SUPPLEMENTARY PAPERS 



PROFESSOR C. W. VOTAW, of the University of Chicago, presented an interesting 

 paper on "The Oxyrhynchus Sayings in Relation to the Gospel-making Move- 

 ment of the First and Second Centuries." The speaker said in part that the 

 labors of Drs. Grenfell and Hunt, excavators for the Egypt Exploration Fund, 

 have recently brought to our possession three short portions of extra-canonical 

 second-century gospels. These papyri containing the Sayings of Jesus were un- 

 earthed at Oxyrhynchus, one hundred and twenty miles south of Cairo, in 1897 

 and 1903. A description of these papyri and their condition followed, together 

 with a careful comparative analysis of the Sayings. They are in part parallel 

 to the Sayings of Jesus preserved in the canonical gospels, somewhat more than 

 one half of the new material duplicating what is contained there, but in form 

 these passages exhibit considerable differences from the canonical accounts and 

 not a small degree of independence. There are also among the Oxyrhynchus 

 Sayings some very important ones which the canonical gospels do not contain. 

 Several of these have parallels in extra-canonical gospel Sayings quoted by the 

 Church Fathers of the second and third centuries; a few have no parallels in 

 any Christian literature. 



The main problems discussed were the exact meanings of the Sayings, and 

 whether they are to be attributed to Jesus himself. The conclusion reached by 

 the speaker was that the Sayings are fragments from one, two, or three second- 

 century gospels; that the collection or collections of gospel material to which 

 these Sayings belonged were of considerable extent; and that these Sayings, while 

 of first-century origin, have been handed down without direct relation to the 

 canonical gospels and are independent of any known gospel, even where parallel- 

 isms exist. 



The gospel-making movement did not stop abruptly at 100 A.D., and although 

 the canonical gospels entered the second century with great prominence and 

 prestige, there was still to be a long period through which many other gospels were 

 to compete with them for public favor. The question whether Jesus could have 

 said this or that attributed to him in these fragments was a question which 

 second-century Christians would scarcely have raised, and could not well have 

 answered. They understood fairly well, and highly appreciated, Jesus and his 

 teaching. He was to them of supreme interest and importance. But they did not 

 apply a rigid method of historical investigation to the oral and written tradition 

 of his life. 



The canonical gospels increasingly manifested their superiority over all other 

 gospels, from the time of their composition until the latter part of the second 

 century, when they became the only fully recognized evangelic narratives. They 

 early surpassed in favor and use such collections as the Oxyrhynchus Sayings 

 represent, for they were in the main nearer in form to the original utterances of 

 Jesus, better in arrangement, and more complete in their contents. It was right 

 that they should increase, and these other competing gospels decrease. 



PROFESSOR WILLIAM BENJAMIN SMITH, of Tulane University, New Orleans, La., 

 presented a paper on the "Meaning of the Epithet Nazorean (Nazarene)." The 

 text of the paper was drawn from Matthew 2: 22-23, " Being warned of God in 

 a dream, he withdrew into the parts of Galilee, and came and dwelt in a city called 

 Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, that he 

 should be called a Nazorean." In a most interesting critical discussion the speaker 



