Gnostic Scripturesrejected Scriptures



The Gnostic scriptures show that there was and is a more refreshing, spiritual, honest, open, loving, and exciting way to be a Christian. Now the Hubble Telescope has proven there are over 125 billion galaxies in our universe. Of course, many are bound to the three story universe, even today, but the reality is that our thinking about the.

  • Lastly, as far as most scholars know, Gnostics considered themselves Christians and saw Jesus as a heavenly messenger. However, they rejected the idea of God becoming incarnate (God becoming a man), dying and rising bodily. 'These beliefs were considered unspiritual and against true wisdom because they entangled spirit with matter.'
  • Christian scriptures would be well represented in its Lectionary. The availability of a fairly large number of Gnostic scriptures in our days makes it possible as well as desirable, however, that scriptures of the specifically Gnostic corpus should be included in fair numbers.

(Updated 7/2/2013) – As the great gnostic Jesus said in the Gospel of Thomas; “Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. And there is nothing buried that will not be raised.”

The bible is filled with hidden esoteric Gnostic teachings and allegories on Gnosticism. However, to the uninitiated, these secret mysteries remain hidden and they are not revealed to those that simply do not have a pure heart or motives in their quest for truth.

This ancient policy of light and truth is as old as we conscious humans are. It is just the natural order of nature in which we humans must adhere to these natural laws which govern our bodies (DNA), minds and souls.

Many people are unaware that some of the most famous early Gnostics had actually helped form the religion of Christianity and also found the Catholic Church. Gnostics like Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Magician, in Latin Simon Magus, who is more commonly known today as Saint Peter. Irenaeus had said he was one of the founders of gnosticism and according to Bible scholars such as Barbara Thiering and Hans Jonas, Simon Magus was also one of the founders of the Gnostic Church.

Saint Peter is now the Rock of the Catholic Church in which we find his “title” also has secret hidden meaning contained within, and the Catholic Church is essentially an esoteric gnostic christian church. This same said priesthood had then wrote one of the best esoteric gnostic books in history called the “New Testament or New Law.”

There is a lot of hidden esoteric gnosticism contained within the scriptures and below I have included some examples of gnostic bible verses in order to help you see the light of these secret mysteries such as in 1 Corinthians 2:7 – “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” and in John 8:32 – Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

GNOSTIC BIBLE VERSES

Hosea 4:6 – My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Proverbs 24:5 – A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,

Proverbs 15:14 – The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.

Proverbs 1:29 – Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.

Genesis 2:17 – But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Proverbs 27, 7 – The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet

Proverbs 14, 6 – A scorner seeketh wisdom and findeth it not; but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth.

Proverbs 2:1-22 – My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. …

Psalm 119:66 – Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.

Proverbs 1:22 – “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

1 Corinthians 12:8 – For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, Wisdom

Proverbs 2:10-11 – for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,

Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Job 28:28 – And he said to man,’Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

James 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God,who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

Daniel 2:21 – He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings;he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;

Psalm 119:66 – Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.

Proverbs 16:22 – Good sense is a fountain of life to him who has it, but the instruction of fools is folly.

Proverbs 1:5 – Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,

Ecclesiastes 7:12 – For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it.

Biblical Example of Praying for Wisdom- Solomon

1 Kings 3:5-12 – At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.

Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word.

Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.

GNOSTIC QUOTES FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION –

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. – Revelation, 22. 13

“The Amen, the true and faithful witness.” Rev. i. 14.

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord. – Revelation, 1. 7

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. – Revelation, 3. 20

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. – Revelation, 1. 10

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. … – Revelation 3:14-22

What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. – Revelation, 1. 11

Being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. – Revelation, 1. 12

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. – Revelation, 1. 14

Gnostic

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. – Revelation, 1. 18

I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. – Revelation, 2. 4

Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. – Revelation, 2. 10

OTHER GNOSTIC BIBLE VERSES –

John 1:14 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Proverbs 2:6 – For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

James 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

1 Kings 3:12 – I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.

Nehemiah 7:5 – So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families. I found the genealogical record of those who had been the first to return. This is what I found written there:

2 Corinthians 1:20 – For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

Job 22:22 – Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.

Job 32:8 – But it is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

Psalm 51:6 – Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Ecclesiastes 2:26 – To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.

The Gnostic Gospels are ancient religious writings which falsely claim to be written by famous biblical figures such as Peter, Thomas, and Mary.

