Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-05

likely to provoke much controversy among
scr1ptural archaeologists and theologians."
said Dr.. Grenfell, but whatever differences
OF opinion there may be no one can deny
itS interest. The text begins with this In
PRODUCTION:
There are the wonderful words which
Jesus, the living Lord. spoke to = and
Thomas And He said unto them, Every
one that hearkens to these words shall
never taste of DEATH
And the following are extracts from the
text:
Jesus saith. let not him who seeks cease
until he finds. and when he finds, he shall
be astonished: he shall reach the kingdom,
and having reached the kingdom he shall
rest"
Jesus saith. Ye ask who are those that
draw us to the Kingdom. II the kingdom is
in Heaven. . The fowls of the air and
all beasts that are under the earth or upon
are they which draw you. and the kingdom
of heaven is within you; and whoever snail
know himself shall find it,
Strive, therefore. to know yourselves.
and We shall be aware that We are the sons
Of the Father: and We shall know that We
are in tn, city OF God and We are tie city"
Jesus saith, A man shall not hesitate to
ask concerning his place In the kingdom
Ye shall know that many that are first shall
be last and the last first. and they shall
have eternal life"
Jesus saith: Everything that is. not be-
fore thy face and that which is hidden
from thee shall be revealed to thee, for
there. is nothing hidden which shall not
be made manifest. nor buried which shall
not be raised
Professor Grenfeil calls attention to the
resemblance between this passage and SINH
Lar expressions in Matthew x:26; Luke xli:2.
and Mark iv:22.
His disciples questioned Him and said:
How shall we fast and how shall we pray?
= and what commandments shall we
keep . Jesus saith Do not
of truth blessed is he
This passage Is broken beyond hope OF
recovery. but. as Prof. Grenfell says. the
general drift Of its meaning may be caught.
and 1t seems to be parallel to Matthew
xix:f6-22 and Luke xviii:22.
Similar Manuscript.
In 1902 DR.. Grenfell found another manu-
script in the same place containing the first
part Of the book. which says that these
things were addressed to st. Thomas"
With it was a part of the Book of Genesis.
In 1897 part of the first chapter Of Matthew
was found near by. These manuscripts
probably belonged to some Christian resi-
dent of Oxyrhynchus, and, being worn out
by much handling, were thrown in the dust
heap In the third century. DR.. Grenfeli
thinks that perhaps these sayings of Jesus
might have been part of Gospel &C
cording to the Egyptians, of which only
fewSextracts survive. 1t was probably
written during the earlier part of the sec
ond century. perhaps about l4o A. D., ana
for a time seems to have attained high
degree of authority in Egypt 1t was. how
ever, decisively rejected in the third CEN
. fury. Or perhaps the manuscripts are
fragments of collection of our Lords say
ings compiled by some early Christian COM
mentator in the early part of the second
century.
ut is, of course, impossible to prove or
disprove either theory said DR.. Gre1fell.
land hence these manuscripts will afford
plenty of food for discussion. Nothing In
Christian literature quite like them has
been ever found. The nearest approach to
them is manuscript found in a tomb at
Akhmin. upper Egypt. in 1892. which is
called the Gospel of Peter and contains
an account of the life of our Lord alleged
to have been written by that apostle. The
manuscript is now in the museum at Cairo