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The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: An Enlightening Compilation of Gnostic Manuscripts Revealing New Perspectives on Early Christianity, Ancient Judaism, and Greco-Roman Religions Paperback – International Edition, May 26, 2009
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The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, edited by Marvin Meyer, is the most complete, up-to-date, one-volume, English-language edition of the renowned library of 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 the recently discovered Gospel of Judas, as well as 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. The compilation of ancient manuscripts that constitute The Nag Hammadi Scriptures is a discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about the early Christian church, ancient Judaism, and Greco-Roman religions.
- Print length844 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateMay 26, 2009
- Dimensions9.1 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
- ISBN-100061626007
- ISBN-13978-0061626005
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From the Back Cover
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 the recently discovered Gospel of Judas, as well as 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.
About the Author
Marvin Meyer is one of the foremost scholars on early Christianity and texts about Jesus outside the New Testament. He is Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California. Among his recent books are The Gospel of Judas, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus, The Gospels of Mary, The Gospel of Thomas, and The Nag Hammadi Scriptures.
James M. Robinson, consultant for this collection, is widely known for his groundbreaking contribution as the permanent secretary of UNESCO's International Committee for the Nag Hammadi codices, and his many published works on Gnostic texts and the Sayings Gospel Q.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperOne; First Edition (May 26, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 844 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0061626007
- ISBN-13 : 978-0061626005
- Item Weight : 1.95 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #5,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Gnosticism (Books)
- #11 in History of Christianity (Books)
- #20 in Christian Church History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Marvin Meyer is one of the foremost scholars on gnosticism, the Nag Hammadi library, and texts about Jesus outside the New Testament.
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Customers find the book easy to read and understand. They find it instructive and insightful, providing a welcome supplement to their religious texts. Many consider it a good value for the money. The formatting looks fantastic on the paperwhite. The style is described as roundabout descriptive. Overall, customers appreciate the lightness of the book and its insights into the Bible.
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Customers find the book easy to read and understand. It's a faithful translation from ancient codices. Readers appreciate the consistent commitment to the text and praise it as an outstanding piece of scholarly work.
"...This ancient anthology is an impressive job of scholarship and clear translation, and it oozes with bunches of helpful footnotes, introductions and..." Read more
"...of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, is probably the finest available edition for the general reader today and should appeal to a wide range of readers..." Read more
"...It is certainly worth a read." Read more
"This read is excellent. Answered so many questions I had on my spiritual awakening journey" Read more
Customers find the book instructive and insightful. They say it provides a lot of information in an easy-to-understand way. The authors provide excellent introductions to each piece, explaining its place in the book. There is detailed commentary before each book. Readers mention that the book has helped them with their studies of Gnosticism in early Christianity.
"Lots of information in the book. Must have to anyone who is interested in eairly Christianity." Read more
"...for the general reader today and should appeal to a wide range of readers with varying interests...." Read more
"...but on point, like The Treatise on Resurrection, and others seemingly inspired, such as the first section of The teachings of Silvanus...." Read more
"...This version makes it much more understandable but not without a price..." Read more
Customers find this book a useful addition to their religious texts. It contains insights from the ancient mystical tradition of Gnosticism, including many parables of Jesus that are not found in other sacred texts. Theological and historical introductions by prominent theologians and historians precede each of the scriptures. The full book includes all of the Nag Hammati scriptures.
"...job of scholarship and clear translation, and it oozes with bunches of helpful footnotes, introductions and leads for further study...." Read more
"...ISBN 9780061626005 The present work, as the most complete and up-to-date English-language edition of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, is..." Read more
"The letters are comfortable size to read and great addition to my collection of scriptures." Read more
"...This book compiles the writings in a complete volume, more complete that any other book ever has, of all the known fragments and complete works of..." Read more
Customers find the book well-constructed and worth the money. They say it's a great book and value for those who wish to pursue the path of knowledge.
"...I would like to think this book was well worth what I paid for it...." Read more
"...It's a lot to unpack, but worth the buy." Read more
"...This book is very worthwhile if you are interested in what the Gnostics had to say about their view of Cosmology and their Religion...." Read more
"...Extremely worth while if you wish to pursue the path of knowledge and see the world religions of today more clearly for the blatant lies that they..." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's style. They find the formatting fantastic on the Paperwhite, the rendering comprehensive, and the font lovely. The translations are described as roundabout and descriptive, but once you get used to them you enjoy them. Overall, readers praise the book's layout and translations.
