Apocryphal and Canonical Gospels Compared

Harvard Divinity School
Cambridge University Press
Apocryphal and Canonical Gospels

Author(s): Helmut Koester
Source: The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 73, No. 1/2, Dedicated to the Centennial of the
Society of Biblical Literature (Jan. - Apr., 1980), pp. 105-130
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School
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APOCRYPHALAND CANONICALGOSPELS
HelmutKoester
HarvardUniversity,The DivinitySchool
Cambridge,MA 02138
The problemaddressedin this paperis impliedin the title.

The terms"apocryphal" and "canonical" reflecta traditional
usage
which implies deep-seatedprejudicesand has had far-reaching
consequences.Any standarddictionary,like Merriam-Webster, will
explain the term "apocryphal" as "not canonical;unauthentic;
spurious."The synonymsare listed under "fictitious,"i.e., "in-
vented or imaginedratherthan true and genuine,"and the term
"apocryphal" is explainedhere as follows:"impliesa mysteriousor
extremelydubioussource of origin."More than half a century
ago, MontagueRhodes James wrote in the introductionto his
editionof the apocryphalwritingsof the NT:
The old word apocryphais good enough for my purpose,and I employ it
here in the sense of false and spurious, even when I am dealing with
writingswhichmay containancientand truthfulelements.1
The new standardeditionof the NT Apocryphain Englishtrans-
lationis somewhatmore cautious:WilhelmSchneemelcher grants
that some of the apocryphalwritings "appear in part... to be
almostcontemporary withthe canonicalwritingsandto have been
writtenon the basisof the same traditions."2But a distinctionin
principlebetweencanonicalandapocryphal is stillmaintained:
1The New Testament(Oxford:Clarendon,1924) xiv.

Apocryphal
2EdgarHennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher,New Testament Apocrypha(here-
after NTApo;2 vols.; trans. R. McL. Wilson; Philadelphia:Westminster,1963-64)
1. 61.
106 HARVARD THEOLOGICALREVIEW
Apocryphaare writings.. .which from the point of view of Form Criticism

further develop and mold the kinds of style created and received in the
NT, whilst foreignelements certainlyintrude.3
Cautiousrestraintin formulationis obviously not sufficientin
order to overcome prejudices of long standing, and Schnee-
melcher's evalution of the apocryphalliterature by no means
signals a new era in the appreciationof these writings. This is
confirmed by a distinguishedscholar whom the Society of Biblical
Literature elected as its president in its ninety-ninth year; in a
recent publicationhe describedsome newly discovered apocryphal
writingsas "the schlock that is supposed to pass for 'literature,"'
and he adds: "It has been mystifying,indeed, why serious scholars
continue to talk about the pertinenceof this materialto the study
of the New Testament."4
If apocryphalgospels can be categorized in this way, it is no
wonder that the investigationof the canonicalgospels and of their
sources is still carriedon without considerationof gospel literature
which was not admitted to the canon of the NT.5 A popularand
widely used textbook which introducesstudents of early Christiani-
ty to the NT devotes in more than 500 pages only one paragraph
comprisingfifteen printed lines to the noncanonicalgospels. They
are divided into two groups-Jewish-Christian and Gnostic gos-
pels-and are congeniallydescribedin the followingway:
The Jewish-Christian Gospels are characterizedby a grotesque appeal to
vulgartaste and are obviously fictitious.The Gnostic Gospels are marked
by an esoteric wisdom which rendersJesus' message and mission unintel-
ligiblesave to the initiatedfew.6
Of course, anyone has the right to abstain from dealing seriously
with apocryphalliterature, though good taste seems to demand
that, in this case, one abstain from derogatory remarks about
3Ibid.,1.27.
4JosephA. Fitzmyer, "The Gnostic Gospels accordingto Pagels," America(16
February1980) 123.
5The most learnedrecent Introduction to the New Testament,by WernerGeorge
Kummel (Nashville: Abingdon, 1973), in its detailed discussion of the source
theories of the Synopticgospels, mentions only one apocryphalgospel, namely, the
Gospelof Thomas,and only in orderto refute its relevance(pp. 35-38).
6RobertA. Spivey and D. Moody Smith, Anatomyof the New Testament(New
York:Macmillan,1969) 173.
HELMUTKOESTER 107
literaturewhichone does not choose to treat.In a book whichis

devotedto the treatmentof the entire earlyChristianliterature,
however,like PhilippVielhauer'srecent work,7it is difficultto
understand whythe apocryphal gospelsandactsareseparatedfrom
Neitherthe externalattestationnor
their canonicalcounterparts.8
the internalevidencepermitssuch a separation.To be sure, much
of the noncanonicalmaterialis lost, whereasthe later church
preservedthe canonicalgospelsin severalthousandancientand
medievalMSS.But if one considersthe earliestperiod of the
gospelsare as well attestedas those
tradition,severalapocryphal
whichlaterachievedcanonicalstatus.
1. Theexternalevidence
The external attestationsconsist of datable MSSand of
quotationsand referencesin other writers.All early MSSwere
discoveredin Egypt.They thereforegive us informationabout
onlyone limitedareaandneitherprovenor disprovethe existence
of such writings elsewhere. Quotationsand references may
sometimesreflectthe preferenceof an ancientauthor,although
there are several instancesof referencesto writingswhich a
particularauthor rejects. But together both types of external
attestationprovidea fairly reliable terminusante quem for the
compositionof the writingin question.
The attestationof earlyChristiangospelsthroughmanuscript
discoveriesis as follows:9
7Geschichteder urchristlichen
Literatur:Einleitungin das Neue Testament,die Apo-
kryphenunddie Apostolischen Vdter(Berlin/NewYork:de Gruyter,1975).
8Vielhauer(Geschichte,252-459) treats the Synopticgospels and their sources,
Luke-Acts, and the Gospel of John; pp. 613-92 deal with the apocryphalgospels;
pp. 693-718 with the apocryphalacts of the apostles.This is quite peculiar,because
Vielhauerbelieves that the Gospelof Thomasis not dependentupon the canonical
gospels but representsan independenttradition(cf. pp. 627-29).
9For the dates of the NT papyrisee Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New
Testament(New York/London:Oxford University, 1964) 247-55; Kurt Aland,
Kurzgefasste Listeder griechischen
Handschrifen des Neuen Testaments I. Gesamtiiber-
sicht (ANTF 1; Berlin:de Gruyter, 1963); idem, "Neue neutestamentlichePapyri,"
NTS 3 (1956-57) 261-86; NTS 9 (1962-63) 303-16; NTS 10 (1963-64) 62-79;
NTS 11 (1964-65) 1-21; NTS 12 (1965-66) 193-210; NTS 20 (1973-74) 357-81;
see also Nestle-Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece (Stuttgart:Deutsche Bibelstif-
tung, 1979) Appendix1, pp. 684-89. For the evidence for noncanonicalgospels see
the pertinentsections in Hennecke-Schneemelcher, NTApo,1.
Firsthalf of the 2d centuryA.D.:

