Nag Hammadi , a town in Egypt near the ancient town of Chenoboskion, where, in 1945, a large cache of gnostic texts in the Coptic language was discovered. The Nag Hammadi manuscripts, dating from the 4th cent. AD, include 12 codices of tractates, one loose tractate, and a copy of Plato's Republic —making 53 works in all. Originally composed in Greek, they were translated (2d-3d cent. AD) into Coptic. Most of the texts have a strong Christian element. The presence of non-Christian elements, however, gave rise to the speculation that gnosticism, which taught salvation by knowledge, was not originally a Christian movement. Until the texts' discovery, knowledge of Christian gnosticism was confined to reports and quotations of their orthodox opponents, such as Irenaeus and Tertullian. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Nag_Hammadi.aspx
In 2003 the world was caught up in a type of cultural phenomenon with some of the most fascinating people in history: Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and Leonardo Da Vinci. The skeptics, mystics, and the doubting Thomases were all caught up in the swirl of the Holy Grail, the Knights Templar, Opus Dei and the Lost Gospels and the bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. There are at least 20 books in print that attempt to support or refute the information found in the melodramatic mystery, The Da Vinci Code.
In a culture which now embraces fiction to be as convincing as historical truth, one may be distracted from what is real and what is fictional. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and many of the books related to the Lost Gospels deal masterfully with the more mysterious tenants of religion, politics, and science focusing on Gnosticism. The most fascinating aspect of Dan Brown’s novel is the overwhelming public interest and controversy surrounding many of the assertions Brown makes in this book. In order to deliver on his conspiratorial plot, Brown had to lay the groundwork by having his main characters deny the inspiration and authority of the biblical text and replace Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with the Lost Gospels. It may be safe to assume that most people have little or no previous exposure to these topics and the topics have certainly generated extreme interest and book sales about the topics indicate increased interest in the controversy that arose among the early Christians. Remember, reading The Da Vinci Code or The Gnostic Gospels or watching “The Matrix” is all very well, but such books and movies do not by themselves constitute a Gnostic revival.
Many believe the inception of Christianity, arose after the death of Christ when the mantle was taken up by his remaining disciples and Paul, after a visionary conversion en route to Damascus, traveled land and sea to disseminate Christ teachings and preach his divinity and resurrection. The historical truth as it relates to Christianity is far from this rosy, glass colored, storybook version.
Until recently, individual Christians assumed the early Christian church was a unified body, split by a number of opinions and practices called "heresies". We have assumed this because; we were never taught church history and some theologians told us that was so. The heresies of the Gnostics drew the attention of the early Church fathers and they wrote a great deal about denouncing them as prideful, blasphemous, licentious, and any other vice they could think of at the time. With the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices our perspective on the beginnings of Christianity changed.
In December of 1945 at the Jabal al-Tarif cliffs in Egypt, two peasants, Muhammed' Ali and Khalifah 'Ali of the al-Samman clan made a discovery, little did they realize that they had found an extraordinary collection of ancient texts, manuscripts hidden a millennium and a half before, probably by monks from the nearby monastery of St. Pachomius seeking to preserve them from a destruction ordered by the church as part of its violent expunging of heterodoxy and heresy. The groups of peasants were digging for fertilizer using the saddle-bags of their camels to carry the earth back, they tethered their camels to a boulder, and while digging around a massive boulder they came upon a buried jar. Muhammed 'Ali at first was afraid to break the jar for fear a jinn or spirit might be inside, but then he thought that gold might be contained in it instead, so he broke it with his mattock. Out flew particles of papyrus, Muhammed 'Ali after much discussion wrapped the books in his tunic and took them home, to his hovel in the hamlet of al-Qasar, he dumped the books, loose papers and covers in the straw next to the oven. Unfortunately, Muhammad’s mother, Umm-Ahmad burned much of the papyrus in the oven along with the straw she used to kindle the fire.
The documents found in 1945 represented 52 texts of Gnostic works, e.g. "Gospel of Thomas," the "Gospel of Philip," the "Gospel of Truth," and others. These newly discovered texts addressed fundamental questions, suggesting Christianity might have developed in very different directions. This collection of early text, dating back some 1,500 years reflect a variety of thoughts relating to Christianity written as early as the first and second centuries. These texts have allowed scholars to learn how the Gnostic Christians viewed God, Jesus Christ, the roles of women, orthodox Christianity, and the formation of the Church.
The discoveries of the Nag Hammadi texts and other early writings show that there was never a consensus about many basic questions. Was Jesus human, divine, or both (the dual nature of Christ)? Is there only one God or is there two or more (The Trinity or Triune God)? Did Jesus rise from the dead physically or did his followers later experience merely a sense of him being present that was almost palpable? True believers provided contradictory answers even within the primary organized church. Irenaeus and others developed orthodoxy to correct the heresy of others. Many early followers of Jesus were labeled as heretics and when they were not being persecuted by the state, they were busy persecuting each other.
