Secret Gospels: Essays on Thomas and the Secret Gospel of Mark

The canonical Gospels–Matthew, Mark, Luke, John–are familiar to most people as the stories about Jesus' life. But there exists a whole set of other writings not included in the New Testament that tell about various aspects of Jesus' life–his childhood, his teenage years, his relationship with women–that the canonical gospels leave out.

Marvin Meyer, one of the leading experts on the secret gospels, looks at these revolutionary texts in original and illuminating ways. Topics range from gender and infancy stories to discipleship and the relationship of the Gospel of Thomas to Islamic literature. For example, he explores how the Gospel of Thomas makes Mary "male," and how the naked youth at Jesus' tomb in the Secret Gospel of Mark symbolizes discipleship. Meyer's spellbinding readings of these materials offer fresh understandings of the canonical gospels.