ABSTRACT
The dry desert conditions in Egypt are ideal for the preservation of papyrus and other ancient writing materials. Two discoveries of papyri at two different sites in the Egyptian desert (Oxyrhynchus and Nag Hammadi) bear particular relevance to the Gospel of Thomas. Nearly 100 years ago Grenfell and Hunt discovered at Oxyrhynchus and published some fragmentary Greek papyri containing several sayings attributed to Jesus (Grenfell and Hunt 1897 and 1904). Although most of these sayings curiously did not have counterparts in the sayings already known in the canonical New Testament, these early Greek fragments were initially acknowledged simply as sayings unattested in the canonical tradition and unparalleled in other early Christian literature. They captured the imagination of scholar and layperson alike; their origin was unknown, but their significance was generally recognized.
