Discovered in Egypt in 1945, the fascinating and challenging Nag Hammadi writings forever changed our understanding of early Christianity. State-of-the-art and the only volume of its kind, Introduction to "Gnosticism": Ancient Voices, Christian Worlds guides students through the most significant of the Nag Hammadi texts. Employing an exceptionally lucid and accessible writing style, Nicola Denzey Lewis groups the texts by theme and genre, places them in the broader context of the ancient world, and reveals their most inscrutable mysteries. Ideal for use in courses in Early Christianity/Origins of Christianity, Christianity to 1500, Gnostic Gospels, Gnosticism, Early Christian Writings, Orthodoxy and Heresy, and New Testament Studies, Introduction to "Gnosticism" is enhanced by numerous pedagogical features, including images of the manuscripts, study and discussion questions, annotated bibliographies, tables, diagrams, and a glossary.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1922 Edition.

It is a well-known fact that in the late 6th century Pope Gregory shaped the image of the Goddess in the Gospels, Mary Magdalene, into a penitent adulteress and prostitute-labels more recently abandoned in favor of "devoted follower" and even "Apostle to the Apostles." Conversely, Jesus' image and character were refashioned into a divinely born hero archetype and the body of his Gnostic wisdom teachings redacted and corrupted to support the personification of a Messiah and world redeemer who would fulfill an ancient prophesy and proclaim himself "the way" to salvation. If not accurate, then what was Jesus and Mary Magdalene's true legacy? Ariadne Green offers up the image of Divine Complements who married, had children and whose lives and mission together spanned over sixty years. She traces their journey from Judea and Galilee to the Nile Delta in Egypt, after an aborted crucifixion, and then onto Gaul and Great Britain as the carriers of the Grail. The book reveals a secret identity for Jesus, one known by the Knights Templar and a group of Cistercian monks, who hid clues to a legacy of secrets in La Queste Del Saint Graal. We discover Jesus' authentic teachings survived and became the tenets of Valentinian Gnostics who disseminated them in secret and initiated disciples into a profound mystery-the mystery of the 'bridal chamber'.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1922 Edition.