The Missing Gospels

“Darrell Bock has written a timely and valuable study for anyone curious about the question of lost or missing gospels. Cutting his way through a great deal of hype and misinformation, he provides a solid, scholarly grounding to the early history and development of the gospel traditions. In the process, he makes nonsense of theories that Gnostic texts in any sense represented the suppressed core of Christian truth, concealed by a sinister institutional church. A breath of sanity!”

Philip Jenkins

“This is not another lame Christian paperback whose chief purpose will be to steady a wobbly table. No! This is first-rate scholarship translated into clear, readable prose. It is classic Bock.”

Jay Smith

“A necessary book that corrects many still fashionable but even more questionable hypotheses about the origin of the Gospels, the Nag Hammadi texts, and the development of Christian theology in the first two centuries AD.”

Prof. Martin Hengel

“Every generation has its hawkers of wondrous new discoveries that amazingly everyone else has missed, but which, thanks to a few enlightened individuals, will dramatically rewrite history. But the vast majority of these headline-grabbing fancies evaporate under more sober scrutiny. Darrell Bock’s careful book shows why recent sensationalist claims based on the Gnostic gospels are no different.”

Rikk E. Watts

“an equally informed and readable discussion of the variety of beliefs and writings of early Christianity. Those who don’t want their prejudices disturbed will want to avoid this book. Those with an open mind and readiness to learn from scholarship . . . read with profit.”

Larry Hurtado

“Jesus and the origins of Christianity are the subjects of extensive media coverage and everyday conversations—a New Testament scholar’s dream! Yet Jesus is demoted from God to guide, and the early church is said to have been hopelessly divided, even confused, as to whom Jesus was. In his superb book, Darrell Bock patiently, and accessibly, sifts through all the relevant issues and offers much-needed guidance to those who want to discern fact from fiction. If you read only one book on this issue, this is it!”

Andreas J. Köstenberger

“Darrell Bock’s new book provides a much needed critical review of the non-New Testament gospels that have gained a great deal of attention in recent years. Although most of these writings and the dubious theories that go with them have received trenchant criticism in scholarly literature, no work has yet appeared that makes sense of all of this for the laity and beginning students of Bible and Christian origins. The Missing Gospels is just the book that has been needed. Here at last, non-experts have a reliable guide!”

Craig A. Evans

“The challenge today to traditional orthodox belief as the center of the Christian message is not from the voices who contend that the Gospels are not reliable or that the Apostle Paul invented Christianity, but that the orthodox faith was but one voice in a virtual cacophony of voices—voices that differed on who Jesus was, what salvation was, and who God was. Bock’s book patiently examines the resurgence of such voices, demonstrates that the evidence cannot support the modern resurgence, and offers in their place a supporting voice for the historical reliability of the orthodox faith as the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.”

Scot McKnight

“The human intellect demands accuracy while the soul craves meaning. History ministers to both with stories.”

Joyce Appleby