Nag Hammadi Scriptures, The: The International Edition | Marvin Meyer, James M. Robinson |...

Nag Hammadi Scriptures, The: The International Edition | Marvin Meyer, James M. Robinson | Translations of the Nag Hammadi texts

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Nag Hammadi Script...

	Nag Hammadi Scriptures, The: The International Edition Marvin Meyer, James M. Robinson HarperOne, 2007 - 864 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is the most complete, up?to?date, one?volume, English?language edition of the renowned library of fourth?century Gnostic manuscripts discovered in Egypt in 1945, which rivaled the Dead Sea Scrolls find in significance. It includes the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and other Gnostic gospels and sacred texts. This volume also includes introductory essays, notes, tables, glossary, index, etc. to help the reader understand the context and contemporary significance of these texts which have shed new light on early Christianity and ancient thought.

This team of collaborators launched modern Gnostic studies and exposed a movement within Christianity whose teachings are in many ways as relevant today as they were centuries ago. The importance of their work has been underscored with the success of books by bestselling authors such as Elaine Pagels, Harold Bloom, and even Dan Brown.

Opening the secrets of a religion which the Gnostics themselves had hoped would be kept sealed until the Last Day, this edition takes into account recent developments including the significance of the Gospel of Thomas and other lost gospels as a source of the authentic sayings of Jesus. This fascinating collection will become a welcome addition to the understanding of the formative years of the early Christian Church.

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Complete(?) Gnostic Sourcebook

I want to make one short point in this review. I believe this is the only volume you need for Gnostic source material.

The title is misleading. This book (as of 2007) contains the _entire_ collection of "Gnostic" texts available, whether included in the Nag Hammadi codices or not. This includes the Gospel of Judas, first published in English in 2006. These are also the most modern translations, taking advantage of the latest finds and research.

That said, prior volumes such as The Nag Hammadi Library, The Gnostic Bible, and The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions by (The Anchor Bible Reference Library) all contain editorial material that is well worth reading.

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Translations of the Nag Hammadi texts

This is probably the most definitive book of the Nag Hammadi texts' translations at the present time. The ancient texts were found buried in Egyptian soil in the year 1945, and they gave a better view to origins of Christianity. The gnostic view. In place of blind faith the inner knowledge of oneself (=gnosis) is seen to be the key factor in one's religious experience.

The Nag Hammadi texts were not included in the Bible for some hazy reasons/irrationalities, and one can see that the Bible is missing many points of view. It takes some patience to read the Nag Hammadi texts too, but the new views to existing concepts are definetely worth it. --> The jealous God of Moses'n'Israel was not good at all, true Jesus was not crucified, the world is seen as a mere illusion, Holy Spirit is associated with thought/thinking, Jesus with knowledge of truth/self, God with love/wholeness, etc...

Alongside Nag Hammadi Library also included in this book are the translated contents of the Berlin Gnostic Codex 8502 (BG 8502) and the Codex Tchacos. Which means even the Gospel of Judas is included, and a fragmentary sample of the Gospel of Mary. -The contents of the 'Gnostic' Askew Codex and Bruce Codex aren't included here, however.

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Excellent compilation of Gnostic scriptures

In this book you will find excellent translations of the ancient Gnostic manuscripts that were hidden in jars by the Nile in Egypt some time in the first few hundred years of the common era. These manuscripts include scriptures that were not supported by the Roman Catholic Church and early Church fathers which might have been what lead to there being hidden. They were discovered in 1945 by a group of young peasants digging for fertilizer in Nag Hammadi Egypt. While they were mishandled and some were even burned before reaching the hands of antiquity dealers they turned out to be a discovery equal to the dead sea scrolls.
This volume includes all the documents that were found, writings supposedly from the apostle Paul, never before senn gospels attributed to Phillip and Thomas, Sethian writings, Valentian writings, and much more. The editor ensures that each translation is preceded by an explanation of the document and puts in context to when and why it was written. This is very helpful because it can be very confusing to read these 1800 year old documents with out a guide. Marvin Meyer has gathered an all star group to present this volume Peter Funk, Paul Poirier, and James Robinson with an introduction by Elaine Pagels wo brought Gnosticism mainstream. If you are a Gnostic, this is as close as will will ever have to your own "Bible" if you are interested in understanding Gnosticism who have the correct palce to start your study, with the original writings. Hear you will find the ancient Gnostics speaking for themselves through their myths and beliefs about the here and now and their true nature.

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The hot new item on the book shelf

I've had Robinson's "Nag Hammadi Library" for some years. The paperback cover is all beat up. The pages are dog-eared, and I've scribbled a few notes here and there as I have struggled to understand these obscure texts.

Then I noticed this new (2007) edition has come out. I decided to see what sort of progress has been made in the study of these texts.

I'm immediately impressed. First of all, this is a hardcover version, as opposed to my old paperback edition of the NHL.

Second, the translation and layout of these texts are much more readable.

If you get really interested in these texts, you can compare various translations, or even learn Coptic. I think you're more likely to get interested in these texts if you start with readable translations such as those found here.

There are places in my old Nag Hammadi Library where it's very difficult to make any sense of what the text says. Seems to me the problem isn't the original writer's inability to write or my inability to read, but something that happened somewhere in between. This new volume reads more clearly in some of these difficult sections. The Second Discourse (Treatise) of the Great Seth, for example, is much more readable in this volume.

As another reviewer has said, several texts not found at Nag Hammadi are included in this volume, including the Gospel of Judas. Um, are these all the gnostic texts? I wouldn't say so. "Gnostic" is a pretty hard-to-define category anyway. It's a label stuck on these people by their adversaries in the late second century.

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Buy It!

This is an excellent book for anyone who is interested in the scriptures. It tells the whole story.

reviews: page 1, 2

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