A larger picture is revealed in the texts, e.g. an early church that consisted of a wide variety of movements, all interpreting the life, the messages, and the person, Jesus of Nazareth in different ways. All those beliefs were gradually maneuvered, even politically, into becoming a single unified body which confessed one creed, accepted one list of sacred texts as canonical, and submitted to the authority of one bishop.
Doctrines we now know as orthodox survived not because they were The Absolute Truth inspired by the Holy Spirit, but because they were the doctrines which tended to produce organized communities that would support one another and could weather persecution effectively. The Gnostics of the Lost Gospels were more like the type of people who meet in someone's living room to discuss Spiritual Matters over coffee.
Gnosticism was a different form of Christianity that was declared heretical and virtually stamped out by the Orthodox Church by the start of the second century. Most of what we knew of the Gnostic belief system came from the religious authors who worked so hard to destroy the movement. The Gnostic writings found in the text at Nag Hammadi were a momentous discovery of ancient papyri but this discovery received little attention until Dan Brown's DaVinci Code invited his readers and viewers to come along and take notice of history and the beginnings of Christianity.
Western civilization was shaped by Christianity much more than we care to believe in those agnostic times. Some of our most basic ways of thinking can be traced back to those chaotic years in the first few centuries of our era when people were trying to form a systematic theology from the teachings of Jesus. The Biblical canon had not yet been formed, and what we now call orthodoxy was just one of many systems. Among the different interpretations was Gnosticism.
Gnosticism was not so much a doctrine but a method of practicing religion that emphasized a very individualistic approach to God, propagated by close mentor-student training. Gnostics tended to be exclusive and was restricted to intellectuals and ascetics. This was in opposition to the more 'mainstream' church, which wanted to be universal and inclusive, with a well-defined hierarchy of Clerics. The struggle was sociological and political as much as it was religious. There was conflict between the idea of self discovery and the personal experience as a way to understand God, versus investing canonical texts as the "true religion" and the definitive answer to all questions. There were other problems with Gnosticism. Gnostics basically saw their faith as an internal thing, a practice based on the secret knowledge Jesus supposedly shared with a select number of individuals, one of whom was Mary Magdalene. Gnostics attracted women in particular because most Gnostics viewed everyone as equal and allowed for the participation of women in any sacred act. The orthodox, arguing that the disciples were men and that the church held no leadership positions for women, opposed the teachings.
Gnostics basically believed that one found Christ in oneself; inner visions were the trademarks of true Gnostics. The orthodox Church was founded on the basis of Peter's succession as the head of the church; Gnostics thus placed themselves not only on the same footing as the apostles, but above even the Twelve. They tried to answer their own questions as to how Christ could be both human and divine, and many of them came to view Christ as a spiritual being who only appeared to suffer and die. To the orthodox Christians, this belief was blasphemy. The church, as we know, was built on the faith and belief that God's son took on a human form and died in the literal sense on the Cross in order to conquer Death and save all of his followers. Some Gnostics came to believe that the Creator was not God but a demiurge. This caused Gnostics to view orthodox Christians as following a false god out of ignorance. This charge did not set well with orthodox Christians. The orthodox beliefs on the subject of resurrection legitimized a hierarchy of persons through whose authority all others must approach God. Gnostic teachings were thus seen as subversive of this social order by offering direct access to God outside of the priests and bishops of the orthodox Church.
When we place the two arguments side by side and analyze the distinct differences between Gnosticism and orthodox Christianity, we can see how the Gnostics were condemned as heretics and much of their writings destroyed. There were incredible social and political motivations behind routing out Gnosticism and forming a church with a powerful and distinct hierarchy and strict doctrine. What is additionally interesting is that we can see the slow evolution of our doctrine and the origins from which it stems. We come to see that Church doctrine did not always exist from the very beginning of the Church, that is was not always honestly motivated and that much was excluded from what the Church ultimately adopted as the New Testament.
Today, we can see how the orthodox Christians came to view Jesus Christ as having been a real man who literally died and was resurrected. We also come to see and understand the slow exclusion of women from positions of even the slightest power within the newly forming Church. Each of these developments is part of what distinguishes orthodox Christianity from Gnosticism. Both orthodox Christianity and Gnosticism guide us to a better understanding of the forces that shaped early Christianity. While the orthodox Christians believe in the physical reality of Jesus' resurrection, the immaculate conception of Jesus, and martyrdom; the Gnostic Christians interpret the resurrection in a spiritual way. Gnostic Christians believed each of us has a direct access to God and orthodox bishops and priests represent unwanted obstacles to this access of God.
