Page:The Apocryphal New Testament (1924).djvu/68

 all evil. But I and my disciples, of whom thou sayest, that we are not washed, have been washed in living waters which came down from (God out of heaven). But woe unto them that (wash the outside, but within are unclean, is Dr. Swete’s suggested supplement).

The writer seems to show gross ignorance of Jewish matters in assuming that swine could be suffered in the neighbourhood of the Temple, and in other ways. Yet some have defended him on this score.

We have no clue to the identity of the book from which the fragment comes. If it were not that Jesus is here spoken of as ‘the Saviour’, not ‘the Lord’, I should suggest the Gospel of Peter. ‘Saviour’ is the common word in the Gnostic literature. The Gospel of the Egyptians is an obvious possibility: but all is uncertain. At least, the leaf is not from the Gospel according to the Hebrews: and it approaches the style of the Synoptists more nearly than do the next fragments.

 

1. A fragmentary papyrus of the fourth or fifth century at Strasburg, edited by A. Jacoby in 1900. I follow the rendering in Hennecke’s Apokr. d. N.T., which seems better than Jacoby’s.

[front] that he may be known by his (hospitality to strangers) and be praised for his fruit: for...

...Amen. Give me now thy (strength) O Father, that (they) with me may endure the world. Amen. (I have) received the crown (or sceptre) of the kingdom.

I am become king through thee, Father. Thou wilt subject all things unto me. (Amen.) Through whom shall (the last) enemy be destroyed? Through (Christ). Through whom shall the sting of death be (destroyed)? (Through the) only-begotten. Amen.

Unto whom belongeth the dominion? (Unto the Son.) Amen.

[back] Now when he had ended all the (song of praise to his Father ?) he turned himself to us and said (unto us): The hour is come when I shall be taken from you.

The spirit (is) willing, but the flesh is weak: (stay) and watch with me. :

But we the apostles wept, saying:

He answered and said unto us: Fear not (because of) the destruction (of the body) but (fear) much more ... the power of (darkness). Remember all (that I) have said unto you: (If) they have persecuted me, (they will) persecute you also. ... (Ye) rejoice because I (have overcome the world).

