The Gnostic Scriptures Second Edition

Author : Bentley Layton,David Brakke,John Collins
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 761 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2021-07-06
Category : Gnosticism
ISBN : 9780300208542

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The Gnostic Scriptures, Second Edition by Bentley Layton,David Brakke,John Collins Pdf

A collection of extra-biblical scriptures written by the gnostics, updated with three ancient texts including the recently discovered Gospel of Judas This definitive introduction to the gnostic scriptures provides a crucial look at the theology, religious atmosphere, and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism. It provides authoritative translations of ancient texts from Greek, Latin, and Coptic, with introductions, bibliographies, and annotations. The texts are organized to reflect the history of gnosticism in the second through fourth centuries CE. This second edition provides updates throughout and adds three new ancient texts, including the recently discovered Gospel of Judas.

Author : Bentley Layton
Publisher : Anchor Bible
Page : 586 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 1987
Category : Religion
ISBN : UOM:39015011906206

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The Gnostic Scriptures by Bentley Layton Pdf

This definitive introduction to the gnostic scriptures provides a crucial look at the theology, religious atmosphere, and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism. Includeds maps and tables

Author : Willis Barnstone,Marvin Meyer
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 896 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2009-06-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0834824140

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The Gnostic Bible by Willis Barnstone,Marvin Meyer Pdf

Gnosticism was a wide-ranging religious movement of the first millennium CE—with earlier antecedents and later flourishings—whose adherents sought salvation through knowledge and personal religious experience. Gnostic writings offer striking perspectives on both early Christian and non-Christian thought. For example, some gnostic texts suggest that god should be celebrated as both mother and father, and that self-knowledge is the supreme path to the divine. Only in the past fifty years has it become clear how far the gnostic influence spread in ancient and medieval religions—and what a marvelous body of scriptures it produced. The selections gathered here, in poetic, readable translation, represent Jewish, Christian, Hermetic, Mandaean, Manichaean, Islamic, and Cathar expressions of gnostic spirituality. Their regions of origin include Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, the Middle East, Syria, Iraq, China, and France. Also included are introductions, notes, an extensive glossary, and a wealth of suggestions for further reading.

Author : Willis Barnstone,Marvin W. Meyer
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 874 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781590301999

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The Gnostic Bible by Willis Barnstone,Marvin W. Meyer Pdf

The most comprehensive collection of gnostic literature ever published, this volume is the result of a unique collaboration between a renowned poet-translator and a leading scholar of early Christian texts.

Author : Bentley Layton
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 761 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : RELIGION
ISBN : 0300255578

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The Gnostic Scriptures by Bentley Layton Pdf

A collection of extra-biblical scriptures written by the gnostics, updated with three ancient texts including the recently discovered Gospel of Judas.

Author : Andrew Phillip Smith
Publisher : Watkins Media Limited
Page : 175 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2012-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781780284644

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The Gnostics by Andrew Phillip Smith Pdf

According to the ancient Gnostics—the early Christians who wrote such controversial texts as the recently discovered Gospel of Judas—we are all capable of gnosis, or direct knowledge of the true reality that lies behind the material world. Andrew Phillip Smith, author of respected works on the lost sayings of Jesus, the Gospel of Philip, and other Gnostic subjects, now offers a highly accessible layman’s introduction to this long-suppressed philosophy that offers an intriguing alternative to accepted Christian beliefs. With references to The Da Vinci Code, The Matrix, and other fictions inspired by the Gnostic worldview, this is an eye-opening, and possibly life-changing book meant to revive forgotten traditions, and perhaps even allow readers to experience gnosis themselves.

