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The Genuine Jesus and the Counterfeit Christs: New Testament and Apocryphal Gospels
Christianity Today
Book Awards Biblical Studies Award of Merit (2025)
What are the key differences between the canonical Gospels and the apocryphal gospels?
In this concise and engaging book, New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole shows that crucial theological features link Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John together—and also set them apart from other ancient accounts of Christ's life.
Writing in a clear and highly accessible style, Gathercole analyzes the New Testament Gospels alongside some of the earliest and most controversial apocryphal gospels. He shows that the canonical Gospels share key elements of theological content—content that consistently aligns with what the apostles taught about Jesus. Specifically, what distinguishes Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is that they faithfully represent Jesus's messiahship, his saving death and resurrection, and his fulfilment of Scripture. This stands in sharp contrast to the apocryphal Gospels, which either represent such teaching incompletely, ignore it, or actively reject it.
In short, what separates the canonical Gospels from their noncanonical counterparts covered in this book is that the former are faithful portraits of Christ the savior; the latter are less-than-authentic representations. The Genuine Jesus and the Counterfeit Christs will appeal to everyday readers who want to know more about apocryphal gospels, and to students in biblical studies who are interested in questions of authority and canonicity.
What are the key differences between the canonical Gospels and the apocryphal gospels?
In this concise and engaging book, New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole shows that crucial theological features link Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John together—and also set them apart from other ancient accounts of Christ's life.
Writing in a clear and highly accessible style, Gathercole analyzes the New Testament Gospels alongside some of the earliest and most controversial apocryphal gospels. He shows that the canonical Gospels share key elements of theological content—content that consistently aligns with what the apostles taught about Jesus. Specifically, what distinguishes Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is that they faithfully represent Jesus's messiahship, his saving death and resurrection, and his fulfilment of Scripture. This stands in sharp contrast to the apocryphal Gospels, which either represent such teaching incompletely, ignore it, or actively reject it.
In short, what separates the canonical Gospels from their noncanonical counterparts covered in this book is that the former are faithful portraits of Christ the savior; the latter are less-than-authentic representations. The Genuine Jesus and the Counterfeit Christs will appeal to everyday readers who want to know more about apocryphal gospels, and to students in biblical studies who are interested in questions of authority and canonicity.
- GenresBiblical Studies
129 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 16, 2025
About the author
Simon J. Gathercole
35 books12 followersSimon Gathercole (PhD, University of Durham) is senior lecturer in New Testament studies in the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cambridge and Fellow and director of studies in theology at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, England. A leading British New Testament scholar, he has written several groundbreaking books.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 20, 2026
A really good resource for the inevitable situation whenever anyone brings up the "other gospels." We read the canonical gospels not because of some conspiracy, but because they alone are theologically united around the original apostolic gospel.
April 14, 2026
3.5⭐️ rounded up. Really short, accessible, focused and easy read. But I was left wanting a bit more engagement with how these Gospels illuminate our understanding of early Christianity, NT, etc. Takes on a bit more of the apologetic aim, so I get why it doesn’t and can’t include more.
July 17, 2026
This is a review of both the Audible and Kindle versions of the book.
The Audible glitch has been fixed (I saw the earlier review noting an issue).
The book is an excellent thesis comparing the New Testament Gospels to the Apocryphal Gospels. The book is a reader/listener-friendly version of the academic book, The Gospel and the Gospels, written by the same author.
It is the perfect jumping off point for people who want to know more about the theology of why some gospels were included and others were not without getting bogged down in a history lesson and long discussion on the various councils and arguments of that time period.
The basic outline for study compares the four Gospels to the Apocryphal Gospels on the basis of (1) Jesus as Christ, (2) His essential saving death, (3) the Resurrection, and (4) His fulfillment of Scripture.
The Apocryphal Gospels used for comparison are (1) Marcion's Gospel, (2) The Valentinian Gospels of Philip and Gospel of Truth, (3) The Gnostic Gospels of The Egyptians and Gospel of Judas, (4) Gospel of Peter, and (5) Gospel of Thomas—a total of 7 Apocryphal Gospels compared to the 4 New Testament Gospels.
