furnish any material for the Jerusalem ministry of Jesus.
t This curious collocation occurs in another fragment of an uncanonical Gospel (cf. above, p. 492), probably NG ; Waltz infers that our fragment came from the latter.
500 GOSPELS (UXCAI^OmCAL)
GOSPELS (UNCANONICAL)
is the Lord called cuyr-fip, as well as Kijpio^ (cf. Iren. i. 1. 3),* but a distinction is drawn between Trari^p and irpoTTCLTup (ib. i. 1. 1, 12. 3, etc.).t
'Lord, how then can we find faith? The Saviour says to them, When you pass from things hidden [into the light of?] things visible, then the effluence (diTrdppoia) of conception (eiTota?) will show to you how faith ... He who has ears to hear, let him hear. The Lord (5e<r7r6r))s) of [all things?] is not the Father but the Fore- father ; for the Father is the source of the things that are to come (apxh ia-rlv tuv lieXXovriav). . . . He who has an ear for what is bej'ond hearing [i.e. for the mystic or inner meaning. But the text is uncertain], let him hear. I speak also to those who watch not. Again ... he said, Everything born of corruption perishes, as the product of corruption ; but what is born of incorruption (a.4>9apa-Ca^) does not perish, but remains incorruptible as the product of incor- ruption. Some men have been deceived, not knowing . . .'
{/) Three Sahidic fragments. — It may be no more than a coincidence that Thomas should be mentioned in the second series of the Oxyihj-nchite Logia,t and that he § is also exceptionally import- ant in the third of five Sahidic 1| Gospel fragments published by Forbes Robinson (TS iv. 2 [1896], pp. 168-176). The fragment is long and remark- able. In the description of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus bids Thomas go to the man (lad) who has the loaves and fishes. After the miracle, Thomas asks for a further proof of the Resurrection, in the raising of a man from the tomb, not merely in the raising of a dead, unburied person like the son of the widow of Nain. Then the dialogue of Jn 20^'^^ is used to introduce the raising of Lazarus. Jesus takes Thomas (Didymus) specially with him : ' Come with JNIe, O Didymus, that I may show thee the bones which have been dissolved in the tomb gatliered together again.' The entire story (cf. Revillout, Les Apocryphes copies, p. 132 f.) is re- told with the special motive of re-assuring Thomas, It is Thomas who, at the bidding of Jesus, removes the stone from the tomb.
This Gospel must have been comprehensive. It included (fragm. 1) an account of tlie birth of John the Baptist and of Jesus, and also the Ministry, the Death, and the Resurrection. Thus the second Gospel fragment describes the wedding at Cana. The Johannine account is embroidered with some fresh details ; Mary is the sister of the bridegroom's parents, and it is they who appeal to her for help when the wine fails, pleading that this lack will disgrace them as the hosts of Jesus, and that as the Saviour of the world He can do any miracle. The Johannine replj'^ of Jesus to Mary (here = ' Woman, Avhat wilt thou with me?') is softened by the observation that Jesus spoke ' in a kindly voice,' and by the repeated remark that Marj' felt sure He would not grieve her in anything. The rest of the story is told by one of the servants who fill the waterpots. The fourth fragment IT contains a conversation on the mount of Jn 6^* ^® between the disciples and Jesus, in which Jesus asserts that His kingdom is spiritual. Pilate and the Roman authorities, however, propose to make Him King of Judsea ; such is their admiration for His miracles and character. Herod ** opposes this.