Update | For the first time, scholars have found a copy of the original Greek manuscript describing what Jesus purportedly taught his brother James in secret. Such apocryphal writings, Smith said, would have fallen outside the canonical boundaries set by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in his "Easter letter of 367" that defined the 27-book New Testament: "No one may add to them, and nothing may be taken away from them." But earlier this year, UT Austin religious studies scholars Geoffrey Smith and Brent Landau added to the list with their discovery of several fifth- or sixth-century Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James, which was thought to have been preserved only in its Coptic translations until now. "The scribe has divided most of the text into syllables by using mid-dots. To date, only a small number of texts from the Nag Hammadi library -- a collection of 13 Coptic Gnostic books discovered in 1945 in Upper Egypt -- have been found in Greek, their original language of composition. Only a small handful of works from the library have been recovered in their original Greek versions.  The first-known original Greek copy of a heretical Christian writing describing Jesus' secret teachings to his brother James has been discovered at Oxford University by biblical scholars at The University of Texas at Austin. According to a press release from The University of Texas at Austin, to find a copy of such a manuscript in Greek, the language in which it was originally written, is incredibly rare. "This new discovery is significant in part because it demonstrates that Christians were still reading and studying extra-canonical writings long after Christian leaders deemed them heretical," Geoffrey Smith, an assistant professor of religious studies at The University of Texas at Austin and one of the two scholars who made the discovery, told Newsweek via email. “We never suspected that Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James survived from antiquity. But there they were, right in front of us.” 
 
 The papyrus itself appears to date from the fifth or sixth century. It does not appear to be a brief excerpt from the text, as was common in school exercises, but rather a complete copy of this forbidden ancient writing. "Jesus tells his brother James that though they are both going to die violently, death is not something to be feared," Landau, a lecturer at the UT Austin Department of Religious Studies, told Newsweek over email. “The text supplements the biblical account of Jesus’ life and ministry by allowing us access to conversations that purportedly took place between Jesus and his brother, James — secret teachings that allowed James to be a good teacher after Jesus’ death,” Dr Smith said. Smith and Landau announced the discovery at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Boston in November and are working to publish their preliminary findings in the Greco Roman Memoirs series of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.
– A complete copy of a heretical biblical text that purports to describe conversations between Jesus and his brother James has been discovered in its earliest known form. The forbidden writing, dubbed the First Apocalypse of James, wasn't included in the 27-book New Testament established in 367. It was one of 13 Gnostic books uncovered in Egypt in 1945, per a release; all were written in the Coptic language, though the original manuscript would've been in Greek. "We never suspected that Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James survived from antiquity," says Geoffrey Smith of the University of Texas at Austin. When he and colleague Brent Landau searched at Oxford University, however, "there they were, right in front of us." "To say that we were excited once we realized what we'd found is an understatement," adds Smith. He tells Newsweek the neat Greek text, likely written in the 5th or 6th century, "is significant in part because it demonstrates that Christians were still reading and studying extra-canonical writings long after Christian leaders deemed them heretical." Studying, indeed. Landau explains the text is broken down into syllables—a rarity in ancient manuscripts, suggesting it was used to teach students to read and write. News.com.au explains that the text contains Jesus' teachings to James, including his knowledge of heaven and future events, including James' own death.