My understanding: These and other writings found in recent times are thought to date from first (4 or 5) centuries A.D. and that they were used back then by early Christians in some areas in the ways that other writings were used - within liturgical settings and/or for evangelizing and teaching. At various points as Christian doctrine became more settled on basic topics - the Trinity, the nature of Christ, etc. - the value and acceptability of various texts was also largely settled following the pattern of the council meeting of Peter and Paul and others in Jerusalem (where the circumcision question was settled). Through these years the Old Testament scriptures were in little dispute but the newer gospels and readings were not dispersed or used in any consistent way. Gnosticism and other heretical teaching was commonplace in different forms in different languages and localities, with some Christian teaching in one place contradicting Christian teaching found in other places. After the ban on Christianity was generally lifted (313AD) the early local churches were more freely able to work out what practices and teachings withstood pan-Christian scrutiny in good measure ('canon'). The same processes that identified things like 'Arianism' as improper also identified many early texts as improper. It could be argued that the decision-making was somehow flawed and that the books that were included and those excluded were wrongly chosen, but there was a deliberative process that took many years which was accepted by most all churches at the time, Catholics and Orthodox, and until the 1800s by most protestants.
[–] 14809192? 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
an interesting thing to read, like any of the early church writings. but don't lose sight of the fact that it is non-canonical, for a reason.
[–] 14816800? [S] ago
What reason? These were found in 1945.
[–] 14817728? 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
My understanding: These and other writings found in recent times are thought to date from first (4 or 5) centuries A.D. and that they were used back then by early Christians in some areas in the ways that other writings were used - within liturgical settings and/or for evangelizing and teaching. At various points as Christian doctrine became more settled on basic topics - the Trinity, the nature of Christ, etc. - the value and acceptability of various texts was also largely settled following the pattern of the council meeting of Peter and Paul and others in Jerusalem (where the circumcision question was settled). Through these years the Old Testament scriptures were in little dispute but the newer gospels and readings were not dispersed or used in any consistent way. Gnosticism and other heretical teaching was commonplace in different forms in different languages and localities, with some Christian teaching in one place contradicting Christian teaching found in other places. After the ban on Christianity was generally lifted (313AD) the early local churches were more freely able to work out what practices and teachings withstood pan-Christian scrutiny in good measure ('canon'). The same processes that identified things like 'Arianism' as improper also identified many early texts as improper. It could be argued that the decision-making was somehow flawed and that the books that were included and those excluded were wrongly chosen, but there was a deliberative process that took many years which was accepted by most all churches at the time, Catholics and Orthodox, and until the 1800s by most protestants.