Gnostic gospels (so named from the religion, Gnosticism) are texts dating (for the most part) to the second century but claiming first century authorship. They were allegedly penned by some of Jesus’ disciples and/or close friends such as Mary Magdalene. In fact, there is an actual Gospel of Mary as well as a Gospel of Phillip. The most well known is the Gospel of Thomas.
Allow me to cut to the bone here rather quickly. People often ask why the church would have rejected other writings by the apostles. It’s a fair question but the question, while sincere, is based upon a false premise. With that in mind, the answer is actually quite simple: The early church certainly would have included these controversial documents had the authorship been genuine. It was not. The apostles DID NOT write them.
Obviously, if the early church councils (which settled issues of New Testament canonicity and authenticity) thought for a second that the real Thomas, the real Phillip, the real Mary, etc. wrote additional gospels with the authority Jesus had bestowed upon them, such writings would have been included.
It’s true that at the end of John’s gospel (that real, genuine gospel found in the New Testament because it actually belongs in the New Testament) Jesus did give His disciples special authority, promising that the Holy Spirit would help them recall His teaching after He returned to heaven. This way, they they could more accurately spread His Word.
Although the New Testament does contain writings from some of these disciples, (John, Matthew, Peter) there were many others in their company. This included the big twelve and even a wider group of over one-hundred.
These “additional gospels” are known as the “Gnostic Gospels” for a reason. They contain teachings incompatible with authentic Christianity and fit much better with a completely different religion which became popular in the second century and in many ways “competed” with Christianity. In time, the overly zealous ecumenical tried to blend these two religions. But the blend was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Gnosticism and Christianity contradicted themselves.
Gnostics did not believe in the same God or even the same concept of God, when considering who He is, what He is, and what He demands regarding sin and repentance.
Gnostics believed that anything physical or pleasurable was a sin. They defined spiritual as incorporeal.
Some people. while reading Paul’s words about “the flesh waging war against the spirit”, assumed that Paul had a similar view as the Gnostics. Such a conclusion is not even close to the truth. When Paul used the word “flesh” he meant, the body and soul together while being disobedient to the Holy Spirit. Conversely, when Paul called a man “spiritual” he meant that his body and soul together were in obedience to the Holy Spirit.
Many people today like to make statements such as,“All religions are teaching the same thing.” As you can see, there is nothing new here. This attitude of religion is not unique to 21st century universalists.
Of course, the gospels and epistles which make up our New Testament were completed by the end of the first century even though it was sometime later before they were collected into one volume. Since Gnosticism did not become a significant movement until the second century, the teachings within these alleged gospels reveals that they could not possibly have been written by any of Jesus’ true disciples.
But Christianity was still seeing plenty of growth in the second century. Since, along with Gnosticism, Christianity became one of the two most popular and widespread religions, some tried to combine it with Gnosticism by creating “Gnostic churches.”
It was also becoming widely known that a true Christian writing had no authority unless it was either written by an actual apostle (somebody who had known Jesus personally during His lifetime on Earth and had followed him closely) or a close acquaintance of an apostle, (such as Mark, a companion to Peter, or Luke, a companion to Paul, who encountered the risen Christ and had also become an apostle.) For this reason, those who wanted to forge a document simply wrote an apostles’ name on it.
The genuine church was wise enough not to be fooled by such fakery.
CONCLUSION:
Why were the Gnostic Gospels not included in the New Testament? They do not belong there. They are not true gospels. They do not reflect the real teachings of Jesus and they were not written by any of His followers, even though a few of His followers’ names were scratched on top as the authors.
Share this on
