Rare heretical Christian writing reveals Jesus’s secret teaching

CAIRO – 1 December 2017: Scholars have uncovered an ancient Coptic manuscript that contains a purported dialogue between Jesus Christ and his “brother”, James; texts considered heretical to mainstream Christianity.

These ancient texts were first uncovered back in 1945 near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi, buried approximately 1,400 years ago in a jar. They were then compiled into the Nag Hammadi library at Oxford University and are mostly written in Coptic, though Biblical Scholars at the University of Texas noted that the manuscript didn’t fit with the others.

They translated what they believe is the first known Greek copy of a secret teaching Jesus gave to his step-brother, Joseph, known as the “First Apocalypse of James”.

According to ScienceDaily, this manuscript was used as a way of teaching Greek to students, due to the usage of mid-dots to separate the text, which Brent Landau, teacher of Religious Studies at the University of Texas, believes means that the text was used by teachers.

Landau and assistant professor of religious studies Geoffrey Smith were the ones who discovered the manuscript.