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 Lost Scriptures:
Books That Did Not
Make it into the New
Testament

Bart D. Ehrman

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Lost Scriptures
This page intentionally left blank
LOST SCRIPTURES
BOOKS THAT DID NOT MAKE IT
INTO THE NEW TESTAMENT

Bart D. Ehrman

1
2003
1
Oxford New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai
Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto

Copyright
2003 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
www.oup.com
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lost scriptures : books that did not make it into
the New Testament / [edited by] Bart D. Ehrman.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-19-514182-2
1. Apocryphal books (New Testament)
I. Ehrman, Bart D.

BS2832.E37 2003 229'.9205209—dc21 2003045965

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents

General Introduction 1

NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS 7

The Gospel of the Nazareans 9

The Gospel of the Ebionites 12
The Gospel According to the Hebrews 15
The Gospel According to the Egyptians 17
The Coptic Gospel of Thomas 19
Papyrus Egerton 2: The Unknown Gospel 29
The Gospel of Peter 31
The Gospel of Mary 35
The Gospel of Philip 38
The Gospel of Truth 45
The Gospel of the Savior 52
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas 57
The Proto-Gospel of James 63
The Epistle of the Apostles 73
The Coptic Apocalypse of Peter 78
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth 82
The Secret Gospel of Mark 87

NON-CANONICAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 91

The Acts of John 93

The Acts of Paul 109
The Acts of Thecla 113
The Acts of Thomas 122
The Acts of Peter 135

NON-CANONICAL EPISTLES AND RELATED WRITINGS 155

The Third Letter to the Corinthians 157

Correspondence of Paul and Seneca 160
v
vi CONTENTS

Paul’s Letter to the Laodiceans 165

The Letter of 1 Clement 167
The Letter of 2 Clement 185
The “Letter of Peter to James” and its “Reception” 191
The Homilies of Clement 195
Ptolemy’s Letter to Flora 201
The Treatise on the Resurrection 207
The Didache 211
The Letter of Barnabas 219
The Preaching of Peter 236
Pseudo-Titus 239

NON-CANONICAL APOCALYPSES AND REVELATORY

TREATISES 249

The Shepherd of Hermas 251

The Apocalypse of Peter 280
The Apocalypse of Paul 288
The Secret Book of John 297
On the Origin of the World 307
The First Thought in Three Forms 316
The Hymn of the Pearl 324

CANONICAL LISTS 329

The Muratorian Canon 331

The Canon of Origen of Alexandria 334
The Canon of Eusebius 337
The Canon of Athanasius of Alexandria 339
The Canon of the Third Synod of Carthage 341
General Introduction

Even though millions of people world-wide read the New Testament—

whether from curiosity or religious devotion—very few ask what this
collection of books actually is or where it came from, how it came into
existence, who decided which books to include, on what grounds, and when.
The New Testament did not emerge as an established and complete set
of books immediately after the death of Jesus. Many years passed before
Christians agreed concerning which books should comprise their sacred
scriptures, with debates over the contour of the “canon” (i.e., the collection
of sacred texts) that were long, hard, and sometimes harsh. In part this was
because other books were available, also written by Christians, many of
their authors claiming to be the original apostles of Jesus, yet advocating
points of view quite different from those later embodied in the canon. These
differences were not simply over such comparatively minor issues as
whether a person should be baptized as an infant or an adult, or whether
churches were to be run by a group of lay elders or by ordained priests,
bishops, and pope. To be sure, such issues, still controversial among Chris­
tian churches today, were at stake then as well. But the alternative forms of
Christianity in the early centuries of the church wrestled over much larger
doctrinal questions, many of them unthinkable in most modern Christian
churches, such as how many gods there are (one? two? twelve? thirty?);
whether the true God created the world or whether, instead, it was created
by a lower, inferior deity; whether Jesus was divine, or human, or somehow
both; whether Jesus’ death brought salvation, or was irrelevant for salvation,
or whether he ever even died. Christians also debated the relationship of
their new faith to the religion from which it came, Judaism. Should Chris­
tians continue to be Jews? Or if not already Jews, should they convert to
Judaism? What about the Jewish Scriptures? Are they to be part of the
Christian Bible, as the “Old Testament”? Or are they the Scriptures of a
different religion, inspired perhaps by a different God?
Such fundamental issues are for the most part unproblematic to Chris­
tians today, and their solutions, as a result, appear obvious: There is only
one God; he created the world; Jesus his Son is both human and divine; his
death brought salvation to the world, in fulfillment of the promises made in
the Old Testament, which was also inspired by the one true God.
One of the reasons these views now seem obvious, however, is that
only one set of early Christian beliefs emerged as victorious in the heated
1
2 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

disputes over what to believe and how to live that were raging in the early
centuries of the Christian movement. These beliefs, and the group who
promoted them, came to be thought of as “orthodox” (literally meaning,
“the right belief ”), and alternative views—such as the view that there are
two gods, or that the true God did not create the world, or that Jesus was
not actually human or not actually divine, etc.—came to be labeled “heresy”
(� false belief) and were then ruled out of court. Moreover, the victors in
the struggles to establish Christian orthodoxy not only won their theological
battles, they also rewrote the history of the conflict; later readers, then,
naturally assumed that the victorious views had been embraced by the vast
majority of Christians from the very beginning, all the way back to Jesus
and his closest followers, the apostles.
What then of the other books that claimed to be written by these apos­
tles, the ones that did not come to form part of the New Testament? For the
most part they were suppressed, forgotten, or destroyed—in one way or an­
other lost, except insofar as they were mentioned by those who opposed
them, who quoted them precisely in order to show how wrong they were. But
we should not overlook the circumstance that in some times and places these
“other” writings were in fact sacred books, read and revered by devout peo­
ple who understood themselves to be Christian. Such people believed that
they were following the real teachings of Jesus, as found in the authoritative
texts that they maintained were written by Jesus’ own apostles.
Historians today realize that it is over-simplified to say that these
alternative theologies are aberrations because they are not represented in
the New Testament. For the New Testament itself is the collection of books
that emerged from the conflict, the group of books advocated by the side of
the disputes that eventually established itself as dominant and handed the
books down to posterity as “the” Christian Scriptures.
This triumph did not happen immediately after Jesus’ death. Jesus is
usually thought to have died around 30 ce.1 Christians probably began to
produce writings shortly afterwards, although our earliest surviving writings,
the letters of Paul, were not made for another twenty years or so (around
50–60 ce). Soon the floodgates opened, however, and Christians of varying
theological and ecclesiastical persuasion wrote all kinds of books: Gospels
recording the words, deeds, and activities of Jesus; accounts of the miracu­
lous lives and teachings of early Christian leaders (“acts of the apostles”),
personal letters (“epistles”) to and from Christian leaders and communities;
prophetic revelations from God concerning how the world came to be or
how it was going to end (“revelations” or “apocalypses”), and so on. Some
of these writings may well have been produced by the original apostles of
Jesus. But already within thirty or forty years books began to appear that
claimed to be written by apostles, which in fact were forgeries in their
names (see, e.g., 2 Thess. 2:2).

1
I.e., 30 of the “Common Era,” which is the same as the older designation, AD 30.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3

The practice of Christian forgery has a long and distinguished history.

We know of Gospels and other sacred books forged in the names of the
apostles down into the Middle Ages—and on, in fact, to the present day.
Some of the more ancient ones have been discovered only in recent times
by trained archaeologists or rummaging bedouin, including Gospels alleg­
edly written by Jesus’ close disciple Peter, his female companion Mary
Magdalene, and his twin brother Didymus Judas Thomas.
The debates over which texts actually were apostolic, and therefore
authoritative, lasted many years, decades, even centuries. Eventually—by
about the end of the third Christian century—the views of one group
emerged as victorious. This group was itself internally diverse, but it agreed
on major issues of the faith, including the existence of one God, the creator
of all, who was the Father of Jesus Christ, who was both divine and human,
who along with the Father and the Holy Spirit together made up the divine
godhead. This group promoted its own collection of books as the only true
and authentic ones, and urged that some of these books were sacred au­
thorities, the “New” Testament that was to be read alongside of and that
was at least as authoritative as the “Old” Testament taken over from the
Jews.
When was this New Testament finally collected and authorized? The
first instance we have of any Christian author urging that our current twenty-
seven books, and only these twenty-seven, should be accepted as Scripture
occurred in the year 367 ce, in a letter written by the powerful bishop of
Alexandria (Egypt), Athanasius. Even then the matter was not finally re­
solved, however, as different churches, even within the orthodox form of
Christianity, had different ideas—for example, about whether the Apoca­
lypse of John could be accepted as Scripture (it finally was, of course), or
whether the Apocalypse of Peter should be (it was not); whether the epistle
of Hebrews should be included (it was) or the epistle of Barnabas (it was
not); and so on. In other words, the debates lasted over three hundred years.
The issues I have been addressing in the previous paragraphs are highly
involved, of course, and require a good deal of discussion and reflection. I
have dealt with them at greater length in the book written as a companion
to the present collection of texts: Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scrip-
ture and the Faiths We Never Knew (New York: Oxford University Press,
2003). There I discuss the wide ranging diversity of the early Christian
movement of the first three centuries, the battles between “heresies” and
“orthodoxy,” the production of forged documents in the heat of the battle
by all sides, the question of how some of these books came to be included
in the canon of Scripture, on what grounds, and when. The present volume
is intended to provide easy and ready access to the texts discussed in Lost
Christianities—that is, revered texts that were not included in the canon.
Many of these texts were excluded precisely because they were thought to
embody heretical concerns and perspectives. Others were accepted as “or­
thodox,” but were not deemed worthy of acceptance in the sacred canon of
Scripture, for one reason or another.
I have called this collection of other sacred texts “Lost Scriptures,”
4 GENERAL INTRODUCTION

even though the writings I have included here are obviously no longer lost.
But most of them were lost, for centuries, until they turned up in modern
times in archaeological discoveries or in systematic searches through the
monasteries and libraries of the Middle East and Europe. Some of them are
known only in part, as fragments of once-entire texts have appeared—for
example, a famous Gospel allegedly written by the apostle Peter. Others are
cited by ancient opponents of heresy precisely in order to oppose them—
for example, Gospels used by different groups of early Jewish Christians.
Yet other books have turned up in their entirety—for example, the Gospel
allegedly written by Jesus’ twin brother Judas Thomas. And yet others have
been available for a long time to scholars, but are not widely known outside
their ranks—for example, the account of the miraculous life of Paul’s female
companion Thecla.
Scholars have never devised an adequate term for these “Lost Scrip­
tures.” Sometimes they are referred to as the Christian “Pseudepigrapha,”
based on a Greek term which means “written under a false name.” But some
of the books are anonymous rather than pseudonymous. Moreover, in the
judgment of most New Testament scholars, even some of the books that
were eventually included in the canon (e.g., 2 Peter) are pseudonymous.
And so, more often these texts are referred to as the early Christian
“Apocrypha,” another problematic term, in that it technically refers to
“hidden books” (the literal meaning of “apocrypha”), hidden either because
they contained secret revelations or because they simply were not meant for
general consumption. A number of these books, however, do not fit that
designation, as they were written for general audiences. Still, so long as
everyone agrees that in the present context, the term “early Christian
apocrypha” may designate books that were sometimes thought to be scrip­
ture but which were nonetheless finally excluded from the canon, then the
term can still serve a useful function.
The present collection of early Christian apocrypha is not meant to be
exhaustive, nor is this the only place one can turn now to find some of these
texts. Most other collections of the lost Scriptures, however, cover only cer­
tain kinds of documents (e.g., non-canonical Gospels)2 or documents discov­
ered in only one place (e.g., the cache of “gnostic” writings discovered near
Nag Hammadi Egypt in 1945).3 Or they include several of the “other” scrip­
tural texts only as a part of a wider collection of early Christian documents.4
The major collections that contain all of these early Christian writings—and
even more—are written for scholars and embody scholarly concerns.5 The

2
See, for example, the handy collection by Ron Cameron, The Other Gospels (Philadelphia: West­
minster Press, 1982) and more recently by Robert Miller, The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars
Version (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge Press, 1994). 3E.g., James Robinson, ed. The Nag Hammadi
Library in English, 4th ed. (New York/Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996). 4For example, Bart D. Ehrman,
After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).
5
Most accessibly, J.K. Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian
Literature in English Translation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), and yet more comprehensively,
Wilhelm Schneemelcher, ed. New Testament Apocrypha, 2 vols., tr. R. McL. Wilson (Louisville, KY:
Westminster/John Knox, 1991).
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 5

purpose of the present collection is to provide the non-scholar with easy ac­
cess to these ancient Christian documents that were sometimes regarded as
sacred authorities for Christian faith and practice. I have organized the col­
lection in traditional rubrics, based for the most part on the genres that even­
tually came to comprise the New Testament: Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and
Apocalypses (including in the final two categories related kinds of writings).
I have also included several “canonical lists” from the early centuries of
Christianity—that is, lists of books that were thought by their authors to be
the canon. This final category shows how even within “orthodox” circles
there was considerable debate concerning which books to include.
Altogether there are forty-seven different texts here, each provided with
a concise introduction. Most of the texts are given in their entirety. For
some of the very long ones, I have given sufficiently lengthy extracts to
provide a sense of what the books were like. Each is in a modern and highly
readable English translation. Nineteen of the translations are my own.
In conclusion I would like to thank those who have made this volume
a possibility: my wife, Sarah Beckwith, whose insatiable curiosity and vast
knowledge make her, among other things, an extraordinary dialogue partner;
my graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carl
Cosaert, whose diligence as a research assistant is sans pareil; Darryl Gless,
my unusually supportive Senior Associate Dean, and the entire dean’s office
at UNC-Chapel Hill, who provided me with a much needed academic leave
from my duties as chair in the Department of Religious Studies, allowing
me to complete the project; and especially my editor Robert Miller, who
convinced me to produce the book and once more went above and beyond
the call of editorial duty in helping me bring it to completion.
This page intentionally left blank
NON-CANONICAL
GOSPELS
8 NON-CANONICAL ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

Introduction

There were many Gospels available to early Christians—not just the Mat­
thew, Mark, Luke, and John familiar to readers of the New Testament today.
Even though most of these other Gospels have become lost from public
view, some were highly influential within orthodox circles throughout the
Middle Ages. These would include, for example, the intriguing Infancy
Gospel of Thomas, which tells of the miraculous and often mischievous
deeds of Jesus as a young boy between the ages of five and twelve, and the
so-called Proto-Gospel of James, which records events leading up to (and
including) Jesus’ birth by recounting the miraculous birth, early life, and
betrothal of his mother, the Virgin Mary—an account highly influential on
pictorial art in subsequent centuries.
Others of these Gospels played a significant role in one community or
another in antiquity, but came to be lost—known to us only by name until
modern times, when uncovered by professional archaeologists looking for
them or by accident. Of these, some have been uncovered in their entirety,
as is the case of the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, a collection of 114 sayings
of Jesus, some evidently representing actual teachings of the historical Jesus,
but others conveying “gnostic” understandings of Jesus’ message. Other
Gospels have been recovered only in fragments, including the famous
Gospel allegedly written by Peter, Jesus’ apostle, which, among other things,
records the actual events of the resurrection, in which Jesus is seen emerging
from his tomb, tall as a giant. Yet others are known only as they are briefly
quoted by church fathers who cite them in order to malign their views,
including several Gospels used by various groups of Jewish Christians in
the early centuries of the church.
I have included fifteen of our earliest non-canonical Gospels in the
collection here. They are of varying theological persuasion: some appear to
be perfectly “orthodox” in their views (e.g., Egerton Papyrus 2); others
represent a form of Jewish Christianity that later came to be condemned as
heretical (e.g., the Gospel of the Nazareans); yet others appear to have been
written by early Christian “Gnostics”1 (e.g., the Gospel of Philip). These
texts are not completely representative of the various forms of early Chris­
tian belief about Jesus’ words, deeds, and activities; but since they derive
from a wide range of time and place from within the first three centuries of
early Christianity, they give some sense of the rich diversity of Christian
views from this early period of the church.

1
For the views of Gnostics, see Ehrman, Lost Christianities, 113–34.
The Gospel of the Nazareans

Jewish Christians in the early centuries of the church were widely thought
to have preferred the Gospel of Matthew to all others, since it is Matthew
that stresses the importance of keeping the Jewish Law down to every jot
and tittle (5:17–20) and that emphasizes, more than any other, the Jewishness
of Jesus.1 According to a number of ancient sources, one group of Jewish
Christians, sometimes known as the Nazareans, produced their own version
of Matthew, translated into Aramaic, the language of Jesus and of Jews
living in Palestine.2 This version would have been produced sometime near
the end of the first century or the beginning of the second.
Eventually this “Gospel of the Nazareans” fell into disfavor with the
Christian community at large, both because few Christians in later centuries
could read Aramaic and because the Gospel’s Jewish emphases were con­
sidered suspicious. As a result, the Gospel came to be lost. Now we know
of it only through quotations of its text by church fathers like Jerome, and
by references to it in the margins of several Greek manuscripts of the Gospel
according to Matthew.
These quotations reveal clearly the Jewish-Christian concerns of the
Gospel and show that the Gospel contained stories of Jesus’ baptism, public
ministry, death, and resurrection. It evidently did not include, however, the
first two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel, which record the events surrounding
Jesus’ miraculous birth. For according to many Jewish Christians, Jesus was
not born of a virgin, but was a natural human being who was specially
chosen to be the messiah because God considered him to be more righteous
than anyone else.
Today scholars debate whether the church fathers were right in thinking
that the Gospel of the Nazareans was an Aramaic version of Matthew; it
may have instead been an original composition, in Aramaic, based on oral
traditions about Jesus that were in wide circulation and available both to
this author and the author of Matthew.

1
See Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings,
3rd ed. (New York: Oxford, 2003), chap. 7. 2See Ehrman, Lost Christianities, 99–103.

Translation by Bart D. Ehrman, based on the Greek, Latin, and Syriac texts in A. F. J.
Klijn, Jewish-Christian Gospel Tradition (VCSupp 17; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992) 47–115.

9
10 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

The following are the fragments of the Gospel quoted in our surviving
sources.

