Another Jesus Was Found in Egypt

The story of the “Gnostic” books found at Nag Hammadi

In early Christianity, a godless group of sex freaks had orgies all the time, and replaced the Bible with evil fictions. The church fathers put a stop to that.

Back in 1949, these would have been the thoughts of a Christian reading a report of a discovery of manuscripts. In Egypt, as The Guardian noted, “the scriptures of the Gnostic sect” had come to light.

collage: Muḥammad ‘Alī in 1975 (colorized); Guardian headline, June 18, 1949

There were occasional updates.

In 1956, a report mentions a few details about the discovery. About a thousand pages of text had been found, and these included “twenty pages of sayings of Jesus Christ as recorded by St. Thomas the Apostle.”

Don’t think that a “new” manuscript with sayings by Jesus would interest the Christian world. It didn’t. This was considered a matter for scholars, if even they cared.

And so scholars were left trying to figure out where the texts had come from, what they meant—and how to sell them.