Book Review

Lost Christianities

The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew

by Bart D. Ehrman

Oxford University Press, 294 pp.

While Mr. Gurdjieff spoke of a Christianity that existed before the birth of Jesus, a Christianity originating in pre-sand Egypt and surviving, to the degree it has, only in esoteric form, Bart Ehrman, Chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, writes of now lost versions of Christianity that appeared primarily in the first and second centuries ce. These faiths appeared in the unsettled wake of the life and death of Jesus. Ehrman explores these now abandoned forms of Christian doctrine and worship, based primarily on texts that have survived from this period and the centuries that followed. According to Ehrman, we have no Christian texts that were written concurrent with the life of Jesus. And it is very unlikely that any of the texts that have survived were written by, or with the assistance of any witness to Jesus or a direct apostle. Though the texts almost always have names, often of apostles associated with Jesus, they likely were anonymously written and had their names appended well after they were composed. This includes all gospels of the New Testament. To make matters more confused there are many forgeries, possible forgeries and intentional falsifications that have floated around. The earliest surviving physical texts of New Testament material date to the 2nd century ce therefore, we have only copies of copies of copies of copies—of what? For example: the earliest surviving copy of a letter from Paul dates to approximately 200 CE, perhaps 150 years after the original letter was written, probably copied many times. The copying was perhaps done by scribes or simply ordinary literate people. There were likely simple, unintentional mistakes made in copying texts; but additionally, according to Ehrman other texts were written or altered to put forth a particular view point and then assigned a name or perhaps written for motives about which we can only speculate. Ehrman sorts through some of these questionable texts, both ancient and more recent. That said, he writes, “In spite of remarkable differences among our manuscripts, scholars are convinced that we can reconstruct the oldest form of words of the New Testament with reasonable (though not 100 percent) accuracy.” The word of God? As he writes, “It comes as a bit of a shock…to realize that the Church has not always had the New Testament…the Christian Scriptures did not descend from heaven a few years after Jesus died. The books that eventually came to be collected into the sacred cannon were written by a variety of authors over a period of sixty or seventy years….”

Here we go

Today’s mainstream Christian doctrine, as given in the New Testament, particularly the emphasis on the Synoptic Gospels, Mathew, Mark and Luke, as well as the Gospel of John, Ehrman calls orthodox. The forerunner to this orthodoxy, during the milieu of competing doctrines from the time of Jesus through the third century when things in Christendom were particularly unsettled, he calls proto-orthodox. Ehrman is exploring the competing sects of early Christianity. Emerging in the first and second century various types of Christian doctrine appeared that interpreted the life and teaching of Jesus and his apostles. Out of these were formed churches which competed for members and influence in the growing Christian world. As Churchill said, “History is written by the victors,” and they write it in a way that that favors their narrative. There was a battle between the various sects for dominance, but this a battle of words not swords. What emerged victorious in this case was an orthodox theology developed by the proto-orthodox clergy and their supporters. One of Ehrman’s aims is to provide a more even understanding of the lost Christianities, rather than simply taking what the proto-orthodox writers, who have provided the majority of surviving texts, have put forth. As one reads the book, it seems that with the exception of Gnostics, who among themselves varied and had a very distinct theology, there are two general areas of agreement/disagreement that separated the early Christians. The first, and one that even today has some resonance was, how Jewish should Christianity be? And the second, who/what was Jesus? This is not to say there were other areas of dissonance among early Christians, such as the expression of sexuality, but these two areas seem key to Ehrman as he explores these lost faiths.

How Jewish should we be?