1 It is written in a certain Gospel that

is called “according to the He­
brews” (if in any event anyone is inclined
locked up in prison. (Eusebius, Theo-
phania, 4, 22)

to accept it, not as an authority, but to

shed some light on the question we have 3 But [the Lord] taught about the rea­
son for the division of the souls in
the houses, as we have found somewhere
posed) that another rich man asked [Je­
sus], “Master, what good thing must I do in the Gospel used by the Jews and writ­
to have life?” He replied to him, “O man, ten in Hebrew, where he says “I will
you should keep the law and the proph­ choose for myself those who are good—
ets.” He responded, “I have already done those given to me by my Father in
that.” Jesus said to him, “Go, sell all that heaven.” (Eusebius, Theophania 4, 12)
you have and distribute the proceeds to
the poor; then come, follow me.”
But the rich man began to scratch his
4 In the Gospel that is called “ac­
cording to the Hebrews,” for the
words, “bread to sustain our lives” I
head, for he was not pleased. And the found the word “mahar,” which means
Lord said to him, “How can you say, ‘I “[bread] for tomorrow.” (Jerome, Com-
have kept the law and the prophets?’ For mentary on Matthew, 6, 11)
it is written in the law, ‘You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.’ But look,
many of your brothers, sons of Abraham,
are clothed in excrement and dying of
5 In the Gospel that the Nazareans
and Ebionites use, which I recently
translated from Hebrew into Greek, and
hunger while your house is filled with which most people consider the authentic
many good things, not one of which goes version of Matthew, the man with a with­
forth to these others.” He turned and said ered hand is described as a mason, who
to his disciple Simon, sitting beside him, sought for help in words like these: “I
“Simon, son of Jonah, it is easier for a was a mason who made a living with my
camel to pass through the eye of a needle hands; I beseech you, Jesus, restore my
than for a rich person to enter the king­ health so I do not have to beg for food
dom of heaven.” (Origen, Commentary shamefully.” (Jerome, Commentary on
on Matthew, 15, 14) Matthew, 12, 13)

6 In the Gospel the Nazareans use,

we find “son of Johoiada” instead
2 [Cf. Matt. 25:14–30] For the Gos­
pel that has come down to us in
Hebrew letters makes the threat not
of “son of Barachia.” (Jerome, Commen-
tary on Matthew 23, 35)
against the one who hid the (master’s)
money but against the one who engaged
in riotous living. For [the master] had
7 The name of that one (i.e., Barab­
bas) is interpreted to mean “son of
their master” in the Gospel written ac­
three slaves, one who used up his fortune cording to the Hebrews. (Jerome, Com-
with whores and flute-players, one who mentary on Matthew 27, 16)
invested the money and increased its
value, and one who hid it. The first was
welcomed with open arms, the second
was blamed, and only the third was
8 In the Gospel we have often re­
ferred to, we read that “the enor­
mous lintel of the temple was broken and
THE GOSPEL OF THE NAZAREANS 11

split apart.” (Jerome, Commentary on • On Matthew 7:5. In this place the

Matthew 27, 51) Jewish Gospel reads: “Even if you
are resting on my breast but do not

9 In the Gospel according to the He­

brews, which was actually written
in the Chaldean or Syriac language but
do the will of my Father in heaven,
I will cast you away from my
breast.” (MS 1424)
with Hebrew letters, which the Nazareans • On Matthew 10:16. The Jewish
still use today and which is the Gospel Gospel says, “more than serpents.”
according to the Apostles, or, as most (MS 1424)
believe, according to Matthew—a Gospel • On Matthew 11:12. The Jewish
that can also be found in the library of Gospel reads, “plunders.” (MS
Caesarea—the following story is found: 1424)
“Behold, the mother of the Lord and his • On Matthew 11:25. The Jewish
brothers were saying to him, ‘John the Gospel says, “I give you thanks.”
Baptist is baptizing for the remission of (MS 1424)
sins. Let us go and be baptized by him.’ • On Matthew 12:40. The Jewish
But he replied to them, ‘What sin have I Gospel does not read, “Three days
committed that I should go to be baptized and three nights.” (MS 899)
by him? Unless possibly what I just said • On Matthew 15:5. The Jewish
was spoken in ignorance.’ ” (Jerome, Gospel says, “That which you
Against the Pelagians, 3, 2) would have had as a benefit from
us is now an offering [to the Tem­

10 And in the same volume the

following is found: “[Jesus]
said, ‘If your brother sins by speaking a
ple?].” (MS 1424)
• On Matthew 16:2–3. The passages
marked with an asterisk are not set
word against you, but then makes it up forth in other copies, nor in the
to you, you should accept him seven Jewish Gospel. (MS 1424)
times a day.’ His disciple Simon said to • On Matthew 16:17. The Jewish
him, ‘Seven times in a day?’ The Lord Gospel says, “son of John.” (MS
responded, ‘Yes indeed, I tell you—even 566)
up to seventy times seven! For even • On Matthew 18:22. After the
among the prophets, after they were words “seventy times seven” the
anointed by the Holy Spirit, a word of Jewish Gospel reads: “For even
sin was found.’ ” (Jerome, Against the among the prophets, after they
Pelagians, 3, 2) were anointed by the Holy Spirit,
a word of sin was found.” (MSS
566, 899)
Variant Readings Noted in New • On Matthew 26:74. The Jewish
Testament Manuscripts Gospel says, “And he made a de­
nial, and swore, and cursed.”
• On Matthew 4:5. The Jewish
11 Gospel does not have, “into
the holy city,” but “in Jeru­
(MSS 4, 273, 899, 1414)
• On Matthew 27:65. The Jewish
Gospel says, “And he gave them
salem.” (MS 566) armed men to sit opposite the cave,
• On Matthew 5:22. The words to keep watch over it day and
“without cause” are not present in night.” (MS 1424)
some copies, nor in the Jewish
Gospel. (MS 1424)
The Gospel of
the Ebionites

The Ebionites were a group of Jewish Christians located in different regions

of the Mediterranean from at least the second to the fourth centuries.1 What
distinguished this group of Christians from many others was their attempt
to combine Jewish views and lifestyles with the belief that Jesus was the
messiah. In particular, they were said to have emphasized belief in only one
God to such an extent that they denied, as a consequence, Jesus’ own
divinity. At the same time, the Ebionites differed from non-Christian Jews
in asserting that Jesus was the sacrifice for the sins of the world and that all
other sacrifices had therefore become meaningless. Among other things,
this belief led them to embrace a vegetarian diet, since most meat was
procured, in the ancient world, through the religious act of sacrificing an
animal.
One of the sacred books these Jewish Christians appealed to in support
of their views was known in antiquity as the Gospel of the Ebionites.
Regrettably, the book as whole has been lost; but we are fortunate to have
some quotations of it in the writings of an opponent of the Ebionites, the
fourth-century heresy-hunter, Epiphanius of Salamis. These quotations give
us a good idea of what the entire Gospel must have looked like. It was
written in Greek, and represented a kind of harmony of the Gospels of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This can be seen most clearly in the account of
the voice at Jesus’ baptism. In the three canonical accounts, the voice says
slightly different things. These differences are harmonized, however, in the
Gospel according to the Ebionites, where the voice comes from heaven
three times, saying something slightly different on each occasion, corre­
sponding to the words found in each of the three earlier Gospels.
Some of the Ebionites’ distinctive concerns are embodied in their

1
See Ehrman, Lost Christianities, chap. 6.

Translation by Bart D. Ehrman based on the Greek text found in Egbert Schlarb and
Dieter Lührmann, Fragmente apocryph gewordener Evangelien in griechischer und
lateinischer Sprache (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 2000) 35–39.

12
THE GOSPEL OF THE EBIONITES 13

Gospel. This is shown, for example, in the reference to the diet of John the
Baptist, in which the canonical statement that he ate locusts (i.e., meat) and
wild honey was modified by the change of simply one letter, so that now
the Baptist, in anticipation of the Ebionites themselves, maintains a vege­
tarian cuisine: here he is said to have eaten pancakes and wild honey.
It is difficult to assign a date to this Gospel, but since it betrays a
knowledge of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and presupposes a thriving com­
munity of Jewish Christians, it is perhaps best to locate it sometime early
in the second century. The following extracts are all that remain of the
Gospel, drawn from Epiphanius’s work, the Panarion (�The Medicine
Chest), Book 30.

1 The beginning of the Gospel they

use reads as follows: “And so in
the days of Herod, King of Judea, John
John. When he came up out of the water,
the heavens opened and he saw the Holy
Spirit in the form of a dove, descending
came baptizing a baptism of repentance and entering him. And a voice came from
in the Jordan River. He was said to have heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son, in you
come from the tribe of Aaron, the priest, I am well pleased.’ Then it said, ‘Today
and was the child of Zacharias and Eliz­ I have given you birth.’ Immediately a
abeth. And everyone went out to him.” great light enlightened the place. When
(Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, 13, 6) John saw this,” it says, “he said to him,
‘Who are you Lord?’ Yet again a voice

2 For by chopping off the genealo­

gies of Matthew they make their
Gospel begin as we indicated before, with
came from heaven to him, ‘This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased.’ And then,” it says, “John fell
the words: “And so in the days of Herod, before him and said, ‘I beg you, Lord—
King of Judea, when Caiaphas was high you baptize me!’ But Jesus restrained him
priest, a certain one named John came by saying, ‘Let it be, for it is fitting that
baptizing a baptism of repentance in the all things be fulfilled in this way.’ ” (Epi­
Jordan River.” (Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, phanius, Panarion, 30, 13, 3–4)
14, 3)

3 And so John was baptizing, and

Pharisees came to him and were
5 In the Gospel that they call “ac­
cording to Matthew”—which is
not at all complete, but is falsified and
baptized, as was all of Jerusalem. John mutilated—which they refer to as the He­
wore a garment of camel hair and a brew Gospel, the following is found:
leather belt around his waist; and his food “And so there was a certain man named
was wild honey that tasted like manna, Jesus, who was about thirty years old. He
like a cake cooked in oil. (Epiphanius, is the one who chose us. When he came
Panarion, 30, 13, 4–5) to Capernaum he entered the house of
Simon, also called Peter, and he opened

4 And after a good deal more, it says:

“When the people were baptized,
Jesus also came and was baptized by
his mouth to say, ‘As I was passing by
the lake of Tiberias I chose John and
James, the sons of Zebedee, and Simon,
14 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

Andrew, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, was created as one of the archangels, yet
and Judas Iscariot; and I called you, Mat­ was made greater than they, since he rules
thew, while you were sitting at the tax over the angels and all things made by
collector’s booth, and you followed me. the Almighty. And, as found in their Gos­
I want you, therefore, to be the twelve pel, they say that when he came he
apostles as a witness to Israel.” (Epiphan­ taught, “I have come to destroy the sac­
ius, Panarion, 30, 13, 2–3) rifices. And if you do not stop making
sacrifice, God’s wrath will not stop af­

6 Again they deny that he was a man,

even basing their view on the word
the Savior spoke when it was reported to
flicting you.” (Epiphanius, Panarion, 30,
16, 4–5)

him, “See, your mother and brothers are

standing outside.” “Who,” he asked, “is
my mother and brothers?” Stretching out
8 They have changed the saying and
abandoned its true sequence, as is
clear to everyone who considers the com­
his hand to his disciples he said, “These bination of the words. For they have the
are my brothers and mother and sisters— disciples say, “Where do you want us to
those who do the will of my Father.” make preparations for you to eat the Pass­
(Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, 14, 5) over lamb?” And they indicate that he
responded, “I have no desire to eat the

7 They do not allege that he was born

from God the Father, but that he
meat of this Passover lamb with you.”
(Epiphanius, Panarion, 30, 22, 4)
The Gospel According
to the Hebrews

The Gospel according to the Hebrews is quoted by a number of church

fathers connected with the city of Alexandria, Egypt—Clement, Origen,
Didymus the Blind, and Jerome (who studied with Didymus in Alexandria);
for this reason, scholars assume that it was used, and possibly written, there,
probably during the first half of the second century. Regrettably, the book
no longer survives intact, but only in the scattered references to it in these
other authors’ writings. Its name probably derives from the circumstance
that it was used principally by Jewish-Christians in that large and thriving
metropolis—i.e., it was called this by outsiders of that community, not by
those who actually used it.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews was written in Greek and narrated
important events of Jesus’ life, including his baptism, temptation, and res­
urrection. It appears, however, that these stories were not simply taken over
and modified from the Gospels that came to be included in the New
Testament. They were instead alternative forms of these traditions that had
been passed along orally until the unknown author of this Gospel heard
them and wrote them down.
The Jewish emphases of the Gospel are evident in a several of the
surviving quotations, such as fragment 5, which presupposes the importance
of James, the brother of Jesus, the head of the Jewish-Christian community
in Jerusalem after Jesus’ death. Yet some of the sayings of the Gospel have
a Gnostic tone to them (see fragment 1, which is quite similar to Coptic
Gospel of Thomas 2).1 It may be, then, that this particular Jewish-Christian
community was more sympathetic than others to the prominent Gnostic
teachers in Alexandria in the second century. In any event, the Gospel
evidently contained a number of Jesus’ ethical teachings (fragments 4 and
7). And some of its accounts were highly legendary—including the post­

1
On Gnosticism, see Ehrman, Lost Christianities, 113–34.

Translation by Bart D. Ehrman, based on the Greek, Latin, and Syriac texts in A. F. J.
Klijin, Jewish-Christian Gospel Tradition (VC Supp 17; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992) 47–115.

15
16 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

resurrection appearance of Jesus to James, who had sworn at the Last Supper
(in a story found in this Gospel, but not cited by any other authority) not to
eat until he should see Jesus raised from the dead (fragment 5).
The following are the quotations of the Gospel that survive in our
ancient sources.

1 As it is also written in the Gospel

according to the Hebrews, “The
one who is amazed will rule, and the one
James. For James had taken a vow not to
eat bread from the time he drank the cup
of the Lord until he should see him raised
who rules will find rest.” (Clement of from among those who sleep.” And soon
Alexandria, Miscellanies, 2, 9, 45) after this it says, “The Lord said, ‘Bring
a table and bread.’ ” And immediately it

2 If anyone accepts the Gospel ac­

cording to the Hebrews, there the
Savior himself says, “Just now my
continues, “He took the bread and
blessed it, broke it, gave it to James the
Just, and said to him, ‘My brother, eat
mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one your bread. For the Son of Man is risen
of my hairs and carried me up to the from among those who sleep.’ ” (Jerome,
great mountain, Tabor.” (Origen, Com- Illustrious Men, 2)
mentary on John, 2, 12)

3 It may appear that Matthew is

named Levi in the Gospel of Luke.
6 It is stated in the Gospel written in
Hebrew, which the Nazareans read:
“The entire fountain of the Holy Spirit
But in fact that is not so; it is Matthias, will descend on him. For the Lord is the
the one who replaced Judas, who is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
same as Levi, known by two names. This is, there is liberty.” Later in that Gospel
is found in the Gospel according the He­ that we have mentioned we find the fol­
brews. (Didymus the Blind, Commentary lowing written: “It came to pass that
on the Psalms, 184, 9–10) when the Lord came up from the water,
the entire fountain of the Holy Spirit de­

4 As we read in the Hebrew Gospel,

the Lord said to his disciples: “You
should never rejoice except when you
scended and rested on him; and it said to
him, ‘My Son, in all the prophets I have
been expecting you to come, that I might
look upon your brother in love.” (Jerome, rest on you. For you are my rest, you are
Commentary on Ephesians, 5:4) my firstborn Son, who rules forever.’ ”
(Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 11:1–3)

5 The Gospel that is called “accord­

ing to the Hebrews,” which I have
recently translated into both Greek and 7 And in the Gospel according to the
Hebrews, which the Nazareans are
Latin, a Gospel that Origen frequently accustomed to read, the following is de­
used, records the following after the Sav- scribed as among the worst offenses: that
ior’s resurrection: “But when the Lord someone should make the spirit of his
had given the linen cloth to the servant brother sad. (Jerome, Commentary on
of the priest, he went and appeared to Ezekiel, 18:7)
The Gospel of
the Egyptians

The Gospel of the Egyptians is another Gospel that has been lost since the
early centuries of Christianity. The only access we have to it is in the
quotations of an early church father, the late second-century Clement of
Alexandria, who at one point identifies one of his non-canonical quotations
of the words of Jesus as having come from this book (fragment 5). Most of
Clement’s quotations of the Gospel involve conversations between Jesus and
a woman named Salome, mentioned in the New Testament as one of the
women who discovered Jesus’ empty tomb (Mark 15:40; 16:1).
Eventually Salome became a prominent figure in some circles of Chris­
tianity, including those that produced this Gospel according to the Egyptians,
where her questions and comments lead to important sayings of Jesus. These
sayings embody ascetic concerns, in which the desires of the flesh and
sexual activity are condemned as being opposed to the will of God. In
particular, the Gospel appears originally to have condemned the practices
of marriage and procreation. In a number of instances Clement himself
interprets these sayings; it is sometimes difficult to know, however, whether
Clement’s interpretations represent the views of the Gospel’s anonymous
author, or are instead Clement’s own attempts to make sense of the Gospel
in light of his own views.
At least one of the sayings stresses a Gnostic notion that the revelation
of God will be complete when people trample on the “shameful garment”
(� the human body?) and all things are restored to their ultimate unity—
including male and female, which will no longer be differentiated but made
one (fragment 5). Similar notions can be found in the Coptic Gospel of
Thomas, also used in Egypt (see Gospel of Thomas 22, 37, 114).
Some scholars maintain that the Gospel was named “according to the
Egyptians” to differentiate it from another Gospel used in Egypt, the Gospel
“according to the Hebrews”—the latter in use among Jewish-Christians and
the former, therefore, among Gentile Christians. Others find it more likely

Translation by Bart D. Ehrman based on the Greek text found in Egbert Schlarb and
Dieter Lührmann, Fragmente apocryph gewordener Evangelien in griechischer und
lateinischer Sprache (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 2000) 29–31.

17
18 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

that the book was first given its name by those living outside of Egypt, to
identify it as a book in common use there.
Since the Gospel is well-known to Clement and, evidently, his com­
munity, it may have been composed already by the first part of the second
century.

1 When Salome asked, “How long

will death prevail?” the Lord re­
plied, “For as long as you women bear
desires continue to be active. (Clement of
Alexandria, Miscellanies, 3, 64, 1)

children.” But he did not say this because

life is evil or creation wicked; instead he
was teaching the natural succession of
4 Why do those who adhere to every­
thing except the gospel rule of truth
not cite the following words spoken to
things; for everything degenerates after Salome? For when she said, “Then I have
coming into being. (Clement of Alexan­ done well not to bear children” (suppos­
dria, Miscellanies, 3, 45, 3) ing that it was not suitable to give birth),
the Lord responded, “Eat every herb, but

2 Those who oppose God’s creation

because of self-control—which at
least sounds good—quote the words spo­
not the one that is bitter.” (Clement of
Alexandria, Miscellanies, 3, 66, 1–2)

ken to Salome, the first of which we have

already mentioned, found, I think, in the
Gospel according to the Egyptians. For
5 This is why Cassian indicates that
when Salome asked when the
things she had asked about would be­
they claim that the Savior himself said, come known, the Lord replied: “When
“I have come to destroy the works of the you trample on the shameful garment and
female.” By “the female” he meant desire when the two become one and the male
and by “works” he meant birth and de­ with the female is neither male nor fe­
generation. (Clement of Alexandria, Mis- male.” The first thing to note, then, is that
cellanies, 3, 63, 1) we do not find this saying in the four
Gospels handed down to us, but in the
Gospel according to the Egyptians.
3 When the Word made a reasonable
disclosure concerning the consum­
mation of all things, Salome asked, “How
(Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 3,
92, 2–93, 1)
long will people continue to die?” Now
Scripture refers to people in two ways,
as having a visible part and the soul, that
is, the part that is saved and the part that
6 And when the Savior said to Sa­
lome, “Death will last as long as
women give birth,” he was not denigrat­
is not. And sin is called the death of the ing birth—since it is, after all, necessary
soul. For this reason, the Lord replied for the salvation of those who believe.
shrewdly, “For as long as women bear (Clement of Alexandria, Excerpts from
children”—that is to say, for as long as Theodotus 67, 2)
The Coptic Gospel
of Thomas

The Coptic Gospel of Thomas was one of the most sensational archaeolog­
ical discoveries of the twentieth century.1 The document was unknown
except by name before 1945, when peasants digging for fertilizer near the
village of Nag Hammadi, Egypt accidentally uncovered a jar containing
thirteen leather-bound manuscripts buried sometime in the late fourth cen­
tury. When the manuscripts came to the attention of scholars of antiquity,
their significance was almost immediately recognized: they contained fifty-
two tractates, principally of “heretical” writings of Gnostic Christians.2
Although originally composed in Greek, the writings were in Coptic (ancient
Egyptian) translation. Many of them had been previously known by title
only. Today these writings are known as the “Nag Hammadi Library.”3
None of the fifty-two tractates has attracted more attention than the
Gospel of Thomas. For this is a collection of Jesus’ sayings that claims to
have been written by Didymus Judas Thomas. According to some early
Christian legends, Thomas was Jesus’ twin brother.
The book records 114 “secret teachings” of Jesus. It includes no other
material: no miracles, no passion narrative, no stories of any kind. What
ultimately mattered for the author of Thomas was not Jesus’ death and
resurrection, which he does not narrate or discuss, but the mysterious
teachings that he delivered. Indeed, the Gospel begins by stating that anyone
who learns the interpretation of these words will have eternal life (say­
ing 1).
Many of the sayings will sound familiar to readers already conversant
with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. For example, here one finds,
in slightly different wording, the warning against the “blind leading the

1
For a full discussion, see Ehrman, Lost Christianities, 44–66. 2On what such “Gnostics” believed,
see Ehrman, Lost Christianities, 122–25. 3Full translations of all the writings, with incisive intro­
ductions, can be found in James Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 4th rev. ed.
(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996).

