Should the gospel of Thomas be in the Canon?……The early church councils followed something similar to the following principles to determine whether a New Testament book was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit: 1) Was the author an apostle or have a close connection with an apostle? 2) Was the book being accepted by the […]

Gnostics Gnostic Gospels & Gnosticism A one-sentence description of Gnosticism: a religion that differentiates the evil god of this world (who is identified with the god of the Old Testament) from a higher more abstract God revealed by Jesus Christ, a religion that regards this world as the creation of a series of evil archons/powers […]

“What is the gospel of Judas?”……Answer: Sometime in the 1970s, in a cave in Egypt, a copy of the "gospel of Judas" was discovered. The circumstances of the discovery have been described as shady, with those who possessed the copy asking for exorbitant amounts of money for the codex. For decades, no institution was willing […]

“What are the Gnostic gospels?”……The Gnostic gospels are writings by early “Christian” Gnostics. After the first century of Christianity, two primary divisions developed – the orthodox and the Gnostics. The orthodox Christians held to books we now have in the Bible and to what is today considered orthodox theology. The Gnostic Christians, if they can […]

“What is the gospel of Philip?”……Similar to the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip is a collection of sayings, supposedly of Jesus. The gospel of Philip focuses a great deal on the "sacrament of marriage" as a "sacred mystery." The gospel of Philip does not claim to have been written by Jesus' disciple Philip. […]

“What is Christian Gnosticism?”……There is actually no such thing as Christian Gnosticism, because true Christianity and Gnosticism are mutually exclusive systems of belief. The principles of Gnosticism contradict what it means to be a Christian. Therefore, while some forms of Gnosticism may claim to be Christian, they are in fact decidedly non-Christian.……Gnosticism was perhaps the […]

The Sophia of Jesus Christ Translated by Douglas M. Parrott Archive Note The translation of “The Sophia of Jesus Christ” (also sometimes titled, “The Wisdom of Jesus Christ”) is derived from two separately preserved copies of the text. The first copy is in Nag Hammadi Codex III (NHC III); a second copy of this text […]