Excerpts from the Gnostic Gospels

Excerpts from the Gnostic Gospels Showing their Radically Different Cosmology and Theology.

The so-called "Gnostic gospels" have been wildly popular over the past several decades, in particular ever since Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code was published. I am convinced that the majority of people who are so enthralled with the Gnostic gospels really don't understand them. My first blog was on ancient Gnosticism and its resurgence of popularity. This fourth blog will examine what the Gnostic gospels actually teach, and whether it constitutes anything which could be called "good news."

As should become apparent shortly, the so-called “Gnostic gospels,” were rejected from the NT canon for very good reasons. Firstly, they were all written too late—the earliest Gnostic texts only date from ca. 150 AD, long after the NT gospels were completed and being quoted as sacred scripture.

Secondly, the Gnostic texts teach an alien cosmology and theology. Essentially, Gnosticism was Platonism on steroids. In Platonism, the abstract was more real than the concrete or physical; in Platonism the created material universe is a shadow or copy of the real, eternal realm of the Forms (concepts like Goodness; Beauty; Truth; Justice; etc.). Gnostics took this a step further, saying that the physical universe was the evil creation of a false, imposter god, often identified with the Hebrew God Yahweh. At creation, certain “divine sparks” became trapped in physical bodies. Jesus, in Christian Gnosticism (there were pagan forms of it) came to earth to teach these (mostly male) “spiritual people” how to realize their divinity, free their divine spark, and escape the constraints of physical existence (kind of like the Ancients in the three Stargate series). In Gnosticism Jesus’ body is just an illusion, or one that the Christ spirit merely takes over and inhabits, and at his crucifixion, he switches places with Simon, who is killed in his place. In Gnosticism, the original sin was creation. Gnostics tended to be anti-creation, anti-feminine; anti-Jewish; and though some were libertines, others were aesthetics. Of the fifty-two Gnostic texts discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1947, only five actually indentify themselves as gospels. The italics in what follows are mine.

On the Mistake of Creation.

From the Gospel of Philip, ca. 180-250 AD:

“The world came about through a mistake. For he who created it wanted to create it imperishable and immortal. He fell short of attaining his desire. For the world was never imperishable, nor, for that matter, was he who made the world.”—The Gospel of Philip, 75

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From the Gospel of Mary, ca. 120-180 AD:

"Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal, which proceeded from something contrary to nature. Then there arises a disturbance in the whole body, That is why I said to you, 'Be of good courage,' and if you are discouraged, be encouraged in the presence of different forms of nature. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."—Gospel of Mary 8:2b-5.

From The Treatise on the Resurrection, ca. 170-200:

“Strong is the system of the Pleroma; small is that which broke loose and became the world.” –The Treatise on the Resurrection 46:35-38.

From The Gospel of Truth, ca. 250-350 AD:

“Ignorance of the Father brought about anguish and terror; and the anguish grew solid like a fog, so that no one was able to see. For this reason error became powerful; it worked on its own matter foolishly, not having known the truth. It set about with a creation, preparing with power and beauty the substitute for the truth.” –Gospel of Truth 17:10-20.

The Contemptible Nature of the Human Body.

From the Gospel of Philip, ca. 180-250 AD:

”No one will hide a large valuable object in something large, but many a time one has tossed countless thousands into a thing worth a penny.  Compare the soul. It is a precious thing and it came to be in a contemptible body.” –Gospel of Philip 56: 25-26.

From the Book of Thomas the Contender, ca. 150-225 AD:

“But these visible bodies survive by devouring creatures similar to them, with the result that the bodies change. Now that which changes will decay and perish, and has no hope of life from then on, since that body is bestial. So just as the body of beasts perishes, so also these formations perish. Do they not derive from intercourse like that of the beasts? If it (the body) derives from intercourse, how will it beget anything different from beasts?”—Gospel of Thomas the Contender 139:4-10.

Androgyny as the Ideal State.

From The Gospel of Philip, ca. 180-250 AD:

“When Eve was still in Adam death did not exist. When she was separated from him death came into being. If he enters again and attains his former self, death will be no more.” -  The Gospel of Philip, 68:25.

“If the Woman had not separated from the man, she should not die with the man. His separation became the beginning of death. Because of this Christ came to repair the separation which was from the beginning and again unite them. But the woman is united to her husband in the bridal chamber. Indeed, those who have united in the bridal chamber will no longer be separated. Thus Eve separated from Adam because it was not in the bridal chamber that she united with him. – The Gospel of Phillip, 70:10-20.

From The Exegesis of the Soul, ca. 200-225 AD:

“Wise men of old gave the soul a feminine name. Indeed she is female in her nature as well. She even has her womb.

“As long as she was alone with the father, she was virgin and in form androgynous.” –The Exegesis of the Soul 27:20-25.

On the Undesirability of Femaleness.