"...Yet, even the remnants of the Gospel of Mary are so profoundly beautiful; it is the single most beautiful thing I've read in my life...." Read more
"...and contradiction of the Christian Bible to a beautiful striving for intelligent knowledge, truth and peace...." Read more
"...people who worked on this translation enough, it is truly a beautiful work to behold. Thank you." Read more
"...The Nag Hammadi Scriptures are INCREDIBLY beautiful and it was such a joy to read the words...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's illuminating and eye-opening insights. They find it sheds new light on the Bible and Jesus, painting a more complete picture.
"...It shines a new light on Jesus and paints him in a way as to portray him as a light being of incredible purity and knowledge, but not a god that..." Read more
"To Complete all of the 'Lost Gospels', a MUST HAVE! What a eye opener!!!..." Read more
"Well written, fantastic reading and very illuminating...." Read more
"Paints a more complete picture." Read more
Customers have different views on the print size. Some find the text comfortable to read, while others find the font too small and the pages too short.
"The letters are comfortable size to read and great addition to my collection of scriptures." Read more
"...Gospel of Mary Magdalene- 🤯 small 2-4 pages and broken...." Read more
"...While the actual size of the text is fine, the print is too light. It makes for an incredible amount of eye strain and fatigue!..." Read more
"...But the paper has slight gray tinge and the font is the smallest possible for a book and the color of the font is a light gray...." Read more
Customers have mixed views on the authenticity of the book. Some find it honest and faithful, describing it as one of the greatest compilations of truth ever assembled. However, others mention that some stories are fabricated, making them more difficult to believe and diminishing the story.
"...And I can see some blatant fabrications in the stories, as there are claims that are archeologically impossible or self-contradicting statements, etc..." Read more
"This book is written as an honest and faithful translation (not transcription) of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures...." Read more
"...For example some of the stories are more wild and mythical sounding even than the traditional story of the Garden of Eden...." Read more
"...Marvin Meyer's editing is astonishing in its honesty and intelligence...." Read more
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After Mary said these things, she was silent, since it was up to this point that the Savior had spoken to her.
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2024Lots of information in the book. Must have to anyone who is interested in eairly Christianity.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 11, 2013This isn't a book! It's actually a magic portal through which the reader tumbles from one dimension to another. Sometimes the results are unsettling, but one is always left believing that, however much new got found in the next dimension, a lot is still there waiting to be discovered.
The blah cover of Nag Hammadi Scriptures makes it look like just another dry, boring now-let's-study-the-Bible type book. Instead it's a ticket for fascinating time travel out of the present and back to a murky, confusing past; from one civilization to another; from one rigid belief system to another; from one religion to another. You get bounced from reality to myth, and then all the way back again -- provided you still want to return.
This ancient anthology is an impressive job of scholarship and clear translation, and it oozes with bunches of helpful footnotes, introductions and leads for further study. If it has a flaw, I think it is that, found here and there throughout the volume, are faint hints of traditional Christian ideas. Sometimes one senses the editors may be trying a little too hard to reconcile some orthodox Christian belief or other with what they assume the ancient authors were saying or thinking. And the book certainly wants to make you believe that everyone with a point of view needs to have earned a degree from some obscure school of theology or religion. But ignore all that. If you buy the book, you've got the right to make up your own mind about what it says. And if there ever was a topic about which everyone's entitled to their own slant, this must be it.
As all readers will, I have a bias. I am a very devout Buddhist, steeped primarily in the religious traditions of Sri Lanka. The revelations I derived from the Nag Hammadi Scriptures were that passage, after passage, after passage is at least compatible with (and sometimes nearly identical to) Theravadan Buddhist teaching, and that both Gnostic ideas and Buddhism seem closer to one another than either one does to today's Christian practices.
