The Gospel of the Savior

By Anonymous and Paul Mirecki

On March 20, 1967, the Berlin Egyptian Museum acquired a collection of thirty-three parchment fragments written in Coptic. There they were given the simple designation P22220 and stored... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0944344909
• ISBN13: 9780944344903
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Polebridge Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Carefully pieced together from parchment pieces

The collaboration of biblical scholars Charles W. Hedrick and Paul A. Mirecki, Gospel Of The Savior: A New Ancient Gospel is the first publication and translation of a long-lost Christian gospel written in the Coptic language of Christian Egypt. Carefully pieced together from parchment pieces found in the Berlin Egyptian Museum, this long-lost gospel presents dialogues and discourse of a figure called "the savior" by his apostles. Extensive commentary upon the text fragments rounds out this fascinating, meticulously researched, painstakingly translated, and superbly presented reference. Fascinating reading for Christian history, theology, and scholarship, this edition of the Gospel Of The Savior is an essential, core addition to any serious, comprehensive New Testament Studies academic reference collection.

A Must Have For Students of Early Christianity

Mirecki and Hedrick team up to present a coherent and comprehensive text on an ancient gospel rarely discussed in non-academic circles. The concise, unbiased presentation is a must for any library of early Christianity.

A carefully edited critical edition

To my surprise this is not a popularisation but the editio princeps of the text, and a piece of sound textual scholarship. Speculation is kept to a minimum, Christian-baiting is omitted, and the emphasis is on providing the data to the scholarly community. The introduction, transcription and translation are by Prof. Hedrick; the commentary by Dr. Mirecki, but both take responsibility for each other's contribution, and the 'join' is not really visible. Full monochrome photographs are provided, and a critical apparatus. There is a distinct tendency to avoid making judgements on points of detail. The editors are clearly aware that any such discussion would render their book obsolete within a year or two as the issues are thrashed out. There is an excellent section on the codicology. It is difficult not to be impressed at the skill with which the jigsaw puzzle has been put together. Interestingly some of the fragments bear Coptic page numbers - 99, 100, etc - which indicates the text comes from a larger volume. The translation is literalist, which is very welcome, and the text and translation laid out opposite each other in the diplomatic manner. The commentary attempts to elucidate the meaning of the fragments, and likewise avoids large and loose conclusions.Issues of dating are addressed very tentatively. The book is parchment, in quires, written in a polished Sahidic Coptic, and displays some skill in codex making. Analysis of letter forms suggests a date between the 4th-7th centuries - perhaps most likely somewhere in the middle. The book has suffered damage by fire, but no comment is made about this. The text seems to make use of both Matthew and John, with an occasional echo of Luke, and reflects the Coptic text of these works. There is a reference to 'Aeons', the 'Pleroma', and other general Gnostic indicators, e.g. 'Do not let matter rule over you' (p.98 line 44 of the codex/p.31). The editors feel that the 'latest date for its original composition is probably in the late second century' (p.2), although they fail to make quite clear why. However a second century date for the work seems quite reasonable, in view of the definite but unfocused nature of the Gnosticism in the surviving fragments, which I suspect is the basis for their statement. There is a general smattering of Greek words throughout the codex. A very careful paragraph (pp.12-13) discusses evidence for one Coptic word being a too literal mistranslation of a Greek idiom and so 'implies that the Gospel of the Savior is based on an earlier Greek original subsequently translated into Coptic'. The scholarly refusal here to say too more than the evidence demands, combined with the solid scholarship underlying it, makes very pleasant reading.There are full references to other ancient texts, probable or otherwise. Curiously there are two references in the fragments which could relate to the long ending of Mark, (e.g. 'sitting at the right hand of the father upon you