“What is the Deutero-Isaiah theory? Was the Book of Isaiah written by multiple Isaiahs?”……Most Bible scholars are in agreement that Isaiah was the sole author of the book that bears his name. However, there are those "liberal" scholars who are skeptical about anything that points to supernatural inspiration of the Bible. In fact, they go […]

“What is the JEDP Theory?”……In brief, the JEDP theory states that the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, were not written entirely by Moses, who died in the 1400’s B.C., but also by different authors/compliers after Moses. The theory is based on the fact that different names for God […]

“What is the gospel of Barnabas?”……Answer: It's important that we not confuse the gospel of Barnabas (ca. A.D. 1500) with the Epistle of Barnabas (ca. A.D. 70├ö├ç├┤90). The Epistle of Barnabas was written in the late 1st century, but probably not by the Barnabas named in the New Testament. While more of a pseudo-Gospel with […]

“What is the gospel of Philip?”……Answer: Similar to the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip is a collection of sayings, supposedly of Jesus. The gospel of Philip focuses a great deal on the "sacrament of marriage" as a "sacred mystery." The gospel of Philip does not claim to have been written by Jesus' disciple […]

Gnostics Gnostic Gospels & Gnosticism A one-sentence description of Gnosticism: a religion that differentiates the evil god of this world (who is identified with the god of the Old Testament) from a higher more abstract God revealed by Jesus Christ, a religion that regards this world as the creation of a series of evil archons/powers […]

“What are the Gnostic gospels?”……The Gnostic gospels are writings by early “Christian” Gnostics. After the first century of Christianity, two primary divisions developed – the orthodox and the Gnostics. The orthodox Christians held to books we now have in the Bible and to what is today considered orthodox theology. The Gnostic Christians, if they can […]

“What is the gospel of Judas?”……Answer: Sometime in the 1970s, in a cave in Egypt, a copy of the "gospel of Judas" was discovered. The circumstances of the discovery have been described as shady, with those who possessed the copy asking for exorbitant amounts of money for the codex. For decades, no institution was willing […]