Sayings Attributed to Jesus from Lesser-known Gospels
IMAGE: From an Armenian Illuminated Manuscript of the Gospel of Mark
This World is a Bridge
“This world is a bridge. Pass over it, but do not build your dwelling there.”
(Saying 200, “The Unknown Sayings of
Jesus,” Marvin Meyer, Harper San Francisco)
Jesus,” Marvin Meyer, Harper San Francisco)
Love and Goodness are the Beginning of the Way
Judas asked, “Where does the Path begin?” Jesus answered, “It begins with love — love and goodness.” (An apocryphal gospel preserved in the Nag Hammadi Library called Dialogue with the Savior)
Have Faith in the Love of My Father
A saying of Jesus from an unknown gospel fragment written in the Sahidic dialect of Egypt, translated in, “Texts and Studies,” Volume Four, Coptic Apocryphal Gospels section, Kraus Reprints:
“Nothing is impossible unto you in the removal of the mountains. Now therefore have faith in the love of My Father.”
You Are Never Alone
Jesus said to his disciples: “You will flee, all of you, and will leave me alone, but I do not remain alone for my Father is with me.”
— “Gospel of the Savior,” translated by Charles. W. Hedrick, Polebridge Press, a Coptic gospel from Egypt
Always Look at Your Brother or Sister with Love
From the lost Gospel of the Hebrews, passages quoted by Jerome (4th-5th century):
“We can read in the Hebrew Gospel that the Lord, speaking to his disciples, said,
‘Never be glad except when you look at your brother or sister with love.’”
“The Gospel of the Hebrews that the Nazareans are used to reading listed this among the most serious crimes:
‘Those who have saddened their brother’s or sister’s spirit.’”
(The Complete Gospels, Robert J. Miller, Polebridge Press; also, Harper Collins)
Do not Grieve the Spirit
“The Lord admonishes and says: ‘Do not grieve the Holy Spirit which is in you, and do not extinguish the light which shines in you.’”
— Ps. Cyprian, De aleatoribus 3. Harnack, Der Pseudocyprianische Tractat de Aleatoribus, 17. (Extracanonical Sayings of Jesus, William D. Stroker, Scholar’s Press)
From the Book of the Knowledge (Gnosis) of the Invisible God:
The living Jesus answered and said to his apostles: “Blessed is he who has crucified the world and who has not allowed the world to crucify him.”
The apostles answered with one voice, saying: “0 Lord, teach us the way to crucify the world, that it may not crucify us, so that we are destroyed and lose our lives.”
The living Jesus answered: “He who has crucified it (the world) is he who has found my word and has fulfilled it according to the will of him who has sent me.”
(An unknown Coptic dialogues gospel consisting of five chapters found at the beginning of the manuscript of First Jeu, published in the book: “The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex”, Edited by Carl Schmidt, Volume Thirteen, Nag Hammadi Studies Series, Leiden, E.J. Brill books)
