Nag Hammadi?

Hi Briocht,

There are quite a few Gospels discovered/re-discovered in recent decades. The Jesus Seminar has published a Scholars Version of all known Gospels (over 20) in 'The Complete Gospels'. I think quite a few are Nag Hammadi in origin. It is a fascinating read. In fact the whole topic of the origins of the book we call the Bible today has been pretty intensively researched in the last 100+ years and has been pretty well laid to rest in general. The current topic I am studying is a revision in the dating of the pieces of the New Testament.

The non-canonized books were forgeries. Many Gnostics tried to write their teachings into Christianity with forged letters and accounts, but the early church leaders recognized them as counterfeit, both in their content and in their origin. Also, the Jesus Seminar has a strong non-Christian bias. Despite its name, its people are not the highest scholarly authorities on Jesus or the early church.

With the exceptions of James and Hebrews, every book now included in the New Testament was already brought together circa 170 AD. They claim that there were four gospels which they accepted as genuine, having been written during the lifetimes of the actual witnesses to the events. They also list all of St. Paul's epistles which we now accept in the canon.

You can read the list here:

www.bible-researcher.com/muratorian.html

Sketcher said:

Also, the Jesus Seminar has a strong non-Christian bias.

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That is what makes them and other non-Christian scholars so valuable, you will get an unbiased point of view. But I do think the scholarly consensus is that almost all of the gospel material outside of the Four is fanciful and derivative except perhaps a few verses in Thomas because it is so early, but that is conjecture.

The early church fathers correctly took a very hard line (as we would) of forgeries and pseudo-graphy. A lot of their output was against various ideas and writings.

Harry3142 said:

With the exceptions of James and Hebrews, every book now included in the New Testament was already brought together circa 170 AD.

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It is also interesting to note that the 4th century Codex Sinaiticus included a number of apocryphal books and its version of the New Testament included books Epistle of Barnabas and The Shepherd of Hermas. The Codex Vaticanus (early 300s) also had various books missing or included. Even later the 5th century Codex Alexandrinus includes 1 Clement and 2 Clement in the NT. There are lots of variants between these great codices.

Just goes to show that the Bible evolved and is still evolving. Luther for instance move some books out of the NT in his German 1522 edition. Joseph Smith added a whole new Testament to the Bible in 1830.

briocht said:

I don't know if many have heard of this hoard that was found. But basically they found ancient manuscripts about the teachings of Christ.

They included several different gospels such as the Gospel of Thomas.

I think it's really interesting and it's made me wonder about the Bible, for example some of Paul's letters didn't make it into the Bible-why?

Learning about it has kind of made me question some things but I don't really know what to make of it.

How do you guys see these texts?

x

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I see these texts as ones that should only be read AFTER the *whole* bible has been read carefully and the Christian has a *good* understanding of the Gospel and fundamental Christian beliefs. Of course some people will never do that for whatever reason, so they should definitely leave those texts alone.

Would you want a medical student reading advanced pathology (diseases) textbooks before they knew what good health looks like? Or law students reading difficult crime cases before they know all the laws involved?

Why do you think you should be reading heretical - often mixing truth with subtle error too -texts before you are more mature in your faith then?

briocht said in post 1:

But basically they found ancient manuscripts about the teachings of Christ.

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The Nag Hammadi manuscripts are Gnostic.

Gnosticism is an ancient religious movement which says that everything material is inherently evil, while only that which is pure spirit can be good. Gnosticism teaches the lie that all humans used to be pure spirit and dwelling in bliss from all eternity in a purely-spiritual heaven called the "Pleroma", until by some mishap humanity fell into the material universe and became trapped in fleshly bodies. Gnosticism reviles YHWH, the God of Biblical Christians, and the Creator of the material universe and of all fleshly bodies, as an evil, subordinate deity, a "Demiurge", who is keeping humans imprisoned and suffering in fleshly bodies and in the material universe.

Gnosticism became the main enemy of the early church, just as it will become the main enemy of the church during the future tribulation. For the Antichrist will be a Gnostic. He will teach the Gnostic/antichrist lie that Christ is not in the flesh (1 John 4:3). And the Antichrist, like the Gnostics, will utterly revile YHWH (Revelation 13:6, Daniel 11:36). The Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of the beast) will instead bring the world into the worship of Lucifer (Satan, the dragon) and himself (Revelation 13:4, Revelation 12:9).

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Gnosticism has some core teachings in common with the major religions of Buddhism and Hinduism:

1. The material realm is unreal and evil. (Both Buddhism and Gnosticism got this mistaken idea, originally called "Maya", from Hinduism.)

2. People must strive to escape the material realm completely and enter into a state which is wholly non-physical (Parinirvana in Buddhism, the Pleroma in Gnosticism). Buddhism and Gnosticism got this mistaken idea, originally called "Brahman", from Hinduism.

3. The way for people to get free from their imprisonment within the material realm is through their minds attaining a certain level of enlightenment (Nirvana in Buddhism, Gnosis in Gnosticism). Buddhism and Gnosticism got this mistaken idea, originally called "Moksha", from Hinduism.

4. The way for their minds to attain this certain level of enlightenment is through following the way of the Serpent (one legend of Buddhism says that the Buddha was given the true Buddhism by the King of the Serpents; and in Gnosticism, Gnosis comes from the Christ/the Serpent). Both Buddhism and Gnosticism got this mistaken idea of the enlightening serpent, originally called "Kundalini", from Hinduism. (Regarding the serpent in Genesis 3, Gnostics see him as the good guy, just as they see YHWH as the bad guy.)

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The Bible contradicts each of the four points above:

1. The material realm is real, and was created very good (Genesis 1:31). God himself is in the flesh (John 1:1,14, Luke 24:39) and remains wholly without sin (Hebrews 4:15). So there is nothing evil about matter in itself.

2. People must strive to attain to a resurrection (Philippians 3:11) into an immortal human body of flesh and bones, like the immortal human body of flesh and bones that Jesus obtained at his resurrection (Luke 24:39, Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:21-23,51-54, Romans 8:23-25), and in which Jesus will remain forever as our fully-human mediator/high priest (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:16-17, Hebrews 7:24-26). His tomb is empty (Matthew 28:6), and when he returns he will show the scars of the Crucifixion on his body (Zechariah 13:6, Zechariah 12:10-14).

3. Resurrected people who have been truly enlightened/illuminated (Ephesians 1:18, Hebrews 10:32) by Jesus Christ (John 14:6-7, John 8:32, John 3:36) will remain in the material realm, ultimately living on a new earth with God (Revelation 21:1-4).

4. The Serpent, Satan/Lucifer, is the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9).