Fundamental challenge

[Ohioprof]

Which gnostic gospels date back to 70AD? Educate me.

And Q Gospel? Never heard of that one... *goes to look it up*

But nonetheless, the apostles were already warning of false doctrines and teachings springing up in the churches before 70AD anyway.

I posted about this earlier. Several scholars believe that some of the material in the Gospel of Thomas may pre-date the earliest of the canonical gospels, but we don't know for sure.

You will find Bible scholars' discussion of the gospel they call Q very interesting, though no one knows for sure if a Q gospel really exists. Bible scholars discuss this all the time.

 

[onemessiah]

Some of the Gnostic materials may date back to 70CE also. I don't believe any of the Gospels, canonical or otherwise, can necessarily be "trusted" as accurate. They each present a different picture of Jesus. And then of course there is the Q Gospel, which many scholars believe existed as a source for the other synoptic Gospels, but which has never been found. The existence of the Q Gospel is a theory, and not all Bible scholars believe there was a Q Gospel.

Most christians challenge the idea of "Q" (and to some extent, I don't blame them) because it basically implies, well states, that Mark, Matthew and Luke are merely copies of earlier writings. Which makes a whole lot of sense if you think about it. Look at all the old pagan myths where the pagan godmen sacrificed themselves for the sins of man (no, Jesus wasn't the only one to do that), performed many of the miracles found in the bible (turning water into wine, etc.) and many of the sayings are nearly identical (the Golden Rule, etc). The funny thing is, these pagan myths were in existence hundreds of years before christianity adopted those stories as their own and gave the godman a new name-Jesus. Which is also why christianity adopted 12/25 as xmas....
But anyway, most scholars refer to the Quelle (or "Q' for short since some here aren't fimiliar with it) as a source of information of early christianity; however, I think it is just as likely that the Q is merely a deviation of the pagan myths that the xians adopted.