Pre Nicean Christianity and the Gnostic Gospels

Was There a Conspiracy Behind Early Christian Church Doctrine?

Oct 3, 2009

Did the early church suppress alternative forms of Christianity? Were the Gnostic Gospels part of early Christianity? What do the Gnostic Gospels reveal about Jesus?

Mainstream Christianity bases its understanding of Jesus primarily on the New Testament, especially the four gospel accounts attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Do these four gospels, however, tell the full story? Was a conspiracy responsible for early Christian church doctrine?

Many of modern Christianity's critics believe there was widespread corruption in the early church and that the orthodox portrait of Jesus overwhelmingly embraced by mainstream Christianity today (to include Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, evangelicals, etc.) is not the "whole story."

Alternative Forms of Christianity?

The vast majority of those classified today as "Christian" (be they Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, etc.) generally agree with the tenets of the Nicene Creed. There are some self-proclaimed Christians, however, who largely reject the Nicene Creed. This group would include (but not be limited to) Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Gnostics.

And who are the Gnostics? According to the Gnostic Society, Gnosticism is "teaching based on Gnosis, the knowledge of transcendence arrived at by way of interior, intuitive means."

Not surprisingly, Gnostic Christians are themselves a diverse group, and many of their number may be more accurately called "postmoderns." Indeed, some Gnostics find much in common with postmodernism and its suspicion of language and orthodoxy.

What do the Gnostic Gospels Reveal About Jesus and Christianity?

Gnostics find great inspiration in ancient texts purporting to convey "secret knowledge" about the divine as well as information on early Christianity. These texts include (but are not limited to) the Gospel of Thomas, the Secret Book of John, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Truth.

The Gnostic Gospels emphasize inner light and personal revelation, as opposed to objective truth or common doctrine. What's more, given the suspicion of the material world in Gnosticism, the Gnostic Gospels offer a different view of the Incarnation, with many of the ancient texts rejecting the virgin birth and bodily resurrection (though the Gospel of Peter features a rather embellished account of the resurrection, to include a talking cross).

Scholarly and popular interest in these (and other) ancient texts was intensified as a result of the 1945 discovery of over fifty "Gnostic" manuscripts in Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

Elaine Pagels, regarded as one of the leading champions of Gnostic Christianity, argues that the "suppression" of these texts by the early church was part of a "struggle critical for the formation of early Christianity." (Pagels, Elaine. The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Vintage Books, 1979).

Why were these alternative gospels suppressed? According to Pagels and other pro-Gnostic scholars, the gospels represent a view of Jesus totally at odds with the one that early church elites wished to embrace and hold up as "orthodox."

What Happened in Pre Nicean Christianity?

Called by the Roman emperor Constantine, the First Council of Nicaea (sometimes spelled Nicea) convened in what is now Iznik, Turkey, in the year 325 A.D. The outcomes included the Nicene Creed, the first major document outlining uniform Christian doctrine, and the beginnings of a more cohesive and coordinated Christian church.

The fact that the Gnostic Gospels reveal a Jesus who is markedly different from the one embraced at Nicaea is beyond dispute. What is at issue is whether pre-Nicean Christianity included these Gnostic Gospels or whether the Gnostics were always considered outside the mainstream of Christian beliefs.

Gnostic advocates allege that the Council of Nicaea was sort of an apex in the suppression of alternative Christianities, including Gnosticism. But does the historical record support this claim?

Dr. Craig Evans, a highly respected biblical studies scholar, is considered a leading expert on ancient religious texts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library. In an interview with author Lee Strobel, Evans affirmed the majority consensus of New Testament scholarship, namely that the four Gospels published as part of the New Testament were all written much earlier than the "alternative" Gospels advanced by many critics as representing "alternative Christianities." In other words, the dating of the Gnostic manuscripts is what discredits them, not some conspiracy at Nicaea.

"The New Testament writings reflect the testimony of the first generation church, which very much depended on the testimony of Jesus' own handpicked disciples," explains Evans. (Strobel, Lee. The Case For The Real Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007).

The Consensus of Early Christianity

Virtually all New Testament scholars concede that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written in the first century A.D., with only a handful dating the Gospel of John (the last of the four) to the early second century.

By contrast, the Gnostic Gospels (including the Gospel of Thomas, which is probably the earliest of the Gnostic texts) were written no sooner than the mid-second century, making them several generations removed from the actual teachings of Jesus himself.

While there were doctrinal disputes in the early church, many of which are called out in the New Testament itself, there was nevertheless widespread agreement on the fundamentals of the faith as well as the authenticity of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The origins of Christianity can be characterized as centered on a firm embrace of the deity of Jesus Christ. Gnosticism came later.