Translation by Thomas O. Lambdin in James Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library in

English, 3rd ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1988) 126–38; used with permission.

19
20 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

blind” and the parables of the sower and of the mustard seed (sayings 9,
20, 34). Other sayings, however, are quite different and appear to presuppose
a Gnostic point of view, in which people are understood to be spirits who
have fallen from the divine realm and become entrapped in matter (i.e., in
the prisons of their material bodies). Salvation, according to this perspective,
comes to those who learn the truth of their plight and so are enabled to
escape this impoverished material existence by acquiring the knowledge
necessary for salvation (e.g., sayings 11, 22, 29, 37, and 80). Jesus is the
one who conveys this knowledge.
Some scholars have maintained that the sayings of Thomas may be
closer to what Jesus actually taught than what we find in the New Testament;
others, however, have pointed out that the theology implicit in the more
Gnostic teachings cannot be dated with confidence prior to the beginning
of the second century. Thus, while some of these sayings may be quite old—
may, in fact, go back to Jesus himself—the document as a whole probably
came to be written sometime after the New Testament Gospels (although
perhaps independently of them), possibly in the early second century.

These are the secret sayings which the days old about the place of life, and he
living Jesus spoke and which Didymos will live. For many who are first will
Judas Thomas wrote down. become last, and they will become one
1 And he said, “Whoever finds the in- and the same.”
terpretation of these sayings will not ex- 5 Jesus said, “Recognize what is in
perience death.” your (sg.) sight, and that which is hidden
2 Jesus said, “Let him who seeks con- from you (sg.) will become plain to you
tinue seeking until he finds. When he (sg.). For there is nothing hidden which
finds, he will become troubled. When he will not become manifest.”
becomes troubled, he will be astonished, 6 His disciples questioned him and
and he will rule over the all.” said to him, “Do you want us to fast?
3 Jesus said, “If those who lead you How shall we pray? Shall we give alms?
say to you, ‘See, the kingdom is in the What diet shall we observe?”
sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede Jesus said, “Do not tell lies, and do not
you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ do what you hate, for all things are plain
then the fish will precede you. Rather, the in the sight of heaven. For nothing hidden
kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside will not become manifest, and nothing
of you. When you come to know your- covered will remain without being
selves, then you will become known, and uncovered.”
you will realize that it is you who are the 7 Jesus said, “Blessed is the lion which
sons of the living father. But if you will becomes man when consumed by man;
not know yourselves you dwell in poverty and cursed is the man whom the lion
and it is you who are that poverty.” consumes, and the lion becomes man.”
4 Jesus said, “The man old in days will 8 And he said, “The man is like a wise
not hesitate to ask a small child seven fisherman who cast his net into the sea
THE COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS 21

and drew it up from the sea full of small Jesus said, “I am not your (sg.) master.
fish. Among them the wise fisherman Because you (sg.) have drunk, you (sg.)
found a fine large fish. He threw all the have become intoxicated from the bub­
small fish back into the sea and chose the bling spring which I have measured out.”
large fish without difficulty. Whoever has And he took him and withdrew and
ears to hear, let him hear.” told him three things. When Thomas re­
9 Jesus said, “Now the sower went out, turned to his companions, they asked
took a handful (of seeds), and scattered him, “What did Jesus say to you?”
them. Some fell on the road; the birds Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one
came and gathered them up. Others fell of the things which he told me, you will
on rock, did not take root in the soil, and pick up stones and throw them at me; a
did not produce ears. And others fell on fire will come out of the stones and burn
thorns; they choked the seed(s) and you up.”
worms ate them. And others fell on the 14 Jesus said to them, “If you fast, you
good soil and it produced good fruit: it will give rise to sin for yourselves; and
bore sixty per measure and a hundred if you pray, you will be condemned; and
and twenty per measure.” if you give alms, you will do harm to
10 Jesus said, “I have cast fire upon the your spirits. When you go into any land
world, and see, I am guarding it until it and walk about in the districts, if they
blazes.” receive you, eat what they will set before
11 Jesus said, “This heaven will pass you, and heal the sick among them. For
away, and the one above it will pass away. what goes into your mouth will not defile
The dead are not alive, and the living will you, but that which issues from your
not die. In the days when you consumed mouth—it is that which will defile you.”
what is dead, you made it what is alive. 15 Jesus said, “When you see one who
When you come to dwell in the light, was not born of woman, prostrate your­
what will you do? On the day when you selves on your faces and worship him.
were one you became two. But when you That one is your father.”
become two, what will you do?” 16 Jesus said, “Men think, perhaps,
12 The disciples said to Jesus, “We that it is peace which I have come to cast
know that you will depart from us. Who upon the world. They do not know that
is to be our leader?” it is dissension which I have come to cast
Jesus said to them “Wherever you are, upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For
you are to go to James the righteous, for there will be five in a house: three will
whose sake heaven and earth came into be against two, and two against three, the
being.” father against the son, and the son against
13 Jesus said to his disciples, “Com­ the father. And they will stand solitary.”
pare me to someone and tell me whom I 17 Jesus said, “I shall give you what
am like.” no eye has seen and what no ear has heard
Simon Peter said to him, “You are like and what no hand has touched and what
a righteous angel.” has never occurred to the human mind.”
Matthew said to him, “You are like a 18 The disciples said to Jesus. “Tell us
wise philosopher.” how our end will be.” Jesus said, “Have
Thomas said to him, “Master, my you discovered, then, the beginning, that
mouth is wholly incapable of saying you look for the end? For where the be­
whom you are like.” ginning is, there will the end be. Blessed
22 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

is he who will take his place in the be­ Jesus said to them, “When you make
ginning; he will know the end and will the two one, and when you make the
not experience death.” inside like the outside and the outside
19 Jesus said, “Blessed is he who came like the inside, and the above like the
into being before he came into being. If below, and when you make the male and
you become my disciples and listen to the female one and the same, so that the
my words, these stones will minister to male not be male nor the female female;
you. For there are five trees for you in and when you fashion eyes in place of
Paradise which remain undisturbed sum­ an eye, and a hand in place of a hand,
mer and winter and whose leaves do not and a foot in place of a foot, and a like­
fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with ness in place of a likeness; then will you
them will not experience death.” enter [the kingdom].”
20 The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us 23 Jesus said, “I shall choose you, one
what the kingdom of heaven is like.” out of a thousand, and two out of ten
He said to them, “It is like a mustard thousand, and they shall stand as a single
seed. It is the smallest of all seeds. But one.”
when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a 24 His disciples said to him, “Show us
great plant and becomes a shelter for the place where you are, since it is nec­
birds of the sky.” essary for us to seek it.”
21 Mary said to Jesus, “Whom are He said to them, “Whoever has ears,
your disciples like?” He said, “They are let him hear. There is light within a man
like children who have settled in a field of light, and he lights up the whole world.
which is not theirs. When the owners of If he does not shine, he is darkness.”
the field come, they will say, ‘Let us have 25 Jesus said, “Love your (sg.) brother
back our field.’ They (will) undress in like your soul, guard him like the pupil
their presence in order to let them have of your eye.”
back their field and to give it back to 26 Jesus said, “You (sg.) see the mote
them. Therefore I say, if the owner of a in your brother’s eye, but you do not see
house knows that the thief is coming, he the beam in your own eye. When you
will begin his vigil before he comes and cast the beam out of your own eye, then
will not let him dig through into his house you will see clearly to cast the mote from
of his domain to carry away his goods. your brother’s eye.”
You (pl.), then, be on your guard against 27 �Jesus said,� “If you do not fast
the world. Arm yourselves with great as regards the world, you will not find
strength lest the robbers find a way to the kingdom. If you do not observe the
come to you, for the difficulty which you Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see
expect will (surely) materialize. Let there the father.”
be among you a man of understanding. 28 Jesus said, “I took my place in the
When the grain ripened, he came quickly midst of the world, and I appeared to
with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. them in flesh. I found all of them intoxi­
Whoever has ears to hear let him hear.” cated; I found none of them thirsty. And
22 Jesus saw infants being suckled. He my soul became afflicted for the sons of
said to his disciples, “These infants being men, because they are blind in their
suckled are like those who enter the hearts and do not have sight; for empty
kingdom.” they came into the world, and empty too
They said to him, “Shall we then, as they seek to leave the world. But for the
children, enter the kingdom?” moment they are intoxicated. When they
THE COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS 23

shake off their wine, then they will saying to you, and you have no one else
repent.” to hear them from. There will be days
29 Jesus said, “If the flesh came into when you will look for me and will not
being because of spirit, it is a wonder. find me.”
But if spirit came into being because of 39 Jesus said, “The pharisees and the
the body, it is a wonder of wonders. In­ scribes have taken the keys of knowledge
deed, I am amazed at how this great (gnosis) and hidden them. They them­
wealth has made its home in this selves have not entered, nor have they
poverty.” allowed to enter those who wish to. You,
30 Jesus said, “Where there are three however, be as wise as serpents and as
gods, they are gods. Where there are two innocent as doves.”
or one, I am with him.” 40 Jesus said, “A grapevine has been
31 Jesus said, “No prophet is accepted planted outside of the father, but being
in his own village; no physician heals unsound, it will be pulled up by its roots
those who know him.” and destroyed.”
32 Jesus said, “A city being built on a 41 Jesus said, “Whoever has some­
high mountain and fortified cannot fall, thing in his hand will receive more, and
nor can it be hidden.” whoever has nothing will be deprived of
33 Jesus said, “Preach from your (pl.) even the little he has.”
housetops that which you (sg.) will hear 42 Jesus said, “Become passers-by.”
in your (sg.) ear. For no one lights a lamp 43 His disciples said to him, “Who are
and puts it under a bushel, nor does he you, that you should say these things to
put it in a hidden place, but rather he sets us?”
it on a lampstand so that everyone who �Jesus said to them,� “You do not
enters and leaves will see its light.” realize who I am from what I say to you,
34 Jesus said, “If a blind man leads a but you have become like the Jews, for
blind man, they will both fall into a pit.” they (either) love the tree and hate its
35 Jesus said, “It is not possible for fruit (or) love the fruit and hate the tree.”
anyone to enter the house of a strong man 44 Jesus said, “Whoever blasphemes
and take it by force unless he binds his against the father will be forgiven, and
hands; then he will (be able to) ransack whoever blasphemes against the son will
his house.” be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes
36 Jesus said, “Do not be concerned against the holy spirit will not be forgiven
from morning until evening and from either on earth or in heaven.”
evening until morning about what you 45 Jesus said, “Grapes are not har­
will wear.” vested from thorns, nor are figs gathered
37 His disciples said, “When will you from thistles, for they do not produce
become revealed to us and when shall we fruit. A good man brings forth good from
see you?” his storehouse; an evil man brings forth
Jesus said, “When you disrobe without evil things from his evil storehouse,
being ashamed and take up your gar­ which is in his heart, and says evil things.
ments and place them under your feet For out of the abundance of the heart he
like little children and tread on them, then brings forth evil things.”
[will you see] the son of the living one, 46 Jesus said, “Among those born of
and you will not be afraid.” women, from Adam until John the Bap­
38 Jesus said, “Many times have you tist, there is no one so superior to John
desired to hear these words which I am the Baptist that his eyes should not be
24 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

lowered (before him). Yet I have said, 53 His disciples said to him, “Is cir­
whichever one of you comes to be a child cumcision beneficial or not?” He said to
will be acquainted with the kingdom and them, “If it were beneficial, their father
will become superior to John.” would beget them already circumcised
47 Jesus said, “It is impossible for a from their mother. Rather, the true cir­
man to mount two horses or to stretch cumcision in spirit has become com­
two bows. And it is impossible for a pletely profitable.”
servant to serve two masters; otherwise, 54 Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor,
he will honor the one and treat the other for yours is the kingdom of heaven.”
contemptuously. No man drinks old wine 55 Jesus said, “Whoever does not hate
and immediately desires to drink new his father and his mother cannot become
wine. And new wine is not put into old a disciple to me. And whoever does not
wineskins, lest they burst; nor is old wine hate his brothers and sisters and take up
put into a new wineskin, lest it spoil it. his cross in my way will not be worthy
An old patch is not sewn into a new of me.”
garment, because a tear would result.” 56 Jesus said, “Whoever has come to
48 Jesus said, “If two make peace with understand the world has found (only) a
each other in this one house, they will corpse, and whoever has found a corpse
say to the mountain, ‘Move away,’ and it is superior to the world.”
will move away.” 57 Jesus said, “The kingdom of the fa­
49 Jesus said, “Blessed are the solitary ther is like a man who had [good] seed.
and elect, for you will find the kingdom. His enemy came by night and sowed
For you are from it, and to it you will weeds among the good seed. The man
return.” did not allow them to pull up the weeds;
50 Jesus said, “If they say to you, he said to them, ‘I am afraid that you will
‘Where did you come from?’, say to go intending to pull up the weeds and
them, ‘We came from the light, the place pull up the wheat along with them.’ For
where the light came into being on its on the day of the harvest the weeds will
own accord and established [itself] and be plainly visible, and they will be pulled
became manifest through their image.’ If up and burned.”
they say to you, ‘Is it you?’ say, ‘We are 58 Jesus said, “Blessed is the man who
its children, and we are the elect of the has suffered and found life.”
living father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is 59 Jesus said, “Take heed of the living
the sign of your father in you?’, say to one while you are alive, lest you die and
them, ‘It is movement and repose.’ ” seek to see him and be unable to do so.”
51 His disciples said to him, “When 60 �They saw� a Samaritan carrying
will the repose of the dead come about, a lamb on his way to Judea. He said to
and when will the new world come?” his disciples, “That man is round about
He said to them, “What you look for­ the lamb.”
ward to has already come, but you do not They said to him, “So that he may kill
recognize it.” it and eat it.”
52 His disciples said to him, “Twenty­ He said to them, “While it is alive, he
four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of will not eat it, but only when he has killed
them spoke in you.” it and it has become a corpse.”
He said to them, “You have omitted They said to him, “He cannot do so
the one living in your presence and have otherwise.”
spoken (only) of the dead.” He said to them, “You too, look for a
THE COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS 25

place for yourselves within repose, lest him, ‘My master invites you.’ He said to
you become a corpse and be eaten.” him, ‘I have just bought a farm, and I am
61 Jesus said, “Two will rest on a bed: on my way to collect the rent. I shall not
the one will die, and the other will live.” be able to come. I ask to be excused.’
Salome said, “Who are you, man, that The servant returned and said to his mas­
you . . . have come up on my couch and ter, ‘Those whom you invited to the din­
eaten from my table?” ner have asked to be excused.’ The master
Jesus said to her, “I am he who exists said to his servant, ‘Go outside to the
from the undivided. I was given some of streets and bring back those whom you
the things of my father.” happen to meet, so that they may dine.’
� . . . � “I am your disciple.” Businessmen and merchants [will] not
� . . . � “Therefore I say, if he is de­ enter the places of my father.”
stroyed he will be filled with light, but if 65 He said, “There was a good man
he is divided, he will be filled with who owned a vineyard. He leased it to
darkness.” tenant farmers so that they might work it
62 Jesus said, “It is to those [who are and he might collect the produce from
worthy of my] mysteries that I tell my them. He sent his servant so that the
mysteries. Do not let your (sg.) left hand tenants might give him the produce of the
know what your (sg.) right hand is vineyard. They seized his servant and
doing.” beat him, all but killing him. The servant
63 Jesus said, “There was a rich man went back and told his master. The master
who had much money. He said, ‘I shall said, ‘Perhaps he did not recognize them.’
put my money to use so that I may sow, He sent another servant. The tenants beat
reap, plant, and fill my storehouse with this one as well. Then the owner sent his
produce, with the result that I shall lack son and said, ‘Perhaps they will show
nothing.’ Such were his intentions, but respect to my son.’ Because the tenants
that same night he died. Let him who has knew that it was he who was the heir to
ears hear.” the vineyard, they seized him and killed
64 Jesus said, “A man had received vis­ him. Let him who has ears hear.”
itors. And when he had prepared the din­ 66 Jesus said, “Show me the stone
ner, he sent his servant to invite the which the builders have rejected. That
guests. He went to the first one and said one is the cornerstone.”
to him, ‘My master invites you.’ He said, 67 Jesus said, “If one who knows the
‘I have claims against some merchants. all still feels a personal deficiency, he is
They are coming to me this evening. I completely deficient.”
must go and give them my orders. I ask 68 Jesus said, “Blessed are you when
to be excused from the dinner.’ He went you are hated and persecuted. Wherever
to another and said to him, ‘My master you have been persecuted they will find
has invited you.’ He said to him, ‘I have no place.”
just bought a house and am required for 69 Jesus said, “Blessed are they who
the day. I shall not have any spare time.’ have been persecuted within themselves.
He went to another and said to him, ‘My It is they who have truly come to know
master invites you.’ He said to him, ‘My the father. Blessed are the hungry, for the
friend is going to get married, and I am belly of him who desires will be filled.”
to prepare the banquet. I shall not be able 70 Jesus said, “That which you have
to come. I ask to be excused from the will save you if you bring it forth from
dinner.’ He went to another and said to yourselves. That which you do not have
26 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

within you [will] kill you if you do not you and the breasts which nourished
have it within you.” you.”
71 Jesus said, “I shall [destroy this] He said to [her], “Blessed are those
house, and no one will be able to build who have heard the word of the father
it [ . . . ]” and have truly kept it. For there will be
72 [A man said] to him, “Tell my days when you (pl.) will say, ‘Blessed
brothers to divide my father’s possessions are the womb which has not conceived
with me.” and the breasts which have not given
He said to him, “O man, who has made milk.’ ”
me a divider?” 80 Jesus said, “He who has recognized
He turned to his disciples and said to the world has found the body, but he who
them, “I am not a divider, am I?” has found the body is superior to the
73 Jesus said, “The harvest is great but world.”
the laborers are few. Beseech the lord, 81 Jesus said, “Let him who has grown
therefore, to send out laborers to the rich be king, and let him who possesses
harvest.” power renounce it.”
74 He said, “O lord, there are many 82 Jesus said, “He who is near me is
around the drinking trough, but there is near the fire, and he who is far from me
nothing in the cistern.” is far from the kingdom.”
75 Jesus said, “Many are standing at 83 Jesus said, “The images are mani­
the door, but it is the solitary who will fest to man, but the light in them remains
enter the bridal chamber.” concealed in the image of the light of the
76 Jesus said, “The kingdom of the fa­ father. He will become manifest, but his
ther is like a merchant who had a con­ image will remain concealed by his
signment of merchandise and who dis­ light.”
covered a pearl. That merchant was 84 Jesus said, “When you see your
shrewd. He sold the merchandise and likeness, you rejoice. But when you see
bought the pearl alone for himself. You your images which came into being be­
too, seek his unfailing and enduring trea­ fore you, and which neither die nor be­
sure where no moth comes near to devour come manifest, how much you will have
and no worm destroys.” to bear!”
77 Jesus said, “It is I who am the light 85 Jesus said, “Adam came into being
which is above them all. It is I who am from a great power and a great wealth,
the all. From me did the all come forth, but he did not become worthy of you.
and unto me did the all extend. Split a For had he been worthy, [he would] not
piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up [have experienced] death.”
the stone, and you will find me there.” 86 Jesus said, “[The foxes have their
78 Jesus said, “Why have you come holes] and the birds have their nests, but
out into the desert? To see a reed shaken the son of man has no place to lay his
by the wind? And to see a man clothed head and rest.”
in fine garments [like your] kings and 87 Jesus said, “Wretched is the body
your great men? Upon them are the fine that is dependent upon a body, and
garments, and they are unable to discern wretched is the soul that is dependent on
the truth.” these two.”
79 A woman from the crowd said to 88 Jesus said, “The angels and the
him, “Blessed are the womb which bore prophets will come to you and give to
THE COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS 27

you those things you (already) have. reached her house, she set the jar down
And you too, give them those things and found it empty.”
which you have, and say to yourselves, 98 Jesus said, “The kingdom of the fa­
‘When will they come and take what is ther is like a certain man who wanted to
theirs?’ ” kill a powerful man. In his own house he
89 Jesus said, “Why do you wash the drew his sword and stuck it into the wall
outside of the cup? Do you not realize in order to find out whether his hand
that he who made the inside is the same could carry through. Then he slew the
one who made the outside?” powerful man.”
90 Jesus said, “Come unto me, for my 99 The disciples said to him, “Your
yoke is easy and my lordship is mild, and brothers and your mother are standing
you will find repose for yourselves.” outside.”
91 They said to him, “Tell us who you He said to them, “Those here who do
are so that we may believe in you.” the will of my father are my brothers and
He said to them, “You read the face of my mother. It is they who will enter the
the sky and of the earth, but you have not kingdom of my father.”
recognized the one who is before you, 100 They showed Jesus a gold coin and
and you do not know how to read this said to him, “Caesar’s men demand taxes
moment.” from us.”
92 Jesus said, “Seek and you will find. He said to them, “Give Caesar what
Yet, what you asked me about in former belongs to Caesar, give God what be­
times and which I did not tell you then, longs to God, and give me what is mine.”
now I do desire to tell, but you do not 101 �Jesus said,� “Whoever does not
inquire after it.” hate his [father] and his mother as I do
93 �Jesus said,� “Do not give what cannot become a [disciple] to me. And
is holy to dogs, lest they throw them on whoever does [not] love his [father and]
the dung heap. Do not throw the pearls his mother as I do cannot become a [dis­
[to] swine, lest they . . . it [ . . . ].” ciple to] me. For my mother [ . . . ], but
94 Jesus [said], “He who seeks will [my] true [mother] gave me life.”
find, and [he who knocks] will be let in.” 102 Jesus said, “Woe to the pharisees,
95 [Jesus said], “If you have money do for they are like a dog sleeping in the
not lend it at interest, but give [it] to one manger of oxen, for neither does he eat
from whom you will not get it back.” nor does he [let] the oxen eat.”
96 Jesus said, “The kingdom of the fa­ 103 Jesus said, “Fortunate is the man
ther is like [a certain] woman. She took who knows where the brigands will enter,
a little leaven, [concealed] it in some so that [he] may get up, muster his do­
dough, and made it into large loaves. Let main, and arm himself before they
him who has ears hear.” invade.”
97 Jesus said, “The kingdom of the [fa­ 104 They said to Jesus, “Come, let us
ther] is like a certain woman who was pray today and let us fast.”
carrying a [jar] full of meal. While she Jesus said, “What is the sin that I have
was walking [on the] road, still some committed, or wherein have I been de­
distance from home, the handle of the jar feated? But when the bridegroom leaves
broke and the meal emptied out behind the bridal chamber, then let them fast and
her [on] the road. She did not realize it; pray.”
she had noticed no accident. When she 105 Jesus said, “He who knows the
28 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

father and the mother will be called the 110 Jesus said, “Whoever finds the
son of a harlot.” world and becomes rich, let him re­
106 Jesus said, “When you make the nounce the world.”
two one, you will become the sons of 111 Jesus said, “The heavens and the
man, and when you say, ‘Mountain, move earth will be rolled up in your presence.
away,’ it will move away.” And the one who lives from the living
107 Jesus said, “The kingdom is like a one will not see death.” Does not Jesus
shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One say, “Whoever finds himself is superior
of them, the largest, went astray. He left to the world”?
the ninety-nine and looked for that 112 Jesus said, “Woe to the flesh that
one until he found it. When he had gone depends on the soul; woe to the soul that
to such trouble, he said to the sheep, depends on the flesh.”
‘I care for you more than the ninety- 113 His disciples said to him, “When
nine.’ ” will the kingdom come?”
108 Jesus said, “He who will drink �Jesus said,� “It will not come by
from my mouth will become like me. I waiting for it. It will not be a matter of
myself shall become he, and the things saying ‘here it is’ or ‘there it is.’ Rather,
that are hidden will be revealed to the kingdom of the father is spread out
him.” upon the earth, and men do not see it.”
109 Jesus said, “The kingdom is like a 114 Simon Peter said to them, “Let
man who had a [hidden] treasure in his Mary leave us, for women are not worthy
field without knowing it. And [after] he of life.”
died, he left it to his [son]. The son [did] Jesus said, “I myself shall lead her in
not know (about the treasure). He inher­ order to make her male, so that she too
ited the field and sold [it]. And the one may become a living spirit resembling
who bought it went plowing and [found] you males. For every woman who will
the treasure. He began to lend money at make herself male will enter the kingdom
interest to whomever he wished.” of heaven.”
Papyrus Egerton 2:
The Unknown Gospel

The fragmentary manuscript known as Papyrus Egerton 2 contains a non-

canonical Gospel that is never referred to in any ancient source and that
was, as a consequence, completely unknown until its publication in 1935.1
The fragments were discovered among a collection of papyri purchased by
the British Museum. They had come from Egypt and are usually dated to
around 150 ce. The “Unknown Gospel” narrated in these papyri, however,
must have been older than the manuscript fragments that contain it. While
some scholars have argued that the Gospel was written before the canonical
books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, most have concluded that it was
produced somewhat later, during the first half of the second century.
Since the Unknown Gospel is preserved only in fragments, it is impos­
sible to judge its original length and contents. The surviving remains pre­
serve four separate stories: (1) an account of Jesus’ controversy with Jewish
leaders that is similar to the stories found in John 5:39–47 and 10:31–39; (2)
a healing of a leper, reminiscent of Matt 8:1–4; Mark 1:40–45; Luke 5:12–
16; and Luke 17:11–14; (3) a controversy over paying tribute to Caesar, com­
parable to Matt 22:15–22; Mark 12:13–17; and Luke 20:20–26; and (4) a
fragmentary account of a miracle of Jesus on the bank of the Jordan River,
possibly performed to illustrate his parable about the miraculous growth of
seeds. This final story has no parallel in the canonical Gospels.
Scholars continue to debate whether the author of this Gospel (a) used
the four canonical Gospels as literary sources for his accounts, (b) quoted
from memory stories that he knew from the canonical Gospels (changing
them in the process), or (c) acquired his stories not from the canonical
Gospels, but from the oral traditions of Jesus in wide circulation in the first
and second centuries.

1
See Ehrman, Lost Christianities, 49–50.

Translation by Bart D. Ehrman based on the Greek text found in Egbert Schlarb and
Dieter Lührmann, Fragmente apocryph gewordener Evangelien in griechischer und
lateinischer Sprache (Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 2000) 147–53, but I have followed the
sequence of the fragments given in H. Idris Bell and T. C. Skeat, Fragments of an
Unknown Gospel and Other Early Christian Papyri (London: British Museum, 1935).

29
30 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

1 [And Jesus said]2 to the lawyers:

“[Punish] every wrong-doer and
[transgressor], but not me. [For that one
ing: Be clean.” And immediately the lep­
rosy left him. And Jesus said to him, “Go,
show yourself to the priests and make an
does not consider] how he does what he offering for your cleansing as Moses
does.” commanded; and sin no more. . . .”
Then he turned to the rulers of the
people and spoke this word: “Search the
Scriptures, for you think that in them you
have life. They are the ones that testify
3 . . . [they came] to him and began
rigorously testing him, saying,
“Teacher Jesus, we know that you have
concerning me. Do not think that I came
come from God. For the things you do
to accuse you to my Father. The one who
give a testimony that is beyond all the
accuses you is Moses, in whom you have
prophets. And so, tell us: is it right to pay
hoped.”
the kings the things that relate to their
They replied, “We know full well that
rule? Shall we pay them or not?”
God spoke to Moses. But we do not know
But when Jesus understood their
where you have come from.”
thought he became incensed and said to
Jesus answered them, “Now what
them, “Why do you call me teacher with
stands accused is your failure to believe
your mouth, when you do not listen to
his testimonies. For if you had believed
what I say? Well did Isaiah prophecy
Moses, you would have believed me. For
about you, ‘This people honors me with
that one wrote to your fathers concerning
their lips, but their heart is far removed
me. . . .”
from me. In vain do they worship me,
commandments. . . . ’ ”3
2 . . . to the crowd . . . stones to­
gether so that they might stone
him. And the rulers were trying to lay
their hands on him, that they might arrest
him and deliver him over to the crowd.
4 “ . . . hidden away in a secret place
. . . placed underneath in secret . . .
its weight beyond measure.” . . . And
And they were unable to arrest him be­ while they were puzzling over his strange
cause the hour for him to be delivered question, Jesus walked and stood on the
over had not yet come. But the Lord banks of the Jordan river; he reached out
himself went out through their midst and his right hand, and filled it. . . . And he
left them. sowed it on the . . . And then . . . water
And behold, a leper approached him . . . and . . . before their eyes; and it
and said, “Teacher Jesus, while I was brought forth fruit . . . many . . . for
traveling with some lepers and eating joy . . .
with them at the inn, I myself contracted
leprosy. If, then, you are willing, I will
be made clean.” 2
Less certain restorations of the text are enclosed in
Then the Lord said to him, I am will- square brackets. 3Isa. 29:13.
The Gospel of Peter

The Gospel of Peter was known and used as Scripture in some parts of the
Christian church in the second century.1 Its use was eventually disallowed
by church leaders, however, who considered some of its teachings heretical
and who claimed, as a consequence, that it could not have been written by
its imputed author, Simon Peter. Having fallen out of circulation, it was
practically forgotten in all but name until a fragment of its text was discov­
ered near the end of the nineteenth century in the tomb of a Christian monk
in Egypt.
The fragment narrates the events of Jesus’ passion and resurrection; it
begins in mid-sentence with the story of Pilate’s washing of his hands at
Jesus’ trial. The narrative that follows bears a close relationship with the
accounts found in the New Testament Gospels, especially Matthew, includ­
ing descriptions of Jesus’ crucifixion, his burial, the posting of a guard, and
the events surrounding the resurrection. Some of the details here, however,
are strikingly different. During the crucifixion, for example, Jesus is said to
have been “silent as if he had no pain” (v. 10). In addition, some of the
stories found here occur nowhere else among our early Christian Gospels.
Most significantly, the Gospel narrates an account of Jesus’ emergence from
his tomb. He is supported by two gigantic angels whose heads reach up to
heaven; his own head reaches above the heavens. Behind them emerges the
cross. A voice then speaks from heaven, “Have you preached to those who
are sleeping?” The cross replies, “Yes” (vv. 39–42).
At the conclusion of the narrative the story breaks off in the middle of
a sentence in which the author reveals his name: “But I, Simon Peter, and
Andrew my brother, took our nets and went off to the sea . . .” (v. 60).
It appears that the complete Gospel of Peter contained a full narrative
of Jesus’ ministry, not just of his passion, for several other Gospel fragments
discovered in Egypt recount conversations between Jesus and Peter, recorded
in the first person, plausibly from an earlier portion of the same Gospel.

1
For a full discussion, see Ehrman, Lost Christianities, 13–28.
´
Translation by Bart D. Ehrman, based on the text in M. G. Mara, Evangile de Pierre:
Introduction, texte critique, traduction, commentaire et index (SC 201; Paris: Cerf,
1973).

31
32 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

One of this Gospel’s principal concerns is to incriminate Jews for the

death of Jesus. Here, for instance, after Jesus’ crucifixion, the Jewish people
bewail their guilt and lament the certain fate of their beloved sacred city
Jerusalem, which God will now destroy as retribution for their disobedience
(v. 25). This anti-Judaic slant can perhaps be used to help date the Gospel
in its final form, for such themes became common among Christian authors
in the second century. The author was possibly writing at the beginning of
the century, utilizing oral and written traditions that were themselves much
older. It is not clear whether or not he had access to the accounts now found
in the canonical Gospels.

1 . . . but none of the Jews washed his began to flog him, saying, “This is how
hands, nor did Herod or any of his judges. we should honor the Son of God!”
Since they did not wish to wash, Pilate 10 They brought forward two evildoers
stood up. 2 The kind Herod ordered the and crucified the Lord between them. But
Lord to be taken away and said to them, he was silent, as if he had no pain.
“Do everything that I ordered you to do 11 When they had set the cross upright,
to him.” they wrote an inscription: “This is the
3 Standing there was Joseph, a friend King of Israel.” 12 Putting his clothes in
of both Pilate and the Lord; when he front of him they divided them up and
knew that they were about to crucify him, cast a lot for them. 13 But one of the
he came to Pilate and asked for the Lord’s evildoers reviled them, “We have suf­
body for burial. 4 Pilate sent word to fered like this for the evil things we did;
Herod, asking for the body. 5 Herod said, but this one, the Savior of the people—
“Brother Pilate, even if no one had asked what wrong has he done you?” 14 They
for him we would have buried him, since became angry at him and ordered that his
the Sabbath is dawning. For it is written legs not be broken, so that he would die
in the Law that the sun must not set on in torment.
one who has been killed.”2 And he deliv­ 15 It was noon and darkness came
ered him over to the people the day be­ over all of Judea. They were disturbed
fore their Feast of Unleavened Bread. and upset that the sun may have already
6 Those who took the Lord began set while he was still alive; for their
pushing him about, running up to him Scripture says that the sun must not set
and saying, “Let us drag around the Son on one who has been killed.3 16 One of
of God, since we have authority over them said, “Give him gall mixed with
him.” 7 They clothed him in purple and vinegar to drink.” And they made the
sat him on a judge’s seat, saying, “Give mixture and gave it to him to drink.
a righteous judgment, O King of Israel!” 17 Thus they brought all things to ful­
8 One of them brought a crown made of fillment and completed all their sins on
thorns and placed it on the Lord’s head. their heads.
9 Others standing there were spitting in
his face; some slapped his cheeks; others
were beating him with a reed; and some 2
Deut. 21:22–23. 3
Deut. 21:22–23.
THE GOSPEL OF PETER 33

18 But many were wandering around 31 So Pilate gave them the centurion
with torches, thinking that it was night; Petronius and soldiers to guard the tomb.
and they stumbled about. 19 And the The elders and scribes came with them
Lord cried out, “My power, O power, you to the crypt. 32 Everyone who was there,
have left me behind!” When he said this, along with the centurion and the soldiers,
hea was taken up. rolled a great stone and placed it there
20 At that time, the curtain of the Tem­ before the entrance of the crypt. 33 They
ple in Jerusalem was ripped in half. smeared it with seven seals, pitched a tent
21 Then they pulled the nails from the there, and stood guard.
Lord’s hands and placed him on the 34 Early in the morning, as the Sab­
ground. All the ground shook and every­ bath dawned, a crowd came from Jeru­
one was terrified. 22 Then the sun shone salem and the surrounding area to see
and it was found to be three in the the sealed crypt. 35 But during the
afternoon. night on which the Lord’s day dawned,
23 But the Jews were glad and gave while the soldiers stood guard two by
his body to Joseph that he might bury two on their watch, a great voice came
him, since he had seen all the good things from the sky. 36 They saw the skies
he did. 24 He took the Lord, washed him, open and two men descend from there;
wrapped him in a linen cloth, and brought they were very bright and drew near to
him into his own tomb, called the Garden the tomb. 37 The stone cast before the
of Joseph. 25 Then the Jews, the elders, entrance rolled away by itself and
and the priests realized how much evil moved to one side; the tomb was open
they had done to themselves and began and both young men entered.
beating their breasts, saying “Woe to us 38 When the solders saw these things,
because of our sins. The judgment and they woke up the centurion and the el-
the end of Jerusalem are near.” ders—for they were also there on guard.
26 But I and my companions were 39 As they were explaining what they had
grieving and went into hiding, wounded seen, they saw three men emerge from
in heart. For we were being sought out the tomb, two of them supporting the
by them as if we were evildoers who other, with a cross following behind
wanted to burn the Temple. 27 Because them. 40 The heads of the two reached
of these things we fasted and sat mourn­ up to the sky, but the head of the one
ing and weeping, night and day, until the they were leading went up above the
Sabbath. skies. 41 And they heard a voice from
28 The scribes, Pharisees, and elders the skies, “Have you preached to those
gathered together and heard all the people who are asleep?” 42 And a reply came
murmuring and beating their breasts, say­ from the cross, “Yes.”
ing, “If such great signs happened when 43 They then decided among them­
he died, you can see how righteous he selves to go off to disclose what had
was!” 29 The elders became fearful and happened to Pilate. 44 While they were
went to Pilate and asked him, 30 “Give still making their plans, the skies were
us some soldiers to guard his crypt for again seen to open, and a person de­
three days to keep his disciples from scended and entered the crypt. 45 Those
coming to steal him. Otherwise the peo­
ple may assume he has been raised from
the dead and then harm us.” a
Or it
34 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

who were with the centurion saw these trance of the crypt, that we can go in, sit
things and hurried to Pilate at night, beside him, and do what we should?
abandoning the tomb they had been 54 For it was a large stone, and we are
guarding, and explained everything they afraid someone may see us. If we cannot
had seen. Greatly agitated, they said, “He move it, we should at least cast down the
actually was the Son of God.” 46 Pilate things we have brought at the entrance as
replied, “I am clean of the blood of the a memorial to him; and we will weep and
Son of God; you decided to do this.” beat our breasts until we return home.”
47 Then everyone approached him to 55 When they arrived they found the
ask and urge him to order the centurion tomb opened. And when they came up to
and the soldiers to say nothing about it they stooped down to look in, and they
what they had seen. 48 “For it is better,” saw a beautiful young man dressed in a
they said, “for us to incur a great sin very bright garment, sitting in the middle
before God than to fall into the hands of of the tomb. He said to them, 56 “Why
the Jewish people and be stoned.” 49 And have you come? Whom are you seeking?
so Pilate ordered the centurion and the Not the one who was crucified? He has
soldiers not to say a word. risen and left. But if you do not believe
50 Now Mary Magdalene, a disciple it, stoop down to look, and see the place
of the Lord, had been afraid of the Jews, where he was laid, that he is not there.
since they were inflamed with anger; and For he has risen and left for the place
so she had not done at the Lord’s crypt from which he was sent.” 57 Then the
the things that women customarily do for women fled out of fear.
loved ones who die. But early in the 58 But it was the final day of the Feast
morning of the Lord’s day 51 she took of Unleavened Bread, and many left to
some of her women friends with her and return to their homes, now that the feast
came to the crypt where he had been had ended. 59 But we, the twelve disci­
buried. 52 And they were afraid that the ples of the Lord, wept and grieved; and
Jews might see them, and they said, each one returned to his home, grieving
“Even though we were not able to weep for what had happened. 60 But I, Simon
and beat our breasts on the day he was Peter, and my brother Andrew, took our
crucified, we should do these things now nets and went off to the sea. And with us
at his crypt. 53 But who will roll away was Levi, the son of Alphaeus, whom the
for us the stone placed before the en- Lord. . . .
The Gospel of Mary

The Gospel of Mary is preserved in two Greek fragments of the third

century and a fuller, but still incomplete, Coptic manuscript of the fifth. The
book itself was composed sometime during the (late?) second century.
Even though we do not have the complete text, it was clearly an
intriguing Gospel, for here, among other things, Mary (Magdalene) is
accorded a high status among the apostles of Jesus. In fact, at the end of
the text, the apostle Levi acknowledges to his comrades that Jesus “loved
her more than us.” Mary’s special relationship with Jesus is seen above all
in the circumstance that he reveals to her alone, in a vision, an explanation
of the nature of things hidden from the apostles.
The Gospel divides itself into two parts. In the first, Jesus, after his
resurrection, gives a revelation to all his apostles concerning the nature of
sin, speaks a final blessing and exhortation, commissions them to preach
the gospel, and then leaves. They are saddened by his departure, but Mary
consoles them and urges them to reflect on what he has said. She is then
asked by Peter to tell them what Jesus had told her directly. In the second
part, she proceeds to describe the vision that she had been granted. Unfor­
tunately, four pages are lost from the manuscript, and so we know only the
beginning and end of her description. But it appears that the vision involved
a conversation she had with Jesus, who described how the human soul could
ascend past the four ruling powers of the world in order to find its eternal
rest. This description of the fate of the soul is related to salvation narratives
found in other Gnostic texts.
The Gospel continues with two of the apostles—Andrew and Peter—
challenging Mary’s vision and her claim to have experienced it; it ends,
though, with Levi pointing out that she was Jesus’ favorite, and urging them
to go forth to preach the gospel as he commanded. They are said to do so,
and there the Gospel ends.

