The Oxyrhynchus Gospels are two fragmentary manuscripts (British Library accession numbers 840 and 1224), which throw light on early non-canonical Gospel traditions of Christianity for scholars, but which are ignored by most Christians due to their being extremely fragmentary. They were each discovered among the rich finds of discarded papyri at Oxyrhyncus in Egypt.

Oxyrhyncus 840

Oxyrhyncus 840 found in 1905, is a single small vellum parchment leaf with 45 lines of text written on both sides in a tiny neat hand that dates it to the 4th century. In his introduction in The Complete Gospels, Philip Sellew notes that this fragment was likely a talisman text, kept as an amulet, perhaps worn around the neck. The text itself has been dated to the first half of the second century. Sellew calls it "similar to the New Testament gospels in its style and tone."

The fragment contains sections of a narrative unparalleled in any other known gospel tradition, though Jesus's title as "Savior" which is found nowhere in the canonical gospels except John 4:42, and the author's vague grasp of details of Temple rituals suggest a Johannine circle, perhaps in Syria [1]. In it Jesus and his disciples appear in the Temple without having performed the ritual bath and are accosted by a high priest of the Pharisees, to whom Jesus reponds "But I and [my disciples], whom you say have not wa[shed], we [have wa]shed in waters of li[fe] [eternal co]ming from ..."

Oxyrhynchus 1224

Oxyrhynchus 1224 consists of two small papyrus fragments from the late 3rd or early 4th century. J. Dominic Crossan notes the mutilated condition in his introduction to the fragmentary text in The Complete Gospels resulting in highly conjectural reconstructions of the text, which, however, "does not seem to be dependent on the New Testament gospels.... As an independent gospel, it belongs, insofar as its fragmentary state allows us to see, not with discourse gospels involving the risen Jesus (e.g., the Secret Book of James and the Gospel of Mary), but with sayings gospels involving the earthly Jesus (e.g., Q document and the Gospel of Thomas). Crossan suggests that the document might have been written as early as the mid-first century.

Text of Oxyrhynchus 1224

Fragment 1: recto 139

01 [ . . . ] in everything 02 [ . . . ]. Truly, 03 [I say to you . . . ]

Fragment 1: verso 01 he will [ . . . ]. You [ . . . ] 02 [ . . . ] 03 [ . . . ]

Fragment 2: recto, col. ii 1[73]

01 It weighed me down. And [approach-] 02 ing [i]n a vis[ion], Jesus [said,] 03 "Why are you dis[cour]aged? For not [ . . . ] 04 [y]ou, but the [ . . . ] 05 [ . . . ]

Fragment 2: verso, col. i 174

01 [ . . . ] "you [sai]d, although you are not answer- 02 [ing. What then did] you [re]nounce? W[h]at 03 [is] the ne[w] doct[rine] [that they say] 04 [you] te[ach, or what is the] new [b]a[ptism] 05 [that you proclaim? Ans]wer and . . .

Fragment 2: verso, col. ii [175]

01 When the scribes an[d Pharisees] 02 and priests sa[w hi]m, 03 they were angry [that with sin]ners 04 (right in the middle of them) [he was reclining.] 05 But when Jesus heard, he said, 06 "Those who are [healthy ha]ve [no need] 07 [of a physician . . . ]

Fragment 2: recto, col. ii [1]76

01 [ . . . a]nd p[r]ay for 02 your [ene]mies. For the one who is not 03 [against yo]u is for you. 04 [The one who i]s far away [today], tomorrow 05 will be [near you] and in 06 [ . . . ] the advers[ary] 07 [ . . . ]

External links

• Early Christian Writings: Oxyrhyncus 840
• Oxyrhyncus 840: translation by Henry Sweet Barclay
• Early Christian Writings: Oxyrhyncus 1224
• Geof Trowbridge, "The 'Whole' Bible"

Further reading

• Grenfell, Bernard P. and Arthur S. Hunt, Fragments of an Uncanonical Gospel
• Sellew, Philip, The Complete Gospels
• Crossan, J. Dominic, The Complete Gospels