Most of the Gnostic Gospels that have survived were found in a collection of 13 books from the third and fourth century AD. The books contain a total of 52 Gnostic texts, not all of which are “gospels” or even claim to be Christian.

These were found buried in a jar near an Egyptian town called Nag Hammadi in 1945. (This is why the collection is also known as the Nag Hammadi Library.) These are the only surviving copies of many important Gnostic writings.

Scholars call these gospels “pseudepigrapha,” meaning that the claimed author is not the real author. Clues within the text—such as significant deviations in writing style and theology or references to events—point instead to the Gnostics (a catch-all term for ambiguous religious sects that sought divine knowledge). Gnosticism was a diverse spiritual movement with many branches, some of which had roots in Christianity.

Some people have referred to these books as “lost books of the Bible,” as if they were once included in the Christian canon. Some of them, including a book of sayings known as The Gospel of Thomas, even appear to contain original quotes from Jesus found nowhere else.

While they are all referred to as Gnostic texts, some of these writings (like The Gospel of Thomas) barely dip into Gnosticism and don’t connect to a specific Gnostic group. They’ve been dubbed “Gnostic” simply by association: they were found with blatantly Gnostic texts.

Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Protestants all consider the Gnostic Gospels apocryphal writings that aren’t divinely inspired, and shouldn’t be included in the canon.

Scholars debate about what exactly we can learn from the Gnostic Gospels. Are they simply useful for learning about the ancient world? Are they a sort of “spiritual backdrop” for early Christianity? Or do they reveal that early Christian beliefs were more complex and diverse than orthodox writers would have us believe?

To explore the significance of the Gnostic Gospels, let’s start by taking a look at Gnosticism.

What is Gnosticism?

Gnosticism is an umbrella term for a diverse movement of more than 50 ancient spiritual sects that sprang up around the same time as early Christianity (though some sects predated Christianity). Gnosticism peaked in the first and second century, but continued to influence Western thought for centuries—and still survives in some spiritual belief systems today.

The term comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “knowledge.” Broadly speaking, Gnosticism was about attaining salvation through knowledge. All material things were considered bad, and all spiritual things were considered good. Humans were spiritual beings trapped in material bodies. And knowledge was the key to freeing our spiritual nature from the chains of the material world.

From the way ancient Christians referred to the writers we now know as the Gnostics, it has been notoriously difficult to categorize Gnosticism. The early church didn’t even use the term Gnosticism. They referred to some writers as gnostikos (meaning “learned” or “intellectual”), and it only evolved into a label for heretical beliefs much later.

The term Gnosticism first appeared in the seventeenth century, when a philosopher named Henry More used it to describe a heretical belief from Thyatira in the Book of Revelation. Later writers then began using Gnosticism to refer to other heretical beliefs from early Christianity. So until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library, most of what we knew about Gnosticism came from critics of Gnosticism and a handful of Gnostic writings that survived.

Modern scholars couldn’t tell whether Gnosticism was an interreligious movement, a separate religion, or a specific sect of Judaism or Christianity. As a result, there was very little consensus about what fell under “Gnosticism” until after the Nag Hammadi Library was discovered.

(And even now, it’s a bit of a touchy subject among scholars.)

Were the Gnostics Christians?

Sometimes you’ll hear Gnosticism referred to as Christian Gnosticism or Jewish Gnosticism. This is because forms of Gnosticism emerged from Judeo-Christian teachings (among other things), and split off from accepted Christian beliefs. For example, some Gnostic arguments may have been riffs off of Paul’s writings on the separation of the flesh and the spirit (like we find in Galatians 5:17–19).

And as you could probably tell from the names of the Gnostic Gospels, some Gnostic groups claimed to be Christian, even though they rejected foundational Christian beliefs.

It’s hard to make generalizations about all Gnostics since there were so many sects, and they varied in the degree to which they deviated from orthodox Christianity. But many central Gnostic beliefs were not rooted in the Bible or Christian tradition, and conformed elements of Christianity to fit other philosophical and spiritual belief systems.

At best, the Gnostics were quasi-Christian, professing a form of Christianity that had been so contaminated by Greek philosophy and other belief systems that it had little in common with the larger Christian church.

Adolf von Harnack, a nineteenth century German theologian, called Gnosticism “the acute Hellenization of Christianity.”