Translation of George MacRae and R McL. Wilson, in James Robinson, The Nag Ham-
madi Library in English, 3rd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 1988) 524–27; used with permission.

35
36 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

[ . . . ] (pp. 1–6 missing) will matter Then Mary stood up, greeted them all,
then be [destroyed] or not?” The Savior and said to her brethren, “Do not weep
said, “All natures, all formations, all crea­ and do not grieve nor be irresolute, for
tures exist in and with one another and his grace will be entirely with you and
they will be resolved again into their own will protect you. But rather let us praise
roots. For the nature of matter is resolved his greatness, for he has prepared us and
into the (roots) of its nature alone. He made us into men.” When Mary said this,
who has ears to hear, let him hear.” she turned their hearts to the Good, and
Peter said to him, “Since you have they began to discuss the words of the
explained everything to us, tell us this [Savior].
also: What is the sin of the world?” The Peter said to Mary, “Sister, we know
Savior said, “There is no sin, but it is you that the Savior loved you more than the
who make sin when you do the things rest of women. Tell us the words of the
that are like the nature of adultery, which Savior which you remember—which you
is called ‘sin.’ That is why the Good came know (but) we do not, nor have we heard
into your midst, to the (essence) of every them.” Mary answered and said, “What
nature, in order to restore it to its root.” is hidden from you I will proclaim to
Then he continued and said, “That is why you.” And she began to speak to them
you [become sick] and die, for [ . . . ] of these words: “I,” she said, “I saw the Lord
the one who [ . . . He who] understands, in a vision and I said to him, ‘Lord, I saw
let him understand. [Matter gave birth to] you today in a vision.’ He answered and
a passion that has no equal, which pro­ said to me, ‘Blessed are you, that you did
ceeded from (something) contrary to na­ not waver at the sight of me. For where
ture. Then there arose a disturbance in the mind is, there is the treasure.’ I said
the whole body. That is why I said to to him, ‘Lord, now does he who sees the
you, ‘Be of good courage,’ and if you are vision see it �through� the soul �or�
discouraged (be) encouraged in the pres­ through the spirit?’ The Savior answered
ence of the different forms of nature. He and said. ‘He does not see through the
who has ears to hear, let him hear.” soul nor through the spirit, but the mind
When the blessed one had said this, he which [is] between the two—that is
greeted them all, saying, “Peace be with [what] sees the vision and it is [ . . . ].’
you. Receive my peace to yourselves. (pp. 11–14 missing)
Beware that no one lead you astray, say­ “[ . . . ] it. And desire that, ‘I did not
ing, ‘Lo here!’ or ‘Lo there!’ For the Son see you descending, but now I see you
of Man is within you. Follow after him! ascending. Why do you lie, since you
Those who seek him will find him. Go belong to me?’ The soul answered and
then and preach the gospel of the king­ said, ‘I saw you. You did not see me nor
dom. Do not lay down any rules beyond recognize me. I served you as a gar­
what I appointed for you, and do not give ment, and you did not know me.’ When
a law like the lawgiver lest you be con­ it had said this, it went away rejoicing
strained by it.” When he had said this, he greatly.
departed. “Again it came to the third power,
But they were grieved. They wept which is called ignorance. [It (the
greatly, saying, “How shall we go to the power)] questioned the soul saying,
gentiles and preach the gospel of the ‘Where are you going? In wickedness are
kingdom of the Son of Man? If they did you bound. But you are bound; do not
not spare him, how will they spare us?” judge!’ And the soul said, ‘why do you
THE GOSPEL OF MARY 37

judge me although I have not judged? I answered and said to the brethren, “Say
was bound though I have not bound. I what you (wish to) say about what she
was not recognized. But I have recog­ has said. I at least do not believe that the
nized that the All is being dissolved, both Savior said this. For certainly these teach­
the earthly (things) and the heavenly.’ ings are strange ideas.” Peter answered
“When the soul had overcome the third and spoke concerning these same things.
power, it went upwards and saw the He questioned them about the Savior:
fourth power, (which) took seven forms. “Did he really speak with a woman with­
The first form is darkness, the second out our knowledge (and) not openly? Are
desire, the third ignorance, the fourth is we to turn about and all listen to her? Did
the excitement of death, the fifth is the he prefer her to us?”
kingdom of the flesh, the sixth is the Then Mary wept and said to Peter,
foolish wisdom of flesh, the seventh is “My brother Peter, what do you think?
the wrathful wisdom. These are the seven Do you think that I thought this up myself
[powers] of wrath. They ask the soul, in my heart, or that I am lying about the
‘Whence do you come, slayer of men, or Savior?” Levi answered and said to Peter,
where are you going, conqueror of “Peter, you have always been hot-
space?’ The soul answered and said, tempered. Now I see you contending
‘What binds me has been slain, and what against the woman like the adversaries.
surrounds me has been overcome, and But if the Savior made her worthy, who
my desire has been ended, and ignorance are you indeed to reject her? Surely the
has died. In a [world] I was released from Savior knows her very well. This is why
a world, [and] in a type from a heavenly he loved her more than us. Rather let us
type, and (from) the fetter of oblivion be ashamed and put on the perfect man
which is transient. From this time on will and acquire him for ourselves as he com­
I attain to the rest of the time, of the manded us, and preach the gospel, not
season, of the aeon, in silence.’ ” laying down any other rule or other law
When Mary had said this, she fell si­ beyond what the Savior said.” When
lent, since it was to this point that the [ . . . ] and they began to go forth [to]
Savior had spoken with her. But Andrew proclaim and to preach.
The Gospel of Philip

The Gospel of Philip was almost completely unknown from Late Antiquity,
through the Middle Ages, and down to the present day, until it was discov­
ered as one of the documents in the Nag Hammadi Library (see p. 19).
Although it is easily recognized as a Gnostic work, the book is notoriously
difficult to understand in its details. In part this is due to the form of its
composition: it is not a narrative Gospel of the type found in the New
Testament nor a group of self-contained sayings like the Coptic Gospel of
Thomas. It is instead a collection of mystical reflections that have evidently
been excerpted from previously existing sermons, treatises, and theological
meditations, brought together here under the name of Jesus’ disciple Philip.
Since these reflections are given in relative isolation, without any real
narrative context, they are difficult to interpret. There are, at any rate,
extensive uses of catchwords to organize some of the material, and several
of the principal themes emerge upon a careful reading.
One of the clearest emphases is the contrast between those who can
understand and those who cannot, between knowledge that is exoteric
(available to all) and that which is esoteric (available only to insiders),
between the immature outsiders (regular Christians, called “Hebrews”) and
the mature insiders (Gnostics, called “Gentiles”). Those who do not under­
stand, the outsiders with only exoteric knowledge, err in many of their
judgments—for example, in taking such notions as the virgin birth (v. 17)
or the resurrection of Jesus (v. 21) as literal statements of historical fact,
rather than symbolic expressions of deeper truths.
Throughout much of the work the Christian sacraments figure promi­
nently. Five are explicitly named: baptism, anointing, eucharist, salvation,
and bridal chamber (v. 68). It is hard to know what deeper meaning these
rituals had for the author (especially the “bridal chamber,” which has stirred
considerable debate among scholars), or even what he imagined them to
entail when practiced literally.
It is difficult to assign a date to this work, but it was probably compiled
during the third century, although it draws on earlier sources.

Translation of David Cartlidge and David Dungan, Documents for the Study of the
Gospels, 2nd ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994) 56–75; used with permission.

38
THE GOSPEL OF PHILIP 39

1 A Hebrew person makes a Hebrew, These he made as securities in his will.

and he is called a proselyte. But a pros­ Not only when he appeared did he lay
elyte does not make a proselyte . . . there aside his life as he wished, but at the
are those who are as they are . . . and they establishment of the world he laid aside
make others . . . it is enough for them that his life. He came to take it when he
they exist. wished to, because it had been set aside
2 The slave seeks only to be free. How­ as a pledge. It came under the control of
ever, he does not seek after his lord’s robbers, and it was held prisoner. But
properties. The son, however, is not only he saved it, and he ransomed the good
a son but writes himself into the inheri­ ones and the evil ones who were in the
tance of the father. world.
3 Those who inherit the dead are dead 10 Light and darkness, life and death,
and inherit the dead. Those who inherit the right and the left are each other’s
living things are alive, and they inherit brothers. They cannot separate from one
the living and the dead. Those who are another. Therefore, the good are not good
dead inherit nothing. For how will the nor are the evil evil, nor is life life,
one who is dead inherit? If the dead one nor death death. On account of this,
inherits the living he will not die, but the each one will dissolve into its beginning
dead one will live more. origin. But those who are exalted above
4 A Gentile does not die. He has not the world cannot dissolve; they are
lived, so he cannot die. He lives who has eternal.
believed the truth; and he is in danger 11 The names which are given to the
that he will die, for he is alive. Now that worldly things contain a great occasion
Christ has come for error. For they twist our consideration
5 the world is created, the cities are from the right meaning to the wrong
bedecked, the dead are carried out. meaning. For whoever hears (the word)
6 When we were Hebrews, we were “God,” does not know the right meaning
orphans. We had only our mother. But but the wrong meaning. It is the same
when we became Christians, we gained way with (such words as) “the Father”
a father and mother. and “the Son” and “the Holy Spirit” and
7 Those who sow in winter reap in “the life” and “the light” and “the resur­
summer. The winter is the world; the rection” and “the Church” and all the
summer is the other aeon. Let us sow in other names. Folk do not know the right
the world so that we may reap in the meaning; rather they know the wrong
summer. On account of this it is seemly meaning [unless] they have come to
for us not to pray in the winter. That know the right meaning . . . they are in
which comes out of the winter is the the world . . . in the aeon they would
summer. But if someone reaps in the win­ never be used as names in the world, nor
ter, he really will not be reaping, but he would they list them under worldly
will be tearing things out, things. They have an end in the aeon.
8 since this will not produce . . . not 12 There is only one name which one
only will it [not] produce . . . but on the does not speak out in the world, the name
Sabbath [his field] is unfruitful. which the Father gave to the Son. It is
9 Christ came to ransom some, but oth­ above everything. It is the name of the
ers he saved, others he redeemed. Those Father. For the Son will not become the
who were strangers he ransomed and Father, if he does not put on the name of
made them his, and he set them apart. the Father. Those who have this name
40 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

truly know it, but they do not speak virgin whom no power defiled . . . the
it. Those who do not have it do not powers defiled them (or, themselves).
know it. The Lord (would) not have said, “My
But the truth engendered names in the [Father who is in] Heaven,” if he had not
world for us, because it is impossible to had another Father. But he would have
know it (the truth) without names. The simply said: [“My Father.”]
truth is a single thing and is many things. 18 The Lord said to the disciples . . .
It is this way for our sake, in order to “Enter the Father’s house, but do not take
teach us this one thing in love through its anything in the Father’s house, nor re­
many-ness. move anything.”
13 The archons wanted to deceive the 19 “Jesus” is a secret name; “Christ”
human because they saw that he was kin­ is a revealed name. For this reason, “Je­
dred to the truly good ones. They took sus” does not exist in any (other) lan­
the name of the good ones and gave it to guage, but his name is always “Jesus,” as
those that are not good, so that by names they say. “Christ” is also his name; in
they could deceive him and bind them to Syriac, it is “Messiah,” but, in Greek, it
the ones that are not good. If they do is “Christ.” Actually, everyone has it ac­
them a favor, they are taken away from cording to his own language. “The Naz­
those who are not good and given their arene” is the one who reveals secret
place among those that are good. They things.
knew these things. For they (the archons) 20 The Christ has everything in him­
wished to take the free person and en­ self: man, angel, mystery, and the Father.
slave him forever. . . . 21 They err who say, “The Lord first
15 Before the Christ came there was died and then he arose.” First he arose,
no bread in the world. So also in paradise, and then he died. If someone does not
the place where Adam was, there were first achieve the resurrection, will he not
many trees as food for the animals, but die? So truly as God lives, that one would
there was no wheat for human food. The . . . [text uncertain].
human ate as the animals. But when the 22 No one will hide an extremely valu­
Christ, the perfect man came, he brought able thing in something of equal value.
bread from heaven so that people could However, people often put things worth
eat in a human way. countless thousands into a thing worth a
16 The archons believed that what they penny. It is this way with the soul. It is a
did was by their own power and will. precious thing which came into a worth­
However, the Holy Spirit secretly worked less body.
all through them as he willed. The truth 23 Some fear that they will arise na­
is sown in every place; she (the truth) ked. Therefore, they wish to arise in the
was from the beginning, and many see flesh, and they do not know that those
her as she is sown. But only a few see who carry the flesh are naked. They who
her being gathered in. . . . who disrobe themselves are not
17 Some say Mary was impregnated naked. Flesh [and blood can] not inherit
by the Holy Spirit. They err. They do not the Kingdom [of God]. What is this
know what they say. When did a woman which will not inherit? That which is on
become pregnant by a woman? Mary is us. But what is this which will inherit?
the virgin whom no power corrupted. She That which is of Jesus and of his blood.
is a great anathema to the Hebrews, who Therefore he said: “The one who does
are the apostles and apostolic men. This not eat my flesh and drink my blood does
THE GOSPEL OF PHILIP 41

not have life in him.”1 What is it? His 27 Do not scorn the Lamb. For without
flesh is the Logos, and his blood is the it one cannot see the King. No one who
Holy Spirit. Whoever has received these is naked will be able to find his way to
has food and drink and clothing. I blame the King.
those who say it will not rise. Then they 28 The heavenly Man has many more
are both to blame. You say, “The flesh children than the earthly man. If the chil­
will not rise.” But tell me what will rise, dren of Adam are more numerous, and
so that we may praise you. You say, “The still die, how much more the children of
spirit in the flesh and this light in the the Perfect One who do not die but are
flesh.” This is also a Logos (or, saying) always begotten. . . .
which is fleshly. Whatever you say, you
do not say anything outside the flesh. It 32 There were three who always
is necessary to rise in this flesh; every­ walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother
thing is in it. and her sister and Magdalene, whom they
24 In this world those who put on call his lover. A Mary is his sister and
clothes are worth more than the clothes. his mother and his lover.
In the Kingdom of Heaven the clothes 33 “The Father” and “the Son” are sin­
are worth more than those who have put gle names. The “Holy Spirit” is a double
them on. Through water and fire, which name. They are everywhere. They are
purify the whole place, above; they are below; they are in the
25 those things which are revealed are secret; they are in the revealed. The Holy
revealed by those which are manifest, Spirit is in the revealed; it is below; it is
those which are secret by those which are in the secret; it is above.
secret. Some are hidden through those 34 The saints are ministered to by the
which are manifest. There is water in evil powers, for the powers are blind be­
water; there is fire in anointing. cause of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, they
26 Jesus secretly stole them all. For he will believe that they serve a man when
showed himself not to be as he really they work for the saints. Because of this,
was, but he appeared in a way that they one day a disciple sought from the Lord
could see him. To those . . . he appeared. something from the world. He said to
[He appeared] to the great as great. [He him, “Ask your mother, and she will give
appeared] to the small as small. [He ap­ you from a stranger’s (things).” . . .
peared] to the angels as an angel and to
humans as a human. Because of this, his 50 God is a man eater. On account of
Logos hid from everyone. Some, to be this the Man [was killed] for him. Before
sure, saw him, and they thought that they they killed the Man, they killed animals,
saw themselves. But, when he appeared for those were not Gods for whom they
in glory to the disciples on the mountain killed.
he was not small. He became great; how­ 51 Glass and pottery vessels are both
ever, he made the disciples great, so that made with fire. But if glass vessels are
they were able to see him as he was, broken they are made again, for they are
great. created with a breath. But if pottery ves­
He said on that day in the thanksgiv­ sels are broken, they are destroyed, for
ing, “You who have united with the per­ they are created without a breath.
fect, the light, the Holy Spirit, have
united the angels also with us, with the
images.” 1
John 6:54.
42 NON-CANONICAL GOSPELS

52 An ass which turns a millstone in a now found food because the person has
circle went one hundred miles. When he worked the ground.
was turned loose he found he was still at 59 If anyone goes down into the water
the same place. There are people who and comes up having received nothing
make many trips and get nowhere. When and says, “I am a Christian,” he has bor­
evening came upon them, they saw no rowed the name at interest. But if he
city or town, no creation or nature, no receives the Holy Spirit, he has taken the
power or angel. The poor fellows labored name as a gift. If someone has received
in vain. a gift, it is not taken back. But he who
53 The Eucharist is Jesus. For they call has borrowed something at interest has
him in Syriac pharisatha, which is, “the to meet the payment.
one who is spread out.” For Jesus came 60 It is this way . . . if anyone should
and he crucified the world. be in a mystery. . . .
54 The Lord went into the dye shop of
Levi. He took seventy-two colors and 62 Do not be afraid of the flesh nor
threw them into the kettle. He took them love it. If you fear it, then it will be your
all out white, and he said, “Thus the Son master. If you love it, it will swallow and
of man came, a dyer.” strangle you.
55 Wisdom (sophia), whom they call 63 Either one is in this world, or in the
barren, is the mother of the angels, and resurrection, or in the places in the mid­
the consort of Christ is Mary Magdalene. dle. God forbid that I be found in them.
The [Lord loved Mary] more than all the In this world there is good and evil. Its
disciples, and he kissed her on the [mouth good is not good, and its evil is not evil.
many times]. The other [women/disciples But there is evil after this world, true evil,
saw] . . . him. They said to him, “Why do which they call “the middle.” It is death.
you [love her] more than all of us?” The As long as we are in this world, it is
Savior answered and said to them, “Why fitting to us to acquire the resurrection,
do not I love you as I do her?” so that when we peel off the flesh we will
56 If a blind person and one who can be found in repose, not making our way
see are in the dark, there is no difference in “the middle.” For many wander astray
between them. When the light comes, off the path. For it is good to come out
then the one who sees will see the light, of the world before one sins. . . .
and the one who is blind will stay in the
darkness. 67 The truth did not come naked into
57 The Lord said, “Blessed is the one the world, but came in types and images.
who exists before he came into being. One will not receive the truth in any other
For he who exists was and will be.” way. There is a being-born-again, and an
58 The greatness of the human being image of being-born-again. It is truly
is not revealed, but it is hidden. Because necessary that they become born again
of this he is lord of the animals that are through the image. What else is the res­
stronger than he and are great according urrection? It is necessary that the image
to that which is clear as well as hidden. arise through the image. The Bridal
And this mastery gives to them their sta­ Chamber and the image necessarily en­
bility. But if a person leaves them alone, ters into the truth through the image; this
they kill one another (and) bite one an­ is the recapitulation. It is necessary not
other. And they ate one another because only that those who have it received the
they could find no food. But they have name of the Father and the Son and the
Discovering Diverse Content Through
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 FOOTNOTES:
[138:A] Voyage du Levant, vol. 2, page 336.
[147:A] See the Hist. of the Acad. 1708, page 32.
[148:A] See the Diss. de Solido intra Solidum, &c.
[151:A] See Acta erudit, Lepiss, Ann. 1691, page 100.
 ARTICLE VI.
GEOGRAPHY.

