struck dumb

St. Luke begins his gospel with these words: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word (Luke 1:1-2).  He goes on to add his orderly account to the many that were then circulating at the time.  

Many?  Biblically, we only have three others: Matthew, Mark, and John.  I would say that four is not that many.  But in the annals of early church history, we have the gospels of Thomas, Judas, Mary Magdalene, Philip, Peter, and even a so-called Gospel of Truth.  That's more like the many that Luke speaks of.  So what happened to those other 6 or more that aren't in the 
Bible?  Why has their witness largely been silenced?

Religious conspiracy theorists down through the ages have imagined the early church leaders, secretly gathered in a smoke-filled room, deciding which accounts are in and which are out.  Not only is there zero evidence of such a council, but the process of determining which gospels were authentically God's Word was decided by the whole church through the principle of catholicity.  The four gospels, in use by the worldwide church across a number of decades, were discerned to be God's True Word.  The others, not by church decree, but by the witness of The Holy Spirit, have literally been struck dumb.  Though interesting in and of themselves, they have been prevented from leading people astray with their sometimes spurious, if not erroneous, teaching.

It's the same kind of thing that The Holy Spirit did to the priest Zechariah, when he refused to believe the angel Gabriel's promise of a son.  He, too, was struck dumb (Luke 1:20), prevented from communicating anything from his errant heart until his son was born, whereupon he issued a powerful and truthful song of praise (Luke 1:67-79).

May you and I continue to be attentive to the true Word of God and not engage in idle speculation from either ancient or modern documents that purport to give us a deeper truth than that in the Scripture.  And may we not be surprised if, on occasion, God seems to strike us dumb, not allowing us to get a good hearing from Him or from others, so that we can repent, believe, and proclaim His Word, and His alone.