The "Lost" Gospels Are Back. What Do They Really Say About Jesus?

September 11, 2026

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Bart Ehrman posed it as a hypothetical question: What if the canon had ended up containing the Gospels of Peter, Thomas, and Mary instead of Matthew, Mark, and Luke? I put that question to Dr. Greg Lanier, who has just written a GREAT BOOK on the Apocryphal Gospels. His answer is that the scenario has no historical basis, and that if you actually had only those three, you'd have no coherent story of Jesus at all. Dr. Lanier's argument throughout is that the Apocryphal writings are downstream of the canonical Gospels, not competitors with them.

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Timestamps 0:00 — Do these writings threaten the historical Jesus? 0:51 — Responding to Ehrman's what-if 3:36 — Why write a book on fake gospels? 6:42 — What "apocryphal" actually means 11:08 — Sayings, fragments, and full compositions 16:57 — Peter, Mary, Thomas, and Judas 22:28 — How much history is in them? 27:04 — Why scholars now say they're downstream 31:11 — From the Jesus Seminar to the Da Vinci Code 33:33 — The Jesus Wife fragment 41:56 — Bad apologetics on both sides 44:05 — The Infancy Gospel of Thomas 52:15 — The Protoevangelium of James 57:16 — Your nativity scene isn't in Matthew or Luke 1:00:07 — How the apocryphal gospels argue for the four 1:07:19 — What the church fathers actually said 1:12:04 — Why he does this work

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Meet Your Host

Sean McDowell is a professor of Apologetics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. He has earned two Master's degrees in philosophy and theology and his Ph.D. in Apologetics and Worldview Studies. He is the author, editor, or co-author of more than 20 books, including "More Than A Carpenter," "Chasing Love," "End the Stalemate," and "The Fate of the Apostles." Sean has one of the top apologetics YouTube channels with over 340k subscribers. He is an internationally renowned speaker and he is on the teaching team at his home church in southern California.