(BBC) "The Lost Gospels," presented by Anglican priest Pete Owen Jones, explores the enormous number of ancient Christian texts that did NOT make it into the Bible.
Through these lost gospels, Jones reconstructs the intense intellectual and political struggles for orthodoxy that were fought in the early centuries of Christianity -- a battle involving different Christian sects, each convinced that its gospels were true and sacred ones.
Shocking and challenging, these were works that presented a "Jesus" who did not die on a cross but who took revenge on his enemies and who kissed Mary Magdalene on the mouth. This Jesus is unrecognizable from the one found in the official books of the New Testament, which was not even assembled and agreed on until the Third Council.
Jesus and his friend Judas, who may not have betrayed him
Jones travels through Egypt and the former Roman Empire looking at the emerging evidence of a Christian world that is very different from the one known. He discovers that in addition to the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, there were over 70 gospels, acts, letters, and apocalypses circulating in the early Church.
The worldwide success of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has sparked new interest about the origins of the Christian faith. Jones sets out the context in which heretical texts like the Gospel of Mary emerged. He also strikes a cautionary note: If these lost gospels had been allowed to flourish, Christianity may well have faced an uncertain future, or perhaps not survived at all.
The documentary, although a great feat of scholarship, falls short. It does not explore some other important manuscripts such as the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Barnabas. It also fails to explore the many pieces of evidence in the gospels of the other possibility about Christ's nature -- that he was entirely human with a capacity for divinity we all have.
