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What and when -

The Gnostic Gospels are a collection of 52 texts found in Egypt in 1945. The texts were written on papyrus and compiled in 13 ancient books, called codices.

The texts were found inside a buried jar in December 1945 by an Arab peasant named Muhammad 'Ali al-Samman.

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What happened to the books? - The books were later sold on the black market in Cairo. The Egyptian government confiscated the majority of books, but one of the codices was smuggled out of Egypt and ended up in Europe.

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Where are the texts now? - The original texts are now kept at the Coptic Museum in Cairo, and are labeled with the acronym NHC (Nag Hammadi Codices).

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Gnostics and Gnosticism -

The term "gnostic" comes from "gnosis," the Greek word for "knowledge." Gnostics believed they held a secret knowledge about God and the divine, hence the name. They held different views of Jesus and his teachings and many of their texts were destroyed as they were considered heretic by the early church.

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Gnostics and Gnosticism - The Gnostics were not a church or an organized single religion. They were composed of a number of religious and philosophical movements that thrived from the 2nd to the 4th century AD.

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Gnostic beliefs - At its core, Gnostics believed that the material world was evil and that the spiritual world was good. According to Explore God, Gnostics believed that humans were "good spirits trapped inside of evil material bodies."

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How did the Gnostics see God? - Gnostics believed in a Supreme God who was transcendental and beyond understanding. They also believed that the creation of the universe was the work of a somewhat inferior God called Demiurge, and not of the Supreme God.

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How did the Gnostics see Jesus? - The Gnostics saw Jesus as the 'Redeemer,' who had come to Earth to reveal the truth to humans. For some, Jesus was purely divine and not human at all (as flesh was evil), though others believed that Jesus was just human.

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Salvation in Gnosticism - Gnostics didn’t believe that sacrament or forgiveness of sins was required for one to be saved. Instead, to achieve salvation, humans would have to acquire 'gnosis,' the secret knowledge.

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God is in us - Gnostics believed that knowing oneself was the path to know God. According to an extract from the book 'The Gnostic Bible,' reproduced by gnosis.org, Gnostics rejected the mediation of priests, rabbis, and other religious authorities.

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What is a Gospel? - Gospel comes from the Greek word "euaggelion" and essentially means "good news." The term was adopted by early Christians to impart the message of Jesus and give an account of his life.

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Gnostic Gospels - The Gnostic texts labeled as gospels tell the Gnostics' view of Jesus. Some famous gospels include those of Thomas, Mary, and Judas.

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The Gospel of Thomas -

According to Opus Dei, the Gospel of Thomas has 114 quotes from Jesus, but no narrative.

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The Gospel of Mary - The Gospel of Mary narrates the revelation she had about the ascension of Christ.

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The Gospel of Judas -

According to this controversial text, Judas was actually a good apostle, as argued by The New York Times. In fact, the gospel says that Judas was acting under the orders of Jesus when he betrayed him.

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Are the gospels reliable? - The reliability of the texts has been debated exhaustively. The main arguments against it, according to A Clear Lens, are date, consistency, and historical context.

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Date - Although the Bible took many years to compile, the canonical gospels were being circulated well before the Gnostic ones.

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Consistency - Given the amount of accounts about Judas in the canonical texts by other apostles, it is natural that the Gnostic version of Judas raises some eyebrows.

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Consistency -

The canonical gospels depict Jesus’ message as universal while the Gnostics’ version says that he only offered his knowledge to a select few.

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Historical context - The fallacy lays on the fact that the Gnostics used myths as a way to communicate their beliefs, so the texts are not necessarily historical accounts of Jesus’ life.

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Reliability - Professor Francis Watson of Durham University goes ever further and claims that some of the writings are fake.

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Reliability - The same view is supported by Mark Goodacre, Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Duke University.

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The Bible - The Bible was compiled over a number of years and many books failed to end up in the final version, according to Biblica, the International Bible Society.

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The New Testament - The Gospels selected for the New Testament were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These are the recognized canonical gospels.

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What is the canon? - According to Biblica, the International Bible Society, the canon are the books regarded as inspired by God and authoritative for faith and life.

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Why aren’t the Gnostic gospels in the Bible? - Bible scholar Darrell L. Bock said in an interview with Beliefnet that "the rootage of these (canonical) gospels either involves an apostolic figure or someone closely associated with an apostolic figure." And that, "The gospels that ended up in the Bible are all from the first century. No gospel of that [Gnostic] list that I’m aware of is actually dated in the first century."

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The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown's best-seller was inspired by the Gnostic gospels, but scholars disagree with Brown’s view, according to the National Geographic.

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Why are these texts important? -

The Gnostic Gospels give us important insight into Gnosticism and early Christianity. It shows us that a number of ideas were debated and how the early church interpreted them.

See also: Facts you didn't know about the Bible

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