Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes: The Initiatory Teachings of the Last Supper

by Mark H. Gaffney

Reveals the hidden meaning of the Grail and a secret Christian doctrine for achieving higher consciousness

• Shows that Gnosticism is not a derivative of Christianity but the revelation of the true message of Jesus

• Describes the ancient relationship between water and spirit

• Explains the doctrine of immanence taught by Jesus at the Last Supper

• Features the translated source text from The Refutation of All Heresies by Bishop Hippolytus, the only existing record of the Naassene Sermon

In the third century C.E., the Catholic Bishop Hippolytus composed A Refutation of All Heresies in which his chief target was the Gnostic sect the Naassenes, whose writings included a recounting of Jesus’ actual teachings at the Last Supper. Contrary to Church attacks, the Naassenes were not a heretical derivative of Christianity but the authentic foundation and purveyor of Christ’s message. In fact, much of what passes as Christianity has nothing to do with the original teachings of its founder.

The message recorded in the Naassene Sermon was intended for an inner circle of disciples who were prepared for advanced initiation into Jesus’ wisdom teachings. The Grail discussed therein was not an actual chalice but a symbol of the indwelling of the divine. The teachings involved the awakening of spirit and included practices aimed at restoring the soul’s lost connection with God. Immanence , in the true sense intended by Jesus, thus allows for spiritual attainment in this life by ordinary individuals without the intermediary of Church or priest. This was the real meaning of the Last Supper and why the Naassenes believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the Mystery traditions.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 19, 2004

Reviews

[Michael Hurd 👁️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful!!

[Granny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most interesting book, which posits that Christianity missed the core of the teachings which Jesus left behind in it's scramble toward orthodoxy and consolidation of power during the Council of Nicea and later such meetings.

The author makes a pretty fair argument that the Gnostic concept of immanence was an essential part of the message which Jesus wanted to pass on to his followers. In particular, the teachings of the branch of Gnostic called the "Naasseenes" were most closely in tune with this current in Jesus' philosophy, and the Last Supper can be seen as a metaphor for the initiatory process which potentially make each of us recognize the spark of the divine within us. Of course, such knowledge would make the Roman Catholic Church teachings unnecessary, hence the casting of Gnostic teachings into the "outer darkness".

I appreciated that the author did not shy away from showing how Pagan teachings influenced the early Christian church and that he does that without apology. I also appreciated the footnoting, which allowed me to verify the quotes. I don't have an extensive library of Gnostic teachings, but if you have a bible, and the most important of the biblical apocrypha texts, you can do this as well. But it is not necessary, and you can read the book with relish without them.

I will say that on occasion that I did not agree with what the author extrapolated based on a given texts, sometimes he reaches a bit far in my opinion. But overall I agreed with him and I think this would be an excellent book to read if you are liberal Christian, a student of comparative religion, or a member of an Earth-centered faith. I'm going to donate my copy to the local Unitarian Universalist Church library.

A "Good read"!

[D. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mark Gaffney has somehow managed to take an interesting topic (Gnostic Christianity) and turn it into the most mundane, droll and tiresome subject possible. There's a lot of 'wink wink nudge nudge' to Gaffney's writings where he attempts to intertwine Gnostic teachings with other theologic ideologies throughout time but he's never able to be quite clear about the correlation, preferring to leave it with the reader by proclaiming nothing more than that the correlations are obvious.

I'd attempt to go into greater detail with this review, but after using two weeks of brainpower just waiting for something exciting to rear its head in this book, I'm simply too exhausted. Returned to the library without finishing. May the powers that be steer anyone interested in Gnosticism far clear of this one, it could sour you on the topic for a lifetime.

[jcg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but more association of ideas and speculation than scholarship. There is a great deal of comparison of ideas from Christianity, Judaism, Egyptian religion and teachings from India.

In the end, I wasn't sure what the point of the book was. There is so much information and comparison that the message gets a little clouded, if not lost altogether. I think Gaffney is saying that the original teaching of Christianity was of the immanence of God in the world and that this position is supported by evidence from other religions.

Lot's of information about the symbolism of water, quotes from the old testament and descriptions of Egyptian temples, but all this data, while presented well, is not well linked together.

[Ian Kloester · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. Made a nice follow on to reading the DaVinci Code but it's nowhere near as gripping as Dan Brown's series of thrillers.

[JOSEPH]

develop my psychology

[Lynda Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book overall is certainly a pretty scholarly dissertation on how this important fragment of Gnostic lore should be interpreted within the context of the times and beyond the attempts of the emerging established Church to refute it as the heresy it is claimed to be.

Gaffney argues, however, and this is a rather more accepted viewpoint since the Nag Hamnadi documents have been made accissible that actually, the Naassene sermon is far more likely to be a far more original and authentic record of Christian religion and practises than the edifice of authoritarian Church and State of Rome that came after it.

He examines what the significance of the symbolism of Water and Cup, among other things, might symbolise in terms of being lodestones to true enlightenment. At this point, it might be worth looking at where Gaffney is comng from with all this. As a Christian, he too is looking for something that got badly lost and distorted, once this religion became an instrument of contril, where independent thinking was discouraged, even persecuted, over the centuries. Furthermore, the baby - or rather on this case, the snake, symbolising Gnosis, or experiential spiritual insight - was well-and truly thrown out with the bathwater.

I was please to see from the bibliography that Gaffney does stick to scholarly sources, rather than dodgy channelled theosophical sources in this assay into such a recondite topic. His assertion that the Naassene snake refers to the Chakras does perhaps stray into more personal speculation, though there is not otherwise any reason to suppose he was wrong on this

Altogether a worthy addition to anyone's personal Gnostic library.