Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 272 pages
• Published by: Oxford University Press, USA December 5, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0195156315
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0195156317
• Book Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 6.4 ounces

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way (Hardcover) In recent years, much attention has been given the claims that certain non-Canonical gospels and documents, such as the Gospel of Thomas, provide valuable information on the teaching of Jesus Christ. As Prof. Philip Jenkins shows, the obsession to find additional "gospels" is not a modern preoccupation but goes back even before the Nag Hammadi find in 1945. Parts of what is now known as the Gospel of Thomas were known for years. Some of the partisans in favor of Thomas assert that it is as old as, if not older than, the earliest synoptic Gospel. Because of the "mystical" and non-eschatological character of most of it (and other such works), the argument is made that it preserves the "real" teaching of Jesus: not the divine person of Christian orthodoxy, but the wandering sage, dispensing wisdom that just happens to coincide with so much of the modern temperament - mystical, egalitarian, feminist, etc. However, the claim that Thomas was written prior to 150 AD is week, and it is almost certain that the large majority of other gospels are dated much later than that. So when all is said and done, the claims of the Jesus Seminar and other radical scholars to find authentic sayings of Jesus in such works are without foundation. The best part of the this book is its comprehensive nature. Prof. Jenkins places this question in theological, biblical, historical and sociological perspective. As he shows, there is nothing new about the claims that the non-Canonical gospels preserve other sayings of Jesus. Long before anyone heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some had argued that Jesus was an Essene. But the pace has accelerated. Recent television programs give prominence to radicals like Crossan instead of more main-stream scholars, giving the unsuspecting viewer the impression that orthodox Christianity is "hiding" some truths about Jesus that would be subversive of the faith. I have one minor criticism of this work. Prof. Jenkins refers throughout the book to certain scholars, such as John P. Meier of Catholic University (author of A Marginal Jew) as "conservatives." Meier is no Crossan, but it is quite a stretch to use this term to describe him. While Meier accepts the historicity of much of the Gospels, he rejects substantial portions of it. Although the Roman Catholic Church has become more friendly toward higher criticism in recent years, it was quite shocking to see that Meier's work received the imprimatur of the Church. Comment | | (Report this)