Gnostic Gospels

The Gnostic gospels have been the subject of much debate for centuries, especially regarding the Orthodox Church’s opposition to the validity of gospels outside of those canonized gospels of the New Testament. Author Elaine Pagels consolidated her research on this topic in the book titled The Gnostic Gospels. This text provides some insight into the struggles that helped shape beliefs of the Gnostics and the early Orthodox Church as they responded to attacks of heresy from one another. The purpose of this review is not an all-inclusive review of the entire book, but a focused look at two important chapters: one that addresses various interpretations of the resurrection of Christ and another that deals with the question of which church should…

Islam, a religion heavily based of the Gnostic Gospels, is being looked to as the holder of all that is sacred and holy. The Church is being fractured, internally. Not since Luther nailed his 95 Point Theses to the church door in Wittenberg (sic) have we seen such division. But, unlike Luther who was pointing out the gross fallacies of the practices of the Catholic Church by selling Indulgences in replacement of Penances’, The Church is now fractured in order to win converts by turning a blind…

Introduction/Thesis (approximately 75 words) Where persecution existed for the belief that a crucified present from a distant land was either a stumbling block to self-righteousness or foolishness to a Platonian gnostic culture, what can be said to instill confidence to someone who has never met? The book of Romans, written from Corinth by the Apostle Paul to the Roman church in 56-57 A.D. is considered one of the best expositions of the Gospel (Hindson & Towns 2016). This exposition, inspired…

Pauline Christianity ? Include a broad description of the Gospel of Thomas, the Book of Thomas the Contender, and the Acts of Thomas , pointing to their similarity and differences Gospel of Thomas According to class lecture notes on November 17th 2016 , The Gospel of Thomas can be set during the early part of the 2nd century . It seems that the Gospel of Thomas was an contemporary with the Gospel of John 1…

The first books of the New Testament to be considered authoritative was called the fourfold or the four gospels. Jordan Daniel May gives a good argument in his essay “The Four Pillars: the Four Fold Gospel Before the Time of Irenaeus” of how it is almost certain that Justin Martyr and Irenaeus both considered the gospel canon closed because most of their quotes come from these four books. Justin used mainly these four books during worship meetings that he held while Irenaeus said God made four…

The book, Can We Trust the Gospels, attempts to answer two basic questions that are posed to many Christians at least once in their lifetime: Do the Gospels provide reliable, historical information about Jesus of Nazareth? And do they offer a trustworthy basis for having faith in Jesus Christ? The author, Mark Roberts, is referring to the first four books found in today’s New Testament Bible, not other texts or “gnostic gospels” that are found elsewhere in literature. The author claims that…

The letter to Theodore by Clement claims the pollution of ‘the sacred meaning’ of the secret book of Mark took place because of a supposed ‘copied text’ that told shameful lies that was developed by the Carpocratians. This group was mainly prominent in the second century and was known to be one of the most scandalous of the Gnostic sects, an early and extreme variance that claimed to be Christian. Their teachings centered on the belief that only by committing all possible sexual acts could a…

The portrayal of Jesus as the Son of God, the Savior, and the Lord and what it means to believe in his identity makes this gospel relevant to the church. In the first verse of chapter one he writes, “When the world began, the word existed already. The word was with God. And the word was God himself. The word was present with God at the beginning of all things. God made everything by means of the Word. The Word caused all things to exist. He gave life to everything that God created His life gave…

Paper Having to challenge traditional beliefs has been a thought a provoking process, since I was told from an early age that everything inscribed in the Bible was deemed historically accurate. But as time prolongs, and since it makes sense, it has been easier to accept. The information I acquire continues to question faith and facts. My knowledge of the Bible, continues to invigorate every day. Towards the end of the Semester, we began analyzing and studying in depth the Gospel of…

The Gospel of Mary is a non-canonical Gnostic gospel that is attributed to have been written by Mary Magdalene or Mary the mother of Jesus. Three copies of the gospel have been discovered, one was written in the Sahidic dialect of Coptic, and two others in Greek. Most scholars agree that the first manuscript was originally written in Greek sometime during the second century CE, which was found later on in Northern Egypt. What gives us a clue that this text was written during this time was that…