From time to time you may hear something in the media or see a book in a bookshop about ‘lost gospels’ or those gospels that were ‘suppressed’ by the early church. To say either of these things - ‘lost’ or ‘suppressed’ is a stretch. The fact is that there are other books that have ‘gospel’ in their title and there have been hundreds of books written in the last 2000 years that the church has declared to be heretical or to be false gospels.  When the church does something like this it is because its origin is suspicious and its content is not in keeping with the Biblical Canon.

Firing up the Canon

Pretty quickly the church put together a set of documents that it used. The Jewish Torah and Prophets were part of that, the scrolls that Paul took around with him and left copies at local churches were also part. The gospel narratives were originally an oral tradition and at some stage were committed to scrolls. Mark’s gospel, the earliest is dated somewhere between AD60 and AD70, Matthew and Luke probably a decade or decade and a half later. John’s gospel comes in later still possibly nearer AD90? There were a number of collections of scriptures before the one we use now, which had fewer numbers of books and we refer to them as canon’s but it is quite clear from the broad range of theologians and the latest academic research that that the four gospels we have now were around in the first century.

The final canon of scripture that we have now was agreed in the fourth century but used documents from earlier canons. This finalising of the canon was about recognising the view of the wider church of the authenticity of the documents we call our bible and ensuring that other documents that were of a later date were not given the same standing. The truth is that the four gospels were accepted as canon before the other gospels were even written down.

Gnosticism

There was a movement of ‘Gnostics’ that was widespread but not Christian. Gnostic means ‘knowing or knowledge’ hence our word agnostic for ‘ignorant’. The Gnostics believed that the body was bad and the spirit was good, so to have a vision of angels was a special experience. They believed that Jesus couldn’t have a had a body, because he was good, and therefore he didn’t actually die on a cross. These heretical ideas separated them from the church and occasionally you will see New Testament writings condemning their belief system (e.g. Hebrews chapter 1). They also wrote gospels that fitted in with their belief system and these are dated much later – middle of the first century to the middle of the second.

Whereas like we have the Mormons today claiming to be Christian and promoting themselves as a branch of Christendom, perhaps the Gnostics did the same in their day, but just like we don’t accept the book or Mormon today, the gnostic gospels were not accepted in their day, and still aren’t.

Naming these gospels

Some of these gospels were found with other gnostic documents amongst the dead seas scrolls. There are quite a number of these other gospels but the most notorious are ‘Peter’, ‘Judas’,  ‘Mary Magdalene’, ‘Thomas’ and ‘Philip’, the ‘gospel of Truth’ and the ‘gospel of the Egyptians’

Christian theologian Origen wrote this in the early third century, more than a hun­dred years before Nicaea:

I know a certain gospel which is called “The Gospel according to Thomas” and a “Gospel according to Matthias,” and many others have we read—lest we should in any way be considered ignorant because of those who imagine they possess some knowledge if they are acquainted with these.

Nevertheless, among all these we have approved solely what the church has recognized, which is that only four gospels should be accepted.

The Gnostic gospels are dated about 120 to 300 years after Christ, and no cred­ible scholar believes any of them could have been written by their namesakes. The Gnostic gospels were written by “largely unrelated and anonymous authors.”

New Testament scholar Norman Geisler writes, “The Gnostic writings were not written by the apostles, but by men in the second century (and later) pretending to use apostolic authority to advance their own teachings. Today we call this fraud and forgery”.

The early church councils considered the following principles to determine whether a New Testament book was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit: 1) Was the author an original apostle or have a close connection with an apostle? 2) Was the book being accepted by the Body of Christ at large? 3) Did the book contain consistency of doctrine and orthodox teaching? 4) Did the book bear evidence of high moral and spiritual values that would reflect a work of the Holy Spirit?

These gospels fail on all counts and this is why they never made the Bible.
Judas

Irenaeus a second century Christin writer came across this Gospel and wrote that the Gospel of Judas was the “invented history” of a long line of heretics and rebels against God. The essential message of the Gospel of Judas is that Jesus wanted Judas to betray Him because it was necessary to fulfil Jesus’ plan

Thomas

This gospel contains this paragraph:

Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary go forth from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. Jesus said: Behold, I shall lead her, that I may make her male, in order that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who makes herself male shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

In a new testament that is very pro-woman and turned the culture then on its head in places, we cannot see a Jesus who would suggest this contrary to the rest of his teaching.

Mary Magdalene

This is typically gnostic because it tells of vision revealed to Mary that no one else saw.

Peter said to Mary, "Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman. Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them". Mary answered and said, "What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you". And she began to speak to them these words: "I", she said, "I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord I saw you today in a vision".

Philip

Again this document makes wild suggestions that are totally contrary to the authentic gospels.

And the companion of the saviour was Mary Magdalene. Christ loved Mary more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Saviour answered and said to them, "Why do I not love you like her?

Peter

Suggest that Jesus did not actually die (gnostic) and that the resurrection and ascension all happened together.

Summary

The style and content of these alternative gospels is a radical departure form Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They promote the beliefs of the Gnostics rather than the Christians.

The truth is that if you don’t believe the Bible is the preserved word of God then why shouldn’t you add all this drivel? All that can really be said about these gospels is that they are recognised by academics as being gnostic in origin, mainly written a century or so after the others, written in the name of key NT characters but not actually by them and promoting the gnostic belief system. Christian writers of the day didn’t not recognise them as canon but rather as heresy. When you sit and read the parts that have survived they bear no resemblance to the scriptures.

If you are ‘into’ ancient documents then there is some value in studying them, but if you are a Christian seeking to deepen your walk with God these are not for you.

These four gospels we have in our Bibles are the only four recognised as being authentic and they have survived intact since the first century. We have the best academic authorities supporting them and we believe the Holy Spirit uses them today.

There is no conspiracy about the Bible, and no one is trying to hide anything from any of us. In fact God wants us to know and understand His message in full.

Paul talks about ‘mystery’ using a word which means that which was concealed but has now been revealed. The canon of scripture reveals Jesus to us and that is all we need.