A piece of the Coptic translation of the First Apocalypse of James from the Nag Hammadi Codex V. Credit: Nag Hammadi Library, Oxford University.
Posted on 12/05/2017 11:12:13 AM PST by servo1969
Biblical scholars have discovered the first-known original Greek copy of an ancient forbidden Christian text that purportedly describes Jesus’ secret teachings to his “brother” James, an early leader of the Church.
Geoffrey Smith and Brent Landau, religious studies scholars at The University of Texas at Austin, located the rare text in Oxford University archives earlier this year. The experts found several fifth- or sixth-century A.D. Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James, one of the books from an ancient collection known as the Nag Hammadi library. Previously, the text was thought to be preserved only via translations in the Egyptian Coptic language.
Only a small number of texts from the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of 13 Coptic Gnostic books discovered in Egypt in 1945, have been found in Greek, their original language of composition. Also known as the “Gnostic Gospels,” the books are seen as key documents for understanding Gnosticism, an ancient belief system.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
A piece of the Coptic translation of the First Apocalypse of James from the Nag Hammadi Codex V. Credit: Nag Hammadi Library, Oxford University.
Nice going. This will be a FreeRepublic free for all.
Gee, I wonder if Christmas or Easter are coming up?
Why wasn't it discovered when it was first brough to Oxford?
Yeah, right.
[at The University of Texas at Austin]
Oh yeah; that adds credibility.
I have known about the Nag Hammadi texts for YEARS. They have been measured and found wanting.
And these “scholars” are just “discovering” them?
Interesting. I’m looking forward to reading the translation.
Nag Hammadi is one of the treasure troves of early Christian writing.
Or just another Hitler Diaries...
Perhaps...but most of the writings are not Canon and should not be treated as such.
They are very much related to Gnosticism, and therefore, interesting in an historic sense, but not as doctrine.
Even the Dead Sea Scrolls also have texts that are either Apocalyptic in nature, or didactic, or even “Community Rules”, which are ALL fascinating, but are not the same as Scripture.
My comment was based upon the OP, which touts these as a “New” discovery.
> Gee, I wonder if Christmas or Easter are coming up?
LOLOL!!!
Like clockwork, isn’t it!
Related thread from a few days ago, with 110 comments...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3609755/posts
Apocalypse of James: Lost original Greek text of banned Bible book found at Oxford University
Without knowing exactly how the text reads in the original, I’ll just point out that ‘scholars’ have jumped to conclusions about ancient Jewish texts that mention someone with a name similar to Jesus but are actually about someone else upon closer review. If not outright fakes, these could be in that category.
-PJ
Hmmmm!
In other news, it has been discovered that one of the lunar rovers found some cheese.
QUOTE: "Who and whatever James was, so was Jesus".
I think my sources are far better. To learn about Christ Himself, I have the Old Testament, the four Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles and The Revelation. To get a handle on Jesus half-brothers, there are their very own Epistles; James and Jude. That will suffice until Jesus comes back.
So what type and size font did they use on this original document?
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