Four writings that still shape popular imagination, none of which replace the four Gospels
There are several genres of apocryphal writings, just like the canonical books: epistles, such as the Epistle to the Laodiceans; acts of the apostles, such as the Acts of John and the Acts of Peter; apocalypses, such as the Apocalypse of Peter; and, of course, gospels. Among the best-known of these apocryphal gospels are four names that still circulate widely: Mary,Philip, Thomas, and the Protevangelium of James.
The Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Philip
The Gospel of Mary [Magdalene] and the Gospel of Philip were made famous by The Da Vinci Code. The novel treats them as texts older than the four canonical gospels and therefore more historically reliable. In fact, calling them “gospels” can mislead readers: although that is their traditional title, they do not follow the narrative form established by Mark and do not recount events from the life of Jesus.
The Gospel of Mary is a Gnostic text from the second half of the second century, preserved only in fragments. Jesus speaks with his disciples shortly before his ascension. Feeling lost, they ask Mary Magdalene, presented as close to Jesus, to share teachings personally revealed to her. Mary recounts a vision of her soul traveling through the heavens, though much of the account is missing. Andrew and Peter doubt her revelations; Levi defends her, and they go out to preach.
The Gospel of Philip is likewise not a narrative gospel but a collection of aphorisms and Gnostic doctrinal statements. Some scholars have viewed it as an anthology of the thought of Valentinus, an influential Gnostic teacher of the second century. It cannot predate the canonical gospels because it comments on sayings of Jesus quoted in them.
“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.” (John 6:54)
“Neither flesh nor blood shall inherit the kingdom of God? What will not inherit? That which is upon us! And what will inherit? That which belongs to Jesus and his blood! […] His flesh is the Word and his blood is the Holy Spirit. Whoever has received them has food, drink and clothing.” (Gospel of Philip, §23)
The Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas may be less familiar to the general public, but it has gained notoriety in biblical exegesis; some scholars even call it the “fifth gospel.” Discovered at Nag Hammadi, it is a collection of 114 disparate sayings of Jesus. Many are clearly Gnostic creations and are difficult to understand without narrative context.
“Here are the hidden words spoken by the living Jesus and written by the twin, Jude Thomas. Logion 1.He said: He who finds the interpretation of these words will not taste death.”
Biblical scholars are especially interested in sayings that parallel the canonical gospels or resemble sayings that might have been included in them:
Logion 90. Jesus said: “Come to me, for my yoke is good and my dominion is gentle, and you will find rest for yourselves.” (Parallel in Matthew 11:28–30)
Logion 102. Jesus said: “Woe to them, the Pharisees, for they are like a dog lying in the manger of the oxen, neither eating nor making the oxen eat.” (No parallel in the New Testament)
These sayings add no theological insight beyond what is already found in the canonical gospels. Some scholars see in them an independent tradition of Jesus’ sayings, but it seems more likely that the author knew the canonical gospels, selected sayings from them, and added a Gnostic layer. The work probably dates from the second half of the second century or the beginning of the third.
The Protoevangelium of James
The Protoevangelium of James, a mid-second-century text, has left an indelible mark on popular devotion, Christian art, and even theology, especially within Catholicism. It seeks to fill gaps in the infancy narratives of Matthew and Luke and to answer Jewish and pagan accusations against the mother of Jesus.
This gospel gives Mary’s parents the names Joachim and Anne, later canonized in the sixteenth century. They are wealthy but childless because Anne is sterile. Mary is miraculously conceived, an idea that later contributed to the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. She is consecrated to the Lord and lives in the Temple from the age of three.
When Mary reaches puberty, the priests entrust her to Joseph, portrayed as an elderly widower with children—a detail used to explain the brothers of Jesus mentioned in the canonical gospels. The story then combines elements from Matthew and Luke with its own additions: Jesus is born in a cave before the family reaches Bethlehem, and a woman named Salome verifies Mary’s virginity after the miraculous birth.
What these writings are — and are not
These four writings are famous for different reasons: two because a novel treated them as older and truer than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; one because some scholars have called it a “fifth gospel”; one because it named Mary’s parents and filled the silence of the infancy narratives. None of them is a hidden narrative of Jesus’ life that the Church later suppressed. They are later texts, of other genres, and they are read more clearly when we stop asking them to be what the four Gospels already are.
This article is part of the series “From the book,” adapted from Questions and Misconceptions about the Bible (WestBow Press, 2026).