The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities

First of all I should mention that Dr. Bock is a theologically conservative scholar. This is fine with me as I would normally fall under the Conservative branch regarding the NT. However I feel it is good to known from what perspective the author is approaching the subject. The book itself is a generally well-written and informative work dealing primarily with the divergence of thought between Christian Orthodoxy (primarily pre-Iraneaus) and alternative christian beliefs. Concepts such as beliefs about God, the essence of who Jesus (Yeshua) was, creation (positive vs. negative), and a number of others are discussed. The contrasts are shown nicely by deviding the topics and then subdeviding them into opposing worldviews which are further broken down into individual works ranging from the Gospels to early Christian writers to Gnostic (and other non-orthodox) works. Useful summations are provided as well. There is also some discussion regarding Bauer and the more recent "New School" though the actual discussions of texts and ideals are really the core of the book. I personally thought Bock did a good job arguing for Orthodox beliefs being earlier though in fairness I myself already held that position. I unhesitantly recommend this book for anyone wanting a well structured and readable comparison of early Christian views and alternative non-orthodox works.

Met any "Da Vinci Code" believers? Yes, who hasn't? It seems the bookstores are chock full of sensational bestsellers that prove that there were alternative Christianities, better Christianities, lost "gospels" hushed up by corrupt clerics, and sensational finds that would prove Jesus was really a mushroom (I am not making this up; there really was a bestseller that claimed that Jesus was a mushroom cult). At any rate, what's the truth? Bock sets out in this short book--it's a mere 230 pages--to offer to the general reader an overview of the orthodox response to these claims. He succeeds, for the most part. This is only a general overview so a bit of the information is sketchy. But for the average reader who only wants to know the basic facts, "Missing Gospels" will be of great help. So why were some gospels not added to the bible? And do we now have information about forms of Christianity that we never had before? The "missing" gospels were Gnostic texts. "There was never a 'Gnostic church' only a conglomeration of disconnected schools that disagreed with each other as well as with the traditional Christians. These Gnostic groups...operated...like Greek philosophical schools" (p 23-4). These texts were not lost in the sense that no one knew they ever existed. The church fathers wrote about them frequently, albeit with great disdain. So we already had huge numbers of quotations from these texts. One thing that finding some of these texts has done is prove the early church fathers quoted them correctly. a change that was made in the mid 1800's. The crux of the issue is the time period the Gnostic texts were written in. If, as Bock and other orthodox scholars contend, they were written one hundred years or more after all the rest of the gospels, then there is no real case for a multiplicity of Christianities. Instead, there was just plain old orthodox Christianity, and the various schools of Gnosticism were the pagan response, and a pretty sad response at that, to a vibrant religion which was soon to swamp them. Why is the time period so important? Because by 110 AD Christianity was already a flourishing faith with an solid theology. 1 Clement and Ignatius' letters prove that. They show Christian communities formed in a wide swath across the empire, bishops and leaders in place, and a theology which was orthodox. And Christianity was making a real impact already. There had been "vast numbers" of them in Rome that Nero tortured and killed. And there were so many of them that Pliny complained that the pagan temples were deserted. What Paul's letters, and 1 Clement and Ignatius show is that the communities were close, frequently visited, wrote constantly, and believed the same thing. "The importance of instruction by traditional missionary link between communities are two dynamics that Gnosticism seems to have lacked" (p 33). Paul, our first evidence, insists again and again on the i

