The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholar's Version

by Robert J. Miller

The Complete Gospels includes all twenty of the known gospels from the early Christian era, clearly presented for the scholar, student and general reader alike. The new Scholars Version translation captures the full spirit and vitality of the original texts. This gospel picture of early traditions and Christian origins gives the reader a fresh and exciting glimpse into the world of Jesus and his followers. Informative and highly-readable introductions, essays, notes, and annotations make this work a remarkably comprehensive one-volume library of all gospel texts.

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Reference, History, Spirituality, Gnosticism, Nonfiction

480 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1991

About the author

Law School Professor, Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland Oregon

Tribal Judge

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Reviews

[Jon Mehlhaus · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, I read this thinking we in the United States are about to have a Gnostic moment. What I mean by this is not that the Gnostic gospels will all of a sudden come into vogue and Valentinian sects will see a surge in membership. Rather, I think our current self-oriented, post-Durkheimian religious culture is one that the original Gnostics and other Christians driven underground by the early Church. In a day and age when some of the best selling religious books are self-help guides by evangelical gurus like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren, we have to admit that something has gone wrong in how we consume our Gospel truths. Religion as a project of self-improvement is a major theme in the noncanonical gospels included in Miller's compendium. The gospels of Mary and Thomas specifically have radical regimens for the first-century mystic looking to forsake the broader cultural world and commune directly with God. The kind of self-indulgent ascetism seen in these texts is easy to argue should not play a major role in the spread of Christ's message and love. Yet, there are also some radical nuggets. The Gospel of Mary makes clear the central place of women in the work of establishing God's Kingdom. God's Kingdom itself in these texts is more expansive and stretches to further reaches of the world and the mind than in the non-canonical Gospels. They very much seem concerned with sharing Christian truth to a broader audience, hopeful to break down the sort of in-group, out-group distinctions that characterized religions up to this point and afterwards. In short, they are ambitious projects.

Having the chance to read these works alongside the canonical Gospels also makes for an enlightening experience, and is the key strength of this collection. The non-canonical gospels are not all lumped together but separated out by content and origin. It paints a picture of a much more diverse religious community in the Mediterranean in the first couple centuries after Christ's ministry. You have wisdom texts, infancy gospels, collections of Jesus's miracles. Miller allows you to piece them together however you wish. There is not a strict order in which to attack these gospels. I recommend reading the more clearly Gnostic texts, Mary and Thomas, first as these two offer the most radically divergent take on Christ's ministry. Once you have that background in differing interpretations of the significance of Jesus and his mission, the other gospels and texts about Jesus serve to turn the Orthodox/Gnostic binary into a spectrum. There are plenty of takes, many contradicting each other, on who Jesus is and what we should do in response to his wonderous life. This helps the reader see the early Christian movement as a diverse one. These authors shared some assumptions, but you get the sense they felt very comfortable taking liberties to fit Christ's message to their particular context. Even just understanding the importance of different genres that the gospels crib from is important in getting a clearer picture of what the early Church was like.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is typical Jesus Seminar stuff.

The translation, however, is appalling. As an example, if you raised your eyebrows at some translations' renderings of the Beatitudes' Blessed are the ___ as Happy are the___, the so-called Scholar's Version says, Congratulations. I have an uneasy truce with dynamic equivalence, but some of the choices herein are downright patronising. After comparing the Scholar's Version with other translations and against the Greek--I cannot at all recommend it. I found a few insights, but most of it is mediocre. I'll still use it occasionally, but it is in my apocrypha/pseudepigrapha section rather than my readily-accessible staples.

