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The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins Kindle Edition
In this rigorously researched and thoughtful study, a leading Jesus Seminar scholar reveals the dramatic story behind the modern discovery of the earliest gospels, accounts that do not portray Jesus exclusively as a martyr but recover a lost ancient Christian tradition centered on Jesus as a teacher of wisdom.
The church has long advocated the Pauline view of Jesus as deity and martyr, emphasizing his death and resurrection. But another tradition also thrived from Christianity’s beginnings, one that portrayed Jesus as a teacher of wisdom. In The Lost Way, Stephen Patterson, a leading New Testament scholar and former head of the Jesus Seminar, explores this lost ancient tradition and its significance to the faith.
Patterson explains how scholars have uncovered a Gospel that preceded at least three of those in the Bible, which is called Q. He painstakingly demonstrates how historical evidence points to the existence of this common source in addition to Mark—recognized as the earliest Gospel—that both Matthew and Luke used to write their accounts. Q contained a collection of Jesus’s teachings without any narrative content and without accounts of the passion, though being the earliest version shared among his first followers—scripture that embodies a very different orientation to the Christian faith.
Patterson also explores other examples of this wisdom tradition, from the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas; to the emergence of Apollos, a likely teacher of Christian wisdom; to the main authority of the church in Jerusalem, Jesus’s brother James. The Lost Way offers a profound new portrait of Jesus—one who can show us a new way to live.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateOctober 28, 2014
- File size1.7 MB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Since Jesus did not write, how did his teaching come down to us? Stephen Patterson’s fascinating and wonderfully readable new book reveals how Jesus’ followers told, wrote, rewrote, and handed down his teachings.” — Elaine Pagels, author of Revelations
“This accessible but scholarly introduction to the earliest Jesus traditions shares academic discoveries that do not usually reach the pews. It is a salutary reminder of how little we know about early Christianity and will introduce readers to the enriching complexity of any major tradition.” — Karen Armstrong, author of Fields of Blood
“In this book Stephen Patterson, a leading scholar in the Jesus Seminar, explores the terrain of primitive Christianity. He explodes popular myths and proposes startling new possibilities. One does not have to agree with all of his conclusions to find this book both fascinating and mind expanding!” — John Shelby Spong, author, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic
“Stephen Patterson’s The Lost Way is at once a crisp and readable introduction to two ‘lost’ gospels, the Sayings Gospel Q, and the Gospel of Thomas, and an exposé of the unnoticed ways that alternate views about Jesus are present in the books of the New Testament.” — John Kloppenborg, University of Toronto, author of Q, the Earliest Gospel
“Reorients our basic understanding of the origins of Christianity and reclaims the missing strain of ancient Christian wisdom as part of the story of Christian origins. An illuminating, informative, and refreshingly accessible read - a book for anyone interested in the earliest layers of Christian tradition.” — Pamela Eisenbaum, authof of Paul Was Not a Christian
“A leading scholar of the Jesus Seminar . . . Patterson argues that [the earliest] sources reveal a different, fuller version of the historical Jesus and the way of ‘Wisdom.’ . . . clearly presented . . . a fascinating account.” — Library Journal
From the Back Cover
So begins Bible scholar Stephen Patterson's fascinating and rigorously researched study, revealing the dramatic story behind the modern discovery of the earliest gospels—accounts that do not portray Jesus just as a martyr, but instead recover a lost ancient Christian tradition centered on Jesus as a teacher of wisdom. The church has long advocated the Pauline view of Jesus as deity and martyr, emphasizing his death and resurrection. But another, earlier, "lost" tradition portrayed Jesus as a teacher of wisdom. As Patterson explains, scholars have now uncovered this community's gospel—the lost Gospel known as "Q."
