I recently had a comment on this blog that I thought nicely captures a misconception that many people have. Here is the comment:
Of the 80 or so gospels extant at the time of Nicea 4 were selected to please Constantine and all the others suppressed. Since the only “evidence” of Jesus life are the gospels selected to please the emperor naturally they did what was required to enhance his position.
It is not surprising that people believe this. The picture that many have painted is that from the time of the early church in the first century that there were many Gospels that were being widely used right until the time of Nicaea in the fourth century. Then Constantine, or those who sought to please him, arbritarily picked four of the many to be the official doctrine of the Church.
The facts, however, tell a different story. First of all, eighty is perhaps high. There are sixty Gospels listed in the Wikipedia entry. Of those, some are likely forgeries such as the Secret Gospel of Mark or the Gospel of Bartholomew. Secondly, we do not have evidence of widespread use of any of these Gospels outside of the canonical Gospels. Even the herectical Marcionites used the Gospel of Luke. Thirdly, the four canonical Gospels were widely used at a very early stage. We have many early church writings that quote the four canonical Gospels without quoting the non-canonical Gospels. We also have early canonical lists that have only the four New Testament Gospels. The Muratorian canon (170 AD) includes the four Gospels. Irenaeus (2nd century AD) gives a symbolic meaning for the four Gospels. Even if one does not like his symbolism, he clearly demonstrates the wide acceptance of four Gospels at a very early stage. Finally, the four Gospels were not chosen at Nicaea. The earliest complete list of canonical books that are exactly the same as our modern New Testament is from Athanasius and that list is post-Nicaea. Gnosticism (the movement that saw the creation of many of these Gospels) was not the threat at Nicaea but was rather the Arians.
The idea that eighty Gospels were widely accepted by the public and then the institutional church suppressed all but four is attractive to our conspiracy loving and authority suspicious culture but it does not line up with the facts.
You are full of information but little understanding. The important information is that there were a large number of gospels. Whether is was 5 or 10 or 20 is huge. You are satisfied with 60 but who cars and all but 4 were severely repressed and destroyed. Why? Many of the gospels we know about did NOT support the divine theory of Jesus life. These four became the canon for all Christians and these four and the dominant and controversial interpretation was what Constantine wanted. The emperor wanted a divine Christ and one church, his empire was in disarray and under attack.
Larry, have you actually read any of the extra-canonical gospels? I encourage you to do so. Do not get your information from the Da Vinci Code. Show me the too human portrait of Jesus in these other gospels. The problem with the gospels is that they had a too spiritual Jesus not a too human Jesus. They portrayed Jesus as a spiritual being that only pretended to be human but in fact had no flesh and bones. Even the earliest of the gnostic gospels, that of Thomas, has Jesus pointing to creation and stating that he is found within every part of creation. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the gospels that give us a Jesus who has a human body. Not only that, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the gospels that were used widely by the church right from the beginning, centuries before Constantine. The gnostic gospels were not widely used. Constantine had nothing to do with picking the gospels, it was not even a question that came up at Nicaea!
I read non-Canonical gospels, and I would not include any of them in the Bible.
It is obvious to any Christian who reads them why they were rejected.
larry jeffery says:
“Many of the gospels we know about did NOT support the divine theory of Jesus life. These four became the canon for all Christians and these four and the dominant and controversial interpretation was what Constantine wanted. The emperor wanted a divine Christ and one church, his empire was in disarray and under attack.”
This is not true. The four Gospels were already the ones most widely believed. He had nothing to do with their selection.
The four Gospels were already accepted in the canon by the year 200 AD in the “Muratorian Canon” well over a century before Constantine.
Also, In his writtings, Justin Martyr (although he doesn’t quote the four gospels directly) he has allusions to all four of them around 150 years before Constintine.
Do REAL historical research before making such ignorant assertions that are usually made by the DaVinci Code and Acharya S.
