There are 17 apocryphal gospels, rejected as unworthy of becoming canon, that didn’t make the cut. BAS editors have carefully compiled a special collection of articles from Biblical Archaeology Review and Bible Review that explore the questions posed here. You’ll want to read all of the articles included in this collection:
- How the Books of the New Testament Were Chosen by Roy W. Hoover
- The 34 Gospels by Charles W. Hedrick
- “Lost Gospels”—Lost No More by Tony Burke
- The Gospel of Thomas: Jesus Said What? by Simon Gathercole
- The Gospels that Didn’t Make the Cut by Robert J. Miller
- While most of the major translations are quite good, they are designed primarily for use in worship and Bible study, not for the college classroom. The Greek of the New Testament was the Greek of the marketplace. Translations designed for use in worship tend to elevate the tone and style of the language. Also, because almost all New Testament translations are intended for use in explicitly Christian contexts, they reflect Christian theology and the interests of different churches.
- The purpose of our new translation, The Complete Gospels, Annotated Scholars Version (Polebridge Press, 1992), is educational: Our goal was to put the gospels into the English actually spoken in America, whether or not it would sound good in church or would reinforce Christian beliefs. We wanted our students to be able to hear the gospels as they might have sounded to first-century audiences, before the terms and concepts of the gospels were overlaid with the interpretations of Christian orthodoxy.
- Our purpose is simply to let the gospels speak, as much as possible, on their own terms and in their own historical and religious contexts. What the gospels said in their own contexts is not always what the later Church took them to mean.
The Gospels that Didn’t Make the Cut—. Why should we study them? In part, because they are a window into the world of early Christians. It’s an opportunity to learn what early Christians believed about Jesus.
