Why was the gospel of Phillip excluded from your canon of scripture?

Question

This should be rich.

Answer 1

The original editors probably didn't like passages like this:

"And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. But Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on the mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval."

Answer 2

the Gnostic Gospel of Philip?

Despite recent popular and scholarly infatuation with the "gospels" of the Nag Hammadi collection, their textual inferiority demonstrates that they are not to be accorded the status reserved for the canonical gospels of the Bible.

The Gospel of Philip
The Gospel of Philip appears to be, despite its name, actually a "collection of excerpts mainly from a Christian Gnostic sacramental catechesis."3 This judgment is based on its composition, an eccentric arrangement of a wide variety of literary types. Philip closely resembles orthodox catechisms of the second through fourth centuries, and was most likely translated into Coptic from a Greek text dating to the second half of the third century A.D.

The Gnostic writings are believed to have been written some 200 years after the New Testament (which were written, mostly, by eye-witnesses or first-hand acquaintances of the Apostles).

Gnosticism was rejected by the Early Church as being heretical.

Since most of the New Testament canon was firmly established by usage even before the second half of the third century, why would it have been included?

Answer 3

It along with much of the gnostic gospel where written at the earliest hundreds of years to some over 500 years from even the latest of the standard gospels.

Answer 4

Because it was never accepted by the faithful, or by the church, as being worthy of inclusion in the official canon of scripture.

Answer 5

Not all gospels existing(more than 200)could be included. More over it had some content which was considered to be heretic.

Answer 6

Because those that compiled the gospel canon probably felt that it would not offer sufficient support for Church authority.

Answer 7

Because it was written in the THIRD CENTURY. There is no evidence it was written prior to that. Also, and equally important, it contains heretical writings that do not conform to Scripture written by the Apostles.

Answer 8

Because, among other things, it recognized that reincarnation was the true message of the resurrection analogy.

Answer 9

It is historically unreliable. It simply didn't exist when Philip was alive and was therefore not written by him. It also teaches things that are contrary to the rest of Scripture.

Answer 10

One tough editor.