Irenaeus gives the following account of the doctrines of Basilides in Against Heresies, Book I, Chapter 24, sections 3-7: Basilides again, that he may appear to have discovered something more sublime and plausible, gives an immense development to his doctrines. He sets forth that Nous was first born of the unborn father, that from him,…

F. F. Bruce writes (Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 87):Then there is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which purports to describe the doings of Jesus in his boyhood. Jesus proves to be an infant prodigy at school, instructing his teachers in the unsuspected mysteries of the alphabet; he astounds his family…

The Infancy Narrative of James is also known as the Protevangelium of James. In The Other Gospels, Ron Cameron says that the name Protevangelium “implies that most of the events recorded in this ‘initial gospel’ of James occur prior to those recorded in the gospels of the New Testament.” The gospel received this name when…

The Secret Book of James is preserved in a single Coptic copy found in Codex III of the Nag Hammadi codices. It is also known as the Apocryphon of James. The most extensive study on the Secret Book of James is that of Ron Cameron, Sayings Traditions in the Apocryphon of James (HTS 34; Philadelphia,…

Forged: Writing in the Name of God–Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They AreThe overarching message of this book is quite clear and not altogether subtle: if you want to enjoy the amazing blessings of paradise and avoid the horrific torments of hell, don’t sin! This message conveys a reliable and incontrovertible…

In The Other Gospels, Ron Cameron provides the following information: “The Gospel of the Hebrews may have been known to Papias (a church writer who died ca. 130 C.E., whose five-volume ‘Exegesis of the Sayings of the Lord’ is now lost, preserved only in a few quotations in the writings of Eusebius). Hegesippus (late in…

In this gospel, it seems that Salome, mentioned only by Mark in the New Testament, played a prominent place. The image above is of the women including Salome at the tomb (Mark 16). The Gospel of the Egyptians is no longer extant but was mentioned by Hippolytus and Epiphanius. Most of our citations come from…

Margaret M. Mitchell, Joseph G. Barabe, and Abigail B. Quandt, “Chicago’s “Archaic Mark” (ms 2427) II Microscopic, Chemical and Codicological Analyses Confirm Modern Production,” NovT 52 (2010): 101-133. Abstract:Comprehensive testing and analysis (microscopic, chemical and codicological) of University of Chicago ms 972-Gregory-Aland ms 2427 confirms that it is a modern production made sometime between 1874…