Darrell Bock is one of our finest contemporary New Testament scholars. As a conservative evangelical, he is well placed to take on the latest trends and fads of liberal and radical theology. He did this quite well recently in his critique, Breaking the Da Vinci Code (Nelson, 2004) Here he takes on the hype and hoopla associated with the discovery of various gospels and religious writings, especially those found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. These discoveries have led to claims that many gospels and religious texts have been suppressed or discounted by the church. In addition, there are now many who have been convinced that there has been some massive cover-up job by the church to suppress these so-called hidden gospels. Both the New Age movement, and Dan Brown, among others, have been making these sorts of claims. Thus it is often claimed that the Christianity that exists today is not the real thing, and that we need to give credence to these various gospels, and the alternative understandings of Christianity. What are we to make of these claims? Is the traditional understanding of Christianity now obsolete? Does the Bible we now possess need radical altering to take into account, or include, these new discoveries? In a nutshell, Bock says no. The four canonical gospels, part of the 27 books in the New Testament, are there, and these new gospels are not, for good reason. The early church was aware of these alternative books, and gave them short shrift. And so should we. While they may provide some helpful background understanding to Christianity, and demonstrate the richness and diversity of religious life in the early centuries, these new gospels and alternative Christianities are not to be equated with their orthodox counterparts. Bock examines in detail the findings of Nag Hammadi. The 52 ancient texts found there date primarily from the second and third centuries, well after the period in which the New Testament was penned. These writings are mainly characterised as Gnostic in nature. While Gnosticism is a much-debated topic, we know that it entailed beliefs quite at variance with New Testament thought. Its emphasis on hidden or secret knowledge, and its esoteric understandings of salvation are quite at odds with the very public knowledge of man's dilemma and God's solution as offered in the biblical texts. These various writings, such as the Gospel of Thomas, are carefully contrasted to the canonical gospels by Bock. They are found to differ markedly in genre, in content, and theology. They were rightly rejected by the early Christian church as incompatible with genuine Christian orthodoxy. And the claim that there were various versions of Christianity circulating in the first few centuries, rivalling the traditional understanding, is also challenged by Bock. Thus he critically examines the thesis of Walter Bauer and its later proponents, such as Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman. While there certainly was diversity amongst the early

In 1945 a set of ancient texts were found in a cave in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. These books described a different Jesus and a different God not to mention a completely different Christianity. Some believe and some scholars have written texts claiming that these findings call for a complete rethinking of the Christian religion. Dan Brown based his novel "The Da Vinci Code" partially on these findings. Darrell Bock writes this book to analyze these new findings. He analyzes their estimated dates as well as their content. It's not a complete study of the complete series of texts, but it's sufficient for the average reader. "The Da Vinci Code" was an exciting mystery novel with twists around every corner based partly on history but mostly on fantasy. This book is a serious, scholarly analysis of historical texts and theology written by a PhD professor. Some may find a detailed, technical analysis like this to be boring. The same author wrote "Breaking the Da Vinci Code" which covers the same material but not as indepth as this book.

Darrell Bock has written an excellent followup book to his "Breaking The Da Vinci Code" (2004). Bock notes in the preface that "for more than ten years I have wanted to write this book for a popular audience... I would do this not primarily for those who study this material as a vocation, but for those who were hearing about it." Thus, the targeted audience makes this book as readable as it could be, yet coming from a top-notch scholar like Darrell Bock, it is also full of great information regarding such topics as Gnosticism, early Christian diversity, and orthodoxy in the early church (specifically the first two centuries). While dealing indirectly with some of the claims from The Da Vinci Code, this book deals more directly with the claims of Walter Bauer and the New School as well as the claims of Bart Ehrman's "Lost Christianities" (2003) and "Lost Scriptures" (2003) and others. The table of contents are as follows: 1) Making a scorecard: The Periods and Players of Early Christianity 2) Discussion fo a Key Alternative View: About Gnosticism and Its Definition 3) Dating the Origin of Gnosticism 4) Early Christianity's Diversity and Historical Judgments 5) The Claims of Walter Bauer and the Roots of the New School 6) The Nature of God and Creation, Part 1 7) The Nature of God and Creation, Part 2 8) Jesus: Divine and/or Human? Part 1 9) Jesus: Divine and/or Human? Part 2 10) The Nature of Humanity's Redemption: Spiritual or Also Physical? Part 1 11) The Nature of Humanity's Redemption: Spiritual or Also Physical? Part 2 12) Jesus' Death: Knowledge, Sin, and Salvation, Part 1 13) Jesus' Death: Knowledge, Sin, and Salvation, Part 2 14) Conclusion: The New School, the Missing Gospels, Alternative Christianities, and Orthodoxy Appendix 1: List of Extant Texts Beyond the Four Gospels Appendix 2: List of Key Texts in the Apostolic Fathers Each chapter ends with a Summary and 3-4 Study Questions to help the reader make sure they understood the key points in the chapter. Overall, Bock has done the Church and other readers a great service through writing "The Missing Gospels". Readers will be both challenged and encouraged through what they learn from this well researched and written text. Highly recommended.