P 52 Gospel of John
Pap.Egerton2 UnknownGospel
End of 2d centuryand beginningof 3d centuryA.D.:
P 64 + 67 Gospel of Matthew
P 66 Gospel of John
Pap.Oxy. 1 Gospelof Thomas
Thirdcentury:
P 1, 53, 70, 77 Gospel of Matthew
P 4, 69 Gospel of Luke
P 5, 9, 22, 28, 39, 80 Gospel of John
P 75 Gospels of Luke and John
P 45 FourcanonicalGospels
Pap.Oxy. 654, 655 Gospelof Thomas
Pap.BodmerV ProtevangeliumJacobi
Pap.Rainer(Fayyum) UnknownGospel
Quotationsof gospels in Christianwritersfrom the 1st and 2d

centuries involve numerous problems of dating and of identifi-
cation of sources. The following survey is deliberativelyconserva-
tive, i.e., use of a particulargospel is only listed when it is clearly
evident (usage of one gospel by another author of a gospel is not
included):
The ApostlePaul Free sayingsof Jesus
Deutero-PaulineLetters Free sayingsof Jesus
I Clement (A.D. 96)10 Free sayingsof Jesus
Ignatius(A.D. 110)" Free sayingsand other materials
Papias(A.D. 130) Free sayingsof Jesus
Gospel of Mark
Sayingsof Matthew(= Q?)12
10l Clementdoes not seem to have known any written gospels. The sayings
quoted in 1 Clem. 13.2 and 46.8 derive from the free traditionwhich is closely
relatedto the SynopticSayingsSource;cf. Helmut K6ster, SynoptischeUberlieferung
bei denapostolischenVdtern(TU 65; Berlin:Akademie-Verlag,1957) 4-23.
"Ibid., 24-61.
12Papiassays that "Matthewcomposed the sayings in the Hebrewlanguageand
that each translatedthem as best he could" (Eusebius Hist. eccl. 3.39.16). This is
usually taken as a reference to the canonical Gospel of Matthew. Friedrich
Schleiermacherwas the firstto suggest that Papiasdid not speakaboutthe canonical
Matthewbut about a source of sayings which the author of that canonicalgospel
used and which was originallycomposed in Hebrew (or rather Aramaic). This
hypothesis was recently taken up by James M. Robinson in: idem and Helmut
Koester, Trajectories
throughEarlyChristianity (Philadelphia:Fortress, 1971) 74-76.
The merits of this hypothesis cannot be discussed here in detail. In any case,
neitherthe suggestionof a translationfrom Hebrewnor the characterization as logia
(even if logia can also designate narratives,why does Papiascall the Gospel of
HELMUTKOESTER 109
Polycarp(A.D. 140)13 Gospels of Matthewand Luke

Marcion(A.D. 140) Gospel of Luke (and Matthew?)
2 Clement(A.D. 150) Free sayingsof Jesus
Non-canonicalmaterials14
JustinMartyr(A.D. 150) Free sayingsof Jesus
Non-canonicalmaterials
Gospels of Matthewand Luke
Protevangelium Jacobi(?)
Actsof Pilate (?)15
EpistulaApostolorum Gospel of Matthew
(A.D. 160) Free traditionof sayings
Noncanonicalmaterials
InfancyGospelof Thomas(?)
The followingwitnessesall belongto the last decadesof the 2d
century:
Gospelof Truth Gospel of Matthew
Noncanonicaltraditions16
Valentinians Gospels of Matthewand John
Carpocratians SecretGospelof Markl7
Marka book of the things "said and done by the Lord"?) fits the canonicalGospel
of Matthew.This embarrassmentis clearlyvisible in Vielhauer,Geschichte,261-62.
13Thequotations from Matthew and Luke appearin the first chapters of the
preservedletter, i.e., in that part which was composed much later than the cover
letter to the Ignatianepistles; cf. P. N. Harrison, Polycarp'sTwo Epistlesto the
Philippians(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity,1936).
14Thesayingsquotedin 2 Clementderive from a collectionof sayings,not from a
gospel. However, this collection shows influence from the canonicalGospels of
Matthew and Luke; it also includes apocryphalmaterial.Cf. K6ster, Synoptische
Uberlieferung,62-111.
15TheActsof Pilateare preservedin a numberof medievalMSS and translations
as partof the Gospelof Nicodemus.The date of the compositionof this book is not
certain, but the earliestreferencesto Acts of Pilate appearin Justin Matryr(Apol.
1.35.8-9; 48.2-3). Some scholarsbelieve that Justin did not know any such docu-
ment but simply assumed that a report about Jesus' crucifixionwas kept in the
Imperialarchives (for the discussion of this question see F. Scheidweiler,"The
Gospel of Nicodemus," in: Hennecke-Schneemelcher, NTApo 1. 444-49).
However, Justin's references to the Acts of Pilate closely parallelhis method of
referringto the "Memoirsof the Apostles,"i.e., the Gospels of Matthewand Luke,
which he certainly knew. Furthermore,a passage in Justin Apol. 1.48.2 closely
resemblesa sentence in a Letterof Pilate,a second-centurywritingwhich Tertullian
knew and which is probablypreservedin ActaPetriet Pauli.
16Athoroughand detailedinvestigationof the relationshipof this writing(as well
as of other documentsfrom the Nag Hammadilibrary)to the canonicalgospels has
not yet been made.
170n the use of the SecretGospelof Mark by the Carpocratians and Clement of
Alexandria'sknowledgeof this gospel, see MortonSmith, Clementof Alexandriaand
a SecretGospelof Mark (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity,1973).
Clementof Alexandria Four canonicalGospels

Gospelof theEgyptians
Gospelof theHebrews
SecretGospelof Mark
Theophilusof Antioch Gospel of Matthew
Serapionof Antioch Gospelof Peter
Tatian FourcanonicalGospels
Gospelof Thomas(?) 18
Athenagoras Gospel of Matthew
Hegesippus Gospelof theHebrews
Gospelof the Nazoreans19
Irenaeus Four canonicalGospels
Gospelof theEbionites?
This survey shows clearly that about a dozen noncanonical
gospels were known in the 2d century and that the evidence for
these apocryphalwritings compares quite well with the evidence
for the canonical gospels. The attestations do not support a dis-
tinction between canonical and apocryphalgospels. Writings of
both categorieswere used and are referredto quite early and often
by the same writers. Some observations can be made about
geographicaldistribution.The Gospels of Matthewand Luke were
known early in Asia Minor (Polycarp;Papias, who also knows
about the Gospel of Mark;both Justin and Marcioncame to Rome
from Asia Minor). But there is no evidence that John's Gospel
also was known there until the end of the 2d century (Montanists,
Melito of Sardis); Irenaeus, who came from Asia Minor, can be
taken as a witness that all four canonical gospels were in use in
that area before the end of the 2d century. But apocryphalgospels
are not unknown (Justin). Egypt, on the other hand, demonstrates
an early knowledge of the Gospel of John together with a large
number of noncanonicalgospels: Two "Unknown Gospels," the
18ThatTatian used the Gospelof Thomasis possible but not certain;cf. Gilles
Quispel, "L'Evangileselon Thomaset le Diatessaron,"VC 13 (1959) 87-117.
19Accordingto Eusebius (Hist. eccl. 4.22.8), Hegesippusquoted from a gospel
accordingto the Hebrew and from the Syriacgospel. The first must have been
writtenin Greek and was probablyidenticalwith the Gospelof the Hebrewsreferred
to by Clement of Alexandria;the latter, written in Aramaic(or Syriac)was most
likely the Gospelof the Nazoreans;cf. P. Vielhauer,"Jewish-Christian Gospels," in:
Hennecke-Schneemelcher, NTApo1. 122 and passim.
20Irenaeussays that the Ebionitesused the Gospel of Matthewbut also reports
that they had deletedthe story of the virginbirthfrom it. Thus this "Matthew"was
probablythe hereticalrevisionof Matthewwhich is otherwiseknown as the Gospel
of theEbionites;cf. Vielhauer,"Jewish-Christian Gospels," 119.
HELMUTKOESTER 111
Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of the Egyptians,Gospel of the

Hebrews,a SecretMark,Protevangelium Jacobiand InfancyGospelof
Thomas. The other canonical gospels are less prominent, and
manuscriptfinds witness the remainingpopularityof the Gospel of
John also for the 3d century. Syria, perhapsthe homeland of three
canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, John), gives little early evi-
dence for their use, but it provides several testimonies to non-
canonical gospels: Gospelof the Nazoreans, Gospelof the Hebrews
and Gospelof Peter.
This survey, of course, by no means accounts for all gospels
which were in circulationduring the first two Christiancenturies.
Discoveries of MSS written in later centuries have added several
gospels to the list of the earliest Christian gospel literature and
have also providedfuller texts of such writingsas were otherwise
known only through quotes or fragments. A large portion of the
text of the Gospelof Peterwas discovered in a MSfrom the 8th or
9th century.21Most significantis the discovery of the Nag Ham-
madi Library,a collection of over fifty ancient Christianwritingsin
Coptic translation, in codices dating from the middle of the 4th
century.22It did not only give us the complete text of the Gospelof
Thomaswhich until then was known only through three Greek
papyrus fragments from Oxyrhynchos, but at least two other
writingswhich are doubtlesslyearly Christiangospels: the Dialogue
of the Saviorand the Apocryphon of James.23
A final souirceof informationabout early Christiangospel liter-
ature is the canonical gospels themselves, because they used
several written sources which must be classified as "gospels."
Three of these can be clearlyidentified, although it is not possible
to reconstruct them with absolute certainty:the SynopticSayings
Source,a collection of sayings of Jesus with a strong eschatological
orientation which was used by both Matthew and Luke; the
21Furtherreferencesto the Gospelof Peterare given below.

