All Gospels Are Not Created Equal: My Wall Street Journal Review of “The Apocryphal Gospels”

Most people have never read one of the “apocryphal” Gospels—that is, a gospel that was not included in our Bibles. For that matter, most people have never read one of the canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Perhaps they’ve read snippets here and there, but very few have read them straight through.
Even so, there seems to be no shortage of opinions about the nature of ancient Gospels and how they functioned in the early church. Dramatic claims—typically filtered through blog articles and internet lore—are the order of the day. There were hundreds of “other” Gospels in the early church, we are told. No one knew which Gospels they … Continue reading...
Jesus in the Canonical and Apocryphal Gospels: Simon Gathercole to Give Harold O.J. Brown Lectures at @RTSCharlotte

For our annual Harold O.J. Brown Lectures at RTS Charlotte, we are pleased to Welcome Dr. Simon Gathercole, professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Cambridge University.
On March 22, 11AM-2PM, Dr. Gathercole will be giving two lectures (with a provided lunch in between) on the theme of “Jesus in Canonical and Apocryphal Gospels.”
Certainly this lecture will be of great interest to all who want to understand what makes our gospels unique as opposed to the variety of apocryphal gospels in existence. I am particularly interested in this topic myself as I did my Ph.D. research on an apocryphal gospel fragment, P.Oxy. 840 (see my book, The … Continue reading...
RTS Charlotte Alumnus Greg Lanier Published in JBL

By now, many have heard the exciting announcement that Greg Lanier (RTS Charlotte class of 2013) has been appointed as the Assistant Professor of New Testament at RTS Orlando. You can read more about that announcement here.
It has been a joy to watch Greg’s academic career since he was here at RTS Charlotte (and was my TA), and is now finishing up his PhD under Simon Gathercole at Cambridge. For those who know Simon, it won’t be a surprise that Greg is doing his thesis in the area of Christology. His topic is Christology in the Gospel of Luke through the Use of Metaphors.
I also … Continue reading...