The Secret Gospel

The Secret Gospel
Author: Morton Smith
Publisher:
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1982
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

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In 1958, Morton Smith Traveled to Jerusalem to do research in the monastery library of Mar Saba, in the Judean Desert. What he found was no routine corroboration of New Testament history, but a precious fragment of a second-century document that would change our understanding of the work and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus the Magician

Jesus the Magician
Author: Smith, Morton
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2014-08-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 157174715X

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"A twentieth-century classic, uncannily smart, incredibly learned."--from the foreword by Bart Ehrman This book challenges traditional Christian teaching about Jesus. While his followers may have seen him as a man from heaven, preaching the good news and working miracles, Smith asserts that the truth about Jesus is more interesting and rather unsettling. The real Jesus, only barely glimpsed because of a campaign of disinformation, obfuscation, and censorship by religious authorities, was not Jesus the Son of God. In actuality he was Jesus the Magician. Smith marshals all the available evidence including, but not limited to, the Gospels. He succeeds in describing just what was said of Jesus by "outsiders," those who did not believe him. He deals in fascinating detail with the inevitable questions. What was the nature of magic? What did people at that time mean by the term "magician"? Who were the other magicians, and how did their magic compare with Jesus' works? What facts led to the general assumption that Jesus practiced magic? And, most important, was that assumption correct? The ramifications of Jesus the Magician give new meaning to the word controversial. This book recovers a vision of Jesus that two thousand years of suppression and polemic could not erase. And--what may be the central point of the debate--Jesus the Magician strips away the myths and legends that have obscured Jesus, the man who lived.

The Lost Gospel

The Lost Gospel
Author: Simcha Jacobovici
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 754
Release: 2014-11-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1605987298

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Waiting to be rediscovered in the British Library is an ancient manuscript of the early Church, copied by an anonymous monk. The manuscript is at least 1,450 years old, possibly dating to the first century. And now, The Lost Gospel provides the first ever translation from Syriac into English of this unique document that tells the inside story of Jesus’ social, family, and political life.The Lost Gospel takes the reader on an unparalleled historical adventure through a paradigm shifting manuscript. What the authors eventually discover is as astounding as it is surprising: the confirmation of Jesus’ marriage to Mary Magdalene; the names of their two children; the towering presence of Mary Magdalene; a previously unknown plot on Jesus’ life (thirteen years prior to the crucifixion); an assassination attempt against Mary Magdalene and their children; Jesus’ connection to political figures at the highest level of the Roman Empire; and a religious movement that antedates that of Paul—the Church of Mary Magdalene.Part historical detective story, part modern adventure, The Lost Gospel reveals secrets that have been hiding in plain sight for millennia.

The Gospel According to Mark

The Gospel According to Mark
Author:
Publisher: Canongate Books
Total Pages: 73
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 0857860976

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The earliest of the four Gospels, the book portrays Jesus as an enigmatic figure, struggling with enemies, his inner and external demons, and with his devoted but disconcerted disciples. Unlike other gospels, his parables are obscure, to be explained secretly to his followers. With an introduction by Nick Cave

Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief
Author: Elaine Pagels
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2004-05-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 140007908X

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In Beyond Belief, renowned religion scholar Elaine Pagels continues her groundbreaking examination of the earliest Christian texts, arguing for an ongoing assessment of faith and a questioning of religious orthodoxy. Spurred on by personal tragedy and new scholarship from an international group of researchers, Pagels returns to her investigation of the “secret” Gospel of Thomas, and breathes new life into writings once thought heretical. As she arrives at an ever-deeper conviction in her own faith, Pagels reveals how faith allows for a diversity of interpretations, and that the “rogue” voices of Christianity encourage and sustain “the recognition of the light within us all.”