Still, since Gnosticism was such a diverse movement, there are many different approaches to categorizing it, and while the early church rejected “Gnostic Christian” writings as heretical, some scholars still call them Christian.

Why did they write about Jesus, using the names of biblical figures?

Ancient writers sometimes used pseudepigraphal writings to lend credibility to their ideas within particular groups. (As we see with the Letter of Aristeas and the origin of the Septuagint.)

But not all pseudepigrapha was ill-intended or blatant forgery.

Sometimes it was simply an error: the original author was unknown, and someone attributed it to the wrong person later. Pseudepigrapha could also be a tribute to a well-respected person who recently died. And if a church leader permitted someone to write on their behalf while they were alive, that person would sometimes continue to do this for years after their death.

However it happened, these writings presented a problem: would people know the difference later? Sometimes the church caught on and called these writings out, like Eusebius of Caesarea did when “new writings” from Clement of Rome seemed to appear out of thin air:

“And now some have only the other day brought forward other wordy and lengthy compositions as being Clement’s, containing dialogues of Peter and Appion, of which there is absolutely no mention in the ancients.” —Ecclesiastical History

But less discerning readers sometimes let pseudepigraphal writings slip through, and nobody caught the mistakes until much later. After discovering blatant forgeries, the early church generally rejected pseudepigrapha as inauthentic and unauthoritative (with some exceptions).

Since some forms of Gnosticism splintered off from orthodox Christian beliefs, they likely considered themselves Christians, and they would’ve had good reason for wanting their beliefs to be accepted within the church.

Fun fact: The Nag Hammadi Library also contained a copy of Plato’s Republic that was thoroughly edited to align with Gnostic ideas.

Who really wrote the Gnostic texts?

Most sects of Gnosticism were named after the leaders who first championed their ideas. The majority of these Gnostic writings didn’t survive, leaving us with scattered quotes, references, and descriptions from their critics.

But while some of the texts we know as the Gnostic Gospels survived, we will likely never know who actually wrote them. The only bylines are fake. And even though clues within the texts can tell us what strains of Gnosticism they may have been influenced by, they can’t tell us who wrote them.

The complete list of Gnostic texts

While the vast majority of the Gnostic writings we have today come from the Nag Hammadi Library, a smattering of texts came from other sources, and we had access to them before 1945.

Gnostic Scripturesrejected Scriptures Reading

Gnostic texts

Scholars had access to 11 Gnostic texts before the Nag Hammadi Library, and they weren’t all complete (one is only a summary). Some were also “reconstructed” from writers who criticized Gnosticism.

Gnostic

Here they are, grouped by the codex (book) they came in or the manner in which they were preserved.

Saved by the church

  • The Acts of Thomas
  • The Acts of John

The Bruce Codex

  • The Gnosis of the Invisible God or The Books of Jeu
  • The Untitled Apocalypse or The Gnosis of the Light

The Askew Codex

  • Pistis Sophia: Books of the Savior

The Berlin Codex (also known as The Akhmim Codex)

  • The Gospel of Mary
  • Apocryphon of John
  • A summary of The Acts of Peter
  • The Wisdom of Jesus Christ

Other

  • The Secret Gospel of Mark
  • The Hermetica

Mutant chronicles novels. Fortunately, the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library exposed scholars to a much broader picture of Gnosticism—one that hadn’t first been filtered through the eyes of its critics.

The Nag Hammadi Library

Each book from the Nag Hammadi Library contains several texts, which were likely written in Greek (possibly as early as the first century) and later translated into Coptic—an Egyptian language related to Greek and ancient Egyptian.

Scholars believe they were translated from Greek because while the texts themselves are in Coptic, the titles are Greek. Some texts, like The Secret Book of James, may have originally been written in Hebrew, translated into Greek, and then translated into Coptic. (The author claims to have written in Hebrew—but then again, they also claim to be the Apostle James.)

Not all these texts were explicitly Gnostic. Three were Egyptian wisdom texts from the Corpus Hermeticum, and one was a heavily edited (in other words, Gnosticized) version of Plato’s Republic.

Here are all the Gnostic texts from the Nag Hammadi Library, organized by the codex they were found in. Some are repeats. For example, copies of The Apocryphon of John appear in Codex II, Codex III, and Codex IV.

