The Lost Gospels

[Stuart]

This was an absolutely fascinating documentary on BBC four last night about the considerable number of Gospels that didn't make it in to The New Testament..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0074t48/The_Lost_Gospels/

It's quite a long documentary (90 minutes), but well worth watching.

[Chris]

Must admit, I didn't tune in for that (mainly because I already know the gist). These documentaries tend to opt for one of two approaches: 1. The Church Is Covering Something Up approach; or 2. Sensible Approaches to Textual Authority.

Which would you say the Beeb went for?

[Stuart]

Neither, really. It did say that the texts were covered up, but explained possible reasons why, and also explained where the texts conflict with established belief.

[Chris]

I'd certainly take issue with the phrase 'covered up'.

During the first few centuries the church existed there were several councils held, at which representatives of local churches came from far and wide to agree on matters of faith and doctrine - the books that should be included in the Bible formed part of those discussions.

These councils are well documented, considering how long ago they happened. There is no 'cover up' because it is there on parchment that texts were discussed and accepted or rejected. as for what happened to rejected texts after that - well, seeing as the churches weren't interested in preserving them in the body of work that became known as the New Testament, they were only ever going to be preserved by those groups of people that still adhered to the variations on Christianity that they contained. In time they simply died out.

Add to that the fact that in the first 5 centuries or so AD, there simply wasn't a big, powerful, Catholic Church of the kind that existed later. The catholic (i.e. universal) early church was a far looser affair. Whether or not you believe the modern Church of Rome to be the malevolent, brooding and shadowy organisation portrayed by Dan Brown and certain sections of the media last week, that organisation simply wasn't around to cover anything up.

[Stuart]

I'd certainly take issue with the phrase 'covered up'.

During the first few centuries the church existed there were several councils held, at which representatives of local churches came from far and wide to agree on matters of faith and doctrine - the books that should be included in the Bible formed part of those discussions.

These councils are well documented, considering how long ago they happened. There is no 'cover up' because it is there on parchment that texts were discussed and accepted or rejected. as for what happened to rejected texts after that - well, seeing as the churches weren't interested in preserving them in the body of work that became known as the New Testament, they were only ever going to be preserved by those groups of people that still adhered to the variations on Christianity that they contained. In time they simply died out.

Add to that the fact that in the first 5 centuries or so AD, there simply wasn't a big, powerful, Catholic Church of the kind that existed later. The catholic (i.e. universal) early church was a far looser affair. Whether or not you believe the modern Church of Rome to be the malevolent, brooding and shadowy organisation portrayed by Dan Brown and certain sections of the media last week, that organisation simply wasn't around to cover anything up.
In fairness, I don't believe the documentary implied the Dan Brown style cover up you said beyond stating that certain documents that disagreed with established beliefs were possibly not included for that reason.

[tweetiepooh]

These programmes tend to be of the line that these are viable documents and were discarded because they disagreed with the four now in the New Testament cannon.

Actually that's not far from the truth, some of them are so wild that they really don't have anything to say and some are known to have been created well after the cannon was agreed.

Wayne Grudems' "Systematic Theology" is available in podcasts http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wayne-grudems-systematic-theology/id322844869
There is a chapter on cannon (Chap 52).