The Forgotten Gospels: A New Translation
edited by Tim Newton
Constable, £12.99
IF YOU have an interest in how the New Testament came to be what it is, and want to know about the bits which ended up on the cutting room floor in the Biblical editing suite, then I cannot recommend Tim Newton’s book more highly. If you don’t, stop here. This book is not for you.
Because this classics scholar has collected a bundle of early Christian texts, provided a fresh and clear translation of them, and added a lively commentary which is both informative and wisely judged. Publishers Constable are to be congratulated, too, on this beautifully-crafted, handsome little volume. It looks and feels like a quality book should; cloth-bound, gold-lettered, firm to the touch.
This book contains what you might expect, such as the gnostic Gospel of Thomas in its entirety, the most remarkable Christian document outside the New Testament. But there is much else here besides, and not all of it supportive to the Christian case that Jesus is God incarnate.
Newton gives us the work of the Roman Platonist Celsus who alleges Jesus came into the world not via a virgin birth but through an adulterous affair between mother Mary and a Roman legionary called Panthera. And his ministry was nothing more than the grandiose boasts of an unhinged conman. Jesus was “small, ugly and ignoble”, says Celsus and even Origen, Christianity’s first truly professional theologian, conceded the ugly bit. And in the Gospel of the Ebionites, Jesus is no more than an archangel.
Newton poses the questions that should engage any Bible reader. Did Jesus of Nazareth really tell his disciples to take up their crosses and follow him, as Matthew claims? Or was the gospeler being wise after the event? The Gospel to the Nazareans says there were more than just the three Magi around the manger because they brought their retinue of servants with them. Which, when you think about it, seems likely, although it makes the nativity rather more crowded than traditional crib scenes depict.
One surprise is that the Gospel of Judas, which caused such a stir when it was revealed three years ago, is not included. This heralds Judas as the greatest apostle because he betrayed Jesus at his request to fulfill his divine destiny. “It has no apparent value for its historical content,” says the author dismissively. “Or for any light it throws on the teachings or life of Jesus.”
There has been much acrimonious debate about what should and should not have been included in the New Testament, but Newton is careful not to join it. He presents The Forgotten Gospels as best he can and within their historical and theological context. But reading them together settled the argument for me. When the Church Fathers finalised the New Testament canon in the fourth century, they got it about right.
Nigel Nelson