The surface of the Earth, like that of Jupiter, is not divided by bands
alternative and parallel to the equator; on the contrary, it is divided
from one pole to the other, by two bands of earth, and two of sea;
the first and principal is the ancient continent, the greatest length of
which is found to be in a line, beginning on the east point of the
northern part of Tartary, and extending from thence to the land
which borders on the gulph of Linchidolkin, where the Muscovites
fish for whales; from thence to Tobolski, from Tobolski to the
Caspian sea, from the Caspian sea to Mecca, and from Mecca to the
western part of the country inhabited by the Galli, in Africa;
afterwards to Monoemuci or Monomotapa, and at last to the Cape of
Good Hope; this line, which is the greatest length of the old
continent, is about 3600 leagues, Paris measure; it is only
interrupted by the Caspian and Red seas, the breadths of which are
not very considerable, and we must not pay any regard to these
interruptions, when it is considered, the surface of the globe is
divided only in four parts.
This greatest length is found by measuring the old continent
diagonally; for if measured according to the meridians, we shall find
that there are only 2500 leagues from the northernmost Cape of
Lapland to the Cape of Good Hope; and that the Baltic and
Mediterranean cause a much greater interruption than is met with in
the other way. With respect to all the other distances that might be
measured in the old continent under the same meridian, we shall
find them to be much smaller than this; having, for example, only
1800 leagues from the most southern point of the island of Ceylon
to the northernmost coast of Nova Zembla. Likewise, if we measure
the continent parallel to the equator, we find that the greatest
uninterrupted length is found from Trefna, on the western coast of
Africa, to Ninpo, on the eastern coast of China, and that it is about
2800 leagues. Another course may be measured from the point of
Brittany near Brest, extending to the Chinese Tartary; about 2300
leagues. From Bergen, in Norway, to the coast of Kamschatka, is no
more than 1800 leagues. All these lines have much less length than
the first, therefore the greatest extent of the old continent, is, in
fact, from the eastern point of Tartary to the Cape of Good Hope,
that is about 3600 leagues.
There is so great an equality of surface on each side of this line,
which is also the longest, that there is every probability to suppose it
really divides the contents of the ancient continent; for in measuring
on one side is found 2,471,092-3/4 square leagues, and on the other
2,469,687.
Agreeable to this, the old continent consists of about 4,940,780
square leagues, which is nearly one-fifth of the whole surface of the
globe, and has an inclination towards the equator of about 30
degrees.
The greatest length of the new continent may be taken in a line
from the mouth of the river Plata to the lake of Assiniboils. From the
former it passes to the lake Caracara; from thence to Mataguais,
Pocona, Zongo, Mariana, Morua, St. Fe, and Carthagena; it then
proceeds through the gulph of Mexico, Jamaica, and Cuba, passes
along the peninsula of Florida, through Apolache, Chicachas, and
from thence to St. Louis, Fort le Suer, and ends on the borders of
lake Assiniboils; the whole extent of which is still unknown.
This line, which is interrupted only by the Mexican gulph (which
must be looked upon as a mediterranean sea) may be about 2500
leagues long, and divides the new continent into nearly two equal
parts, the left of which contains about 1,069,286-5/6 leagues
square, and that on the right about 1,070,926-1/12; this line, which
forms the middle of the band of the new continent, is inclined to the
equator about 30 degrees, but in an opposite direction, for that of
the old continent extends from the north-east to the south-west, and
that of the new continent from the north-west to the south-east. All
those lands together of the old and new continent, make about
7,080,993 leagues square, which is not near the third of the whole
surface, which contains 25 millions of square leagues.
It must be remarked, that these two lines, which divide the
continents into two equal parts, both terminate at the same degree
of southern and northern latitude, and that the two continents make
opposite projections, which exactly face each other; to wit, the
coasts of Africa, from the Canary islands to the coasts of Guinea,
and those of America from Guiana to the mouth of Rio Janeiro.
It appears, therefore, that the most ancient land of the globe, is on
the two sides of these lines, at the distance of from 2 to 250 leagues
on each side. By following this idea, which is founded on the
observations before related, we shall find in the old continent that
the most ancient lands of Africa are those which extend from the
Cape of Good Hope to the Red Sea, as far as Egypt, about 500
leagues broad, and that, consequently, all the western coasts of
Africa, from Guinea to the straits of Gibraltar, are the newest lands.
So likewise we shall discover that in Asia, if we follow the line on the
same breadth, the most ancient lands are Arabia Felix and Deserta,
Persia, Georgia, Turcomania, part of Tartary, Circassia, part of
Muscovy, &c. that consequently Europe, and perhaps also China, and
the eastern part of Tartary, are more modern. In the new continent
we shall find the Terra Magellanica, the eastern part of Brasil, the
country of the Amazons, Guiana, and Canada, to be the new lands,
in comparison with Peru, Terra Firma, the islands in the gulph of
Mexico, Florida, the Mississippi, and Mexico.
To these observations we may add two very remarkable facts, the
old and new continent are almost opposite each other; the old is
more extensive to the north of the equator than the south; the new
is more to the south than the north. The centre of the old continent
is in the 16th or 18th degree of north latitude, and the centre of the
new is in the 16th or 18th degree south latitude, so that they seem
to be made to counterbalance each other. There is also a singular
connexion between the two continents, although it appears to be
more accidental than those which I have spoken of, which is, that if
the two continents were divided into two parts, all four would be
surrounded by the sea, if it were not for the two small isthmuses,
Suez and Panama.
This is the most general idea which an attentive inspection of the
globe furnishes us with, on the division of the earth. We shall
abstain from forming hypotheses thereon, and hazarding reasonings
which might lead into false conclusions; but no one as yet having
considered the division of the globe under this point of view, I shall
submit a few remarks. It is very singular that the line which forms
the greatest length of the terrestrial continents divides them also
into two equal parts; it is no less so that these two lines commence
and end at the same degrees of latitude, and are both alike inclined
to the equator. These relations may belong to some general
conclusions, but of which we are ignorant. The inequalities in the
figure of the two continents we shall hereafter examine more fully: it
is sufficient here to observe, that the most ancient countries are the
nearest to these lines, and are the highest; that the more modern
lands are the farthest, and also the lowest. Thus in America, the
country of the Amazons, Guiana and Canada will be the most
modern parts; by casting our eyes on the map of this country we
see the waters on every side, and that they are divided by
numberless lakes and rivers, which also indicates that these lands
are of a late formation; while on the other hand Peru and Mexico are
high mountains, and situate at no great distance from the line that
divides the continent, which are circumstances that seem to prove
their antiquity. Africa is very mountainous, and that part of the world
is also very ancient. There are only Egypt, Barbary, and the western
coasts of Africa, as far as Senegal, in this part of the globe, which
can be looked upon as modern countries. Asia is an old land, and
perhaps the most ancient of all, particularly Arabia, Persia, and
Tartary; but the inequalities of this vast part of the globe, as well as
those of Europe, we will consider in a separate article. It might be
said in general, that Europe is a new country, and such position
would be supported both by the universal traditions relative to the
emigrations of different people, and the origin of arts and sciences.
It is not long since it was filled with morasses, and covered with
forests, whereas in the land anciently inhabited, there are but few
woods, little water, no morasses, much land, and a number of
mountains, whose summits are dry and barren; for men destroy the
woods, drain the waters, confine rivers, dry up morasses, and in
time give a different appearance to the face of the earth, from that,
of uninhabited or newly-peopled countries.
The ancients were acquainted with but a small part of the globe. All
America, the Magellanic, and a great part of the interior of Africa,
was entirely unknown to them. They knew not that the torrid zone
was inhabited, although they had navigated around Africa, for it is
2200 years since Neco, king of Egypt, gave vessels to the
Phenicians, who sailed along the Red Sea, coasted round Africa,
doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and having employed two years in
this voyage, the third year they entered the straits of Gibraltar.[163:A]
The ancients were unacquainted with the property of the loadstone,
if turned towards the poles, although they knew that it attracted
iron. They were ignorant of the general cause of the flux and reflux
of the sea, nor were they certain the ocean surrounded the globe;
some indeed suspected it might be so, but with so little foundation,
that no one dared to say, or even conjecture, it was possible to
make a voyage round the world. Magellan was the first who
attempted it in the year 1519, and accomplished the great voyage in
1124 days. Sir Francis Drake was the second in 1577, and he
performed it in 1056 days; afterwards Thomas Cavendish made this
great voyage in 777 days, in the year 1586. These celebrated
navigators were the first who demonstrated physically the sphericity
and the extent of the earth's circumference; for the ancients had no
conception of the extent of this circumference, although they had
travelled a great deal. The trade winds, so useful in long voyages,
were also unknown to them; therefore we must not be surprised at
the little progress they made in geography. Notwithstanding the
knowledge we have acquired by the aid of mathematical sciences,
and the discovery of navigators, many things remain still unsettled,
and vast countries undiscovered. Almost all the land on the side of
the Atlantic pole is unknown to us; we only know that there is some,
and that it is separated from all the other continents by the ocean.
Much land also remains to be discovered on the side of the Arctic
pole, and it is to be regretted that for more than a century the
ardour of discovering new countries is extremely abated. European
governments seem to prefer, and possibly with reason, increasing
the value of those countries we are acquainted with to the glory of
conquering new ones.
Nevertheless, the discovery of the southern continent would be a
great object of curiosity, and might be useful. We have discovered
only some few of its coasts; those navigators who have attempted
this discovery, have always been stopt by the ice. The thick fogs,
which are in those latitudes, is another obstacle; yet, in defiance of
these inconveniencies, it is probable that by sailing from the Cape of
Good Hope at different seasons, we might at last discover a part of
these lands, which hitherto make a separate world.
There is another method, which possibly might succeed better. The
ice and fogs having hitherto prevented the discovery, might it not be
attempted by the Pacific Sea; sailing from Baldivia, or any other port
on the coast of Chili, and traversing this sea under the 50th degree
south latitude? There is not the least appearance that this navigation
is perilous, and it is probable would be attended with the discovery
of new countries; for what remains for us to know on the coast of
the southern pole, is so considerable, that we may estimate it at a
fourth part of the globe, and of course may contain a continent, as
large as Europe, Asia, and Africa, all together.
As we are not at all acquainted with this part of the globe, we
cannot justly know the proportion between the surface of the earth
and that of the sea; only as much as may be judged by inspection of
what is known, there is more sea than land.
If we would have an idea of the enormous quantity of water which
the sea contains, we must suppose a medium depth, and by
computing it only at 200 fathom, or the sixth part of a league, we
shall find that there is sufficient to cover the whole globe to the
height of 600 feet of water, and if we would reduce this water into
one mass, it would form a globe of more than 60 miles diameter.
Navigators pretend, that the latitudes near the south pole are much
colder than those of the north, but there is no appearance that this
opinion is founded on truth, and probably has been adopted,
because ice is found in latitudes where it is scarcely ever seen in the
southern seas; but that may proceed from some particular cause.
We find no ice in April on this side 67 and 68 degrees northern
latitude: and the savages of Arcadia and Canada say, when it is not
all melted in that month, it is a sign the rest of the year will be cold
and rainy. In 1725 there may be said to have been no summer, it
rained almost continually; and the ice of the northern sea was not
only not melted in April in the 67th degree, but even it was found
the 15th of June towards the 41st and 42d degree[167:A].
A great quantity of floating ice appears in the northern sea,
especially at some distance from land. It comes from the Tartarian
sea into that of Nova Zembla, and other parts of the Frozen Ocean. I
have been assured by people of credit, that an English Captain,
named Monson, instead of seeking a passage between the northern
land to go to China, directed his course strait to the pole, and had
approached it within two degrees; that in this course he had found
an open sea, without any ice, which proves that the ice is formed
near land, and never in open sea; for if we should suppose, against
all probability, that it might be cold enough at the pole to freeze over
the surface of the sea, it is still not conceivable how these enormous
floating mountains of ice could be formed, if they did not find a fixed
point against land, from whence afterwards they were loosened by
the heat of the sun. The two vessels which the East India Company
sent, in 1739, to discover land in the South Seas, found ice in the
latitude of 47 and 48 degrees, but this ice was not far from shore,
that being in sight although they were unable to land. This must
have been separated from the adjoining lands of the south pole, and
it may be conjectured that they follow the course of some great
rivers, which water the unknown land, the same as the Oby, Jenisca,
and other great floods, which fall into the North Seas, carry with
them the ice, which, during the greatest part of the year, stops up
the straits of Waigat, and renders the Tartarian sea unnavigable by
this course; whereas beyond Nova Zembla, and nearer the poles,
where there are few rivers, and but little land, ice is not so
frequently met with, and the sea is more navigable; so that if they
would still attempt the voyage to China and Japan by the North
Seas, we should possibly, to keep clear from the land and ice, shape
our course to the pole, and seek the open seas, where certainly
there is but little or no ice; for it is known that salt water can,
without freezing, become colder than fresh water when frozen, and
consequently the excessive cold of the pole may possibly render the
sea colder than the ice, without the surface being frozen: so much
the more as at 80 or 82 degrees, the surface of the sea, although
mixed with much snow and fresh water, is only frozen near the
shore. By collecting the testimonies of travellers, on the passage
from Europe to China, it appears that one does exist by the north
sea; and the reason it has been so often attempted in vain is,
because they have always feared to go sufficiently far from land, and
approach the pole.
Captain William Barents, who, as well as others, run aground in his
voyage, yet did not doubt but there was a passage, and that if he
had gone farther from shore, he should have found an open sea free
from ice. The Russian navigators, sent by the Czar to survey the
north seas, relate that Nova Zembla is not an island, but belonging
to the continent of Tartary, and that to the north of it is a free and
open sea. A Dutch navigator asserts, that the sea throws up whales
on the coasts of Corea and Japan, which have English and Dutch
harpoons on their backs. Another Dutchman has pretended to have
been at the pole, and asserts it is as warm there as it is at
Amsterdam in the middle of the summer. An Englishman, named
Golding, who made more than thirty voyages to Greenland, related
to King Charles II. that two Dutch vessels with which he had sailed,
having found no whales on the coast of the island of Edges, resolved
to proceed farther north, and that upon their return at the expiration
of fifteen days, they told him that they had been as far as 89
degrees latitude (within one degree of the pole), and that they
found no ice there, but an open deep sea like that of the Bay of
Biscay, and that they shewed him the journals of the two vessels, as
a proof of what they affirmed. In short, it is related in the
Philosophical Transactions that two navigators, who had undertaken
the discovery of this passage, shaped a course 300 leagues to the
east of Nova Zembla, but that the East India Company, who thought
it their interest this passage should not be discovered, hindered
them from returning[170:A]. But the Dutch East India Company
thought, on the contrary, that it was their interest to find this
passage; having attempted it in vain on the side of Europe, they
sought it by that of Japan, and they would probably have succeeded,
if the Emperor of Japan had not forbidden all strangers from
navigating on the side of the land of Jesso. This passage, therefore,
cannot be found but by sailing to the pole, beyond Spitzbergen, or
by keeping the open sea between Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen
under the 79th degree of latitude. We need not fear to find it frozen
even under the pole itself, for reasons we have alledged; in fact,
there is no example of the sea being frozen at a considerable
distance from the shore; the only example of a sea being frozen
entirely over, is that of the Black Sea, which is narrow, contains but
little salt, and receives a number of rivers from the northern
countries, and which bring ice with them: and if we may credit
historians, it was frozen in the time of the Emperor Copronymus,
thirty cubits deep, without reckoning twenty cubits of snow above
the ice. This appears to be exaggerated, but it is certain that it
freezes almost every winter; whereas the open seas, a thousand
leagues nearer the pole, do not freeze at all: this can only proceed
from the saltness, and the little ice which they receive, in
comparison with that transported into the Black Sea.
This ice, which is looked upon as a barrier that opposes the
navigation near the poles, and the discovery of the southern
continent, proves only that there are large rivers adjacent to the
places where it is met with; and indicates also there are vast
continents from whence these rivers flow; nor ought we to be
discouraged at the sight of these obstacles; for if we consider, we
shall easily perceive, this ice must be confined to some particular
places; that it is almost impossible that it should occupy the whole
circle which encompasses, as we suppose, the southern continent,
and therefore we should probably succeed if we were to direct our
course towards some other point of this circle. The description which
Dampier and some others have given of New Holland, leads us to
suspect that this part of the globe is perhaps a part of the southern
lands, and is a country less ancient than the rest of this unknown
continent. New Holland is a low country, without water or
mountains, but thinly inhabited, and the natives without industry; all
this concurs to make us think that they are in this continent nearly
what the savages of Amaconia or Paraguais are in America. We have
found polished men, empires, and kings, at Peru and Mexico, which
are the highest, and consequently the most ancient countries of
America. Savages, on the contrary, are found in the lowest and most
modern countries; therefore we may presume that we should also
find men united by the bands of society in the upper countries, from
whence these great rivers, which bring this prodigious ice to the sea,
derive their sources.
The interior parts of Africa are unknown to us, almost as much as
they were to the ancients: they had, like us, made the tour of that
vast peninsula, but they have left us neither charts, nor descriptions
of the coasts. Pliny informs us, that the tour of Africa was made in
the time of Alexander the Great, that the wrecks of some Spanish
vessels had been discovered in the Arabian sea, and that Hanno, a
Carthaginian general, had made a voyage from Gades to the Arabian
sea, and that he had written a relation of it. Besides that, he says
Cornelius Nepos tells us that in his time one Eudoxus, persecuted by
the king Lathurus, was obliged to fly from his country; that
departing from the Arabian gulph, he arrived at Gades, and that
before this time they traded from Spain to Ethiopia by sea[173:A].
Notwithstanding these testimonies of the ancients, we are
persuaded that they never doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and the
course which the Portuguese took the first to go to the East-Indies,
was looked upon as a new discovery; it will not perhaps, therefore,
be deemed amiss to give the belief of the 9th century on this
subject.
"In our time an entire new discovery has been made, which was
wholly unknown to those who lived before us. No one thought, or
even suspected, that the sea, which extends from India to China,
had a communication with the Syrian sea. We have found, according
to what I have learnt, in the sea Roum, or Mediterranean, the wreck
of an Arabian vessel, shattered to pieces by the tempest, some of
which were carried by the wind and waves to the Cozar sea, and
from thence to the Mediterranean, and was at length thrown on the
coast of Syria. This proves that the sea surrounds China and Cila,
the extremity of Turqueston and the country of the Cozars; that it
afterwards flows by the strait till it has washed the coast of Syria.
The proof is drawn from the construction of the vessel; for no other
vessels but those of Siraf are built without nails, which, as was the
wreck we speak of, are joined together in a particular manner, as if
they were sewed. Those, of all the vessels of the Mediterranean and
of the coast of Syria, are nailed and not joined in this
manner[175:A]."
To this the translator of this ancient relation adds.—
"Abuziel remarks, as a new and very extraordinary thing, that a
vessel was carried from the Indian sea, and cast on the coasts of
Syria. To find a passage into the Mediterranean, he supposes there is
a great extent above China, which has a communication with the
Cozar sea, that is, with Muscovia. The sea which is below Cape
Current, was entirely unknown to the Arabs, by reason of the
extreme danger of the navigation, and from the continent being
inhabited by such a barbarous people, that it was not easy to
subject them, nor even to civilize them by commerce. From the Cape
of Good Hope to Soffala, the Portuguese found no established
settlement of Moors, like those in all the maritime towns as far as
China, which was the farthest place known to geographers; but they
could not tell whether the Chinese sea, by the extremity of Africa,
had a communication with the sea of Barbary, and they contented
themselves with describing it as far as the coast of Zing, or Caffraria.
This is the reason why we cannot doubt but that the first discovery
of the passage of this sea, by the Cape of Good Hope, was made by
the Europeans, under the conduct of Vasco de Gama, or at least
some years before he doubled the Cape, if it is true there are marine
charts of an older date, where the Cape is called by the name of
Frontiera du Africa. Antonio Galvin testifies, from the relation of
Francisco de Sousa Tavares, that, in 1528, the Infant Don Ferdinand
shewed him such a chart, which he found in the monastery of
Acoboca, dated 120 years before, copied perhaps from that said to
be in the treasury of St. Mark, at Venice, which also marks the point
of Africa, according to the testimony of Ramusio, &c."
The ignorance of those ages, on the subject of the navigation
around Africa, will appear perhaps less singular than the silence of
the editor of this ancient relation on the subject of the passages of
Herodotus, Pliny, &c. which we have quoted, and which proves the
ancients had made the tour of Africa.
Be it as it may, the African coasts are now well known; but whatever
attempts have been made to penetrate into the inner parts of the
country, we have not been able to attain sufficient knowledge of it to
give exact relations[177:A]. It might, nevertheless, be of great
advantage, if we were, by Senegal, or some other river, to get
farther up the country and establish settlements, as we should find,
according to all appearances, a country as rich in precious mines as
Peru or the Brazils. It is perfectly known that the African rivers
abound with gold, and as this country is very mountainous, and
situated under the equator, it is not to be doubted but it contains, as
well as America, mines of heavy metals, and of the most compact
and hard stones.
The vast extent of north and east Tartary has only been discovered
in these latter times. If the Muscovite maps are just, we are at
present acquainted with the coasts of all this part of Asia; and it
appears that from the point of eastern Tartary to North America, it is
not more than four or five hundred leagues: it has even been
pretended that this tract was much shorter, for in the Amsterdam
Gazette, of the 24th of January, 1747, it is said, under the article of
Petersburgh, that Mr. Stalleravoit had discovered one of these
American islands beyond Kamschatca, and demonstrated that we
might go thither from Russia by a shorter tract. The Jesuits, and
other missionaries, have also pretended to have discovered savages
in Tartary, whom they had catechised in America, which should in
fact suppose that passage to be still shorter[178:A]. This author even
pretends, that the two continents of the old and new world join by
the north, and says, that the last navigations of the Japanese afford
room to judge, that the tract of which we have spoken is only a bay,
above which we may pass by land from Asia to America. But this
requires confirmation, for hitherto it has been thought that the
continent of the north pole is separated from the other continents,
as well as that of the south pole.
Astronomy and Navigation are carried to so high a pitch of
perfection, that it may reasonably be expected we shall soon have
an exact knowledge of the whole surface of the globe. The ancients
knew only a small part of it, because they had not the mariner's
compass. Some people have pretended that the Arabs invented the
compass, and used it a long time before we did, to trade on the
Indian sea, as far as China; but this opinion has always appeared
destitute of all probability; for there is no word in the Arab, Turkish,
or Persian languages, which signifies the compass; they make use of
the Italian word Bossola; they do not even at present know how to
make a compass, nor give the magnetical quality to the needle, but
purchase them from the Europeans. Father Maritini says, that the
Chinese have been acquainted with the compass for upwards of
3000 years; but if that was the case, how comes it that they have
made so little use of it? Why did they, in their voyages to
Cochinchina, take a course much longer than was necessary? And
why did they always confine themselves to the same voyages, the
greatest of which were to Java and Sumatra? And why did not they
discover, before the Europeans, an infinity of fertile islands,
bordering on their own country, if they had possessed the art of
navigating in the open seas? For a few years after the discovery of
this wonderful property of the loadstone, the Portuguese doubled
the Cape of Good Hope, traversed the African and Indian seas, and
Christopher Columbus made his voyage to America.
By a little consideration, it was easy to divine there were immense
spaces towards the west; for, by comparing the known part of the
globe, as for example, the distance of Spain to China, and attending
to the revolution of the Earth and Heavens, it was easy to see that
there remained a much greater extent towards the west to be
discovered, than what they were acquainted with towards the east.
It, therefore, was not from the defect of astronomical knowledge
that the ancients did not find the new world, but only for want of the
compass. The passages of Plato and Aristotle, where they speak of
countries far distant from the Pillars of Hercules, seem to indicate
that some navigators had been driven by tempest as far as America,
from whence they returned with much difficulty; and it may be
conjectured, that if even the ancients had been persuaded of the
existence of this continent, they would not have even thought it
possible to strike out the road, having no guide nor any knowledge
of the compass.
I own, that it is not impossible to traverse the high seas without a
compass, and that very resolute people might have undertaken to
seek after the new world by conducting themselves simply by the
stars. The Astrolabe being known to the ancients, it might strike
them they could leave France or Spain, and sail to the west, by
keeping the polar star always to the right, and by frequent
soundings might have kept nearly in the same latitude; without
doubt the Carthaginians, of whom Aristotle makes mention, found
the means of returning from these remote countries by keeping the
polar star to the left; but it must be allowed that a like voyage would
be looked upon as a rash enterprize, and that consequently we must
not be astonished that the ancients had not even conceived the
project.
Previous to Christopher Columbus's expedition, the Azores, the
Canaries, and Madeira were discovered. It was remarked, that when
the west winds lasted a long time, the sea brought pieces of foreign
wood on the coast of these islands, canes of unknown species, and
even dead bodies, which by many marks were discovered to be
neither European nor African. Columbus himself remarked, that on
the side of the west certain winds blew only a few days, and which
he was persuaded were land winds; but although he had all these
advantages over the ancients, and the knowledge of the compass,
the difficulties still to conquer were so great, that there was only the
success he met with which could justify the enterprise. Suppose, for
a moment, that the continent of the new world had been 1000 or
1500 miles farther than it in fact is, a thing with Columbus could
neither know nor foresee, he would not have arrived there, and
perhaps this great country might still have remained unknown. This
conjecture is so much the better founded, as Columbus, although
the most able navigator of his time, was seized with fear and
astonishment in his second voyage to the new world; for as in his
first, he only found some islands, he directed his course more to the
south to discover a continent, and was stopt by currents, the
considerable extent and direction of which always opposed his
course, and obliged him to direct his search to the west; he
imagined that what had hindered him from advancing on the
southern side was not currents, but that the sea flowed by raising
itself towards the heavens, and that perhaps both one and the other
touched on the southern side. True it is, that in great enterprises the
least unfortunate circumstance may turn a man's brain, and abate
his courage.