22Fora briefaccountof the Nag Hammadidiscoverysee JamesM. Robinson, The
Nag HammadiLibraryin English(New York:Harper& Row, 1977) 1-25. See below
for text, translations,etc. of the Gospelof Thomas,the Dialogueof the Savior,and
the Apocryphon of James.
23Itmust be noted that some writingsfrom this "library"which bear the title
"Gospel,"such as the Gospelof Truthand the Gospelof Philip,do not belong to the
genre of gospel literature.Nor is the SophiaJesu Christia gospel, but a secondary
version of a philosophicaltreatisewhich is withoutany relationto the transmission
of gospel material.
Johannine Semeia Source, a compilationof miracle stories which

presented Jesus as a miracleworkerof superhumanpowers; and a
PassionNarrativeutilized by both Mark and John for the composi-
tion of their accounts of Jesus' sufferingand death. In addition to
these three early gospels, other written materialswere utilized by
the authorsof the canonicalgospels as well as by the writersof so-
called apocryphalgospels. But their identificationand reconstruc-
tion is burdenedwith greateruncertainties,and in some instances
they may have been more casualcollections in writingof materials
which otherwisecirculatedorally.
In the following discussion I want to demonstrate, through
several selected examples, that at least four apocryphalgospels
belong to a very early stage in the development of gospel litera-
ture-a stage that is comparableto the sources which were used by
the gospels of the NT.24
2. TheSynopticSayingsSourceand the Gospelof Thomas

In addition to the Gospel of Mark, Matthew and Luke used a
second common source which is generally known as the Synoptic
SayingsSource. It was apparentlynot just a random collection of
sayings, but a carefullyredactedcomposition producedsome time
after the middle of the 1st century A.D.25It may have circulated
anonymously.However, the report of Papiasof Hierapolis26seems
to indicatethat this sayings collection was known under the name
of Matthew.The content of this common source of Matthew and
Luke can be reconstructedfairlywell, though uncertaintiesremain.
The primaryproblem in the assessment of the SynopticSayings
24TheSecretGospelof Mark is not includedin this essay, althoughit should be

discussed here. This gospel, mentioned and quoted in a letter of Clement of
Alexandriarecently published by Morton Smith (see above, n. 17), contains a
miraclenarrativeof the raisingof a young man by Jesus which seems to reflect a
traditionthat is older than the form of the same story in the Gospel of John (John
11). But the discussionof the SecretGospelof Markinvolves complexissues of the
relationshipof this gospel to the version of the Gospel of Markused by Matthew
and Luke and the MarkanGospel which was ultimatelycanonizedfor which I do
not know a persuasivesolution. This deserves detailedfurthertreatmentwhich is
not possiblein the spaceof this article.
25Forrecent work on the SynopticSayingsSource, see Dieter Luhrmann, Die
Redaktionder Logienquelle(WMANT33; Neukirchen-Vluyn:NeukirchenerVerlag,
1969).
26Seeabove, n. 12.
HELMUTKOESTER 113
Sourceis the difficultywhichariseswhenone triesto determineits

literarygenre.27On the one hand, wisdommaterialsare obvious.
In additionto proverbsand rules for rightconduct,there are I-
sayingsin whichJesusspeaksin the firstpersonwiththe voice of
Wisdom28 and even a quotationfrom wisdommaterial.29 On the
basisof such materials,the Synoptic Source
Sayings would have to
be identifiedas a wisdombook, comparable to such worksas the
Wisdomof Solomon.On the other hand, a numberof sayings
reveala verydifferenttheologicalorientationwhichis moreclearly
evident in the sayingsabout the coming Son of Man.30This
eschatological expectationhas its ultimateoriginin the Book of
Daniel.It appropriately dominatesthe SynopticApocalypse(Mark
13). Amongthe wisdom SayingsSource,it is
sayingsof the Synoptic
a foreign element. the genre the wisdom book was the
If of
catalystfor the compositionof sayingsof Jesus into a "gospel,"
andif the christologicalconceptof Jesusas the teacherof wisdom
and as the presenceof heavenlyWisdomdominatedits creation,
the apocalyptic orientationof the SynopticSayingsSourcewith its
christologyof the coming Son of man is due to a secondary
redactionof an olderwisdombook.
While it is evident from 1 Corinthians1-4 that the under-
standingof Jesus as the teacherof wisdom developedin the
earliestdecadesof Christianhistory3-wisdom sayingswereappar-
entlyknownin Corinth32-nodirectwitnessesfor the existenceof
earlyChristianwisdomgospelshave been preserved.But through
the discoveryof the Nag HammadiLibrarysuch a wisdombook
has come to light:the Gospelof Thomas.33 of this
The relationship
27Cf.James M. Robinson, "LOGOISOPHON:On the Gattung of Q," in: idem

71-113.
and Koester, Trajectories,
28Matt11:25-30.
29Luke 11:29-51. On the question of wisdom theology in the SynopticSayings
Source, cf. M. Jack Suggs, Wisdom,Christology,and Law in Matthew'sGospel
(Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity,1970) esp. 63-97.
30Seeparticularly Luke 17:22-32.
31Onthe wisdom party in Corinth, cf. Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians(Her-
meneia;Philadelphia:Fortress,1975) esp. 56-69.
32Onthe relationshipof wisdommaterialin 1 Corinthians1-4 to wisdomsayings
in the Synopticgospels cf. my forthcomingarticle "Gnostic Writingsas Witnesses
for the Development of the Sayings Tradition," Proceedingsof the International
Conferenceon Gnosticism(held at Yale University1978;Leiden:Brill, 1980).
33Coptictext and Englishtranslationwere first publishedby A. Guillaumont,G.
Quispel, W. Till, and Yassah 'Abdal Masihi, TheGospelAccordingto Thomas(New
gospel to the canonicalgospels became a controversialquestion as

soon as the writing became known.34The gnostic character of
some of its sayings and the fact that the writingis introducedas a
book of secret sayings promptedmany scholarsto assume that the
author of this gospel had plunderedthe canonicalgospels in order
to fabricatean archaizinggnostic book.35However, there are no
traces of the biographicalframeworkof the canonicalgospels, and
redactionalchanges which the authors of the gospels of the NT
have introducedin the reproductionof their sayings do not occur
in the Gospelof Thomas.36 Sayingsof Jesus, usually in very simple
form, are placed side by side without any connecting narrative
framework.Sometimes sayings are introducedby questions of the
disciples;there are also a few short dialogues. But more elaborate
polemical,doctrinal,and biograhicalscenes are missing.
The understandingof Jesus' sayings as "secret" teachingis not
necessarilya sign of a later time. The collection of parablesused in
Mark4 was alreadycharacterizedas secret in its pre-Markanstage:
the interpretationof the parablesto the disciplesis privatewhereas
the parablesare told in publicin order to conceal the mysteries of
the kingdom. There is also good reason to assume that the
Corinthiansconsideredthe specialwisdom of Jesus as secret.37It is
this old traditionwhich is made the centraltheme of the Gospelof
Thomas.Many of the familiarparablesfrom the SynopticGospels
are told, often with few secondary alterations. But the section
which contains most of the parablesis introducedin Gos. Thom.
62:
York: Harper, 1959). New translations have been published several times, cf.
Hennecke-Schneemelcher, NTApo, 1. 511-22; Kurt Aland, Synopsis Quattuor Evan-
geliorum (Stuttgart: Wurttembergische Bibelanstalt, 1964) 517-30. The quotations
here follow the translation of Thomas O. Lambdin, "The Gospel of Thomas," in
Robinson, Nag Hammadi Library, 118-30.
34For literature on the relation of the Gospel of Thomas to the canonical Gospels
cf. Robinson and Koester, Trajecorties,129-32, 166-86.
35E.g., Robert M. Grant, The Secret Sayings of Jesus (Garden City, NY: Double-
day, 1960) 102-8; Ernst Haenchen, Die Botschaft des Thomas-Evangeliums(Berlin:
Topelmann, 1961) 9-12.
36For such a comparison see my essay, "One Jesus and Four Primitive Gospels,"
in Robinson and Koester, Trajectories,167-86.
371 Cor 2:6-16.
HELMUTKOESTER 115
It is to those who are worthyof my mysteries

that I tell my mysteries.
The disciplesare indeed the recipientsof hiddenwisdomwhich

givessalvation.38
In Gos.Thom.17 Jesussays:
I shall give you
what no eye has seen
and what no ear has heard
and what no hand has touched
and what has never occurredto the humanmind.
The same sayingis quotedin 1 Cor 2:9, but withoutthe firstline

and as "scripture."It possiblyis a quotationfrom a Jewish
apocryphalbook (the Testamentof Jacob?).39In the traditionupon
which the Gospelof Thomasdraws,it was transformedinto a
sayingin whichJesusspeaksin the firstpersonsingularabouthis
own mission.It is indeed the voice of heavenlyWisdomwhich
speakshere. That this is the centralchristological
conceptin this
gospelis evidentfromseveralI-sayings,40notablyGos.Thom.28:
I took my placein the midst of the world,

and I appearedto them in the flesh.
And I found all of them intoxicated;
and found none of them thirsty.
And my soul becameafflictedfor the sons of men,
becausethey are blindin their hearts
and do not see that emptythey came into the world,
and that empty too they seek to leave the world.
But for the moment they are intoxicated.
When they shake off theirwine, then they will repent.
Such I-sayingsare familiarfrom the Gospel of John41but also
38Seealso the phrase, "Whoeverhas ears to hear, let him hear," which is often
addedto a parable:Gos. Thom.7, 21, 63, 65, 96; cf. Mark4:9.
39Attentionwas drawnto this parallelby Eckhardvon Nordheim, "Das Zitatdes
Paulus in 1 Kor 2,9 und seine Beziehung zum koptischenTestament Jakobs,"
ZNW 65 (1974) 112-20. He argues that the Testamentof Jacob could have been
the source of Paul's quote in 1 Cor 2:9. The Coptictext of the Testamentof Jacob
was publishedby J. Guidi, "Il testamentodi Isacco e il testamentodi Giacobbo,"
RendicontidellaReale Accademiadei Lincei,ser. 1, vol. 9 (Rome, 1900) 223-64; an
English translationby S. Gaselee was published in G. H. Box, The Testamentof
Abraham(London:SPCK, 1927) Appendix.
40TheI-sayingsare discussedin Trajectories,177-79.
41For the quetion of the Johannine parallels, cf. Raymond E. Brown, "The
Gospel of Thomasand St. John's Gospel," NTS 9 (1962-63) 155-77.
from the Synoptic gospels. A most striking parallel is found in

Matthew (11:28-30) to Gos. Thom.90:
Come unto me,
for my yoke is easy,
and my lordshipis mild,
and you will find rest for yourselves.
The wisdom orientationof the Gospelof Thomasand some of the

same materialsappearin very early stages of the early Christian
wisdom traditions,i.e., in partsof the SynopticSayingsSource, and
in the Corinthianwisdom movement.
The apocalypticexpectationof the coming Son of man, on the
other hand, is completely missing from the Gospel of Thomas,
although there are a number of eschatological and prophetic
sayings.42But ratherthan to expect the coming of the kingdom in
the future, the disciplesare asked to recognizethe presence of the
kingdomin themselves; cf. Gos. Thom.3:
If those who lead you say to you,
"See, the kingdomis in the sky,"
the birdswill precedeyou.
If they say to you,
"It is in the sea,"
then the fish will precedeyou.
Ratherthe kingdomis insideand it is outsideyou.
When you come to knowyourselves,then you will become known,
and you will realizethat it is you who are the sons of the LivingFather.
It is quitelikelythat the Coptictext of the Gospelof Thomas

does not directlyreflectthe originaltext of this gospel;differences
betweenthe Copticversionand the Greekfragmentsfrom Oxy-
rhynchosshow that the text was not stable;similarobservations
can be madefor the transmissionof other gospelsduringthe 2d
century. The question remains whether it is possible to determine
more accurately the date of the composition of the Gospel of
Thomasin its earliestform, i.e., of a document under this title that
was on the whole not much different from the Coptic Gospelof
Thomas.Since dependence upon other gospels is not in evidence,
the time span for the date of this compositionis from the middle
of the 1st century to the end of the 2d century (the date of the
earliest papyruswith a fragmentof this gospel). Sayings 12 and 13
seem to give a clue to the date of its composition. Saying 12
42Thepropheticsayingsare discussedin Trajectories,

168-75.
HELMUTKOESTER 117
recognizesthe ecclesiasticalauthorityof James the brotherof

Jesus:
The disciplessaid to Jesus: We know that you will departfrom us. Who is
to be our leader?Jesus said to them: Whereveryou are, you are to go to
Jamesthe righteous,for whose sake heaven and earthcame into being.
It is well knownfromseveralpassagesof the NT as well as other
traditions43 that Jamesthe righteousoccupieda positionof au-
thorityas the leaderof the Christiancommunityin Jerusalemuntil
his martyrdomin AD 62. Saying13, however,indicatesthat the
authorityof Jameswassupersededby thatof Thomas:
Jesus said to his disciples:
Compareme to someone and tell me whom I am like.
Simon Peter said to him: You are like a righteousangel.
Matthewsaid to him: You are like a wise philosopher.
Thomassaid to him: Mastermy mouth is wholly incapableof sayingwhom
you are like.
The sayingcontinuesto reportthat Jesus withdrewwith Thomas
to tell him threethingswhichhe couldnot communicate to others.
This sayingis obviouslya variantof the so-calledconfessionof
Peter (Mark8:27-30). In the Mattheanform of this passage,
Peter'sauthorityis seen in cosmicdimensionswhichareanalogous
to Gos. Thom.12: "On this rockI will buildmy church,and the
gatesof Hadesshallnot overpowerit. I will give you the keys of
the kingdomof heaven .. ."(Matt 16:18-19).
Appealsto particular apostolicauthoritiesare well knownin
the second and third generationof Christianity.They occur in
areaswheresuchapostleshadformerlybeen activeas missionaries
and foundersof churches.Pseudepigraphical authorship(whichis
so clearlyevidentin Christianliterarypoductionsof the last third
of the 1st century)was certainlyan importantpartof this pattern.
2 Thess2:1-2 givesa tellingexample:
We beg you, brothers,not to be quicklyshaken in mind or excited, either
by spirit,or by word,or by letter purportingto be from us.
A new letterwaswritten,closelyimitatingthe firstletterof Paulto
his congregation,in orderto affirma particular interpretationof
43Galatians2; Acts 15:13; 21:18. Hegesippus' report about James the Just is
quoted by Eusebius Hist. eccl. 2.23.4-18. A good collection of all early materials
about James can be found in Martin Dibelius, James (rev. Heinrich Greeven;
Hermeneia;Philadelphia:Fortress,1976) 11-21.
Paul's teaching in a situation in which Paul's authoritywas quoted

on both sides of a controversial issue. In the same way, the
Johannine epistles were written to affirm and to interpret the
authority of John which is transmitted in the gospel under his
name. But a most direct parallel to the juxtaposition of Gos.
Thom.12 (ecclesiasticalauthority of James) and Gos. Thom. 13
(secret authorityof Thomas) is providedby the last chapterof the
Gospel of John. In John 21, a later additionto the originalgospel,
Peter is established as the leader of the church through Jesus'
command: "Tend my sheep!" (John 21:15-17). The Johannine
churchesthus recognizethe ecclesiasticalauthorityof Peter, just as
the Thomas community acknowledgesthe authorityof James. At
the same time, comparableto the secret authorityof Thomas in
Gos. Thom.13, John 21:21-23 gives a distinctrank to the "disciple
whom Jesus loved" by the mysterious words of Jesus: "If it is my
will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?" (John
21:22). It is, furthermore,exactly this disciple who is claimed as
the author of the Gospel of John, in John 21:24:
This is the disciple who is bearingwitness to these things, and who has
writtenthese things, and we knowthat his testimonyis true.
Thus Thomas is claimed as the author of Gospel of Thomasin

