Agrapha
Agrapha ( ancient Greek Άγραφα literally: the unwritten, singular: Agraphon) are sayings of Jesus of Nazareth (" Lord's words ") that are not contained in the Gospels of the New Testament , but in other early Christian or early church writings (e.g. in the Church Fathers ) or in other fragments of writing . The apostle Paul quotes several words of Jesus that are not known from the Gospels ( Acts 20.35 EU ; 1 Thess 4.15–17 EU etc.).
The term "Agrapha" was introduced in 1776 by the German scholar Johann Gottfried Körner . He prevailed thanks to the standard work by Alfred Resch (1889).
definition
Anthony Maas defined an agraphone using the following three criteria:
- It has to be a real "word" (in the sense of a real saying), not a discourse, a treatise or a sermon (such as the Pistis Sophia ).
- It cannot be a simple variant of a saying already known from the New Testament.
- It must be an authentic saying from Jesus (there are, for example, Church Fathers who wrongly put Old Testament quotations or proverbs known in their day into Jesus' mouth). To be considered as an authentic word of Jesus, an agraphone must meet external and internal criteria:
- External: The source of the Agraphon must be realistically close to the historical Jesus. For Papias who wrote in the early 2nd century , z. For example, it may be assumed that he had access to authentic Jesus material that was not included in the gospels. For Pistis Sophia , written in the 3rd century, this is far less likely.
- Internal: The content of the agraphone must not be diametrically opposed to the known canonical material, whereas additions, secondary aspects, shifts in emphasis or additional thoughts are entirely possible.
For these reasons, critical researchers such as Joachim Jeremias or William Morrice (see literature list) only accept a few dozen of the several hundred Agrapha as actual words of Jesus.
Otfried Hofius only accepts sayings of the earthly Jesus. It excludes the following cases:
- All non-evangelical texts that are stylized as words of the pre-existing Christ or as words of the risen One or the exalted Lord.
- Old Testament sayings of the prophets and New Testament words of the apostles, which an author introduces as words of the Lord because the pre-existing Christ spoke through the mouth of the prophets or apostles.
- Cases in which a word contained in the canonical Gospels is only quoted freely or is only reproduced in an outwardly different form.
literature
- Alfred Resch (Ed.): Agrapha. Extra-Canonical script fragments . Collected and examined. In: Texts and Investigations on the History of Early Christian Literature NF Vol. 15., H. 3/4 (Vol. 30), 2nd completely revised edition increased by the Old Testament Agrapha, Leipzig 1906. Unchanged reprographic reprint of the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1967 , ISSN 0082-3589 .
- Anthony Maas: Agrapha . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 1, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1907.
- William G. Morrice: Hidden Sayings of Jesus. Words attributed to Jesus outside the four Gospels . SPCK, London 1997, ISBN 0-281-04922-X .
- Joachim Jeremias : Unknown words of Jesus . 4th unchanged edition. Unchanged reprint of the 3rd edition completely revised with the help of Otfried Hofius . Mohn, Gütersloh 1965.
- Christoph Markschies , Jens Schröter u. a. (Ed.): Ancient Christian Apocrypha in German translation. Volume I: Gospels and Related (two volumes). 7th edition of the collection of the New Testament Apocrypha founded by Edgar Hennecke and continued by Wilhelm Schneemelcher. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-16-150087-9 , pp. 181-208.
Web links
- Ben C. Smith: The agrapha. June 12, 2010, accessed June 6, 2017 (list from Agrapha).
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Resch : Agrapha: extra-Canonical Gospel fragments compiled in the greatest possible completeness and examined critically. 1st edition, 1889 (online)
- ↑ a b Anthony Maas: Agrapha . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 1, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1907.
- ^ Markschies, Apokryphen I, 1, p. 185.