The Forgotten Map to Forbidden Knowledge
The Secret Book of James and the path of seven parables
The Apocryphon (Secret Book) of James
Among the many texts found within the Nag Hammadi library, one of the more interesting is The Secret Book of James. You can found out more about the text itself here and you can read the text yourself here.
The focus of this article is the following section:
“Since I have been glorified in this manner before this time, why do you all restrain me when I am eager to go? You have constrained me to remain with you eighteen more days for the sake of the parables. It sufficed for some persons to pay attention to the teaching and understand ‘The Shepherds’ and ‘The Seed’ and ‘The Building’ and ‘The Lamps of the Virgins’ and ‘The Wage of the Workers’ and ‘The Double Drachma’ and ‘The Woman’. …”
The author, who is identified in the text as James, writes that Jesus was forced by the disciples to remain an extra eighteen days so for His parables. The number eighteen is significant as it occurs only three times in all the synoptic Gospels and when it does occur it is connected to the healing of a crippled woman.
