The Four Gospels as Reliable Testimony, Part 3: Are Contemporary Alternative Gospels Good History?

-
Written accounts, such as The Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, The Gospel of Judas and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, do not give us accurate information not contained in the Gospels we have in our Bibles. We know this, in part, because unreliable authors wrote these gospels long after Christ’s life, long after the lifetimes of eyewitnesses to that life.

It is interesting that several of the alternative gospels put forth as historical show dependence on Matthew, Mark, Luke and / or John. “…the Gnostic Gospel of Truth (A. D. 140-150, doubtlessly known at Rome when Maricon taught there) cites a body of authoritative books that is [nearly identical with the four gospels.]” This means a body of written Scripture had to have existed before any secret Gnostic Gospels appeared since one of the earliest of these “secret gospels” had to recognize the orthodox Canon in its very attempt to redefine the Christian faith. [1] One of the gospels, dated in the early 100s, is especially interesting.[2]

The Gospel of Thomas, a “collection of 114 sayings of Jesus,” is well known for its inclusion of material from Matthew, Mark and Luke. Given it was written after them, probably in the early 100s, this shows a dependence on the three synoptic gospels. Craig Blomberg, after years of research, says it like this: “…it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the author of The Gospel of Thomas knew the New Testament Gospels as they now stand…” The Gospel of Thomas does distort the historic gospel message with false teachings common in the Mid-100s to 200s, just like the other alternative gospels. [3] (Note that this is back-handed evidence of an early date for the gospel writings as well.)

The alternative gospels’ late dating is worth noting in more detail. The Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Peter, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas were all written well into in the 100s A. D. [4] The Gospel of Judas was written in the Mid-100s to 200s.[5] The Gospel of Truth was written in the 140s to 180s. [6] In addition, The Gospel of Phillip was written in the 200s.[7]

Compare that with the dating of the gospels, alluded to before. Matthew is dated in the 50s or 60s by conservatives and 80s-100s by more liberal scholars. Mark is dated in the 60s to 70s or by liberals in 60s to 80s. Luke: 60s or 70s to 80s. John 90s or 90s-100s. [8],[9]
John A. T. Robinson, a noted liberal New Testament scholar who helped spawn the Twentieth Century “Death of God” movement, dated all of the gospels earlier than 70 A. D., although many scholars do not agree with him. [10]

N. T. Wright, The Anglican Bishop of Durham and prolific writer on New Testament history, says clearly:
There is no point in dressing it up: the canonical gospels are early, and the Gnostic ones are late. (By “early,” I mean within a generation or so of the death of Jesus; by “late” I mean no earlier than around the middle of the second century.) … all the signs point to this as the correct analysis… The canonical gospels were being read and quoted as carrying authority in the early and middle second century, whereas we do not even hear of the non-canonical ones until the middle of the end of that century.[11]


The impact of this simply cannot be overstated, and it is not lost on Erwin Lutzer.

If you had a choice, whose descriptions of Abraham Lincoln would you believe? Those of his contemporaries or those of people speculating about his private life or political philosophy one hundred and fifty years after his death – especially if these speculators were determined to put their own political theories into Lincoln’s mouth. [12]

The next post will conclude this series.

[1] James L. Garlow and Peter Jones. Cracking DaVinci’s Code: You’ve Read the Fiction, Now Read the Facts. (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Victor Books, 2004), 139-140.

[2] Komoszewski, et. al. 159.

[3] Blomberg, Gospels, 264-267.


[4] Komoszewski, et. al. 159; Erwin W. Lutzer, The DaVinci Deception: Credible Answers to the Questions Millions Are Asking About Jesus, the Bible, and the DaVinci Code(Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2004), 27; Lee Strobel, The Case for The Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2007), 45-46; Bart D. Ehrman. , Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know About Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 50, 55.


[5] N. T. Wright. Judas and the Gospel of Judas: Have We Missed the Truth About Christianity? (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2006), 78

[6] Richard Abanes. The Truth Behind the DaVinci Code: A Challenging Response to the Bestselling Novel. (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2004), 85 n. 22.

[7] Lutzer 27, 50.


[8] Blomberg Gospels 25-26, F. F. Bruce The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, Fifth Edition (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 1960), 12.

[9] Bruce Documents 12; McDowell Code 24.
[10] Geilser Systematic 474.
[11] Wright Gospel of Judas 76, 77.
[12] Lutzer 28.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Face of Terror

-
Osama Bin laden is dead. Since the rest of the internet is buzzing with opinions on that death, I thought I would weigh in. First, this is not the end of global terrorism. Like the Hydra of old, when one head is chopped off, two more take its place. We still need diligence in our fight against global terror. U. S. and allied Armed Forces still need our prayers. We still need a strong military and intelligence community. We have not yet cut off the Hydra’s immortal head. Second, the way to get to the ‘heart of the matter’ is with Christian missionary efforts. We must reach the people who make up those societies and population segments that produce terrorists . To tell a story I have told here before : Early in the twentieth century, Baptist evangelists preached through rural Mississippi and Alabama with such effectiveness that moonshiners could no longer sell their whiskey: All their customers were getting converted! In desperation, the whiskey sellers hired two men to murder on
Read more

The Canons of Dort

-
I believe that the Canons of Dort are true. This is a statement that came out the Synod of Dort, held from 1618-1619. The Canons of Dort outline the system of theology known today as the “five points of Calvinism.” The problem I have with most “five-point Calvinists” is that the Canons of Dort contain much more than five points. Many explanations of the TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints) are gross simplifications of the Canons of Dort. [This is especially true of explanations given by those who oppose Calvinism. It is easier to knock down a straw man than it is to knock down a real man, and so it is easier to criticize an oversimplified Calvinism that the more robust form.] Some of those who teach the “five points” leave out some of the quotes below: This death of God's Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins; it is of infinite value and worth, more than
Read more

Intelligent Design

-
The Intelligent Design (ID) movement makes much of the argument from irreducible complexity. Dr. Michael Behe has become famous for a simple example, the mousetrap. He points out that the mousetrap will not perform its function without all of its parts. The wooden base, the metal hammer, a spring, a catch and a metal bar to hold back the hammer are all necessary parts. One component by itself will not catch a mouse. Mainstream evolutionary science has a counter-argument. To paraphrase Dr. Kenneth Miller, if you disassemble the mousetrap, each component can serve as something useful on its own. If we take away the catch and metal bar, we have something left that can serve as a paper clip. The spring could make a simple two-section key chain. The wooden base makes a paperweight. Evolutionary processes like random mutation and natural selection can combine and retain the useful parts as the complicated evolves to perform the complex function. The useful parts are combined into the mousetr
Read more