Gnostic Gospels

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(Read Gnostic Gospels Part 1 First)

Are the Gnostic Gospels useful?
Since The Gospel of Thomas, and by extension the other Gnostic gospels, is clearly not canonical, the conscientious Christian might next wonder what sort of status the Gnostic gospels should be afforded by the church body. Are they, like apocryphal books such as the Shepherd of Hermas, useful for ethical and devotional purposes? In light of the obvious conflict seen in any substantive comparison between the scattered sayings found in the Gnostic gospels and the consistent themes of the Jesus' teaching in the New Testament gospels, it is doubtful that much use can be found in the former. Two examples should suffice to illustrate the nature of these conflicts. First, the final saying in The Gospel of Thomas is decidedly misogynistic:

Simon Peter said to them, "Mary should leave us, for females are not worthy of life."

Jesus said, "Look, I shall guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter heaven's kingdom."

Compare this with Jesus' frequent and respectful interactions with women of his time, such as the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:6-26), and it is clear that this is an irreconcilable different in teaching. Similarly bizarre teachings are found in The Gospel of Philip, in which Jesus is said to have "[loved] her more than [all] the disciples, and used to kiss her [often] on her [mouth]."¹⁷ This Gnostic gospel dates to a time much later than even the latest estimates for the canonical gospels, and simply does not match up with the picture of Jesus found in the latter-ample reason to reject Philip as spurious.¹⁸

Gnostic Gospels - The Endnotes

1. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs (1998), s.v. "Gnostics, Gnosticism."
2. F.F. Bruce, Jesus & Christian Origins Outside the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1974), 111.
3. Wesley W. Isenberg, "Introduction: The Gospel of Philip," in The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. James M. Robinson (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 141.
4. Irenaeus Against Heresies 3.11.9.
5. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs (1998), s.v. "Valentinus, Valentinians."
6. This text is not to be confused with the apocryphal Gospel of the Egyptians cited in Clement and other Patristic fathers.
7. Alexander Böhlig and Frederik Wisse, "Introduction: The Gospel of the Egyptians," in The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. James M. Robinson (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 208.
8. Helmut Koester, "Introduction: The Gospel of Thomas," in The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. James M. Robinson (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), 124.
9. Bruce, 155.
10. Meyer, Gospel of Thomas, 23.
11. Ibid., 10.
12. Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 343.
13. Tom Thatcher, "Early Christianities and the Synoptic Eclipse: Problems in Situating the Gospel of Thomas," Biblical Interpretation 7 (July 1999): 326-327.
14. Koester, 125.
15. James D.G. Dunn, The Evidence for Jesus (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1985), 98.
16. Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New York: Random House, 1979), 17.
17. Ibid., xv, quoting Robinson, 148.
18. Isenberg, 141.

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