Manuscripts of the extracanonical gospels

Gospels outside the New Testament survive in few manuscripts, many of them copied centuries after the works were composed. The table lists each one with its language, form and approximate date, so that a reader can see how much of each text exists and how early.

Work	Manuscript	Language and form	Date	What survives
Gospel of Thomas	Nag Hammadi Codex II, tractate 2	Coptic, papyrus codex	4th or 5th century	Essentially complete
Gospel of Thomas	P.Oxy. 1	Greek, papyrus codex	Late 2nd or early 3rd century	Most of sayings 26-30 and 77, and sayings 31-33
Gospel of Thomas	P.Oxy. 654	Greek, papyrus roll	Middle or late 3rd century	The prologue and sayings 1-7
Gospel of Thomas	P.Oxy. 655	Greek, papyrus roll	3rd century	Parts of sayings 24 and 36-39
Sayings of Jesus	P.Oxy. 5575	Greek, papyrus roll	2nd century	Sayings close to Matthew 6, Luke 12 and Thomas 27, 36 and 63
Gospel of Mary	Berlin Codex 8502, tractate 1	Coptic, papyrus codex	5th century	About half the text
Gospel of Mary	P.Oxy. 3525	Greek, papyrus roll	3rd century	A parallel to part of the Coptic text
Gospel of Mary	P.Ryl. 463	Greek, papyrus codex	Early 3rd century	A parallel to part of the Coptic text
Gospel of Judas	Codex Tchacos, tractate 3	Coptic, papyrus codex	Late 4th or early 5th century	More than 90% of the text
Gospel of Philip	Nag Hammadi Codex II, tractate 3	Coptic, papyrus codex	4th or 5th century	Essentially complete
Gospel of Truth	Nag Hammadi Codex I, tractate 3	Coptic, papyrus codex	4th or 5th century	Essentially complete
Gospel of Truth	Nag Hammadi Codex XII, tractate 2	Coptic, papyrus codex	4th or 5th century	Fragments of a second version
Gospel of Peter	Akhmim fragment (P.Cair. 10759)	Greek, parchment codex	Late 6th century	Verses 1-60
Gospel of Peter	P.Oxy. 2949	Greek, papyrus roll	Late 2nd or early 3rd century	Possibly another version of verses 3-5
Gospel of Peter	P.Oxy. 4009	Greek, papyrus codex	2nd century	Possibly from a lost part of the gospel
Egerton Gospel	P.Egerton 2 (with P.Köln 255)	Greek, papyrus codex and roll	Late 2nd or early 3rd century	Part of an unidentified gospel
Secret Book of James	Nag Hammadi Codex I, tractate 2	Coptic, papyrus codex	4th or 5th century	Essentially complete
Infancy Gospel of James	Papyrus Bodmer V	Greek, papyrus codex	Late 3rd or early 4th century	The earliest of over 140 Greek manuscripts, with a shorter form of chapters 18-21
Infancy Gospel of Thomas	Hagios Saba 259	Greek, codex	11th century	The earliest Greek manuscript; versions in other ancient languages are earlier and nearer the first Greek text
The Stranger’s Book	Codex Tchacos, tractate 4	Coptic, papyrus codex	Late 4th or early 5th century	An unknown part of the text

Dates are approximate and follow the manuscript information published by Mark M. Mattison at gospels.net. A manuscript date is the date of the copy, not of the work. Two of these books matter most for this website: the Gospel of Thomas, and the two infancy gospels, which are set beside the Qur'an in Did the Qur'an borrow its stories?