THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS

discovered in 1945 in a cave near Nag Hammedi, Egypt

(Extracts presented in a book by the same name by Elaine Pagels, PhD. Harvard)

 

Gospel of Thomas

 

Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you.  If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

 

Jesus said, "I am not your master.  Because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out...He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am: I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him."

 

If spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders.  Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth [the spirit] has made its home in this poverty [the body].

 

Simon Peter said to them [the disciples]: "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."

 

Interprets Jesus' words; "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother cannot be my disciple" by adding that "my (earthly) mother gave me death, but [my] true [Mother] gave me life."

 

Jesus said "There is light within a man of light, and it lights up the whole world.  If he does not shine, he is darkness."

 

Jesus declares that when he came into the world:

            "I found them all drunk; I found none of them thirsty. and my soul became afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their hearts and do not have sight; for empty  they came into this world, and empty they seek to leave this world. But for the moment they are drunk."

 

Jesus said, "Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over all things."

 

Jesus said, "Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty."

 

His disciples said to him, "When will...the new world come?" He said to them, "What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it."...His disciples said to him, "When will the Kingdom come?" Jesus said, "It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'Here it is' or "There it is.' Rather, the Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."

 

Jesus saw infants being suckled.  He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom." They said to him, "Shall we, then, as children, enter the Kingdom?" Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same...then you will enter [the Kingdom]."

Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like." Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a righteous angel." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher. "Thomas said to him, "Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like."  Jesus said, "I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out."

 

"Whoever will drink from my mouth will become as I am, and I myself will become that person, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him."

 

They said to him, "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you." He said to them, "You read the face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not recognized the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment."

 

His disciples said to him, "Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke in you." He said to them, "You have ignored the one living in your presence, and have spoken (only) of the dead."

 

His disciples questioned him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How shall we pray? Shall we give alms? What diet shall we observe?" Jesus said, "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate..."

 

“Blessed are the solitary and the chosen, for you will find the Kingdom. For you are from it, and to it you will return."

 

 

Gospel of Philip (A follower of Valentinus)

 

...the companion of the [Saviour is] Mary Magdalene.  [But Christ loved] her more than [all] the disciples, and used to kiss her [often] on her mouth.  The rest of [the disciples were offended]...They said to him, "Why do you love her more than all of us?"  The Saviour answered and said to them, "Why do I not love you as (I love) her?"

 

"Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error."  Instead they must "receive the resurrection while they live."  The author says ironically that in one sense, then, of course "it is necessary to rise ‘in this flesh,’ since everything exists in it!"

 

Jesus took them all by stealth, for he did not reveal himself in the manner [in which] he was, but in the manner in which [they would] be able to see him.  He revealed himself to [them all. He revealed himself to] the great as great...(and) to the small as small.

 

Names can be very deceptive, for they divert our thoughts from what is accurate to what is inaccurate.  Thus one who hears the word "God" does not perceive what is accurate, but perceives what is inaccurate.  So also with "the Father," and "the Son," and "the Holy Spirit," and "life," and "light," and "resurrection," and "the Church," and all the rest - people do not perceive what is accurate, but they perceive what is inaccurate...

 

Here again, the Spirit is both Mother and Virgin, the counterpart - and consort - of the Heavenly Father; "Is it permitted to utter a mystery? The Father of everything united with the virgin who came down" - that is, with the Holy Spirit descending into the world.  But because this process is to be understood symbolically, not literally, the Spirit remains a virgin.  The author goes on to explain that as "Adam came into being from two virgins, from the Spirit and from the virgin earth" so "Christ, therefore, was born from a virgin: (that is, from the Spirit). But the author ridicules those literal-minded Christians who mistakenly refer the virgin birth to Mary, Jesus' mother, as though she conceived apart from Joseph: "They do not know what they are saying. When did a woman ever conceive by a woman?"  Instead, he argues, virgin birth refers to that mysterious union of the two divine powers, the Father of All and the Holy Spirit.

