Video summary
The Gnostic Gospels represent a recently rediscovered corpus of ancient texts, including the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Thomas, which were unknown until their accidental discovery in 1945 near Nag Hammadi in Egypt. While early church fathers had written about these non-canonical gospels, it was not until desert diggers unearthed jars containing papyrus manuscripts that scholars could read them directly. The prevailing theory suggests these texts were buried to protect them from destruction following Athanasius's establishment of the four-gospel New Testament canon, though alternative theories propose they may have been interred with a significant figure or lost due to grave robbing. Despite disputes over the exact discovery story, extensive verification efforts involving carbon dating and textual analysis confirm their authenticity; for instance, the Gospel of Judas is dated between 80 AD and 400 AD based on papyrus age and references by Irenaeus around 180 AD, while its journey from Egypt to a safety deposit box in Long Island before being acquired by National Geographic highlights the intense scramble over valuable ancient artifacts. Authenticating these manuscripts involves rigorous scientific methods alongside textual triangulation, such as noting that Mark's Gospel mentions the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD, which provides a secular historical lower bound for its composition despite theological arguments regarding Jesus's prophecies. However, not all claims to antiquity hold up; notably, the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife" was initially thought to be an early text due to matching carbon dates but is now confirmed as a complete forgery. The fraudulence of this fragment became evident because it contained translation errors in Aramaic that matched typos found on modern websites translating ancient gospels into Aramaic, indicating the forger had used digital resources rather than genuine ancient sources. Additionally, inconsistencies in formatting and line breaks further exposed the text as a fabrication written on old papyrus but derived from contemporary internet translations. The primary value of reading these Gnostic texts lies in revealing early Christian traditions that were eventually condemned as heretical during the formation of the New Testament canon. Unlike accounts found only in critics like Irenaeus's "Against Heresies," which present beliefs through an opposing lens, the Gospels allow scholars to hear directly from the communities themselves about their distinct theological views. The Gospel of Thomas is particularly significant for its early dating, potentially as far back as 0 AD or the second century, and its unique structure consisting largely of sayings without narrative elements like crucifixion or resurrection. Many of these sayings are esoteric and mystic, such as instructions on bringing out what is within oneself to save it, alongside provocative statements that challenge conventional understanding, including one where knowing both father and mother results in being called the son of a prostitute. One of the most famous passages in the Gospel of Thomas occurs at its very end, addressing the status of women in early Christian communities through an interaction between Simon Peter and Jesus regarding Mary Magdalene. While Peter argues that women are not worthy of eternal life and should leave the group, Jesus responds by drawing her close to make her a man so she may enter the kingdom of God, suggesting that those who transform themselves into men will succeed in entering the divine realm. This conclusion contrasts sharply with canonical narratives where Jesus defends women's worthiness, offering instead a radical Gnostic perspective on gender and salvation. These texts collectively illuminate the diversity of early Christian thought, showing how different sects held beliefs that were later suppressed but provide crucial insight into the religious landscape before standardization occurred.
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Gnostic Gospels which is like the DVD
extras sort of the behind the scenes
Vlog the director's cut yeah yeah it is
the extended edition the Gnostic Gospels
are a fascinating uh Corpus of texts
which we've only very recently in the
grand scheme of things been able to
ReDiscover and read for ourselves we
knew of the existence of a bunch of
gospels that weren't in the New
Testament um because early church
fathers were writing about them um we
knew about the existence of a Gospel of
Judas a Gospel of Thomas F fting you
know but we didn't have the texts until
in
1945 uh some guys digging in the desert
and accidentally crashes into this big
jar at least this is one of the like the
stories are disputed
um and just like opens this jar at first
doesn't want to open it because he's
scared there's like a demon in it uh but
turns out it's got a bunch of ancient
manuscripts which he takes home and
keeps by the fire where is it in Nadi
near nadii in Egypt so Egypt is has the
perfect climate for the preservation of
of
Papyrus
so it's we we're not entirely sure but
it seems that like these Texs were
buried in this cave in the desert and
that could be uh because athanasius
comes up with the Christian canonical
New Testament say these are the four
gospels all of the other ones you know
we're not we're not we're not going to
read They're not part of our tradition
so they end up getting sort of destroyed
so they get they get sort of buried in
in the ground to either protect them
because they don't want to be destroyed
or just to bury them to sort of get rid
of them um it's also possible that it
was a burial site some people have
suggested that like it's it was uh some
significant figure with a lot of you
know a lot of texts to his name when he
was buried he was buried with these
texts and so that's why some people
think that the story of the discovery
isn't true because it was actually a
grave robbing some people have thought
maybe it was just a simple grave robbing
but the person who then discovers these
texts doesn't want to admit that he's
robbing a grave have these been carbon
dated have they been verified
authenticated y so there's been there's
been a lot of work done on this um we
you can you can date the actual Papyrus
but you can also I mean the
extraordinary thing about these gospels
is so I think so the Gospel of Judas for
example which is not found in that
collection it's not found in the nomadi
collections it's it's found at a at a
later point and fascinatingly when
people began to realize what it is this
this huge scramble cuz it's worth lot of
money right and people are like trying
to smuggle it people are trying to uh CU
because you can't just sort of take
really expensive ancient manuscripts
across the border you know countries
want to keep them for themselves they
want them for their museums they want
them for their researchers uh but the
people who find them want to sell them
so this Gospel of Judas is discovered
and it finds its way all over the place
it actually spends something like 15
years in a safety deposit box in Long
Island in New York which like almost
destroys it because you go from like
humidity the perfect climate of of Egypt
to like New York city so it was just
like absolutely ludicrous it's finally
National Geographic who buy the Gospel
of Judas they sent a bunch of Scholars I
think including Bart Man to go and like
verify it and they give them a bit of
the text but they can't give them too
much because they can't just let them
read it because they haven't bought it
yet but they need to give them enough to
like verify the text right so there's
carbon dating and all this kind of stuff
but also I mean we can we can so we
carbon date the the Papyrus and we know
that it's sort of dates you know I I
don't know what the exact numbers are
but between like 80 ad and like 400 ad
it's give will take like a few hundred
years but we also know that
um that uh irus writes in against
heresies about the Gospel of Judas so we
know that it existed and we know that
this is dated to around that time and
we're like this must be the Gospel of
Judas but because erus writes about it
in like 180 ad we know that the top end
for how late it can be 180 so there are
lots of different ways to get to you to
triangulate exactly right so you can
date a text by you know carbonating the
Papyrus um you also it's been referred
referred to you can do it textually like
what are it's textual dependence what
what does it have knowledge of you know
does it have knowledge of the the so a
lot of people date the gospel of Mark
after 70 AD because it mentions the the
the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple
so the Temple's destroyed by the Romans
in 70 AD and Mark's gospel mentions this
and so the secular historian looks at
that and goes
well that means it was written
afterwards the Christian might look at
it and say well Jesus Jesus talked Jesus
predicted the destruction of the temple
because he was Jesus it was a miracle he
knew it was going to happen so it could
be earlier you know so so there's
there's sort of theological dispute as
well interestingly there was one gospel
um the gospel of Jesus's wife which was
discovered relatively recently and was
was particularly famous because it was
this tiny it was a
fragment and it talked about Jesus's
wife and it mentions Mary Magdalene so
the presumption is that it's it's
describing Mary mag as Jesus's wife
which has been a sort of theory D Vinci
codes thing going on for a while and we
have this Ancient Ancient Papyrus and at
first Scholars are sort of like they
think this might be think this might be
real they carbon date the Papyrus and it
it's it matches perfectly yeah like this
is this is like date this is an early
ancient text um then some like red flags
start being raised and the the sort of
final nail in the coffin this is a
forgery we we know now this is like a a
complete forgery and one of the ways to
prove this is that It quotes um another
gospel in Aramaic I think it it might it
might quote the Gospel of Thomas
actually but it it quotes this Aramaic
translation so so it's it's it's got
like this this text that's been
translated into a different language but
there's a there's a translation error in
in the Papyrus on this fragment there's
an error in the
translation and there's one other place
where the exact same translation error
occurs which is a typo on a website site
that translates this gospel into Aramaic
so it looks like the guy who's forged
this this this bit of Papyrus has used
an Aramaic translation of an old gospel
from a website to then like on Old papus
genuinely old Papyrus and then written
out and also like the the formatting of
the of the text like where the line
breaks are all of that kind of stuff is
the same as on this website which like
the the chances that are just like
astonishingly small especially with the
typo and so we're like oh okay yeah
that's a a shame that's
what is interesting in the Gnostic
Gospels how does it contribute or what
are the big reveals well for a start it
tells us what
um what what Christian Traditions were
being opposed at the time of the
formation of the New Testament Cannon so
you know we're very familiar with
stories of the New Testament with the
stories of the resurrection and this
kind of stuff there are Gnostic Gospels
which tell us all kinds of different
things so we know that there are
communities who believe things and we
get to grips we can read for the first
time what early Christian Community
believed that eventually got sort of
condemned as heretical but now from
their own maths because we we knew that
there are heretical sects that believe
all kinds of different things but we've
only ever heard about them through the
writing of their opposition so
irenaeus's against heresies is this huge
volume that writes about why all of
these heretical beliefs are wrong so you
know it tells us what people believe but
we're hearing it through a Critic now we
can read it through you know from the
from the horse's mouth as it were and so
it's all kinds of stuff in there some of
them are older some of them are newer
some of them are obvious sort of fakes
some of them are a bit more like sort of
interesting the Gospel of Thomas might
be the most famous um because it's
possibly quite old I mean Scholars have
dated it some Scholars radically date it
to like really early like 0 ad which is
around the time that the canonical
gospels were being written um some date
it later but it's still very early it's
like second century ad so so pretty
early um and about half of it I think
contain quotes it's just a list of
saying of Jesus it's a so-call sayings
gospel so no narrative no crucifixion no
Resurrection none of that just a list of
sayings from Jesus and about half of
them I think are also in the synoptic
gospels half of them aren't and they say
really weird Mystic things like if you
bring out what is within you then what
is within you shall save you but if you
do not bring out that which is within
you then you know what you keep inside
you will destroy you or something like
that which is like a bit sort of
esoteric and weird and you sort of have
to Grapple with it and figure out what
he's what he's going to going to be
called and so there's another one in
there that where and again these are
just sayings like out of nowhere it says
something like whoever comes to know the
father and the mother he shall be called
the son of a
prostitute and then just moves on to the
next one you're about to ask me what
that means I don't know no one knows
like it's so strange and the most famous
part of the Gospel of Thomas is the
ending the very last quote Simon Peter
goes to Jesus and says what about Mary
Magdalene you know she should leave us
because women are not uh worthy of of of
life meaning like you know eternal life
Christian communion you know women
aren't worthy of this so Mary Magdalene
should leave us now you would expect
Jesus here to
say no no Peter women are perfectly you
know capable of inheriting eternal life
no he says I will draw her close to me
to make her a man so that she can enter
the kingdom of God for all women who
make themselves into men will enter the
kingdom of
God the Gospel of Thomas that's where it
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