The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities (Hardcover)

~ Darrell L. Bock Ph.D. (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The wild success of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has spawned a thriving cottage industry of both supporters and critics. One of Brown's more controversial assertions is that the emergence of Christian orthodoxy was based not on its merit but on the politics of the winning side. Here, Bock sums up the evangelical perspective as he challenges the idea that orthodoxy "emerged" at all. Rather, he argues, it survived its many challenges in the early centuries of the Christian church because it best reflected the thoughts and teachings of Jesus and the apostles. The author, who teaches New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary, considers the idea that Christianity needs to be "reimagined"—reformed in the image of recent archeological and literary discoveries—to be an ill-advised attempt to rewrite history. He takes on those scholars who want to reinterpret Christianity in light of early Gnostic teachings that denied the oneness of the Father and the Son and spiritualized the gospel stories into myths. Bock recognizes this is pretty sophisticated stuff, and offers the reader a helpful chapter outlining times, names and ideas, providing a useful framework for the rest of his book. While not conclusively proving his thesis, Bock does provide a lively and readable survey of competing beliefs in Christianity's earliest days. (Aug. 8)
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Product Description

What others are saying about The Missing Gospels

"Darrell Bock has written a timely and valuable study for anyone curious about the question of lost or missing gospels. The Missing Gospels is a breath of sanity!"
-Philip Jenkins, Professor of History and Religious Studies, Penn State

"Those who don't want their prejudices disturbed will want to avoid this book. Those with an open mind and readiness to learn from scholarship . . . read with profit."
-Larry Hurtado, Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

"Darrell Bock patiently, and accessibly, sifts through all the relevant issues and offers much-needed guidance to those who want to discern fact from fiction. If you read only one book on this issue, this is it!"
-Andreas J. Kostenberger, PhD, Professor of New Testament and Greek, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

"The Missing Gospels is a unique resource for those who wish to respond to the 'new school' with accuracy and confidence."
-Frederica Mathewes-Green, National Public Radio's Morning Edition Commentator

"A necessary book that corrects many still fashionable but even more questionable hypotheses about the origin of the Gospels, the Nag Hammadi texts, and the development of Christian theology in the first two centuries AD."
-Prof. Dr. Martin Hengel, Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Ancient Judaism, University of Tubingen, Germany
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For a brief overview from Dr. Bock on the contents of the Gospel of Judas along with other materials, please visit www.thomasnelson.com/missinggospels.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785212949
• ISBN-13: 978-0785212942
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #466,187 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable and informative!, July 27, 2006

By	J. Barrett (U.S.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Darrell Bock has written an excellent followup book to his "Breaking The Da Vinci Code" (2004). Bock notes in the preface that "for more than ten years I have wanted to write this book for a popular audience... I would do this not primarily for those who study this material as a vocation, but for those who were hearing about it." Thus, the targeted audience makes this book as readable as it could be, yet coming from a top-notch scholar like Darrell Bock, it is also full of great information regarding such topics as Gnosticism, early Christian diversity, and orthodoxy in the early church (specifically the first two centuries).

While dealing indirectly with some of the claims from The Da Vinci Code, this book deals more directly with the claims of Walter Bauer and the New School as well as the claims of Bart Ehrman's "Lost Christianities" (2003) and "Lost Scriptures" (2003) and others.

The table of contents are as follows:
1) Making a scorecard: The Periods and Players of Early Christianity
2) Discussion fo a Key Alternative View: About Gnosticism and Its Definition
3) Dating the Origin of Gnosticism
4) Early Christianity's Diversity and Historical Judgments
5) The Claims of Walter Bauer and the Roots of the New School
6) The Nature of God and Creation, Part 1
7) The Nature of God and Creation, Part 2
8) Jesus: Divine and/or Human? Part 1
9) Jesus: Divine and/or Human? Part 2
10) The Nature of Humanity's Redemption: Spiritual or Also Physical? Part 1
11) The Nature of Humanity's Redemption: Spiritual or Also Physical? Part 2
12) Jesus' Death: Knowledge, Sin, and Salvation, Part 1
13) Jesus' Death: Knowledge, Sin, and Salvation, Part 2
14) Conclusion: The New School, the Missing Gospels, Alternative Christianities, and Orthodoxy
Appendix 1: List of Extant Texts Beyond the Four Gospels
Appendix 2: List of Key Texts in the Apostolic Fathers

Each chapter ends with a Summary and 3-4 Study Questions to help the reader make sure they understood the key points in the chapter.

