10 Misconceptions about the NT Canon: #9: “The Canonical Gospels Were Certainly Not Written by the Individuals Named in Their Titles”
Note: this is the ninth installment of a blog series announced here. The full series can be found here.
One of the most commonly made claims regarding the canonical gospels is that they were not written by the individuals named in their titles. Instead, we are told that these gospels were written later in the first century by anonymous individuals outside of Palestine who were not eyewitnesses of any of the events that they record. After all, the text of the gospels themselves offers no indication of their authorship. And the gospel titles, it is argued, were added at a later point—probably the middle of the second century—in … Continue reading...
Review of “The Early Text of the New Testament”
This past year, Charles Hill and I edited a volume for Oxford University Press entitled, The Early Text of the New Testament. This is a compilation of essays from scholars around the world exploring the state of the NT text at its earliest (accessible) stages. Although the book was released in the UK in June, it was not available in the US until around Sept 1st. So, there has been no time for any reviews to be published.
However, my friend Tommy Wasserman has pointed out that there has been an online review over at Rick Brannon’s website, ricoblog. Thanks to Rick for this very positive review! Here … Continue reading...
What About the Back of the So-Called Gospel of Jesus’s Wife?
There has been a lot of chatter over the last week about the new Gospel of Jesus’s Wife, originally announced here. So much so, that it is quite difficult to keep up with the rapidly changing discussion about this text. Scholars all over the globe have chimed in, most questioning the authenticity of the fragment (see my original assessment here). Most recently, Francis Watson of Durham University has offered two short articles (here and here) which strongly suggest this fragment was a modern fake.
But in all of this discussion, I have noticed that far too little attention has been given to a very important piece … Continue reading...
The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife—Authentic or Not?
Yesterday, during the break for my Gospels class (and ironically just prior to my lectures on apocryphal gospels), I received the big news about the discovery of a new apocryphal gospel fragment. This fragment—aptly named The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife—contains a story where Jesus refers to “My wife” and is dated to the fourth century. No doubt this will reignite the firestorm felt during the release of The Da Vinci Code many years ago, and the major media outlets will be asking again about whether Jesus was married.
Since yesterday’s announcement, I have been inundated with emails and phone calls asking for my assessment of this new fragment. So, I … Continue reading...
My Interview on the NT Canon with Apologetics 315
A couple of weeks ago I did an interview with Brian Auten over at Apologetics 315 ministries. We discussed early Christianity, canon formation, apocryphal gospels, heresy and orthodoxy, and a number of other important matters related to the origins of the New Testament. Much of the discussion centered on my recent book, Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books.
You can check out the interview here.… Continue reading...