The New Testament includes four accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings, letters to early churches, and an apocalyptic revelation. Other texts, including the Gnostic Gospels, were rejected from the official biblical canon. The Gnostic Gospels contain accounts from figures such as Judas Iscariot and Mary Magdalene, and suggest that Jesus embraced other philosophical strands. The Gnostic Gospels were not accepted by the Christian Church, but are available as part of the New Testament Apocrypha. Understanding their meaning requires more research.
Readers of the Bible’s canonical New Testament encounter 4 accounts of Jesus’ life and teachings, a number of letters or epistles written mostly to the early churches, and an apocalyptic revelation of the Earth’s last days. This is not to say that those texts were the only ones in existence when the early Christian church theologians tried to finalize the official biblical canon. Other epistles and gospels now known as the apocrypha were ultimately rejected for inclusion, either because they could not be properly authenticated or because they contained passages deemed too heretical or controversial.
Among these apocryphal texts is a collection of writings called the Gnostic Gospels. The Gnostic Gospels include accounts purportedly written or dictated to others by notables such as Judas Iscariot, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, the “doubting” apostle Thomas, and even the surviving brothers of the earthly Jesus himself. Some Gnostic Gospels mention details of Jesus’ infancy and childhood not found in the canonical Gospels, while others imply that Jesus held secret meetings with chosen disciples to discuss matters of a more mystical nature.
The philosophy of Gnosticism that promoted the creation and preservation of the Gnostic Gospels was much more Greek in nature than Judaic. While Jesus Christ himself may have been a Jewish rabbi preaching to a largely Jewish audience, the Gnostic Gospels strongly suggest that he also embraced other philosophical strands, such as Sufism and Greek mysticism. The Gnostic gospel attributed to Thomas, for example, speaks of secret sermons given by the “living Jesus,” which some biblical scholars believe occurred between Jesus’ resurrection and his final ascension into heaven.
Other Gnostic gospels may have been written too late to be considered firsthand accounts of Jesus’ life, although some may actually have been written around the same time as the Gospel of Mark or the unknown “Q”, a mysterious ancient source for the texts evangelicals. There are theologians who believe that the canonical Gospels may have evolved over time, from the dryly factual Gospel of Mark to the more lyrical and emotionally charged Gospel of John. The Gnostic Gospels may have been other attempts to convey the events of Jesus’ life to his followers, or some may have been written more as a private philosophical exercise by Gnostic writers.
For various reasons, the Gnostic Gospels were not accepted by the Christian Church as part of the official biblical canon. However, they are available for viewing as part of the New Testament Apocrypha. Interest in the Gnostic Gospels is said to have grown exponentially after the release of the controversial book and film The Da Vinci Code. While the idea of finding secret teachings or hidden codes in forbidden texts may seem intriguing, most of the Gnostic Gospels contain no particularly heretical or controversial passages. Some seem to ignore fundamental Christian principles, such as the crucifixion of Jesus, but few go against the essential thread of the canonical Gospels.
Understanding the meaning of the Gnostic Gospels would require much more time and research than an article of this type could provide. Detailed discussions of the Gnostic Gospels and the Gnostic movement in general can be found online or in research books available in Christian bookstores or well-stocked public libraries.
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