Saying 1:
These are the secret sayings which the living Jesus spoke and which
DidymusJudasThomaswrote down. And whoever finds the interpretation
of these sayingsshall not taste death.44
It is most likely that the authorities of James, Peter, and
Thomas represent ecclesiasticaldevelopments in the last decades
of the of the 1st century in Syria. The Gospel of John and the
Gospel of Thomas also demonstrate that the question of such
apostolic authority was connected with the claims of particular
gospel writings under the names of such apostles. Perhaps also a
gospel under the name of Peter was known in Syriaat that time.45
That would explain the reference to Peter in Gos. Thom. 13. Why
44It is also intriguingto compareJohn 21:23 with this saying of the Gospelof
Thomas:"The wordnow went out to the brothersthat that disciplewould not die."
RaymondE. Brown (The GospelAccordingto John [AB; GardenCity, NY: Double-
day, 1970] 1117-22) demonstratesthe embarrassmentof scholarsto interpretthis
sentence.
450n the Gospelof Petersee below.
HELMUTKOESTER 119
is Matthewalso mentionedin that passage?Papias'referenceto

the "sayingscomposedby Matthew"has alreadybeen mentioned.
The canonicalGospelof Matthew,of course,is also a writingthat
must have been composedin the area of Syria/Palestine. Or is
Gos. Thom.13, with its statementof MatthewaboutJesusas the
"wise philosopher,"an allusion to Matthewas author of the
SayingsSource?If thatis too speculative,it willseem even
Synoptic
more hypotheticalto see in Peter's designationof Jesus as a
"righteousangel"a witnessfor the appearanceof the risenLordas
an angel in the Gospelof Peter. In any case, the Gospelof Thomas
must be dated to the same time in which the traditionof
Matthew'ssayingsand of the Gospel of John was definedwith
respectto Peter'sauthority,i.e., at the end of the 1stcenturyA.D.
gospelsand the Gospelof John

3. Apocryphal
In the year 1935three papyrusfragmentswith portionsof an
UnknownGospelwere publishedas PapyrusEgerton2.46The editors
judged it to be writtenin a hand that showed similaritieswith
datablepapyriwrittenbeforeAD 120.Aftersome initialdiscussion
by severalscholars47the JapanesescholarGoroMayedapublished
his Marburgdissertationin the year 1946,48which came to the
conclusionthatthe text of this gospelwaswrittenindependently of
the canonicalgospels.Althoughno majorattempthas been made
to refute Mayeda'sarguments,49 JoachimJeremias,in his intro-
ductionto the translationof these fragmentsin the new editionof
the New Testament presents the followingopinion:
Apocrypha,50
46H.Idris Bell and T. C. Skeat, Fragmentsof an UnknownGospeland OtherEarly

ChristianPapyri(London:BritishMuseum, 1935), and by the same authors (with
corrections):TheNew GospelFragments(London:BritishMuseum, 1935).
47Therelationshipof the UnknownGospelto the canonicalgospels was discussed
in numerous publicationsof the years 1935-37, but no consensus emerged. The
publicationsare listed in Goro Mayeda,Das Leben-Jesu-Fragment PapyrusEgerton2
undseineStellungin derurchristlichen (Bern:Haupt, 1946) 94-95.
Literaturgeschichte
48Seen. 47.
49PapyrusEgerton2 is rarelydiscussedin detail. Exceptionsare F.-M. Braun,Jean
le Theologien(3 vols.; Paris:Gabalda,1959-1966) 1. 87-94, and JoachimJeremias,
UnknownSayingsof Jesus (2d ed.; London:SPCK., 1964) 18-20.
50NTApo1. 95; the same judgment is repeatedby Vielhauer,Geschichte,638; cf.
Brown, TheGospelAccordingto John, 229-30.
The juxtapositionof Johannineand Synopticmaterialand the fact that the

Johanninematerialis shot throughwith Synopticphrasesand the Synoptic
with Johannineusage, permitsthe conjecturethat the authorknew all and
every of the canonicalGospels.
Jeremiasdoes not questionthe datingof the papyrusin the early
decadesof the 2d century,andif this dateis upheldandJeremias'
evalutionaccepted,PapyrusEgerton2 should be treated as a
earlywitnessfor the four-gospelcanon of the NT.
spectacularly
However,the "Historyof the New TestamentCanon"by Wilhelm
Schneemelcher in the very same volume51does not so much as
mention PapyrusEgerton2.
But regardlessof the questionof its date, it can be shownthat
Mayeda'sevaluationof the UnknownGospelis correct,i.e., this
gospelindeedpreservesfeatureswhichderivefroma stageof the
traditionthat is olderthanthe canonicalgospels.The firstsection
of the UnknownGospelclosely resembles John 5:39; 5:45; 9:29:52
To the rulersof the peoplehe spoke the followingsaying:

Search the scriptures,in which you think you have life; these are they
which bearwitnessof me.
Do not think that I have come to accuse you before my father;there is
one who accusesyou: Moses in whom you have set your hope.
And when they said:
We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for you, we do not know
whence you are.
Jesus answeredto them:
Now your unbeliefaccusesyou.
This is a carefullyconstructedunit: a challengeof Jesus in two

parallelsentences;a responseof the opponents;a finalaccusation
of Jesus. The statementof Jesus to the rulersconsists of two
imperativeclauses, each followed by an affirmation.The two
parallelstatementsjuxtaposethe Scripturesas witnessand Moses
as the accuser.The finalstatementof Jesusis closelyconnectedto
the secondstatementthroughthe term"accuse."In the Gospelof
John the two partsof the initialstatementof Jesus have been
separated(John5:39and 5:45) and an additionaldiscourseabout
51NTApo 1. 28-60.
52Pap.Egerton2, frg. 1 verso, lines 7-16. The English translationsgiven here
follow Jeremias(with minorchanges), in NTApo,1. 96-97.
HELMUTKOESTER 121
"takinghonor from each other" (John 5:40-44) has been inter-

posed-a theme whichis not directlyrelatedto the topic "Scrip-
ture/Moses."The responseof the opponentshas been used by the
authorof the FourthGospelin his discourseof the Phariseeswith
the manbornblind(John9:29),whereit supplementsa statement
whichis most certainlya compositionof the author(9.28).Butnot
only does the Unknown Gospelseem to presenta more original
composition,in addition,vocabularyand style are less typically
Johannineandshowseveralparallelsto whatis usuallyconsidered
typical"Synoptic" usage.53
After severalmissinglines the Unknonwn Gospelreportsan
incidentof hostilityagainstJesus which could have been the
conclusionof the precedingcontroversy:
... to gather stones together to stone him. And the rulers laid their
handson him that they might arresthim and deliverhim to the crowd.But
they were not able to arresthim since the hour of his betrayalhad not yet
come. But the Lord escaped from their hands and turned away from
them.54
In the Gospelof Johnone sentenceof this passagehas been used

in John 7:30, the remainderin John 10:31and 39 with a longer,
typicallyJohanninediscourseinterposed(10:32-38). Again, the
passagein the Unknown Gospelis less "Johannine"in its vocaulary
andshowsseveralphrasesparalleled in the Synopticgospels.55
Withoutany connectingremarks,the storyof the healingof a
leper follows in the UnknownGospel:56
And behold, a leper came to him and said: "MasterJesus, wanderingwith
lepersand eatingwith them in the inn, I myself becamea leper. If you will,
I shall be clean." Immediatelythe Lordsaid to him: "I will, be clean!" And
immediatelythe leprosy departedfrom him. And the Lord said to him:
"Go and show yourselfto he priests."
Variantsof this story appearin Mark 1:40-45 (= Matt 8:1-4;

