The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholar's Version

I am someone deconstructing my old beliefs, and is generally interested in theology. There is a lot of informative content, and a very clear translation! It talks in depth about things most believers do not know about: The Secret Gospel of Mark, "Q", and gospels that did not make it into current New Testaments. The footnotes serve as a great guide to each story in each gospel. As someone who is a "lay person" relative to the field of Christian theology, this has made it feel more accessible.

This book is for serious gospel study. The word "gospel" comes from a Greek term "euangelion" which means "good news." Within the New Testament the term refers to the message of Jesus, but eventually the term was applied to numerous formats for carrying the message. _The Complete Gospels_, as Robert Funk writes in the foreward, is "a bold step in gathering all the surviving gospels (from the early Christian era)... into one volume." In addition to the canonical gospels, there are sayings gospels, infancy gospels, Jewish-Christian gospels, as well as gospel fragments. The translations are fresh and _very_ readable. Each text is introduced and notated with parallel readings and minor commentary. For example, the editors write that saying #82 of the Gospel Of Thomas may have been based upon a proverb of Aesop. And as a little extra there are cameo insertions on topics ranging from how to translate "basileia tou theou" (kingdom of God) to an English representation of a column of Codex Sinaiticus. To put it simply, this is an outstanding work.

This is an absolutely fascinating book.This is a very important compilation, both from a scholarly and a popular perspective. It has only been within the past generation that dialogue and interest in how the Bible came to be the Bible has grown beyond the narrow confines of academic analysts and theorists, and into the mainstream discussion of churches and independent readers. While most of the material in Robert Miller's `The Complete Gospels' is available elsewhere (and thus Miller is more an editor than an author), this is the first time that a concentrated effort has been made to bring together all of the texts and fragments of the known gospels from the early Christian era. The contents are as follows:--Narrative Gospels--Gospel of MarkGospel of MatthewGospel of LukeSigns GospelGospel of John--Sayings Gospels--Sayings Gospel QGospel of ThomasGreek Fragments of ThomasSecret Book of JamesDialogue of the SaviourGospel of Mary--Infancy Gospels--Infancy Gospel of ThomasInfancy Gospel of James--Fragmentary Gospels--Gospel of PeterSecret Gospel of MarkEgerton GospelGospel Oxyrhynchus 840Gospel Oxyrhynchus 1224--Jewish-Christian Gospels--Gospel of the HebrewsGospel of the EbionitesGospel of the Nazoreans--Orphan Sayings and Stories--These are all newly translated into what has been dubbed the Scholars Version, or SV, by leading academic figures, from the original languages, which (in addition to the dominant Greek) includes Coptic, Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew. The SV text strives to be understandable in modern English idiom, and so avoids poetic nuance in favour of presenting the meaning in clearest language. `The Complete Gospels' has an introduction to each gospel which establishes context, origin, story and structure. Also, the gospel texts are heavily annotated, pointing out difficulties in the text, cross-references with other gospels (canonical and non-canonical), and historical and theological issues which arise from interpretations. Theories of textual development and communal use are also presented. John Dominic Crossan argues that the successful inclusion of the canonical gospels in the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) came about more due to a success of type of gospel, as opposed to any necessary message in the gospels (else how does one logically account for the difficulties in reconciling the synoptic gospels with the Johannine account?). This argument has some merit, as can be seen from the above list, in which four of five narratives became canonical, and none of the other types did. It is interesting to play around with various statements such as Simon Peter said to them, 'Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life.Jesus said, 'Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the domain of Heaven.' Gospel of Thomas, 114And people sometimes complain that Paul is anti-female!This same conflict is reflected in th

There are not just four gospels written about Jesus there are more than twenty written in the first three centuries. This book presents all those gospels. In a translation that is a collaboration between many of the best scholars in this feild these gospels are imbued with dynamic life and variety. No stone is left unturned, these scholars also explain the histories of each gospel and in an extremely readable way they provide people with no scholarly background a view into the world of Historical Jesus study. It also makes an invaluable tool or those who are studying the historical Jesus. It is very readable and very thorough, the translators and editors walk a person through every step of the way. There is no good reason to not read this book and so many good reasons to read it.

I have found the book very simple to read and understand. It does away with the conventional and difficult language of the conventional bible. For the first time that I was able to read the bible's gospels with such interest, passion and ease. I would even appreciate it if the old testament would be retranslated to accomodate the simple and exciting language adopted by "The Complete Gospels". The content itslef is obviously most interesting.

This translation, called the Scholars Version, takes text from the original language, be it Greek, Herbrew, Aramaic, even Coptic, and brings it directly into modern American English. This method clarifies like no other translation I have ever read. The distinguished scholars who worked on this project succeeded in making in the four canonical Gospels exciting and understandable. In addition, many documents that had been lost for centuries are brought into the modern age. The Gospels of Thomas, Peter, Mary, the Hebrews, and others are presented from a historical prospective without comment on the content. That is left up to the reader. In addition, the Secret Book of James and other obscure documents reveal early Christian writings that will expose the reader to ideas and teachings that might conflict with the more common persecptions of Jesus' teachings. I highly recommend this book for anyone who continues to search for Jesus from both a spiritual and historical point of view. But please be warned that thi