"The Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospel - Annotated & Explained decodes the principal themes, historical foundation, and spiritual contexts of this challenging yet fundamental Gnostic teaching. Drawing connections to Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, kabbalistic Judaism, and Sufism, Davies focuses on the mythology and psychology of the Gnostic religious quest. He illuminates the Gnostics' ardent call for self-awareness and introspection, and the empowering message that divine wholeness will be restored not by worshiping false gods in an illusory material world but by our recognition of the inherent divinity within ourselves."--BOOK JACKET.

This ancient Gnostic text can be a companion for your own spiritual quest The Secret Book of John is the most significant and influential text of the ancient Gnostic religion. Part of the library of books found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, this central myth of Gnosticism tells the story of how God fell from perfect Oneness to imprisonment in the material world, and how by knowing our divine nature and our divine origins—that we are one with God—we reverse God’s descent and find our salvation. The Secret Book of John: The Gnostic Gospel—Annotated & Explained decodes the principal themes, historical foundation, and spiritual contexts of this challenging yet fundamental Gnostic teaching. Drawing connections to Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, kabbalistic Judaism, and Sufism, Davies focuses on the mythology and psychology of the Gnostic religious quest. He illuminates the Gnostics’ ardent call for self-awareness and introspection, and the empowering message that divine wholeness will be restored not by worshiping false gods in an illusory material world but by our recognition of the inherent divinity within ourselves. Now you can experience and understand this foundational teaching even if you have no previous knowledge of Gnosticism. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents the most important and valued book in Gnostic religion with insightful yet unobtrusive commentary. It provides deeper insight into the understanding that in Gnosticism the distinction between savior and saved ceases to exist—you must save yourself and in doing so save God.

Modern text research shows that biblical tradition often does not at all correspond to real historical events. This lessens neither the inner significance of the Bible nor of true Christendom, for, true Christendom is more than just a religion: It is the spiritual Sphere of Life that embraces all Worlds with all their Mysteries. Some results of modern research as collected and presented here in a dense form,clearly contradict canonical narratives, and might provoke different reactions: from condescendent shaking of heads to apalled outcries. But neither will diminish their validity. After 2000 years of nominal Christianism it is now time to animate truly spiritual Christendom. This new Christendom is, on one side, a renewal of the classical antique Mysteries, with the Christ Jesus as the last and greatest Avatar of the "Sun Spirit descended to Earth" as the "Redemptor of theWorld", and on the other, a complete renewal of religious thinking and feeling of humans, everyone now being summoned to realize their potential "microcosmical Cristos" in today's spiritual freedom with its world-wide new paradigmata. The two texts published here in best possible accuracy, are especially important because, combined with a deeply founded introduction, they at last publicly present the world of faith of the true Arch-Christians of the first centuries, and their comprehension of events "from Bethlehem to Golgotha". Based on said insights, the book here in hand undertakes to define a new Christendom for a new Era: A Christendom that must not just be believed in sheepish obedience, but lived out of mature consciousness and in a daily effort of every single human. Its purpose is to encourage a large number of people to experience this new Light, Truth and Life. Numerous book-references, many in part extensive notes, and a number of full-page images show the credibility of the new view, and enlarge the usual dogmatic picture.- A book that, read in a leisurly pace and with open soul and heart , may bring about new clarity and a new vivid faith for the old message. German edition: Same title, ISBN: 9783907103050

The most comprehensive collection of gnostic literature ever published, this volume is the result of a unique collaboration between a renowned poet-translator and a leading scholar of early Christian texts.

This volume investigates the early, second-century reception of the Fourth Gospel. This is an era when its fortunes are surrounded by silence and mystery. It was assumed, until quite recently, that Gnostic and other so-called heterodox groups were the first ones to appreciate this gospel, and hence the mainstream Christians avoided using it until Irenaeus rescued it for the church. Lately, this view has been challenged by several scholars for several reasons. The contributions in this volume, written by leading specialists in their respective fields, offer an approachable, fresh, comprehensive and up-to-date view of the second-century reception of John s Gospel, in a situation where new understandings about various forms of early Christianity and its multiformity have started to emerge.

In this needed and highly anticipated new translation of the Theban plays of Sophocles, David Slavitt presents a fluid, accessible, and modern version for both newcomers to the plays and established admirers. Unpretentious and direct, Slavitt's translation preserves the innate verve and energy of the dramas, engaging the reader or audience member directly with Sophocles' great texts. Slavitt chooses to present the plays not in narrative sequence but in the order in which they were composed: Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannos, Oedipus at Colonus; he thereby underscores the fact that the story of Oedipus is one to which Sophocles returned over the course of his lifetime. This arrangement also lays bare the record of Sophocles' intellectual and artistic development. Renowned as a poet and translator, Slavitt has translated Ovid, Virgil, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Ausonius, Prudentius, Valerius Flaccus, and Bacchylides as well as works in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew. In this volume, he avoids personal intrusion on the texts and relies upon the theatrical machinery of the plays themselves. The result is a major contribution to the art of translation and a version of the Oedipus plays that will appeal enormously to readers, theatre directors, and actors.

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 Thomas, and the Secret Book of John.