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 […]

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 […]

“What is the gospel of Mary (Magdalene)?”……The gospel of Mary was discovered in the Akhmim Codex in Cairo, Egypt, in 1896. It was not made public until 1955, when it was published due to the popularity of the Nag Hammadi library. Written in Greek and Coptic, the gospel of Mary codex is dated to the […]

Gnosticism Gnosticism is a term used to describe systems of religion, often within Christianity but sometimes outside it, in which knowledge (Greek gnosis) is a key feature in human redemption. The world is seen as evil, created by another god than the supreme God, and humanbeings are imprisoned in it. But there is a divine […]

“What are the lost books of the Bible?”……There are no "lost books" of the Bible, or books that were taken out of the Bible, or books missing from the Bible. Every book that God intended and inspired to be in the Bible is in the Bible. There are many legends and rumors of lost books, […]