UNCANONICAL GOSPEL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 80

UNCANONICAL GOSPEL.

SECOND CENTURY FRAGMENT.

The fragment of the unoanonical gospel discovered in a mound at Oxyrhyncus in December, 1905, has been deciphered and translated by Dr Grenfell and Dr Hunt (reports the Standard), and it has been published for the Egypt Exploration Fund at the Oxford University Press. The bulk of the fragment is concerned with a conversation between Jesus and a chief priest, which takes place in the Temple ab Jerusalem, the episode, which is of a dramatic character, being preserved almost, complete. It is preceded by the conclusion of a speech of Jesus to His disciples, exhorting them to avoid the example of certain wrong-doere, and warning them of the penalties which await tha latter, both in this world and the next. In its general outline, the episode resembles Matt xv, 1-20, Mark vii, 1-25, where the Pharisees reproach Jesus because the disciples did not wash their hands when they ate bread, and aTe strongly rebuked ; but the scene is not Jerusalem, but near Gennesaret, and other details are, of course, different. The text of the papyrus runs as follows : — ". . . before he does wiong makes all manner of subtle excuse. But give heed lest ye also suffer the same things as they ; for the evil-doers among men receive their reward not among the living only, but alsc await punishment ana much torment. '■And he took them and brought them into the very place of purification, and was walking in the Temple. "And a certain Pharisee, a chief priest, whose name was Levi {'(), met them, andi said to the Saviour, Who gave thee leave to walk in this place of purification andl to see these holy vessels when thou hast not washed, nor yet have they disciples bathed their feet? But defiled thou hast walked in this Temple, which is a pure place, wherein no other man walks except he has washed himself and changed his garments, neither does he venture to see these holy vessels. "And the Saviour straightway stood still with his disciples, and answered him, Art thou, then, being here in the Temple, clean ?

"He saith unto him, I am clean, for I washed in the pool of David, and having descended by one staircase, I ascended by another, and I put on white and clean garments, and then I came and looked upon these holy vessels. "The Saviour answered and said unto him, Woe, ye blind, who see not. Thou hast washed in these running waters wherein dogs and swine have been ca&fc night and day, and hast cleansed and wiped the outside skin, which also the harlots and flute-girls anoint and wa*

»nd wipe and beautify for the lust of • men ; but within they are full of scorpions i and all wickedness. " But I acd my disciples, who thou sayest have not bathed, have been dipped in the waters of eternal life which come from . . . But woe ■unto the . . ." In the criticisms published with the -. ■work, the authors point out that our Lord is throughout referred to as "the Saviour," a designation which makes it unlikely that the fragment is taken either from the Gospel according to the Hebrews or from that according to the Egyptians. At first sight the authors show an intimate knowledge of Temple ritual, but the suggestion that the High Priest.washed himself in a pool of the character described j in the fragment is incredible, and it is probably simply a rhetorical exaggeration that has been introduced. Dr Grenfell and Dr Hunt are inclined to believe that the work was composed about 200 A.D., and look on it as one of the many uncanonical traditions concerning Christ's teaching that were prevalent in manjr Christian communities, and especially in Egypt, j luring, the third and fourth centuries. j