Patterson also tells the riveting story of the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas, another "wisdom gospel" from the earliest communities that looked to Jesus as their teacher, and of the Egyptian Christian community from which Apollos, a New Testament teacher of Christian wisdom, emerged. Q and Thomas together illuminate a lost chapter in the story of Christian origins, one in which Jesus and other prophets of wisdom advocated something they called "the Way," in which everyone, regardless of race, class, or gender, can become a "child of God."
About the Author
Stephen J. Patterson, Ph.D., is George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University, author of Beyond the Passion: Rethinking the Death and Life of Jesus, and coauthor of The Fifth Gospel: The Gospel of Thomas Comes of Age.
Product details
- ASIN : B00I2PH576
- Publisher : HarperOne (October 28, 2014)
- Publication date : October 28, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 1.7 MB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 306 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,023,099 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
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Customers find the book provides a good explanation of Christianity's wisdom tradition. They say it will broaden their understanding of the origins of Christianity and provide a valuable learning experience. The book is described as well-written and accessible with a good translation.
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Customers appreciate the book's insights into Christianity's wisdom tradition. They find it a valuable learning experience that broadens their understanding of the origins of Christianity. The book explores the Gospel of Q and Thomas, providing depth of research on the history of the origins. Overall, readers describe it as fascinating and thought-provoking, describing it as the culmination of years of study.
"This really is a good little book. It aims to penetrate the veils of history discovering the beliefs and practices of the earliest Jesus communities..." Read more
"...meets the eye, I can vouch that The Lost Way will prove to be a valuable learning and growth experience." Read more
"This book is not for the Sunday school crowd. It explores the Gospel of Q and Thomas...." Read more
"This is an excellent book on the very beginnings of early Christianity...." Read more
Customers find the book readable and accessible. They appreciate the good translation and the discussion that precedes it.
"...A good translation is provided. Again, a discussion precedes the translation...." Read more
"Extremely well-written and readable. My first act upon completing the book was to immediately read it again. I simply could not put it down...." Read more
"...It is an accessible book. The author clearly put a lot of thought into this work." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2016This really is a good little book. It aims to penetrate the veils of history discovering the beliefs and practices of the earliest Jesus communities from their stories and writings long before they were even called "Christian". Presumably they would reflect the thoughts, feelings, positions and teachings of Jesus himself. We cannot be certain from canonical scripture what those original teachings were. Much of what we read in our Gospels is derived from Paul's theology (see for example, Tabor, JD: Jesus & Paul: How the Apostle transformed Christianity). Paul's letters are the first witness for present day Christian beliefs and antedated the Gospels by several decades. He even coined the term "gospel" and said the gospel he preached was his own (Romans 2:16, 16:25; 1 Corinthians 15:1-7; 2 Timothy 2:8) even though he never knew the living Jesus.
Paul's mission was to the Roman controlled areas west of Palestine. He wrote, and likely preached, in Greek an accepted transnational language of the time much as English is today. It is therefore not unreasonable to presume that peoples in the Roman world would accept his theology over that of the native peoples of Galilee and Jerusalem who spoke Aramaic or Hebrew, both Semitic languages. So, how are we to think about our present-day ecclesiastical understanding of Jesus? Is it primarily from the early Jesus movement community? Or is it primarily from St Paul? Patterson tries to pierce the veil and l think largely succeeds.
He opens by telling us how and why we have the four Gospels that we do. Briefly, an ancient Roman church heresy hunter (Ireanaeus of Lyon, c. 180 CE) named them in a famous book condemning other Christian belief systems different from Roman church orthodoxy. Though not essential to Patterson's main purpose, I would have enjoyed a brief extension of that history to include the early councils that codified Roman orthodoxy. They condemned other belief systems as heretical. Nestorian Christians, found to be heretical in 431 CE for example, were forced to leave their homelands some ultimately winding their way along the Silk Road to China. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria who attended the 1st Consul of Nicaea (325 CE), stipulated the 27 authorized books of the New Testament in his annual Easter letter (367 CE), deeming all others heretical. Perhaps Athenasius' dictum is the reason ancient Christian manuscripts, newly found at Nag Hammadi, came to be carefully wrapped, placed in jars, and hidden in the Egyptian desert.