The author devotes an introductory chapter to the Apocryphal Gospels, including introductions, samples, and verses, so the reader can become familiar with the content before moving to a more detailed comparison between the Apocryphal and New Testament Gospels in the remaining chapters. The author does a wonderful job of teasing out the points where the Apocryphal Gospels break down and the New Testament Gospels soar.
I truly enjoyed reading/listening to this book. It is candy for the Bible nerd that I am. The Kindle and Audible are linked with Whispersync technology, allowing you to open the Kindle book and listen to the Audible simultaneously; the text in the Kindle Book will be highlighted as the Audible speaks those words. You can also read only or listen only and either format will remember where you left off.
The difference between the Kindle and Audible versions is that the Kindle includes notes, a bibliography, an index of subjects, index of scripture and other ancient sources while the Audible version omits this information. I enjoy having both Kindle and Audible for that reason along with the ability to highlight and take notes within the Kindle book. If you too enjoy those things, I suggest buying both.
The Audible glitch has been fixed (I saw the earlier review noting an issue).
The book is an excellent thesis comparing the New Testament Gospels to the Apocryphal Gospels. The book is a reader/listener-friendly version of the academic book, The Gospel and the Gospels, written by the same author.
It is the perfect jumping off point for people who want to know more about the theology of why some gospels were included and others were not without getting bogged down in a history lesson and long discussion on the various councils and arguments of that time period.
The basic outline for study compares the four Gospels to the Apocryphal Gospels on the basis of (1) Jesus as Christ, (2) His essential saving death, (3) the Resurrection, and (4) His fulfillment of Scripture.
The Apocryphal Gospels used for comparison are (1) Marcion's Gospel, (2) The Valentinian Gospels of Philip and Gospel of Truth, (3) The Gnostic Gospels of The Egyptians and Gospel of Judas, (4) Gospel of Peter, and (5) Gospel of Thomas—a total of 7 Apocryphal Gospels compared to the 4 New Testament Gospels.
The author devotes an introductory chapter to the Apocryphal Gospels, including introductions, samples, and verses, so the reader can become familiar with the content before moving to a more detailed comparison between the Apocryphal and New Testament Gospels in the remaining chapters. The author does a wonderful job of teasing out the points where the Apocryphal Gospels break down and the New Testament Gospels soar.
I truly enjoyed reading/listening to this book. It is candy for the Bible nerd that I am. The Kindle and Audible are linked with Whispersync technology, allowing you to open the Kindle book and listen to the Audible simultaneously; the text in the Kindle Book will be highlighted as the Audible speaks those words. You can also read only or listen only and either format will remember where you left off.
The difference between the Kindle and Audible versions is that the Kindle includes notes, a bibliography, an index of subjects, index of scripture and other ancient sources while the Audible version omits this information. I enjoy having both Kindle and Audible for that reason along with the ability to highlight and take notes within the Kindle book. If you too enjoy those things, I suggest buying both.
April 24, 2026
While it made a strong case for the canonicity of the gospels that are in our modern Bibles, it felt overly repetitive. The introduction and the end were the most interesting parts. This book also helped me familiarize myself with the non-canonical gospels and what makes them different from the canonical ones as well as each other.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wonders if the books of the Bible were just chosen by some guy. That is a claim I've heard, and it's nice to reinforce my confidence in the Bible I have today.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wonders if the books of the Bible were just chosen by some guy. That is a claim I've heard, and it's nice to reinforce my confidence in the Bible I have today.
January 27, 2026
Really great book explaining why the apocryphal Gospels are not the same as the canonical. No, they were not chosen or rejected at random by the early church. Rather, the canonical Gospels alone contain the full preached gospel message of the apostles. So readable! Easy to recommend to any level interested in this subject. People in the pews need to know! Thank you for your attention to this matter!
August 4, 2026
This book was fine for what it was, a very basic study comparing and contrasting the canonical gospels and those apocryphal books that claim to speak their own account of the Jesus story.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews