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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas'
Shortly after Elaine Pagels two-and-half-year-old son was diagnosed with a rare lung disease, the religion professor found herself drawn to a Christian church again for the first time in many years. In Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas Pagels, best know for her National Book Award-winning The Gnostic Gospels, wrestles with her own faith as she struggles to understand when--and why--Christianity became associated almost exclusively with the ideas codified in the fourth-century Nicene Creed and in the canonical texts of the New Testament. In her exploration, she uncovers the richness and diversity of Christian philosophy that has only become available since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts.
At the center of Beyond Belief is what Pagels identifies as a textual battle between The Gospel of Thomas (rediscovered in Egypt in 1945) and The Gospel of John. While these gospels have many superficial similarities, Pagels demonstrates that John, unlike Thomas, declares that Jesus is equivalent to "God the Father" as identified in the Old Testament. Thomas, in contrast, shares with other supposed secret teachings a belief that Jesus is not God but, rather, is a teacher who seeks to uncover the divine light in all human beings. Pagels then shows how the Gospel of John was used by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon and others to define orthodoxy during the second and third centuries. The secret teachings were literally driven underground, disappearing until the Twentieth Century. As Pagels argues this process "not only impoverished the churches that remained but also impoverished those [Irenaeus] expelled."
Beyond Belief offers a profound framework with which to examine Christian history and contemporary Christian faith, and Pagels renders her scholarship in a highly readable narrative. The one deficiency in Pagels examination of Thomas, if there is one, is that she never fully returns in the end to her own struggles with religion that so poignantly open the book. How has the mysticism of the Gnostic Gospels affected her? While she hints that she and others have found new pathways to faith through Thomas, the impact of Pagels work on contemporary Christianity may not be understood for years to come. --Patrick OKelley [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Book That Jesus Wrote'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Gospels'
From the editors of the bestselling "The Five Gospels, The Complete Gospels" presents for the first time anywhere all twenty of the known gospels from the early Christian era, offering a fuller and more fascinating picture of early Christian origins than found in the four canonical gospels alone - or in any other source. Each of these gospel records offers fresh glimpses into the world of Jesus and his followers, including: GOSPEL OF THOMAS reveals that Jesus, contrary to the popular image of him as an apocalyptic preacher of damnation and salvation, was actually a wisdom teacher who taught about the true origins of humankind. GOSPEL OF MARY suggests that women held prominent roles in the early church, and provides a startling look at what may have been the first attempts to suppress their leadership. SAYINGS GOSPEL Q, the controversial reconstruction of the first gospel used by Jesus' original followers, contains only Jesus' sayings and none of the dramatic stories about his life later told in the New Testament gospels. SIGNS GOSPEL is almost entirely a catalog of Jesus' miracles, intended to demonstrate that he was the Jewish Messiah, the Anointed. SECRET BOOK OF JAMES relates that immediately prior to his ascension, Jesus imparted a private revelation to James and Peter, which James presents here as a letter. GOSPEL OF PETER contains what may have been the original passion narrative later adapted in the New Testament synoptic gospels' accounts.
Four new pieces have been added to this third expanded edition: the three Jewish-Christian gospels and the Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas.
Each gospel is translated into lively, contemporary English, recapturing the spirit ofthe original. Exciting both to read and to hear, this Scholars Version (SV) translation has - as one reader put it - "a vitality that jumps off the page."
The editor and contributors to this volume are members of the Jesus Seminar founded by Robert W. Funk, based at the Westar Institute in Sonoma, California. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fifth Gospel: The Gospel of Thomas Comes of Age'
In December 1945, at the base of cliffs that run along the Nile River near the modern-day town of Nag Hammadi, an Egyptian farmer discovered, in a sealed jar, thirteen ancient Coptic codices containing more than fifty separate tracts. This discovery represented arguably the most significant manuscript discovery of the twentieth century for the study of the New Testament and Christian origins.Of all the texts in this Nag Hammadi Library, none has been more celebrated than the Gospel of Thomasa Gospel that has played a crucial role in the newly emerging view of early Christianity as a very diverse phenomenon and in the recent revival of historical Jesus studies.Now, after more than fifty years of study, the best text and the best translation of Thomas are presented here in user-friendly form by the Berlin Working Group for Coptic Gnostic Writings, with Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson. In addition, two essays have been included for persons who may be unfamiliar with this new Gospel or with events that led to its discovery and publication. The first, by Patterson, is a general introduction to the Gospel of Thomas as it appears fifty years after its discovery. The second, by Robinson, tells the fascinating story of that discovery itself by one who was directly involved in bringing this new Gospel to light. An annotated list "for further reading" completes the volume.Stephen J. Patterson is Associate Professor of New Testament at Eden Theological Seminary and author of The God of Jesus: The Historical Jesus and the Search for Meaning (Trinity Press).James M. Robinson is the former director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Professor Emeritus at The Claremont Graduate School, and editor of The Nag Hammadi Library. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus'
* Did Jesus claim to be the Messiah?
