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Why the Nag Hamadi Library is the Best Thing for Christianity

Monday, April 23 2007 @ 10:48 AM CDT

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By Eileen Fleming

Before Emperor Constantine, no Christian ever served in the army. One hundred years after Constantine, all soldiers were required by law to be baptized.


1945 in Egypt, in the land just above the bend of the Nile, north of the Valley of the Kings, across the river from the city of Nag´ Hammâdi, near the hamlet of al-Qasr, under a cliff called Jabal al-Tarif,
An Egyptian Bedouin named Mohammed Ali was out gathering sabakh, a nitrate-rich fertilizer for the crops that he grew in the small hamlet of al-Qasr.

He was aghast to stumble upon a skeleton as he dug, and bewildered when he uncovered a two-foot high earthenware jar. A bowl had been placed over the top, and it was sealed with bitumen.

At first, the Bedouin thought an evil genie was within, but when he shook the heavy jar, he heard things moving and thought it might be gold…


He smashed the jar open and out fluttered pieces of gold particles that he tried to catch, but they disappeared. When he peered into the jar, he was dismayed to find twelve leather-bound books. Mohammed Ali was illiterate, so he placed no great value on books, but was confident he could sell them and make something for his troubles. So he carried the jar filled with books back to the homestead.

Now, Mohammed Ali also happened to be a fugitive from the law, for he had wielded the weapon that spilled the blood of a patriarch during a violent incident in a generation-long family feud, not so very long before. After a few days of mulling over possibilities, he decided to give his find to the local Coptic priest for safekeeping. You see, he feared the authorities soon would be lurking about and would confiscate his possession before he could make a buck.

His mother also ripped out many pages to keep the home fire going, so we will never know what ancient treasures have been lost. But, the Coptic priest passed it on to his brother-in-law, a traveling tutor, who brought the books to the Coptic museum in Cairo on October 4, 1946.

It was readily understood to be ancient compositions, written in Coptic that had been translated from ancient Greek. The volumes were leather-bound pages of papyrus, and no doubt the gold dust that Mohammed Ali witnessed was from papyrus fragments that had broken off. Under the leadership of UNESCO, Egypt, and the American scholar James Robinson, these anthologies and collections of texts with titles like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene have now been translated into most every language.

These texts date back to the earliest days of Christianity and the most likely source for these books was the Pachomius Monastery, which thrived for centuries just three miles from the burial site that Mohammad Ali stumbled across. Most scholars agree that the most likely scenario is that a monk buried the books in the wilderness under the cliff of Jabl al-Tarif for safe-keeping.

These texts do not offer answers, they offer a glimpse into the early church; before the doctrine and dogma was laid down. Before the days on the canon when church groups themselves decided on what to read and the follower's of Christ were known by the love that they had for all people.

Two thousand years ago, there were many different understandings of who Jesus was and what his purpose was. With the Nag´ Hammâdi, we know how rich and diverse those understandings were. The texts that had once been deemed heretical by those who were gaining power through the political arena can be read by any seeker.

Before Emperor Constantine, no Christian ever served in the army. One hundred years after Constantine, all soldiers were required by law to be baptized. Constantine waited until he was on his deathbed before being baptized himself, but the most decisive event in the history of Christendom occurred when Emperor Constantine legitimized the Christian faith; for those who had once been persecuted were now protected by an earthly king.

Both a patriarchal monarchical state and church were formed at the same time. Power struggles and debates were common among the early Christians. Individual churches determined which texts were read, and they all had their favorites. Constantine sought to unite his empire, and uniting the church was a savvy political move. He announced he would pay for fifty illuminated copies of scripture to be bound, and thus the biblical canon was established and sealed. There was fierce debate among the bishops about what should be included and what left out.

The proto-orthodox, who had now become the dominant voice, determined what was heretical for everyone. The proto-orthodox demanded much-loved scripture to be burned, usually because it did not fit their understanding of God. No doubt, what was found at Nag´ Hammâdi is thanks to an unknown monk who lived a few miles away in the Pachomius Monastery. If the authorities had found out about him, these texts and that monk would both have burned, for these texts were considered Gnostic.

Gnosis is defined as knowledge discerned institutively.

Gnostic texts offer deep mystery that is discerned via intuition, not rational thought. This is not the way for fundamentalists. A Gnostic is open to receiving intuitive knowledge of deep spiritual truth. For students of the New Testament, this is a much greater find than the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Forty of the texts had previously been unknown to modern scholars. Thirty-five scholars have been working diligently on these translations, and we all agree that the bound books themselves date back to the fourth century and were written in Coptic translated from Greek and Aramaic. The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of the sayings of Jesus, words of wisdom, proverbs, parables, and some very confounding mysteries. About 35 of the 114 sayings have no counterpart in the New Testament, while at least 20 are almost identical, and 54 have similarities. Many scholars concur that the sayings were originally written in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his followers. It is very possible the sayings are closer to the words Jesus actually spoke than what is found in the canonical gospels.

Two thousand years ago, there was lively debate about who Jesus was, and why he came, and the recent release of the gospel of Judas bodes well for Christianity, for people are once again engaged in lively debate about who Jesus was and what was his purpose.

Two thousand years ago, the proto-orthodox,-the majority- considered Gnostic texts anathema. Texts were deemed heretical for many reasons, and usually it was because they did not fit neatly into the evolving dogma. Gnostic texts offer us mystery, not answers. For centuries, all we had to reconstruct Gnostic beliefs were the hostile accounts against them given by Irenaus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, and other church fathers who disagreed with the Gnostic understanding.”

The Gospel of Thomas offers pithy sayings of Jesus which are meant to be heard and chewed upon.

Sayings three and five:

‘The kingdom is inside you, and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living father,’1 and ‘Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.’”

Most Christians might recall: seek and you shall find, knock and the door will open, and Thomas sayings ninety-two and ninety-four quotes Jesus saying exactly that.

In Thomas saying two, Jesus quips, ‘Let one who seeks not stop seeking until one finds. When one finds, one will be troubled. When one is troubled, one will marvel…’”

The Gospel of Mark was written first, in about 70 CE, and then Matthew and Luke followed in 85 CE, and the very different sounding Gospel of John appeared just before the turn of the first century.

The Gospel of Thomas was written down as early as the middle of the first century, and no later than the middle of the second, and possibly may have been written even before the Gospel of John. I have wondered if the author of John was debating many of Jesus’ sayings quoted by the author of Thomas.

In particular:

Matthew 12:31-32, Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10 are nearly identical to
Thomas saying forty-four,

‘Jesus said, “Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven.’


The writer of John completely left this quote from Jesus out, and to me, it sounds like Jesus is just fine with whatever anyone thinks or says about him, but he warns one should wake up and understand the Holy Spirit: God within, is everywhere. So, it’s not so much what one thinks or says about Jesus, but how one treats all others and themselves.

Jesus' other names are Emmanuel, meaning ‘God is with us,’ and the Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God.

Martin Luther King, Jr., walked the same talk as JC and shared the same dreams for justice and brotherhood:


"We have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. Now is the time for justice; now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to lift our nation from injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood."


Sources:

Fleming, Eileen, KEEP HOPE ALIVE

King, Martin Luther, Jr. A Testament of Hope

Meyer, Marvin, The Gospel of Thomas

Lewisy, San Fransisco Chronicle, Jan. 21, 2002


Authors Website: http://www.wearewideawake.org

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