Book Reviewed: Lost Christianities: The Battles of Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart Ehrman

How did early “chaotic” Christianity evolve into a major faith system This is a scholarly exploration of several Christian movements in the first two hundred years of the common era that did not make into the current Christian system. This period in the Biblical history was marred by theological conflicts and destruction of scriptures regarded by early bishops as heretical. These included several scriptures of Gnosticism, Marcionism, and ebonist theology. The author shows that these groups had vastly different description of the Jesus’ teachings, salvation, and the identity of God. Gospel of Mary (Mary Magdalene), Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, and numerous other apocryphal acts and epistles offers alternate portrayals of Jesus, the God, and Christian beliefs and practices. In fact, Mary Magdalene, one of the closest disciples of Jesus who knew Jesus’ teachings well was instructed by Jesus to lead his ministry after his departure. This gospel clearly states that there is no such thing as Sin in this world. Author Ehrman discusses about forty-five apocryphal texts used by diverse group of Christian communities who believed and practiced Christian faith very differently. The role of early bishops and leaders of Christian communities were influential in the final outcome. By the end of the fourth century, the current version of the New Testament came into existence. The author calls early bishops who shaped the New Testament as the sacred scriptures of proto-orthodox Christians. This process included forgery, destruction of apocryphal texts that were labeled heresy, and creation of texts to uphold the proto-orthodox Christianity. The Gospels were written anonymously to begin with and later were called by the names of their reputed authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is apparent that the New Testament canon was not divinely dictated, but it evolved over time through human decisions that were contentious and politically motivated. Heresiologists (who refuted heresies: beliefs or doctrines contrary to orthodox Christian teaching was regarded as false) like, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, and Tertullian fought to destroy Gnosticism, Marcionism, and ebonist theology. Proto-Orthodox Bishops like Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement, Athanasius preached the early form of Christian belief system with forged texts to support their view. There are numerous books published by the “Jesus Seminar,” a team of well-respected Biblical scholars that discuss how the four canonized gospels evolved and came into existence, and which part of these gospels are fabricated. The author briefly discusses this in this book. This is a thought-provoking and well-researched work that narrates the very fluid state of early Christian belief system. This is highly readable, and I strongly recommend this to readers interested in early Christianity, biblical history, and anyone interested to know the truth about New Testament.