UNWRITTEN SAYINGS, commonly called Agrapha (Gr. Itypaoos, ag'ra(-os, unwritten), a term which refers to the sayings of Christ not mentioned in the four Gospels. Of these, of course, there are many, as John tells us (xxi :25). rhose sayings which have come down to us are found : (I) In the other books of the New Testa ment, which are the first, best and surest authori ty. An unequivocal example is seen in Acts xx : 35, "Remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to re ceive." (2) Some manuscripts of the New Testa ment, as, for example, the Codex Bezae, in which is a much-quoted addition to Luke vi :4. (3) Quotations in early Christian writers and in lost gospels, all of which references disappeared after the fourth century, as soon as the present gospel text had been generally accepted. Resell has ac cepted as genuine seventy-four of these sayings from this source, saying, however, that they do not affect the truth of our Lord's life. (4) "The Logia, or Sayings of our Lord," found in Oxy rhvnchus, one hundred and twenty miles south of Cairo. Egypt, by Messrs. B. F. Grenfell and Ar thur S. Hunt, in 1896.
The following is quoted from Rev. W. Locke in The Expositor: "The document in question is a leaf from a papyrus book containing a col lection of Logia, or Sayings of our Lord, of which some, _though presenting several novel features, are familar ; others are wholly new. It was found . . in a mound which produced a great many papyri belonging to the first three centuries of our era, those in the immediate vicinity of our fragment belonging to the second and third centu ries. This fact, together with the evidence of the handwriting, which has a characteristically Rom an aspect, fixes with certainty 30o A. D. as the
lowest limit for the date at which the papyrus was written. The general probabilities of the case, the presence of the usual contractions found in the Biblical manuscripts, and the fact that the papyrus was in book (not roll) form, put the first century out of the question, and make the first half of the second century unlikely. The date, therefore, probably falls within the period of 150 300 A. D. The fragment measures inches, but its height was originally somewhat greater, as it is unfortunately broken at the bottom" (pp. 5, 6).
The English rendering of the Logia (pp. to-15), as given by Grenfell and Hunt, is as follows: No. 1. " . . . and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in the brother's eye." No. 2. "Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world, ye shall in nowise find the kingdom of God ; and except ye keep the Sabbath, ye shall not see the Father." No. 3. "Jesus saith, I stood in the midst of the world, and in the flesh was I seen of them, and I found all men drunken, and none found I athirst among them; and my soul grieveth over the sons of men, because they are blind in their heart. . . . .
No. 4. Undecipherable.
No. 5. "Jesus saith, Wherever there are . . . and there is one . . . alone, I am with him. Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me ; cleave the wood, and there am I." No. 6. "Jesus saith, A prophet is not acceptable in his own country, neither doth a physician work cures among them that know him." No. 7. "Jesus saith, A city built upon the top of a high hill, and stablished, can neither fall nor be hid."