The gnostic gospels

[jeri_gerpe]

What is the Church’s opinion of the Gnostic Gospels,

 

[NMJenny]

They were rejected when the canon of Scripture was being completed. Gnostism is a heresy…

 

[NewUlm1976_2000]

They were rejected when the canon of Scripture was being completed. Gnostism is a heresy…

True, but they are also have good insights into what part of the overall world was like and differences in opinion up to that time. They would add to a historical sociological study of the era.

 

[NMJenny]

True, but they are also have good insights into what part of the overall world was like and differences in opinion up to that time. They would add to a historical sociological study of the era.

That’s very true, but the original question asked for the Church’s opinion on the Gnostic gospels. That’s the question I was addressing…

 

[MarcoPolo]

What is the Church’s opinion of the Gnostic Gospels,

The Church’s position is the same as the warning from Paul to Timothy here:

1 Timothy 6:20-21
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid profane babbling and the absurdities of so-called knowledge. By professing it, some people have deviated from the faith.

Avoid it!

This seems to be a reference to the earliest forms of gnosticism. See the footnote on this passage here.

 

[Epistemes]

As others have stated, the Church’s position on the Gnostic Gospels is that such texts and the sects which devised those texts are to be regarded at all times as heretical.

The thing about these texts is that it requires a person of great intellect (and even more lunacy) to be able to even understand the heavy dosages of Neo-Platonic thought pseudo-tantric mysticism present in most of the doctrines. Even without understanding what the texts are saying, it’s easier to understand the impractical nature of what these writers believed. In the Gospel of Thomas, for instance, and in many similar Gospels, a strong anti-feminine quality resounds as Jesus tells his disciples that to inherent the kingdom of heaven women must become men. This is not just impractical, it’s practically stupid.

 

[Fidelis]

They were rejected when the canon of Scripture was being completed.

Actually they were never even considered. These books were written by the *Gnostics, *an esoteric sect who were completely outside the pale of Christianity, but who often appropriated aspects of other religions (including Christianity) to lend legitimacy to their weird, dualist ideas. This is where wacky stuff like the Gospel of Mary Magdelene (of DuhVinci Code infamy) come from. These were never accepted by any orthodox Christians.

You may be confusing them with true Christian apocrypha (like the Letter of Clement to the Corinthians, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Didache) which were authentic Christian writings that at one time/place or another were considered Scripture, but were eventually determined by the Church to be not inspired