Author : Elaine Pagels
Publisher : Random House
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2004-06-29
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781588364173

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The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels Pdf

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time The Gnostic Gospels is a landmark study of the long-buried roots of Christianity, a work of luminous scholarship and wide popular appeal. First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow in reputation and influence over the past two decades. It is now widely recognized as one of the most brilliant and accessible histories of early Christian spirituality published in our time. In 1945 an Egyptian peasant unearthed what proved to be the Gnostic Gospels, thirteen papyrus volumes that expounded a radically different view of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ from that of the New Testament. In this spellbinding book, renowned religious scholar Elaine Pagels elucidates the mysteries and meanings of these sacred texts both in the world of the first Christians and in the context of Christianity today. With insight and passion, Pagels explores a remarkable range of recently discovered gospels, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, to show how a variety of “Christianities” emerged at a time of extraordinary spiritual upheaval. Some Christians questioned the need for clergy and church doctrine, and taught that the divine could be discovered through spiritual search. Many others, like Buddhists and Hindus, sought enlightenment—and access to God—within. Such explorations raised questions: Was the resurrection to be understood symbolically and not literally? Was God to be envisioned only in masculine form, or feminine as well? Was martyrdom a necessary—or worthy—expression of faith? These early Christians dared to ask questions that orthodox Christians later suppressed—and their explorations led to profoundly different visions of Jesus and his message. Brilliant, provocative, and stunning in its implications, The Gnostic Gospels is a radical, eloquent reconsideration of the origins of the Christian faith.

Author : James McConkey Robinson
Publisher : Brill Archive
Page : 516 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 1984
Category : Gnostic literature
ISBN : 9004071857

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The Nag Hammadi Library in English by James McConkey Robinson Pdf

Author : Rodolphe Kasser,Marvin Meyer,Gregor Wurst,Francois Gaudard
Publisher : National Geographic Books
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2008-06-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781426204159

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The Gospel of Judas, Second Edition by Rodolphe Kasser,Marvin Meyer,Gregor Wurst,Francois Gaudard Pdf

For 1,600 years its message lay hidden. When the bound papyrus pages of this lost gospel finally reached scholars who could unlock its meaning, they were astounded. Here was a gospel that had not been seen since the early days of Christianity, and which few experts had even thought existed–a gospel told from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, history’s ultimate traitor. And far from being a villain, the Judas that emerges in its pages is a hero. In this radical reinterpretation, Jesus asks Judas to betray him. In contrast to the New Testament Gospels, Judas Iscariot is presented as a role model for all those who wish to be disciples of Jesus and is the one apostle who truly understands Jesus. Discovered by farmers in the 1970s in Middle Egypt, the codex containing the gospel was bought and sold by antiquities traders, secreted away, and carried across three continents, all the while suffering damage that reduced much of it to fragments. In 2001, it finally found its way into the hands of a team of experts who would painstakingly reassemble and restore it. The Gospel of Judas has been translated from its original Coptic to clear prose, and is accompanied by commentary that explains its fascinating history in the context of the early Church, offering a whole new way of understanding the message of Jesus Christ.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Turner Publishing Company
Page : 178 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2012-12-14
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781594733680

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The Secret Book of John by Anonim Pdf

This ancient Gnostic text can be a companion for your own spiritual quest The Secret Book of John is the most significant and influential text of the ancient Gnostic religion. Part of the library of books found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, this central myth of Gnosticism tells the story of how God fell from perfect Oneness to imprisonment in the material world, and how by knowing our divine nature and our divine origins—that we are one with God—we reverse God’s descent and find our salvation. The Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospel—Annotated & Explained decodes the principal themes, historical foundation, and spiritual contexts of this challenging yet fundamental Gnostic teaching. Drawing connections to Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, kabbalistic Judaism, and Sufism, Davies focuses on the mythology and psychology of the Gnostic religious quest. He illuminates the Gnostics’ ardent call for self-awareness and introspection, and the empowering message that divine wholeness will be restored not by worshiping false gods in an illusory material world but by our recognition of the inherent divinity within ourselves. Now you can experience and understand this foundational teaching even if you have no previous knowledge of Gnosticism. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents the most important and valued book in Gnostic religion with insightful yet unobtrusive commentary. It provides deeper insight into the understanding that in Gnosticism the distinction between savior and saved ceases to exist—you must save yourself and in doing so save God.

Author : Bentley Layton
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 530 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 1995-01-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0300140134

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The Gnostic Scriptures by Bentley Layton Pdf

This introduction to the gnostic scriptures takes a look at the theology, religious atmosphere and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism.

