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. 
 
 Biblical scholars at the University of Texas at Austin discovered the manuscript in the Nag Hammadi Library at Oxford University, where it may have been a tool teachers used to help students learn to read and write. 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. 
 
 The Nag Hammadi Library is a collection of 13 Coptic Gnostic books, also called codices, that were found in Egypt more than 70 years ago. Only a small handful of works from the library have been recovered in their original Greek versions. 
 
 "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. 
 
 Nag Hammadi Library, Oxford University 
 
 Smith and fellow religious scholar Brent Landau announced the discovery at the Society of Biblical Literature's Annual Meeting in Boston. The heretical Christian writings describe Jesus teaching his brother James, in secret, about future events, including James’s own death. As Smith explained in the UT Austin press release, writings that added to or changed the existing New Testament in any way were forbidden. Orthodox Christianity teaches that such writings are fraudulently attributed to Jesus or other disciples. 
 
 "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. "All James needs is to remember the passwords that his brother has taught him, so that he can escape from the clutches of the archons, a set of demonic beings guarding the material world." 
 
 Landau explained in a release that the scribe separated the majority of the text using "mid-dots," which broke words down into individual syllables. That was not a common practice at the time; the exception would be in educational contexts, which is why Smith and Landau believed the text was a teaching tool. 
 
 "To say that we were excited once we realized what we'd found is an understatement," Smith said in a release. "We never suspected that Greek fragments of the First Apocalypse of James survived from antiquity. But there they were, right in front of us." 
 
 As reported by CNN, in 2002 archaeologists discovered a 2,000-year-old “bone box” inscribed with Aramaic words that translated to "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." It was potentially the first physical evidence of Jesus’s existence and sparked curiosity over who exactly this mysterious brother was. One theory, as professor of New Testament interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary Ben Witherington III explained to CNN, was that Jesus and James were indeed full brothers (James was younger). 
 
 "The New Testament says nothing about Mary being a perpetual virgin; it says she virginally conceived Jesus, and it certainly implies that she went on to have more children after that, and his brothers and sisters are in fact his brothers and sisters," Witherington told CNN. 
 
 This story has been updated to include comments from Geoffrey Smith and Brent Landau to Newsweek and to clarify that other information and comments came from a press release from The University of Texas at Austin. ||||| 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. 
 
 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. 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. 
 
 "To say that we were excited once we realized what we'd found is an understatement," said Smith, an assistant professor of religious studies. "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 ancient narrative describes the secret teachings of Jesus to his brother James, in which Jesus reveals information about the heavenly realm and future events, including James' inevitable death. 
 
 "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," Smith said. 
 
 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." 
 
 With its neat, uniform handwriting and words separated into syllables, the original manuscript was probably a teacher's model used to help students learn to read and write, Smith and Landau said. 
 
 "The scribe has divided most of the text into syllables by using mid-dots. Such divisions are very uncommon in ancient manuscripts, but they do show up frequently in manuscripts that were used in educational contexts," said Landau, a lecturer in the UT Austin Department of Religious Studies. 
 
 The teacher who produced this manuscript must have "had a particular affinity for the text," Landau said. 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. 
 
 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. ||||| THE secret advice and prophecies Jesus gave his brother, James. 
 
 It’s bound to be explosive stuff. 
 
 But the two books of the Apocalypse of James were rejected when the Emperor Constantine instructed his bishops to standardise the ascendant Christian religion. 
 
 We don’t know how these nobles and church leaders whittled down the mass of Christian writings in circulation at the time to the books which now form the New Testament. 
 
 But chief among them was likely to be one key concern: Was it the real deal? 
 
 Three hundred and thirty years is a lot of time for fan fiction to rise and circulate, after all. 
 
 Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, presented the approved books of the New Testament to the world amid much fanfare — and controversy — in 367AD. 
 
 He was touted as having been touched by god: “Athanasius is one who can be trusted: he would not say anything that is not in accord with sacred scripture.” 
 
 His judgment was inviolate. 
 
 “No one may add to them, and nothing may be taken away from them,” he wrote. 
 
 The Apocalypse of James was not among them. 
 
 Whatever the reason — doubts over their authenticity, controversial quotes or inconvenient truths — the books were outlawed. 
 
 But now an original Greek example of its texts has been found. 
 
 Greek is important. It’s seen as the progenitor language of the Christian faith. The language in which all the original — and authentic — works were first laid down. 
 
 Does this give the Apocalypse of James new strength? 
 
 BOOK BURNING 
 
 Fragments of the banned books attributed to James have been circulating for some time. 
 
 We mostly know them from writings found among a collection known as the Nag Hammadi library in December 1945. 
 
 These were large terracotta vessels, stuffed with 13 scrolls, many still safely sealed against the elements. They were believed deliberately buried during the fourth century to protect them from destruction. 
 
 These ancient texts had, after all, only recently been banned by the Emperor’s new Catholic Church. 
 
 Most of the surviving scrolls were written in the language of early Gnostic Christians based in Egypt — an unusual blend of Greek and Egyptian Demotic called Coptic. 
 
 To be in Coptic means they are, at best, translations of the original Greek. 
 
 And while their survival offers a unique insight to these writings, the fact they are translations may have introduced distortions. 
 
 Only a handful of the Nag Hammadi texts are in their original Greek. 
 
 But, earlier this year, University of Texas at Austin biblical scholars discovered a fragment lost among Egypt Exploration Society archives at Oxford University. 
 
 It was in Greek. 
 
 It was part of the First Apocalypse of James. 
 
 “To say that we were excited once we realised what we’d found is an understatement,” says assistant professor of religious studies Geoffrey Smith. “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. 
 
 But the writings are likely to be copies of much older texts. 
 
 WHAT JESUS TOLD JAMES 
 
 The two books of the Apocalypse of James purport to detail the teachings of Jesus to his brother James. 
 
 It is written as a narration, where Jesus is engaged in a dialogue with his brother. 
 
 “The Lord said, ‘James, after these things I shall reveal to you everything, not for your sake alone but for the sake of the unbelief of men, so that faith may exist in them’,” a Coptic fragment reads. 
 
 He seeks to reassure his brother everything is as it should be. He describes heaven. He gives James the passwords necessary to guarantee his entry. He gives advice on fighting supernatural challenges. He foretells future events. He warns James of the circumstances surrounding his own martyrdom. 
 
 “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. 
 
 Many other Early Christian texts, some of them immensely popular, were among those banned. 
 
 Names include the Epistle of Barnabas, The Shepherd of Hermas, The Magdalene Gospel and The Gospel of Judas. Yet others were attributed to more familiar authors — including Matthew, Mark, John and Peter. 
 
 Thanks to the Gnostic Coptic fragments preserved at Nag Hammadi, we have a taste of what some of these contained. 
 
 But their actual authors, authenticity — or lack of it — will likely never be known. 
 
 Smith and Landau announced the discovery of the Greek Apocalypse of James at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Boston last month. .
– 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.