What Are Extracanonical Texts?

The Nag Hammadi Codices. Photo: Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont, California.

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"Lord, there are many around the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the well."

(Gospel of Thomas 74, SV translation)

Where does this saying come from? Is it from the Bible? I cannot find the Gospel of Thomas in my Bible. What is it?

The Gospel of Thomas is one of many writings from early followers of Jesus that is not in the New Testament that most Christian groups recognize as the Bible. These writings are called “extracanonical” by many critical scholars. Some scholars refer to them as “noncanonical.” Agreement on which writings are included in these terms is not precise, but some orientation may be helpful.

What Does Extracanonical Mean?

Extracanonical means writings that are outside or “extra” to the canon. Canon means the list of writings recognized as scripture by organized faith communities. LINKS to posts: “Is There Such a Thing as ‘THE Bible’?” and “What Does the Bible Say About That?” Extracanonical is a word usually used to refer to writings from early followers of Jesus that are “extra” to the canon of the New Testament.

Jewish faith communities acknowledge a large body of writings not included in the Tanakh or in what Christians refer to as the Old Testament. These writings are usually referred to as distinct bodies of texts such as the Talmud, Mishnah, and Midrash among others. See sefaria.org for access to many of these. Other writings called the Jewish Pseudepigrapha come from the centuries around the time of the early Jesus groups and were written in the name of Old Testament texts. The Dead Sea Scrolls also represent another group of writings from a Jewish community around the same time. All of these Jewish writings are usually referred to by these categories and not called “extracanonical” even though they can be considered “extra” to the canon.

Different Christian faith communities recognize different canons. This represents a process of communities deciding which writings would be laboriously recopied and preserved from danger in times of persecution. After the invention of the printing press, communities decided which writings to include in editions of the Bible. Writings from the early Christ groups that were not included in those editions are usually called “extracanonical.”

Are “Extracanonical” Writings the Same as The Apocrypha?

No. The Apocrypha is a term mostly used by Protestants. Roman Catholics use the term Deuterocanonical (second canon). Both terms refer to books that are included in the Greek translation of what Christians call the “Old Testament” known as the Septuagint. They are not included in the Hebrew version, though. Roman Catholic Bibles and many study Bibles include these writings. Many Protestant Bibles do not include them.

Where Do Extracanonical Texts Come From?

The term extracanonical usually refers to other writings from the first few centuries in the development of early Christianity. These come from several sources.

~ Early Christian Writers and the Texts They Mentioned and Disparaged

A large body of writings is available from the early centuries of Christianity. Some works called gospels and some narratives about early leaders are found in writings referred to as the “Apocryphal Acts” or “Christian Apocrypha,” not the same as the writings Protestants call “The Apocrypha.”

Theological writings have been called the “Church Fathers” or “patristic literature.” Embedded in these writings are mentions of other works that have not been preserved since ancient times. The early theologians sometimes quoted now lost writings to support or illustrate a point or to dispute what the lost writing said. Scholars of early Christian history have studied these debates and known about extracanonical texts from the scraps that remain from these quotations.

~ Apostolic Fathers

The earliest of the writings of the early theologians are often called the “Apostolic Fathers.” The ten texts included in most editions are usually considered as extracanonical writings because they originate from the first two centuries of the Christ groups, around the same time as the writings now in the New Testament. These are also writings that have been accepted by most Christian groups although they were not ultimately included in the canon of the New Testament.

~ Nag Hammadi Library

In 1945, a jar full of ancient manuscripts was discovered near Nag Hammadi, a town in Egypt. Thirteen books bound in leather contained fifty-two different writings. The manuscripts are written in Coptic, a language spoken by Egyptians in the Greco-Roman era.

Some of the manuscripts were recognizable as writings already known either in manuscript fragments or from quotations in the Church Fathers. Others were previously unknown works. Scholars have worked on translating and interpreting these writings over the course of the second half of the twentieth century and the process continues. The writings continue to become more available to the general public. One of the best known of these writings is the nearly complete version of the Gospel of Thomas.

~ Other Texts Preserved

Other texts have become available over the past few centuries through a variety of discoveries. The Berlin or Akhmim Codex, for example, was found in a wall in Egypt and purchased by a German who took it to the Berlin Museum. Other fragments have been found in papyri at archaeological sites. See a list.

All of these add to the body of extracanonical texts.

~ Why Are Extracanonical Writings Important?

Extracanonical writings have helped critical scholars understand many aspects of texts in the New Testament. Finding a nearly complete version of the Gospel of Thomas, for example, showed that writings that were lists of Jesus’ sayings were circulating in the early Jesus groups. Scholars had previously theorized that the authors of Matthew and Luke used such a source in composing their gospels. While the Gospel of Thomas does not match that source, it is a writing of the same genre.

Extracanonical writings also indicate the variety of communities and points of view circulating among early followers of Jesus. We can read documents that often represent points of view that did not prevail. Rather than having to reconstruct known groups’ views from the writings of their opponents, we have their own words. We can also read documents from followers of Jesus who were previously unknown. Many of the writings include feminine aspects of the divine and women leaders depicted more prominently than in canonical texts and in the church “fathers.”  

~ Are Extracanonical Writings Gnostic? Are They Heretical?

Initial interpretations of the Nag Hammadi writings categorized them as “Gnostic.” Scholars had studied early Christian theologians’ criticisms of Gnosticism to reconstruct what was labeled a heresy. The first assumption was that newly discovered extracanonical texts must be Gnostic. More recently this assessment has been questioned and many scholars are studying the texts and discovering multiple perspectives that do not fit previous descriptions of Gnosticism. Scholars are discussing and redefining Gnosticism from differing points of view. Views of “heresy” and “orthodoxy” are also changing in recent critical scholarship.

Additional Resources:

Online translations of many of the texts are available on Gnosis.org, a site that affirms a Gnostic perspective and generally assumes that all the texts are Gnostic. The availability of the texts in translation is helpful as is knowing that the site represents modern Gnostic points of view.

For other discussions of the variety of texts and how scholars refer to them

• Lewis, Nicola Denzey. “Was the Gospel of Thomas Gnostic?” “Noncanonical Gospels,” and “What Are Noncanonical Writings?” Bible Odyssey (www.bibleodyssey.org), 2023.

A discussion of one of the Nag Hammadi texts as an example:

• Taussig, Hal. “The Thunder: Perfect Mind.” Early Christian Texts: The Bible and Beyond, 19 January 2020.