Since we believe that Jude's writing was inspired by God, we take this information as being correct. It is not essential to know how Jude obtained this information. Jesus had promised that His disciples would be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who would guide them into all truth. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak John Because of Jesus' promise, the words of the New Testament writers were safeguarded from error.
We conclude that Jude did not quote from the Book of Enoch, but received the information in some other way. Throughout the history of the church many documents surfaced that claimed to have been written by the apostles or those intimately familiar with the life of Christ. However these works were written by someone other than the named author. These fraudulent works are known as the pseudepigrapha forgeries.
They are also known as apocryphal works, and were rejected by all. The early church father, Eusebius, called these books "totally absurd and impious. Other Gospels Among the forgeries were a large number of apocryphal or false gospels. Origen, a third century writer, testified to the existence of other gospels when he wrote,"There are many who have tried to write gospels, but not all have been accepted.
The apocryphal gospels are non-canonical writings of a motley variety about the purported deeds and revelations of Jesus Christ. Though the Greek word apocrypha originally meant "hidden," the church fathers used it to describe spurious writings foisted as gospels. Irenaeus refers to 'an unspeakable number of apocryphal and spurious writings, which they themselves i. Gnostic Influence Many of these works were influenced by gnosticism.
The word gnostic means "one who has knowledge. The gnostic view of God is contrary to the Bible. In addition, the gnostics considered that all matter is evil. An example of gnostic writing can be found in the Gospel of Philip. The original Gospel of Philip was probably written sometime during the second century A. The influence of gnosticism and its emphasis on secret knowledge can be clearly seen in this work.
The Gospel of Philip reads,. The Logos said: If you know the truth the truth will make you free. Ignorance is a slave, knowledge is freedom.
When we recognize the truth we shall find the fruits of truth in our hearts. If we unite with it, we will bring our fulfillment. Different Level Other statements show that they are on a different level than Scripture.
A Gentile man does not die, for he has never lived that he should die. Adam came into being from two virgins, from the Spirit and from the virgin earth.
Because of this Christ was born of a virgin, in order that he might set in order the stumbling which came to pass at the beginning.
Second-Hand Sources The pseudepigrapha, apart from being forgeries, were also written long after, in some cases hundreds of years after, the New Testament events. The writers were not eyewitnesses to the life of Christ or to the events of the early church.
This is another reason to reject the testimony which they give. Gospel of Thomas One of the most prominent of all the forgeries is the Gospel of Thomas. Consisting of sayings of Jesus, it is the most extensive collection of non-biblical sayings of Jesus that still exist. The Gospel of Thomas begins as follows:. These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke and Didymus Judas Thomas wrote. And He said: Whosoever finds the explanation of these words shall not taste death.
Incorrect Name The author is not Thomas. In the four Gospels, Thomas is referred to as either Didymus or Thomas, not both at once. Didymus is the word for "twin" in both Greek and Aramaic, so the author of the Gospel of Thomas must not have been aware of this linguistic connotation. Secret Approach The secret approach found in the Gospel of Thomas is typical of the writings of the gnostics. The four Gospels are open about the ways of salvation and the kingdom of God while the Gospel of Thomas views truth from a hidden vantage point.
There is no historical setting for the statements. The Gospel of Thomas is a compilation of sayings without the inclusion of important historical events as recorded in the Gospels. We are not told when or under what circumstances the statements were made. Contradicts Four Gospels Many of the sayings are contradictory to those we have in the Gospels. For example, saying says:. Jesus said, 'See, I shall lead her, so that I will make her male, that she too may become a living spirit, resembling you males.
For every woman who makes herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Gospel of Thomas He is one who points the way by which an individual can attain the knowledge of God. These reasons demonstrate that the Gospel of Thomas is a forgery rather than a legitimate work written by one of Jesus' apostles.
Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ One alternative explanation of the life and ministry of Jesus that has caused considerable interest is the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ. This work was written by Levi Dowling The result is a contradictory mixture of Christian science and occultic thought. The name is derived from the astrological idea that a new Aquarian age has come upon us, bringing with it the need for a new spiritual gospel, the Aquarian gospel. Some of the material in the Aquarian Gospel is borrowed from the ancient Gospel of James, a well-known forgery in the early years of the church.
The most prominent part of the book deals with the education and travel of Jesus. According to the Aquarian Gospel, Jesus first studied under the Jewish teacher Hillel and then went to India to spend time with their holy men.
His learning also supposedly took Him to Tibet, Persia. Assyria, Greece, and Egypt. It was in Egypt that Jesus was said to have joined the sacred brotherhood.
He passed through seven degrees and emerged as the Logos. In Alexandria a council of seven sages was held where they formulated seven great religious postulates and ordained Jesus for the work of the ministry.
The Aquarian Gospel then rewrites the four gospels according to its own particular viewpoint. The end of the story has Jesus appearing in a materialized body to people in India, Persia, Greece, and other countries.
