The Secret Teachings Ofjesus-Four Gnostic Gospels

Random House, 1984.. Very Good/Unknown. Octavo, hardcover, near fine in somewhat edgeworn brown pictorial dj. Translated, with introduction and notes by Marvin W. Meyer. 129 pages including notes and bibliography. In December 1945, two Egyptian fellahin, digging for natural fertilizer in the Nile River valley unearthed a sealed storage jar. The jar proved to hold treasure of an unexpected sort: a collection of some fifty-two ancient manuscripts, most of which reflect the teachings of a mystical religious movement we call Gnosticism (from the Greek word gnosis, "knowledge"). The texts are also, with few exceptions, Christian documents, and thus they provide us with valuable new information about the character of the early church, and about the Gnostic Christians within the church. In this volume, Marvin W. Meyer has produced a new English translation for general readers of four of the most important and revealing of these early Christian texts ? the Secret Book of James, the Gospel of Thomas, the Book of Thong, and the Secret Book of John.