For Gnostic Christians, the overarching factor is how much gnosis, knowledge a believer has along with wisdom and maturity. It entails self-knowledge or "know thyself" a key concept with the Greek philosophers i.e., Aristotle, Plato, Socrates. This concept is so important that knowing self ultimately leads to knowing God. There is no separation between God and the individual. This underlines the drastic difference between Gnostic and orthodox Christians. Competition from the Gnostics and others forced the orthodox Church to streamline its hierarchy, solidify its dogma, and universalize its appeal. The other so called “Christians” including Gnosticism, were eventually condemned and their scrolls burned.
For a religion to be successful it needed to be more than ideas. It needs the “Truth”. It also needed a strong organizational political structure that promoted its expansion based on principles readily understandable to newcomers. Orthodox Christianity had all these elements needed to enhance its prospective success. Gnosticism had ideas alone. Within two centuries, the Gnostic movement disappeared and orthodox Christianity flourished presenting a fairly united front for over a millennium until the arrival of Martin Luther in the 16th century. Oddly enough, Luther's Reformation would adopt certain Gnostic concepts, including the deemphasizing of a religious hierarchy and implementing the more direct access between each individual and God.
Until the Council of Nicaea gave focus to the faith, there was a lot of variation in beliefs. The unification was probably what prevented the Christian faith from failing as other religions have. The conflict between the orthodox and Gnostics raises some interesting questions about what made one set of beliefs true over the other set. Political actions are one reason the church developed as it did. There are other factors as well. The Gnostic beliefs were labeled as heresy and buried away for hundreds of years. The manuscripts found at Nag Hammadi recovered some of our lost history.
What is most interesting to consider is just how different Christianity might be today if additional writings had been included in the Bible. The two competing forms of early Christianity clearly explain how and why the Orthodox Church worked so vehemently to stamp out the heretical Gnostic acolytes. I am of the opinion that Gnosticism would have died out of its own accord had it not been declared heretical; its followers basically practiced a deeply personal and largely unorganized form of worship that excluded the masses. The early church needed organization in order to survive, especially during the times of awful persecution we find in the centuries after Christ's death.
The finding of the 52 Coptic texts at Nag Hammadi has seemingly shifted our very thoughts about Christianity as a traditional religious movement. Interpretation of the gospels reveals that historically, various diverse forms of Christianity flourished during Christianity's early formative years. We might have never known about the threatening Gnostic movement at the time Christianity was forming if the discovery of the Lost Gospel writings had not come to our attention. Although this was a momentous discovery of ancient history, it did not receive the attention it deserved until; Dan Brown's DaVinci Code brought the Lost Gospels found at Nag Hammadi to the masses.
Why didn't the Gnostic Christians reach out to the masses? Buddhism has Gnostic-like aspects but was able to contain both monks and lay people. Those Gnostics who understood the Creator not to be the real God would have trouble connecting with those who worshipped a Creator God. A Gnostic sense of superiority would hardly lead to good relationships with those without gnosis. Whereas Buddhist monks and laity had good relationships, Gnostics seemed to depend too much on an otherness from the masses. Exclusivity led to extinction. Gnostic Christianity has entirely disappeared; but as mentioned some of its ideas have survived within eastern philosophies Buddhism, classical Greek philosophy, and modern existentialism. Gnosticism still exists but the majority of Christian movements follow an orthodox Christian structure. The survival of the Christian tradition was dependent on the organizational and theological structure of the emerging church. The emergence of the religious hierarchical structure of the church seemed to mirror the difficult times of the growing social and political forces of the governing body of that time. The movement to institutionalize Christianity, created a leadership structure, a small band of bishop and priests, which stood in a position of incontestable authority to define how individuals could know God. Mounting alienation from the world in which they lived combined with a longing for a miraculous salvation as an escape from the constraints of political and social existence of the time, gave the necessary strength and power to create the orthodox Christian church.
The conflicts described in the past are still in play and to understand where we are it helps to review our past. The most significant effect these writings have revealed is how a group of religious writers, who were persecuted as heretics by the orthodox church, has shown modern readers there is more, and there was more than just the generally accepted Biblical books available for those who were seeking a spiritual belief. There was also the tradition of the church in its daily living by the faithful guided by the Holy Spirit which helped define what the truth was as it was believed. Gnosticism never really threatened to displace orthodoxy, but still the Orthodox Church leaders saw it as a threat. Perhaps, because at that time the church had not been fully established or maybe the leaders felt uncomfortable with writings that challenged everything from the human Jesus to the belief in the resurrection is why the writing were lost.
The Apostle Paul had to be struck by lightning before he could see the light. To disagree agreeably, rather than what has become the current trend of arguing ideologically, is becoming a lost art. In religion, as in politics, communication can be difficult to say the least. Especially in these fractured post-modern times. Christianity, with a few different turns, could have evolved into an entirely different theology than it is today.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Nag_Hammadi.aspx
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1006499,00.html
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