Other than promoting the Church's agenda, why were the Gnostic Gospels tossed aside and considered false?

Question

Or was that the only reason? Because it painted a different picture of Jesus and his teachings than the Bible we have now does?

I've seen projected timelines of when the different books were written. For example, when the recent debate in the news was on the validity of the Gospel of Thomas and a couple others, I forget if it was Discovery or National Geographic, but someone had a timeline that was proposed by the religious scholars who were looking at them and they showed the various Gnostic Gospels as being written before the traditional 4 (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).

Answer 1

Since when has the Church ever cared about whether a artifact is authentic or not I have never seen that they seem in the least interested ! { take the shroud of Turin as a classic example }. The Church has always been shameless at promoting their agenda POWER AND WEALTH !!!

Answer 2

For a book to be considered canonical it has to meet certain requirements, and none of the Gnostic gospels do. They are also far less consistent, both internally and with regard to other books that are considered canonical. Most are also fragmentary.

I read a few and was not as impressed as I had hoped. Some of them were barely coherent and in the Gospel of Thomas Simon Peter wanted Jesus to send Mary away since she was a woman and thus was not eligible to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus solves this by telling him that he will turn her into a man. Uh . . . draw your own conclusions from that.

Answer 3

Mark replaced into the 1st gospel written. it replaced into written no formerly than 70 CE, and maximum pupils placed it at around ninety CE. the different gospels have been consistent with Mark, and have been written in the 2d century. John replaced into the final gospel written. The earliest Christian writings in the recent testomony have been the epistles of Paul, beginning with Corinthians and a million Galatians. They have been written around 40 CE. The outstanding ingredient on the subject of the earliest writings is they do no longer point out a mundane lifestyles for Jesus. the only certainly activities ascribed to him are a crucifiction, loss of lifestyles, and resurrection, yet those are never placed in any Earthly area. The Gospel of certainty replaced into written someplace in the mid 2d century, possibly between one hundred forty and a hundred and eighty CE. i do no longer understand while the others have been written. Adam, you're repeating the church line, yet those dates at the instant are not supported by utilising study and data. Matthew, Luke, and John are patently consistent with Mark. Mark mentions the destruction of the temple, so would desire to no longer have been written earlier 70 CE.

Answer 4

There are several people who changed the Bible's themes, stories, and ideas. Some had ill intentions, others misinterpreted to the extreme. Because of this, all books had to be reviewed to make sure that they followed the legitimate books of the Old and New Testaments, such as those that are found on the Dead Sea Scrolls. I hate to say it, but some early Catholic teachers did in fact distort some of Jesus' teachings, as I'm sure other sects have.

Answer 5

In about 324AD at Nicea, the various Christians got together to decide which books should be regarded as "truly holy" and which should not. Votes were taken and the decision was made.

It really was that simple.

If a few more "gnostic" types had been at the meeting, the vote could have easily gone the other way - but they weren't and it didn't - so we're stuck with what we've got.

Answer 6

The Gnostic gospels were set aside because they did not meet the criteria set. There are internal diffculties; difficulties with authorship and they were not orthodox. The Church is not measured by the Gospels, but the Church discerned which are, in fact, gospels.

Answer 7

That's the general concensus. I guess none of us will ever really know what effected the vote. But based on what was considered "inspired" versus what was considered "false", that would be a very valid assumption that the church agenda dictated which books were kept and which books were discarded.

Answer 8

They were inconsistent with teaching Jesus gave to apostles.
They taught that there was secret knowledge for a select few.
This is the same idea that cults promote today:
Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, etc.

Answer 9

They were discounted because they were not written by or under the direction of an Apostle.

Answer 10

they are false because they are not consistent with the teachings and image of Jesus of Matt, Mark, Luke, and John.