 

...God created humanity; [but now human beings] create God. That is the way it is in the world - human beings make gods, and worship their creation. It would be appropriate for the gods to worship human beings!

 

Truth brought names into existence in the world because it is not possible to teach it without names. But truth must be clothed in symbols: "Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types and images. One will not receive truth in any other way."  Each word refers to a specific, external phenomenon; a person "sees the sun without being a sun, and he sees the sky and the earth and everything else, but he is not these things."

 

...You saw the spirit, you became spirit. You saw Christ, you became Christ. You [saw the Father, you] shall become Father...you see yourself, and what you see you shall become.

 

Whoever achieves gnosis becomes "no longer a Christian, but a Christ."

 

Thunder, Perfect Mind

 

For I am the first and the last.  I am the honoured one and the scorned one.  I am the whore and the holy one.  I am the wife and the virgin.  I am (the mother) and the daughter.  I am she whose wedding is great, and I have not taken a husband.  I am the barren one, and many are her sons...I am knowledge and ignorance...I am shameless, I am ashamed.  I am strength, and I am fear...I am foolish and I am wise...I am godless, and I am one whose God is great.  I am the silence that is incomprehensible...

I am the utterance of my name.

 

 

Treatise on Resurrection

 

Do not suppose that resurrection is an apparition [phantasia; literally, "fantasy"].  It is not an apparition; rather it is something real.  Instead, one ought to maintain that the world is an apparition, rather than resurrection.  It is...the revealing of what truly exists...and a migration [metabole-change, transition] into newness.  Are you - the real you - mere corruption? ...Why do you not examine your own self, and see that you have arisen?

 

(Insofar as Jesus was the "Son of Man," being human, he suffered and died like the rest of humanity. But since he was also "Son of God," the divine spirit within him could not die: in that sense he transcended suffering and death.)

 

 

Book of Thomas the Contender

 

"Since it has been said that you are my twin and true companion, examine yourself so that you may understand who you are...I am the knowledge of the truth.  So while you accompany me, although you do not understand (it), you already have come to know, and you will be called 'the one who knows himself'.  For whoever has not known himself has known nothing, but whoever has known himself has simultaneously achieved knowledge about the depth of all things."

 

 

Gospel of Mary

 

As the Gospel of Mary opens, the disciples are mourning Jesus' death and terrified for their own lives.  Then Mary Magdalene stands up to encourage them, recalling Christ's continual presence with them: "Do not weep and do not grieve, and do not doubt; for his grace will be with you completely, and will protect you."  Peter invites Mary to "tell us the words of the Saviour which you remember."  But to Peter's surprise, Mary does not tell anecdotes from the past; instead, she explains that she has just seen the Lord in a vision received through the mind, and she goes on to tell what he revealed to her.  When Mary finishes, she fell silent, since it was to this point that the Saviour had spoken with her.  But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, "Say what you will about what she has said.  I, at least, do not believe that the Saviour has said this. For certainly these teachings are strange ideas!"

 

Peter agrees with Andrew, ridiculing the idea that Mary actually saw the Lord in her vision.  Then, the story continues:

            Mary wept and said to Peter, "My brother Peter, what do you think ? Do you think that I thought this up myself in my heart?  Do you think I am lying about the Saviour?"  Levi answered and said to Peter, "Peter, you have always been hot-tempered...If the Saviour made her worthy, who are you to reject her?"

 

Finally Mary, vindicated, joins the other apostles as they go out to preach.  Peter, apparently representing the orthodox position, looks to past events, suspicious of those who "see the Lord" in visions.  Mary representing the gnostic, claims to experience His continuing presence.

