More Gospels!

[josh987654321]

I never knew that there were more Gospels than just Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, until I started on this forum and some came up in certain threads.

I have been searching online and found this list -

Completely preserved Gospels:
Gospel of Mark (canonical)
Gospel of Matthew (canonical)
Gospel of Luke (canonical)
Gospel of John (canonical)
Gospel of Thomas
Gospel of Truth
Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians
Gospel of Nicodemus (also known as the “Acts of Pilate”)
Gospel of Barnabas
Gospel of Gamaliel

Infancy Gospels:
Gospel of the Nativity of Mary
Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
Infancy Gospel of Thomas
Infancy Gospel of James
Arabic Infancy Gospel
Syriac Gospel of the Boyhood of our Lord Jesus

Partially preserved Gospels:
Gospel of Judas
Gospel of Peter
Gospel of Mary
Gospel of Philip

Fragmentary preserved Gospels:
Dialogue of the Saviour
Papyrus Egerton 2
Gospel of Eve
Fayyum Fragment
Gospel of Mani
Oxyrhynchus Gospels
Gospel of the Saviour (also known as the Unknown Berlin gospel)
Gospel of the Twelve

Reconstructed Gospels:
Gospel of the Ebionites
Gospel of the Egyptians
Gospel of the Hebrews
Secret Gospel of Mark
Gospel of Matthias
Gospel of the Nazoraeans
Gospel of Q (also known as the “Q document”)
Signs Gospel
Cross Gospel

Lost Gospels:
Gospel of Bartholomew
Gospel of the Seventy
Gospel of the Four Heavenly Realms
Gospel of Perfection
Gospel of Marcion
Gospel of Basilides
Gospel of Andrew
Gospel of Apelles
Gospel of Cerinthus
Gospel of Bardesanes
Gospel of the Encratites
Gospel of the Gnostics
Gospel of Hesychius
Gospel of Lucius
Gospel of Longinus
Gospel of Manes
Gospel of Merinthus
Gospel of Scythianus
Gospel of Simonides
Gospel of Tatian
Gospel of Thaddaeus
Gospel of Valentinus
The Clementine Gospel

Are there any more Gospels to be added to this list or removed?

Also does anyone know which Gospels are accepted by the Catholic Church as in which Gospels are quite false and which ones are accurate in order for me to read?

Because I don’t want to be reading those that are like the “Gospel of Judas” where it claims that Jesus laughed at the last supper, which is obviously really “bs.”

Could someone provide me links to where I can read some of these other Gospels online please, thank you.

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[patrick457]

Are there any more Gospels to be added to this list or removed?

Also does anyone know which Gospels are accepted by the Catholic Church as in which Gospels are quite false and which ones are accurate in order for me to read?

Because I don’t want to be reading those that are like the “Gospel of Judas” where it claims that Jesus laughed at the last supper, which is obviously really “bs.”

Could someone provide me links to where I can read some of these other Gospels online please, thank you.

Thank you for reading
Josh

As you may know, the Church - and much of mainstream Christianity in general - has consistently accepted only four gospels as canonical. Everything else isn’t.

Some of these were written in order to fill in the gaps left by the canonical gospels. I like to compare these with fanfiction; they are pretty much an attempt by some early Christians to satisfy the hunger on details Matthew, Mark, Luke or John don’t tell us about (Jesus’ childhood, for instance, which is the main topic of the so-called infancy gospels). While this genre was indeed somewhat popular back in the day, that doesn’t make them necessarily factual or inspired. Others meanwhile are more like doctrinal treatises, usually meant to convey the beliefs and teachings of a certain faction within early Christianity. Gnostic gospels like the Gospel of Judas or the Gospel of Mary belong to this category.

If you’re looking for a place to start, try Early Christian Writings or the Church Fathers section of New Advent.

 

[josh987654321]

As you may know, the Church - and much of mainstream Christianity in general - has consistently accepted only four gospels as canonical. Everything else isn’t.

Some of these were written in order to fill in the gaps left by the canonical gospels. I like to compare these with fanfiction; they are pretty much an attempt by some early Christians to satisfy the hunger on details Matthew, Mark, Luke or John don’t tell us about (Jesus’ childhood, for instance, which is the main topic of the so-called infancy gospels). While this genre was indeed somewhat popular back in the day, that doesn’t make them necessarily factual or inspired. Others meanwhile are more like doctrinal treatises, usually meant to convey the beliefs and teachings of a certain faction within early Christianity. Gnostic gospels like the Gospel of Judas or the Gospel of Mary belong to this category.

If you’re looking for a place to start, try Early Christian Writings or the Church Fathers section of New Advent.

Thank you.

I have been reading the Gospel of Nicodemus (also known as the “Acts of Pilate”) here -
folk.uio.no/lukeb/books/apocrypha/Gospel_of_Nicodemus.pdf

I have found it quite interesting, doesn’t seem to be any doctrinal errors I can find or anything contrary to our faith, but I don’t know.

Is there anything to be gained by reading some of them? or which ones might offer us a truthful, relevant perspective similar to that of “Acts of the apostles” or Pauls letters?

Thank you for reading
Josh

 

[patrick457]

Thank you.

I have been reading the Gospel of Nicodemus (also known as the “Acts of Pilate”) here -
folk.uio.no/lukeb/books/apocrypha/Gospel_of_Nicodemus.pdf

I have found it quite interesting, doesn’t seem to be any doctrinal errors I can find or anything contrary to our faith, but I don’t know.

Is there anything to be gained by reading some of them? or which ones might offer us a truthful, relevant perspective similar to that of “Acts of the apostles” or Pauls letters?

Thank you for reading
Josh

Most of these apocryphal gospels of course don’t provide us with any fresh information about the historical Jesus or the 1st century like the canonical gospels do (contrary to what some people might say), but they do tell us something of the mindset of some early Christians, either heretical or orthodox.

Some versions of the Acts of Pilate (aka the Gospel of Nicodemus), for example, provides an account of the so-called Harrowing of Hell, where Jesus frees the souls of the righteous dead out of the realm of the dead and brings them to heaven. While I personally don’t think that the stuff as written there describes exactly what really may have happened (although it did inspire many a religious artwork) - which I don’t think anyone really knows for certain anyway - it does show that there was already a belief among Christians that Jesus “descended into hell” by the time this work as written (something that is only possibly hinted at in 1 Peter 3:19-20 and 4:6), enough for a full story to be made out of it.