Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Darrell L. Bock (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is senior research professor of New Testament studies and Executive Director for Cultural Engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary. Known for his work in Luke-Acts, Dr. Bock is a Humboldt Scholar (Tubingen University in Germany), is on the editorial board for Christianity Today, and a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society (2000-2001). A New York Times bestselling author, Bock has written over forty books, including Luke in the NIV Application Commentary series.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

The Missing Gospels

Nelson Books

Contents

Preface............................................................................................................xiiiAcknowledgments....................................................................................................xvForeword: Dr. Edwin M. Yamauchi....................................................................................xviiIntroduction: Do New Discoveries Mean Christianity Needs a Makeover?...............................................xix1. Making a Scorecard: The Periods and Players of Early Christianity...............................................12. Discussion of a Key Alternative View: About Gnosticism and Its Definition.......................................153. Dating the Origin of Gnosticism.................................................................................224. Early Christianity's Diversity and Historical Judgments.........................................................325. The Claims of Walter Bauer and the Roots of the New School......................................................446. The Nature of God and Creation, Part 1..........................................................................567. The Nature of God and Creation, Part 2..........................................................................838. Jesus: Divine and/or Human? Part 1..............................................................................979. Jesus: Divine and/or Human? Part 2..............................................................................11510. The Nature of Humanity's Redemption: Spiritual or Also Physical? Part 1........................................13111. The Nature of Humanity's Redemption: Spiritual or Also Physical? Part 2........................................14712. Jesus' Death: Knowledge, Sin, and Salvation, Part 1............................................................16513. Jesus' Death: Knowledge, Sin, and Salvation, Part 2............................................................18314. Conclusion: The New School, the Missing Gospels, Alternative Christianities, and Orthodoxy.....................200Appendix 1: List of Extant Texts Beyond the Four Gospels...........................................................215Appendix 2: List of Key Texts in the Apostolic Fathers.............................................................220Bibliography.......................................................................................................224

Chapter One

This chapter assumes you have little or no knowledge of early Christianity, especially the time period of the second and third centuries. Here, I introduce the three periods of early Christianity, noting the Jewish origins from which Christianity arose-the apostolic period, the period of the apostolic fathers and the rise of alternative texts, and the period of the apologists and more alternatives.

Christianity and the Promise of Israel's God

The starting point for early Christianity was as a Jewish movement that appealed to the promise of God in the Scripture of Israel. In the beginning, there were Jesus and the apostles, claiming Jesus Christ fulfilled God's promise.

All the writings we have from the works of the first century to the works of the apologists show an intense concern, whether positive or negative, with issues raised by the Scripture of the Jews (Mitros 1968, 448-50). The apologists were defenders of Christianity against Greco-Roman religion, Judaism, and threatening movements that also claimed the name of Christ. Their work emerged in the mid-second century and continued to discuss how Jesus fulfilled the original Jewish promise.

Scholars debate when the promise was first uttered. Was it found in Genesis 3:15 when God said the seed of man would crush the head of the serpent? Was it in Genesis 12:1-3, in His promise that the seed of Abraham would be a source of blessing to all the world? Was it in texts like Isaiah 9, where a messianic-delivering figure is described? Was it in Daniel 7:13-14, where the Son of man rides the clouds with divine authority? Was it in a composite of all of these? In the first century, was there one unified expectation, or was there a promise described in diverse ways with diverse forms of expectation in Judaism?

For us, the key fact is that in the first century, most Jews had some form of hope that one day God would send a deliverer for His people and for the world, even though these Jews saw the fulfillment of that promise in differing detail or highlighted in different texts. That large parts of Israel's faith were driven by such a promise in the first century is one of the few things about which virtually all scholars agree. This root in scriptural hope is the seed of Christian faith. God would send a deliverer one day according to the promise of the Hebrew Scripture.

Much of Christianity in the first two centuries claims that Jesus was and is the fulfillment of that promise. This root in the Scripture of Israel-its promise and its portrait of God-is part of what became a source of contention when Marcion in the mid-second century rejected the God of Israel as identified with the God that Christians worship. It also became a point of contention when others calling themselves Christians-but whom many scholars today call Gnostics-suggested that the God who created the Earth and the true transcendent God were not the same figure. But we are jumping ahead in our story.

As we shall see in Chapter 4, some today argue that the roots of Christianity are not found in this promise of deliverance because Jesus was merely about wisdom and pointing to a way of life pleasing to God. It was the later church, some say-not Jesus-that transformed this wise teacher into a figure of worship, promise, and divinity. Strangely enough, in many ways, the core of the modern debate about Christianity is centered on how connected the earliest Christianity was to the theology of Judaism, God's promise, and Israel's portrait of God. We shall keep an eye on this connection since it is a central piece to our puzzle.

The Periods of Early Christianity: Putting the Newly Discovered Gospels in Context

These periods are standard in early church history, but the new school claims these categories obscure the real diversity of the earliest forms of Christianity. The claim is, if you make the rules and define the categories the way you want, you get to win the game before it starts. Because the issue of Christianity's roots is in question, you should note that the descriptions presented here are not claims that these divisions reflect the full picture of what was taking place in the first two centuries of Christianity. These descriptions can obscure the diversity that was at work in the early centuries of Christianity. The divisions used here merely provide a time structure for these lesser-known figures and movements of early Christian history, showing where and when people fit in our historical tour.

Period 1: Jesus and the Apostolic Period

This first period covers roughly the last seventy years of the first century. It is generally acknowledged that Jesus...