An alternative view of Christianity
Michael Crump, Guest Columnist
Published On: 11/10/2009
The text of favor that invigorates me to no end is a book of texts from the ancient world, dating from 100 C.E. (common era) to around 400 C.E. These texts are from various authors and are still being debated on as to up importance they have on today’s society.
The collection of texts is called the Nag Hammad’i, named after a town in Egypt. It was discovered in 1945 by a peasant farmer and, to some degree, is considered one of the greatest archaeological, historical, and religious finds of the 20th century. It usually called the Gnostic Gospels and contains more than 50 non-canonical tracts of texts directly or indirectly inspired by the Greek philosopher Plato and the religious movement known as Christianity at the time.
The Gnostics, or Christians who had their own system of beliefs apart from the Jews, Gentiles or early Christian Apostolic Fathers, were hunted down by various individuals for their beliefs and hid their texts in the town of Nag Hammad’i some 150 years or so before the New Testament was even canonized.
This library of texts contains some of the most poetic, allegorical and even dangerous sayings that create severe controversy to this day when I discuss it with various religious figures in the community. The text discusses various views on creationism (it was developed out of several gods, not just one), salvation (one can save oneself through inner knowledge and not outer), crucifixion (the physical body of Jesus did not exist; therefore he did not die on the cross for our sins), and resurrection (Jesus never really died; death is all an illusion and thus, one lives forever.)
These texts had four main non-canonical (or not with divine authority) that are the crux of the issue. They are the Gospels of Mary, Philip, Thomas and the Gospel of Truth. More recently, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot was found in early 2006 and makes a startling claim that Judas betrayed Jesus of Nazareth as a friend of Jesus because Jesus “told him so.”
As one can see, it doesn’t take long to visualize the depth and richness of these texts. I have been on this journey for a better part of five years, and I still am trying to grasp the themes associated with Gnosticism (the collection of various Gnostic faiths) and implications in my life. It can be fulfilling (knowing that Mary of Magdela was Jesus’ favorite disciple) to downright frightening (that women were viewed as evil not because of Eve but because of the inherent risk of creating an evil being.)
I must say that as I am diving deeper into this old faith rediscovered anew, I am trying my best to uphold the feminine views of Gnosticism as well as accepting all writers who have such diversified beliefs. One extreme writer was the Greek Theologian Marcion, who was excommunicated by the Roman Christian Church as a heretic and Valentinus, an early Christian Gnostic who was one seat away from becoming the Pope of Rome.
Valentinus was the most successful theologian of his time and his teaching and writings are the ones closely related to Christianity while maintaining a Gnostic overtone. It is this school of thought I follow and will continue to do for the rest of my life.
His Gospel of Truth and very early building of a canonized set of texts was and still is the formation of what true Gnostic Christianity holds true. I hope for everyone else, that I offered a glimpse in something to read other than the Holy Bible, the Quran or the Torah.
Email: gnostic1@uab.edu
