EVANGELIOS APÓCRIFOS | Los textos prohibidos de la Biblia

Summary

The video presents the apocryphal gospels as texts that preserve forms of early Christianity different from the version later accepted by the Catholic Church. Its central theme is the conflict between canonical Christianity and Gnostic interpretations of Jesus, salvation, the body, and the spiritual world.

How the presenter describes the formation of the canon

• The presenter says the four canonical gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—were written decades after Jesus’s death, and that scholars generally do not consider them to have been written by Jesus’s direct disciples. He distinguishes historical authorship from faith in the gospels as divinely revealed.
• He describes early Christianity as a diverse movement, with many communities and numerous texts claiming to preserve Jesus’s message. In his account, this variety led to disagreements over who Jesus was, whether the resurrection was literal, and which writings should guide Christian belief.
• The video links Christianity’s growth under Constantine to the need for religious and doctrinal unity. It describes the Edict of Milan as permitting public Christian worship and the Council of Nicaea as establishing Christian doctrine and, in the presenter’s account, identifying the books accepted as canonical.
• Texts excluded from the canon are described as “apocryphal”—a word the presenter connects with things hidden away or teachings kept secret. He says some communities hid their writings and links the discovery of texts at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, to this history.

The Gnostic ideas behind many apocryphal texts

• Gnosis means divine or hidden knowledge. The video describes Gnosticism as a mystical movement that existed before Christianity and was later combined with Christian figures and stories.
• In the Gnostic outlook presented, salvation comes through discovering spiritual truths that are not openly understood by everyone. Jesus may therefore teach publicly in one way while privately revealing deeper knowledge to selected followers.
• The presenter contrasts Gnostic ideas with Catholic teaching:
  • Some Gnostic traditions treat spirit as good and matter or the body as evil, or as the creation of an inferior being.
  • The presenter contrasts this with Catholic doctrine, which he describes as regarding creation and matter as good because they come from God.
  • He also contrasts dualistic traditions—where good and evil are opposing realities—with Augustine’s account of evil as an absence or privation of good.
• The video discusses Manichaeism and other religious or philosophical traditions as influences on Gnostic thought. It also uses a Yazidi story about the Peacock Angel, identified by the presenter with Lucifer, to illustrate themes of obedience, repentance, and forgiveness.
• The presenter’s recurring metaphor is that darkness does not defeat light: darkness is an absence of light, just as he presents evil as a turning away from good.

Apocryphal texts discussed

• Gospel of Thomas: Presented as a collection of secret sayings attributed to the “living Jesus.” The opening identifies Thomas with Didymus, meaning “twin,” which the presenter connects to traditions that make Thomas Jesus’s twin.
• Gospel of Truth: Associated in the video with the Valentinians. The presenter says it expresses Gnostic themes, especially the contrast between spirit and matter and the importance of hidden truth.
• Apocalypse of Peter: Described as dialogues in which Jesus privately reveals the afterlife to Peter. The presenter highlights its claim that Jesus did not have an ordinary physical body and therefore did not truly die on the cross; in the text’s imagery, Jesus laughs as the crucifixion takes place.
• Gospel of Barnabas: The video describes a version in which Jesus is not crucified and Judas takes his place. The presenter also argues that its reference to Muhammad points to a later Muslim context rather than the earliest Christian apocryphal writings.
• Gospel of Mary Magdalene: Presented as giving Mary a central role as the recipient of Jesus’s private teaching. The video connects this to ideas about receptivity and the “feminine” aspect of spiritual enlightenment. It interprets the end of the world not as a physical catastrophe but as an inward realization that matter is illusory.
• Gospel of Judas: Associated with the Cainites, a group that the presenter says reinterpreted figures conventionally viewed as villains. In this account, Judas is not simply a traitor: Jesus entrusts him with the necessary task of handing him over, making Judas a favored disciple carrying out a difficult mission. The text is also presented as treating events such as the Fall and Judas’s actions as part of a divine plan. The presenter links its conclusion to apocatastasis, the restoration of things to their original state, and interprets divine forgiveness of Satan as a symbol of overcoming the ego’s mistaken belief that it is separate from God.

The video concludes that these writings are difficult to understand without their Gnostic context. It frames their rejection as a consequence of their disagreement with the doctrines that became authoritative, and closes by returning to the image of light and darkness.

The video combines historical narrative, descriptions of religious texts, and the presenter’s own philosophical and theological interpretations. In particular, it presents the Council of Nicaea as central to the selection of the biblical canon.

Speakers and sources featured

• Speaker: One main presenter/narrator; there are no interviewees or other clearly identifiable speakers.
• Biblical and Christian texts referenced: The canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; Acts; the epistles; the Apocalypse; the Nicene Creed; passages from Matthew about the Last Supper; Genesis; and the Sermon on the Mount.
• Apocryphal texts discussed: The Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Truth, Apocalypse of Peter, Gospel of Barnabas, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and Gospel of Judas.
• Early Christian writers and figures named: Origen of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Irenaeus of Lyon, Jerome, Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Peter, James, John, Thomas, Judas, Saul/Paul, and Luke.
• Historical figures named: Constantine, Diocletian, Nero, and Caligula.
• Philosophers, religious teachers, and traditions referenced: Augustine of Hippo, Plato, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Hermes Trismegistus, Buddha, Mahavira, Zarathustra, Mani, the Upanishads, Mazdaism/Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Zurvanism, and Yazidism.
• Other groups and traditions discussed: Gnostics, Valentinians, Cainites, the Desert Fathers, Catholic tradition, and early Christian communities.