Documents for the Study of the Gospels: Revised and Enlarged Edition

This book is a collection of texts from time periods and genres similar to the gospels of the new testament. While some of the texts consist of things that "didn't make it into the Bible" so to speak, others are texts of a different sort, more tangentially related (i.e. less related to Christianity). There is not much discussion: this book is pretty much just the texts. Each text has a brief introductory paragraph which is quite useful for understanding its role, but these introductions are very helpful. I think this book would be an excellent read for anyone who is seriously studying the gospels. It is also be interesting to study these texts from a religious perspective. Some, such as the infancy gospel of Thomas, present a picture of Jesus which is provocative and even outrageous, and which many people, such as myself, would have strong disagreements with. However, they're still interesting to read. My favorite text in the collection is the (coptic) gospel of Thomas, which seems almost like a blend of some Buddhist ideas with Christianity. At the very least, this book provides some interesting and provocative reading material to anyone interested in the gospels, for any reason.