The
Lost Books
Myths
about the Lost Books of the New Testament
by Ryan Turner
There are
a number of popular myths about these supposed "lost Gospels"
that are not in the New Testament.
The following is a response to these
general misunderstandings.
Myth #1: The Lost Gospels should be
in the New Testament.
Contrary
to the claims of some, there were not hundreds of Gospels that were written
about Jesus in
the first century.
The early Church only
had access to four first-century Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
This is why there are only four
Gospels in the New Testament. The simple fact is that there were not any
other first-century Gospels in existence at that time.
Furthermore,
the criteria which the early Church used to discover which books were from God
include the following:
1.
Was a book written by an
apostle or associate of an apostle of Jesus? (Apostolicity)
a.
This was the first and main criterion for allowing a book to be in the canon of
Scripture.
If a book
was written by either an apostle or an associate of an apostle (i.e., Mark was
an associate of Peter and Luke was an associate of Paul), then the book could
be in the canon.
An apostle
was someone who had seen the resurrected Jesus and who had a close fellowship
with Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:1).
However,
if the book was written over a hundred years after the time of Jesus, as is the
case with most of the Gnostic Gospels including the Gospel of Thomas, the
Gospel of Peter, etc., then such books were obviously not written by an apostle
and should not be in the canon.
The last
apostle who lived was the apostle John who died around 100 A.D. Any
epistle written after that time was definitely not apostolic.
2.
Did the book agree with
undoubtedly authentic writings? (Consistency)
a.
Another criterion was whether such a book agreed with obviously authentic books
of the New Testament.
For
example, the book of James was questioned because there was some doubt whether
it agreed with Paul's writings (i.e., Romans and Galatians).
No one
seriously questioned whether Paul actually wrote a core number of epistles such
as Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, and 1
Thessalonians.
Interestingly,
even if we did not have the rest of the New Testament books, we probably could
build most of our essential Christian doctrine on the book of Romans alone!
3.
Was the book circulated
amongst various churches? (Catholicity)
a.
Another criterion, but less important, was whether a book was circulated
amongst various churches.
This
criterion was known as catholicity or universality.
This would
help the church leaders to know where the Gospel or letter originated so they
could trace its roots and determine if the book was apostolic.
Myth #2: The Lost Gospels taught
that Jesus was only a man.
Actually,
many of the "lost Gospels" or "Gnostic Gospels"
taught that Jesus was God, but not man.
This is a heresy known as Docetism,
which was prevalent in the second and possibly even first centuries.
In fact, the popular Gospel of
Thomas likely teaches that Jesus is a divine teacher, but it is quite doubtful
whether he is even human.
Many of the infancy Gospels, such as
the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, etc., were written to explain how Jesus was
basically non-human by having the child Jesus perform amazing miracles.
Myth #3: The Lost Gospels are
earlier than the New Testament Gospels and/or Epistles.
The vast
majority of critical scholars today argue that the New Testament Gospels are
earlier than all the other "lost
Gospels" in their present form.
Some scholars argue that there may
be a saying or two in the Gospel o Thomas,
or Gospel of Truth, etc., which may date back to the first century, and
possibly even go back to Jesus.
However, most of these scholars view
these Gospels as late embellishments of the stories in the Gospels.
For example, see how the infancy
Gospels embellish the stories of Jesus' early childhood and how the Gospel of
Peter embellishes the resurrection accounts of Jesus
Myth #4: The Early Church only
picked those Gospels which were in accordance with their theological beliefs.
It is
certainly true that the early church allowed certain books into the canon which
accorded with their beliefs.
However, their beliefs were based on
a core list of undisputed books of the New Testament such as the four Gospels
(Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and the main letters of Paul (Romans, 1 and 2
Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, and 1 Thessalonians).
The early church was not arbitrary
in their decision making, but generally took into consideration the three
criteria listed above: apostolicity, consistency, and catholicity.
Myth #5: The Council of Nicea (325
A.D.) determined which books should be in the New Testament.
The
Council of Nicea did not deal with canonical questions, or questions regarding
which books should belong in the New Testament.
Instead, the Council of Nicea dealt
with a heresy known as Arianism (held by modern day Jehovah's Witnesses and Christadelphians), which
taught that Jesus was a man, but not God.
The final list of the twenty-seven
books which are in the New Testament actually came from Bishop Athanasius in
367 A.D.
However, most of the books in the
New Testament were already accepted and used by various churches well before
then.
In fact, the bishop Irenaeus wrote
around 180 A.D. about the four Gospels being compared to the four directions of
the winds.
Various other second century writers
also were extensively using the New Testament including Ignatius, Polycarp,
Justin Martyr, Papias, and Athenagoras to name a few.
1. Some scholars debate to
what extent Ignatius and Polycarp quote from the New Testament, but they at
least refer to many of the same traditions.
Justin Martyr, however, extensively refers to the
New Testament writings.
RELATED POSTS:
What Is The Didache? Is
It Inspired By God?
CLICK HERE . .
.
Why 66?
How Can We Be Sure Which Books Belong in
Our Bible?
CLICK HERE . .
.
Are
Jesus’ Words More Important
than Paul’s?
CLICK HERE . .
.
.
Ancient Words
Ancient Words CLICK HERE . . . to view complete playlist . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment