FromAncient Greekᾰ̓́γρᾰφον(ắgrăphon),ᾰ̓́γρᾰφᾰ(ắgrăphă), inflection ofᾰ̓́γρᾰφος(ắgrăphos,“unwritten, not registered”).
agraphon (pluralagrapha)
- Any of thesayings ofJesus found in various ancient texts but not in the fourGospels.
1998, Bruce David Chilton, Craig Alan Evans,Studying the Historical Jesus,→ISBN, page483:If Crossan is correct, then Jesus Research cannot make genuine and meaningful progress apart from careful study of theagrapha and apocryphal gospels. If Meier is correct, then the potential contribution of theagrapha and apocryphal gospels to Jesus Research is limited.
2004, Craig A. Evans,The Historical Jesus - Volume 4,→ISBN, page219:Hofius further concludes that the evidence of theagrapha militates against the view that the early church freely invented dominical sayings.
2004, Michael J. McClymond,Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth,→ISBN, page30:Theagrapha, or noncanonical sayings attributed to Jesus, are probably less reliable than the non-Christian sources on the life of Jesus.
