Unknown Berlin Gospel

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The Unknown Berlin Gospel is a fragmentary Coptic text of a dialogue gospel . The work also bears the later attributed title Gospel of the Redeemer . The original title is unknown, the current titles are invented by the editors.

The Egyptian Museum Berlin purchased a parchment codex that was damaged by fire in 1967 and cataloged it as Papyrus Berolinensis 22 220. It was not until 1991 that the content was recognized as part of a conservation process. The manuscript probably dates from the 6th century and probably goes back to a Greek original from the 2nd or 3rd century.

What remains are three fragmentary double sheets, two fragmentary single sheets and 28 other fragments. Pages 99/110 and 107/108 have been preserved, so the fragments are only a small part of the text. The text is only preserved in Coptic, but is a translation from the Greek. Close parallels show that the author knew the canonical gospels (e.g. Mt 5.13  EU ; 26.31 EU ; Joh 10.11  EU ; 10.30 EU ). He freely quotes a word from the Gospel of Thomas : "He who is close to me is close to fire, who is far from me is far from life". There are parallels to the Strasbourg Coptic Papyrus and to the Schøyen MS 1991 manuscript of the Schøyen Collection , which may be other textual witnesses to the same work.

The gospel consists of a dialogue between the Savior and named disciples (Andrew, John). The words "Jesus", "Christ" or "disciples" do not appear. A frame narration is possible, but cannot be reliably reconstructed due to the fragmentary tradition. Presumably the dialogues take place shortly before the crucifixion . The content has Gnostic echoes, but cannot be assigned to any Gnostic direction. Knowledge leads to redemption, the disciples should not allow themselves to be dominated by matter. A journey to heaven is addressed. The Savior is also represented in dialogue with the cross , which acts like a companion.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charles W. Hedrick, Paul A. Mirecki: Gospel of the Savior: A New Ancient Gospel. Polebridge Press, Santa Rosa, California 1999, ISBN 0-944344-68-2 .
  2. ↑ Adolf Jakoby: A new Gospel fragment . Karl Trübner: Strasbourg 1900.

literature

  • 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. 1277-1289.

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