Subject: apocrypha

From: "Mr. Helge Evensen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 1997 19:12:13 -0800

I have a question regerding OT and NT apocrypha:

Is there any of the OT and NT apocrypha which showed up for the first 
time in the 19. century (I mean in modern times, by way of discovery)?? 
If so, which??

Thanks ahead!

-- 
- Mr. Helge Evensen

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From: "Mr. Helge Evensen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 18:51:29 -0700

> time in the 19. century (I mean in modern times, by way of discovery)??

I have received only one reply to this, and it wasn´t too helpful in that 
it only gave a book reference.

Will anyone bother to respond??

-- 
- Mr. Helge Evensen

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From: "James R. Adair" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 14:14:19 -0400 (EDT)

> > time in the 19. century (I mean in modern times, by way of discovery)??

The Gospel of Thomas springs to mind.  According to the Gospel of Thomas
FAQ:

Portions of Greek versions of the Gospel of Thomas were found in
Oxyrhynchus Egypt about one hundred years ago and these can be dated to
about 140 A.D. or somewhat before. A complete version in Coptic (the
native Egyptian language written in an alphabet derived from the Greek
alphabet) was found in Nag Hammadi Egypt in 1945.  That version can be
dated to about 340 A.D. The Coptic version is a translation of the Greek
version. Thus most, if not all, of the Gospel of Thomas was written prior
to 140 A. D. 

For more information, see the Gospel of Thomas home page at
http://www.epix.net/~miser17/Thomas.html.  And, of course, there is
abundant information in print about the Gospel of Thomas.

Other apocryphal works that have been discovered in the past century or so
include the Egerton Gospel fragments, the Gnostic gospel recently
discovered in a library in Berlin (not yet published), and Morton Smith's
reported discovery of a new letter of Clement of Alexandria in which he
has excerpts from the Secret Gospel of Mark (check Hennecke/Schneemelcher
for more info).

As for OT apocrypha/deuterocanonicals, a Hebrew version of Sirach was
found in the Cairo Geniza in the late 19th century, I believe.  The DSS
include much new material, of course, including several unknown psalms
(in 11QPs-a).  It all depends on what you might classify as "apocrypha."

Jimmy Adair
Manager of Information Technology Services, Scholars Press
    and
Managing Editor of TELA, the Scholars Press World Wide Web Site
---------------> http://scholar.cc.emory.edu <-----------------