As might be expected from a religion that emerged from another, the question of how much of the older religion should be retained would be a significant issue. Jesus never repudiated his Jewish roots, and most, if not all, of his direct disciples and general followers were also Jewish. Ehrman gives us two examples of sects on either extreme, The Ebionites and Marcionites. To begin with Ehrman states, “No one working in the field of New Testament scholarship today, however, sees Jesus’ Jewishness as contentious…or insignificant…Jesus was Jewish…determining what kind of Jew he was is another matter…” The Ebionites were Jewish followers of Jesus. Their origin is hazy, but they “believed that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah and sent from the Jewish God to the Jewish people…” As such, they were committed to keeping the law, including the sabbath, dietary rules and circumcision. They did not believe in Jesus’s pre-existence or virgin birth, but that he was “adopted” by God as a real flesh and blood human. Their primary text was a version of Matthew (sans virgin birth), the Gospel most aligned with their basic beliefs while, of course, retaining the Old Testament. And they rejected the writings of Paul who they considered a heretic. They also had anti-sacrificial views, were likely vegetarian and believed John the Baptist as well as Jesus also forsook animal flesh.

The Marcionites who lived at the same time held opposite view and rejected all things Jewish. They were followers of the evangelist, Marcion, who lived in the second century. The proto-orthodox felt this sect was much more of a threat to their dominance than the Ebionites. The Marcionites actively sought converts among the gentiles and didn’t require adhering to Jewish religious practices, dietary restrictions and likely, most importantly, circumcision. The Jewish scriptures were rejected as well as the Jewish God. Marcion taught, as did Paul, that “…a person is made right with God by faith in Christ, not by doing the works of the Law…The gospel is the good news of deliverance…The Law, however, is the bad news…The Law is given to the Jews [by God]. The gospel is given by Christ.” The Marcionites were faced with a bit of a dilemma. They acknowledged the Jewish God’s existence but not that this God was the source of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the God of Jesus came to save people from the vengeance of the Jewish God. Therefore, the Marcionites, rejecting monotheism, believed there were two Gods. Their canon consisted of letters from Paul and a version of Luke. Anything that resonated of Judaism was deleted. All and all, they put forth a faith that provided a significant allure for the pagans.

The proto-orthodox considered both faiths to be sects of heretics. The proto-orthodox settled somewhere between the two lost faiths as to the relationship of Christianity to Judaism, accepting the Old Testament and the Jewish God but rejecting much of the law. By doing this, they created the rather perfect doctrine for converting the gentiles. There was the credibility of an ancient religion overcoming a widespread belief that, as Ehrman writes, “Nothing new could be true. If it were true, why was it not known long ago?” And the dropping of the onerous laws of the Jews made for a more comfortable transition to Christianity, this so, particularly in the case of circumcision.

Anti-Docetism

The question of What/Who was Jesus was a key to Christian theology after his death and was not a settled issue for, as Ehrman states, “In the second and third centuries there were Christians who believed Jesus was both divine and human…other Christians who argued he was completely divine…others who insisted that Jesus was a full flesh and blood human… [and] other Christians who claimed…Christ…had temporarily inhabited Jesus’ body during his ministry and left him prior to his death…” The proto-orthodox writers, such as Tertullian, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Polycarp, were virulently anti-docetists, and any hint of docetism in texts or teaching brought forth a response declaring heresy. There were two basic forms of docetism. The first was that Christ was completely divine. The second was that Jesus was a flesh and blood human but that Christ was a separate being who was divine and immortal. The proto-orthodox were on the lookout for any hint of docetism in writings and teachings, and their belief that Jesus was both divine and human was sacrosanct. The heresiologists considered even an implied deviation from this to require a response. Jesus as fully God and fully man was to become the mainstream belief as Christianity consolidated its doctrine.

Nag Hammadi “Library”

The greatest find of lost texts was discovered in 1945 in Upper Egypt. The cache of texts buried in a sealed container contained early Christian and Gnostic texts, most of which had never been seen in modern times, some were completely unknown. Ehrman writes, “There was no Jesus of the stained glass window here, nor a Jesus of the creeds—not even a Jesus of the New Testament.” The proto-orthodox had not “sanitized” or destroyed these texts. Was this even Christianity in today’s terms? Until this discovery, Gnostic texts were mentioned and written about but the actual texts were very few. What was revealed was not a singular doctrine but a much broader and diverse theology than had been previously known, with certain unifying principles. The Gnostics held a distaste and rejection of the material world, a catastrophic creation story of the material world that has imprisoned man’s spirits in an earthly body and a move to return to the world of spirit available by way of the Gnostic (those who know) teachings. According to Ehrman, many of the Gnostics, rather than having distinct faiths that were separate from the overall Christian community, were in fact embedded within the early church, accepted the church texts and practices, but interpreted them through a Gnostic lens, a lens of superior understanding. They were, or considered themselves to be, the spiritual elite.