Luke5:12-16)andLuke 17:11-19.The versonof this storyin the
Unknown Gospelhas affinitieswithseveralof these Synopticparal-
lels, but does not reproduceany one of them. It does not show
53Termsused here and also in the Synoptic gosples are "lawyer" (voPuK6o),
and "life" (instead of the Johannine "eternal life". The
"unbelief" (&amrOta),
phrase 'apoKpLELfdSKal etLTE never occurs in John, but frequently in the Synoptic
gospels. For furtherdocumentationsee Mayeda,Leben-Jesu-Fragment,
15-27.
54Pap.Egerton2, frg. 1 recto,lines 22-31.
55SeeMayeda,Leben-Jesu-Fragment, 27-31.
56Pap.Egerton2, frg. 1 recto,lines 32-41.
any traces of the redactionsor secondaryexpansions found in the

Synopticversions of the story. The simple act of healing through
the word of Jesus alone is usually considered a sign of early
traditions, whereas the Synoptic variants report more elaborate
healing procedures(especiallyLuke 17:11-19).57
Frg. 2 verso of Pap. Egerton2 apparentlyreports a miracle of
Jesus at the Jordan to which no parallels in other gospels are
known (the text is fragmentary).Frg. 2 recto poses most puzzling
problems. It is an apophthegma,constructedin a style that is well
known from the Synopticgospels. Puzzlingis the fact that parallels
to the individualparts are found in different sections of all four
canonicalgospels:
Introduction:... and they came to him, testing him with questions saying:
"TeacherJesus, we know that you have come from God (= John 3:2); for
whatyou do bearswitness beyondthe prophets."(cf. Gos. Thom.52).58
Questionof opponents: "Is it permittedto give to the kings what pertainsto
their rule?" (cf. Mark12:14par.)
Jesus'reaction:But Jesus, knowingtheir intention, becameangryand said:
Jesus'answer:"Whydo you call me teacherwith your mouth and do not do
what I say?" (= Luke 6:46)
Expansionwith OT quotation:"Well did Isaiah prophesyconcerningyou,
when he said: this people honors me with their lips, etc." (= Isa 29:13 =
Mark7:6; Matt 15:7)59
There are instances of apophthegmatain which Jesus rejects a

question and refuses to give an appropriateanswer, cf. Luke
12:13-14:
One of the multitudesaid to him,"Teacher,bid my brotherto divide the
inheritancewith me." But he said to him: "Man, who made me judge or
dividerover you?"
Also the apophthegmaof the UnknownGospel presents Jesus as
rejectinga secular affair.The Synopticpassage on the question of
57Theelaboratereportof the reasonfor the illness is certainlya later featureand

revealsthat the authorhad no knowledgeof the Palestinianmilieu. That, however,
only proves that such stories were further developed in the oral and written
transmission. It does not say anything about dependence upon the canonical
gospels.
58GosThom.52: "His disciplessaid to him, 'Twenty-fourprophetsspoke in Israel
and all of them spoke in you.' He said to them, 'You have omitted the one living
in your presenceand have spoken (only) of the dead."'
59Afull acountingof all parallelsto this partof the UnknownGospelis given by
Mayeda,Leben-Jesu-Fragment, 37-51.
HELMUTKOESTER 123
tax to Caesar(Mark12:13-17par.),on the otherhand,expresses

moreclearlythe interestof the Christiancommunityin findingan
accommodation to the Romanlawsof revenue.Thatappearsto be
secondaryas comparedto the concernwith an understanding of
Jesus' mission. However, there can be no question that the
apophthegmaof the UnknownGospel is also- as most other
controversyapophthegmata-asecondarycomposition.The saying
whichconstitutesJesus'answerwasoriginallytransmitted as a free
saying;Luke6:46quotesit withina seriesof othersayings.Thus,
the wholeframework of the sayingis a secondaryscene for which
other materialsmay have been used whichwere alreadypartsof
the sayingstradition,such as the quote from Isa 29:13and the
referenceto the paymentof taxes. But there is no reason to
assumethat those materialswere drawnfrom the canonicalgos-
pels. On the contrary,the Johannineparallelwould arguefor a
dependenceof John upon the UnknownGospel:here, as in the
instancesdiscussedabove,the authorof the FourthGospelseems
to have utilizedpieces from the much more tightly composed
Unknown Gospelin orderto constructhis elaboratediscourses.
These observationssuggestthat the authorof the Gospelof
John used sourcematerialsfor the compositionof his discourses
and dialogues. The UnknownGospel of PapyrusEgerton2 further
proves that such sources of the Fourth Gospel were directly
relatedto the traditionsuponwhichthe Synopticgospelsrest, but
also contained"Johannine"elements.These elementsare visible
in the terminologyof the Unknown Gospeland in the initialstages
of an expansionof sayingsinto "dialogues" of Jesus.
A developmentof the sayingstraditionrelatedto the Gospel
of Johnis visiblealso in the Dialogueof theSaviourfromCodex3
of the Nag HammadiLibrary.60 The authorof this writingap-
parently used an older dialogue JesuswithJudas,Matthewand
of
Mary which is still clearlyrecognizablein severalsectionsof the
present document.61 The firstsectionof this dialoguecan serve as
60TheDialogueof the Savior (CG 3,5) has not yet been publishedin its Coptic
text except for TheFacsimileEditionof the Nag HammadiCodices,publishedunder
the Departmentof Antiquitiesof the ArabRepublicof Egypt (Leiden:Brill, 1976)
vol. 3. A full edition of the text with introductionis in preparation.For an
introductionand translation,see Helmut Koester, Elaine Pagels, and Harold W.
Attridge, "The Dialogue of the Savior,"in: Robinson, TheNag HammadiLibrary,
229-38.
61CG 3,5: 124,22-127,19; 131,19-133,15: 137,3 to the end (where the text is
very poorlypreserved).For a detailedanalysis,see the forthcomingedition (above,
n. 60).
an example for the use of sayingsin such a composition,Dial. Sav.

125, 18-127, 3:
The Saviorsaid: "The lamp of the body is the mind; as long as you are
uprightof heart ... then your bodies are lights. As long as your mind is
"
darkness,your lightswill not be. . .
His disciplessaid: "Lord,who is the one who seeks and who is the one
who reveals?"
The Lordsaid:"The one who seeks is also the one who reveals."
Matthew said: "Lord, . . who is the one who speaks and who is the one
who hears?"
The Lordsaid: "The one who speaksis also the one who hears, and the
one who sees is also the one who reveals."
Mariamsaid: "O Lord, behold, when I am bearingthe body, for what
reasondo I weep, and for whatreasondo I laugh?"
The Lordsaid:"If you weep becauseof its deeds you will abide, and the
mind laughs.... If one does not stand in the darkness,he will not be able
to see the light."
Some sayings are easily recognized, such as the saying of the eye
as the lamp of the body (Matt 6:22) and a saying about seeking
and finding (Matt 7:7-8 par.; Gos Thom. 92, 94). Other sayings
used here are peculiarto the Gospel of John; cf. John 16:13:
(The Spiritof Truth) will not speakon his own authority,but whateverhe
hears he will speak.
John 12:35:
The light is with you for a little longer. Walkwhile you have the light, lest
the darknessovertakeyou; he who walks in the darknessdoes not know
where he goes.
John 16:20:
You will weep and lament, but the worldwill rejoice;
you will be sorrowful,but your sorrowwill turn into joy.
There can be little doubt that in all these instances the Gospel of
John is quoting traditional sayings which are utilized in more
elaborate dialogues. In several cases the Dialogue of the Savior
seems to have preservedsuch sayings in more originalforms than
the Gospel of John, e.g., Dial. Sav. 129,14:
And he knows, let him seek and find and rejoice.
Cf. John 16:23-24:
If you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.
Hithertoyou have asked nothing in my name; ask and you will receive,
that yourjoy may be full.
HELMUTKOESTER 125
Thereare severalotherinstancesin whichthe dialoguein the

Dialogueof theSaviorcontainsanalogiesto the Johanninecomposi-
tion of dialogues and discourseson the basis of traditional
sayings.62Yet one other writingfrom the Nag HammadiLibrary
seems to be based upon the older and independenttraditionof
of James.63 In additionto sayings
sayings of Jesus: the Apocryphon
whichhave parallelsin the Gospelof Thomasand in the Synoptic
gospels,64sayingsutilizedin the Gospel of John occur.A most
strikingexampleis Ap.Jas. 12,38-13,1:
Blessedwill they be who have knownme;
woe to those who have heardand have not believed.
Blessedwill they be who have not seen yet have believed.
The last of these blessingsis used by the authorof the Fourth
Gospel at the end of the story of Jesus' appearancebefore
Thomas-a storywhichoriginallywasdesignedto demonstratethe
physicalrealityof the resurrection
throughthe touchingof Jesus'
body.65The Gospelof John, however,does not reportthe act of
touchingand addsinsteada sayingwhichrejectsthe materialistic
realismof the traditional
story,John20:29:
Jesus said (to Thomas):"Haveyou believed becauseyou have seen me?
Blessedare those who have not seen and yet believed."
The secondaryusage of the sayingin John's Gospel is obvious,
whereasthe Apocryphon of Jameshas preservedthe sayingin its
more originalsettingof a sayingscollectionwhichwas expanded
into a discourseof Jesus.
To be sure, the form-critical
investigationof the writingsfrom
the Nag HammadiLibraryhas barelybegun. Only preliminary
suggestionscan be madehere. But it seems to me quite possible
that the sayings in the Dialogueof the Saviorand in the Apocryphon
of Johndo not dependuponthe canonicalgospelsbut derivefrom
62See Helmut Koester, "Dialog und Spruchuberlieferungin den gnostischen

Texten von Nag Hammadi," EvTh 39 (1979) 536-56 and idem, "Gnostic
Writings,"(see above, n. 32).
63CG1,2; ed. M. Malinine,H.-Chr.Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till, and R. Kasser,
EpistulaJacobiApocrypha(Zurich:Rascher, 1968); translationin: Robinson, The
Nag HammadiLibrary,29-36.
64Examplesfor parallelsin the Gospelsof Thomasand in the Synopticgospels are
cited in my article,"Dialogund Spruchiiberlieferung,"
(above, n. 62).
65Cf.Luke 24:36-42; Ign. Smyrn.2.2-3.
an independent tradition.Their development of sayings into dia-

logue and discourses represents a stage in this tradition which
must be presupposedfor the more elaborate discourses of the
Gospel of John.
4. TheGospelof Peterand the PassionNarrative

Though known by name through the mention by the Syrian
bishop Serapion,66only the discovery, in the year 1886, of a
fragmentwritten in the 8th or 9th century made at least a portion
of the Gospelof Peteraccessible.67It preservesmost of the passion
narrative,the story of the rising of Jesus from the tomb, and the
beginning of the story of Jesus' appearanceto the disciples at the
Sea of Galilee. Until recently, the almost universal judgment of
scholars saw in this gospel secondary compilationon the basis of
the canonicalgospels.68The narrativeis cast in the style of a report
of Peter; Jesus is killed by Herod, while Pilate is completely
exonerated; the miracle of the opening of the tomb and Jesus'
resurrectionis told elaborately;and the cross also rises and speaks.
All this contributedto the impression that this gospel is nothing
but a secondary,late, and possiblyhereticalcomposition.
No doubt, several of these features are the result of secondary
development. But there are indicationsthat the basis of the Gospel
of Peter was a very early form of the passion and resurrection
narratives.In a recent investigation, Jiirgen Denker has demon-
strated that almost every sentence of the passion narrativeof this
gospel is composed on the basis of scripturalreferences. In those
instances where a parallel in the canonical gospels exists, the
Gospelof Petereither agrees with the oldest form of such scripture-
based narrativeor shows an even more originalrelationshipto the
scripturalbasis.69Two features are particularlystriking: (1) The
Gospelof Peter follows scripturalreferences more frequentlythan
the canonical gospels, but unlike the later apologetic interest
66EusebiusHist.eccl. 4.12.
67For the first publicationof the text and translation,see Chr. Maurer, in:
Hennecke-Schneemelcher, NTApo1. 183.
68AI importantargumentsare reportedin Maurer,NTApo,1. 180-82.
69JiUrgenDenker, Die theologiegeschichtlicheStellung des Petrusevangeliums (Euro-
paische Hochschulschriften23/36; Bern/Frankfurt:Lang, 1975) 58-77; see also
BenjaminA. Johnson, "Empty Tomb Traditionin the Gospel of Peter" (Th.D.
diss., HarvardDivinitySchool, 1966).
HELMUTKOESTER 127
visible in the Gospel of Matthewand in Justin Martyr,it does not

try to demonstrate the exact correspondence between prophecy
and fulfillment. (2) Features in the narrativewhich derive from
one single scripturalpassageoccur only in one scene in the Gospel
of Peter, whereas the canonicalgospels have sometimes distributed
them over several scenes. For example, descriptionsof the mock-
ing of Jesus derived from Isa 50:6 appearin the canonicalgospels
partly in the scene of the mocking before the synedrion (Mark
14:65par.), partlyin the mocking by the soldiers (Mark 15:16-20),
but only once in Gos. Pet. 3.7-9. Mark and Matthew report two
occasions on which Jesus is given something to drink during the
crucifixion(Mark 15:23 = Matt 27:34; Mark 15:36 = Matt 27:48),
Gos. Pet. 5.16 reportsthe drinkingof vinegarand gall accordingto
Ps 68:21 only once.70
The judgement about the passion narrative of the Gospel of
Peter and its relationshipto the canonical gospels depends upon
one's general view of the development of the passion narrative.If
one assumes that there was once an older historicalreport which
was later supplemented with materials drawn from scriptural
prophecy,71the Gospelof Peter with its rich references and allu-
sions to such scripturalpassages will appear as secondary and
derivative.There are, however, serious objectionsto this hypothe-
sis. Form, structure,and life situation of such a historicalpassion
report and its-transmissionhave never been clarified.The alterna-
tive is more convincing:In the beginning there was only the belief
that Jesus' suffering,death, and burial, as well as his resurrection,
happened "accordingto the Scriptures"(1 Cor 15:3-4). The very
first narrativesabout Jesus' suffering and death would not have
made the attempt to remember what actually happened. Rather,
they would have found both the rationale and the content of
Jesus' sufferingand death in the memory of those passagesin the
Psalms and the Prophets which spoke about the suffering of the
righteous. The passion narrativeof the Gospelof Peter is indeed
written, sentence for sentence, in the spirit of this "scriptural
memory." It is closely related to the teachingand preachingof the
earliest Christiancommunitieswhere the passionof Jesus from the
70The close connection of this feature to the interpretationof Scripture is

demonstratedin Barn. 7.5.
71RudolfBultmann, The Historyof the SynopticTradition(New York: Harper,
1963) 275-84.
very beginningwas probablynever told withoutthe frameworkof