Author : Marvin Meyer,Willis Barnstone
Publisher : Shambhala Publications
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2011-11-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781590309254

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Essential Gnostic Scriptures by Marvin Meyer,Willis Barnstone Pdf

The people we’ve come to call gnostics were passionate advocates of the view that salvation comes through knowledge and personal experience, and their passion shines through in the remarkable body of writings they produced over a period of more than a millennium and a half. Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer have created a translation that brings the gnostic voices to us from across the centuries with remarkable power and beauty—beginning with texts from the earliest years of Christianity—including material from the Nag Hammadi library—and continuing all the way up to expressions of gnostic wisdom found within Islam and in the Cathar movement of the Middle Ages. The twenty-one texts included here serve as a compact introduction to Gnosticism and its principal ideas—and they also provide an entrée to the pleasures of gnostic literature in general, representing, as they do, the greatest masterpieces of that tradition.

Author : Joseph Lumpkin
Publisher : Fifth Estate Incorporated
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2006-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1933580267

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The Gnostic Scriptures by Joseph Lumpkin Pdf

To understand some of the basic beliefs of Gnosticism, let us start with the common ground shared between Gnosticism and modern Christianity. Both believe the world is imperfect, corrupt, and brutal. The blame for this, according to mainstream Christianity, is placed squarely on the shoulders of man himself. With the fall of man (Adam), the world was forever changed to the undesirable and harmful place in which we live today. However, Gnostics reject this view as an incorrect interpretation of the creation myth. According to Gnostics, the blame is not in ourselves, but in our creator. The creator of this world was himself somewhat less than perfect and in fact, deeply flawed and cruel, making mankind the children of a lesser God....The parallel between Sophia and Mary Magdalene in Gnostic theology cannot be overstated. Sophia was the handmaiden of the Supreme God, carrying the life force, which was the emanation of God. She carried the truth within her, which she offered to Adam. The truth was offered up to set him free. Mary was the consort of Jesus, carrying the imparted knowledge and possibly his life force in the form of a child. She revealed to the apostles the truth Jesus personally and intimately gave to her alone. We will see this stated clearly in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene later in this book.

Author : Charles B. Puskas,C. Michael Robbins
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 394 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2011-06-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781606087855

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An Introduction to the New Testament, Second Edition by Charles B. Puskas,C. Michael Robbins Pdf

Studying the New Testament requires a determination to encounter this collection of writings on its own terms. This classic introduction by Charles B. Puskas, revised with C. Michael Robbins, provides helpful guidance. Since the publication of the first edition, which was in print for twenty years, a host of new and diverse cultural, historical, social-scientific, socio-rhetorical, narrative, textual, and contextual studies has been examined. Attentive also to the positive reviews of the first edition, the authors retain the original tripartite arrangement on 1) the world of the New Testament, 2) interpreting the New Testament, and 3) Jesus and early Christianity. This volume supplies readers with pertinent primary and secondary material. The new edition carries on a genuine effort to be nonsectarian, and although it is more of a critical introduction than a general survey, it is recommended to midlevel college and seminary students and to anyone who wants to be better informed about the New Testament.

Author : Andrew Phillip Smith
Publisher : Watkins Media Limited
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2015-11-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781780288833

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The Secret History of the Gnostics by Andrew Phillip Smith Pdf

The Secret History of the Gnostics offers long-awaited illumination on the mystical movement that teaches 'gnosis' - knowledge of God as opposed to unquestioning faith. Acclaimed author Andrew Phillip Smith delves into the myths and practices of this ancient movement, exploring its popularity during 2nd century AD, its subsequent decline under the weight of orthodoxy in the Church, and its present-day resurgence. Gnosticism has travelled a fascinating path - from the Manichaeans in Modern Persia between the 3rd and 7th centuries AD, to the triumphs and tragedies of the Cathars in Southern Europe between the 12th and 14th centuries, to, finally, today's Mandaeans in Iraq. However, as the author points out, the revival of Gnosticism extends further than these narrow sects, offering inspiration to a legion of literary figures, including Dan Brown and Philip Pullman. Gnosticism's emphasis on personal over organized religion, in keeping with the doctrine of the early Christian era during which it thrived, has found particular resonance with today's multicultural world. The Secret History of the Gnostics is not simply an authoritative account of one sect's practical beliefs and customs - it is, in effect, a manifesto, an appeal to those inspired by or drawn to the Gnostic faith not to forget its origins.