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Andy1945
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« on: September 03, 2007, 07:24:53 am » |
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The Truth is slowly coming to light now that the dark ages of ignorance are being swept aside.
The following is quoted from:
'Secret Gospels and Lost Christianities', by W. T. S. Thackara
To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it has not been given. -- Matthew 13:11
I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. -- John 18:37
"What is truth?" Pilate asked -- a question worthy of a philosopher. For nearly two millennia Christian theologians, clergy, and laymen alike have tried to answer it and define their identity as people "of the truth." But conflicts soon arose over what Jesus taught, and visible borders began to be inscribed defining truth and error, right views and heresy, and, inevitably, "our God and your god" -- a tragic paradox in a faith that teaches gentle loving wisdom. Discerning Jesus' actual teachings is another paradox. "Seek and you will find" is commended in both Testaments, and our surest answer is said to be in our hearts. But as to scripture and tradition, who defines truth and what is spiritually authentic?
Rehearsing a chain of events frequently observed in religions illustrates the problem: A teacher like Jesus or Gautama begins to teach. He isn't well known -- people are often satisfied with their own faith or occupied with other matters. Historians may miss him completely, causing later generations to wonder if he existed at all. Most people reject him, for he does not fulfill their expectations of what a teacher should be, and his teachings do not jibe with their own beliefs. Indeed, they often appear novel and strange, challenging established norms. But a few recognize the worth of the message and, being deeply inspired, share it with others. In time a tradition forms to preserve and transmit the teachings, which may eventually be written down. However, as this may occur decades or even centuries after the teacher's passing, his original message may be partially forgotten, infused with foreign doctrines, or otherwise altered. Further difficulties arise when we learn there are both public and private teachings, the inner mysteries being reserved for the "spiritually mature" -- an early Christian phrase. Leaving aside writings which are lost or destroyed, virtually all records of teachings are edited, some with text inserted, modified, or deleted and variant readings due to scribal errors. They are also translated, sometimes mistranslated, copies are made from copies, and over the years, little by little, the original message erodes.
There are yet more serious problems: as soon as the teacher departs, discussion arises over the content of the message. One disciple thinks the Master intended one meaning, another something different. In trying to preserve and explain the true teachings, schools of interpretation are formed, points of agreement decided upon, dogmas formalized, and there follows one schism after another -- not to mention the proliferation of counterfeit teachers and new revelations -- all claiming spiritual authority, until at length we have a smorgasbord of conflicting doctrines, systems, and groups. A replay of the tower of Babel -- a confusion of languages -- and, regrettably, a pattern from which few religious movements have been exempt.
This pattern, as it applies to Christian history, is well known to scholars, clergy, and the educated public. However, since the 1945 discovery of a unique collection of early Christian documents at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, augmented by the Jewish Dead Sea scrolls and other 20th-century finds, the ways in which this story has been interpreted, understood, and retold have distinctly changed. In 2003 several books by respected scholars of early Christianity have synthesized over a half-century's work on the Nag Hammadi writings and their relationship to traditional Christianity. Taken together, four of these books offer a thoughtful, accessible, yet detailed study of the diversity of early Christian communities from the time of Jesus to the formation of the New Testament canon, and the diverse ways in which that history has been told since.* As their titles indicate, they focus on those groups and writings which emphasized Jesus' secret teachings -- the mysteries and hidden wisdom of God referred to in the New Testament -- and the importance of gnosis ("knowledge," spiritual discernment, or enlightenment) as both necessary to, and the fruit of, spiritual regeneration.
*Elaine Pagels, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, Random House, New York, 2003; ISBN 0375501568
Marvin Meyer, Secret Gospels: Essays on Thomas and the Secret Gospel of Mark, Trinity Press Int'l, Harrisburg, PA, 2003; ISBN 1563384094
Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and Faiths We Never Knew, Oxford University Press, 2003; ISBN 0195141830
Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism?, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2003; ISBN 067401071x
Up to 1945 most information about the Gnostics was second and third hand, derived mainly from the censorious writings of the early heresiologists, such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Epiphanius.* Their efforts were largely motivated by the perceived need to define the content of faith in order to weld together a cohesive Christian community, whose fragile existence was frequently threatened by persecution without and divided opinion within. Aside from combating distortion, fantasy, and imposture, one of the most intractable problems centered on esoteric knowledge -- the mysteries alluded to by Jesus: how to define the indefinable, "that which cannot be, or is unlawful to be uttered," and to distinguish it from what they felt was "falsely so-called gnosis." Just as in today's living New Age laboratory, there was a surfeit of divergent claims in the first few centuries of the Christian era. As Bart Ehrman points out, winners write the history books and choose the sacred texts. For the early "proto-orthodox" Church Fathers, creating a Christian identity meant not only defining the structures and contents of faith, but also defining their opponents by showing how different, wrong, and evil their doctrines were -- in contrast to Jesus' authentic teachings as transmitted by the apostles and their appointed heirs. However, the documents found at Nag Hammadi,** many of which also claim apostolic authority, reveal a picture of some of these "lost Christianities" that doesn't mesh with the standard versions in significant and fundamental ways.
*The words gnosis, gnostic, and gnosticism are being reevaluated in light of the new material -- a central issue in Karen King's study. Prior to 1945, only a few works by Christian gnostics were available, such as the Pistis Sophia and the two Books of Jeu, as well as some non-Christian Hermetic, Mandaean, and Manichaean texts (see Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis, 1987, pp. 25-30). One can also speak of an Orphic, Pythagorean, Platonic, and an Oriental gnosis, but all of these including the Jewish and Christian are part of a larger story concerning the universal Mystery tradition.
**Full text translations are collected in a single volume, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, James M. Robinson, ed., 3rd edition.
N.B. An excellent book which reveals the truth of Spiritual / Gnostic Knowledge of God is: "Church of God? or the Temples of Satan", by R. A. Anderson.
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