Patterson then goes on to explain how Enlightenment scholars discovered the true chronological order of our Gospels that St Agustin incorrectly decided some 1,400 years earlier - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We know today that Mark was actually first.
He explained clearly how nineteenth century scholars recovered a lost gospel from the Greek pages of our Synoptic Gospels by what was essentially a reverse engineering process – a Gospel we now call “Q”. The project, started many years ago, was only recently finished. Patterson summarizes the process and a translation of Q is provide.
Clues about The Gospel of Thomas, discussed similarly, were found in papyrus scraps principally from ancient Egyptian trash heaps. Fortunately a complete copy, carefully buried with other manuscripts in ancient Egyptian sands, was later discovered near Nag Hammadi in the mid1940’s. Complete translations of Thomas and the others are now available. A good translation is provided.
Again, a discussion precedes the translation. Unlike Q that was used by Galilean members of the Jesus movement, Thomas was likely used by members living just beyond the reach of Roman rule (i.e. Edessa, now Sanlıurfa in Turkey). So the focus, while similar, is slightly different but the spiritual message is essentially the same.
That wisdom message can be found in the Synoptic Gospels with careful reading and is even hidden in Paul’s authentic letters. It is lost however in the post crucifixion concerns of Jews living during and just before the Jewish revolt when life could be nasty and brutish. So we see a Savior emerge who would eventually return to the world and set things right. That apocalyptic tradition, so evident in our Gospels, overshadows the earlier wisdom tradition found in Thomas and Q.
The last three chapters are largely interpretive. The first integrates the sayings found in Thomas and Q to summarize wisdom teachings common to both. The second paints a picture of early Jesus movement teachers during their own time focusing on John the Baptizer, Jesus himself, and Apollos who Saint Paul viewed as an adversary (1 Cor1:10 -3:23). Apollos, according to Paul, taught a wisdom message that Paul saw as contradicting his own gospel. He even found it necessary to re-baptize people according to his gospel because Apollos’ baptism was inadequate - even though Apollos was described as a learned follower of Christ (Acts 18:24 – 19:8).The last chapter discusses the meaning and significance of these findings for ecclesiastical practice during modern times.
As a weekly go-to-church Episcopalian I have been dismayed at the hesitancy of church leaders to discuss seriously these new discoveries let alone study, plan, and teach from them. I can think of no field of human endeavor so reluctant to embrace discussion of constructive change with discovery of new material. Physics, astronomy, philosophy and so forth are excited by new discoveries. Authors and musicians are always looking for new methods to try. Artists change their medium and materials with advancing technology now even animating abstract images in this digital age. Some artists are able blur the distinctions between painting, photography and cinematography in a single picture. Academic theologians are galloping along at a great pace these days. But ecclesiastical leaders seem stuck even as the number and prevalence of people who call themselves "Christian" continues to decline. Many people describe themselves “spiritual but not religious”. Perhaps those "nones" might actually seek out a church if the offering were just a little different (see Pew Research Center Report, "Nones" on the Rise, October 12, 2012) - balancing worship by wisdom maybe. Perhaps work from the likes of Patterson can give clue to change while still preserving faith in Jesus' teachings.
The paragraph above reads like a polemic. But the polemic is really a lament. The Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, banished long ago from his homeland to now live in Catholic France, has written that, "It is not only true that Christians need Jesus, but Jesus needs Christians for His energy to continue in the world." That is an obvious truth. And Bishop J.S. Spong warns that “... Christianity Must Change or Die” - a prophetic title given recent trends. For me, it is disheartening to see the faith of one's childhood, and the founding faith of our nation, evaporate slowly into oblivion.
