Moving on we get to the Epistle of Eugnostos the Blessed.
Two versions of this document - apparently different Coptic translations from an earlier Greek original - was discovered among the Nag Hamadi trove in Egypt in 1945. Nag Hamadi was a collection of Gnostic xtian documents. As noted on the EarlyChristianWritings website Eugnostos is dated to the first century AD. The problem is that Eugnosos doesn't know anything about any 'jesus' or even 'christ.' Nonetheless, that did not stop some later xtian fraudster from using Eugnostos to write what is known as the Sophia of Jesus Christ. Dates for the latter seem to run from the 3d century onwards and a location primarily in Egypt and Palestine. I will now let Carrier explain the issue and How To Invent A Gospel.
Both documents are available at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
Two versions of this document - apparently different Coptic translations from an earlier Greek original - was discovered among the Nag Hamadi trove in Egypt in 1945. Nag Hamadi was a collection of Gnostic xtian documents. As noted on the EarlyChristianWritings website Eugnostos is dated to the first century AD. The problem is that Eugnosos doesn't know anything about any 'jesus' or even 'christ.' Nonetheless, that did not stop some later xtian fraudster from using Eugnostos to write what is known as the Sophia of Jesus Christ. Dates for the latter seem to run from the 3d century onwards and a location primarily in Egypt and Palestine. I will now let Carrier explain the issue and How To Invent A Gospel.
Quote:Eugnostos is a fake epistle written by what is almost certainly a fake person ('Eugnostos' means 'well knowing', an obviously fictional name),
possibly composed before Christianity, as it contains no material distinctive of Christianity, but appears to outline an esoteric doctrine of Jewish
theology concerning the firstborn celestial Son of God, called the Savior and Son of Man (see Elements 39 to 41). The Wisdom of Jesus Christ then
takes direct quotations from this epistle and puts them on the lips of Jesus, and expands on them, to fabricate a post-resurrection narrative scene with
dialogue between Jesus and his disciples. So here we see whole sayings of Jesus being invented by fabricating a historical conversation (a Gospel-style
narrative), borrowing things said by Eugnostos and representing them as things said by Jesus in conversation with his disciples. 1 This could be
how much of the canonical Gospels were composed: things said by other people, in other texts, being 'lifted' and adapted and placed on the lips of
Jesus. Certainly these two texts prove this was being done. And we have no a priori reason to believe this isn't how it was always done.
Pg 387, OTHJ
Both documents are available at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
