![]() ![]() ![]() One of the first Nag Hammadi texts to be extricated out of Egypt and translated into Western tongues was the Gospel of Thomas, comprised of one hundred and fourteen alleged sayings of Jesus. Yet, we find that the Nag Hammadi texts present a Jesus at extreme odds with the one found in the Gospels.īy inspecting a few of the Nag Hammadi texts, we encounter Gnosticism in Christian guise: Jesus dispenses gnosis to awaken those trapped in ignorance the body is a prison, and the spirit alone is good and salvation comes by discovering the “kingdom of God” within the self. Her central thesis was simple: Gnosticism should be considered at least as legitimate as orthodox Christianity because the “heresy” was simply a competing strain of early Christianity. Her scholarly expertise coupled with her ability to relate an ancient religion to contemporary concerns made for a compelling combination in the minds of many. She made them accessible and even likeable. As Elaine Pagels put it in her best-selling book, The Gnostic Gospels, “Now for the first time, we have the opportunity to find out about the earliest Christian heresy for the first time, the heretics can speak for themselves.” 8 Pagels’s book, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, arguably did more than any other effort to ingratiate the Gnostics to modern Americans. Although many of these documents had been referred to and denounced in the writings of early church theologians such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, most of the texts themselves had been thought to be extinct. It was released as The Nag Hammadi Library and was reissued in revised form in 1988. Some of the texts were first published singly or in small collections, but the complete collection was not made available in a popular format in English until 1977. Although several of the texts were burned or thrown out, fifty-two texts were eventually recovered through many years of intrigue involving illegal sales, violence, smuggling, and academic rivalry. Inside the jar were thirteen leather-bound papyrus books (codices), dating from approximately A.D. ![]() What was found has been for hundreds of scholars far more precious than gold. His fear of uncorking an evil spirit or jin was shortly overcome by the hope of finding gold within. In December 1945, while digging for soil to fertilize crops, an Arab peasant named Muhammad ‘Ali found a red earthenware jar near Nag Hammadi, a city in upper Egypt. The full article can be viewed by following the link below the excerpt. The following is an excerpt from article DG040-1 from the Christian Research Journal. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |