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 Thomas?”……The gospel of Thomas is a Coptic manuscript discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. This manuscript contains 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. Some of these sayings resemble sayings found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Other sayings were unknown until their discovery or even run […]

“What is the pseudepigrapha?”……The pseudepigrapha are the books which attempt to imitate Scripture but which were written under false names. The term "pseudepigrapha" comes from the Greek pseudo meaning "false" and epigraphein meaning "to inscribe," thus, "to write falsely." The pseudepigraphical books, sometimes broadly called the Apocrypha, were written anywhere from 200 BC to AD […]

“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 the Nag Hammadi library?”……Nag Hammadi is a town in northern Egypt where a collection of ancient writings was discovered in 1945. The collection of writings has since been titled the Nag Hammadi library, or the Nag Hammadi scrolls, or the Nag Hammadi codices. The vast majority of the scrolls in the Nag Hammadi […]

“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, […]