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Book cover of "The Apocryphal Gospels."

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"The Apocryphal Gospels" is a collection of forgeries of the Gospel story written between the second and sixth centuries A.D., with a few modern forgeries written in the 20th-21st centuries. They follow a usual framework that describes parts of Jesus' life, ranging from his birth, ministry, and crucifixion. While a majority of them are accurate to the Bible, some of them are totally made up stories or have major individual major inconsistencies included. Nonetheless, they all have no proof of being divinely inspired or meeting any of the requirements for scripture.

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Some major blasphemies offered by the apocrypha include:

1. Jesus makes living birds from clay (Infancy Gospel of Thomas)

2. Jesus straight up kills a little boy (Infancy Gospel of Thomas)

3. Jesus "produces" a woman and has sexual relations with her in front of Mary (Greater Questions of Mary)

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The theme of "The Apocryphal Gospels" is Christ's non-exclusive love and forgiveness.

This theme is frequently referenced as Jesus says the phrase: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" in almost every single work included in the book. This phrase comes directly verbatim from Matthew 11:15, and means that Jesus wants everyone to hear the good news of his teachings, and graciously loves everyone, letting all hear the saving message of God.

Evidence: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Gathercole, 49, 53, 61, 62).

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Some major blasphemies offered by the apocrypha include:

1. Jesus makes living birds from clay (The Infancy Gospel of Thomas)

2. Jesus straight up kills a little boy (The Infancy Gospel of Thomas)

3. Jesus "produces" a woman and has sexual relations with her in front of Mary (The Greater Questions of Mary)

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Analysis: "The Apocryphal Gospels" is a collection of different false or uninspired accounts of Jesus' life and therefore character. While some Gospels' goal is to recount a more truthful, yet uninspired, story about Jesus' life, some others are outright totally incorrect about Jesus' true character. While a good handful of Apocryphal Gospels describe Jesus' life as we know it today and recounted in the Bible, other Gospels (I.e. "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas") describe Jesus' younger years in a horrifying light, recounting quite inappropriate things about Jesus.

Evidence: "Marcion's Gospel" is quite accurate to the true Gospel story, particularly in this example when it records Jesus saying: "'If anyone wants to be a disciple of mine,' [...] 'he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me" (Gathercole, 105). However, "The Infancy Gospel of Thomas" records an inaccurate event of a young Jesus striking a boy dead for bumping into him: "'Cursed be the soul that guides you,' Jesus said. And immediately the boy died" (Gathercole, 32).

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Explanation: Historically, as most notably recorded in "The Gospel of Thomas," Jesus used parables to more easily explain complicated parts of Christian theology to the masses. These parables are short stories using easily digestible symbols that interact in a certain way to explain how Christians should behave. "The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value" appears in the Biblical book of Matthew, however it also appears in "The Gospel of Thomas." Simply put, the Parable describes a man purchasing a pearl of great value by selling all of his possessions. Jesus describes that everyone should give all they can like the man to receive the priceless gift of salvation, like the pearl.

Evidence: "Jesus said, 'What the kingdom of the father resembles is a merchant who owned some merchandise, and then learned about the existence of a certain pearl. That merchant was shrewd, sold the merchandise, and bought the single pearl. You, too, seek the ceaseless and enduring treasure, where moth does not approach to eat nor worm to destroy'" (Gathercole 63-64).

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https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB-8oLpH9a-Sw_BkwbcuRhfiWI0HGP7G6&si=MIxuUwlw5Wxre0yi

Playlist of YouTube videos representing pieces of media that act as modern examples of Apocryphal Gospels, or modern forgeries of the Gospel story. Short descriptions of each video and its significance to this project are listed below.

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"The Last Temptation of Christ" is a movie based on a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis. Both the film and the book reimagine Jesus' life, describing his struggles with temptation such as fear, depression, reluctance, and lust. This is similar to the Gospel forgeries comprising the collection of Apocryphal Gospels.

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"Life of Brian" is a film similar to "The Last Temptation of Christ." The film follows Brian, a man born in the stable next to Jesus. He grows up a devout Jew, being present at the Sermon on the Mount. He later accidentally ends up re-teaching the Beatitudes and convinces a large group of people that he is the Messiah. He eventually ends up crucified, as a result of his rebellion against the Roman regime he lives under in ancient Judea. The film was created to mock religion and Jesus' life, painting his life, ministry, and crucifixion, as something not to be bothered about. This ties in with the goal of some Apocrypha to paint Jesus in an inappropriate light.

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Netflix's "Mary" follows the life of the virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. It shares many characteristics with the Apocryphal Gospel "The Protoevangelium of James" being a literal embodiment of a Gospel forgery.

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"Jesus Christ Superstar" is a rock-opera musical turned movie that depicts a fairly accurate representation of Jesus' life. However, its inaccurate format and details such as an implied relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene secures this musical's status as a modern Apocryphal Gospel.

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The second "Vintage Church Jesus Video," is a humorous parody from a group of 4 original parody videos by Vintage Church. These videos use funny voice acting to dub over a less than satisfactory movie about Jesus' life to make it appear as if Jesus, his disciples, and other iconic Gospel character are saying humorously outrageous things. The second video in particular depicts Jesus preaching in a temple to a crowd about life, however his guidelines are not very serious. A crazed man walks enters the temple abruptly and expands upon Jesus teachings. Jesus calms him down and the video ends. While the purpose of these videos is to make fun of the source material of the poorly made biopic, it still violates the original gospel story.

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"Woke Jesus" is a comedy sketch created by the conservative Christian comedy troupe known as "The Babylon Bee." The video depicts Jesus as he preaches his ministry. However, a humorous twist is incorporated as Jesus' teachings are riddled with ideas that are considered "woke" by today's standards, "woke" meaning a modern movement of extreme liberalism and progressivism. This video's purpose is to make fun of the false ideas that "progressive Christians" have about Jesus, yet are obviously not Biblical. While the video has pro-Christian goals, the video itself is a modern Gospel forgery.

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"The Apocryphal Gospels" was a very educational read. I enjoy reading works like this because they enhance my knowledge of real world heresy and blasphemy, helping be recognize patterns that these false teachings about the Bible and Christianity generally have. This helps in the real world as a toolkit for critical thinking when I encounter new ideas about Christianity I have not heard about or taken time to consider. When I encounter these ideas, I can use information gleaned from the Apocrypha and other works to quickly deduce whether or not the idea supports or negates my faith.

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Gathercole, Simon, translator. The Apocryphal Gospels. Penguin Books, 2021.