The motive of a young scholar, C.H. Weisse, who first proposed the now accepted solution to the so called "Synoptic problem" (that Matthew and Luke shared two sources, Mark and a second source we now call Q) might be helpful when trying to grapple with the "oblivion problem". Weisse, it is said, was motivated to find a way to preserve his Christian faith while maintaining a sense of intellectual integrity (Patterson, p. 32). Perhaps the institutional Church can resurrect that motive when grappling with Bishop Spong's admonition. Perhaps scholars like Patterson can help show the way.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2019For anyone intrigued by the origins of Christianity but frustrated by the limitations of the historical documents available to the layperson, Stephen J. Patterson’s The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins is not only a valuable resource (it includes the author’s translation of the two documents under discussion) but also a fascinating and inspirational read that will resonate long after you put the book down.
Speaking of the still-prevalent ideology of Doomsday, he writes in summary, “The apocalypse never came, and it’s not going to come. This idea belongs to the world of ancient mythology, and it wasn’t a very good idea to begin with. In it the Jewish God of shalom becomes a violent overlord, and the Prince of Peace becomes a supernatural warrior, a fire-breathing monster who lays waste the earth, its forests, its animals, and all but a remnant of its people—the chosen few. How many have believed they were the few!”
But his conclusions are not all reductive. Underneath the canonical books that end with the fire-and-brimstone of Revelations, Patterson discovers a message of the benevolent teacher of the ancient Wisdom tradition: “Jesus was saying and doing things that moved people. He was a sage and a prophet. In Q and the Gospel of Thomas we recover something of that original modality of Jesus—wisdom. This was the lost Way. When you see it in texts that feature it, like the wisdom gospels Q and Thomas, it is easy to see.”
If you can approach an area as tried-and-true as Scripture with the idea that there is more to them (and more of them) than meets the eye, I can vouch that The Lost Way will prove to be a valuable learning and growth experience.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2017This book is not for the Sunday school crowd. It explores the Gospel of Q and Thomas. These are Gospels that pre-date the four traditional Gospels and contradict them in many ways that might make a fundamentalist uneasy. But if you are willing (and interested) to learn whtat was said about Jesus between the time of his death (30 CE) and the first Gospel, Mark (70 CE), some 40 years, then this is a book you should read.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2014This is an excellent book on the very beginnings of early Christianity. It is a more popular version of his work a lot of which can be found in last year's "The Gospel of Thomas and Christian Origins: Essays on the Fifth Gospel (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies)."
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Stephen Patterson's comparison of Thomas which he locates in Edessa and the canonical gospels which were written in the Roman empire during the time of the Jewish Wars is extremely well done. It illustrates his point that the canonical gospels are wartime literature when being Jewish meant be under suspicion, harassed and persecuted leading to the martyrdom themes. Edessa meanwhile is outside the Roman empire and those themes did not become a part of Thomas because they did not reflect the Thomas community's experience. It also demonstrates that the earliest forms of what later became Christianity were not using martyrdom themes to interpret Jesus' life.
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The Westar Institute has been working on re-imagining the beginning of Christianity for years and with "The Lost Way" the reader can see what is leading to a new model of the origins. Scholars argue these points and many seem hung up in descriptions using the term "Cynic" describing the life style. "The Lost Way" emphasizes that probably a better way to describe it is as arising from the Wisdom tradition.
Top reviews from other countries
- Peter ChapmanReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2017
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Very good.
- ggalamReviewed in Canada on December 2, 2014
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
An inlightening look at early scripitural writings that put a new light on spirituality,even in todays world.
- RobbieReviewed in Canada on August 22, 2020
3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed bag
The book has a breezy style that is quite easy to read.
I am suspicious of both the theological and methodological conclusions of the Jesus Seminar, and don’t know that some of the author’s historical constructions are plausible.
The author is casually dismissive of Evangelical and pentecostal critical scholarship, implying there isn’t any. Though I am no longer a good Evangelical, this is false on its face.