Alternate Gospels

See, KS, the "Gospel of Mary Magdalene" actually won, but when it made that deal with Bobus Guccionicus for the pictoral, it was replaced by the Synoptic Gospels. Bad deal.

 

I was under the impression the Nag Hamadi gospels were still under consideration for canonization.

Peter himself canonized the writings of Paul.

 

Not sure about the former, Sly. I'd love to learn more if it is true.

As for Peter, I thought the Bible, as we know it, came into being at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE. Wasn't this the meeting that cannonized the Synoptic gospels, made Christ's divinity doctrine, and put an end to the Arian "heresy?"

 

In II Peter, Peter called the writings of Paul gospels. Niceae may have used that in their decision.

 

I saw part of the documentary Ssstern was referring to. I'd be interested to read the Gnostic gospels someday. I do agree with SN that the inclusion or exclusion of the documents at hand at the time the New Testament was cannonized (sp?) was largely based on how well the doctrines they held agreed with the Old Testament as well as each other. If you read the Bible from beginning to end, you can see the consistent themes running throughout.

The little bit of the show I saw was focused on the supposed gospel of Thomas. The narrator stated that the document included absolutely nothing about Jesus' crucifixion, death, or resurrection. If the apostle Thomas did write a gospel, don't you think the resurrection would've been a HUGE part of it? We're talking about 'doubting Thomas' here, the one who had to place his fingers in Jesus' wounds after the resurrection to believe in it. Seems to me like he'd be one of the most fiercely outspoken supporters of the resurrection of Christ.

 

I doubt it.

 

Math made a funny.

That was good -- it took me a second to get that one.

 

what does cannonize mean?

I saw that book The Gnostic Gospels at the bookstore today.

 

www.dictionary.com is a great resource. i use it for spelling all the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page is also a great resource for looking stuff up.


the "canon" is the official set of books in the bible. when they were canonized is when they were made official -- basically, when the bible was created. up til then, there was no official version of the bible and gospels were all sorta used as people saw fit. i think. maybe i should go look it up, just to be sure.