THE AGRAPHA

EXAMPLES OF THE SACRED APOSTOLIC TRADITION.

It has been said, that all that is written in the Gospels cumulatively, would only cover 18 days in the life of Christ. Jesus lived for 33 years or 33 X 365 = 12045 days. What about the missing 12027 days? Christ walked among humanity and gave us 3 years or 3X 365 = 1095 days of verbal teaching before his death, What about Christ’s verbal peaching of the missing 1077 days? Did not Christ promise "the heavens and earth shall pass away but, my words shall not" where are thay? Where are the 'writings' of over 99% of His life? Are most of Christ’s words and actions lost to Christianity? The remainder is, no doubt are the unwritten SACRED APOSTOLIC TRADITION!

A good example of this would be the "Agrapha" (unwritten things). Agrapha denotes words of Christ not written in the Four canonical gospels. Many of these are found elsewhere in the New Testament, the early Fathers. The best authenticated are of course those found in the New Testament outside of the Gospels. The following list comes from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [Copyright © 2001-2002]

(1) the great saying cited by Paul at Miletus: "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35);

(2) the words used in the institution of the Eucharist preserved only in 1 Corinthians 11:24;

(3) the promise of the baptism of the Spirit (Acts 1:5; 11:16); and

(4) the answer to the question:

"Dost thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:7 f). Less certain are

(5) the description of the Second Advent, said to be "by the word of the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:15); and

(6) the promise of the crown of life to them that love God (James 1:12).

There are also the Sayings in Manuscripts and Versions, Of considerable interest are some additions, in manuscripts of the Gospels and versions One of the most remarkable

(1) is the comment of Jesus on a man's working on the Sabbath day inserted after Luke 6:4 in Codex Bezae (D) and the Freer manuscript recently discovered in Egypt:

"If thou knowest what thou doest, O man, blessed art thou, but if thou knowest not, thou art accursed and a transgressor of the law." Another

(2) also found in D and in several other authorities is appended to Matthew 20:28:

"But ye seek ye from little to increase and from greater to be less." In the Curetonian Syriac the latter clause runs: "and not from greater to be less." The new saying is noteworthy but obscure. A third passage

(3) of less value but still of interest is an insertion in the longer ending of Mark, between 16:14 and 16:15, which was referred to by Jerome as present in codices in his day but has now been met with in Greek for the first time in the above-mentioned Freer MS. (For facsimile see American Journal of Archaeology, 1908.) In reply to a complaint of the disciples about the opposition of Satan and their request:

"Therefore reveal thy righteousness even now," Jesus is reported to have said: "The limit of the years of the authority of Satan is fulfilled, but other dreadful things are approaching, and in behalf of those who had sinned was I delivered unto death in order that they might return to the truth and might sin no longer, that they might inherit the spiritual and incorruptible glory of righteousness in heaven." This alleged utterance of the risen Lord is most probably of secondary character (compare Gregory, Das Freer Logion; Swete, Two New Gospel Fragments).

(4) In a fragment of a Gospel found by Grenfell and Hunt at Oxyrhynchus (O Papyri number 655) is the following non-canonical passage in a canonical context:

"He Himself will give you clothing. His disciples say unto Him: When wilt thou be manifest to us and when shall we see thee? He saith: When ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed." The saying or apocryphon exhibits considerable likeness to a saying cited by Clement of Alexandria from the Gospel according to the Egyptians, but the difference is great enough to make original identity doubtful. Another fragment found by the same explorers on the same site (O Papyri number 840) preserves two agrapha or apocrypha which though clearly secondary are very curious. The first

(5) is the concluding portion of a saying about the punishment of evil-doers:

"Before a man does wrong he makes all manner of subtle excuses. But give heed lest you also suffer the same things as they for the evil-doers among men receive not their due among the living (Greek zois) only but also await punishment and much torment." Professor Swete (Two New Gospel Fragments), accents zoois as the plural of zoon and thus finds a contrast between the fate of animals and that of human beings. The second saying

There are also many Sayings from the Fathers, of which this is a small list:

(1) "The heavenly Father willeth the repentance of the sinner rather than his punishment" (Justin Martyr).

(2) "That which is weak shall be saved by that which is strong" (circa 300 AD).

(3) "Come out from bonds ye who will" (Clement of Alexandria).

(4) "Be thou saved and thy soul" (Theodotus in id).

(5) "Blessed are they who mourn for the perdition of unbelievers" (Didaskalia).

(6) "He who is near me is near the fire; he who is far from me is far from the kingdom" (Origen).

(7) "He who has not been tempted has not been approved" (Didaskalia, etc.).

(8) He who makes sad a brother's spirit is one of the greatest of criminals" (Ev Heb).

(9) "Never be glad except when ye have seen your brother in love" (same place).

(10) "Let not him who seeks cease .... until he find, and when he finds he shall be astonished; astonished he shall reach the kingdom, and when he has reached the kingdom he shall rest" (Clement of Alexandria and Logia of Oxyrhynchus).