Agrapha

Agrapha (Greek Άγραφα lit.: the unwritten, singular: agraphon ) is called the not included in the canonical Gospels of the New Testament, but in other early Christian (sometimes apocryphal ) or patristic writings (such as the Fathers of the Church ) offer the " sayings of the Lord ", ie sayings of Jesus Christ (eg, Acts 20:35 EU). The apostle Paul quotes several times sayings of Jesus which are known from the Gospels are not (1 Cor 14.34 to 37 EU; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 EU and elsewhere ). The term was first used in 1776 by ​​the German scholar Johann Gottfried Körner and has prevailed since the standard work of Alfred Resch.

The fact that there has been next to the canonical Gospels collections of sayings of Jesus, is highly probable, as the außerkanonisch surviving collections of proverbs, especially the Gospel of Thomas or the Gnostic Gospel of Philip, show.

The meaning of these sayings of the Lord for the New Testament exegesis will regularly underestimated.

Definition

A. Maas defines a agraphon using the following three criteria:

• There must be a real " word" be ( in the sense of a real pronouncement ), no discourse, not a treatise or sermon (such as the Pistis Sophia ).
• There must be an actual saying of Jesus (there is, for example, Church Fathers bodies that Jesus falsely Old Testament quotes or put in their time known proverbs in the mouth).
• It may not be a simple twist to an already known from the New Testament saying.

To be considered as an authentic saying of Jesus into consideration a agraphon must also meet the external and internal criteria:

• External: The source of agraphon must be on a realistic approximation to the historical Jesus. For the writing in the early 2nd century Papias can be assumed, for example, that he had access to authentic Jesus material that was not included in the Gospels. For the written in the 3rd century Pistis Sophia the other hand, is far less likely.
• Internal: The agraphon content must not conflict with the well-known canonical material diametrically, whereas additions, ancillary aspects, shifts in emphasis or additional thoughts are quite possible.

For these reasons, critical researchers such as J. Jeremias, or W. Morrice leave (see bibliography) are only a few dozen of the hundreds of Agrapha as actual words of Jesus.

Expenditure

• Alfred Resch ( Eds.): Agrapha. Aussercanonische writing fragments. Collected and assayed. Unchanged reprographic reprint of the second, completely revised increased by Old Testament Agrapha edition Leipzig 1906. Scientific Book Company, Darmstadt 1967 ( Texts and Studies on the History of Early Christian Literature NF Bd 15, H. 3/4, ISSN 0082-3589 ).
• 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 Sayings of Jesus. 4 unchanged edition. Unchanged reprint of the third, composed of Otfried Hofius completely revised edition. Poppy, Gütersloh 1965.
• Klaus Berger, Christiane Nord: The New Testament and early Christian writings. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, inter alia, 1999, ISBN 3-458-16970-9, pp. 1112-1162.