"Fifth Gospel" Revealed as Gnostic Writings

 

From The Indianapolis New, Saturday, March 12, 1960, as presented by the Reverend John L. McKenzie...

This article summarizes some first "thoughts" regarding the book titled, The Secret Sayings of Jesus, as written by Robert M. Grant with David Noel Freedman.  After reading this book, I went ahead and purchased a first edition, paperback version of this book.  More to come on that later...in the meantime...

What does this article mention of interest?  A few points I thought worth mentioning here.

• The name Gnostic, from the Greek work gnosis, or knowledge, comes from a fundamental principle of this heresy: the principle of salvation was attained by knowledge rather than by virtue.
• This "knowledge" was prized as being secret, and as having more value than any knowledge shared in the New Testament.
• The author reviews Grant and Freedman's key takeaways regarding the Gospel of Thomas 
• The book, Secret Sayings, is described as being an excellent introduction to the Gospel of Thomas
  

Of all the secret knowledge in Thomas, the author writes this as most interesting in the work of Grant and Freedman :

Gnosticism was intellectual and spiritual to excess.  Jesus was a teacher and philosopher, not a redeemer.  The Gnostics had no mission to the world, but simply withdrew from it and denied its reality.  In the Gospel of Thomas the climax of perfection comes in the suppression of sex in the most literal manner; for the female principle is a principle of imperfection, and woman is saved only by becoming a man!  So likewise Jesus is the son of the Holy Spirit; the Gnostics could not conceive that He was born of woman.

To be honest, this discussion and that of Eve being to blame for humanity's problems was not something I was aware of with Gnosticism.  Sure, I was aware of the Demiurge, the archons, the fall of Sophia, the fake simulation we live in...but not the need that man and female needed to merge to find gnosis.  Yet, that is why I started this blog...