(j) Coptic fragments. — (i.) A Coptic Akhmim MS (4th-5th cent. ) contains two fragments, which may have belonged to an uncanonical Gospel of the 2nd century. The second is a fragment of pro- phetic discourse by Jesus, predicting Ac 12^'- (?). The first opens with Mary, Martha, and Mary Magdalene going to the sepulchre to anoint the body, and weeping when they find the sepulchre empty. The Lord says to them, ' " Why do you weep? Cease weeping, I am he whom ye seek. But let one of you go to the brethren and say : Come, the Master has risen from the dead." Martha went away and told this to us. We said to her, " What hast thou to do with us, O woman ? He who died is buried, and it is impossible that * An Egyptian touch as above (p. 500).
he lives." We did not believe her, that the Re- deemer had risen from the dead. So she went to the Lord and said to him, " No one among them has believed me, that thou livest." He said, " Let another of you go and tell it to them again. " Mary went and told us again, but we did not believe her. She went back to the Lord and told liim. Then said the Lord to Mary and her other sisters, " Let us go to them." And he went and found us within and called us outside. But we thought it was a ghost, and we did not believe it was the Lord. So he said to us, "Come and . . . Thou, 0 Peter, who hast denied me thrice, dost thou still deny?" And we went up to him, doubting in our hearts whether it was he. So he said to us, " Why do you doubt still and disbelieve ? I am he who told you, 60 that on account of my flesh and my death and my Resurrection you may know it is I. Peter, lay thy finger in the nail-marks on my hands ; and thou, Thomas, lay thy finger in the lance- wounds on my side ; and thou, Andrew, touch my feet and see that they ... to those of earth. For it is written in the prophets : * phantoms of dreams . . . on earth." We answered him, "We have in truth recognized that ... in the flesh." And we threw ourselves on our faces and confessed our sins, that we had been unbelieving.'
This fragment professes to give the testimony to the Resurrection which the disciples bore, based on revelations received by them from the Lord. As in the appendix to Mark's Gospel, their un- belief is emphasized ; they refuse to believe the story of the women, and it requires the direct appearance of Jesus to convince them. 'There- fore . . . we have written to you concerning . . . and we bear witness that the Lord is he who was crucified by Pontius Pilate.' The apologetic in- terest of this emphasis on the original incredulity of the apostles may be to heighten the importance of the Resurrection appearances, as against the denial of the bodily Resurrection by some Gnostics. Even the disciples, it is said, held it impossible once ! But they were taught the truth ! The fragment mentions 'Corinthus' ( = Cerinthus) and ' Simon ' ( = Simon Magus), and the original Greek Gospel writing, of which it is a translation, was evidently a piece of apologetic fiction issued by some pious (Gnostic?) Christian in order to refute the heretical tendencies represented by these two great names. It professes to be written in the name of the Twelve, and probably appeared during the first half of the 2nd century. The data do not enable us to determine whether it belonged to a Gospel of the Twelve or, as Schmidt thinks, to the pseudo-Petrine literature.
SpeciaIi Literaturk. — The fragment was published first by C. Schmidt in SBA W, 1895, pp. 705-711, but a full edition is still awaited ; Hamack's essay appeared in Theolog. Siudien B. Weiss dargebracht, Gottingen, 1897, pp. 1-8 ; of. Bardenhewer, 397-399, Haase, 36-37. Harnack dates it between A.D. 150 and 180, Schmidt somewhat earlier. The second fragment suggests that the Gospel (if it was a Gospel) was a Peter Gospel, but the extent and aim of its ' Gnosticism' cannot be determined in the present state of our knowledge.
(ii.) Some lines of another Coptic papyrus (4th- 6th cent.) appear to contain debris of what was once an uncanonical Gospel. The fragments are ex- tremely mutilated, and the translators and editors disagree upon their age and origin. The last runs thus — evidently the close of a Gospel narrative which described a post-Resurrection scene on the mountain, prior to the Ascension: '(that I) may manifest to you all my glory and show you all your power and the mystery of your apostleship
• Wis 1817, in a description of the terrors that befell the Egyptians during the plagues. The scriptural authority of Wisdom in wide circles during the 2nd and 3rd centuries is well known, but probably Origen is the only writer who ex- pressly calls this literature prophetic (Horn, in Levit, v. 2, in Exod. vi. 1).
506 GOSPELS (UNCANONICAL)
governjVIent, governor
... (on the) mountain. . . . Our eyes penetrated all places, we saw the glory of his divinity and all the glory (of his) dominion. He invested (us with) the power of (our) apostle(ship).' The previous fragment, whose contents are only separated from the other by two or three lines, may be either a piece from the same setting or a fragment of some Gethsemane story. It runs thus : ' (that) he be known for (his) 'hospitality . . . and praised on account of his fruit, since . . . Amen.* Grant me now thy power, O Father, that . . . Amen. I have received the diadem of the Kingdom, (even the) diadem of ... I have become King (through thee), O Father. Thoushalt subject (all) to me . . . Through whom shall (the last) Enemy be destroyed? Through (Christ). Amen. Through whom shall the sting of death (be destroyed) ? (Through tlie) Only Begotten. To whom does (the) dominion belong? (TotheiSon.) Amen. . . . When (Jesus had) tinished all . . . he turned to us and said, "The hour has come when I shall be taken from you. The spirit (is) willing, but the flesh (is) weak . . . then and watch (with me)." But we apostles wept . . . said . . . (Son) of God. . . . He answered and said (to us), " Fear not destruc- tion (of the body), but rather (fear) the power (of darkness). Remember all tiiat I have said to you : (if) they have persecuted (me), they will also persecute you. . . . Rejoice, then, that I (have overcome) the world, and have . . ." '