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The Apostle Paul, founder of Christianity
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by unfinished thought.: [QB] Something important to keep in mind is that the Gospels sprang forth from the Church. The Church which was started by Jesus, was based on who Jesus was, what he talk, said and did. The people in the early Church knew who Jesus was. Thus in the late 4th century when Councils came together, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they could discern which writings revealed Jesus and which ones did not. The Gnostic gospels, which were a product of Gnosticism, did not reveal the same Jesus of the Church (and they still don't). The gnostic gospels to not appear until long after the time of Jesus and the apostles. When they did begin to appear, we have documents written by various churches leaders that often give us information about when the documents first appeared, who (or what group) was responsible for them, and why they were rejected. Many of the "gnostic gospels" were not even written in the 4th, 5th and 6th century, after the content of the New Testament was decided. Think of it like this, 500 years from now, someone may find a copy of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, and wonder why it was not including the Bible. Those of living today know why, because we know when it was written (thousands of years later), who it was written by (a secular musician and not someone with first hand knowledge), and that it was never intended to seen as "scripture". So the early church fathers had the advantage of living when these documents were produced, knowing where they came from, and being able to reject those that had no first hand knowledge of Christ. As early as 97 AD, the books of the New Testament was well enough established that Clements of Rome in his writings quotes from 21 of the 27 books. (The five books authored by John were created between 95 and 100 AD, so not available for him to quote.) He also does NOT quote from a single one of the later rejected books. By 100 AD, liturgies of the church were in place that use only the 27 books of the New Testament in the prayers and rituals, quoting all by 11 verse of the New Testament. Not a single quote from any of the other "gospels" or writings are included. Within 65-70 years of the time of Jesus, those writings were already rejected by the church, by the people who would have had first knowledge of their origin and intends. By 120 AD, Ignacius was already circulating a list of the accepted and rejected books of the New Testament. All of the early "gnostic" gospels are on his reject list. The majority of the "gnostic gospels" did not even appear until the mid to late 2nd century, a century to a century and a half after the time of Jesus. This calls into question the reliability of them as "historical". Historically, they don't line up with the rest of the bible. You know how you can test art to see if it's authentic or a reproduction? Similarily you can examine signitures to see if they're forgeries. With written works there's a somewhat sketchy process where you can test for tone, tempo, writing style, etc, etc... What's amazing is that the 66 books of the bible, even though they were all written by different authors, they all have a quality to them in terms of tone, writing style etc., that gives the impression they were all written by the same author - even though we can prove they were not. The gnostic gospels sound different, they don't line up. There are several issues which make them questionable - even to those who aren't Christians and are just examining them to see what's what. They are very interesting to read, especially the gospel of Thomas. You might want to get a copy of "the missing Gospels" by Bock for more information on historical accuracy, and dating documentation. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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