The proto-orthodox, of course, rejected many Gnostic beliefs, among them that Christ was entirely spirit, a spirit that entered the man Jesus to convey Christ’s message of liberation from material imprisonment. A Gnostic text, the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter, that Ehrman includes involves Peter’s witness of the crucifixion.

“…What am I seeing, O lord? Is it you yourself whom they take?…Who is the one above the cross, who is glad and laughing? And is it another person whose feet and hands they are hammering?” To which Jesus replies, “…He whom you see above the cross, glad and laughing, is the living Jesus. But he into whose hands and feet they are driving nails is his physical part, which is the substitute. They are putting to shame that which is in his likeness. But look at him and me….”

So, we see the separation of the physical and the spirit bodies at the crucifixion. Interestingly, Gurdjieff notes there is no laughter in the higher centers, perhaps this is a metaphorical laughter? The passage continues giving Peter the revelation that they crucified that which is of this world and is of no importance, “…Therefore he laughs at their lack of perception. Indeed, therefore, the suffering one must remain, since the body is the substitute. But that which was released was my incorporeal body….”

Where Now?

Ehrman’s book is written in a layman’s tone, yet contains a solid quantity of scholarly material. It seems a very good generalized view to the subject he writes about, the lost faiths of the early Christian era. There is enough detail to satisfy the serious yet casual reader. But for those looking for the esoteric Christianity of pre-sand Egypt that will not be found in this book, nor this reviewer posit will the Gnostic texts, though quite interesting, reveal it either. What we do have is affirmation of Gurdjieff’s often times repeated, particularly in the First Series, examples of wiseacering and superwiseacreing. Gurdjieff’s Jesus was a messenger from above, and in this regard similar to other messengers such as Moses, Buddha, Mohamed and others sent to help mankind rid itself of the vestigial results from the implantation of the organ Kundabuffer—man’s suggestibility, egotism, a seeing of reality topsy-turvey, and so forth. To date, all have failed beyond the time the messengers were active and physically on Earth and perhaps a few generations thereafter. Of Christianity, Gurdjieff writes: “…if only the teaching of the Divine Jesus Christ were carried out in full conformity with its original then the religion unprecedently wisely founded on it, would not only be the best of all existing religions, but even of all religions which may arise and exist in the future.” We see in Ehrman’s book how quickly the teaching devolved to the point of today’s ordinary Christianity, replete with the prosperity gospel, rapture mythology and golf courses in heaven. As Gurdjieff writes of Buddha’s teaching, after a few generations, all that remains is “Only-information-about-its-specific-smell.” Interestingly, Gurdjieff does write that Jesus Christ’s teaching survived intact among a “smallish group of terrestrial beings…designated ‘the Brotherhood of the Essenes.’” Perhaps this is a clue to the teaching Jesus Christ brought. In the Second Series Gurdjieff notes he visits this brotherhood near the shores of the Dead Sea, which as we know now is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The scrolls found in caves near the Dead Sea are thought by many to be those of a sect of Essenes that existed before and after the time of Jesus.

—Richard Myers— http://www.growingchoongary.com

        

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Notes

1. In Spite of remarkable differences. Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 221.
2. It comes as a bit of a shock. Ehrman, 229.
3. No one working in the field. Ehrman, 95.
4. Believed that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. Ehrman, 100.
5. A person is made right. Ehrman, 104.
6. Nothing new. Ehrman, 112.
7. In the second and third centuries. Ehrman, 2.
8. There was no Jesus.Ehrman, 113.
9. What am I seeing, O Lord? Ehrman, 186.
10. Therefore he laughs. Ehrman, 187
11. If only the teaching of the Divine. G.I. Gurdjieff, All and Everything, First Series, 1009.
12. Only-information-about-its-specific-smell. Gurdjieff, 240.
13. Smallish group of terrestrial beings.Gurdjieff, 703-704.

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