Lost scriptures: books that did not make it into the New Testament Read Online Free PDF Page A

deused, records the following after the Sav-scribed as among the worst offenses: that
    ior’s resurrection: “But when the Lord
    someone should make the spirit of his
    had given the linen cloth to the servant
    brother sad. (Jerome, Commentary on
    of the priest, he went and appeared to
    Ezekiel , 18:7)

    The Gospel of
    the Egyptians
    The Gospel of the Egyptians is another Gospel that has been lost since the early centuries of Christianity. The only access we have to it is in the quotations of an early church father, the late second-century Clement of Alexandria, who at one point identifies one of his non-canonical quotations of the words of Jesus as having come from this book (fragment 5). Most of Clement’s quotations of the Gospel involve conversations between Jesus and a woman named Salome, mentioned in the New Testament as one of the women who discovered Jesus’ empty tomb (Mark 15:40; 16:1).
    Eventually Salome became a prominent figure in some circles of Christianity, including those that produced this Gospel according to the Egyptians, where her questions and comments lead to important sayings of Jesus. These sayings embody ascetic concerns, in which the desires of the flesh and sexual activity are condemned as being opposed to the will of God. In particular, the Gospel appears originally to have condemned the practices of marriage and procreation. In a number of instances Clement himself interprets these sayings; it is sometimes difficult to know, however, whether Clement’s interpretations represent the views of the Gospel’s anonymous author, or are instead Clement’s own attempts to make sense of the Gospel in light of his own views.
    At least one of the sayings stresses a Gnostic notion that the revelation of God will be complete when people trample on the “shameful garment”
    (� the human body?) and all things are restored to their ultimate unity—including male and female, which will no longer be differentiated but made one (fragment 5). Similar notions can be found in the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, also used in Egypt (see Gospel of Thomas 22, 37, 114).
    Some scholars maintain that the Gospel was named “according to the Egyptians” to differentiate it from another Gospel used in Egypt, the Gospel
    “according to the Hebrews”—the latter in use among Jewish-Christians and the former, therefore, among Gentile Christians. Others find it more likely Translation by Bart D. Ehrman based on the Greek text found in Egbert Schlarb and Dieter Lu¨ hrmann, Fragmente apocryph gewordener Evangelien in griechischer und lateinischer Sprache (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 2000) 29–31.
    17

    18
    NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS
    that the book was first given its name by those living outside of Egypt, to identify it as a book in common use there.
    Since the Gospel is well-known to Clement and, evidently, his community, it may have been composed already by the first part of the second century.
    When Salome asked, “How long
    1
    desires continue to be active. (Clement of
    will death prevail?” the Lord re
    Alexandria, Miscellanies , 3, 64, 1)
    plied, “For as long as you women bear
    children.” But he did not say this because
    Why do those who adhere to everylife is evil or creation wicked; instead he 4 thing except the gospel rule of truth
    was teaching the natural succession of
    not cite the following words spoken to
    things; for everything degenerates after
    Salome? For when she said, “Then I have
    coming into being. (Clement of Alexandone well not to bear children” (supposdria, Miscellanies , 3, 45, 3) ing that it was not suitable to give birth),
    the Lord responded, “Eat every herb, but
    2 Those who oppose God’s creation not the one that is bitter.” (Clement of because of self-control—which at
    Alexandria, Miscellanies , 3, 66, 1–2)
    least sounds good—quote the words spoken to Salome, the first of which we have already mentioned, found, I think, in the
    5 This is why Cassian indicates that
    when Salome asked