Books that Didn’t Make the Cut: The Gospel of Thomas

In Egypt in 1948 a remarkable discovery was made: a collection of ancient documents now known as the Nag Hammadi Library.  These writings were the work of a group of Christian heretics called the Gnostics.  Most of these documents date from the 2nd-4th centuries.  The best known of the Gnostic writings is The Gospel of […]

Books that Didn’t Make the Cut: The Gnostic Gospels

Jesus didn’t really die on the cross.  He married Mary Magdalene, moved to France, and had several children.  All that claptrap about his identity as God’s incarnate Son, his sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead?  All propaganda foisted upon you by a deceptive church.  The real truth is to be found in the writings […]

Books that Didn’t Make the Cut: The Didache

In our last post we looked at a fascinating collection of books written in the period of time just after the death of the apostles: The Apostolic Fathers.  These books were not included in the canon for a variety of reasons, mostly because they were not apostolic in origin.  They are still fascinating to consider: […]

Books that Didn’t Make the Cut: The Apostolic Fathers

We place a lot of emphasis on the importance of our Founding Fathers (or we did as a culture until quite recently in our history – dead white males of European descent are really passé these days). There are good reasons for this: these important men (no sexism intended, most of them did happen to […]

Books that Didn’t Make the Cut: The Pseudepigrapha

Marie Antoinette did not actually say, “Let them eat cake.” Nor did she say Qu’ils mangent de la brioche (that’s “let them eat cake” in French). It makes a great story though. Nor did Julius Caesar actually utter the famous Et tu, Brute? According to Plutarch he died in silence, while Suetonius has him asking […]