Has anyone read a good book that explains the gnostic gospels?

Question

I want to read a book about them (all of them), but am overwhelmed by all the choices. Has anyone read one that they would recommend to give me an un-biased fact-filled review of the gnostic gospels?

Answer 1

Try Elaine Pagels book "The Gnostic Gospels"

Answer 2

I am currently reading Lost Christianities (The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew) by Bart Ehrman. It does not give the full scriptures, only excerpts so along with it I'm reading The Lost Books of the Bible which does.

Forgot to mention that the book by Ehrman contains more than just the gnostic gospels.

Answer 3

Gnostic gospels are not what they appear to be. It would be totally wrong to compare them with the bible. Firstly, they are not actual historical accounts like the bible pretends to be, they are esoteric, so for each saying there's an obvious meaning for the masses, but there's almost always another hidden meaning. I'll round up the whole thing in a few lines so that you know what you're actually reading...

-- Jesus was an ordinary man
-- Jesus and "christ" are not the same entity
-- Neither Jesus nor any of his disciples believed in the OT god
-- they (mainly Jesus, his wife, and Judas) were pagan polytheists, rebels, and they were liberating people from the clutches of Monotheism

The above are some points one should bare in mind when reading those scriptures.

Answer 4

"The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot" by Bart Ehrman is a good primer on gnosticism.

Answer 5

I saw one as a book on tape or cd at the Barne's and Noble.

What about if you just read the Gnostic Bible. They are unreal claims. No wonder they were left out from the Bible.

Answer 6

One that I found very inspirational is 'Living Buddha, Living Christ' but I'm sure others will have even better examples.
Namaste!