What is known about the Gnostic Christians

[PerrySB]

It is my understanding that there was a very strong movement during the early days of Christianity but the orthodox church deemed them heretics. I’m curious about the Nag Hammadi writings that were found in 1945, were any of those writing authenticated as actually being penned by the various disciples of Jesus and the apostle Paul.

 

[Sphinx777]

It is my understanding that there was a very strong movement during the early days of Christianity but the orthodox church deemed them heretics. I’m curious about the Nag Hammadi writings that were found in 1945, were any of those writing authenticated as actually being penned by the various disciples of Jesus and the apostle Paul.

Gnostics: The Original Christians Or Original Heretics???

 

[chingchang]

It is my understanding that there was a very strong movement during the early days of Christianity but the orthodox church deemed them heretics. I’m curious about the Nag Hammadi writings that were found in 1945, were any of those writing authenticated as actually being penned by the various disciples of Jesus and the apostle Paul.

Good question. I don't know the answer...but if "yes"...then they (Nag Hammadi writtings) are more significant to developing a "right understanding" of our God than the books currently contained in our NT. Note that the Catholic Church had these writings burned and the "heretics" were either "converted" or killed. None of the manuscripts that have been used to develop our NT were originally "penned" by the Apostles. What we have are copies of copies (...of copies) "penned" by scribes.

Keep searching Brother!
chingchang

 

[PerrySB]

Well this was an eye opener. First of all I have only read a few of the Nag Hammadi writings. So far I seen nothing that refuted the deity of Jesus however I haven’t read them all. I do realize that many cults have started up by distorting scripture.

Because of some experiences in my life I began studding near death experiences and the incredible circumstantial evidence surrounding these experiences. Most of these experiences confirm Jesus being who He is the son of God this includes people that were formerly atheist. This is how I became aware of the Gnostic Christians.
I’m fully aware that Paul warned in Corinthians of false teaching. However so far these writing do challenge the belief of salvation by faith alone. Since I came from a very strict legalistic background I to struggle with the faith alone theology. My questions are more alone the lines of can these writing shed new light that actually support our faith in Christ even though they may challenge certain theological beliefs.

Sphinx777 I read all the material you presented however I do have some questions regarding some opinions expressed there. However I will reframe from them until I have read all the Nag Hammadi writings. There are some inconstancies with the dating of some of these writings. I do want to thank you for sharing that with me.

 

[dayhiker]

I've done some studing of the Gnostic writtings. My take:

Most of the Gnostic writings were written later than our NT books.
The Gnostics had a Greek world view not a Jewish world view. That means that they saw the Spirit world as good and the physical world as evil.
Thus the Gnostic loved God the father as God is spirit. But Jesus while a servant of God had a physical body and thus is tied to this evil physical world.

As for the validity of our NT, yes we don't have the orginals, but we have copies that are very close to the originals in time. The differences that we have in the copies have been well documented and all mordern Bibles have notes letting the readers know about them. There are only like 4 major differnace all the others are small differance. None of the differnce change the message of Salvation being in Christ.

The story in my mind of the church and the Gnostics is how the church treated the Gnostics. The church had just came out from 200+ years of periodic persecution and Constinine made Christianity the accepted religion of the Roman empire. While I'm not awear of individual church attacking Gnostic churches. The church stood by while the government persecuted the Gnostics. That goes against Jesus' message about being anti violence. Its one of the big mistakes of the church, that isn't being taught. I read early church history more than once and took Chruch history in college and this was totally ignored.

dayhiker

 

[Adrift*]

Almost all of the gnostic texts date centuries later than the New Testament, with most scholars dating them to the late 2nd, 3rd, and 4th century. The only text that may have existed earlier is the Gospel of Thomas which may have dated to the late 1st to mid 2nd century. Outside of a very small group of scholars who make up the group called the 'Jesus Seminar', most scholars believe that the gnostics were exactly what they appear to be, a clearly heretical splinter group off of mainline Christianity that eventually died out. The Nag Hammadi writings are extremely interesting from a historicists point of view, but there's no reason to get excited about it from a faith or spiritual perspective.

Outside of tabloid-like sensationalism in History channel documentaries or DaVinci Code conspiracy theories, the writings are too late (and in many places, too flaky) to have any bearing on church doctrine. There are other apocrypha, similarly disregarded by the early church like The Gospel of Peter, which was obviously not written by Peter, but written in the late 2nd century. It has the cross that Jesus was crucified on bounding out of his tomb and talking. Another, is the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which has Jesus as a child creating doves out of mud and killing a bully with the same curse he uses to wither the fig tree that produces no fruit.

A great book on the gnostic gospels and the recent excitement over them is professor Philip Jenkins' "Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost its Way". William Lane Craig also deals with Gnostic Gospels very well on his Reasonable Faith website.

 

[PerrySB]

I want to thank each of you for your insights. I was actually unaware of them until just recently. What I have read of the writing really haven’t given me any reason to be swayed away from orthodox Christianity. One thing I did notice was that Jesus supposedly shared spiritual secrets with the disciples that wasn’t given to the remainder of his followers.
I have been doing some research on people that have had near death or actual death experiences and then were either resuscitated or came back to life. Many of these people had flat EEGs (were basically brain dead). My focus has been on those who claim to have either met Jesus once there spirit left the body or had experiences that substantiated what we Christians know to be true. There is overwhelming circumstantial evidence that these experiences are true, however some of the testimonies do challenge certain orthodox Christian beliefs such as reincarnation, preexistence or our spirit, and a few others. However the main theme of most all these people is the overwhelming love God has for us, and the importance of us loving others, but we already knew that, but the world doesn’t.

 

[pclarkwilson]

Bart Ehrman in his book "Lost Scriptures" has some very good information on early Christian sects such as the Gnostics, Ebionites and others. it is well worth the price and time to read.

 

[Dark_Lite]

The Gnostics weren't entirely Christian. They span several centuries and belief systems that all kind of meshed together. It's a rather interesting set of beliefs, actually.

 

[StreetPreacher82]

Bart Ehrman in his book "Lost Scriptures" has some very good information on early Christian sects such as the Gnostics, Ebionites and others. it is well worth the price and time to read.

The Ebionites are a whole different group. Some folks actually believe Mark (yes, that Mark) was their leader. What does Ehrman have to say? Just curious?

 

[Tonks]

It is all a big secret.