Two "New" Gospels

In 1948 scroll fragments were found in some cliff side caves in Palestine. These led to the discovery of what has been called the "Dead Sea Scrolls". Later discoveries in the area added many more scrolls to the list. An international team was quickly formed to document, preserve and translate these scrolls. Unfortunately, politics and religion came together to make sure that this team was composed mainly of Jesuit priests.

John Allegro, one of the few unbiased scientists on the team, became aware of the agenda of the Jesuits and smuggled out a significant portion of the scrolls which were purported to contain the words of Jesus. When the Jesuits found out that Allegro would not be returning with these "stolen" documents, they apparently tried to make it appear that he had lost his mind--to discredit him.

The scrolls, after being translated into English from ancient Aramaic and Hebrew, were hidden away. The translation was given to Frank Mucci, a Jehovah's Witness. When Frank was met with hostility and disbelief within his church, he founded the Edenite Society in 1979. He self published a limited edition of what has become known as "The Humane Gospel of Christ". In the following years Frank was persecuted and derided by other "Christian" groups. He even received death threats. In 1995 Frank asked a colleague to try to publish the Gospel. He published it online. Since the death of John Allegro, no one knows where the scrolls he took are hidden; therefore, the legitimacy of the writings cannot be proven.

Many of the mystical elements of Christianity seem to have been eliminated around the time of the Council of Nicea. The few surviving pre Nicean Christian documents have a much more mystical feel to them.

In 1892 the Rev. Gideon Jasper Richard Ouseley published a book called "The Gospel of the Holy Twelve". Ouseley claimed that this book was his translation of an original Aramaic document he found in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. Anything which showed up in this book but which was not in other books available at the time would be evidence for its authenticity if these passages subsequently showed up in authenticated texts which were discovered later. This appears to be the case.

According to Ouseley this document dated from the first century AD and somehow managed to escape the orgy of book burning which the emperor Constantine inspired when he converted to Christianity. In order to get Constantine to convert, officials in the Christian church at the time apparently agreed to expunge certain concepts from Christian doctrine and literature. The three main concepts that were expunged were reincarnation, the equality and rights of women and vegetarianism and our obligations toward animals. There is internal evidence within the Gospel of the Holy Twelve which suggests that it was written in ancient times. This evidence is thoroughly examined in a new version of this gospel titled "The Gospel of the Nazirenes" edited by Alan Wauters and Rick Van Wyhe.