Bible modified by the Church? Other gospels forbidden and hidden?

Question

In your opinion, do we hold the original version of The New Testament, with the Gospel of John, Matthew, Luc, and Mark, or is it possible that it was modified by the Church? and if yes, for what reason? Power?

What about the Gospels found in Nag Hammadi-Egypt? Were they really hidden because the Church forbid them?

Answer 1

The Catholic Church was entrusted by God to decide what books are inspired to be in the canon of the Bible.

If power were the issue,it was the power of the Holy Spirit since Gnosticism was a profoundly different religious cosmology from Judaism and Christianity.

The books like the Gnostic Gospels that claim to be inspired were rightly kept out of the Bible because most of them are no more compatible with the Chistian Faith of the New Testament than the Iliad is.

The reason for the varied 'pseudepigrapha"'s being rejected is because they did not fulfill the criteria that the ancient Catholic/Orthodox Church demanded: apostolicity, orthodoxy,consistency with the Holy Tradition and other accepted texts and authorized use in the church's liturgy,among other criteria.

We really do not know why the Nag Hammadi texts were buried. Perhaps those texts were hidden away because they were condemned by the Church.

Answer 2

1) We definitely do *not* have the original version of the NT. The reason for this is simple - legions of monks were given the task of making hand-written (manuscript) copies of the original works. And copies of those copies. And copies of *those* copies. etc. etc. Human error *has* crept in. We know this because we continue to find manuscripts with variations. Nearly every time we find an older manuscript, we find a version closer to the original.

However, all archaeological discoveries to date strongly oppose any attempt to *intentionally* *alter* any of the New Testament scriptures. There have been instances of verses *added*, but even these additions did not occur to all copies within a sect at the same time. In other words, they are due to the addition of a single individual, not the alteration of the text throughout an entire sect. Note that no significant *change* to these manuscripts has been discovered. Therefore, we can state with a great deal of certainty that the early Church did *not* *attempt* to alter the scriptures that we have today. Nevertheless, the scriptures that we have today have, undeniably, been subject to the (minor) vagaries of human error and individual additions.

It *is* true that the not-so-early Church suppressed Gnosticism and destroyed their literature. (The early RCC had a gnostic bishop who attempted -and failed - to be elected pope. At this time, gnostics were not supressed.) Thus, the Nag Hammadi Library http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library may have been buried as a result of a late 4th century C.E. Coptic suppression of the gnostics. This cannot be certain, but it seems very likely.

Note that this by no means *validates* the gnostic gospels. Many books repressed by the church in ancient times that have since been discovered are *demonstrably* inaccurate or forgeries. You will have to read critical analyses of some of these texts to determine their authenticity. Others, on the other hand, are clearly not only in opposition to the "canonical" scripture, but also to our knowledge of history and even to common sense.

I, personally, have read several of these "pseudepigrapha". A couple are interesting, most are obvious forgeries. You should be able to read translations of many of these online, and there are also inexpensive paperback collections.

Jim, http://www.life-after-harry-potter.com

Answer 3

i doubt it...