Christology

The issue for the Church regarding whether a book should be included on its canonical list was Christological: the Church did not ask “Is this book inspired?” but rather “Does this book reveal Jesus Christ?” In the liturgical assembly, the Church encountered Christ in both Word and Sacrament, and the books read at this assembly must promote this encounter. Christ, by accepting the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luke 24:44-47) set his seal upon them, so that all these books somehow revealed him. The books of the New Testament also revealed him, since they were written by his apostles. But the books produced by the Gnostic groups of the second century, books like the Gospel of Judas, did not reveal him. Rather they offered a rival Christ, another Jesus (2 Cor 11:4), a Christ differing from the Christ preached by the apostles and worshipped in the churches. These books were therefore rejected as books which might be read in the liturgical assembly, for they were alien to the Church’s Tradition and did not reveal the Christ who manifested Himself in the Eucharist.