y do the early Christians cherry pick Gospels to be included in the Bible, where r the rest of the Gospels?

Answer 1

destroyed cos they didnt like wat was written

Answer 2

Here's the thing: there are indeed "gospels" outside of the Bible. They were not accepted into the NT canon for a couple reasons:

1 - These "gospels" are known as the Gnostic gospels, and they were written by Gnostics (a group of esoteric Christians) during the second, third, and fourth centuries, several hundred years after Christ's life, death, and resurrection. The time between the events detailed in these documents and their first known copies is too long for there to have been any eyewtiness information. Therefore, these documents should NOT be accepted as an accurate story of Jesus' life because they were NOT written by eyewitnesses (as opposed to the Canonical Gospels) and that they were written too late to be taken seriously.

2 - Secondly, the fact that these documents were written by Gnostics doesn't help their case; the Gnostics of the NT era were known to distort and/or forge documents/gospels to fit their strikingly divergent doctrines.

3 - The story of Jesus in these "gospels" doesn't match the historical data about Jesus drawn from the Synoptics and John. In fact, they often contradict both the canonical Gospels and other Gnostic gospels!

In conclusion, I think that it's a safer bet to trust the earliest documents (the Synoptics [ more specifically, Mark, circa about 35 AD!]) than these later "gospels"!

Answer 3

The gospels that are now in the Bible were chosen because they best reflected what the church at the time wanted. The early Christian church had so many factions and so many gospels, that it was difficult to try to centralize. The head of the church (the Pope), convened a council that selected the books we have today. These books were chosen to identify the godliness of Jesus, and to strip him of his "human" attributes. This is the time when Jesus became known as the son of God, and not as just a man.

After these gospels and books were chosen, the rest were rounded up and destroyed. Some were salvaged and sent to different parts of the known world. That is why we have the Nag Hammadi scrolls, the Gnostic gospels, and the Gospel of Judas. These books delve into aspects of the earliest Christian churches and their core beliefs. Interesting to read. I recommend the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of Thomas.

Answer 4

The New Testament consists of 27 books (or letters) which, for the most part, were written prior to the start of the second century (100 A.D.). The first four (the Gospels) contain written accounts of the teaching and ministry of Jesus Christ. The books which follow interpret Jesus' teaching and explain how to apply it to daily life.

It would appear that until about 50-60 A.D. there was no need for a written account of the Gospel. This is because the eyewitnesses were still living who could pass on the information first-hand. However, since the apostles were to grow old and pass away like everybody else, it later became necessary to have written accounts of the life of Jesus so that the facts would not get distorted with the passage of time. As a result, certain of the apostles and their associates penned the accounts we now have included as the four gospels.

Towards the end of the first century, it appears the four gospel accounts were gathered together into a single collection called "The Gospel". (The various accounts were distinguished by adding According to Matthew, According to Mark, etc.) At roughly the same time the letters written by the apostle Paul were also gathered together into a collection referred to as "The Apostle". While these collections represent the beginning of what eventually came to be regarded as the New Testament canon, they were not yet formally grouped together and designated as such.

In about 140 A.D., a man named Marcion arrived in Rome and began preaching a distorted version of the teachings included in The Gospel and The Apostle. This movement grew to such an extent that the Christian church leaders saw the necessity to more clearly formalize the distinction between what was and was not authoritative scripture. This led to the formalization of the list of writings considered authoritative by the Christian church (the New Testament canon).

Factors which the early church used in deciding whether a book was to be regarded as canonical included:

Apostolic Authorship - Was the letter written by one of Jesus' apostles or one of their close associates?

Authoritative Recognition - Was the book generally regarded by the various congregations of the early church as authoritative?

Doctrinal Soundness - Were the teachings of the book in keeping with the apostolic faith?

It is important to note that when putting together the list of authoritative books, the church leaders did not arbitrarily generate a list of books that henceforth would be considered authoritative; rather, they simply documented and formalized the list of books which the early Christian church already considered authoritative.

As with the Old Testament, the list of canonical New Testament books has been recorded and re-recorded throughout the course of history by several notable figures, including:

Origen

Eusebius, Pope from 309-310 A.D.

The first known list which includes the 27 books which Christians recognize today appeared in the Festal Letter written by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, to the churches when announcing the date of Easter in 367 A.D. Later, Jerome and Augustine produced canonical lists containing the same 27 books.

