A brief sketch of the message of jesus in the four canonical Gospels will show that the key focus is on Jesus dying for sins as foretold in Old Testament Scripture. This lecture will compare that message with four well-known rival Gospels: the Gospels of Thomas, Mary, Judas, and Philip, which present an alternative route to salvation. These rival gospels and other writings contending as "true records" of Jesus cannot compete with the accounts in the New Testament. The four New Testament Gospels are the only ones sufficiently close enough in time to the events to be reliable. Comparing the particular cultural features in the New Testament Gospels with the gospels outside the BIble shows that the Gospels of Thomas, Mary, Judas and Philip come from a cultural environment quite alien from that of Jesus of history.

More Apocryphal Gospels, Culture, Education Baylor 2020, Gnostic Gospels, Gospel of Judas, Gospel of Mary, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Thomas, Gospels, Jesus, Jesus of history, Jewishness of Jesus, Old Testament | More from Simon Gathercole

From Series: "LTL Lecture Series Academic Year 2012-2013"

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