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I recently read two very good books. The
first was “The Gospel of Mary Magdala” by Karen
L. King, and the other was “The Lost Gospel: The
Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot”, written
by Herbert Krosney. I certainly enjoyed both of
these and highly recommend them for anyone
wanting a better understanding of what may have
happened in the early years of Christianity.
Being raised in a strong Protestant environment
full of Bible study and reading, I have always
found it peculiar that the amount of time and
effort in understanding the source of the texts
and how they came to be was so little. In
addition to church and home, I even went to a
Christian school and every year a class on
“Bible” was mandatory. We studied every move
Paul made in his journeys to spread the Word,
but we never spent any time understanding what
was going on in the first 100-200 years after
Jesus’ death. So here I am now trying to gain
insight into those events and how people
thought, what they heard and what was passed
down. It is also enlightening to see what things
were excluded and hidden, comparing them to what
ultimately became “canon” and orthodox. My first
reaction after learning about these lost Gospels
was shock at how they have been hidden for many
years, and ignored. While at first one might
imagine that there are elements of forgery or
illegitimacy, but that is not all the case. Take
for instance the Gospel of Mary. The first
discovery was a Coptic translation, an Egyptian
language. It is likely that the Egyptian
Christians translated and preserved this Gospel.
The discovery of this codex was made in Cairo in
1896 and turned out to be from the fifth
century. There was a second copy of the Gospel
found in northern Egypt in 1917 which dates to
the early third century. Finally, a third copy
of the Gospel was discovered during the
excavation of a town along thre Nile River and
published in 1983. This one also dates to the
third century. As King states, “Because it is
unusual for several copies from such early dates
to have survived, the attestation of the Gospel
of Mary as an early Christian work is unusually
strong.” So it is not an issue that these
Gospels are not validated nor authentic. So why
were they excluded from the NT? It appears now
that the church fathers excluded them largely
because of content. Much of these works are
today labelled “gnostic”, and they are more bent
on mystic and secret ideas that the church
fathers did not believe were core to what needed
to be handed down. Although at first it appears
a shameful thing to do, I understand it. I do
not blame them, and in fact, do not even fault
them. The fact is, what is handed down in
canonical scripture is indeed the key to C*GOD3.
Let’s examine this more closely. Consider the
following passage from the Gospel of John
(14:2-6):
“In my Father’s house are many
dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have
told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will
come again, and receive you for Myself; that
where I am , there you may be also. And you know
the way I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord,
we do not know where You are going, how do we
know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way
the truth and the life, no one comes to the
Farther but through me.”
The answer Jesus is
giving is that if we focus on what Jesus taught,
we will be connected to God and our Source (we
know the way already, because Jesus taught us
how to live). This is central to C*GOD3.
Connecting to the Infinite (God) is achieved by
Loving God and loving others. This is what Jesus
taught as the greatest commandment (Mark
12:28-31). It is not mysticism or some secret
chant. It is not how much you pray or meditate,
except inasmuch these activities increase your
capacity to love God and love others. So you
should explore some of the other early writings
of the church, particularly if you are of
sufficient spiritual maturity to do so in a
balanced and understanding manner. But we should
remember the church fathers did us a favor by
keeping on point in the New Testament to the
true call of how we are to live our life and
what truly leads to being connected. |