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The Gnostic Gospels

            This book is a study of the Gnostic religion versus the Roman Catholic Church and other orthodox Christian sects. It looks into the differences in their beliefs in the writings of The New Testament.
             The book also explains what Gnosis is. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as "esoteric knowledge of spiritual truth held by the ancient Gnostics to be essential to salvation." In other words, it is what the ancient Gnostics believed to be the truth of spirituality, which was necessary for them to be saved. The book raises questions like whether God is male or female, and whether there is more than one God proven in the Bible.
             Elaine Pagels also discusses how the two Christian churches were formed in the beginning and how and why the present version won out. She explains in her book that the legal authority given by the Roman Emperors to the orthodox church eventually led to the lawful persecution of both the Gnostic sects and the pagan religions. She makes it clear in The Gnostic Gospels that Orthodoxy's legal authority nearly eradicated the various groups along with their beliefs, rituals and ceremonies.
             She gives a rational explanation for why the Church deemed the Gnostic gospels to be dangerous and banned them. The coexistence of the Gnostic ideas alongside all the other views of Jesus" divinity was a direct challenge to the power structure of the Church. This power was a consolidating one, to strengthen the Church. The orthodox position that developed was aimed at keeping the early Christian movement together in order that it might survive the state persecution of the Roman Empire.
             The Gnostic understanding of Jesus took the Church's existence to be unnecessary. It said that one did not have to go through Jesus and the Church, but could approach God on one's own. In later eras, the popes adopted the belief that there is no salvation outside the Church.
             I find this to be a fascinating conflict.


Essays Related to The Gnostic Gospels

1. Gnosticism: Divergent Christianity

The Gospel of Truth is a Valentinian account of their stance on the matter of salvation through knowledge. ... Until the discovery of thirteen primary Gnostic texts near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, Irenaeus and other similar apologists provided nearly all information about Gnosticism. ... The Gospel of Truth has been linked to the Valentinian sect; it is a reflection on the life and teachings of Jesus, expressing the principle that the knowledge of God destroys ignorance. This Gospel described the life of gnosis and the torment that is an ignorant life; the ultimate goal is to return to the F...

  • Word Count: 2211
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Gnosticism It's Early Beginnings and It's Assault on today's Christianity

Gnosticism has been around since before the birth of Christ. ... I will start with a broad definition of Gnosticism. ... Much of what Paul's letter's were designed to accomplish was to reeducate and strengthen the early church understandings of the canon gospels and the teaching of Jesus. ... This was most notable in the 3rd and 4th century with the different parts of the world recognizing different books as gospel. How does the gnostic influence effect today's society? ...

  • Word Count: 1846
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. The Widespread Influence of Christianity

In God the Father/God the Mother: The Gnostic Gospels and the Suppression of Early Christian Feminism, Pagels shows how political and social concerns shaped Christianity's treatment of women, but doesn't specifically state how. ... " According to Thomas in the Gnostic Gospels, Jesus states, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males (University Reader 93).... So while the majority of the working class followed and spread a more egalitarian teaching, the formation of a standardized teaching forced the...

  • Word Count: 864
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Life of christ

The gospel of Peter tells this story as well as the gospel of Matthew. ... The Gospel of the Ebonite's appears to be a harmonization of the canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Another non-canonical gospel is the gospel of the Nazoreans. ... After these documents were translated they were found to be from the Gnostic origin, such as the Gospel of Truth, The Gospel of the Egyptians, the Apocryphon of John, the Acts of peter and the twelve Disciples, and the Apocalypse of Peter. ... Thomas's fourteen gospels have parallels in many of the Synoptic Gospels. ...

  • Word Count: 1304
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Triumph of Christianity in the High Middle Ages

Starting with gospels emphasized teachings that leaned towards Gnosticism, which taught that Jesus was a pure spirit and denied the duality of Christ. ... Soon after Gnosticism came Donatism, which was in response to the persecutions of Diocletian. ...

  • Word Count: 920
  • Approx Pages: 4

6. A Brief History of Christianity

Christianity is a religion of Abraham monotheistic which tends to be based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the biblical canon as Christ. Within the sacred texts and writings related to Christianity, it shares common grounds with Judaism the Tanakh, which in general ten...

  • Word Count: 2426
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. A Heart That Moves God

The Gnostics hailed her as the companion of the Savior and the woman He loved most. ... All that we really know of the real Magdalen are the four facts noted in the Gospels: she was one of Christ's followers; she was present at His crucifixion; she was one of the earliest witnesses of His resurrection; and she was the first person to be charged with proclaiming the Christian message. ... According to the Gospels, she was someone that Jesus had cast out seven demons. ... In other words, she gives her Lord everything she has, not only her body and her heart; but all of her finances to sup...

  • Word Count: 1729
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Iconic Women of Islam and Christianity

The story, mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, tells of a woman who anoints Jesus with an expensive perfume. ... Only in the Gospel of Luke, however, is it intimated that the woman is a sinner, and with the Pharisee's comment about "what sort of woman this is," one might be inclined to believe her sin is lust.2 In conjunction with the other three Gospels, Bourgeault remarks that this prompted the belief that "since this woman is also identified as Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany must be the same person.... "5 Another point of...

  • Word Count: 3461
  • Approx Pages: 14
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Women in Abrahamic Religions

We do note however the more frequent appearance of women in Christian scripture, such as Mary Magdalene, an early female disciple thought to have been of Gnostic orientation. We do see, however, even the questioning of Mary as a woman by Peter, who comments in The Gospel of Mary "Has the Sa[vior] spoken so secretly to a wo[m]an and [not] so openly so that [we] would all here? ... (The Gospel of Mary: 10, 428). ...

  • Word Count: 1334
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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