gospels.net

Fair Disclosure: My Perspective

June 3rd, 2009 by Andrew Bernhard under Miscellaneous. 1 Comment.

It is for us to treasure at this distance of time any even of the reputed sayings of Jesus. If we believe them not, at least men who lived in Egypt in the second and third century found them a strength and stay to their faith, and we can treat them with the reverence they deserve . . .”

- Rev. H. D. Rawnsley
Six Village Sermons on the Papyrus Fragment (1897)

Having essentially declared myself to be a “neutral” reporter in my last post, I think it is necessary to say a brief word about myself and disclose a bit about my perspective on the subject I will be covering. It is only fair for my readers to have a sense of where I’m coming from.

I am a scholar of ancient history and literature who is interested in the development of the gospel tradition during the first two centuries. I am fascinated by how early Christians wrote gospels to express their different understandings about the significance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to read early Christian gospels that were lost for many centuries before being rediscovered in modern times.

Whatever one may think about the veracity of these recently recovered texts, they do provide us with new insights into how Jesus was perceived by some of his nearly forgotten ancient followers. I suspect that anyone who considers these texts will, at the very least, gain novel insights into and significantly improve his or her understanding of the four texts that have been at the heart of the Christian movement for nearly two millennia: The Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.