Rediscovering Lost Gospels of Jesus

I have returned from the 2008 Oreon E. Scott Lectures at Bethany College, where I enjoyed a thought-provoking foray into rediscovered lost gospels, led by Marvin Meyer, who teaches at Chapman University (a DoC college in Orange, California). Marvin Meyer has actively studied non-canonical gospels of the early church, publishing a translation of the Gospel of Thomas, and participating in the translation of the more recently available Gospel of Judas.

It was mostly a very enjoyable experience, filled with an eclectic group in attendance (various ministers, faculty members, lay persons). Prof. Meyer was a very engaging speaker, who clearly had a broad knowledge of these sources and a passion for delving into these ancient texts. I greatly appreciated his passion and his obvious linguistic expertise for his work.

In his presentations, Meyer presented overviews of several texts discovered around the 20th century: the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Judas. The Gospel of Thomas was found with documents today known as the Nag Hammadi Library in 1945. Evidently complete, the gospel is not a narrative, but a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus -- some of which roughly correspond to certain sayings recorded in the canonical gospels, but others which do not appear anywhere else. The Gospel of Mary, found in 1896, is a partial narrative gospel that presents Mary (possibly Mary Magdalene, though the woman is simply called "Mary" in the text) as a seemingly full-fledged disciple of Jesus.

The Gospel of Judas was discovered in the mid-1970s, and was recently acquired by an owner that allowed careful reconstruction of the codex manuscript (it was in fragments). It relates a story in which Judas Iscariot is the only disciple around Jesus who is allowed to know the truth about God and the universe. You have probably read about this "new gospel" in the newspaper or seen programs about it on television. It is a very hot topic, and also very controversial.

The stories of the rediscovery of these texts are fascinating (think a slower-paced Raiders of the Lost Ark with less violence), complete with discovering buried treasure in the sands of Egypt, black market deals, attempts to verify the 'authenticity' of the documents, etc. Such stories remind us, I think, of how amazed we should be to hold copies of the Bible in our hands -- how these texts were copied and preserved through the centuries -- and how precious ancient texts are.

But they raise serious questions. How do we incorporate these new stories into our faiths? Should we even try? Should we trust them? How much context do we need to study them? And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I find such texts fascinating. The historian in me, and the student of Scripture, thinks that they are valuable and worthwhile. I do not equate any of them with scripture -- most of them should be dated to the mid-2nd century, much later than all of the other writings in the New Testament. This makes them valuable to help understand the development of theology and the early contexts in which the New Testament writings were read, but it does not make them "Scripture" for me.

That said, however, I should mention that I think there are reasons to date the Gospel of Thomas in the 1st century, which means that it was written at the same time as the four canonical gospels. If this is the case, should it be given more weight and value? Should I perhaps even consider preaching from the Gospel of Thomas? I frankly do not know, but this conference has reminded me that I need to study these texts much more, especially Thomas, and that I should consider its usefulness for the church as a whole.

Perhaps some of you would be interested in learning more about such early extra-canonical Christian writings (that is, Christian writings from the 1st and 2nd centuries that are not included in the New Testament). If so, we could consider doing a study of a few of them sometime in the future (with adequate time for me to select and prepare some good texts).

Otherwise, who knows when such texts might come up. Occasionally I mention such writings (like the 2nd century letters of Ignatius, which consciously echo the letters of Paul) in Bible study or similar settings; they don't usually come up in sermons (though one time I did include a passage from the Infancy Gospel of Thomas -- which is separate from the Gospel of Thomas -- in a sermon considering the circumstances of Jesus cursing the fig tree), but who knows. At the very least, I am grateful for people to start imagining an ancient world in which there was theological excitement, complete with several stories and texts being written and shared, including some that we are not familiar with.