Which is your favourite Gospel? Matthew? John?
What about the Gospel of Thomas? Or Barnabas? Or Philip? Or Mary, Nicodemus or Judas? ‘Gospels’ bearing these names can be found in the ancient world. So, have we got a censored version of the life of Jesus in our New Testament? Do we need to read these additional gospels in case there is something we haven’t been told?
Dan Brown played on these concerns to great effect in his bestselling Da Vinci Code novel. One of his characters, the historian Sir Leigh Teabing, claims: ‘Some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert. And, of course, the Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi…’ With claims like these, the general impression given is that our New Testament is a selective compilation, ignoring a vast array of rival accounts of Jesus. This impression comes from a profound distortion of the facts.
Out of time
There are many gospels from the time of the early church. But not all were written anywhere near the time of Jesus.
The Gospel of Barnabas is popular among Muslims and presents an account of Jesus entirely at odds with the New Testament. The earliest manuscript copy is 16th century and the original edition was no earlier than the late Middle Ages. Written in Spanish and in Italian, it betrays its late Mediterranean origins with a description of wine stored in wooden casks — not something used at the time of Jesus.
The Gospel of Judas made a stir in 2006 when the National Geographic Society published a translation of a copy dating to about 300 AD. It presents a more favourable account of the life of Judas Iscariot. Despite the popular stir, the scholars behind the translation did not argue that it contained any historical insights into the life of Jesus — it is a much later work of a heretical movement called Gnosticism (pronounced nostis-ism).
Gnosticism
The Gnostic movement is the source of many of these rival gospels. Developing later in the second century, it fused Greek philosophical ideas with Christianity. Gnosis means ‘knowledge’ and the emphasis on this movement was on a secret knowledge unknown to the masses. They produced a number of gospels which are quite alien to the first-century Hebrew world of Jesus. Gnostic gospels include the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Philip. No serious scholar suggests that any of these gospels were written by the first-century characters after whom they are named. In fact, many of these gospels are part of what are now known as the Nag Hammadi collection.
Nag Hammadi is a location on the Nile river north of Luxor. In 1945, several books were found hidden in the desert sands. Preserved in the dry, Egyptian climate the books were over 1,500 years old. Interestingly, no New Testament gospels were found among the collection but only the later Gnostic texts. Immediately this suggested that their burial was a deliberate attempt to hide books that had been declared fraudulent during that time.
Their tone and content are quite different from the world of the New Testament. The four biblical Gospels are rooted in history, full of geographical observations, laden with Aramaic phrases and Hebrew idioms. They breathe their authenticity and are universally accepted to be first-century texts. They were in wide circulation by the second century and even without direct copies we are able to piece together their existence from countless citations in secondary literature, letters and sermons from the time. If you meet anyone intrigued by the alternative Gnostic gospels, then why not suggest they try reading them? The translations by James Robinson are easily available and accurate. Most people will quickly give up reading them, but those that persevere will recognise the quite different quality to that of the biblical Gospels.
Unsurprising fakes
Rolex watches are considered desirable and so markets around the world are flooded with fake Rolexes. The existence of fake gospels should not surprise us either. The Nag Hammadi collection helps our case — their grand, philosophical style highlights the simple, historical authenticity of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And what of Sir Leigh Teabing’s reference to The Dead Sea Scrollsof Qumran? Not a single scrap of a Gnostic gospel was found among them. Yet again, the case against the New Testament is built more on rumour and insinuation than on a careful consideration of the facts.
Chris Sinkinson lectures in apologetics at Moorlands College, Christchurch, Dorset, and is pastor of Alderholt Evangelical Church.