such scripturalreference.The canonicalgospels, on the other
hand,show an increasinghistoricizinginterest,add martyrological
features,and want more preciselyto demonstrate,in apologetic
fashion, the correspondence between prophecyand fulfillment.
None of these tendenciesare presentin the passionnarrativeof
the Gospelof Peter,where also all redactionalfeaturesof the
authorsof the canonicalgospels have left no trace.Though in
many other respectsfurtherdeveloped,e.g., in the attemptto
exoneratePilate,the Gospelof Peteris an independentwitnessof
the formationof the passionnarrative.
It is temptingto ask whetherthe resurrectionaccountof the
Gospelof Peteralso has preservedoldertraditionsof resurrection
stories. In the passionnarrativewhich was used by both the
Gospelof Markandthe Gospelof John,the storyof the discovery
of the emptytombby the womenmusthave followedimmediately
upon the accountof the burialof Jesus.The actualresurrection
was not told in that commonsource.The Gospelof Peter,how-
ever, reproducesafterthe accountof the burial(Gos. Pet. 6.21-
24) and before the discoveryof the empty tomb (Gos. Pet.
12.50-13.57)a resurrectionnarrativethat has all the properfea-
turesof a miraculous epiphanystory(GosPet. 8.28-11.49):
Introduction:Preparationof the scene throughrequestfor soldiersto guard
the tombhsecuringand sealingof the tomb, seen by witnesses. (8.28-9.34)
The epiphany:"Now in the night in which the Lord's day dawned, when
the soldiers, two by two in every watch, were keepingguard,there rang a
loud voice in heaven, and they saw the heavens opened and two men come
down from there in great brightness and draw nigh to the sepulchre."
(9.35-36).
Themiracle:"Thatstone which had been laid againstthe entranceto the
sepulchre started of itself to roll and gave way to the side, and the
sepulchrewas opened, and both the young men enteredin." (9.37).
The appearance:72 "They saw again three men coming out from the
sepulchre, and two of them sustaining the other, and a cross following
them, and the heads of the two reachingto heaven, but that of him who
was lead of them by the hand overpassingthe heavens." (10.39-40)73
72Gos.Pet. 10.38-39 says that the soldiers reportedwhat they saw. This is a
secondaryexpansionwhichtries to involve the centurionand other witnesses.
73Thefollowingreferenceto the preachingto the dead, the appearanceof another
person entering the tomb-he is needed in the tomb for the next story-and the
counsel to report to Pilate (10.41-11.43) do not belong to the originalepiphany
story.
HELMUTKOESTER 129
The reactionof the witnesses:"When those who were of the centurion's

74
company saw this, . they said: 'In truth he was the Son of God."'
(11:45)
That such a miraculousepiphanystory is a sign of later traditionis
a rationalisticprejudice.What is secondary here is the attempt to
relate the story to the rest of the gospel and to connect it with the
exoneration of Pilate.75The story as reconstructedhere is well
preservedin its form and could be very old.
What is the relationshipof this epiphanystory to the canonical
gospels? It seems that various parts of this story are in fact
preserved in the canonical gospels; however, they have been
inserted into differentcontexts and are fragmentsof an older story
that only the Gospelof Peter has preservedintact. The reaction of
the witnesses and their confession "In truth he was the Son of
God" appearsin Mark 15:39;but it is poorly placed here after the
death of Jesus and clumsily motivated by the remark, "when he
saw that Jesus died in this way." Matthew has recognized the
inappropriatenessof this fragment and inserted an account of
several miraculousoccurences in order to create a better reason
for the centurion's confession (Matt 27:51b-53). Another dis-
placedfragmentseems to be preservedin Matt 27:2-4:
And behold, there was a great earthquake;for an angel of the Lord
descendedfrom heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat upon
it. His appearancewas like lightning,and his raimentwhite as snow. And
for fear of him the guardstrembledand becamelike dead men.
Indeed, in this context the appearance of the angel, with all

appropriatefeatures of an epiphany, only serves as a courtesy to
the women: Jesus had already left the tomb- and why was the
tomb closed again after Jesus' ressurrection?Matthew wanted to
use material from the epiphany story which the Gospel of Peter
reported in full. That Matthew knew this story is clear from Matt
27:62-66, the report of the setting of the guard at the tomb. This
Matthean section is usually labelled an apologetic legend.76As it
appearsin Matthew, it is not a legend at all, but only a fragment,
the introductionof an epiphanystory, which Matthewhas used for
74Herefollows a descriptionof the reportto Pilate which interruptsthe context

and is only designedto exonerate Pilate-clearly a secondarymotif. This apologetic
motif is continuedin 11:46-49.
75Seethe redactionalmaterialmentionedin nn. 72-74.
76Bultmann,History,287.
apologetic purposes. Finally, what about the epiphany account

itself? Mark 9:2-8 and par. has been designated as a displaced
resurrectionaccount.77Jesus appears"in garments glistening, in-
tensely white," together with two angelic figures, identified as
Moses and Elijah.This epiphanymay indeed be nothing else but a
very faint echo of the old account of a resurrection-epiphany which
the Gospelof Peterhas preservedin full.78
In the vast treasureof noncanonicalgospel literaturethere are
at least some writingswhich have not found their rightfulplace in
the history of this literarygenre. Since all these writingsare step-
children of the scholarly endeavors of students of the NT, all I
want to do here is to draw attention to five of these apopcryphal
gospels and to suggest that they are perhapsat least as old and as
valuable as the canonical gospels as sources for the earliest de-
velopments of the traditions about Jesus. They are significant
witnessses for the formation of the gospel literaturein its forma-
tive stages. The term apocryphalwith all its negative connotations
should not prejudiceus any longer.
77Ibid., 259.
78Cf. Denker, Theologiegeschichtliche
Stellung, 99-101.

Apocryphal and Canonical Gospels Compared

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Harvard Divinity School

Cambridge University Press

Apocryphal and Canonical Gospels

The problemaddressedin this paperis impliedin the title.

1The New Testament(Oxford:Clarendon,1924) xiv.

Apocryphaare writings.. .which from the point of view of Form Criticism

literaturewhichone does not choose to treat.In a book whichis

Firsthalf of the 2d centuryA.D.:

Quotationsof gospels in Christianwritersfrom the 1st and 2d

Polycarp(A.D. 140)13 Gospels of Matthewand Luke

Clementof Alexandria Four canonicalGospels

Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of the Egyptians,Gospel of the

21Furtherreferencesto the Gospelof Peterare given below.

Johannine Semeia Source, a compilationof miracle stories which

2. TheSynopticSayingsSourceand the Gospelof Thomas

24TheSecretGospelof Mark is not includedin this essay, althoughit should be

Sourceis the difficultywhichariseswhenone triesto determineits

27Cf.James M. Robinson, "LOGOISOPHON:On the Gattung of Q," in: idem

gospel to the canonicalgospels became a controversialquestion as

It is to those who are worthyof my mysteries

The disciplesare indeed the recipientsof hiddenwisdomwhich

The same sayingis quotedin 1 Cor 2:9, but withoutthe firstline

I took my placein the midst of the world,

Such I-sayingsare familiarfrom the Gospel of John41but also

from the Synoptic gospels. A most striking parallel is found in

The wisdom orientationof the Gospelof Thomasand some of the

It is quitelikelythat the Coptictext of the Gospelof Thomas

42Thepropheticsayingsare discussedin Trajectories,

recognizesthe ecclesiasticalauthorityof James the brotherof

Paul's teaching in a situation in which Paul's authoritywas quoted

Thus Thomas is claimed as the author of Gospel of Thomasin

is Matthewalso mentionedin that passage?Papias'referenceto

gospelsand the Gospelof John

46H.Idris Bell and T. C. Skeat, Fragmentsof an UnknownGospeland OtherEarly

The juxtapositionof Johannineand Synopticmaterialand the fact that the

To the rulersof the peoplehe spoke the followingsaying:

This is a carefullyconstructedunit: a challengeof Jesus in two

"takinghonor from each other" (John 5:40-44) has been inter-

In the Gospelof Johnone sentenceof this passagehas been used

Variantsof this story appearin Mark 1:40-45 (= Matt 8:1-4;

any traces of the redactionsor secondaryexpansions found in the

There are instances of apophthegmatain which Jesus rejects a

57Theelaboratereportof the reasonfor the illness is certainlya later featureand

tax to Caesar(Mark12:13-17par.),on the otherhand,expresses

an example for the use of sayingsin such a composition,Dial. Sav.

Thereare severalotherinstancesin whichthe dialoguein the

62See Helmut Koester, "Dialog und Spruchuberlieferungin den gnostischen

an independent tradition.Their development of sayings into dia-

4. TheGospelof Peterand the PassionNarrative

visible in the Gospel of Matthewand in Justin Martyr,it does not

70The close connection of this feature to the interpretationof Scripture is

very beginningwas probablynever told withoutthe frameworkof

The reactionof the witnesses:"When those who were of the centurion's

Indeed, in this context the appearance of the angel, with all

74Herefollows a descriptionof the reportto Pilate which interruptsthe context

apologetic purposes. Finally, what about the epiphany account

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