[Ron at Rockhaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

oldie but goodie

[LaochRione · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought the book as I wanted to read the non-canonical gospels. I was also looking forward to reading the canonical gospels in their literal, directly translated forms. However, this is not what I got. The authors genuinely don't seem to know how translation works. Rather than giving a direct translation, they give a secularised translation, most of which are wrong. A quick look at a lexicon shows just how wrong. As a linguistic and an academic who has studied Ancient Greek, Classical Latin and Biblical Hebrew, I found this shocking. This book would never be accepted by any reputable college or university as the basic research is so flawed. I have seen better translation attempts from first year college students - and they copy straight from the lexicon!
A major example of the intentional (for it is most certainly intentional!) mis-translation is the use of the term "The Human One" in place of "The Son of Man". The original Greek states 'Ο γιος του ανθρώπου'. This translate as "The Son of (you) Man" in its most direct and literal translation. 'ανθρώπου' refers to 'man' in the context of 'mankind' (see page 208).
Ο = 'The' as in the definite article; γιος = son (indefinite); του = you/thou; ανθρώπου = man.
The authors are aware that the original authors could write "The Human One" if they wished, they had a very complex language system available to them which allowed for this, but NONE of the gospel writers did so. The authors aren't happy with this and have translated the Koine Greek using a Modern Greek lexicon - which is the equivalent of translating Latin using a French (or other Romance language) lexicon. Simply, it is wrong.
They then go on to suggest that אָדָם (adam) likewise means 'human being' - which is does in modern Hebrew. However, Biblical Hebrew translates this as 'man' in the same sense of 'mankind' as per (pre-cancel culture) English (and Koine Greek).
Even if we were to all agree on the term "human being" in place of "man". The term 'Ο γιος του ανθρώπου' could not be translated as anything other than "The Son of (you) Human Beings". In no sense does it mean, "The Human One".

The fact of the matter is, if the authors can cock up this translation, what else have they cocked up? As an academic, for me, this doubt throws doubt on the rest of the works contained within the covers. Which is a grave pity. This book had such potential and failed miserably to live up to it.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A long time ago in a far away land, a bunch of men got together and determined which gospels would go into the Bible…and which wouldn’t. And that has been a problem for me lately, as I wonder what we are missing. Surely the others weren’t completely trash, surely there was something in it that fleshed Jesus and his teachings out more. Then I found this book.
The Christian geek in me really enjoyed getting and reading this book. It has all of the known gospels together, from the accepted 4 gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to the lesser accepted, but still very interesting gospels, like the two Infancy Gospels of Thomas and James, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Judas, the text of Q, etc. I love reading the outside gospels because they give me more, more insight into Jesus, more insight into the characters surrounding him. The best part is that it is all in one place.
The gospels in this book are translated into the Scholar’s Version which is introduced as a “a fresh translation from the original languages into living American English that is entirely free of ecclesiastical control”. I will say right now that I wish we had more than just this translated into this version because it was so easy to read and comprehend. This is really what you need when you are intellectually trying to delve deeply into the gospels. You don’t need to be caught up in the flowery languages, the thee’s and thou’s. You need to focus on the best, most understandable translation from the original text.
This is exactly what this book gives, all in one place. So if the Christian geek in you, is like the Christian geek in me, and wants to delve more into ALL the gospels, you need to check this book out.

[Michael J.J. Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the time that I read this I was toying with the idea that apocalyptic eschatology was the necessary and sufficient condition for all religions that posed a threat to me (or unbelievers in general). That idea doesn't really work out. Still, I'm proud that a significant part of my society seems to embrace, a couple thousand years after the fact, the realized eschatology that the scholars of the Jesus Seminar present as the crux of the historical Jesus' teachings. I doubt that all the people who have made these works popular were trying to first understand the evolution of Christianity and then live their lives accordingly. That's not how belief formation works. It's much more likely that, incredibly, a lot of people are now temperamentally inclined to help their fellow people, right now, in this life, through strictly peaceful means, and are delighted that they can find support for that inclination in the central figure of the western canon. I think that's delightful.

