Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents:

Major Christian apocrypha discussed, dates and contents --

Introduction : Recouping our losses --

pt. 1: Forgeries and discoveries --

The ancient discovery of a forgery : Serapion and the Gospel of Peter --

The ancient forgery of a discovery : the Acts of Paul and Thecla --

The discovery of an ancient forgery : the Coptic Gospel of Thomas --

The forgery of an ancient discovery? Morton Smith and the secret Gospel of Mark --

pt. 2: Heresies and orthodoxies --

At polar ends of the spectrum : early Christian Ebionites and Marcionites --

Christians "in the know" : the worlds of early Christian gnosticism --

On the road to Nicaea : the broad swath of proto-orthodox Christianity --

Winners and losers --

Quest for orthodoxy --

Arsenal of the conflicts : polemic treatises and personal slurs --

Additional weapons in the polemic arsenal : forgeries and falsifications --

Invention of scripture : the formation of the proto-orthodox New Testament --

Winners, losers, and the question of tolerance.

"In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fascinating look at these early forms of Christianity and shows how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. All of these groups insisted that they upheld the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and they all possessed writings that bore out their claims, books reputedly produced by Jesus' own followers. Modern archaeological work has recovered a number of key texts, and as Ehrman shows, these spectacular discoveries reveal religious diversity that says much about the ways in which history gets written by the winners. Ehrman's discussion ranges from considerations of various "lost scriptures"--Including forged gospels supposedly written by Simon Peter, Jesus' closest disciple, and Judas Thomas, Jesus' alleged twin brother - to the disparate beliefs of such groups as the Jewish-Christian Ebionites, the anti-Jewish Marcionites, and various "Gnostic" sects. Ehrman examines in depth the battles that raged between "proto-orthodox Christians"--those who eventually compiled the canonical books of the New Testament and standardized Christian belief - and the groups they denounced as heretics and ultimately overcame."--Jacket.