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The early Christian church was filled with contrasting views of Christ.

People saw that the account of Jesus’ life could be viewed in different ways, and

over time people began to accept accounts that did not agree with one another. The

four Gospels that are accepted into modern canon even themselves contain

differing views of Christ. There are several other Gospels that were left out of

canon and were deemed unworthy and even heretical. The five most prominent of

these Gospels are The Gospel of Thomas, The Secret Gospel of Mark, The Gospel

of Peter, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and the Infancy Gospel of James. These

Gospels paint a somewhat different view of Christ and His life, and thus also create

a different sort of follower.

The Gospel of Thomas is believed to have been written between 50 C.E. to

mid-second century C.E and is accredited to Didymus Judas Thomas the supposed

twin brother of Jesus. This Gospel was discovered by a farmer who unearthed the

document which was located in a small pottery bowl. Unlike the Gospels that are

canonized, the Gospel of Thomas includes very little narrative about Jesus’

activities, and instead focuses on his words (1). Most of this Gospel introduces

each sentence with phrases such as “Jesus said.”(4) Scholars have divided this

Gospel into a prologue and 114 sayings that claim to be the sayings of Christ as

was told unto Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas teaches that an experience with God

is direct and unmediated, and shows Jesus as a divine teacher much like in The
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Gospel of John. In John there is a balance between the words of Christ and his

miracles, but Thomas contains only the words of Jesus. It is also implied in The

Gospel of Thomas that the author of the Gospel was the twin brother of Christ.

Thomas also praises James and states that he should be the one that is to be left in

charge of the other apostles after the departure of Jesus. Some would say that the

Gospel of Thomas as second only to The New Testament in understanding early

Christianity. This book shows the diversity of early Christianity and contains a

different understanding of Jesus. (2 p. 240-244, 3 p. 19-20, 4)

The Secret Gospel of Mark was written sometime between the years 70 C.E.

to 100 C.E. but only the surviving fragments are to be found. These fragments are

found in a letter from Clement to a follower of his named Theodore, and this letter

was written around the year 200 C.E. Clement tells of two different versions of the

Gospel written by Mark. The first is the canonical Mark, and the other is an

expanded version of Mark that was meant to be secret. This secret version

contained additional information that was to be read only to an inner circle of

Christian initiates. The quoted pages tell of the “mystery of the kingdom of God,”

(2 p. 245) which in this context seems to refer to baptism. The idea that Jesus

practiced baptism is absent from the synoptic Gospels, though it is included in the

Gospel of John (1). It seems to indicate, that at this time, that the baptismal was

considered to be privileged information by the apostles and it was avoided by the

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early Gospel writers. This Gospel gives the words of Jesus in Mark 4:11 a new

meaning. It states that his followers must be baptized to gain entrance into the

Kingdom of God (1). Although Clement says otherwise, it is rumored that the

Secret Gospel of Mark was written before the canonical Gospel of Mark. It is said

some of theses baptism passages found in Secret Mark were later removed to form

the Mark found in canon. (2 p. 245, 3 p. 87-89)

Written between 70 C.E. and 150 C.E., The Gospel of Peter was discovered

in a monk’s grave in Egypt, and is supposedly written by Simon Peter. This Gospel

narrates the Passion and the resurrection of Christ and also parallels all four

canonical Gospels as well as containing a theme of Christ preaching to the dead. It

is initially assumed that Peter was dependent upon the canonical Gospels, but it is

possible that the Passion narrative is in fact the earliest of the known accounts. The

Gospel of Peter was deemed heretical by the church because it seemed to deny the

suffering of Jesus. Peter 4:1 reads (3 p. 32), “And they brought forward two

evildoers and crucified the Lord between them. But he was silent, as if he had no

pain” (2 p. 245-246, 3 p. 31-34)

Written in the mid-second century A.D., The Infancy Gospel of Thomas was

written to be entertaining and inspirational. It was created to satisfy the need for a

more miraculous version of Jesus’ childhood and was probably the first of many

attempts by the early Christians to document a supposed account of the first twelve
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years of his life by bridging the gap left in the second chapter of Luke. In this

Gospel, the young Jesus has the powers of God. The young Jesus, thinking that he

should be treated different than normal children, uses his supernatural powers on

anyone that angers him. One account of this Gospel is one in which the child Jesus

is angered by a playmate of his so in return Jesus transforms the child into an old

man, and another where Jesus even goes as far as killing a boy. Joseph is shown as

instructing the boy Jesus in the use of his powers for good and not to cause harm,

this attempt backfires and leaves the dead boys parents blind. After doing much ill

unto others, Jesus eventually sees the errors of his ways and starts doing goodwill

unto others such as raising the dead. The end of this Gospel finds Jesus as he is

growing from a foolish child into a wise man. (2 p. 246-248, 3 p. 57-59)

The Infancy Gospel of James, or the Proto-Gospel of James, was written

around 150 C.E. by the alleged half-brother of Jesus and mostly deals with the life

of Mary and not the birth of Christ. She is shown as not only having been a virgin,

but also as having been ritually pure her entire life. Much of the dogma now that is

responsible for the veneration of Mary is shown in this early Gospel. This Gospel

was so popular in ancient times that there are numerous surviving translations

going back as far as the third century, and even among some Eastern churches.

Among the traditions recorded in The Infancy Gospel of James are the introduction

of Joseph as a widower with several children who was merely Mary’s guardian, the
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birth of Jesus in a cave instead of a manger, and the martyrdom of Zechariah

during the slaughter of the infants. The author of this Gospel identifies himself as

James, the brother of Jesus, and claims to have written it shortly after the death of

Herod in 4 B.C. This dating is not very likely, however, because the work contains

many passages from the books of Matthew and Luke (1). In addition to the

canonical nativity accounts, the work also borrows heavily from the Septuagint.

The most likely time of composition is the second century, shortly before

references to the work appear in other Christian writings, and when such traditions

were commonly recorded. (2 p. 248-250, 3 p. 63-72)

Today’s New Testament contains only the Gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke,

and John. The church has decided that these Gospels were the best choices as to

what should make up canon. It could be argued that this goes too far into the realm

of censorship, but it must be taken into account of the validity of these other

Gospels. Even taking these other accounts out of the canon did not dissuade some

from following the words found in some of the following pages, such as the

Coptics or the Gnostics.

It was not unheard of to using pseudonyms during the time when these

works were created, and thus many of these Gospels can be attributed to the hand

of another than the named. Some of these Gospels are probably just fictional

accounts that were meant to entertain. In the forming of the standard canon, some
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accurate books might even have been left out unjustly, based solely on the opinions

of theologians. It is all a matter of faith of the reader, and a little thirst for the truth.
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1. The Bible, John1-21. Luke 1-24. Matthew 1-28. Mark 1-16.

2. Harris, Stephen L. The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction. 4th ed.

Sacramento: Mcgraw-Hill, 2002.

3. Ehrman, Bart D. Lost Scriptures: Books That Did not Make it Into the New

Testament. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003.

4. The Internet Sacred Text Archive. Version 5.0. J.B. Hare. 2005

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