Book Description

The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus offers fresh English translations of some of the earliest and most reliable texts that shed light on the Christian messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. The astounding discovery sixty years ago by an Egyptian camel driver of a jar filled with ancient papyrus manuscripts, known collectively as the Nag Hammadi library, was one of the archaeological finds of the century. These fragments at Nag Hammadi, painstakingly restored and translated, reveal a fascinating alternative perspective on Jesus and the beliefs of many of his earliest followers.

"Gnosticism," a term alluding to a special mystical knowledge, designates a series of religious movements that have existed since ancient times. In The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus, a foremost scholar of gnosticism and Christian origins has selected and translated gnostic gospels and related texts from the Nag Hammadi scriptures, plus a handful of texts from other sources such as the Berlin Gnostic Codex. The struggle to publish these manuscripts has at times felt like an ancient story of Egyptian magic -- filled with curses and drama. But here they are at long last, in elegant English translations with helpful introductory essays and extensive notes that provide what the reader needs to know to understand these secret texts.

Here are several gospels of Jesus's life that never made it into the modern Christian Bible, such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Truth, and the Egyptian Gospel, as well as related texts on Jesus including the Secret Book of John, the Secret Book of James, the Book of Thomas, the Dialogue of the Savior, the Second Word of Great Seth, the Book of Baruch, and the Round Dance of the Cross. A treasury of lost and esoteric wisdom, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus portrays Jesus as the ultimate teacher of wisdom, a Jewish master who continues to challenge readers with a message of enlightenment and liberation.

FROM THE PUBLISHER