Cerulean_Paladin
The apocrypha wasn't the only thing omitted.....there are many gospels that were omitted as well.
such as the gospel of Mary, Thomas, Judas, and Peter.
The books listed are Gnostic works, known as the Gnostic Gospels. Christian Gnosticism emerged in the first and second centuries after the birth of the Christian Church. Generally, Gnostics hold that salvation of the soul comes from a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of secret formulae indicative of that knowledge. All the Gospels mentioned have errors that were labeled as heresy by the church.
The Gospel of Mary (Magdalene) was written around 120-180 A.D. and was clearly not written by the Mary Magdalene mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels. Six manuscripts are missing at the beginning of the document and four in its mid section.
Mary is given special knowledge (a reoccurring theme in gnosticism) because she is favored by Christ. The revelation itself denies a multitude of Christian teaching in the church, examples:
-Jesus focused on "inner" knowledge as a means to find salvation.
-The revelation rejects the redemptive work of Christ on the cross and focuses more on secret esoteric ways not found in the Synoptic Gosepels.
-it exposes the erroneous view that Mary of Magdala was a prostitute, which is theological fiction. She was an adulterer.
-the knowledge itself calls for the usurpation of the original Church authority.
The Gospel (of the account) of Thomas was written in around 90-180 A.D. and was not written by the original Thomas. The writer was influenced second century Syrian Christianity even such Syrian works as the Diatessaron which dates from 175 A.D. Again, this Gospel carries with it an even greater (but broader) spectrum of Gnostic teaching, teaching that:
-Jesus was a wise teacher: divine, but not necessarily human
-Not the messiah.
-Salvation is attained by learning secret knowledge (v.39) and looking inward (v.70).
-The kingdom of God is only internal within our hearts and will never become manifest in our world.
-God is many gods (v.30); possibly even some form of pantheism (v.77).
The Gospel (of the account) of Judas was written sometime around 130-170 A.D. and clearly not by the Judas who had betrayed Jesus Christ. The oldest extant copy is a Coptic document written in Sahidic (last phase of ancient Egyptian) in the fourth or fifth century. This Gospel account is blatantly incorrect when it is examined along side the original story of the Betrayal of Christ. Other than Jesus telling Judas to depart (to betray him), no other account in the Synoptic Gospels show the historicity of Jesus singling out Judas. Shortly after the betrayal, Judas killed himself. In this Gospel, Jesus approaches Judas and gives him "a special revelation". Gnostic teachings are apparent in the text:
-"'Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom,'" Jesus says to Judas, singling him out for special status. 'Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star.'"
-Jesus wanted Judas to betray Him in order to fulfill Jesus’ plan of shedding his 'fake' physical body which is Docetism (A teaching that Jesus was divine but only seemed human).
The ancient writer Irenaeus (130 - 202 AD) in his work called Refutation of All Heresies said that the gospel of Judas was a fictitious history:
“They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.” (Adversus Haereses I.31.1)
The Gospel (of the account) of Peter was written around 150 A.D. in the mid second century [The document was also known as the Akhmîm fragment] which was later discovered in 1886-87. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. A.D. 260-340), the well-known early church historian, noted that the Gospel of Peter was among the church’s rejected writings and had heretical roots. The second main insight into the validity of Thomas is a letter by Serapion, a bishop in Antioch (in office A.D. 199-211), titled “Concerning What is Known as the Gospel of Peter.” It was noted that the Gospel of Peter had docetic overtones, was heavily gnostic in teaching, and had major embellishment and historical errors:
-Seven seals are used to seal the tomb of Jesus (Paragraph 8 ).
-A crowd from Jerusalem comes to see the sealed tomb of Jesus (Par. 9).
-The Jewish leaders camp out at the tomb of Jesus overnight.
The Jewish leaders fear the harm of the Jewish people (Par. 8 ).
-This does not describe the historical situation of the Jews before the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D.
-The Resurrection story actually describes how a super-sized Jesus exited the tomb with two giant angels, and a talking cross.
[Long version]
Error #1: The Guilt of Jews
The confession of the Jewish authorities guilt (par. 7; 11) lacks historical credibility. The confession of the Jewish authorities makes more sense in a context after 70 A.D. where the Jews were blamed for the destruction of Jerusalem as a result of not accepting Jesus as the Messiah. Furthermore, the reference of the Jewish scribes and elders saying, “For it is better, say they, for us to be guilty of the greatest sin before God, and not to fall into the hands of the people of the Jews and to be stoned,” likewise reflects a period after 70 A.D. and is definitely not earlier than the Synoptic Gospel material.
Error #2: The High Priest Spending the Night in the Cemetery
The author of the Gospel of Peter possessed very little knowledge of Jewish customs. According to paragraphs 8 and 10, the Jewish elders and scribes actually camp out in the cemetery as part of the guard keeping watch over the tomb of Jesus.Given Jewish views of corpse impurity, not to mention fear of cemeteries at night, the author of our fragment is unbelievably ignorant. No ruling priest would do that. Due to these serious blunders, it is highly unlikely that this Gospel reflects earlier material than the Synoptic Gospels. The author far removed from the historical events surrounding Jesus’ death and burial.
Error #3: Embellishment of the New Testament Resurrection Accounts
This resurrection account does not retain anything of the historical soberness that is in the New Testament resurrection accounts. This description of the resurrection of Jesus has a large angel whose head “reached unto the heaven,” and a giant Jesus whose head “overpassed the heavens!" Finally, the best example is the talking cross. The voice from heaven says, “Thou has preached to them that sleep.” The cross responds by saying, “Yea.” While it is possible that there was a giant Jesus whose head surpassed the heavens and a talking cross. This story is an embellishment of the simpler empty tomb and resurrection accounts in the New Testament Gospels. It is just another attempt like all the other Gnostic Gospels to “fill in the gaps” in the events surrounding Jesus’ life.
These Gnostic Gospels were rejected by the early church for the reasons stated above.