AGRAPHA ăg’ rə fə, neuter pl. of Gr. ἄγραφος, meaning “unrecorded,” “not registered” and used with such intent by Plutarch and other authors. The term does not appear in the NT, but was applied by the Gr. patristic author, Clement of Alexandria (a.d. 150 ? - 220) to those sayings of the apostolic church which were not incorporated in the canonical NT. The Ger. critical scholar, J. G. Körner revived the term in his De sermonibus Christi agraphois, which appeared in a Program which was issued in Leipzig in 1776. The supposition made by Kōrner and his followers, chiefly, A. Resch (“Agrapha, aussercanonische Evangelien-Fragmente in möglichster Vollständigkeit zusammengestellt und quellenkritisch untersucht,” Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur, Vol. IV, 1889), was that there had been a large body of oral tradition about, and derived from Christ, a “Q” source, from which the four evangelists and the other writers of the NT drew. The discovery of a number of Egyp. fragments of Gnostic works in the Coptic language which began about 1897 greatly enhanced the “agrapha” concept. The outstanding source for such sayings has been the Hel. papyri, Oxyrhynchus (Sayings of Jesus, q.v.). However, certain other apparently ancient collections of such sayings have been located in apocryphal works of various kinds, in the Talmud (q.v.), and in certain Moslem documents. As to the nature, value and number of agrapha, scholars disagree so radically as to wholly negate the thesis as of any value in NT study. The canonical gospels never state that they are either exhaustive or comprehensive, but indicate only that they are sufficient to elicit faith in Christ and His atonement (cf. John 21:25, et al.). In the light of such texts and the allusions to teachings of the Lord not mentioned in the gospels (1 Cor 11:24, 25), it is highly likely that fragments of noncanonical discourses and sermons would be found extant in extra-Biblical lit. To assume that these represent lost documents which are the true and authoritative sources of the canonical writings is a specious and highly subjective judgment.

Another type of agrapha is the one occurring in one or another set of NT MSS but not in the major ancient texts. Examples of these are the longer parallel to Luke 14:8-11, found in the D (Matt 20:28), and several other such readings in D. Although such problem texts can be solved through careful textual criticism, yet there is the unsolved origin of some of the readings which may be, in fact, ancient agrapha. It is most probable that little if anything of the traditional teachings and episodes concerning the Messiah were excluded or omitted by the evangelists while individual phrases or aphorisms might be extant that were not utilized by the NT writers.

Bibliography Aside from the major works noted above, D. S. Margoliouth, ExpT, V (1893), 59, 107, 177; J. H. Ropes, “Die Sprüche Jesu, die in den kanonischen Evangelien nicht überliefert sind,” Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur, Vol. XIV, 2 (1896); M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament (1924); W. T. Smith, “Agrapha,” ISBE, Vol. I (1929) 72-74; M. S. Enslin, “Agrapha,” IDB, Vol. I, A-D (1962) 56.