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." Over three hundred different works that fit into
this category have been catalogued.
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 biblical scholar Edwin Yamauchi offers an appropriate comment:
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. e. the heretics) had forged to bewilder the
minds of the foolish.' Although some of them were patterned after the canonical gospels,
many bear little resemblance to them. As Origen noted, The Church possesses four Gospels,
heresy a great many' (Edwin M. Yamauchi, "The Word From Nag Hammadi,"
Christianity Today, January 13, 1978, p. 19).
Gnostic Influence
Many of these works were influenced by gnosticism. The word gnostic means "one
who has knowledge." The gnostics taught that salvation came by secret knowledge of
God. 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.D. 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.
These fanciful statements betray their non-biblical source.
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 in the Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel
of Thomas was probably composed in Edessa in Syria about A.D. 140. Consisting of 114
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.
We know that the Gospel of Thomas is a forgery for the following reasons:
Incorrect Name
The author is not Thomas. Whoever wrote the Gospel of Thomas used the incorrect
name when referring to the Apostle Thomas as Didymus Judas 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 114 says:
Jesus said, 'See, I shall lead her, so that I will make her male, that she too many
become a living spirit, resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will
enter the Kingdom of Heaven.'
Different Jesus
The person of Jesus Christ is different than the one revealed in the Gospels. In
the Gospels Jesus is God the Son, Second Person of the Trinity. 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 (1844-1911). based upon communication he received from an alleged
"universal mind." The Aquarian Gospel attempts to fill in some of the missing
years of Jesus' youth as well as explain His wisdom by attributing it to contact with holy
men of other religions. 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.
Content
The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ attempts to fill in some of the blanks in
the life of Jesus. 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, Novotitch's Unknown Life of Jesus
Christ.
The book begins with an historical inaccuracy: "Augustus Caesar reigned and Herod
Antipas was ruler in Jerusalem." This is an error because Antipas ruled in Galilee,
never 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 Archko Volume
One of the most famous written hoaxes is the Archko Volume. The work is also known
as the "Report of Pilate" or "Archko Library." The content of this
work is an alleged report of the trial and death of Jesus made by Pontius Pilate to the
Emperor Tiberius. Its existence can be traced back to Rev. W. D. Mahan of Boonville,
Missouri, who published a thirty-two page pamphlet in 1879 titled, "A Correct
Transcript of Pilate's Court."
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.
Edgar Goodspeed writes concerning the accuracy of the "interviews":
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.... Like the *Report of Pilate," these [the other interviews] bristle with
childish blunders.... The supposed references to Josephus's Jewish Wars ... simply
do not exist. 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.D. 56
is of course an error; Tacitus was born in 55, and even if he had been able to write his
father-in-law's biography at the age of one year, there was nothing yet to write, for
Agricola, for Agricola himself was only nineteen (Edgar Goodspeed, Famous Biblical
Hoaxes, pp. 33, 35).
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 Hurl
Unhappily, people continue to read and believe these fraudulent works although they
have no basis in fact.
The Lost Books of the Bible
One of the most often asked questions concerns the so-called "Lost Books of
the Bible." A book with this title was produced in 1926. It was the reprint of
William Hone's Apocryphal New Testament, first printed in 1820. Hone's book was
copied from two earlier one's published in 1736 and 1737. Thus the materials found in the
"Lost Books of the Bible" were written 250 years ago. Since the time of the
original wilting 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.
The contents of the "lost books" include the following:
Four Infancy Gospels:
They include: "The Birth of Mary," a work written in the middle of the
second century; "The Protoevangelium of James," written about the same time; the
first "Gospel of Infancy." composed about A.D. 400; "The Second Infancy
Gospel," which in reality is a fragment of the Gospel of Thomas.
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.
The Letter of King Abgar
This was supposedly a letter written to Jesus by Abgar, King of Edessa. Jesus'
reply to the letter is also contained. These works were written in the third century.
Gospel of Nicodemus
This is also known as "The Acts of Pilate." It was written in the fourth
or fifth 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.
Contrast With Four Gospels
One hundred years ago F.W. 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. W. Farrar, The Messages Of the Books, p. 27).
A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, the editors of the AnteNicene Library, said the other
gospels offer ...
curious glimpses of the state of the Christian conscience, and of modes of thought in
the first centuries of our era, the predominant impression which they leave on our minds
is the immeasurable superiority, the unapproachable simplicity and the majesty of the
Canonical writings.
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.
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