Early Christianity wasn’t a unified faith. It included diverse groups—Gnostics, Ebionites, Marcionites—each with unique interpretations of Jesus’ life and message. Many of these voices were later marginalized or declared heretical as the Church consolidated its doctrines.

The Forgotten Voices of Early Christianity

Many writings, like the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Peter, were excluded from the New Testament. These texts offer alternative perspectives on Jesus’ teachings, revealing a richer and more complex spiritual landscape than the one preserved in the Bible.

The Lost Scriptures

Orthodoxy wasn’t just about faith; it was shaped by political and social power. The winners of theological debates decided which beliefs were preserved and which were labeled as heretical, forever altering the course of Christian history.

Power and Orthodoxy

Bart D. Ehrman shows how history is written by the victors. To understand Christianity’s origins, we must go beyond the official canon and explore the suppressed stories and forgotten paths of early believers.

Questioning History

What does it mean for faith to evolve through power struggles and suppression? How does this shape our understanding of truth and tradition today?

Reflection

Brief overview of Bart D. Ehrman’s Lost Christianities, a journey through forgotten texts, suppressed beliefs, and the power struggles that shaped early Christianity.

The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human. In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fascinating look at these early forms of Christianity and shows how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. All of these groups insisted that they upheld the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and they all possessed writings that bore out their claims, books reputedly produced by Jesus's own followers. Modern archaeological work has recovered a number of key texts, and as Ehrman shows, these spectacular discoveries reveal religious diversity that says much about the ways in which history gets written by the winners. Ehrman's discussion ranges from considerations of various "lost scriptures"--including forged gospels supposedly written by Simon Peter, Jesus's closest disciple, and Judas Thomas, Jesus's alleged twin brother--to the disparate beliefs of such groups as the Jewish-Christian Ebionites, the anti-Jewish Marcionites, and various "Gnostic" sects. Ehrman examines in depth the battles that raged between "proto-orthodox Christians"--those who eventually compiled the canonical books of the New Testament and standardized Christian belief--and the groups they denounced as heretics and ultimately overcame. Scrupulously researched and lucidly written, Lost Christianities is an eye-opening account of politics, power, and the clash of ideas among Christians in the decades before one group came to see its views prevail.

The Twin Tree Project 's Key Ideas from Lost Christianities
by Bart D. Ehrman

The Forgotten Voices of Early Christianity

The Lost Scriptures

Power and Orthodoxy

Questioning History

Reflection

Discover Key Ideas from Books on Similar Topics

The Twin Tree Project 's Key Ideas from Lost Christianitiesby Bart D. Ehrman

The Forgotten Voices of Early Christianity

The Lost Scriptures

Power and Orthodoxy

Questioning History

Reflection

Discover Key Ideas from Books on Similar Topics

The Twin Tree Project 's Key Ideas from Lost Christianities
by Bart D. Ehrman