Forbidden ‘Secret Teachings’ of Jesus to His Brother Have Just Been Discovered?

Biblical scholars believe they have uncovered the first-known original Greek copy of Jesus’ ‘secret teachings,’ to his brother James. “Details of the “heavenly realm” and future events, such as James’ inevitable death, are revealed,” reports Fox News.

Fox News reports:

Geoffrey Smith and Brent Landau, religious studies scholars at The University of Texas at Austin, located the rare text in Oxford University archives earlier this year. The experts found several fifth- or sixth-century A.D. Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James, one of the books from an ancient collection known as the Nag Hammadi library. Previously, the text was thought to be preserved only via translations in the Egyptian Coptic language.

Only a small number of texts from the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of 13 Coptic Gnostic books discovered in Egypt in 1945, have been found in Greek, their original language of composition. Also known as the “Gnostic Gospels,” the books are seen as key documents for understanding Gnosticism, an ancient belief system.

The First Apocalypse of James, like the other books in the Nag Hammadi library, was deemed heretical or forbidden by the church because it fell outside of the fourth-century religious boundaries that defined the 27-book New Testament.

“To say that we were excited once we realized what we’d found is an understatement,” Smith told Fox News.

“We never suspected that Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James survived from antiquity. But there they were, right in front of us.”

James, also referred to as “James the Just,” was one of the church’s earliest leaders. However, even until today, biblical scholars are at odds over James’ relationship with Jesus, as some say the two are cousins instead of brothers.

“The scribe has divided most of the text into syllables by using mid-dots. Such divisions are very uncommon in ancient manuscripts, but they do show up frequently in manuscripts that were used in educational contexts,” Landau told Fox News.

 

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