What about the 'other gospels'?

What the Bible says

Other gospels are no modern discovery. Luke begins his own Gospel by saying that "many" have already taken up the task, and then he explains how he went about his.

just as they were handed down to us by the initial eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Luke 1:2-4

Luke's grounds are eyewitnesses, investigation and certainty. Peter speaks the same way: "we did not follow cleverly devised fables" and adds that "we were eyewitnesses of His majesty" (2 Pet 1:16). John testifies:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own hands — this is the Word of life.

1 John 1:1

Apostleship had a standard too. When the eleven chose a replacement for Judas, they looked for one of the men who had accompanied them "the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us," to be a witness of the resurrection (Acts 1:21-22).

The Bible also admits that it does not tell everything.

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

John 20:30-31

So the question is not whether more could be told about Jesus; Scripture itself says there was more. The question is which writings pass on the apostles' testimony reliably.

The church's witness

The best known of the other gospels is the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. A Coptic copy was found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945; Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus, copied around 200–250, were already known. Its date is debated: some scholars find first-century tradition in it, while many date the collection as we have it to the second century (roughly 100–200). The Gospel of Judas, from a codex found in the 1970s and published in 2006, was mentioned by Irenaeus around 180, so most scholars date it to the mid-second century (roughly 130–170). The Gospels of Mary, Philip and Peter are generally dated to the second or third century. Apart from the debate over Thomas's earliest layer, few scholars date any of them as early as the four Gospels, written in the later first century.

The content differs as well. Many of these writings are Gnostic, built around "gnosis," or knowledge. They teach that the material world was made by a lesser power and that people are saved by grasping hidden knowledge and escaping the body. For that reason they struggled with the claim that Christ truly became flesh. The church has long read John's test, "every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh," against this background (1 John 4:2). Ambrose, commenting on Luke 1:1, says that many tried to write gospels "which the good moneychanger refuses to pass" Ambrose. He names a gospel of the twelve apostles, one by Basilides and one attributed to Matthias.

By what standards? First, apostolic origin: did the book come from an apostle or lie close to apostolic eyewitness? Second, early and wide use: around 180 Irenaeus insisted there were four Gospels, and about 170 Tatian wove the four into one narrative, the Diatessaron. Third, agreement with the faith the churches had received from the beginning. In 367 Athanasius listed the 27 books of today's New Testament in his Easter letter Athanasius, Festal Letter 39. That was not a new decision but a confirmation of books the churches already used. The popular story that the Council of Nicaea chose the canon has no basis; see How did we get the Bible?.

Chrysostom, on John 20:30, notes that the other evangelists too did not record everything "but only what was sufficient for the purpose of convincing men" Chrysostom. Matthew Henry reads Luke's purpose in the same way: Luke will write of "the things which are, and ought to be surely believed" Matthew Henry.

In the original languages

The word "gospel" is euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον), "good news." In the ancient world it announced things like a victory or an emperor's accession. The New Testament uses it first of all for a message proclaimed, and only later for a book. That is why Paul can say that if anyone, even an angel from heaven, preaches a gospel contrary to the one he preached, he is under a curse (Gal 1:8). There is one gospel, told four ways: "according to" Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The word "apocrypha" comes from apokruphos (ἀπόκρυφος), "hidden." Colossians 2:3 says that in Christ "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." The hiding place is Christ himself, whom the apostles proclaimed publicly, not a secret teaching for the few. Gnostic writings promised hidden knowledge open only to the chosen. Paul tells Timothy to avoid the "opposing arguments of so-called 'knowledge,'" using the word gnosis (γνῶσις) (1 Tim 6:20).

Common objections

"The church suppressed these books. The winners write history." There is truth here. After the fourth century, when the church had the support of the state, copying or owning books judged heretical became difficult, and some were burned or lost. Some scholars think the Nag Hammadi books were buried in response to such pressure, though that is conjecture. But this does not show that the canon was a late power move. The four Gospels were already the church's accepted books in the second century, long before any council, and Gnostic gospels were already being rejected then. And we can still read them today: they were not erased.

"There was another Christianity, kinder to women and the body, and it was pushed out." This deserves a serious answer. Early Christianity really was diverse, and Gnostic texts are valuable evidence of it. But it is not clear on reading them that they honour women and the body more. The last saying of Thomas says that a woman must become male to enter the kingdom of heaven. Gnosticism regarded the body as inferior, which sits badly with the heart of the gospel: God's Son in a body, and the resurrection of the body. The four Gospels, by contrast, make women the first witnesses at the empty tomb (Mark 16:6).

"The four Gospels differ from one another too. Why exclude only these?" The four differ in detail, but they tell of the same Jesus, who taught in Galilee, died on the cross and rose again. The other gospels depart far from that frame, offering mostly hidden dialogues, sayings or later tales of Jesus' childhood rather than a narrative of his ministry. Difference alone does not put every book on one level. What counts is nearness to the eyewitnesses. The church also believes that the Spirit guided it in receiving these books, but the comparison of dates and distance from the witnesses can be made without that belief.

Going further

Reading the other gospels is not forbidden, and it can help one understand history and ideas. As you read, ask about the date, the author and the direction of thought. They show less about Jesus than about how people in the second and third centuries understood him.

You might ask yourself: Am I drawn to "hidden truth," or am I willing to weigh public testimony? What evidence does my own belief or unbelief about Jesus rest on? Have I read one of the four Gospels slowly from start to finish?

To read further, see Can the Bible be trusted? and Did Jesus really exist?