The text was very popular, and the early Church Fathers were certainly aware of its presence and influence. They were not accepted into the New Testament because they were written later, often under false names. These non-believers had their own set of Greco-Roman or Egyptian gods; the Infancy Gospel of Thomas compared Jesus to these gods in a manner designed to impress Hellenistic, Egyptian and pagan sensibilities. If this is the case, then this text must have followed Luke, a gospel which is known to have borrowed from Mark (and was, therefore, later than Mark). As the key work of the largest religion in the western world, it has shaped our world in many subtle ways. The text also affirms Jesus had brothers and sisters and mentions John the Baptist by name. The Didache was considered for inclusion in the New Testament by some in the early days of the Christian Church. The teachings of Jesus are paramount in this text and nearly half of its sayings are repetitions and confirmations of teachings found in the canonical Gospels. The existence of this gospel was unknown until several fragments were discovered in modern times. Why Isn’t It Considered Reliable? ISBN 978-0-664-24428-6. Ehrman, Bart D.; Pleše, Zlatko (2011). For more information about the reliability of the New Testament gospels and the case for Christianity, please read Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels. There are many good reasons to believe the Gospel of Thomas was written by Gnostic believers who allowed their saving trust in hidden, esoteric knowledge to taint their description of Jesus. It appears to have been very popular in the 2nd and 3rd centuries but its popularity had almost entirely died out by the 4th. The Other Gospels: Non-Canonical Gospel Texts. Required fields are marked *. The first was apparently written before 1 Corinthians and is referenced by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:9 “I wrote to you in my (previous) letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.” We have no evidence of this letter outside of this reference. Mark has the most in common with both Matthew and Luke but there are parts of Matthew and Luke that are not in Mark. One of the most famous is the Infancy Gospel of James. Even though the text is simply a collection of sayings, the Gospel of Thomas confirms Jesus was, at the very least, a wildly popular travelling teacher in the areas of Samaria and Judea. 216. Nevertheless it was influential to many and thus should be noted. The English word canon comes from the Greek κανών, meaning "rule" or "measuring stick".Christians were the first to use the term in reference to scripture, but Eugene Ulrich regards the notion as Jewish. Bart Ehrman argues the Gospel of Thomas is a 2nd Century Gnostic text based on the lack of any reference to the coming Kingdom of God and return of Jesus. Joe Paprocki, D.Min., has been a catechetical leader and religious educator in the Chicago area for more than 30 years. The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Mary and Joseph are identified as Jesus’ parents and the narrative begins as they are fleeing to Egypt to escape the persecution of Herod. Some of these works appear to be later compositions than the canonical gospels, and as such were only ever accepted by small portions of the early Christian community. The Epistle of Barnabas is a book written between 70 and 130 AD. Jesus is also described as wiser than the Rabbis, and the text also indicates he was worshipped as God by those who saw His power. The Gospel of Thomas is interesting because it is different in structure from the four traditional gospels; it is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus rather than a narrative of Jesus’ life that includes some of his teachings. *Because the New Testament is a result of the Orthodox opinion of the time I have chosen to exclude Gnostic texts from this list. Those who are blasphemous to God are hung by their tongue, adulterous men and women are hung by their hair and feet respectively over boiling goop, and murderers are cast into a pit of horrible creeping things. While the text claims to have been authored by the Apostle Thomas, scholars reject this attribution. Like The Infancy Gospel of Thomas and The Infancy Gospel of James, The History of Joseph the Carpenter is another example of non-canonical legend that was created in order to answer questions about the life of Jesus. The book describes in detail Herod’s killing of children in Bethlehem, Jesus’ early exile in Egypt and the extent of the parallel nature of Jesus and John the Baptist’s lives. 197–216. Since the only long fragment is a Coptic translation, most of the original Greek text is still lost. It describes her unique birth, her adolescence and of course, the early years of Jesus life. The first section is on how Christians should apply the commandments of God. Some scholars (such as Ron Cameron) believe that the Infancy Gospel of Thomas was designed as a piece of “Christian missionary propaganda”, intended to demonstrate the divine nature of Jesus in a manner familiar to the pagans proselytized by the early Christians. The book is also the source of the image of the nativity taking place in a cave. Why Isn’t It Considered Reliable? These elaborate stories, legends and fabrications were written by authors who were motivated to alter the history of Jesus to suit their own purposes. Hipploytus identified it as a fake and a heresy in “Refutation of All Heresies” (222-235AD), Origen referred to it in a similar way in a homily (written around 233AD), Eusebius resoundingly rejected it as an absurd, impious and heretical “fiction” in the third book of his “Church History” (written prior to 326AD), Cyril advised his followers to avoid the text as heretical in his “Catechesis” (347-348AD), and Pope Gelasius included the Gospel of Thomas in his list of heretical books in the 5th century. While we recognize the four canonical gospels as all being similar, there are differences between them. The non-canonical texts were written far too late to be legitimate eyewitness accounts. The non-canonical books referenced in the Bible includes pseudepigrapha, writings from Hellenistic and other non-Biblical cultures, and lost works of known or unknown status. 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