Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1903-11-18
SACRED PAPER
IS EXCAVATED
Documents Throwing Light on the
Sayings Of Jesus Christ Recent
ly Discovered in Egypt.
ARE PARTIALLY osLITeRATEo
But Much of Great Importance Has
Been Deciphered by the Arehae-
olosist Who Found Papyri.

London, Nov. li.-Many hitherto un'
known sayings of Jesus Christ have
been discovered in Egypt by archaeo.
logists who have dug up papyri buried
since the second century, 100 miles
south of Cairo. DR.. Bernard p. Gren'
fell. who has been engaged in Egyp'
tian excavations since 1894, at the
general meeting of the Egypt explor.
alton fund here yesterday, gave the
following details:
Accompanied by DR.. Hunt. DR.. Gren'
fell found a rich Potolemaic necropo.
lis at FL Hibeh. The bulk of the doc,
uments from the one mound consisted
of a collection of sayings of Jesus
Christ. They are all introduced with
the words, Jesus SAITH" and for the
most part are new. The ends of the
lines, unfortunately, are often obliter'
ated. Apparently all the sayings
were addressed to st. Thomas. One
Of the most remarkable is:
Let not him that seeketh cease
from his search until he finds, and
when he find, he shall wonder; won
dering he shall reach the kingdom,
/. e.. the kingdom of heaven, and
when he reaches the kingdom he shall
have rest"
New Light on Scriptures.
DR.. Grenfell remarked that enor,
nous interest would be also aroused
by the discoveries on account of the
variations they diclosed from accept
ed texts. One variant of the mystical
saying, recorded in st. Luke, "the
Kingdom of God is within you," was
of great value as the saying in the
papyrus appeared in quite different
surroundings from those attributed tc
IT by the evangelist and extended fal
into another region.
According to DR.. Grenrell, these say
ings formed the new gospel which il
additionally associated with st
Thomas.
An interesting variation of the gos
pei, according to St. Luke, 18th chap
ter and SIND verse lwoe unto you
lawyers, for we have taken away thu
key of knowledge; yet entered not II
yourselves and them that were enter
ing in We hindered) reads in the papy
rus. "Ye have hidden the key o
knowledge, yet entered not %yourselvei
and to them that were entering in
We did not Open"
Another fragment contained a dis
course of Christ and closely relate,
to passages of the sermon on tn,
mount and a conversation between
Christ and His disciples, in which
Christ answered a question as {,
when His kingdom will be realized
saying:
when we return to the state OF in
nocence before fall"
Written in Latin.
A valuable find was made in papyri
written in Latin. giving the text o
the epistles to the Hebrews and cpl
tome of Levy's six lost books. This
with other papyri covering the periot
150-137. B. c.. threw much new ant
valuable history on the history of thu
world and marked the recovery O
hitherto classical literature of Egypt
A quaint instance of the business
methods in vogue in 1877, B. c.. il
shown in the discovery Of an amusing
contract whereby a slave boy was Il
be taught shorthand for 100 drachmae
The payment was arranged on a thor
oughly b~usiness-like basis. 40 drach
mae down. 40 on satisfactory evi
dence of progress and 40 on the at
tainment of proficiency.