From Zostrianos, ca. 260-300 AD:

“Flee from the madness and the bondage of femaleness and choose for yourself the salvation of maleness. You have not come to suffer; rather, you have come to escape your bondage.” –Zostrianos 139: 5-8.

From The Gospel of Thomas, ca. 175-200 AD:

“Simon Peter said to them, ‘Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.’

“Jesus said, ‘I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she, too, may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.’” –Gospel of Thomas, saying 114.

From The Dialogue of the Savior, ca. 120-180 AD:

“The Lord said, ‘Pray in the place where there is no woman.’”

“Matthew said, ’Pray in the place where there is no woman, he tells us, meaning, “Destroy the works of womanhood,” not because there is any other manner of birth, but because they will cease giving birth.’” –The Dialogue of the Savior 144: 16-20.

The Spirit-Being Jesus  Takes Over Another’s Body.

From The Second Treatise of the Great Seth:

“I [Jesus] visited a bodily dwelling. I cast out the one who was in it first, and I went in. . . . I am the one who was in it, not resembling him who was in it first. For he was an earthly man, but I, I am from above the heavens. I did not refuse to become a Christ, but I did not reveal myself to them . . .” ­–Second Treatise of the Great Seth 51:25-29; 30-52:10.

There is No Sin.

From The Gospel of Mary, ca. 120-180 AD:

“Peter said to him, ‘Since you have explained everything to us, tell us this also: What is the sin of the world?’ The Savior said, ‘There is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which is called “sin.”’ –The Gospel of Mary 7:12-14.

Jesus Doesn’t Suffer or Die.

From The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, ca. date unknown:

“And I [Jesus] did not die in reality but in appearance lest I be put to shame by them because these are my kinsfolk. . . . For my death which they think happened, happened to them in their error and blindness, since they nailed their man unto their death. . . . It was another, their father, who drank the gall and the vinegar; it was not I. They struck me with the reed; it was another, Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. . .  And I was laughing at their ignorance.” –Second Treatise of the Great Seth 55:290; 30-35; 56-9-20.

From The Apocalypse of Peter, ca. 200-225 AD:

“The Savior said to me, ‘He whom you saw on the tree, glad and laughing, this is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they drive the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute being put to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness. . . .

“And he said to me, ‘Be strong, for you are the one to whom these mysteries have been given, to know them through revelation, that he whom they crucified is the first-born and the home of demons, and the stony vessel in which they dwell, of Elohim, of the cross, which is under the Law. But he who stands near him is the living Savior, the first in him, whom they seized and released, who stands joyfully looking at those who did him violence, while they are divided among themselves. Therefore he laughs at their lack of perception, knowing that they are born blind. So then the one susceptible to suffering shall come, since the body is the substitute. But what they released was my incorporeal body. But I am the intellectual Spirit filled with radiant light.” –­Apocalypse of Peter 81:5-24; 82:18-83:15.

From the First Apocalypse of James, ca. 180-250 AD:

“The Lord said, ‘James, do not be concerned for me, or for this people. I am he who was within me. Never have I suffered in any way, nor have I been distressed. And this people has done me no harm.

No Bodily Resurrection of Jesus or Anyone else.

From The Exegesis on the Soul, ca. 200-25 AD:

“Now it is fitting that the soul regenerate herself and become again as she formerly was. The soul then moves of her own accord. And she received the divine nature from the father for her rejuvenation, so that she might be restored to the place where originally she had been. This is the resurrection that is from the dead. This is the ransom from captivity.” –The Exegesis of the Soul 134: 9-14.

.From The Gospel of Philip, ca. 180-250 AD:

“Those who say the Lord died first and then rose up are in error, for he rose up first and then died. If one does not first attain the resurrection he will not die.” –Gospel of Philip 56:15-17.

After having examined what the ancient Gnostics actually believed about God, matter and creation, the feminine, procreation, and resurrection from their own texts, I honestly can't see anything that could be called "good news." The only way to do so is to reinterpret these texts to fit modern presuppositions, which is what many people, both scholars and ordinary folks do. But the Gnostics themselves wouldn't recognize these reinterpretations. The Gnostics were not a group of warm, fuzzy, environmentally friendly, pro-feminine, post-modernists who sat in a circle holding hands while singing Kum-Ba-Ya. They could be every bit as exclusivist, intolerant and dogmatic as the orthodox catholic Christians are said to have been, if not more so.

So it should be a no-brainer why the orthodox catholic Church rejected these texts and their alien cosmology and theology.

Sources:

Darrell Bock, Missing Gospels: Uncovering the Truth about Alternative Christianities

Philip Jenkins, Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost its Way

James M. Robinson, ed. The Nag Hammadi Library

Peter Jones, Stolen Identity: The Conspiracy to Reinvent Jesus (in church library)

The Nag Hammadi texts are online at: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.html