FOOTNOTES:
[163:A] Vide Herodotus, lib. iv.
[167:A] See the Hist. of the Acad. Ann. 1725.
[170:A] See the collection of Northern Voyages, page 200.
[173:A] Vide Pliny, Hist. Nat. Vol. I. lib. 2.
[175:A] See the ancient relations of travels by land to China, page 53 and
54.
[177:A] Since this time, however, great discoveries, have been made;
Mons. Vaillant has given a particular description of the country from the
Cape to the borders of Caffraria; and much information has also been
acquired by the Society for Asiatic Researches.
[178:A] See the Hist. of New France, by the Pere Charlevoix. Vol. III. page
30 and 31.
 ARTICLE VII.
ON THE PRODUCTION OF THE STRATA, OR BEDS OF EARTH.

We have shewn, in the first article, that by virtue of the mutual

attraction between the parts of matter, and of the centrifugal force,
which results from its diurnal rotation, the earth has necessarily
taken the form of a spheroid, the diameters of which differ about a
230th part, and that it could only proceed from the changes on the
surface, caused by the motion of the air and water, that this
difference could become greater, as is pretended to be the case from
the measures taken under the equator, and within the polar circle.
This figure of the earth, which so well agrees with hydrostatical
laws, and with our theory, supposes the globe to have been in a
state of liquefaction when it assumed its form, and we have proved
that the motions of projection and rotation were imprinted at the
same time by a like impulsion. We shall the more easily believe that
the earth has been in a state of liquefaction produced by fire, when
we consider the nature of the matters which the globe incloses, the
greatest part of which are vitrified or vitrifiable; especially when we
reflect on the impossibility there is that the earth should ever have
been in a state of fluidity, produced by the waters; since there is
infinitely more earth than water, and that water has not the power of
dissolving stone, sand, and other matters of which the earth is
composed.
It is plain then that the earth took its figure at the time when it was
liquefied by fire: by pursuing our hypothesis it appears, that when
the sun quitted it, the earth had no other form than that of a torrent
of melted and inflamed vapour matter; that this torrent collected
itself by the mutual attraction of its parts, and became a globe, to
which the rotative motion gave the figure of a spheroid; and when
the earth was cooled, the vapours, which were first extended like
the tails of comets, by degrees condensed and fell upon the surface,
depositing, at the same time, a slimy substance mixed with
sulphurous and saline matters, a part of which, by the motion of the
waters, was swept into the perpendicular cracks, where it produced
metals, while the rest remained on the surface, and produced that
reddish earth which forms the first strata; and which, according to
different places, is more or less blended with animal and vegetable
particles, so reduced that the organization is no longer perceptible.
Therefore, in the first state of the earth, the globe was internally
composed of vitrified matter, as I believe it is at present, above
which were placed those bodies the fire had most divided, as sand,
which are only fragments of glass; and above these, pumice stones
and the scoria of the vitrified matter, which formed the various clays;
the whole was covered with water 5 or 600 feet deep, produced by
the condensation of the vapours, when the globe began to cool. This
water every where deposited a muddy bed, mixed with waters which
sublime and exhale by the fire; and the air was formed of the most
subtile vapours, which, by their lightness, disengaged themselves
from the waters, and surmounted them.
Such was the state of the globe when the action of the tides, the
winds, and the heat of the sun, began to change the surface of the
earth. The diurnal motion, and the flux and reflux, at first raised the
waters under the southern climate, which carried with them mud,
clay, and sand, and by raising the parts of the equator, they by
degrees perhaps lowered those of the poles about two leagues, as
we before mentioned; for the waters soon reduced into powder the
pumice stones and other spongeous parts of the vitrified matter that
were at the surface, they hollowed some places, and raised others,
which in course of time became continents, and produced all the
inequalities, and which are more considerable towards the equator
than the poles; for the highest mountains are between the tropics
and the middle of the temperate zones, and the lowest are from the
polar circle to the poles; between the tropics are the Cordeliers, and
almost all the mountains of Mexico and Brazil, the great and little
Atlas, the Moon, &c. Beside the land which is between the tropics,
from the superior number of islands found in those parts, is the most
unequal of all the globe, as evidently is the sea.
However independent my theory may be of that hypothesis of what
passed at the time of the first state of the globe, I refer to it in this
article, in order to shew the connection and possibility of the system
which I endeavoured to maintain in the first article. It must only be
remarked, that my theory does not stray far from it, as I take the
earth in a state nearly similar to what it appears at present, and as I
do not make use of any of the suppositions which are used on
reasoning on the past state of the terrestrial globe. But as I here
present a new idea on the subject of the sediment deposited by the
water, which, in my opinion, has perforated the upper bed of earth,
it appears to me also necessary to give the reason on which I found
this opinion.
The vapours which rise in the air produce rain, dew, aerial fires,
thunder, and other meteors. These vapours are therefore blended
with aqueous, aerial, sulphurous and terrestrial particles, &c. and it
is the solid and earthy particles which form the mud or slime we are
now speaking of. When rain water is suffered to rest, a sediment is
formed at bottom; and having collected a quantity, if it is suffered to
stand and corrupt, it produces a kind of mud which falls to the
bottom of the vessel. Dew produces much more of this mud than
rain water, which is greasy, unctuous, and of a reddish colour.
The first strata of the earth is composed of this mud, mixed with
perished vegetable or animal parts, or rather stony and sandy
particles. We may remark that almost all land proper for cultivation is
reddish, and more or less mixed with these different matters; the
particles of sand or stone found there are of two kinds, the one
coarse and heavy, the other fine and sometimes impalpable. The
largest comes from the lower strata loosened in cultivating the earth,
or rather the upper mould, by penetrating into the lower, which is of
sand and other divided matters, and forms those earths we call fat
and fertile. The finer sort proceeds from the air, and falls with dew
and rain, and mixes intimately with the soil. This is properly the
residue of the powder, which the wind continually raises from the
surface of the earth, and which falls again after having imbibed the
humidity of the air. When the earth predominates, and the stony and
sandy parts are but few, the earth is then reddish and fertile: if it is
mixed with a considerable quantity of perished animal or vegetable
substances, it is blackish, and often more fertile than the first; but if
the mould is only in a small quantity, as well as the animal or
vegetable parts, the earth is white and sterile, and when the sandy,
stony, or cretaceous parts which compose these sterile lands, are
mixed with a sufficient quantity of perished animal or vegetable
substances, they form the black and lighter earths, but have little
fertility; so that according to the different combinations of these
three different matters, the land is more or less fecund and
differently coloured.
To fix some ideas relative to these stratas; let us take, for example,
the earth of Marly-la-ville, where the pits are very deep: it is a high
country, but flat and fertile, and its strata lie arranged horizontally. I
had samples brought me of all these strata which M. Dalibard, an
able botanist, versed in different sciences, had dug under his
inspection; and after having proved the matters of which they
consisted in aquafortis, I formed the following table of them.

The state of the different beds of earth, found at Marly-la-

ville, to the depth of 100 feet.

Feet. In.
1. A free reddish earth, mixed with much
mud, a very small quantity of vitrifiable
sand, and somewhat more of calcinable
sand 13 0
2. A free earth mixed with gravel, and a little
more vitrifiable sand 2 6
3. Mud mixed with vitrifiable sand in a great 3 0
quantity, and which made but very little
 effervescence with aquafortis
4. Hard marl, which made a very great
effervescence with aquafortis 2 0
5. Pretty hard marl stone 4 0
6. Marl in powder, mixed with vitrifiable sand 5 0
7. Very fine vitrified sand 1 6
8. Marl very like earth mixed with a very little
vitrifiable sand 3 6
9. Hard marl, in which was real flint 3 6
10. Gravel, or powdered marl 1 0
11. Eglantine, a stone of the grain and
hardness of marble, and sonorous 1 6
12. Marly gravel 1 6
13. Marl in hard stone, whose grain was very
fine 1 6
14. Marl in stone, whose grain was not so fine 1 6
15. More grained and thicker marl 2 6
16. Very fine vitrifiable sand, mixed with fossil
sea-shells, which had no adherence with
the sand, and whose colours were perfect 1 6
17. Very small gravel, or fine marl powder 2 0
18. Marl in hard stone 3 6
19. Very coarse powdered marl 1 6
20. Hard and calcinable stone, like marble 1 0
21. Grey vitrifiable sand mixed with fossil
shells, particularly oysters and muscles
which have no adherence with the sand,
and which were not petrified 3 0
 22. White vitrifiable sand mixed with similar
shells 2 0
23. Sand streaked red and white, vitrifiable
and mixed with the like shells 1 0
24. Larger sand, but still vitrifiable and mixed
with the like shells 1 0
25. Fine and vitrifiable grey sand mixed with
the like shells 8 6
26. Very fine fat sand, with only a few shells 3 0
27. Brown free stone 3 0
28. Vitrifiable sand, streaked red and white 4 0
29. White vitrifiable sand 3 6
30. Reddish vitrifiable sand 15 0
————
Total depth 101 0
————