The Secret Teachings of Jesus

The Secret Teachings of Jesus
Author:
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2011-09-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0307756645

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In December 1945, two Egyptian fellahin, digging for natural fertilizer in the Nile River valley unearthed a sealed storage jar. The jar proved to hold treasure of an unexpected sort: a collection of some fifty-two ancient manuscripts, most of which reflect the teachings of a mystical religious movement we call Gnosticism (from the Greek word gnosis, "knowledge"). The texts are also, with few exceptions, Christian documents, and thus they provide us with valuable new information about the character of the early church, and about the Gnostic Christians within the church. In this volume, Marvin W. Meyer has produced a new English translation for general readers of four of the most important and revealing of these early Christian texts -- the Secret Book of James, the Gospel of Thomas, the Book of Thomas, and the Secret Book of John.

The Secret Gospel of Mark

The Secret Gospel of Mark
Author: Robert Conner
Publisher: Mandrake of Oxford
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2015-01-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781906958688

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While cataloging material in the library of the monastery of Mar Saba in 1958, Morton Smith discovered a quotation from a letter of Clement of Alexandria copied in the end pages of a 17th century collection of the letters of Ignatius. After more than a decade of collaborative analysis of the find, Smith published his conclusions in 1973, setting off a firestorm of controversy in the New Testament studies guild. In 1975, a Jesuit scholar, Quentin Quesnell, claimed the letter had been forged and implied that Smith was the forger, moving the focus of debate off the text itself and onto Smith. Since then the pages containing the letter have been removed from the book and possibly destroyed, while Catholic and evangelical writers, none of whom have ever seen the pages in question, continue to claim that Smith forged the letter. Following his death in 1991, accusations against Smith took on a considerably more personal tone, highlighting his alleged homosexuality and by implication his dishonesty and moral perversity. Although the question of authenticity remains unresolved, the controversy has opened a window on the intellectually corrupt nature of apologetic New Testament studies, a subject of greater importance than the authenticity of early Christian texts.

The Other Gospels

The Other Gospels
Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2013-11-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199335249

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Bart Ehrman--the New York Times bestselling author of Misquoting Jesus and a recognized authority on the early Christian Church--and Zlatko Plese--a foremost authority on Christian Gnosticism--here offer a valuable compilation of over 40 ancient gospel texts and textual fragments that do not appear in the New Testament. This comprehensive collection contains Gospels describing Jesus's infancy, ministry, Passion, and resurrection, and includes the controversial manuscript discoveries of modern times, such as the Gospel of Thomas and the most recent Gospel to be discovered, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. Each translation begins with a thoughtful examination of important historical, literary, and textual issues in order to place the Gospel in its proper context. This volume is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in early Christianity and the deeper meanings of these apocryphal Gospels.

Secret Gospels

Secret Gospels
Author: Marvin Meyer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2003-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 056754401X

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Marvin Meyer is one of the leading experts on the secret gospels-Gospel of Thomas, Secret Gospel of Mark, and others-who has changed forever how we read the canonical gospels and understand early Christianity. In this new collection of his work, Meyer looks at these revolutionary texts in original and illuminating ways. He writes, for example, about the naked youths in the villa of the Mysteries. On the walls of a villa in Pompeii, a famous mural depicts a naked male reading from a scroll, a look of wonder on his face. A naked youth again appears in the Gospel of Mark, abandoning his garment and fleeing naked when apprehended during Jesus' arrest. A similar youth appears in the Secret Gospel of Mark. These youths, Meyer proposes, serve as an image of religious initiation, candidates for the mysteries of Dionysus or of Christ. This is one of the many aspects of the secret gospels that Meyer examines with expert insight and creativity. Topics range from gender and infancy stories to discipleship and the relationship of the Gospel of Thomas to Islamic literature. Meyer's spellbinding readings of these materials offer fresh understandings of the canonical gospels. Marvin Meyer is Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies, and Director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Chapman University, Orange, California. He is author of The Secret Teachings of Jesus: Four Gnostic Gospels and The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, and co-editor of Jesus Then and Now (Trinity Press International).