"We have buried our books, you will not find them until the end of the world."


Welcome to CN!

Earliest Book Of Jesus Sayings Has Been Located

Coptic Manuscript

 

A page from the Coptic book called"The Sayings of Jesus the Christ"said to be written by the disciple Thaddaeus, 11 years after the death of Jesus. Scholars feel they have finally found the Q document.

Scholars seem to agree that the 'Saying of Jesus the Christ' might be the source book that the writers of the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John used as reference. CN. University of Alexandria, EGYPT. In 1945, near the small town of Nag Hammandi in Egypt, a young man found a clay vessel containing several leather bound books containing hand scribed pages. The books were the testaments of the Gnostics; a large segmented group of early Christians that were deemed heretics by the Roman Church. The Gnostic sects were killed off and driven underground by the early Church.  By the third century, the Gnostics were no more but a memory. The last words of the Gnostics were "We have buried our books, you will not find them until the end of the world."

The book by the disciple Thaddeaus was lost from the original find in Nag Hammandi. An anonymous collector of ancient manuscripts obtained the 'The Sayings of  Jesus the Christ' before scholars could get to it. The collector had the finder vow to let no one know of his purchase as part of the original purchase agreement. The purchaser held the manuscript in his private collection until his death in May, 1998. At that time his estate was turned over to his family who felt the manuscript should be given to the University of Alexandria's Coptic Studies Department for translation. (Coptic is an Afro-Asiatic language descended from ancient Egyptian and used as the liturgical language of the early Coptic church. The 'Saying of Jesus the Christ' were written in the Coptic language).

Gnostic Library


The original codices of the Gnostics found near Nag Hammandi in 1945

CN has learned that shortly after the first few pages of the codex attributed to Thaddeaus was translated, the codex disappeared from the University. And although scholars are in an uproar over the loss, there seems to be no feeling of loss coming from the Church or other major Christian organizations.

Here are a few of the translated verses from the codex 'The Sayings of Jesus the Christ':

1. The tool of God is Chaos. You can see its great beauty in everything. The magicians can study a lifetime and tell you no more than this.

2. The earth gives you food. This gives you time for play. You are children of God.

3. The commandments have been written in your heart. You all know right from wrong. Even the murderer knows this. It is why he must lie in court.

4. Do not worry about tomorrow. What you do today is what creates tomorrow. Today is all you have.

5. Man created the courts for judgement. Some of you will not listen to your heart; thus you must be jailed so your heart can be heard. Do not judge one another outside of the court. You will become your judgement.

6. Discord in the heart arises from ownership and greed. Do you think you can buy heaven? War is the discord of ownership.

7. When the tax collector comes, give him his due to leave you. His wretchedness is his reward.

8. Love God with all your heart. Prove your love by treating others as you want to be treated. This is the law of God.

9. Whomever has extra money from preaching my words serves the Evil One.

10. More is less and less is more. God gave you eyes and ears. Why don't you use them?

11. Give to those who need it. Help them until they can help themselves.

12. Your judgement is clouded by the log in your eye.

13. The smallest of seeds is the mustard seed, yet see the large plant it produces when put into good soil. Truth is your good soil.

14. Evil is only chosen because it is easier at first, but it becomes more difficult as you follow its path. Good is difficult at first, but becomes easy as time passes. Evil is the long, long path to God. Some die along the way and spend their eternity in the haunted realm.

15. Be careful of thinking you know God's secrets; for surely you do not.

Scholars seem to agree that the 'Saying of Jesus the Christ' might be the source book that the writers of the Synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John used as reference. Scholars refer to this as the Q document (Q=source). One wonders why some of these early Christian documents were left out of the original canon of scriptures. Perhaps verse 9 above has something to do with it.

Back to the CN home page

copyright 2008 by CN