The following is copy/pasted from my document: “Gospel of THOMAS.doc”
The following Text was Down-Loaded from the Internet from “holybooks.com/the-gospel-of-thomas-t…” then the Link: “Gospel of Thomas Scholars Version”
MY OWN COMMENTS (by “Poppa Howard Davies”: June 2011)
The original document was discovered in Egypt in 1945 A.D. It is fascinating insofar as it contains THE ACTUAL ORIGINAL CITATIONS OF JESUS HIMSELF!! (whether these appeal to you or not !!!). These spoken citations by Jesus were HEARD IN PERSON by Didymos Judas Thomas and DULY RECORDED BY HIMSELF, PERSONALLY in the ’Coptic’ Language of the early Egyptian Christians in 340 A.D
Thomas could not, of course, have written it at that time which would have put him at being over 300 years old !! He probably wrote it IMMEDIATELY after Jesus’ Ascension when his mind was still fresh with the precious memories of Jesus, and when he was full of enthusiasm and filled with the ‘Holy Spirit’. It was then (presumably) put ‘into Safe Keeping’ only to eventually see the light of day in 340 A.D.
Remember that Thomas was a Lawyer, This is obviously why he was instinctively unbelieving about Jesus’ reappearance after His crucifixion unless he had solid evidence, and he was, therefore, well-trained in recording ‘evidence’ EXTREMELY ACCURATELY.. So we can take it that Jesus REALLY AND TRULY DID SAY EXACTLY WHAT THOMAS HAS RECORDED FOR ALL ETERNITY!!!
The four Gospels in the New Testament were finally selected out of a total of about sixty (per Wikipedia) by voting by 318 Bishops at The Council of Nicea (The Emperor Constantine’s Country House in Turkey) in 325 A.D. Those Gospels not selected were either destroyed or severely repressed (mainly because they did not depict Jesus as ‘Divine’). It is unfortunate that “The Gospel according to Thomas” only surfaced in 340 A.D. otherwise it would, most DEFINITELY have been included in the New Testament as we know it to day, as it truly depicts Jesus as ‘Divine’ and also firmly substantiates the other four fully accepted Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, especially as Thomas was an actual participating part of Jesus’ life.
As I said in my first paragraph “Whether these appeal to you or not”. , , , , , , I certainly don’t go along with EVERYTHIG. , , , , Take the last verse (# 114) for instance, where Jesus was DEAD AGAINST WOMEN unless they became MALE!! ( OUCH & WOW !!!) (But remember that He was preaching to the Jews AT THAT TIME and this was their tradition).
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Here are some problems with what you say. I know of no scholars who say that the Gospel of Thomas was written by Thomas himself. It is likely from the second century and a number of decades later than the canonical Gospels. The canon was not decided at Nicaea. Nicaea was dealing with the nature of Jesus, in response to the Arian heresy. While the canon was not finalized, the four Gospels were accepted by the late second century.
Hi Stephen, , , Thanks for your comments. They have certainly given me food for thought. I, personally, have no axe to grind in the matter and am open to the results of “the battle of the giants” (you certainly have a lot of them, , , including Old Wiki’ ). I agree with you when I look more closely at the text, , Take for instance v114 (already mentioned) where Jesus is “anti-women’ AND how about v61 where Jesus climbs onto Salome’s couch and she calls him”Mister” !! AND v30 where Jesus speaks of three Deities and he selects one of them !! AND v105: Whoever knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a whore (WOW !!!). AND v31: “on his own turf” seems VERY un-Biblical. AND v37: where Jesus is advocating ‘Nudity’. All the foregoing ‘stick in my gullet’!! In closing , , , Perhaps with the latest ‘Technology’ (that is taking off like a rocket!!) the age of a document might be pin-pointed very accurately . Also perhaps DNA could be used in a similar way.
Kind Regards HOWARD.
P.S. I was very interested in your ‘Profile’ , , , You are an amazing combination of experiences and must be a fascinating person to talk to. I,myself am a Methodist (but then we can’t all be perfect can we, , ha ha) and was Organist of the Kensington Methodist Church, Johannesburg for over 30 years. Can I perhaps bounce off on you by email some of my other writings (such as ‘The Fallacy of Translations’ and ‘Astrology Questioned’ and so on?. My own email address is “howarddavies@iburst.co.za).
Thanks for your comments. I would be interested but in all honesty, my hands are so full right now that I would never get around to it. But thanks for thinking of me.
It is easy to lose the message of the bible by debating history. And even if we had the original form to read each individual has a different perspective. To try to classify perspectives into a right/wrong category is counter-productive simply because when we think we “know” something as fact that is when we stop asking questions. When we stop asking we stop learning in that area. I am also guilty of getting caught up in the idea that there is only room for one truth. In my humble opinion I believe all gospels to be equally important. In the search for truth all information should be made available to anyone who wants it to examine it.