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POSSIBLE new Jesus sayings fragment coming out — not Q or Thomas, but Ebionite?

 Contra some degree of perhaps too much huzzahs and handsprings at r/AcademicBiblical (note a commenter talking about this connecting the canonical gospels and Thomas when no such idea can be firmly derived from this) it is interesting to hear about a POSSIBLE new sayings source of Jesus, per this piece at The Daily Beast.

First, the manuscript fragments seem legit. They're of the items that Dirk Obbink likely either stole himself or acquired from someone else who stole them, likely for him. See my long post about his recent history. They're also tied to Hobby Lobby's Museum of the Bible, and see my not one but two pieces about old Concordia Seminary friend Jeff Kloha doing clean-up work there. (Part of the results of some of the clean-up is Hobby Lobby suing Obbink, referenced at link one.)

Second, the story is legit. It's by Candida Moss. Her Myth of Persecution downplayed most legends of early Christian martyrdom, so she knows her stuff about early Christian history in general. (She also wrote about Obbink, per my link.)

Third is the "possible." I quote:

Although the fragment does not include the phrase “Jesus said,” it appears to be a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus. As the fragment is so short, it is difficult to determine exactly what kind of text it was.

Hence, further reason for tamping down the huzzahs and handsprings.

And, per her piece, let's also tamp down potential huzzahs and hangsprings from this fundagelicals. 

This is the key there:

What is certain is that this text was at least partly concerned with the problem of worries of the world, or as ancient philosophers would put it, the care of the soul. The contents parallel passages of both canonical and non-canonical Gospels around this theme: specifically, an instruction not to worry about your life, food, or clothing (Matthew 6:25; Luke 12:22; Gospel of Thomas 27; 36); to emulate birds and their lack of cares (portions of Matt. 6:26–33; Luke 12:24–29); and a saying in the Gospel of Thomas that cautions people that even a rich man who amassed wealth still met death (saying 63). You cannot plan your way out of mortality. All life, like grass “is dried up and thrown in the oven” in the end. 
Some of the divergences are not just errors or variations in wording but may represent choices about important issues like human anthropology. Fish told me that while Matthew and Luke have Jesus say that “life is more than nourishment and the body more than clothing,” the author of this fragment omits that section. They instead warn people what will happen if they do not abandon their preoccupation with worldly affairs.

So, it's a "this life only," which goes against both Q, and arguably, Thomas with its gnosticizing angles. If anything, it sounds like it could be an Ebionite type piece. Since I got banned from AcademicBiblical for calling a Nazi mod a Nazi, I can't say that there.

It's only about 19 lines long, supposedly, per Moss' TikTok, so we can't say more.



This post first appeared on The Philosophy Of The Socratic Gadfly, please read the originial post: here

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POSSIBLE new Jesus sayings fragment coming out — not Q or Thomas, but Ebionite?

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