The Gospel of the Savior: A New Ancient Gospel by Charles Hedrick and Paul Mirecki

On March 20, 1967, the Berlin Egyptian Museum acquired a collection of thirty-three parchment fragments written in Coptic. There they were given the simple designation P22220 and stored unceremoniously in paper folders.

Almost thirty years later, two American scholars working independently of each other—Charles Hedrick and Paul Mirecki—began to study these forgotten fragments. What they found were pieces of a previously unknown gospel, a gospel composed perhaps in the second century and written down sometime between the fourth and seventh centuries.

This new gospel text contains sayings of a speaker identified as "the savior" and dialogues between the savior and "the apostles." While it shares some sayings with the canonical gospels, there are remarkable additions: To the familiar "You are the salt of the earth" (Matt 5:13), for example, is added the phrase "you are the fire that illuminates the world"—a saying unknown in the canonical gospels.

In this first-ever publication of The Gospel of the Savior, the scholars who discovered and reconstructed it provide a translation and critical original language text, along with illuminating introduction, commentary, and Coptic/Greek indices. This volume also includes complete facsimile reproductions of the fragments.

"Only occasionally does a new Christian gospel emerge out of the world of antiquity, and the present book provides such an occasion. Gospel of the Savior is a fascinating new text presenting a Jesus who is sometimes quite familiar, sometimes quite strange. This gospel is presented in an excellent and attractive edition, and now may be placed alongside the canonical and noncanonical gospels as required reading for our study of the interpretations of Jesus in the early church." —Marvin Meyer, Chapman Univeristy

"The publication of Gospel of the Savior adds an exciting new dimension to the study of ancient gospels. Set in the period of Jesus' life just before the crucifixion, it offers an intriguing elaboration of Jesus' final farewell to his disciples, capped by accounts of their ascent to the divine. The editors should be commended for their excellent work in rendering this fragmentary material into a usable resource for the reconstruction of Christian beginnings." —Karen King, Harvard Divinity School

"Students of early Christian literature are indebted to Hedrick and Mirecki for their excellent work." —Religious Studies Review

Charles Hedrick is Professor of Religious Studies and Distinguished Scholar emeritas at Southwest Missouri State University. He is the author of numerous works, including Parables as Poetic Fiction: The Creative Voice of Jesus and the forthcoming When History and Faith Collide.

Paul Mirecki is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas. He is the author of a variety of studies in ancient Mediterranean religions and is co-editor of Ancient Magic and Ritual Power.

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