I have posted scanned images of the first ten pages of the Akhmim Fragment (which nobody disputes preserve a part of the Gospel of Peter) that were originally published in:

Gebhardt, Oscar von. Das Evangelium und die Apokalypse des Petrus. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1893.

I have also posted a scanned image of the Faiyum Fragment (which Dieter Luehrman tentatively proposed was a part of the Gospel of Peter) that was originally published in:

Bickell, G. “Das nichtkanonische Evangelium-Fragment.” In Mittheilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erherzog Rainer I, edited by Joseph Karabacek, 53-61. Vienna: Verlag der K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1887.

It is interesting to note the unusual abbreviation of Peter’s name on the manuscript, and how it has been colored over (highlighted?) in red. The transcription below in the manuscript image is also from the same publication.

All of the images of the two remaining possible fragments of the Gospel of Peter (Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2949 and Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 4009) are linked from the papyrology website at Oxford. I am pleased to see that the work of making digital images of the Oxyrhycnhus papyri available online is continuing vigorously at my alma mater.

I changed the ‘New Testament’ links category to ‘New Testament and Early Christianity’ in order to make the category more broadly apply to the field of Christian origins. I also added a relatively new blog to this category, Gospels.net, which has been around for a little longer than a month. It’s an excellent blog and I look forward to more posts coming from Andrew Bernhard.

Biblioblogs.com is the premiere reference for information about blogs focused on biblical and related studies. Editors Brandon Wason and John Hobbins have put an enormous amount of time and energy into creating this resource. The site includes not only a single definitive list of biblioblogs but also monthly interviews with the different people responsible for creating those blogs. I am very glad to see that the editors have decided to change the “New Testament” category to the “New Testament and Early Christianity” category because, in my mind at least, these two topics are inextricably linked. Regardless, this blog is definitely worth checking out.

Another blog worth noting is Brandon Wason’s personal blog, Sitz im Leben: The Jesus Tradition – Then and Now. Like gospels.net, this is a scholarly blog that was launched a little over a month ago. I look forward to seeing more posts from Brandon . . . and I have to extend my extra appreciation to him for his most recent post containing a list of New Testament introductions commonly used in introductory New Testament classes (it just happened to be exactly what I was looking for at the time!)

Both biblioblogs.com and sitzimleben.com are included in the gospels.net blogroll.

A scholar who is working on the bookbindings of St Catherine of Mt Sinai has found what is most probably a new leaf of Codex Sinaiticus within the binding of the book!

Jan Krans has added in a note to the post:

The text, if I remember well, is from Joshua 1. It is currently debated whether it should be tried to liberate the fragment from the binding (one would like to read the backside as well), or to wait for technological advancements.

Fragments of ancient manuscripts do turn up in the most peculiar places, don’t they?

Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. Its heavily corrected text is of outstanding importance for the history of the Bible and the manuscript – the oldest substantial book to survive Antiquity – is of supreme importance for the history of the book.

The different parts of Codex Sinaiticus are currently housed in four locations:

• The British Library, UK
• Leipzig University Library, Germany
• St Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai
• The National Library of Russia, St Petersburg

Thanks to considerable international collaboration, digitial images of all the surviving pages have been brought together on a single website. It is great to see the culmination of such a major project and the significant media attention it has garnered (see Brandon Wason’s blog post regarding this matter).

The contents of Codex Sinaiticus themselves are noteworthy, as they testify to the slow process by which the ultimate boundaries and arrangement of the Christian canon of scripture were defined. The fourth-century manuscript presumably contained both the complete Old Testament and New Testament in Greek, even though most of  the opening of the Old Testament (from Genesis to 1 Chronicles) has been lost. Yet, neither Testament is presented precisely as it would be in most modern Bibles. The Old Testament contains texts that are now commonly classified as Apocrypha (2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach), and the New Testament is arranged differently (Hebrews is placed after 2 Thessalonians, and Acts appears between the Pastoral and Catholic Epistles) with two additional ancient writings included (The Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas).

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Notes: The version of the Greek Old Testament/Hebrew Bible included in Codex Sinaiticus is called the Septuagint. While The Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas were ultimately excluded from the New Testament, quality critical editions of both ancient texts are available in modern collections of the “Apostolic Fathers.”

When I started out, I planned to proceed somewhat systematically in working through the different gospels. However, I now realize that this is just not how a blog works. The course of gospels.net needs to be guided by new developments in the study of early Christian gospels and new information as it comes to my attention, not by my preconceived notions about what the path of the blog should be.