[Stephen Cluff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a modern, scholarly translation of the New Testament’s gospels as well as several other books not found in the King James version. I found it a compelling read that clearly demonstrated that the Bible’s gospels were written as separate accounts of the life of Jesus and that trying to insist that they all form a coordinated and mutually supporting look at Jesus is at best a mistake.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to use this book for a class back in 2018, and it changed the way I read the gospels and the people that were mentioned throughout them. There was so much information that I did not know until I read this book, and there was some information that was written better than any other book based on the gospels that I have read. It gave me a better understanding of what I was reading when it came to biblical scriptures. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs some clarity on biblical information, and scholars who are at the start of their research.

[Roger Booth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my preferred Bible.
Jesus says some things that make sense from a spiritual perspective.
My general complaint against monotheism is that it is used to normalize cruelty.
"God does it. Can't be wrong".
With polytheism you can at least pin cruelty on a more specialized god.

One more complaint about monotheism. It's a convenience for authoritarian leaders. When they say God told them to do something, they don't have keep track of which god said what.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read mostly intro data on the various texts, but also these new translations of Mark and Thomas, as well as some of the fragments and the Signs Gospel. Well worth investigating for those concerned with early Christianity.

[Cameron Sant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting and readable!

[Megan Doney]

It's hard to rate this, as I was reading just to get a better sense of some of the fragmentary Gospels. But I liked the explanations and glosses throughout.

[Emma Sonck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a textbook for class.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a straightforward and informative translation of the New Testament Gospels (i.e., the stories about Jesus and his sayings). It strives for accuracy over literary value. (It will not replace the King James Version any time soon.) I found the introductory essays and footnotes to be very helpful in understanding the culture and climate of Israel in 30 AD.

This volume also contains all the other records of Jesus' life, not just the canonical Gospels. (Thus the "Complete" in the title. Note: The more recently published Gospel of Judas is not included in this edition.) So the existing gnostic texts (such as Thomas) are here as well as the remaining fragments of documents mentioning Jesus. This volume also contains the hypothetical "Q" text containing sayings of Jesus that Luke and Matthew probably used (in addition to Mark, the first Gospel written) in putting together their gospels.

The books aptly subtitled the "Annotated Scholars Edition." I recommend it to anyone looking for a more scholarly version of the Gospels providng a historical and literary context.

I haven't read the entire 430 pages. So far, I've read:

Gospel of Mark (2010)
Gospel of Matthew (7/11)
Sayings of Gospel Q (7/11)
Gospel of Thomas (8/11)

[Somanystars · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting exploration of the gospels that didn't make it into the Bible -- along with the four that did. Shortly after reading this, I was lucky enough to hear a speaker on the Gospel of Thomas. Having read that particular gospel just prior to the event enriched the content and my understanding of the speaking points. (There are actually two Gospels of Thomas -- one which deals with the early biographical years of Jesus and one which deals with his teachings. I am currently referencing the that deals with his teachings.)

Remember that story in the Bible about doubting Thomas? Scholars believe that it was placed in the gospel to discredit Thomas, who was a gnostic. Clearly, this was successful, as both of Thomas' gospels were omitted from the final canon chosen to complete the Bible.

[Christopher Selmek · Rating 5 out of 5]

The notes alone make this book worth reading; they are scholarly and not affiliated with any religious organization, providing for a more complete portrait of early Christianity that Biblical literalists might understand. I would not call the list of gospels "complete", since there are other gnostic texts I feel would fit well here, but it is nearly complete, and includes all of the most important gospels.

[Zach Waldis · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you can get past the tendentious scholarship of the Jesus seminar, this is a helpful book. I read it to read through the non-canonical Gospels for the first time, and that makes the book worth the read, though if you have Bibleworks or the insanely cheap Kindle edition of the pre and post Nicene fathers, that has them as well.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit I did not read all of the actual gospels but did read all the prefaces with commentary, explanation, history, and theology. Fascinating how the Bible was put together, what made it and what did not.

[Paul Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Semi complete and translated from the Greek with great notes. Great resource.