In summary, the New Testament canon was not produced by the simple decree of any church governing body. Rather, like the Old Testament, the New Testament took shape over a period of time as the oral teachings of the original apostles were written down and distributed among the early Christian churches. The early church then documented and formalized the already recognized list of authoritative writings in order to prevent the distortion of the truth over the passage of time.

Answer 5

This is not so much answering your question as it is correcting some errors in other answers.

First, the Gnostic Gospels were not found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. There were no gospels, Gnostic or otherwise in the Dead Sea Scolls - this is one of the facts Dan Brown got wrong in the DaVinci code. Most of the Gnostic gospels were found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt, and they were in the form of Codexes (an early form of book) not scrolls.

Nicea did not decide what books were going to be in the Bible. The question debated there was whether or not Christ was created or has always existed, his divinity was not debated either. Again, sounds like this person was using the DaVinci code as their source.

I reall like the answer that williamzo gave, it was accurate and well thought out.

Answer 6

Absolutely! That's exactly why it's so powerful. It was a loose assortment of books and letters, with a single theme; THE MESSIAH ! If you are really interested in learning about the format, or plan, and why they did this, read the book of Revelation. It is the pattern, that stitches all the rest of the book together. For a moment, put aside all that you've heard of apocalyptic literature, and just for once, read it, and understand that each weird character is a theme that matches a book of the New Testament exactly. It's like Cliff's Notes. Or Christ for Dummies. It was never meant to predict the future. It was meant to be a blueprint of a book. It's the table of contents. It's the filing system. It's a code! It's not any more mystical than The Road Runner, and Wiley Coyote. ( did you ever doubt that the road runner would escape? of course not! the author wrote it that way! )

Answer 7

From it's earliest days the church has venerated sacred scriptures. It's founders were Hebrews, steeped in Hebrew scriptures, (Our 'Old Testiment'), and for the first generation church, the writings of the original Apostles and Paul were being used to instruct the faithful. All the writings that were later included in the new testament were written by the Apostles or by their disciples who had heard the stories from the first generation christians, and virtually all of the biblical books were written within the lifetime of these first generation Christians.
I assume by 'rest of the Gospels' you are referring to the Gnostic gospels found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. These writings were not 'lost' for centuries as some would have you believe. Most have been at least referred to in other documents since the fourth century. These 'Gospels' were written 2 -3 centuries after the death of Christ and given the names of Thomas, Mary Magdeline, & Judas to give them false authenticity.
The Gnostics were an early 'psuedo-christian' sect, who believed that the physical world was inherantly evil and that they had the secret to 'attaining heaven' through rejection of the physical world. It's kind of like the group in California who all committed suicide so they could 'hitch a ride' on a passing comet.
Most of what became the bible, was being circulated to the local churches since the first century. Protestant and Catholic scriptures differ in the inclusion of seven Old Testament books in the Catholic that are not included in the Protestant. This is because the Catholic uses the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuigent) and the Protestant churches adopted the Hebrew translation. These books were considered sacred writings by the Jews of Christ's time, but were thrown out by the Jews in 100 AD (after the Christian church had separated from Judaism) because they were not originally written in Hebrew.
The Council of Trent (1545-1563) determined what writings were indeed inspired and should be included in the Canon of Sacred Scripture.
For those who use this forum to 'blast' God or the Church, you should at least try to get your history right. The Council of Nicea (325 AD), defined as doctrine the True Divinity of Christ and fixed the date for keeping Easter. No Sacred Scripture was determined or prescribed. Constantine did not make Christianity the 'official' church of the empire, he merely legalized the practice of it. While he recognized the political advantages of endorsing the church, he did not become a Christian until he was on his deathbed.

Answer 8

Because the other unused gospels didn't go with the gospels in the bible. they were teaching other things that the Christians did not believe. they weren't from god. God has control over what is happening on earth and he wouldn't allow things that he never said to be in the holy bible.

Answer 9

There are no other gospels. What is in the bible is what is supposed to be in the bible and nothing else.

Answer 10

Roman Emperor Constantine invented a new religion in 325 CE (ad) and commissioned a council (Nicene Council) to invent a book (bible) that supported his new pagan religion.

"Early Christians" were Jews and Christianity has no relation to them.

Answer 11

They got them all. One for Jews. One for Gentiles. One for the highly educated. And a fourth to follow up 50 years later to encourage all believers. What makes you think they missed one?