The Apocryphal Gospels

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you've heard of the mysterious and often controversial Apocryphal Gospels, you may have been told that they weren't important, or useful; that they 'didn't make the cut' to be included in the Canonical Bible. Not at all, these early Christian texts were hugely significant and influential as well as completely fascinating.

Tristan Hughes is joined by Catherine Nixey to hear stories including the Infancy Gospel of James, where a midwife's hand is burnt off after doubting Mary's virginity, and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, portraying a young Jesus with startling powers and a fiery temper. Together they discuss how these writings reveal the radical thoughts of some early Christians - from alternative crucifixion narratives to magical texts showing Jesus using a wand - and shed light on the vibrant diversity and theological debates of early Christianity.

The Wise Men

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https://open.spotify.com/episode/6qFWoLLNQFgL0FmBhUoKe2

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor and producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

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Transcript

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1:05.7	Hey guys, welcome to the ancients. Today's episode is all about the apocryphal gospel. So those gospels,
1:13.2	those accounts of Jesus's life and more that didn't make it into the Bible. I had no idea just how rich and diverse the world of early Christianity was, but this episode really shines a massive spotlight on it,
1:18.8	and I hope you guys find it as interesting as I did recording it. Our guest is the journalist and author
1:24.4	Catherine Nixie. Catherine has recently written a new book called
1:27.8	Heretic, Jesus Christ and life and miracles of Jesus.
1:59.0	But in the early centuries of Christianity, almost 2,000 years ago, there were many more Gospels,
2:06.6	many more stories about the Son of God, some more violent and extreme than others.
2:13.6	Today, these writings have been labelled apocrypha.
2:18.3	They ultimately were not integrated into the accepted canon of Scripture.
2:23.3	And yet, for centuries, many of them remained incredibly popular.
2:29.3	They revealed how different groups of early Christians learned different stories about Christ.
2:36.4	Today we're going to explore some of these texts and the extraordinary stories they told
2:41.0	about Jesus' life that aren't mainstream today.
	...

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