Codex I

Scripturesrejected
  • The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
  • The Apocrypha of James (also known as The Secret Book of James)
  • The Gospel of Truth
  • The Treatise on the Resurrection
  • The Tripartite Tractate

Codex II

  • The Apocryphon of James
  • The Gospel of Thomas
  • The Gospel of Philip
  • The Hypostasis of the Archons
  • On the Origin of the World
  • The Exegesis on the Soul
  • The Book of Thomas the Contender

Codex III

  • The Apocryphon of John
  • The Gospel of the Egyptians
  • Eugnostos the Blessed
  • The Sophia of Jesus Christ
  • The Dialogue of the Savior

Codex IV

  • The Apocryphon of John
  • The Gospel of the Egyptians

Codex V

  • Eugnostos the Blessed
  • The Apocalypse of Paul
  • The First Apocalypse of James
  • The Second Apocalypse of James
  • The Apocalypse of Adam

Codex VI

  • The Acts of Peter and the Apostles
  • The Thunder, Perfect Mind
  • Authoritative Teaching
  • The Concept of Our Great Power
  • Republic (written by Plato, translated and edited by Gnostics)
  • The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth
  • The Prayer of Thanksgiving
  • Asclepius 21-29

Codex VII

  • The Paraphrase of Shem
  • The Second Treatise of the Great Seth
  • Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter
  • The Teachings of Silvanus
  • The Three Steles of Seth

Codex VIII

  • Zostrianos
  • The Letter of Peter to Philip

Codex IX

  • Melchizedek
  • The Thought of Norea
  • The Testimony of Truth

Codex X

  • Marsanes

Codex XI

  • The Interpretation of Knowledge
  • A Valentinian Exposition, On the Anointing, On Baptism, and On the Eucharist
  • Allogenes
  • Hypsisphrone

Codex XII

  • The Sentence of Sextus
  • The Gospel of Truth
  • Fragments

Codex XIII

  • Trimorphic Protennoia
  • On the Origin of the World

Scholars had never seen many of these works before—they’d only heard of them from other ancient writers, or read quotes in other texts.

Fun fact: “Codex XIII” isn’t technically a separate book. It’s only eight pages, and only contains the first few lines of On the Origin of the World at the bottom of the eighth page. At some point before the codices were stuffed in a jar and buried in the ground, someone took these pages from another book and put them in the cover of the sixth book. Since it was clearly not connected to the material in the sixth book, it’s been treated as the remains of a separate codex.

Gnostics In The Bible

How was the Nag Hammadi Library discovered?

The story of the Nag Hammadi Library’s discovery has a lot of parallels to the Dead Sea Scrolls, complete with an accidental encounter, disputes over who “owned” the books, backchannel sales of the texts, mishandling of the manuscripts, and controversy over what the discovery meant for the Bible.

Here are the nuts and bolts.

A farmer named Muhammad Ali al-Samman and his brother found the jar full of books while digging for fertilizer near some caves. They stumbled onto more than 1,000 pages that were well over 1,000 years old. They planned to gradually sell the books individually, so they didn’t report it, and it took a long time for anyone to realize the significance of their discovery.

In the meantime, their mom was worried the texts might have “dangerous effects,” so she burned some of them.

A year after their discovery, the brothers got caught up in a feud, so they didn’t have time for silly old books anymore, and they gave them to a priest. Over the next few years, the priest sold them to an antique dealer in Cairo. Before the Department of Antiquities could snatch them all up and permanently claim them for Egypt, a codex slipped away to Belgium.

The Carl Gustav Jung Institute purchased it in 1951. When Carl Jung died ten years later, there was a kerfuffle about who owned the codex, and it took another decade for the book to make it back to Cairo.

Much like the Dead Sea Scrolls, there were a lot of politics involved, and scholars around the world had to wait an excruciatingly long time to get access to the documents.

The first translation wasn’t published until 1977, more than 30 years after the initial discovery.

What do we do with the Gnostic Gospels?

The Gnostic Gospels claimed to be written by important biblical figures. But they weren’t. And even as various Gnostic movements gained traction, the early church almost immediately rejected them as heretical. Before the end of the twentieth century, most of what we knew about these gospels came from early church fathers who specifically wrote about them to condemn them.

Gnostic Scriptures Book

Reading these gospels today can teach us plenty about the belief systems early Christianity interacted with, but scholars still debate what—if anything—we can trust about these texts.

You can read them online through The Gnostic Society Library. Or not. It’s up to you. But nobody is putting these in your Bible anytime soon.

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