¥It is
no evidence that these other gospels go back to
eyewitnesses of JesusÕ ministry just because they
claim to. Such claims (and claims to special revelation) are typical of false teachers.
¥They
also typically make claims to secret knowledge, while
the canonical texts claim that JesusÕ
works and words were essentially public.
¥The
evidence that we do have suggests most of
these came on the scene with Gnosticism, a
mixture of paganism and Greek philosophy with
Christianity.