Researched by the Ignaria Editorial Team · Published 2026-03-12
No early Christian source affirms the Gospel of Peter as authoritative scripture. Irenaeus, writing against Gnostic excess in the late second century, argued that the four Gospels form a divinely complete and Spirit-bound unity — "it is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are" — leaving no room for later compositions. The Gospel of Peter, a second-century text with Docetic tendencies, lacks apostolic attestation and broad church use, the twin criteria Eusebius used to classify books as canonical. Under his scheme it falls among the nothoi — orthodox in some respects but non-apostolic and therefore non-canonical — reflecting the early church's consistent rejection of post-apostolic Gospel rivals.
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What the primary sources show
It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the "pillar and ground" of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh.
Eusebius divided works into the canonical (homologoumena and antilegomena) and the uncanonical (nothoi and the fabrications of heretical men) — post-apostolic texts lacking broad church attestation, such as the Gospel of Peter, fell into the latter category and were excluded from orthodox use.