The Secret Book of James

Also called the Apocryphon of James: a letter in which James, writing "in Hebrew letters", passes on a secret revelation that the risen Jesus gave to him and Peter 550 days after the resurrection, before ascending. Jesus urges them to be "filled", to seek death and remember his cross, and tells short parables (the date palm, the grain of wheat, the ear of grain), before the two apostles try to follow him up into heaven. Author unknown; generally dated to the 2nd century AD, first written in Greek, and preserved only in Coptic in Nag Hammadi Codex I, 2. This is Mark M. Mattison's public-domain translation; chapter numbers are the manuscript's page numbers (1-16) and each paragraph is a verse. His section headings and notes are not reproduced; square brackets mark gaps and restorations, parentheses his supplied words, angle brackets his corrections of the text. Not part of any church's canon.