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Gnostic Myth No. 3 Missing Gnostic Gospels are Christian Gospels- June 12

By bock - Posted on June 12th, 2006

Today we have some strange claims being made about Gnsotic texts. Some are arguing Gnjostic texts are simply Christian texts. They shoudl be called Christian gospels How is this being done? One direction is to claim that the name Gnostic is no longer usable. The argument is that no one can clearly define the term, so it should fall out of use. This is a dodge of historical facts. Gnostics existed and the name is a short one for identification of a movement that combined neo-Plationism from Greek philosophy with Christian symbolism in a particular way with a certain emphasis on creation. Key to the philosophical element was a dualism that said creation was evil from the start and tied the creation to underling emanations from God known as demiurges (term means artisans). Both the recent Gospel of Judas and the Apocryphon of John relate such a creation account. The Apocryphon of John was obviously a major Gnostic Christian text. Four manuscripts of it were found at Nag Hammadi. Irenaeus described it in his work from AD 180. This creation account stands at the head of the theology of Gnostic Christians, for out of it comes the idea that matter is evil and unredeemable. It also explains why many such texts argue that Jesus occupies a body but was not incarnate. It also explains the denial of a bodily resurrection. This creation story is why these texts should not be called Christian. In Judaism and Christianity, God creates directly and that creation is good from the start. The Gnostic creation story denies this theological starting point. No Christian accepting the creation as it was beleived in Judaism would see the Gnostic story as true or credible. Another way to say this is that Gnostic trexts were both anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. This feature also explains why such texts never were seriously considered as candidates for the canon of the New Testament.

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Many early forms of Christian faith
Submitted by Lyle (not verified) on Sun, 2006-07-09 01:07.

You might take a look at http://www.explorefaith.org/ford/ehrman.html

This page has some interesting quotes confirming what you say about liberal scholars saying that there were many different chrisitiananities in the first century.

I've read your book on the Da Vinci Code and listened to a couple of your lectures online. Very helpful as I start to teach a Sunday School class on The Da Vinci Deception tomorrow.

Thanks!

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Are we ignoring these coincidences in the stats?
Submitted by Jeff Wallen (not verified) on Mon, 2007-03-12 10:41.

Thank you so much; I have one more.. The age seems just right. 30 -70 ad. is when Jesus died; the rest to follow. Given 1000 years or so ossuaries and tombs in that area were used i.e.600 bc. to 300 ad.; the timeframe matches great they all died at that time. The timeframe chances are 1 in 10 wich is ten times the chances to add. I really thank you and hope for a great book. It will be better to have all the possible arguments to refute before they arise. The other is that if Jesus was the first to die and they moved His bones they would have had a smaller more insignificant ossuary; his was smaller and plain. I am a Christian and if no answers am leaning on Him orchestrating this fing to separate..spew the lukewarm out of his mouth in the last days?? Below is an eail I answered with to some friends regarding stats that you have not received. Thanks again.. Jeff Wallen
I get so twisted up by stats.. Even the dating is the right time 30 ad to 80 ad. out of 1000 years of possibilities. My thought was what are the chances? 600 to 1..w/Mary attributed to Jesus..6000 to 1 then w/ Jesus ossuary diff from the others 60000 to 1 then the dating 6000000 to 1.. The name grouping is out of a small sampleing.. I hope we can come up with some stuff. I thought at first Smuggling Jesus body in but then Judah son of Jesus threw me off. I think maybe God may have had inspired another middle class family to name their kids names what they were for that grouping. God sent a deceptive spirit before. Weeding out the luke warm in the last days? Rob said that that partained to another people group though way back then. I hit a breaking point yesterday. I cried all day. I have a lot to live for but my sandy foundation needs hardening. Pray for me..us.

Do you think they thought by what they said that they meant that he will come back right then or to keep looking up because no one knows the day or the hour?
Thank you Jason. I just have such a hard time with the chances. It also seems that our side is using things like location and class to justify the improbability rather than looking for the high improbabilities..like what are the chances that could of happened, etc.? Then lowering statistics based on their own assumptions. I do believe in God and that there is a plan. I have a friend that is going to do a study with me to help strengthen my foundation. Maybe this tomb or cave..was brought into light 25 years later as it were; right after the Divinci Code as God allowed according to a greater plan. HE God may have enabled a family or ? or allowed Satan to deceive people as part of His greater plan. Sin existed prior to the earth being formed. Satan became full of Himself which God had to enable as he enabled eve to fall from perfection to selfishness. Crazy? I just think way too much. It is so hard for me to brush over and ignore statistics and facts.The woman found to be attributed to Jesus.. Mary, Martha, or Sarah.. Whom ever it was.. The fact that there was a DNA test that did not match.. Was that fact figured in the stats as well? She could have just as well been a sister.. But found w/ a son? Some think the Gnostic Gospel was stating the name Mary and reading the inscription deciphered in Hebrew was Sarah. In the 4th. century AD. they read Greek right? The Nostic stating these things because they may have found it back then and read it in Greek. This could have been a farce long ago? Random but just interesting and thought it may also help..It is not factored in the stats as I can see that she could have also been attributed to one of the other men an a wife ..say Mathew; or even a sister..this should greatly increase the improbability right? Keep me in your prayers and thanks again! Jeff

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Darrell Bock's 'Missing Gospels' - Missing the Point?
Submitted by nicoduca (not verified) on Thu, 2008-03-06 14:19.

The Missing Gospels appears to be the flagship of the Christian Traditionalists' defence against the growing impact of the Nag Hammadi gospels and other recently rediscovered early Gnostic Christian texts.

In The Missing Gospels, Darrell Bock attempts to show that Traditionalist Christianity has its roots securely in the first century with Christ, and that the Gnostics were simply an aberation that appeared in the second century.

However, Darrell Bock's The Missing Gospels will not be quite as successful in containing true Christian Gnosticism as his predecessor Ireneus was in the Second Century.

Ireneus and his accomplices achieved success against Christian Gnosticism largely through the establishment of a massive centralised power structure under the Bishop of Rome.

Ireneus put it this way:

we do put to confusion all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorized meetings; we do this, I say, by indicating that tradition derived from the apostles, of the very great, the very ancient, and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul; as also by pointing out the faith preached to men, which comes down to our time by means of the successions of the bishops.

For it is a matter of necessity that every Church should agree with this Church, on account of its pre- eminent authority

Bock and his traditionalist Christian compatriots no longer have the option of such a declaration of 'Martial Law' and have to rely on works such as The Missing Gospels to get their point across.

Of course the missing Gospels that the work refers to, were only missing thanks to the actions of the predecessors of the modern Christian Traditionalists who followed Ireneus in the fourth Century. Actions that included both the destruction of Gnostic Christian texts and disinformation about their content. There are of course other texts that are still missing thanks to their actions!

Missing texts did not go missing because they offered support for the Traditionalist Christian position!

A good illustrative point is the Apology of Aristides that went "missing" until the late 19th Century.

Of course Bock doesn't ask why we are missing so many dissenting texts, but to give him his due, he does admit to the early Traditionalists disinformation campaign - in the nicest possible way.

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Submited by : Doma

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Missing dlb
Submitted by bock on Fri, 2008-03-07 11:33.
Contrary to the above post's claims, there is no attempt to mandate or control anything in The Missing Gospels, just simply to explain how historical claims made on behalf of these extra-biblical gospels are exaggerated and make for poor history. The book deals with what these texts represented and where they came from, not why they went missing (They were supressed as everyone knows). At one time they did exist and circulated. It is that period and its roots the book treats and is concerned to explain.
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