Dethroning Jesus: What Popular Culture Says About Jesus – Part 6

[This material is excerpted from our television series, “The Battle to Dethrone Jesus,” with Dr. Darrell Bock and Dr. Daniel Wallace. The entire series is available in our online store.]

Do the Gnostic Gospels Give a More Accurate Account of Christianity?

Debunking the "Jesusanity" Myth

Dr. Darrell Bock: Some people argue that Mark reflects the theology of Paul and pit the disciples against one another, creating a divide between a "Jewish" Christianity (Peter and James) and a "Gentile" Christianity (Paul and Mark). However, this contradicts tradition, which associates Mark closely with Peter. There are clear inconsistencies in the way "Jesusanity" portrays these relationships.^[1]

Dr. John Ankerberg: Paul clarifies this in 1 Corinthians 15:11, stating: “Whether it was we or they, we were all on the same page talking about the same things.”

Dr. Darrell Bock: This portrait of a fractured Christianity is exaggerated by those who wish to dismantle the Bible as an historical document. If you can break the Bible’s historical reliability, you have room to posit alternative histories. But if those figures are connected, the theory fails. Historically, Peter and Paul are almost universally depicted together in Christian art, mosaics, and statues—reflecting a relationship believed by the church from its earliest days.

What Are the Gnostic Gospels?

Dr. John Ankerberg: After the apostolic period and the canonization of authoritative texts, when did the Gnostic Gospels—the so-called "lost" Christianities—actually emerge?

Dr. Darrell Bock: They began to emerge in the late first and early second centuries. Gnosticism is marked by a dualistic worldview: matter is evil, and the spirit world is good. Because a pure God cannot be associated with evil, Gnostics argued that the creator of the material world was not the true God, but a lesser being who "botched the job." This stands in direct contrast to the Genesis account where God declares His creation "good."

Dr. Daniel Wallace: Make sure to put "Christian" in quotes when referring to these texts. They use Christian symbols, but they reframe them through Neo-Platonic or middle-Platonic philosophies to make the faith more culturally palatable to the Hellenistic world.

Historical Vulnerability vs. Gnostic Mystery

Dr. Darrell Bock: The Gnostic material as a coherent system appears in the second century, which is long after the original apostolic writings. They attempt to "trump" Christianity by claiming Jesus revealed secret mysteries after His resurrection. However, we do not have a single document from the first century that reflects these views.

Dr. Daniel Wallace: A crucial difference is that the New Testament Gospels are narrative and historically grounded—they subject themselves to historical investigation and are therefore vulnerable to history. Gnosticism, by contrast, is non-narrative and relies on private "mysteries" that cannot be verified.

Dr. Darrell Bock: The "Gnostic" movement is basically invisible in the first century. It has to be projected back into that era as an anachronism to make the argument for "alternative Christianities" work. The only views we have in the first century come from traditional, orthodox sources.

Next up: Part 7 – What evidence do we have from the Bible that Jesus was more than just a man?

Endnotes

1. Dr. Bock differentiates Christianity—where the person of Jesus is at the center of the story, it’s His work as well as His message that’s important—from Jesusanity, which refers to Jesus of Nazareth, and there it is His teaching that is important, but His person is not.↑