 

Zostrianos (explaining how enlightenment is achieved)

 

He relates that, first, he had to remove from himself physical desires, probably by ascetic practices. Second, he had to reduce "chaos in mind," stilling his mind with meditation.  Then, he says, "after I set myself straight, I saw the perfect child" - a vision of the divine presence. Later, he says, "I was pondering these matters in order to understand them...I did not cease seeking a place of rest worthy of my spirit..." But then, becoming "deeply troubled," discouraged with his progress, he went out into the desert, half anticipating being killed by wild animals. There, Zostrianos relates, he first received a vision of "the messenger of the knowledge of the eternal Light," and went on to experience many other visions, which he relates in order to encourage others: "Why are you hesitating? Seek when you are sought; when you are invited, listen...Look at the Light. Flee the darkness. Do not be led astray to your destruction."

 

 

Apocryphon (Secret Book) of John

  

Begins as John tells how he went out after the crucifixion in "great grief":

            Immediately...the [heavens were opened, and the whole] creation [which is] under heaven shone, and [the world] was shaken.  [I was afraid, and I] saw in the light [a child]...while I looked he became like an old man.  And he [changed his] form again, becoming like a servant...I saw... an image with multiple forms in the light...

As he marvelled, the presence spoke:

            "John, John, why do you doubt, and why are you afraid? You are not unfamiliar with this form, are you?...Do not be afraid!  I am the one who [is with you] always...[I have come to teach] you what is [and what was], and what will come to be."

 

In his madness...he said, "I am God, and there is no other God beside me," for he is ignorant of...the place from which he had come...And when he saw the creation which surrounds him and the multitudes of angels around him which had come forth from him, he said to them, "I am a jealous God, and there is no other God beside me." But by announcing this he indicated to the angels...that another God does exist, for if there were no other one, of whom would he be jealous?...Then the mother began to be distressed.

 

On the Origin of the World

 

...he boasted continually, saying to (the angels)..."I am God, and no other one exists except me." But when he said these things, he sinned against all of the immortal ones...when Faith saw the impiety of the chief ruler, she was angry...she said, "You err, Samael (i.e., "blind god"). An enlightened, immortal humanity [anthropos] exists before you."

 

After the day of rest, Sophia [literally, "wisdom"] sent Zoe [literally, "life"], her daughter, who is called Eve, as an instructor to raise up Adam...When Eve saw Adam cast down, she pitied him, and she said, "Adam, live! Rise up upon the earth!" Immediately her word became a deed. For when Adam rose up, immediately he opened his eyes.  When he saw her, he said, "You will be called 'the mother of the living,' because you are the one who gave me life."

 

Apocalypse of Peter

 

[The Saviour] said to me:  "...put your hands upon (your) eyes...and say what you see!"  But when I had done it, I did not see anything.  I said, "No one sees (this way)." Again he told me, "Do it again."  And there came into me fear with joy, for I saw a new light, greater than the light of day.  Then it came down upon the Saviour.  And I told him about the things which I saw.

 

Others...outside our number...call themselves bishops and also deacons, as if they had received their authority from God. Those people are waterless canals.

 

...I saw him apparently being seized by them. And I said, "What am I seeing, O Lord? Is it really you whom they take? And are you holding on to me? And are they hammering the feet and hands of another? Who is this one above the cross who is glad and laughing?" The Saviour said to me, "He whom you saw being glad and laughing above the cross is the Living Jesus. But he into whose hands and feet they are driving the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute.  They put to shame that which remained in his likeness.  And look at him, and [look at] me!"

 

Dialogue of the Saviour

 

When the disciples asked Jesus "What is the place to which we shall go?" he answered, "the place which you can reach, stand there!"

 

...If one does not [understand] how the fire came to be, he will burn in it, because he does not know his root. If one does not first understand the water, he does not know anything...If one does not understand how the wind that blows came to be, he will run with it.  If one does not understand how the body that he wears came to be, he will perish with it...Whoever does not understand how he came will not understand how he will go...

 

The lamp of the body is the mind.

