Anybody know who sells or how to get a hold of the early gospels that were forbidden by the church?

Question

I heard there were around 50-60 of them. Also, about where to look for early historical documents about the first christians.

Answer 1

If you're referring to the gnostic scriptures they are here...

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhlalpha.html

Answer 2

There were possibly dozens of gospel accounts written in the 1st and 2nd centuries, but most of them were rejected by the apostolic church. Actually, the apostles themselves seemed to have expected Jesus to return soon after his death and resurrection, so they didn't bother to write anything down. They passed on oral teachings to their followers, some of whom ultimately wrote their accounts down. These include writers such as Mark, who according to Catholic tradition wrote his material from the preaching of Peter in Rome. His gospel dates to about 60 AD, according to most biblical scholars.

Matthew and Luke seem to have used Mark's gospel, and added other oral traditions to give their gospels more material. John's gospel was last, likely written around 90 AD, ten to twenty years after Matthew and Luke. (The very first writings of the New Testament were Paul's letters, written between 50-64 AD.)

Shortly after the times of the apostles, the early church encountered a philosophical division: some Christians began borrowing doctrines from Greek Gnosticism, which held that this world is evil, and was created by a lesser god, a "demi-urge" who was tempted to fall from the world of pure spirit to the physicality of our world. The Gnostics taught that Jesus, being God's Son, could not have had a real physical body, because the physical world is evil. So they taught that Jesus simply appeared to be human, but was really pure spirit. Obviously, this was very different from the teachings of the early apostles, and much debate on this issue ensued.

Early church fathers such as Ireneaus, Justin Martyr, Polycarp and later Origen all taught against this doctrine, and selected gospels which they felt reflected the true teachings of the first apostles. Of course, the history of the writing of the gospels themselves has been obscured, so we don't know how much what we have today corresponds to the original writings. But we do have a history of the early church responding to what they regarded as the heresy of the gnostic gospels, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Nocodemus, etc.

Many of the gospels not sanctioned by the early church were burned by the church, especially after Constantine made Christianity the state religion. Scholars are still finding texts which are new to us, such as the Gospel of Judas, which apears to be yet another gnostic gospel.

As far as history of the early church, there are many, many books on the subject, and many articles on the Internet. They are often called the Early Church Fathers.

Hope this helps! Peace!

Answer 3

They were called the Gnostic Gospels, Lost books of the Bible, or your can read some of them in a Catholic Version Bible. This will give you a starting search perimeter.

Answer 4

go to your local university. (make sure its pretty big)
find the ancient near east professor (if you live in ct, near uconn, it's my buddy prof. miller)
or the theology professor (again prof. miller, lol).
they'll have everything you need for your research, or will be nice enough to take you to the library and show you where everything is.
good luck.
most libraries that are not affiliated with a university with a nondenominational theology professor or section won't have what you're looking for.
the internet is good, but is far from reliable. if you want what is really written there, that was peer reviewed by other historians, the library is your best bet.

Answer 5

EBay, maybe. lol
Do the search Gnostic gospels.

By the way, for those saying Gnostic gospels are not reliable because they wrote them a couple years after. i got a question for you'll.
Well, How many years was it after the Creation when they wrote Genesis? lol

Answer 6

check out "a case for Christ" by lee strobel. its pretty good on this topic - he was an athiest that set out to disprove Christ by finding historical proof against Him and ended up converting to Christianity, and his journey is documented in this book, unbiased.

because really, the books contained in the Bible have over and over again been proven to be the most accurate and reliable early historical documents about Christ and the development of His followers. sure, humans are humans and Jesus' teachings have gotten twisted over the years, but the Bible remains the same as it was 2000 years ago and if you search the BIble for Jesus' teachings, you will find them, word for word, as He taught. there's all sorts of things in the gospels (matthew, mark, luke, and john) that wouldn't be in there if they were completely made up, or even tainted. the gospels tell the gritty truth about things, and every single one of the authors records himself screwing up, and show the only really decent character in the whole story to be Jesus, and at that, a Jesus that loved people and didn't care if they were screw-ups. sound like a conspiracy? i personally dont think so. if you think Christianity now is twisted, its because the church and "Christians" you know have twisted it, not because the Bible itself doesn't portray Christ accurately.

don't let the media suck you in by talking about all of these forbidden books. there aren't as many as they say, and the ones that were forbidden were forbidden because they were innacurate, they were conspiracies made by people to try to get money off twisting the story of Jesus. think if someone wrote a completely fictional, fake biography about george bush that said he's been to prison and used to be a drug dealer. they would have nothing to back it up, and everyone would know it was false, and the writer just wanted to make money and generate controvery. obviously the government of the U.S. wouldn't approve of the book. in the same way, the early church didn't approve of false gospels (biographies) about Jesus.

now people are trying to uncover and read these false gospels... i dont know why. stick to the facts and make sure you research things. don't just believe things about Jesus that you overhear. He's much better than people make Him out to be, and He offers you life. He claimed in the gospels to be the Messiah, God come in human form. if He said He was God, there are only three possibilites - 1)He's a liar 2) He's crazy, or 3) He's God. and to me, if you read about Him, He doesn't seem crazy, and He doesn't seem like the kinda guy who lies about stuff. so i have to conclude, logically, that He's God. the Bible teaches that He can save us from our depression, loneliness, confusion, and hurt. He loves us, He created us, and He wants us to walk with Him, in His grace, in His loving arms.

best of luck on your search for Him. know that He'll probably find you before you find Him, if you're open enough. don't be afraid to see Him; i find HIm where i least expect it all the time, and its awesome. yeah, i screw up a lot, but He's making me slowly into His image. ignorance is bliss, but don't settle for bliss.

search, love, live life, dive into Joy. He's waiting.

:)


www.myspace.com/shoobadablam

Answer 7

first off let me say that you should put your faith in the four gosples of the Bible. The reason for this is that if you believe that God is the divine author of the bible then any other "gosples" are plain lies. Furthermore, the Gnostics came up with a bunch of phony gosples about 200 years after christ. Their a bunch of heretical bimbo. don't waste your time.

Answer 8

Those gospels were written years and years after the 4 we have in the Bible. That's why they aren't included. They aren't as reliable.

Answer 9

You can get ahold of the Book of Enoch online.
Pretty easy to find if you just look around.

As for other things, I am not entirely sure where to look but I am pretty sure you aren't going to find these books in a store.
But if you do please let me know where so I can go buy some as well. :D
~Gypsy~

Answer 10

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.html

Google "gnostic gospels" for additional links. Print versions can be found on Amazon.

Answer 11

THOSE LOST BOOKS WERE LEFT OUT TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM STRAYING TOO FAR FROM THE LORD! ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS IN THE BIBLE, DONT TRUST SCIENCE JIBBERISH AND DONT TRUST THE SCHOOL SYSTEM! EVERYTHING YOU NEED IN LIFE IS IN THE CHURCH AMEN! JESUS TAKE US ALL NOW!!!! LANDOVER BABTIST CHURCH