JESUS CHRIST

The Greek word apokrypha means “hidden writings.” Clement of Alexandria uses it in this literal sense (Stromateis 1.15.69.9). But, for the most part, ancient Christian authors used it to refer to writings of their opponents, which they considered spurious. Clement says that his opponents “derived their doctrines from an apocryphal work. . . . where they have taken a sound doctrine and perversely misapplied it” (Stromateis 4.29). Ireneaus describes “apocryphal writings” as texts written by his opponents “who are ignorant of the Scriptures of truth” (Against Heresies 1.20.1). Tertullian refused to acknowledge teachings from the Shepherd of Hermas because it did not “find a place in the Divine canon” and “had been habitually judged by every council of Churches. . . among apocryphal and false (writing)” (On Modesty 10.6). The phrase New Testament Apocrypha was not used in antiquity. Instead, it is a modern umbrella title referring to a wide variety of Christian texts that ultimately were not included in the New Testament canon.

For the most part, scholars follow the three categories of New Testament apocrypha used by Wilhelm Schneemelcher: 1) Gospels, which include non-biblical material about the life of Jesus; 2) writings related to the apostles; 3) apocalypses and related subjects.[1] Some of the apocryphal gospels, such as The Gospel of the Nazareans and The Gospel of the Ebionites are known today only because ancient Christian authors quoted them in their extant writings. Some, such as The Gospel of Thomas and The Gospel of Judas, were mentioned in ancient sources, but have only recently been discovered. Some texts, such as The Acts of Thomas, were used by both “orthodox” and “heterodox” groups.

In recent years, scholars have reexamined the role the New Testament apocrypha for understanding ancient Christianity. The more traditional view has been to study them to determine what light they shed on the development of the Christian church, with particular attention to how they compare with the texts that were later canonized. However a recent growing trend is to study these texts in their own right and let them speak independently about the diversity of expressions concerning what it meant to be a Christian in antiquity.

“About a dozen noncanonical gospels were known in the 2d century and . . . the evidence for these apocryphal writings compares quite well with the evidence for the canonical gospels. The attestations do not support a distinction between canonical and apocryphal gospels. Writings of both categories were used and are referred to quite early and often by the same writers.” Helmut Koester is the John H. Morison Research Professor of Divinity and Win Research Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School.

Helmut Koester, “Apocryphal and Canonical Gospels,” Harvard Theological Review 73 (1980): 110.

“The value in exerting effort to understand apocryphal literature is twofold: first, once we understand the compositional situation surrounding an apocryphal text, we can then ascertain its potential to preserve credible information about Jesus or the Church that He founded. Second, once we understand how the document impacted Christian communities, we can begin to discern the historical development of the Apostasy within those communities.” Thomas Wayment is an Associate Professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University.

Thomas A. Wayment, “False Gospels: An Approach to Studying the New Testament Apocrypha,” in How the New Testament Came to Be (ed. Kent P. Jackson and Frank F. Judd, Jr.; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2006), 294.

The Gospel of Mark, like the other Gospel texts, does not contain everything Jesus Christ said. There is a body of sayings of Jesus preserved in other sources that has caught the attention of scholars and believers for a long time. This material is part of the agrapha (literally “not written”). These are the sayings that were not originally recorded in the Gospels or were attributed to Jesus from sources other than the Gospel. So, for example, Acts 20:35 contains the saying of Jesus Christ that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Another example comes from the Gospel of Mark, where a saying of Jesus was probably added to the Gospel nearly five hundred years after it was written: “and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt” (Mark 9:49). The late dating of this saying is attested by the fact that it does not appear in the earliest manuscripts of Mark, either in Latin of Greek, and was therefore likely unknown in the original editions of Mark.

Other possible authentic saying of Jesus may be found in non-canonical Christian sources such as the Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Philip, and the writings of early Christian leaders such as Clement and Jerome. Christian scribes have preserved hundreds of sayings of Jesus outside the Gospels, some of which are authentic and others that are legendary. Some of the dozens of possible authentic sayings of Jesus are the following:

“Blessed in the person who has worked and had therefore found life” (gospel of Thomas 58)

“Never be joyful unless you look at your brother in love” (Jerome, Commentary on Ephesians5.4)

“No one can obtain the kingdom of heaven who had not already passed through temptation” (Terullian, On Baptism).

Some modern Bibles, in attempting to differentiate the actual words of Jesus from the narrative context, have highlighted the words of Jesus in red. These Bibles, known today as re-letter editions, face significant challenges because decisions must be made on which version of a saying-Matthew’s, Mark’s or Luke’s-represents most closely the way in which Jesus Christ originally spoke it. This focus on Jesus’ actual working has increased scholarly interest in the agrapha, where others possibly genuine sayings of Jesus have been preserved.