I have before said that I tried all these matters in aquafortis,

because where the inspection and comparison of matters with others
that we are acquainted with is not sufficient to permit us to
denominate and range them in the class which they belong, there is
no means more ready, nor perhaps more sure, than to try by
aquafortis the terrestrial or lapidific matter: those which acid spirits
dissolve immediately with heat and ebullition, are generally
calcinable, and those on which they make no impression are
vitrifiable.
By this enumeration we perceive, that the soil of Marly-la-ville was
formerly the bottom of the sea, which has been raised above 75
feet, since we find shells at that depth below the surface. Those
shells have been transported by the motion of the water, at the
same time as the sand in which they are met with, and the whole of
the upper strata, even to the first, have been transported after the
same manner by the motion of the water, and deposited in form of a
sediment; which we cannot doubt, as well by reason of their
horizontal position, as of the different beds of sand mixed with shells
and marl, the last of which are only the fragments of the shells. The
last stratum itself has been formed almost entirely by the mould we
have spoken of, mixed with a small part of the marl which was at the
surface.
I have chosen this example, as the most disadvantageous to my
theory, because it at first appears very difficult to conceive that the
dust of the air, rain and dew, could produce strata of free earth
thirteen feet thick; but it ought to be observed, that it is very rare to
find, especially in high lands, so considerable a thickness of
cultivateable earth; it is generally about three or four feet, and often
not more than one. In plains surrounded with hills, this thickness of
good earth is the greatest, because the rain loosens the earth of the
hills, and carries it into the vallies; but without supposing any thing
of that kind, I find that the last strata formed by the waters are thick
beds of marl. It is natural to imagine that the upper stratum had, at
the beginning, a still greater thickness, besides the thirteen feet of
marl, when the sea quitted the land and left it naked. This marl,
exposed to the air, melted with the rain; the action of the air and
heat of the sun produced flaws, and reduced it into powder on the
surface; the sea would not quit this land precipitately, but sometimes
cover it, either by the alternative motion of the tides, or by the
extraordinary elevation of the waters in foul weather, when it mixed
with this bed of marl, mud, clay, and other matters. When the land
was raised above the waters, plants would begin to grow, and it was
then that the dust in the rain or dew by degrees added to its
substance and gave it a reddish colour; this thickness and fertility
was soon augmented by culture; by digging and dividing its surface,
and thus giving to the dust, in the dew or rain, the facility of more
deeply penetrating it, which at last produced that bed of free earth
thirteen feet thick.
I shall not here examine whether the reddish colour of vegetable
earth proceeds from the iron which is contained in the earths that
are deposited by the rains and dews, but being of importance, shall
take notice of it when we come to treat of minerals; it is sufficient to
have explained our conception of the formation of the superficial
strata of the earth, and by other examples we shall prove, that the
formation of the interior strata, can only be the work of the waters.
The surface of the globe, says Woodward, this external stratum on
which men and animals walk, which serves as a magazine for the
formation of vegetables and animals, is, for the greatest part,
composed of vegetable or animal matter, and is in continual motion
and variation. All animals and vegetables which have existed from
the creation of the world, have successively extracted from this
stratum the matter which composes it, and have, after their deaths,
restored to it this borrowed matter: it remains there always ready to
be retaken, and to serve for the formation of other bodies of the
same species successively, for the matter which composes one body
is proper and natural to form another body of the same kind. In
uninhabited countries, where the woods are never cut, where
animals do not brouze on the plants, this stratum of vegetable earth
increases considerably. In all woods, even in those which are
sometimes cut, there is a bed of mould, of six or eight inches thick,
formed entirely by the leaves, small branches, and barks which have
perished. I have often observed on the ancient Roman way, which
crosses Burgundy in a long extent of soil, that there is formed a bed
of black earth more than a foot thick upon the stones, which
nourishes very high trees; and this stratum could be composed only
of a black mould formed by the leaves, bark, and perished wood. As
vegetables inhale for their nutriment much more from the air and
water than the earth, it happens that when they perish, they return
to the earth more than they have taken from it. Besides, forests
collect the rain water, and by stopping the vapours increase their
moisture; so in a wood which is preserved a long time, the stratum
of earth which serves for vegetation increases considerably. But
animals restoring less to the earth than they take from it, and men
making enormous consumption of wood and plants for fire, and
other uses, it follows that the vegetable soil of inhabited countries
must diminish, and become, in time, like the soil of Arabia Petrea,
and other eastern provinces, which, in fact, are the most ancient
inhabited countries, where only sand and salt are now to be met
with; for the fixed salts of plants and animals remain, whereas all
the other parts volatilise, and are transported by the air.
Let us now examine the position and formation of the interior strata:
the earth, says Woodward, appears in places that have been dug,
composed of strata placed one on the other, as so many sediments
which necessarily fell to the bottom of the water; the deepest strata
are generally the thickest, and those above the thinnest, and so
gradually lessening to the surface. We find sea shells, teeth, and
bones of fish in these different beds, and not only in those that are
soft, as chalk and clay, but even in those of hard stone, marble, &c.
These marine productions are incorporated with the stone, and
when separated from them, leave the impressions of the shells with
the greatest exactness. "I have been most clearly and positively
assured," says this author, "that in France, Flanders, Holland, Spain,
Italy, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, stone, and other
terrestrial substances are disposed in strata, precisely the same as
they are in England; that these strata are divided by parallel fissures;
that there are inclosed within stones and other terrestrial and
compact substances, a great quantity of shells and other productions
of the sea, disposed in the same manner as in this island. I am also
informed that these strata are found the same in Barbary, Egypt,
Guinea, and in other parts of Africa; in Arabia, Syria, Persia, Malabar,
China, and the rest of the provinces of Asia; in Jamaica, Barbadoes,
Virginia, New-England, Brazil, and other parts of America[198:A]."
This author does not say how he learnt, or by whom he was told,
that the strata of Peru contained shells; yet as in general his
observations are exact, I do not doubt but he was well informed;
and am persuaded that shells may be found in the earth of Peru, as
well as elsewhere. This remark is made from a doubt having been
formed some time since on the subject, and which I shall hereafter
consider.
In a trench made at Amsterdam, to the depth of 230 feet, the strata
were found as follows: 7 feet of vegetable earth, 9 of turf, 9 of soft
clay, 8 of sand, 4 of earth, 10 of clay, 4 of earth, 10 of sand, then 2
feet of clay, 4 of white sand, 5 of dry earth, 1 of soft earth, 14 of
sand, 8 of argil, mixed with earth; 4 of sand, mixed with shells; then
clay 102 feet thick, and at last 31 feet of sand, at which depth they
ceased digging[199:A].
It is very singular to dig so deep without meeting with water: and
this circumstance is remarkable in many particulars. 1. It shews, that
the water of the sea does not communicate with the interior part of
the earth, by means of filtration. 2. That shells are found at the
depth of 100 feet below the surface, and that consequently the soil
of Holland has been raised 100 feet by the sediment of the sea. 3.
We may draw an induction, that this strata of thick clay of 102 feet,
and the bed of sand below it, in which they dug to 31 feet, and
whose entire thickness is unknown, are perhaps not very far distant
from the first strata of the original earth, such as it was before the
motion of the water had changed its surface. We have said in the
first article, that if we desired to find the ancient earth, we should
dig in the northern countries, rather than towards the south; in
plains rather than in mountainous regions. The circumstances in this
instance, appear to be nearly so, only it is to be wished they had
continued the digging to a greater depth, and that the author had
informed us, whether there were not shells and other marine
productions, in the last bed of clay, and in that of sand below it. The
experiment confirms what we have already said; and the more we
dig, the greater thickness we shall find the strata.
The earth is composed of parallel and horizontal beds, not only in
plains, but hills and mountains are in general composed after the
same manner: it may be said, that the strata in hills and mountains
are more apparent there than in the plains, because the plains are
generally covered with a very considerable quantity of sand and
earth, which the water has brought from the higher grounds, and
therefore, to find the ancient strata, must dig deeper in the plains
than in the mountains.
I have often observed, that when a mountain is level at its summit,
the strata which compose it are also level; but if the summit is not
placed horizontally, the strata inclines also in the same direction. I
have heard that, in general, the beds of quarries inclined a little to
the east; but having myself observed all the chains of rocks which
offered, I discovered this opinion to be erroneous, and that the
strata inclines to the same side as the hill, whether it be east, west,
north, or south. When we dig stone and marble from the quarry, we
take great care to separate them according to their natural position,
and we cannot even get them of a large size, if we cut them in any
other direction. Where they are made use of for good masonry, the
workmen are particular in placing them as they stood in the quarry,
for if they were placed in any other direction, they would split, and
would not resist the weight with which they are loaded. This
perfectly confirms that stones, are found in parallel and horizontal
strata, which have been successively heaped one on the other, and
that these strata composed masses where resistance is greater in
that direction than in any other.
Every strata, whether horizontal or inclined, has an equal thickness
throughout its whole extent. In the quarries about Paris the bed of
good stone is not thick, scarcely more than 18 or 20 feet: in those of
Burgundy the stone is much thicker. It is the same with marble; the
black and white marble have a thicker bed than the coloured; and I
know beds of very hard stone, which the farmers in Burgundy make
use of to cover their houses, that are not above an inch thick. The
different strata vary much in thickness, but each bed preserves the
same thickness throughout its extent. The thickness of strata is so
greatly varied, that it is found from less than a line to 1, 10, 20, 30,
or 100 feet thick. The ancient and modern quarries, which are
horizontally dug, the perpendicular and other divisions of mines,
prove that there are extensive strata in all directions. "It is
thoroughly proved," says the historian of the academy, "that all
stones have formerly been a soft paste, and as there are quarries
almost in every part, the surface of the earth has therefore
consisted, in all these places, of mud and slime, at least to certain
depths. The shells found in most quarries prove that this mud was
an earth diluted by the water of the sea, and consequently that the
sea covered all these places; and it could not cover them without
also covering all that was level with or lower than it: and it is plain
that it could not cover every place where there were quarries,
without covering the whole face of the terrestrial globe. We do not
here consider the mountains which the sea must also at one time
have covered, since quarries and shells are often found in them.
"The sea," continues he, "therefore, covered the whole earth, and
from thence it proceeds that all the beds of stone in the plains are
horizontal and parallel; fish must have also been the most ancient
inhabitants of the globe, as there was no sustenance for either birds
or terrestrial animals." But how did the sea retire into these vast
basins which it at present occupies? What presents itself the most
natural to the mind is, that the earth, at least at a certain depth, was
not entirely solid, but intermixed with some great vacuums, whose
vaults were supported for a time, but at length, sunk in suddenly:
then the waters must have fallen into these vacancies, filled them,
and left naked a part of the earth's surface, which became an
agreeable abode to terrestrial animals and birds. The shells found in
quarries perfectly agree with this idea, for only the bony parts of fish
could be preserved till now. In general, shells are heaped up in great
abundance in certain parts of the sea, where they are immovable,
and form a kind of rock, and could not follow the water, which
suddenly forsook them: this is the reason that we find more shells
than bones of the fish, and this even proves a sudden fall of the sea
into its present basins. At the same time as our supposed vaults
gave way, it is very possible that other parts of the globe were raised
by the same cause, and that mountains were placed on this surface
with quarries already formed, but the beds of these quarries could
not preserve the horizontal direction they before had, unless the
mountains were raised precisely perpendicular to the surface of the
earth, which could happen but very seldom: so also, as we have
already observed, in 1705, the beds of stone in mountains are
always inclined to the horizon, though parallel with each other; for
they have not changed their position with respect to each other, but
only with respect to the surface of the earth[205:A].
These parallel strata, these beds of earth and stone, which have
been formed by the sediment of the sea, often extend to
considerable distances, and we often find in hills, separated by a
valley, the same beds and the same matters at the same level. This
observation agrees perfectly with that of the height of the opposite
hills. We may easily be assured of the truth of these facts, for in all
narrow vallies, where rocks are discovered, we shall find the same
beds of stone and marble on both sides at the same height. In a
country where I frequently reside, I found a quarry of marble which
extended more than 12 leagues in length, and whose breadth was
very considerable, although I have never been able precisely to
determine it. I have often observed that this bed of marble is
throughout of the same thickness, and in hills divided from this
quarry by a valley of 100 feet depth, and a quarter of a mile in
breadth, I found the same bed of marble at the same height. I am
persuaded it is the same in every stone and marble quarry where
shells are found; but this observation does not hold good in quarries
of freestone. In the course of this work, we shall give reasons for
this difference, and describe why freestone is not dispersed, like
other matters, in horizontal beds, and why it is in irregular blocks,
both in form and position.
We have likewise observed that the strata are the same on both
sides the straits of the sea. This observation, which is important,
may lead us to discover the lands and islands which have been
separated from the continent; it proves, for example, that England
has been divided from France; Spain from Africa; Sicily from Italy;
and it is to be wished that the same observation had been made in
all the straits. I am persuaded that we should find it almost every
where true. We do not know whether the same beds of stone are
found at the same height on both sides the straits of Magellan,
which is the longest; but we see, by the particular maps and exact
charts, that the two high coasts which confine it, form nearly, like
the mountains of the earth, correspondent angles, which also proves
that the Terra del Fuega, must be regarded as part of the continent
of America; it is the same with Forbisher's Strait and the island of
Friesland, which appear to have been divided from the continent of
Greenland.
The Maldivian islands are only separated by small tracts of the sea,
on each side of which banks and rocks are found composed of the
same materials; and these islands, which, taken together, are near
200 miles long, formed anciently only one land; they are now
divided into 13 provinces, called Clusters. Each cluster contains a
great number of small islands, most of which are sometimes
overflowed and sometimes dry; but what is remarkable, these
thirteen clusters are each surrounded with a chain of rocks of the
same stone, and there are only three or four dangerous inlets by
which they can be entered. They are all placed one after the other,
and it evidently appears that these islands were formerly a long
mountain capped with rocks[216:A].
Many authors, as Verstegan, Twine, Somner, and especially
Campbell, in his Description of England, in the chapter of Kent, gives
very strong reasons, to prove that England was formerly joined to
France, and has been separated from it by an effort of the sea,
which carried away the neck of land that joined them, opened the
channel, and left naked a great quantity of low and marshy ground
along the southern coasts of England. Dr. Wallis, as a corroboration
of this supposition, shews the conformity of the ancient Gallic and
British tongues, and adds many observations, which we shall relate
in the following articles.
If we consider the form of lands, the position of mountains, and the
windings of rivers, we shall perceive that generally opposite hills are
not only composed of the same matters on the same level, but are
nearly of an equal height. This equality I have observed in my
travels, and have mostly found them the same on the two sides,
especially in vallies that were not more than a quarter or a third of a
league broad, for in vallies which are very broad, it is difficult to
judge of the height and equality of hills, because, by looking over a
level plain of any great extent, it appears to rise, and hills at a
distance appear to lower; but this is not the place to give a
mathematical reason for this difference. It is also very difficult to
judge by the naked sight of the middle of a great valley, at least if
there is no river in it; whereas in confined vallies our sight is less
equivocal and our judgment more certain. That part of Burgundy
comprehended between Auxerre, Dijon, Autun, and Bar-sur-seine, a
considerable extent of which is called la Bailliage de la Montagne, is
one of the highest parts of France; from one side of most of these
mountains, which are only of the second class, the water flows
towards the Ocean, and on the other side towards the
Mediterranean. This high country is divided with many small vallies,
very confined, and almost all watered with rivulets. I have a
thousand times observed the correspondence of the angles of these
hills and their equality of height, and I am certain that I have every
where found the saliant angles opposite to the returning angles, and
the heights nearly equal on both sides. The farther we advance into
the higher country, where the points of division are, the higher are
the mountains; but this height is always the same on both sides of
the vallies, and the hills are raised or lowered alike. I have frequently
made the like observations in many other parts of France. It is this
equality in the height of the hills which forms the plains in the
mountains, and these plains form lands higher than others. But high
mountains do not appear so equal in height, most of them terminate
in points and irregular peaks; and I have seen, in crossing the Alps,
and the Apennine mountains, that the angles are, in fact,
correspondent; but it is almost impossible to judge by the eye of the
equality or inequality in the height of opposite mountains, because
their summits are lost in mists and clouds.
The different strata of which the earth is composed are not disposed
according to their specific weight, for we often find strata of heavy
matters placed on those of lighter. To be assured of this, we have
only to examine the earth on which rocks are placed, and we shall
find that it is generally clay or sand, which is specifically lighter. In
hills, and other small elevations, we easily discover this to be the
case; but it is not so with large mountains, for not only their
summits are rocks, but those rocks are placed on others; there
mountains are placed upon mountains, and rocks upon rocks, to
such a considerable height, and through so great an extent of
country, that we can scarcely be certain whether there is earth at
bottom, or of what nature it is. I have seen cavities made in rocks to
some hundred feet deep, without being able to form an idea where
they ended, for these rocks were supported by others; nevertheless,
may we not compare great with small? and since the rocks of little
mountains, whose bases are to be seen, rest on the earth less heavy
and solid than stone, may we not suppose that earth is also the base
of high mountains? All that I have here to prove by these arguments
is, that, by the motion of the waters, it may naturally happen that
the more ponderous matters accumulated on the lighter; and that, if
this in fact is found to be so in most hills, it is probable that it
happened as explained by my theory; but should it be objected that
I am not grounded in supposing, that before the formation of
mountains the heaviest matters were below the lighter; I answer,
that I assert nothing general in this respect, because this effect may
have been produced in many manners, whether the heaviest matters
were uppermost or undermost, or placed indiscriminately. To
conceive how the sea at first formed a mountain of clay, and
afterwards capt it with rocks, it is sufficient to consider the
sediments may successively come from different parts, and that they
might be of different materials. In some parts, the sea may at first
have deposited sediments of clay, and the waters afterwards brought
sediment of strong matter, either because they had transported all
the clay from the bottom and sides, and then the waves attacked the
rocks, possibly because the first sediment came from one part, and
the second from another. This perfectly agrees with observation, by
which we perceive that beds of earth, stone, gravel, sand, &c.
followed no rule in their arrangement, but are placed indifferently
one on the other as it were by chance.
But this chance must have some rules, which can be known only by
estimating the value of probabilities, and the truth of conjectures.
According to our hypothesis, on the formation of the globe, we have
seen that the interior part of the globe must have been a vitrified
matter, similar to vitrified sand, which is only the fragments of glass,
and of which the clays are perhaps the scoria; by this supposition,
the centre of the earth, and almost as far as the external
circumference, must be glass, or a vitrified matter; and above this
we shall find sand, clay, and other scoria. Thus the earth, in its first
state, was a nucleus of glass, or vitrified matter; either massive like
glass, or divided like sand, because that depends on the degree of
heat it has undergone. Above this matter was sand, and lastly clay.
The soil of the waters and air produced the external crust, which is
thicker or thinner, according to the situation of the ground; more or
less coloured, according to the different mixtures of mud, sand, clay,
and the decayed parts of animals and vegetables; and more or less
fertile, according to the abundance or want of these parts. To shew
that this supposition on the formation of sand and clay is not
chimerical, I shall add some particular remarks.
I conceive, that the earth, in its first state, was a globe, or rather a
spheroid of compact glass, covered with a light crust of pumice
stone and other scoria of the matter in fusion. The motion and
agitation of the waters and air soon reduced this crust into powder
or sand, which, by uniting afterwards, produced flints, and owe their
hardness, colour, or transparency and variety, to the different
degrees of purity of the sand which entered into their composition.
These sands, whose constituting parts unite by fire, assimilate, and
become very dense, compact, and the more transparent as the sand
is more pure; on the contrary, being exposed a long time to the air,
they disunite and exfoliate, descend in the form of earth, and it is
probable the different clays are thus produced. This dust, sometimes
of a brightish yellow, and sometimes like silver, is nothing else but a
very pure sand somewhat perished, and almost reduced to an
elementary state. By time, particles will be so far attenuated and
divided, that they will no longer have power to reflect the light, and
acquire all the properties of clay.
This theory is conformable to what every day is seen; let us
immediately wash sand upon its being dug, and the water will be
loaded with a black ductile and fat earth, which is genuine clay. In
streets paved with freestone, the dirt is always black and greasy, and
when dried appears to be an earth of the same nature as clay. Let
us wash the earth taken from a spot where there are neither
freestone nor flints, and there will always precipitate a great quantity
of vitrifiable sand.
But what perfectly proves that sand, and even flint and glass, exist
in clay, is, that the action of fire, by uniting the parts, restores it to
its original form. Clay, if heated to the degree of calcination, will
cover itself with a very hard enamel; if it is not vitrified internally, it
nevertheless will have acquired a very great hardness, so as to resist
the file; it will emit fire under the hammer, and it has all the
properties of flint; a greater degree of heat causes it to flow, and
converts it into real glass.
Clay and sand are therefore matters perfectly analogous, and of the
same class; if clay, by condensing, may become flint and glass, why
may not sand, by dissolution, become clay? Glass appears to be true
elementary earth, and all mixed substances disguised glass. Metals,
minerals, salts, &c. are only vitrifiable earth; common stone and
other matters analogous to it, and testaceous and crustaceous
shells, &c. are the only substances which cannot be vitrified, and
which seem to form a separate class. Fire, by uniting the divided
parts of the first, forms an homogeneous matter, hard and
transparent, without any diminution of weight, and to which it is not
possible to cause any alteration; those, on the contrary, in which a
greater quantity of active and volatile principles enter, and which
calcine, lose more than one-third of their weight in the fire, and
retake the form of simple earth, without any other alteration than a
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