When it comes to the dating of the gospels, the consensus of scholarly opinion is that the gospel of Mark was written first (around 70 C.E.), that Matthew and Luke came next (between 80 and 90 C.E.), and the gospel of John was written shortly thereafter (between 90 and 100 C.E.).  While this might seem “late” to those who do not know the history of early Christianity, the fact is that these are the only four gospels that can be reliably dated in the first century.  All of the other gospels that now exist date from the 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th centuries (or even later).  Some examples are:

Gospel of the Hebrews             early 2^nd century                       Jewish-Christian

Infancy Gospel of Thomas        around 125 C.E.                       Gnostic?

Gospel of the Nazoreans           first half of the 2^nd century         Jewish-Christian

Gospel of the Ebionites             first half of the 2^nd century        Jewish-Christian

Infancy Gospel of James           mid-2^nd century                         Proto-Orthodox

Gospel of Truth                        mid-2^nd century                         Gnostic

Coptic Gospel of Thomas         mid-2^nd century                         Gnostic

Gospel of the Egyptians            mid-2^nd century                         Gnostic

Gospel of Peter                        second half of the 2^nd century    Gnostic?

Gospel of Mary                        second half of the 2^nd century    Gnostic

Gospel of Matthias                   late 2^nd century                         Gnostic

Gospel of Philip                        late 2^nd-early 3^rd cent.               Gnostic

Pistis Sophia                             3^rd century                                Gnostic

Gospel of Gamaliel                   4^th-5^th century?

Gospel of Nicodemus               5^th-6^th century

Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew      8^th-9^th century                           Orthodox

The gospel that is most often cited as being “earlier” than the canonical gospels is the Coptic gospel of Thomas.  But this claim is a misrepresentation of scholarly opinion.  Most responsible scholarship does not claim that Thomas was written in the first century, only that it preserves some sayings of Jesus in a rather primitive (and hence probably very early) form.  Some scholars believe that there was a gospel that pre-dated the canonical gospels and was used as a source by Matthew and Luke (the “Q” document).  But this is a hypothetical document; if it existed, no copies of it are known to have survived.