Other Gospels

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The early Christian church was filled with contrasting views of Christ. People saw that the account of Jesus’ life could be viewed in different ways, and over time people began to accept accounts that did not agree with one another. The four Gospels that are accepted into modern canon even themselves contain differing views of Christ. There are several other Gospels that were left out of canon and were deemed unworthy and even heretical. The five most prominent of these Gospels are The Gospel of Thomas, The Secret Gospel of Mark, The Gospel of Peter, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and the Infancy Gospel of James. These Gospels paint a somewhat different view of Christ and His life, and thus also create a different sort of follower. The Gospel of Thomas is believed to have been written between 50 C.E. to mid-second century C.E and is accredited to Didymus Judas Thomas the supposed twin brother of Jesus. This Gospel was discovered by a farmer who unearthed the document which was located in a small pottery bowl. Unlike the Gospels that are canonized, the Gospel of Thomas includes very little narrative about Jesus’ activities, and instead focuses on his words (1). Most of this Gospel introduces each sentence with phrases such as “Jesus said.”(4) Scholars have divided this Gospel into a prologue and 114 sayings that claim to be the sayings of Christ as was told unto Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas teaches that an experience with God is direct and unmediated, and shows Jesus as a divine teacher much like in The

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Gospel of John. In John there is a balance between the words of Christ and his miracles, but Thomas contains only the words of Jesus. It is also implied in The Gospel of Thomas that the author of the Gospel was the twin brother of Christ. Thomas also praises James and states that he should be the one that is to be left in charge of the other apostles after the departure of Jesus. Some would say that the Gospel of Thomas as second only to The New Testament in understanding early Christianity. This book shows the diversity of early Christianity and contains a different understanding of Jesus. (2 p. 240-244, 3 p. 19-20, 4) The Secret Gospel of Mark was written sometime between the years 70 C.E. to 100 C.E. but only the surviving fragments are to be found. These fragments are found in a letter from Clement to a follower of his named Theodore, and this letter was written around the year 200 C.E. Clement tells of two different versions of the Gospel written by Mark. The first is the canonical Mark, and the other is an expanded version of Mark that was meant to be secret. This secret version contained additional information that was to be read only to an inner circle of Christian initiates. The quoted pages tell of the “mystery of the kingdom of God,” (2 p. 245) which in this context seems to refer to baptism. The idea that Jesus practiced baptism is absent from the synoptic Gospels, though it is included in the Gospel of John (1). It seems to indicate, that at this time, that the baptismal was considered to be privileged information by the apostles and it was avoided by the

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early Gospel writers. This Gospel gives the words of Jesus in Mark 4:11 a new meaning. It states that his followers must be baptized to gain entrance into the Kingdom of God (1). Although Clement says otherwise, it is rumored that the Secret Gospel of Mark was written before the canonical Gospel of Mark. It is said some of theses baptism passages found in Secret Mark were later removed to form the Mark found in canon. (2 p. 245, 3 p. 87-89) Written between 70 C.E. and 150 C.E., The Gospel of Peter was discovered in a monk’s grave in Egypt, and is supposedly written by Simon Peter. This Gospel narrates the Passion and the resurrection of Christ and also parallels all four canonical Gospels as well as containing a theme of Christ preaching to the dead. It is initially assumed that Peter was dependent upon the canonical Gospels, but it is possible that the Passion narrative is in fact the earliest of the known accounts. The Gospel of Peter was deemed heretical by the church because it seemed to deny the suffering of Jesus. Peter 4:1 reads (3 p. 32), “And they brought forward two evildoers and crucified the Lord between them. But he was silent, as if he had no pain” (2 p. 245-246, 3 p. 31-34) Written in the mid-second century A.D., The Infancy Gospel of Thomas was written to be entertaining and inspirational. It was created to satisfy the need for a more miraculous version of Jesus’ childhood and was probably the first of many attempts by the early Christians to document a supposed account of the first twelve

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years of his life by bridging the gap left in the second chapter of Luke. In this Gospel, the young Jesus has the powers of God. The young Jesus, thinking that he should be treated different than normal children, uses his supernatural powers on anyone that angers him. One account of this Gospel is one in which the child Jesus is angered by a playmate of his so in return Jesus transforms the child into an old man, and another where Jesus even goes as far as killing a boy. Joseph is shown as instructing the boy Jesus in the use of his powers for good and not to cause harm, this attempt backfires and leaves the dead boys parents blind. After doing much ill unto others, Jesus eventually sees the errors of his ways and starts doing goodwill unto others such as raising the dead. The end of this Gospel finds Jesus as he is growing from a foolish child into a wise man. (2 p. 246-248, 3 p. 57-59) The Infancy Gospel of James, or the Proto-Gospel of James, was written around 150 C.E. by the alleged half-brother of Jesus and mostly deals with the life of Mary and not the birth of Christ. She is shown as not only having been a virgin, but also as having been ritually pure her entire life. Much of the dogma now that is responsible for the veneration of Mary is shown in this early Gospel. This Gospel was so popular in ancient times that there are numerous surviving translations going back as far as the third century, and even among some Eastern churches. Among the traditions recorded in The Infancy Gospel of James are the introduction of Joseph as a widower with several children who was merely Mary’s guardian, the

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birth of Jesus in a cave instead of a manger, and the martyrdom of Zechariah during the slaughter of the infants. The author of this Gospel identifies himself as James, the brother of Jesus, and claims to have written it shortly after the death of Herod in 4 B.C. This dating is not very likely, however, because the work contains many passages from the books of Matthew and Luke (1). In addition to the canonical nativity accounts, the work also borrows heavily from the Septuagint. The most likely time of composition is the second century, shortly before references to the work appear in other Christian writings, and when such traditions were commonly recorded. (2 p. 248-250, 3 p. 63-72) Today’s New Testament contains only the Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. The church has decided that these Gospels were the best choices as to what should make up canon. It could be argued that this goes too far into the realm of censorship, but it must be taken into account of the validity of these other Gospels. Even taking these other accounts out of the canon did not dissuade some from following the words found in some of the following pages, such as the Coptics or the Gnostics. It was not unheard of to using pseudonyms during the time when these works were created, and thus many of these Gospels can be attributed to the hand of another than the named. Some of these Gospels are probably just fictional accounts that were meant to entertain. In the forming of the standard canon, some

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accurate books might even have been left out unjustly, based solely on the opinions of theologians. It is all a matter of faith of the reader, and a little thirst for the truth.

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1. The Bible, John1-21. Luke 1-24. Matthew 1-28. Mark 1-16.

2. Harris, Stephen L. The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction. 4th ed. Sacramento: Mcgraw-Hill, 2002.

3. Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Scriptures: Books That Did not Make it Into the New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003.

4. The Internet Sacred Text Archive. Version 5.0. J.B. Hare. 2005 E:\chr\thomas.htm