Evaluation Like many previous attempts, the Aquarian Gospel attempts to give an explanation of the wisdom and character of Jesus apart from the biblical depiction. Dowling's reconstruction shows obvious borrowing from the Ancient Gospel of James, as well as familiarity with a nineteenth century works, Notovitch's Unknown Life of Jesus Christ. The book begins with an historical inaccuracy: "Augustus Caesar reigned and Herod Antipas was ruler in Jerusalem. A crucial problem with the Aquarian Gospel concerns its scenario of the source of Jesus' teachings.
If Jesus obtained His wisdom from the masters of India, Greece, and other countries, then why doesn't His teaching reflect it? The teachings of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels, are in direct conflict with every central belief of Hinduism, Buddhism, and the other religions with which He supposedly came into contact!
The simple fact is that we have in the Gospels a firsthand account of the life and ministry of Jesus. The Aquarian Gospel is a false portrait of the life of Christ, not based upon historical records or eyewitness testimony but rather upon the recollections of an ancient forgery and the imagination of a twentieth-century writer.
It has no value whatsoever in providing new or accurate information on the life of Christ. The work is also known as the "Report of Pilate" or "Archko Library. Its existence can be traced back to Rev. The success of the "Report of Pilate" led Mahan to make some more "discoveries" including: an interview with the shepherds who were given the announcement of Christ's birth, Gamaliel's interview with Joseph and Mary, Eli's story of the Magi, and other previously unknown interviews surrounding the life and ministry of Jesus.
Mahan claimed these "interviews" were translated from ancient manuscripts in Rome or Constantinople. The picture of Jesus in his interview with Pilate is romantic and theatrical, and the Pilate reflected in the "Report" is historically improbable. The whole work is a weak, crude fancy, a jumble of high-sounding but meaningless words, and hardly worth serious criticism.
It is difficult to see how it could have deceived anyone The supposed references to Josephus's Jewish Wars The statement that Josephus in his Antiquities refers to Jesus in more than fifty places is false That Tacitus wrote his history of Agricola in A. As can be imagined, the "Report of Pilate" as well as the later interviews were immediately exposed as frauds.
It was noticed, for instance, that entire pages of Eli's story of the Magi were copied verbatim from the novel Ben Hur. Unhappily, people continue to read and believe these fraudulent works although they have no basis in fact. Hone's book was copied from two earlier one's published in and Thus the materials found in the"Lost Books of the Bible" were written years ago. Since the time of the original writing of The Lost Books , the field of manuscript studies has made tremendous advances but none of this has been taken into account by those who publish these works.
These were so-called infancy gospels that were written to fill in the details of the early unrecorded years of the life of Christ. These works include stories of Jesus forming clay figures of animals and birds which He makes walk, fly, and eat. Another account has a child who runs into Jesus falling down dead. These examples are representative of the fanciful nature of the accounts.
Jesus' reply to the letter is also contained. These works were written in the third century. Other works found among the lost books include the Apostles' Creed and the spurious letter from Paul to the Laodiceans. These books have been called "outlaw" Scriptures by some.
But this is not the case, for none of these works were ever thought of as part of the New Testament. Anyone who claims these works were suppressed by the church is speaking out of ignorance or a desire to deceive.
It is obvious from the date of composition of these works that they cannot be considered on the same plane as Holy Scripture, which was written by eyewitnesses or people who recorded eyewitness testimony of the life and ministry of Jesus. Farrar wrote the following that is still true today:.
The Four Gospels superseded all others and won their way into universal acceptance by their intrinsic value and authority. After so many salutary losses we still possess a rich collection of Apocryphal Gospels, and, if they serve no other good purpose, they have this value, that they prove for us undoubtedly the unique and transcendent superiority of the sacred records.
These bear the stamp of absolute truthfulness, all the more decisively when placed in contrast with the writings which show signs of willful falsity. We escape their lying magic to find support and help from the genuine gospels. And here we take refuge with the greater confidence because the ruins which lie around the ancient archives of the Church look like a guarantee of the enduring strength and greatness of those archives themselves F. Farrar, The Messages of the Books , p.
Roberts and J. Donaldson, the editors of the AnteNicene Library , said the other gospels offer We conclude that any other book apart from the New Testament that attempts to fill in the gaps of the life of Christ only reveals the superiority of the four Gospels. There is evidence that the canon of Scripture was complete in the first century. Has God, since that time, revealed anything that is to be added to Holy Scripture? There has to be evidence to back up the claim.
The question Is, "Does the evidence support the claim that God spoke through them? Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world 1 John When we test the claims of those who have brought forth a "new Scripture" we find them to be untrue.
The downfall of all the books that have had inspiration claimed for them is that they present a different revelation from what has previously been recorded. They contradict the Bible. For example, the Koran says that Jesus was not the Son of God and that He did not die upon the cross for the sins of the world. The sacred books of Mormonism teach that there exist many gods rather than the one God the Bible speaks of.
