Why don't Christians recognise the Gnostic gospels?

Question

Considering that the gnostic gospels were written no earlier or later than the gospels chosen for the new testament I'm surprised that they're not see as just as valid as the gospels of the new testament.

Apparently the Gnostic gospels were written around 120-180ad which makes them much the same age as the gospels in the new testament

Answer 1

I find it shocking that these answers are so full of lies, and that Max Marie's answer is the only one that is actually the truth.

She is completely correct.

If you want a small amount of reading for proof of these statements, can I please refer you to 'The Da Vinci Code: A response' by Nicky Gumbel? It's only 50-odd pages long, and it's smaller than a postcard in size.

PS: Your additional info is incorrect - they date from AD390. See www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html, which is all about the Gnostic Gospels.

Answer 2

The Gnostic gospels are writings by early "Christian" Gnostics. After the first century of Christianity, two primary divisions developed - the orthodox and the Gnostics. The orthodox Christians held to books we now have in the Bible and to what is today considered orthodox theology. The Gnostic Christians, if they can truly be described as Christians, held a distinctly different view of the Bible, of Jesus Christ, of salvation - and virtually every other major Christian doctrine. However, they did not have any writings by the apostles to give legitimacy to their beliefs.



That is why and how the Gnostic gospels were created. The Gnostics fraudulently attached the names of famous Christians to their writings, such as the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip, the gospel of Mary, etc. The discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in northern Egypt in 1945 represented a major discovery of Gnostic gospels. These Gnostic gospels are often pointed to as supposed "lost books of the Bible."



So, what are we to make of the Gnostic gospels? Should some or all of them be in the Bible? No, they should not. First, as we pointed out above, the Gnostic gospels are forgeries. The Gnostic gospels were fraudulently written in the names of the apostles in order to give them a legitimacy in the early church. Thankfully, the early church fathers were nearly unanimous in recognizing the Gnostic gospels as promoting false teachings about virtually every key Christian doctrine. There are countless contradictions between the Gnostic gospels and the true Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Gnostic gospels can be a good source to study early Christian heresies, but they should be rejected outright as not belonging in the Bible and not representing the genuine Christian faith.

Answer 3

The Gospels is the Bible are dated from about 60-80 AD. Some even date as early as 40 AD. There is a HUGE difference between the Gnostic dates, and the Gospels in our Bibles. Do not pull a fast one by stating such unfounded lies.

Answer 4

The Gnostic gospels and other pseudographia contradict the words of Jesus and the Apostles- and were never accepted by the disciples of the Apostles or the early church fathers. They are filled with injternal contradictions, and they contradict the rest of scripture- whereas the legitimate New Testament writings complement the rest of scripture.

Just read some of the Gnostic gospels...they're absurd- and their writers were not even familiar enouigh with the Old Testament to make their "jesus" fulfill the OT prophecies.

The phony gospels were alreasdy a problem in the Apostle Pauls day- as he had to warn the churches against phony letters being circulated in his name, as well as admonishing them to "reject the profane and vain babblings, and oppossitions of 'gnosis" so-called". -1Tim 6:20

The Gnostic writings were so blatantly false, that even the most nominal Christians rejected them, and they just doin't have the literary references, as do the genuine writings, to show that anyone in the first few centuries in the Christian community supported them.

Alot of misinformation is being propagated by recent movies and books, which paint an innaccurate picture of Chriostian history and fact. You know that you can't believe the mass media about anything....but if you will actually search out the facts, you will see, that as usual, things did not really happen as portrayed in the movies.

Answer 5

People are taught what to think, not how to think.
This brings up another interesting question: Why aren't the two other Gospels of John and the final half of the Book of Revelations made available to people, to read and examine in detail? The Vatican is aware of their existence!
My personal opinion is that the religious hierarchy are not ready to feed the masses with spiritual knowledge, it just might damage business.
You might give this some serious thought..... religion is really a very lucrative business.
If my memory serves me right, someone threw a group of money changers out of the temple!

Answer 6

I agree with you. And Sho-Nuf: they are not in the bible because they weren't DISCOVERED UNTIL 1945!!!!!!!!!!

People often get disciple and apostles confused. Apostles were inspired to write books and scriptures but did not know Jesus personally. Most of the apostles weren't even born until many years after Christ's death. Disciples knew Jesus personally and lived with Him, ate with Him and followed Him.

The Gnostic scriptures were written by Jesus' DISCIPLES. These people actually knew Jesus.

Many of the Gnostic scriptures are worded as "myth" just like Jesus' parables. However, the Catholic church regards these writings as heresy even though 5 of the writings are in Jesus' own words. It wouldn't be the first time the Catholics rejected something directly from Jesus. After all, the Romans persecuted the Christians for 298 YEARS before the Romans became Christians themselves. Then, in the year 1054 the Romans broke away from the other Christians and created Catholicism (the first protestant church). This can be found in any encyclopedia listed as "The Great Schism." The Roman Catholics rejected many things about or from Jesus and His disciples. Of the 12 disciples, 13 including Mary Magdalene, only 4 of the disciples works are in the bible. The rest come from the Apostles who did not know Jesus. Why aren't the other disciples writings included in the bible? Why do the Roman Catholics regard them as heresy? Because they speak of a relationship between God and man without a church. Just as Jesus had a relationship with his Disciples and with all people, Jesus never assigned a priest to act as His mediator. Jesus was in direct contact with people.

For those who are interested:

"The Gospel According to Mary Magdalene" found at http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

"The Secret Gospel of Mark" found at http://www.gnosis.org/library/secm.htm

"The Apocryphon of John" found at http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn.html

"The Gospel of Thomas" found at http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html

Answer 7

The Roman Emperor Constantine produced the bible and he replace right into a pagan no longer god!!! He additionally prepared Christianity into the Holly Roman Catholic Church!! no longer in Israel or any of the countries of meant commencing place yet completely ITALIAN!! no longer one be responsive to that's modern-day with the era and alter into no longer written till numerous hundred years after the era the story is desperate in!! How did the apostles write their books better than a hundred years as quickly as they could have been lifeless? What a ask your self comprehensive disinformation and deception campaign he waged against his Christian enemies - so good in certainty that Christians are nonetheless following the deception to on the present time!!!

Answer 8

The gnostic "gospels" aren't Gospels at all. That's why they aren't accepted.

They were written FAR later than the true Gospels. The problem is most people don't understand the difference between compiling Hebrew scrolls into what we call the Bible today, which was done at the Council of Hippo in 398. As compared to actually WRITING a text.

The Hebrew scrolls were written long before they were compiled.

Please understand, the gnostic "gospels" contain a lot of UNbiblical ideas. Such as the ever popular "Gospel of Thomas" says women do not go to heaven. Jesus would NEVER say that.

Answer 9

Because Gnosticism sees the scriptual text as metaphoric pointing to deeper spiritual truths and the individual's personal relationship to the Divine. The church was/is about power over others and the denial of the beauty of the truth of your own personal experience and connection to All that the is

Answer 10

Because the one sect of Christianity that got dominance saw the gnostic gospels as a threat. People are asked, in the gnostics, to think for themselves and that there's basically very little between them and enlightenment (so to speak) which would override the "authority" of any male in charge of the "church" as they determined it. Women were also granted a role in leadership which was another affront to the authority of "male dominance" in the new church... and so on.

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