I won’t bore you with any further details. Suffice it to say, I now recognize that I’ll be jumping around a bit more than I originally intended with the blog. For this reason, I have decided (against my initial inclination) to categorize all posts. The categories are now listed in the sidebar; simply click on one to isolate posts pertaining to a particular topic.

But seriously, I appreciate Dr. Patterson taking the time to review my book and provide valuable feedback, as well as all the other scholars who have done so.

I am very humbled by the attention my book has received.

The gospels.net blog focuses on providing the latest news relevant to the study of early Christian gospels not included in the New Testament. Blog posts will include information about recent publications, new or updated websites, upcoming conferences, and other topics as appropriate; they will not deal with contemporary theological or political issues.

The gospels.net resource centers offer guidance about materials that are useful for the study of early Christian gospels not included in the New Testament. They provide extensive lists of helpful online and offline resources. These lists are not intended to be exhaustive but rather to highlight top-quality websites, blogs, books, and articles that deal with the pertinent gospels and related subjects.

Gospels.net is, and always will be, a work in progress. My plan is to begin next week by uploading some Gospel of Thomas resources that are not available elsewhere on the web, and then moving on to annotating the resource center bibliographies. Ultimately, I intend to annotate each bibliography entry. I will also be adding short descriptions about each of the texts dealt with here soon and begin evaluating other blogs for inclusion in the blogroll.

It is for us to treasure at this distance of time any even of the reputed sayings of Jesus. If we believe them not, at least men who lived in Egypt in the second and third century found them a strength and stay to their faith, and we can treat them with the reverence they deserve . . .”

- Rev. H. D. Rawnsley
Six Village Sermons on the Papyrus Fragment (1897)

Having essentially declared myself to be a “neutral” reporter in my last post, I think it is necessary to say a brief word about myself and disclose a bit about my perspective on the subject I will be covering. It is only fair for my readers to have a sense of where I’m coming from.

I am a scholar of ancient history and literature who is interested in the development of the gospel tradition during the first two centuries. I am fascinated by how early Christians wrote gospels to express their different understandings about the significance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to read early Christian gospels that were lost for many centuries before being rediscovered in modern times.

Whatever one may think about the veracity of these recently recovered texts, they do provide us with new insights into how Jesus was perceived by some of his nearly forgotten ancient followers. I suspect that anyone who considers these texts will, at the very least, gain novel insights into and significantly improve his or her understanding of the four texts that have been at the heart of the Christian movement for nearly two millennia: The Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The mission of gospels.net is to provide easy access to and reliable information about early Christian gospels that were not ultimately included in the New Testament, especially the Gospel of Thomas.

Some of these gospels were the subject of heated theological quarrels in antiquity, and their rediscovery in modern times has produced some astonishingly hostile disputes in recent years . . .  twentieth and twenty-first century arguments that have at times included the kind of vitriolic polemics, sensational conspiracy theories, and senseless personal attacks that would, in my opinion, have been better left behind in the distant past. I want no part of this.

I hope to use this online resource to counterbalance the many sensationalized reports about early Christian gospels that were not ultimately included in the New Testament. My goal is to facilitate sensible discussion and enable interested individuals to formulate their own educated opinions about gospels that were important to some of Jesus’ ancient followers. To this end, I will be providing information about high-quality resources that offer different perspectives on the various early Christian gospels. I intend to describe the perspectives of these various resources, but I will not be stating my personal opinions about them here (at least, I will withhold my personal opinions as much as possible).

Gospels.net should be regarded as a news source. It will not be a place for my personal opinions or editorializing. I would prefer to present my own reflections and personal commentaries on early Christian gospels in other forums. My function here online is merely as a reporter.

This website was initially established in 1996 to provide scholars, students and other interested parties with easy access to little-known early Christian gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas.

I am proud to say that the original site served its purpose well, but much has occurred in the intervening years:

1. A substantial portion of the original website has been revised and published as a book (Other Early Christian Gospels).
2. An additional long-lost gospel (The Gospel of Judas) has been recovered and made available to the world.
3. There has been a dramatic increase in public interest in ancient gospels not included in the New Testament (remember The Da Vinci Code?).
4. The World Wide Web has undergone a staggering evolution (blogs, social networking sites, RSS/Atom feeds, wikis, etc.).

Unfortunately, the site that I originally created more than a decade ago by typing HTML code into a basic text editor simply wasn’t designed to be adapted or expanded easily. So, after much soul searching, I have come to the conclusion that the old site needs to be officially retired.

It is time to begin again.