 

Matthew asks Jesus to show him the "place of life," which is, he says, the "pure light." Jesus answers, "Every one [of you] who has known himself has seen it." Here again, he deflects the question, pointing the disciple instead toward his own self-discovery.  When the disciples, expecting him to reveal secrets to them, ask Jesus, "Who is the one who seeks, [and who is the one who] reveals?" he answers that the one who seeks the truth - the disciple - is also the one who reveals it. Since Matthew persists in asking him questions, Jesus says that he does not know the answer himself, "nor have I heard about it, except from you."

 

 

Hypostasis of The Archons

 

And the spirit-endowed Woman came to Adam and spoke with him, saying, "Arise, Adam."  And when he saw her, he said, "It is you who have given me life; you shall be called "Mother of the living" - for it is she who is my mother.  It is she who is the Physician, and the Woman, and She Who Has Given Birth.'...The Female Spiritual Principle came in the Snake, the Instructor, and it taught them, saying, "...you shall not die; for it was out of jealousy that he said this to you.  Rather, your eyes shall open, and you shall open, and you shall become like gods, recognizing evil and good."...And the arrogant ruler cursed the Woman...[and] ...the Snake.

 

Both the mother (Wisdom) and her daughter (Life) objected when, in the creator's vain claim to hold an exclusive monopoly on divine power, he became arrogant, saying, "It is I who am God, and there is no other apart from me."...And a voice came forth from above the realm of absolute power, saying, "You are wrong, Samael" [which means, "god of the blind"]. And he said, "If any other thing exists before me, let it appear to me!" And immediately, Sophia (Wisdom) stretched forth her finger, and introduced light into matter, and she followed it down into the region of Chaos...And he again said to his offspring, "It is I who am the God of All."  And Life, the daughter of Wisdom, cried out; she said to him, "You are wrong, Saklas!"

 

The gnostic teacher Justinus describes the Lord's shock, terror, and anxiety "when he discovered that he was not the God of the universe." Gradually his shock gave way to wonder, and finally he came to welcome what Wisdom had taught him.  The teacher concludes: "This is the meaning of the saying, ' The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.'

 

 

Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (Levels of ascent to higher knowledge)

 

"...I see! I see indescribable depths. How shall I tell you, O my son?...How [shall I describe} the universe? I [am mind and] I see another mind, the one that [moves] the soul! I see the one that moves me from pure forgetfulness. You give me power! I see myself! I want to speak! Fear restrains me. I have found the beginning of the power that is above all powers, the one that has no beginning...I have said, O my son, that I am Mind. I have seen! Language is not able to reveal this. For the entire eighth (level), O my son, and the souls that are in it, and the angels, sing a hymn in silence. And I, Mind, understand."

 

Gospel of Truth (Valentinus)

 

...God gave a command to Adam, "From every tree you may eat, but from the tree which is in the midst of Paradise do not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will surely die." But the serpent was wiser than all the animals that were in Paradise, and he persuaded Eve, saying, "On the day when you eat from the tree which is in the midst of Paradise, the eyes of your mind will be opened." And Eve obeyed...she ate; she also gave to her husband.

 

..."Behold, Adam has become like one of us, knowing evil and good." Then he said, "Let us cast him out of Paradise, lest he take from the tree of life, and live forever." But of what sort is this God? First [he] envied Adam that he should eat from the tree of knowledge...Surely he has shown himself to be a malicious envier.

...Ignorance 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 is powerful...

 

Those who live in oblivion – [or (Pagels) in contemporary terms, unconsciousness], remain unaware of their own selves, they have "no root."  Such existence is a nightmare and those who live in it experience "terror and confusion and instability and doubt and division, being caught in "many illusions." So, according to the passage scholars call the "nightmare parable" they lived:

            …as if they were sunk in sleep and found themselves in disturbing dreams. Whither (there is) a place to which they are fleeing, or, without strength, they come (from) having chased after others, or they are involved in striking blows, or they are receiving blows themselves, or they have fallen from high places, or they take off into the air though they do not even have wings. Again, sometimes (it is as) if people were murdering them, though there is no one even pursuing them, or they themselves are killing their neighbours, for they have been stained with their blood. When those who are going through all these things wake up, they see nothing, they who were in the midst of these disturbances, for they are nothing. Such is the way of those who have cast ignorance aside as sleep, leaving [its works] behind like a dream in the night...This is the way everyone has acted, as though asleep at the time when he was ignorant. And this is the way he has come to knowledge, as if he had awakened.