In addition, Mormonism teaches that each male can someday become a god himself, Mormonism also denies the doctrine of the Trinity. No Book Qualifies Every book written since the completion of the Bible that claims to be further revelation from God fails on the same ground. The Canon Debate. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, A collection of articles by thirty-one biblical scholars dealing with a variety of issues, including matters of text and transmission as well as the rabbinic and early church influences on canon formation.
The breadth of the subjects discussed and the perspectives that generally, though not completely, favor more flexibility in understanding the notion of fixed biblical canons in Antiquity are the strength of this volume. Paget, James C. This is one of the most up-to-date collections of relevant articles on the formation of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, that employs some of the best scholars in the field of canon formation.
Articles on the formation of both testaments and related issues, such as the artifacts of materials used in producing ancient manuscripts as well as early church use and recognition of religious texts as sacred scripture. Some of the articles reinforce earlier positions on canon formation and how noncanonical writings were viewed in Antiquity.
This volume is not to be ignored. Riches, John, ed. This volume focuses especially on modern receptions and interpretations of the Bible. Rothschild, Clare K. This new volume pp. Sanders, James A. Scripture in Its Historical Contexts. Forschungen zum Alten Testament Edited by Craig A. The essays in this collection are largely rewritten in light of new research and include many excellent chapters with new additions that aid considerably in an understanding of the formation of the Hebrew Bible in light of the discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
This hefty new volume pp. Its volume 2 focuses on Exegesis, Hermeneutics, and Theology Leiden: Brill, An important collection of essays that highlights a number of aspects related to the canonization of the Bible with special attention given to the decanonization of writings that no longer garnered widespread acceptance in religious communities.
Articles by J. Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions.
For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. Not a member? Sign up for My OBO. Already a member? Publications Pages Publications Pages. Subscriber sign in You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Username Please enter your Username. From the first through the fourth centuries and beyond, different church leaders and theologians made arguments about which books belonged in the canon, often casting their opponents as heretics.
The books that make up the Bible were written by various people over a period of more than 1, years, between B. The Bible contains a variety of literary genres, including poetry, history, songs, stories, letters and prophetic writings. These were originally written on scrolls of parchment, as opposed to being encapsulated in "books" as we think of them today.
Remember, the printing press wasn't invented until Over time, the books that were deemed authentic and authoritative by the communities who used them were included in the canon and the rest were discarded.
Although the bulk of that editing work ended in the late s, the debate over which books were theologically legit continued until at least the 16th century when church reformer Martin Luther published his German translation of the Bible.
Luther had issues with the book of James, which emphasized the role of "works" alongside faith, so he stuck James and Hebrews in the back of the Bible alongside Jude and Revelation, which he also thought were questionable.
Combs says that in Luther's original Bible, those four books don't even appear in the table of contents. Eusebius was a Christian historian writing in the early s who provided one of the early lists of which books were considered legit and which were borderline bogus. Eusebius broke his list down into different categories: recognized, disputed, spurious and heretical. Under "disputed," Eusebius included James and Jude — the same books Luther didn't like — plus a few others that are now considered canon, like 2 Peter, 2 John and 3 John.
When Eusebius turns to the "spurious" and "heretical" categories, we get a glimpse into just how many other texts were in circulation in the second and third century C. Combs says that there were hundreds of texts similar to those found in the New Testament and Old Testament that didn't make it into the canon.
Why did some books make the cut and not others? Second-century Syrian writer Tatian attempted to create a canon by weaving the four gospels together as the Diatessaron. The Muratorian Canon, which is believed to date to A.
It was not until the 5th century that all the different Christian churches came to a basic agreement on Biblical canon. The books that eventually were considered canon reflect the times they were embraced as much the times of the events they portray. During the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, books not originally written in Hebrew but Greek, such as Judith and Maccabees, were excluded from the Old Testament. These are known the Apocrypha and are still included in the Catholic Bible.
Additional Biblical texts have been discovered, such as the Gospel of Mary, which was part of the larger Berlin Gnostic Codex found in Egypt in Among the Gnostic Gospels were the Gospel of Thomas—which purports to be previously hidden sayings by Jesus presented in collaboration with his twin brother—and The Gospel of Philip, which implies a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The original texts are believed to date back to around A.
The Book of Judas was found in Egypt in the s. Dated to around A. These have never become part of the official Biblical canon, but stem from the same traditions and can be read as alternative views of the same stories and lessons. These texts are taken as indications of the diversity of early Christianity. First printed in , this edition of the Bible was commissioned in by King James I after feeling political pressure from Puritans and Calvinists demanding church reform and calling for a complete restructuring of church hierarchy.
In response, James called for a conference at Hampton Court Palace, during which it was suggested to him that there should be a new translation of the Bible since versions commissioned by earlier monarchs were felt to be corrupt. King James eventually agreed and decreed the new translation should speak in contemporary language, using common, recognizable terms. This version of the Bible was not altered for years and is credited as one of the biggest influences on the English language, alongside the works of Shakespeare.
The Oxford Illustrated History of the Bible. John Rogerson, ed. The Book: A History of the Bible. Christopher De Hamel. New Testament History and Literature. Dale B.
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