Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all spiritual heirs of a specific form of Judaism that arose and developed in the late 2nd Temple period. Along with Pharisees, Zealots, Sadducees, and Essenes—the Jewish groups that espoused a vision of the cosmos and the future such as that reflected in the apocryphal books of Enoch turned out […]
Extra-Biblical Interpretation
Enochian Judaism: How an Ancient Vision of Things Took Over Our World
The Gospel of Judas: What It Has Taught Us Thus Far
By
Marvin Meyer
When the Gospel of Judas was published in 2006, it took the scholarly world by storm. Almost at once issues of presentation and interpretation appeared. This lecture traces the story of the Gospel of Judas, from before the time of the initial publication to the continuing saga about the appearance of additional fragments, and raises […]
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
This account introduces the bizarre adventures of the miracle-working, precocious, irascible child Jesus. Follow along as Goodacre describes several of the miracles attributed to Jesus during his childhood. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.
The Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas is full of Jesus’ sayings and yet contains no passion narrative, no miracle stories and no story narrative. However, this valuable text may nevertheless shed light on the historical Jesus and the development of earliest Christianity. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.
The Gospel of Philip
The Gospel of Philip is the most notorious among the lost gospels and features the lines that gave rise to the fictional account of Jesus’ life that featured so prominently in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.
The Gospel of Mary
A gospel written in the name of a woman, depicting Mary Magdalene not as the repentant prostitute of western Christian tradition, but as an important visionary and leader in the early church. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.
The Gospel of Peter
Written in the name of Jesus’ right-hand man, the Gospel of Peter tells an alternative version of the Passion story in which a walking, talking cross emerges from the tomb on Easter morning. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.
The Secret Gospel of Mark
Discovered in 1958, the Secret Gospel of Mark depicts Jesus in a night-time encounter with a young man, but could this unusual text in fact be a modern hoax? Form your own opinion as Goodacre presents evidence both for and against forgery. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.
Gospel of Jesus’ Wife
First published by Harvard Divinity School in 2012, this tiny fragment features Jesus’ mention of “my wife.” But is it actually no more than a 21st-century forgery? In this lecture, Goodacre presents the known history of the text, the scholarly tests it has undergone and the potential for forgery. This was part of the Animating […]
The Gospel of Judas
First published in 2006, the Gospel of Judas instantly attained notoriety—could this really be an another take on the gospel story, in which Judas Iscariot is now a hero? This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.
The Proto-Gospel of James
A compelling prequel to the Gospels, the account known as the “Proto-Gospel of James” centers on the life of Mary and Joseph as well as narrates Jesus’ miraculous birth in a cave in Bethlehem. This was part of the Animating Christian Apocrypha DVD.
Pseudepigraphy or Forgery? Was It Acceptable to Write in Someone Else’s Name in Antiquity?
A number of pseudepigraphic works survive from Jewish and Christian antiquity. The Hebrew Bible contains at least two instances (Daniel and Ecclesiastes); the New Testament has many more (the Pastoral Epistles, 1 and 2 Peter, etc.). In each of these examples, an author falsely claims to be a famous person. Some scholars have argued that […]