 

...As with someone's ignorance, when he comes to have knowledge, his ignorance vanishes by itself; as the darkness vanishes when light appears, so also the deficiency vanishes in the fulfilment.

 

            Conformity to the rule of faith attempts to limit all Christians to an inferior ideology: "They say, 'Even if an angel comes from heaven, and preaches to you beyond what we preach to you, let him be accursed!'" Faith in the sacraments shows naive and magical thinking: catholic Christians practice baptism as an initiation rite which guarantees them "a hope of salvation," believing that only those who receive baptism are "headed for life."

            Against such "lies" the gnostic declares that "this, therefore, is the true testimony: when man knows himself, and God who is over the truth, he will be saved." Only those who come to recognize that they have been living in ignorance, and learn to release themselves by discovering who they are, experience enlightenment as a new life, as "the resurrection." Physical rituals like baptism become irrelevant, for "the baptism of truth is something else; it is by renunciation of the world that it is found." 

            "Whoever is able to renounce them [money and sexual intercourse] shows that he is from the generation of the [Son of Man], and that he has power to accuse [them]."

 

...If one has knowledge, he receives what is his own, and draws it to himself...Whoever is to have knowledge in this way knows where he comes from, and where he is going.

 

...Say, then, from the heart that you are the perfect day, and in you dwells the light that does not fail...For you are the understanding that is drawn forth...Be concerned with yourselves; do not be concerned with other things which you have rejected from yourselves.

 

The gnostic becomes a "disciple of his own mind," discovering that his own mind "is the father of the truth." He learns what he needs to know by himself in meditative silence.  "And he is patient with everyone; he makes himself equal to everyone, and he also separates himself from them."

 

All things originate from "the depth", from the unconscious. From that "depth" emerge Mind and Truth, and from them, in turn, the Word (Logos) and Life. And it was the word that brought humanity into being.

 

Wisdom, youngest daughter of the primal couple, was seized by a passion to know the Father which she interpreted as love. Her attempts to know him would have led her to self-destruction had she not encountered a power called The Limit, "a power which supports all things and preserves them," which freed her of emotional turmoil and restored her to her original place.

 

The Gospel of Truth is a joy for those who have received from the Father of truth the grace of knowing him...For he discovered them in himself, and they discovered him in themselves, the incomprehensible, inconceivable one, the Father, the perfect one, the one who made all things.

 

Teachings of Silvanus

...end the sleep which weighs heavy upon you. Depart from the oblivion which fills you with darkness...Why do you pursue the darkness, though the light is available for you?...Wisdom calls you, yet you desire foolishness...a foolish man...goes the ways of the desire of every passion. He swims in the desires of life and has foundered...he is like a ship which the wind tosses to and fro, and like a loose horse which has no rider. For this (one) needed the rider, which is reason...before everything else...know yourself...

 

...Bring in your guide and your teacher. The mind is the guide, but reason is the teacher...Live according to your mind...Acquire strength, for the mind is strong...Enlighten your mind...Light the lamp within you.

Knock on yourself as upon a door and walk upon yourself as on a straight road. For if you walk on the road, it is impossible for you to go astray...Open the door for yourself that you may know what is...Whatever you will open for yourself, you will open.

 

Have a great number of friends, but not counsellors....But if you do acquire [a friend], do not entrust yourself to him. Entrust yourself to God alone as father and as friend.                                                             

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      9/93

 

 

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