Overall, Bock has done the Church and other readers a great service through writing "The Missing Gospels". Readers will be both challenged and encouraged through what they learn from this well researched and written text. Highly recommended.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Technical; Good Overview, August 11, 2006

By	D. MILLS (Manassas, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In 1945 a set of ancient texts were found in a cave in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. These books described a different Jesus and a different God not to mention a completely different Christianity. Some believe and some scholars have written texts claiming that these findings call for a complete rethinking of the Christian religion. Dan Brown based his novel "The Da Vinci Code" partially on these findings. Darrell Bock writes this book to analyze these new findings. He analyzes their estimated dates as well as their content. It's not a complete study of the complete series of texts, but it's sufficient for the average reader.

"The Da Vinci Code" was an exciting mystery novel with twists around every corner based partly on history but mostly on fantasy. This book is a serious, scholarly analysis of historical texts and theology written by a PhD professor. Some may find a detailed, technical analysis like this to be boring.

The same author wrote "Breaking the Da Vinci Code" which covers the same material but not as indepth as this book.

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important critique, September 5, 2006

By	William Muehlenberg (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Darrell Bock is one of our finest contemporary New Testament scholars. As a conservative evangelical, he is well placed to take on the latest trends and fads of liberal and radical theology. He did this quite well recently in his critique, Breaking the Da Vinci Code (Nelson, 2004)

Here he takes on the hype and hoopla associated with the discovery of various gospels and religious writings, especially those found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. These discoveries have led to claims that many gospels and religious texts have been suppressed or discounted by the church.

In addition, there are now many who have been convinced that there has been some massive cover-up job by the church to suppress these so-called hidden gospels. Both the New Age movement, and Dan Brown, among others, have been making these sorts of claims.

Thus it is often claimed that the Christianity that exists today is not the real thing, and that we need to give credence to these various gospels, and the alternative understandings of Christianity. What are we to make of these claims? Is the traditional understanding of Christianity now obsolete? Does the Bible we now possess need radical altering to take into account, or include, these new discoveries?

In a nutshell, Bock says no. The four canonical gospels, part of the 27 books in the New Testament, are there, and these new gospels are not, for good reason. The early church was aware of these alternative books, and gave them short shrift. And so should we. While they may provide some helpful background understanding to Christianity, and demonstrate the richness and diversity of religious life in the early centuries, these new gospels and alternative Christianities are not to be equated with their orthodox counterparts.

Bock examines in detail the findings of Nag Hammadi. The 52 ancient texts found there date primarily from the second and third centuries, well after the period in which the New Testament was penned. These writings are mainly characterised as Gnostic in nature.

While Gnosticism is a much-debated topic, we know that it entailed beliefs quite at variance with New Testament thought. Its emphasis on hidden or secret knowledge, and its esoteric understandings of salvation are quite at odds with the very public knowledge of man's dilemma and God's solution as offered in the biblical texts.

These various writings, such as the Gospel of Thomas, are carefully contrasted to the canonical gospels by Bock. They are found to differ markedly in genre, in content, and theology. They were rightly rejected by the early Christian church as incompatible with genuine Christian orthodoxy.

And the claim that there were various versions of Christianity circulating in the first few centuries, rivalling the traditional understanding, is also challenged by Bock. Thus he critically examines the thesis of Walter Bauer and its later proponents, such as Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman. While there certainly was diversity amongst the early Christians, these alternative positions were never majority views.

Bock demonstrates how the traditional understanding was the predominant view by looking at key biblical doctrines: God, creation, the nature and work of Christ, sin and salvation. In all of these he demonstrates that not only were the alternative religious teachings and writings widely at variance with these key doctrines, but they were always considered to be heterodox and fringe in nature.

He contrasts the biblical writings and church fathers with the alternative teachings and teachers. While there are some similarities, they are also major differences, and the traditional and alternative views were set apart from each other very early on.

Thus Bock rejects the claims made by the new school that we need to redefine and remake Christianity, in light of these Gnostic texts and teachings.

Given how much hype is being made in various quarters about these so-called missing gospels, a book-length rebuttal has been needed for some time now. This volume fits the bill nicely: it is scholarly enough, yet written for the non-specialist. As such it is a timely and welcome antidote to the new school musings.