The Gnostic Bible: Gnostic Texts of Mystical Wisdom form the Ancient and Medieval Worlds

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THE GNOSTIC BIBLE EDITED BY Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer SHAMBHALA Boston & London 2003 ...

Shambhala Publications, Inc. Horticultural Hall 300 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02115 http://www.shambhala.com ©2 ...

CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IX GNOSTICISM, GNOSTICS, AND THE GNOSTIC BIBLE Marvin Meyer l LETTING IN THE LIGHT: TRANSLATING HOLY ...

CONTENTS ...

- 8. The Three Steles of Seth - 9. The Vision of the Foreigner The Sermon of Zostrianos Gospel of the Egyptians 11. ...

VIII CONTENTS Parthian Songs 639 The Great Song to Mani 647 ' PART SIX Islamic Mystical Literature 655 INTRODUCTION • Marvin M ...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to acknowledge several people and organizations that have helped in the production of this volume. ...

GNOSTICISM, GNOSTICS, AND THE GNOSTIC BIBLE MARVIN MEYER Know what is in front of your face and what is hidden from you will be ...

(^2) INTRODUCTION Religious officials, who were not pleased with such freedom and independ- ence, condemned the gnostics as here ...

INTRODUCTION 3 spiritual deity, who is surrounded by aeons and is all wisdom and light, and the creator of the world, who is at ...

4 INTRODUCTION thinkers in this volume. John the baptizer becomes the gnostic hero of the Man- daeans, Jesus of the Christian gn ...

INTRODUCTION 5 spiritual love. Often the aeons are identified as spiritual attributes of the di- vine, are given names, and are ...

6 INTRODUCTION the dawning of awareness, from within and without, of "what is, what was, and what is to come." It is insight. It ...

INTRODUCTION 7 reflecting upon the origin and destiny of true life and light. In Syria, the sacred literature relating to Thomas ...

(^8) INTRODUCTION The term gnostic is derived from the ancient Greek word gnosis, "knowl- edge." Gnosis is a common word in Gree ...

INTRODUCTION 9 The more famous of the heresiologists include Irenaeus of Lyon, whose major work was Adversus haereses, "Against ...

(^10) INTRODUCTION considered gnostic by scholars. The texts in the Nag Hammadi library were discovered around December 1945 nea ...

INTRODUCTION^11 in terms of modern philosophical existentialism. The gnostic drama high- lights the self-experience of a person ...