The Lost Gospel of Orpheus?

Waterhouse, Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus
Nah, that was a shameless attention grab from a degenerate and jaded copywriter (me). Interesting find nonetheless, as the stories of Orpheus contains seeds of both the Christ and JBap myths. This article's author even throws us a Gnostic bone.

ATHENS, Greece -- A collection of charred scraps kept in a Greek museum's storerooms are all that remains of what archaeologists say is Europe's oldest surviving book -- which may hold a key to understanding early monotheistic beliefs. [...]

"We were now able to read even the most carbonized sections, as there were pieces that were completely blackened and nobody could make out whether there were letters on them," Veleni said.

The scroll contains a philosophical treatise on a lost poem describing the birth of the gods and other beliefs focusing on Orpheus, the mythical musician who visited the underworld to reclaim his dead love and enjoyed a strong cult following in the ancient world.

The Orpheus cult raised the notion of a single creator god -- as opposed to the multitude of deities the ancient Greeks believed in -- and influenced later monotheistic faiths.

"In a way, it was a precursor of Christianity," Pierris said. "Orphism believed that man's salvation depended on his knowledge of the truth."

Veleni said the manuscript "will help show the influence of Orphism on later monotheistic religions."


– Associated Press