Thus, while adherents of Gnostic Christianity certainly acknowledged the role of Jesus in their faith, their theology placed greater significance on the intellectual revelation of his message than on his crucifixion and resurrection.Īlso among the Nag Hammadi texts was the fully preserved Gospel of Thomas, which does not follow the canonical Gospels in telling the story of Jesus’ birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection, but rather presents the reader with an early collection of Jesus’ sayings. Only through the intervention of Sophia (Wisdom) can gnosis be revealed and salvation attained. Photo: Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont, CA.Īccording to this Gnostic myth, the God of the Hebrew Bible is actually a corrupted lower deity. The forgotten gospel preserves sayings of Jesus that were not included in the canonical Gospels.

The Nag Hammadi codices contain more than 50 early Christian texts, including the Gospel of Thomas. Our free eBook Ten Top Biblical Archaeology Discoveries brings together the exciting worlds of archaeology and the Bible! Learn the fascinating insights gained from artifacts and ruins, like the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, where the Gospel of John says Jesus miraculously restored the sight of the blind man, and the Tel Dan inscription-the first historical evidence of King David outside the Bible. The teachings of Gnostic Christianity-vilified especially since they were declared heretic by orthodox Christianity in the fourth century-had been virtually erased from history by the early church fathers, their gospels banned and even burned to make room for the view of Christian theology outlined in the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.īut when two peasants discovered the Nag Hammadi texts, a 13-volume library of Coptic texts hidden beneath a large boulder near the town of Nag Hammadi in upper Egypt, the world was reintroduced to this long-forgotten and much-maligned branch of early Christian thought, Gnostic Christianity, from the Greek word gnosis, “knowledge.” The Nag Hammadi codices are 13 leather-bound volumes dated to the mid-fourth century that contain an unprecedented collection of more than 50 texts, including some that had been composed as early as the second century. Until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices in 1945, the Gnostic view of early Christianity had largely been forgotten. Photo: Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont, CA. Dated papyrus scraps used to strengthen the bindings of the books helped date the volumes to the mid-fourth century A.D. The Nag Hammadi texts were contained in 13 leather-bound volumes discovered by Egyptian farmers in 1945.

Nag meaning