Why is the gospel of Philip not canonical?
A:All the gospels, incuding the New Testament gospels, are pseudepigraphical, so we do not really know who wrote the Gospel of Philip. However, this gospel is believed to have been written by the disciples of Valentinus in the second century.It contains some teachings on baptism and resurrection that contradicted the teachings of the branch of Christianity that compiled what we now call the New Testament and so could not be included in its canon. Of course, the Gospel of Philip was canonical to Gnostic Christians, but that branch of Christianity was extinguished long ago.