Gospel

Lore & Background

The canonical gospels were written between AD 70 and 100. They are anonymous, unlike the known-author biographies of Plutarch and Suetonius. Mark was the first to be written, followed by Matthew and Luke. Luke forms a two-volume work with the Acts of the Apostles. The author of John may have been aware of the synoptic gospels. The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) present very similar accounts of the life of Jesus, while John differs significantly in chronology and theology. Many non-canonical gospels were also written after the four canonical ones, including the gospels of Thomas, Peter, Judas, and Mary, as well as infancy gospels and gospel harmonies.

Reader's Guide

The gospels are the primary sources for reconstructing the public career of Jesus Christ, though biblical scholars are cautious of relying on them uncritically as historical documents. They present the Christian message of the second half of the first century AD and are meant to convince people that Jesus was a miracle-working holy man and provide examples to emulate. Current research emphasizes the gospels as the works of creative authors with their own editorial and theological agendas, yet they preserve sources that go back to Jesus and his contemporaries. The synoptic gospels are the primary sources for reconstructing Christ's ministry, while John is used less since it differs from the synoptics. The patterns of parallels and differences found in the gospels are typical of ancient biographies about actual people and history. According to manuscript evidence and citation frequency by early Church Fathers, Matthew and John were the most popular gospels in the early centuries of the Church.

Did You Know?

• The word 'gospel' is a calque of the Greek term εὐαγγέλιον (evangélion), meaning 'good news'.
• The four canonical gospels were written between AD 70 and 100 and are anonymous, unlike the works of known authors like Plutarch and Suetonius.
• Mark was the first gospel written, followed by Matthew and Luke; only Luke forms a two-volume work with Acts.
• Many non-canonical gospels were written after the four canonical ones, such as the gospels of Thomas, Peter, Judas, and Mary.

Discovery and Physical History

The Gospel of Philip survived the medieval period only by the luckiest of accidents. Buried in a sealed jar in the Egyptian desert at the close of the fourth century, it lay hidden among other early Christian and Gnostic documents until 1945, when workers near Nag Hammadi stumbled upon the cache by chance. The text we have today exists in a single Coptic manuscript, catalogued as CG II, and was bound into the very same codex that housed the more widely known Gospel of Thomas. Its title does not appear at the beginning of the document but rather in a colophon at the very end of the manuscript. For nearly sixteen centuries the work was entirely unknown to the Christian tradition, and its sudden reappearance in the mid-twentieth century sent shockwaves through biblical scholarship, offering a window into theological currents that had been suppressed or forgotten since late antiquity.

Authorship, Dating, and Scholarly Debate

Despite its name, the Gospel of Philip makes no internal claim to have been written by the Apostle Philip. The only reference to Philip within the actual text is a brief mention at passage 73,8, making him the sole apostle named in the document. The title itself surfaces only in the colophon at the manuscript's conclusion, not in any opening declaration. Most scholars place the composition in the third century, though the precise origins remain contested. Wesley W. Isenberg, who edited and translated the text, identified seventeen sayings attributed to Jesus, noting that nine of these function as citations or reinterpretations of material already present in the canonical gospels. The remaining sayings, introduced by formulas such as "he said" or "the Saviour said," are brief and deliberately enigmatic. Beyond authorship, scholars remain divided on a more fundamental question: whether the document should be read as a unified discourse or as an anthology of otherwise unrelated Valentinian sayings compiled over time.

Sacramental Theology and the Bridal Chamber

A central preoccupation of the Gospel of Philip is the theology of sacraments, particularly baptism, unction, and marriage. The text devotes considerable attention to the embrace between man and woman—or the spiritual realities these figures represent—within what it calls the "nuptial chamber," presenting this as an archetype of ultimate spiritual unity. One passage lists the full sequence of Gnostic initiation: "a baptism and a chrism and a eucharist and a redemption and a bridal chamber." Whether these refer to literal rituals practiced in early Christian communities or to ideal, heavenly realities is never made entirely clear. The gospel also inverts conventional chronology: it insists that those who claim the Lord died first and then rose are in error, because "He rose up first and then died." Similarly, resurrection must be received while alive, not awaited after death. These reversals, alongside the famous "becoming" passage—seeing the Spirit and becoming spirit, seeing Christ and becoming Christ—frame the text's vision of transformation as something already underway rather than a future promise.

Mary Magdalene and the Christ-Centered Reading

The Gospel of Philip occupies a distinctive place within the broader Gnostic corpus for its treatment of Mary Magdalene. Like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary, it defends a tradition in which Mary Magdalene holds a special relationship to Jesus and possesses unique insight into his teaching. This places the text within a lineage of early Christian writings that elevate her role well beyond what the canonical gospels typically grant her. On the other hand, scholar Marvin W. Meyer has advanced a reading that foregrounds Jesus as the text's central focus. In this view, passages such as the declaration that those who invoke the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit "are no longer a Christian but Christ," the meditation on the cross where Jesus speaks the words from Mark 15:34, and the teaching that Jesus "emptied" the water of baptism of death all point to a Christology that is both deeply sacramental and intensely personal. The gospel thus resists easy categorization, simultaneously honoring a female disciple's authority while anchoring its theology in the figure of Jesus.