The New International Encyclopædia/Agrapha

​AG′RAPHA (Gk., unwritten, from ἄ, a, priv. + γράφειν, graphein, to write). Alleged sayings of Jesus which, though not found in the canonical gospels, were current either in oral tradition or in literature and are worthy of being considered genuine words of Christ. A very complete collection of extra-canonical sayings was made by Cotelerius, Ecclesiæ Græcæ Monumenta (1677-1688), who was followed by J. E. Grabe, Spicelegium (1698 and 1700), and J. B. Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti, second edition (1719). Briefer collections, based on the above, have been published from time to time. The latest and most complete work on the subject is that of Afred Resell, Agrapha, in Gebhardt and Harnack’s Texte und Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1889). Out of a much larger number Resch has judged seventy-four sayings worthy of the designation “agrapha.” Resch’s conclusions have been criticised by Professor J. H. Ropes, Die Sprüche Jesu (Leipzig, 1896), who reduces the number of probably genuine sayings to thirteen. In 1897 Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt published (Henry Frowde, London) a papyrus fragment from Egypt containing seven sayings, each one except the first prefaced by the words, “Jesus saith.” Three of these “logia” are quite similar to sayings in the gospels. The remaining four are new, and may possibly be genuine words of our Lord.