Why the Gnostic Gospels Were Excluded: A Catholic Response Rooted in Reason and Faith

One of the most persistent challenges to the reliability of the Christian canon—especially from those skeptical of the Catholic Church—centers on the so-called Gnostic Gospels: texts like the Gospel of Judas or the Gospel of Thomas.

The Objection: Institutional Control Over Scripture

The objection often goes like this: "The Catholic Church cherry-picked which gospels to include in the Bible. They suppressed others—like Judas or Thomas—because those stories didn't fit the narrative they wanted to push."

To skeptics, the selection of the four canonical Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—seems more like a power play than a spiritual discernment. They claim the Church excluded other gospels because those texts threatened the theological narrative, especially concerning Judas's betrayal or Jesus' divinity. This raises a further concern: If the Church had an agenda, can we trust anything in the New Testament at all?

A Response Rooted in Apostolic Reasoning

This objection is compelling only if we ignore the historical, theological, and communal criteria used in discerning the canon. The Church did not merely choose the Gospels—it recognized the ones that were already authoritative and beloved across the early Christian world. The following four criteria guided this recognition:

• Apostolic Authority: Was it written by an apostle or a close associate of one?
• Orthodox Theology: Did it align with the faith handed down from the apostles?
• Widespread Use: Was it accepted and read in churches across the Christian world?
• Liturgical Role: Was it used in worship and proclamation?

Under these criteria, the Gnostic gospels simply do not hold up. Take the Gospel of Judas—dated by most scholars to the mid-2nd century at the earliest and containing Gnostic cosmology foreign to Jewish and Christian tradition. Contrast this with the canonical Gospels, which were written in the first century, closely tied to eyewitnesses, and harmonize with the Old Testament and one another.

Scriptural Integrity and Apostolic Witness

The Church never claimed to invent truth. It merely bore witness to what the apostles passed down:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

— Acts 2:42 (NIV)

The Gospel was never a literary project—it was a lived testimony. The texts emerged from communities that had encountered the Risen Christ and were willing to die for that testimony. The Gnostic writings, by contrast, arose from fringe sects with teachings often disconnected from the historical Jesus. As St. Irenaeus wrote in Against Heresies (~180 AD), the Gospel of Judas was not hidden truth but falsehood dressed in pious garb.

Manuscript Evidence Matters

Critics are quick to point out that we don’t possess the original autographs of any biblical texts. That is true. But the sheer volume and consistency of the New Testament manuscripts is unparalleled in antiquity. We have over 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and over 25,000 in other languages. By contrast, we possess one known manuscript of the Gospel of Judas—written in Coptic, centuries after Jesus lived.

Even Bart Ehrman, a prominent agnostic scholar, affirms that the canonical Gospels were composed far earlier and have significantly greater textual support. Reason alone leads us to trust the documents closest to the events.

Was It All Just About Power?

Some argue that the Church excluded certain gospels to maintain control, comparing it to the way authoritarian regimes curate narratives. But this claim collapses under historical scrutiny. The early Church had no central power to impose doctrine. For the first three centuries, Christians were persecuted. The canon emerged not in the corridors of political power, but in underground churches and martyrdom.

When the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John rose to prominence, Christianity had no political power. The Roman Empire was still crucifying believers. If this were about manipulation, why die for it?

The Heart of the Objection: Moral Distrust

Ultimately, the objection is less about manuscript dating and more about mistrust—mistrust in the Church, in institutions, and in the very idea of objective spiritual truth.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!

— Galatians 1:8 (NIV)

The early Church guarded the deposit of faith, not because it feared the truth, but because it had encountered it. Christ did not entrust His message to random voices, but to witnesses willing to die for what they saw:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes… this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

— 1 John 1:1 (NIV)

From Distrust to Faith

To those who say, “This screams cult,” I would ask: what then do you call the willingness of simple fishermen to endure torture, exile, and execution—unless they had seen something that changed everything? That is not control. That is conviction.

The Christian faith is not a “religion of the book.” Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, “not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living.” If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures.”

— Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 108

Conclusion: Faith Seeking Understanding

We don’t believe in the Gospels because they were sanctioned by a powerful institution. We believe because they bear the weight of history, the integrity of apostolic witness, and the echo of the Word made flesh.

To follow Christ is not to reject questioning—but to trust that, in our questions, God has already spoken. And He has not spoken through contradiction and obscurity, but through the clear and self-sacrificing testimony of those who walked with Him, loved Him, and laid down their lives to proclaim Him.

In the end, what matters is not how many gospels existed—but whether the one you follow leads you to Truth Himself.