* Did he promise to return and usher in a new age?
* How did Jesus envision the kingdom of God?
* Did he commission his disciples to convert the world and establish a church?
The Five Gospels answers these questions in a bold, dynamic work that will startle traditional readers of the Bible and rekindle interest in it among secular skeptics. In 1985 the Jesus Seminar, a distinguished group of biblical scholars led by Robert W. Funk and John Dominic Crossan (co-chairs), embarked on a new assessment of the gospels, including the recently discovered Gospel of Thomas. In pursuit of the historical Jesus, they used their collective expertise to determine the authenticity of the more than 1,500 sayings attributed to him. Their remarkable findings appear in this book.
Each saying attributed to Jesus is color-coded and presented in a completely new translation of the Greek and Coptic texts. In the judgment of the Jesus Seminar:
* only those sayings that appear in red type are considered by the Seminar to be close to what Jesus actually said;
* the words in pink less certainly originated with Jesus;
* the words in gray are not his, though they contain ideas that are close to his own;
* the sayings that appear in black have been embellished or created by his followers, or borrowed from common lore.
According to the Seminar, no more than 20 percent of the sayings attributed to Jesus were uttered by him.
This book contains illuminating commentary and notes on the text of the gospels and rigorously explores the historical and literary factors behind the Seminar's findings. The enlightening introduction by Robert W. Funk, founder of the Jesus Seminar, sums up two hundred years of gospel scholarship and provides a rare insight into the workings of the Seminar. The Five Gospels is a major work of biblical scholarship that gives new dimensions to the historical Jesus. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus'
Did he promise to return and usher in a new age?
How did Jesus envision the Kingdom of God?
The Five Gospels answers these questions in a bold, dynamic work that will startle traditional readers of the Bible and rekindle interest in it among secular skeptics. In 1985 the Jesus Seminar, comprising a distinguished group of biblical scholars, was founded by Robert W. Funk. They embarked on a new translation and assessment of the gospels, including the recently discovered Gospel of Thomas. In pursuit of the historical Jesus, they used their collective expertise to determine the authenticity of more than fifteen hundred sayings attributed to him. Their remarkable findings appear in this book.
[via]More editions of The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Gospel According to Thomas: With Complementary Texts'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Nag Hammadi Library in English'
First published in 1978, "The Nag Hammadi Library" was widely acclaimed by critics and scholars alike. Containing many of the writings of the Gnostics since the time of Christ, this was the work that launched modern Gnostic studies and exposed a movement whose teachings are in may ways as relevant today as they were sixteen centuries ago. Although some of the texts had appeared in other translations, the 1978 edition was the first and only translation of these ancient and fascinating manuscripts to appear in one volume. This new edition is the result of ten years of additional research, and editorial and critical work. Every translation has been changed or added to; many have been thoroughly revised. Unearthed in 1945 near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, the texts literally begin where the Dead Sea Scrolls end. Their discovery is seen as equally significant, bringing to light a long-hidden well of new information, sources, and insights into early Judaism and the roots of Christianity. Each text is accompanied by a new and expanded introduction. Also included are a revised general introduction and an afterword discussing the modern relevance of Gnosticism, from Voltaire and Blake through Melville and Yeats to Jack Kerouac and science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. The translations and introductions to the Nag Hammadi texts are by members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project, which includes such scholars as Helmut Koester, George McRae, and Elaine Pagels. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Nag Hammadi Library in English'
More editions of The Nag Hammadi Library in English:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Nag Hammadi Library in English'
More editions of The Nag Hammadi Library in English:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Nag Hammadi Library in English'
First published in 1978, The Nag Hammadi Library launched modern Gnostic studies and exposed a movement whose teachings are in many ways as relevant today as they were sixteen centuries ago. [via]
More editions of The Nag Hammadi Library in English:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Other Bible: Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Christian Apocrypha, Gnostic Scriptures, Kabbalah, Dead Sea Scrolls'
Gathered here for the first time in one comprehensive volume are excerpted ancient holy texts from Judeo-Christian traditions that were excluded from the official canon of the Old and New Testaments. The Other Bible is a unique sourcebook of essential selections from Jewish Psudepigrapha, early Kabbalah, Haggadah, Midrash, Christian Apocrypha, and Gnostic scriptures.
The Other Bible provides a rare opportunity to discover the poetic and narrative riches of this long-suppressed literature and experience firsthand its visionary discourses on the nature of God, humanity, the spiritual life, the world around us, and infinite worlds beyond this one. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Sayings Gospel Q in Greek and English: With Parallels from the Gospels of Mark and Thomas'
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