All of which suggests to me that, though the world doggedly perpetuates and exalts countless images of, names for and ideas about "gods", you don't have to be a great scholar or professional theologian to recognize that, in the end, there is after all only one. To me this book argues most eloquently that, whoever or whatever that god may be, a wise search for him/her starts by a dive deep within the human psyche.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2010The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts - The International Edition. Edited by Marvin Meyer. New York: Harper Collins, 2008. Paperback, 844 pages. ISBN 9780061626005
The present work, as the most complete and up-to-date English-language edition of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, is probably the finest available edition for the general reader today and should appeal to a wide range of readers with varying interests.
Judging by the reviews, most readers seem to come to these texts with a strong Biblical background and are surprised to see how strikingly different they can be to the Bible.
In my own case I come to them with a background in Asian thought and am amazed at how strikingly similar they can at times be to the sacred texts of the East.
This is understandable since, as Duncan Greenlees pointed out in his excellent anthologyThe Gospel of The Gnostics (page xxvi): "We have not yet worked out the actual influence of India upon the Western ... Gnostics; yet it is clear to the sympathetic, and therefore to the honest, student it must have been very great. At times we can almost recognize a direct quotation from some Indian scripture."
To realize that he is right we need only turn, for example, to logion 24 of the Gospel of Thomas where we find Jesus saying (page 143):
"There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark."
Turning next to the Astavakra Samhita II.8, which Dr. Satkari Mookerjee in his Introduction explains "is a very early and pure Advaitic text which gives us the essentials of the Advaita Vedanta position," we find King Janaka announcing to the sage Ashtavakra:
"Light is my very nature; I am no other than light. When the universe manifests itself, verily then it is I that shine."
The translator comments: "The nature of the Self is Effulgence itself. Whatever is manifested is nothing but the Self. The manifestation of the world really implies the manifestation of the Self."
We should note that in Vedanta this Light (Skt. prakasha) is a property, not of a God-man such as Jesus, but of ordinary men such as King Janaka, or you and me.
We are dealing here with something very deep, far too deep to go into here. Readers whose curiosity may have been aroused should check out my Listmania List: The Ashtavakra Gita - A Very Early and Pure Advaita Text. This will set them on the path to understanding what logion 24 is really all about, and possibly much else in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures.
Top reviews from other countries
- ZaidReviewed in Mexico on November 11, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Best translation out there
For gnostic adherents or scholars, this is it.
- Jeff wardReviewed in Canada on January 5, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting
Lots of stuff that likely really tics off mainstream religion. I love it. I'm not rock solid on how much of it I believe or not but either way it's a really neat read you won't get in the standard bedside table at a motel bible.
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Luiz Antonio Vital TeixeiraReviewed in Brazil on July 30, 2022
5.0 out of 5 stars Livro imprescindivel na historia do pensamento religioso.
Quem quer conhecer mais a fundo o gnosticismo tem que ler esse livro.
- Jamal al DinReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most astounding, illuminating and fascinating books i have ever read
Contained in the fragments of this book is the explanation of Life, the human race, our place in existence and our creator. Its supremely difficult to comprehend but It answered every question i have ever had about the human race, our origins, our end, our religions, philosophy, death, life and why we exist and what will become of us when we die. Its incredibly deep in places, even for a philosopher or scholar.
Its certainly not a simple read and i had to stop reading to reflect on many sentences and think deeply on their meaning before i could proceed to the next sentence or paragraph.
Its probably way beyond most people to even begin to comprehend a fraction of it. Any question i ever had about the concept or reality of what we call God is answered in the lines of these scriptures. I also felt after reading and studying The Bible and The Quran in depth that we truly already have all the answers to anything we wish to know, all the keys to happiness and ultimate knowledge but like these Nag Hammadi scriptures the ultimate truth has been hidden from us in a cave for centuries and not become a freely available part of our lives. It has been hidden, obscured and changed to suit the purposes of Rulers and Kings for centuries. For example; the Book of Esther is in The Bible but not one of the Nag Hammadi scriptures is. The question is.....why?
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Germany on July 29, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars They did a good job on putting this together
I actually had visions about this book and its teachings. It's the most valuable book on my bookshelf and every page, makes me richer in knowledge. This book guides me to find the depths of truth and find a way to resurrect before I die, according to Jesus.