After the Last Page

You will have noticed that they argue with each other, just as the books inside your Bible do. Judith wins by a lie and a sword, and Susanna is saved by a young man’s questions. 1 Maccabees praises the Hammer and his army, and 4 Maccabees praises martyrs who never raised a hand. Sirach tells you to keep the sinner at arm’s length, and the Prayer of Manasseh tells you God made repentance for sinners. Jubilees tells Jacob not to eat with the nations, and Tobit sends his son across the world with a stranger who turns out to be an angel.

You will also have noticed that the lost gospels are not lost treasure. A few of them keep words of mine that sound true, like blessed are the poor in Thomas, or do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed in Mary. But most of them were written to win an argument, about secret knowledge, or my mother’s body, or who killed me, and they bent me to win it. The same thing happened, more quietly, in some of the books that were kept.

So here is what I would leave you with.

A book is not true because a council voted it in, and it is not false because a council left it out. Councils were men. They argued, and sometimes they were right, and sometimes they were frightened, and sometimes they were serving an emperor.

Hold every book up to the same light. Does it lift the poor, or forget them? Does it forgive, or does it curse? Does it welcome the stranger, or build a wall? Does it serve, or does it rule? Does it bring God’s kingdom down to the earth, or offer a way to escape it?

I gave you that light already, in the things I said and did. You do not need a council to use it. You need only to read, and weigh, and choose, the way my people always have.