What do the Gnostic Gospels Reveal About Jesus and Christianity?
Gnostics find great inspiration in ancient texts purporting to convey “secret knowledge” about the divine as well as information on early Christianity. These texts include (but are not limited to) the Gospel of Thomas, the Secret Book of John, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Truth. The Gnostic Gospels emphasize inner light and personal revelation, as opposed to objective truth or common doctrine. What’s more, given the suspicion of the material world in Gnosticism, the Gnostic Gospels offer a different view of the Incarnation, with many of the ancient texts rejecting the virgin birth and bodily resurrection (though the Gospel of Peter features a rather embellished account of the resurrection, to include a talking cross). Scholarly and popular interest in these (and other) ancient texts was intensified as a result of the 1945 discovery of over fifty “Gnostic” manuscripts in Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Elaine Pagels, regarded as one of the leading
