Do we know that there were no Gospels suppressed at the Nicean Council?

Question

Do we know, with proof, whether or not there were any Gospels left out of the Bible?

Answer 1

Yes there were originally 12 gospels...but that's not the only thing changed. The wording has been tinkered with for ages. I am betting the original texts and the modern version tell quite different stories...

Answer 2

Yes, there were none left out. The Cannon of the Bible (both Old and New Testament) was established in the late 4th century and officially confirmed in the 16th Century (I forget the council).

There are of course spurious other gospels, like the gospel of Thomas, but it doesn't take too much reading to see that the Jesus in that book is not the Jesus of Christianity. (Keep in mind that the gospel of Thomas was written hundreds of years after the Nicean Council).

Answer 3

There were many existing books about Jesus that where no included in the New Testament. Most of them are still available today on-line if you want to take the time to read them. Usually just one quick read through will show you why they were not included in the scriptures. (It would be about like putting The DiVinci Code into the next translation of the Bible, because, after all, it mentions Jesus.

When the Nicean Council looked at putting together the canon of scripture, they used several sources. First, they only included books that they could find reasonable evidence that they dated back to the time of the apostles. For example, they looked at a series of letters written by a church leader name Clements of Rome that were written between 94 and 97 AD. Clements quotes from 16 of the 27 books of the New Testament. That is good evidence that those books existed by the year 97 AD. They also looked at what books were and were not quoted over the years by church leaders as "scriptures". Not a since book that was excluded by the Council was ever quoted by an earlier church leader, in 300 years, as scripture.

They looked at several list that had been put together by earlier church leaders, including one from 120AD by Ignatius which list the books that were in common usage at the time by the churches in Asia and Europe. It contains the same 27 books that make up the New Testament today. He also left of list of books that were appearing at that time (almost 100 years after Jesus) that he said were fakes.

They looked at existing collections of scriptures being used in the churches of that time. Everyone of the 27 books of the New Testament was found in one or more of the existing manuscripts being used in the churches. With the exception of one manuscript which had the first letter written by Clements of Rome in the back as an appendix, there was not a single manuscript found that contained any books besides the 27 in the current New Testament.

We have today about 2,300 manuscripts of the New Testament from before the time of the Nicean Council. Many of those come from groups like the Copts in Egypt (a group of Jewish Christians) or the Aremenians in Asia, who had no contact with the Catholic church at the time of the Nicean Council, and so could not have been altered by anything the group said. Not a single one of those manuscripts includes any "gospels" or other books not in the current New Testament.

So while there are books about Jesus that were not included in the New Testament, there is no evidence that any of them date back to the time of Jesus and the apostles, and at no time have any of them ever been quoted, including in a collection of scriptures or treated as being scripture. All the historical evidence is that the books finalized by the Nicean Council were the correct books to include.

Answer 4

As I understand it (sorry, I have no proof one way or another), they simply defined the canon. They did state four books did not belong: The Didache (or the Teachings of the Twelve Apostles, an early church "manual"), the Epistle of Barnabas, the Epistle of Clement (now referred to as I Clement, II Clement being spurious), and the Shepherd of Hermas (an apocalyptic writing). They affirmed the current New Testament, most all of which had already been established by Christians at the time (the four books above plus Revelations and Hebrews were the only six controversial books). The other gospels, such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, etc., had already been regarded as spurious by the general Christian community.

For more see:

Answer 5

I don't know if it was at the Nicean Council, but it is claimed that the Gnostic Gospels were deemed heretic and hidden away, to be discovered in the 20th century as the Nag Hammadi texts.

Answer 6

Try looking at the Apocryphal books.These are the books,gospels,letters etc,that were not included.
The Nicean Council which decided what went into the bible happened in 450 ad.
450 years after the death of Jesus!!!!
And people still believe every word is true

Answer 7

yes,the Apocrypha's came some 400 years after the Crucifixion of our lord, the accepted gospels came no more than 200 years after the Crucifixion. the authors of the accepted 4 gospels are more accurate and more is known of them. most of the other books are not accurate and simply take the names of people known to or associated with our lord, but the authors of them little if anything is known about them. the gospels and all new testament come from eye witness accounts and oral tradition of the first Christians,the other gospels were written way past having any credibility and have no likelihood of being recorded by actual eye witness accounts.

Answer 8

Yup. There were several Gospels left out of the bible.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_from_the_Bible

Good old wikipedia can explain why. It's quite long, but shows that a number of Gospels were lost from the bible, including one by Mary Magdelene, one that was about the Virgin Mary and one about Christ's childhood.

Answer 9

i think you are mistaken since there are some gospels missing from the bible and heres a link for you since you may not believe me

www.earlychristianhistory.net it talks about the early christian church and the cousnil of nicean

Answer 10

Actually, there were many many different writings and interpretations of Jesus' message and the early church decided on the most popular interpretation (which were made the 4 gospels). The rest were dismissed or actively branded as heretical. It's easy to research -- I did basic research on this using google (about a month ago) and it was pretty easy.