The Other Bible

by Anonymous, Willis Barnstone (Editor)

A new edition of our classic, The Other Bible, including a new index, new cover, and a new introduction from the author to bring The Other Bible up to date.

The Other Bible gathers in one comprehensive volume ancient, esoteric holy texts from Judeo–Christian tradition that were excluded from the official canon of the Old and New Testaments, including the Gnostic Gospels, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Kabbalah, and several more. The Other Bible provides a rare opportunity to discover the poetic and narrative riches of this long–suppressed literature and experience firsthand its visionary discourses on the nature of God, humanity, the spiritual life, the world around us, and infinite worlds beyond this one.

This new edition will include a full index and a new introduction from editor Willis Barnstone.

o The interest in Gnostic texts begun with The Da Vinci Code has spread to include many of the other "suppressed" early texts of Judaism and Christianity, and this book contains many of them in one volume.

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Nonfiction, Reference, Philosophy, History, Spirituality

800 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:

* They are officially published under that name
* They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author
* They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author

Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.

See also: Anonymous

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had two big problems with this collection:
1. the way it was organized by genre (infancy gospels all together, creation stories together, etc), even to the point of cutting out parts of the story that don't fit the genre. This took the books out of the context of their religious movement and time period, and at the same time didn't allow them to stand on their own by forcing them into artificial categories.
2. The fact that most of the stories here are not included in full but are only excerpts. The gaps are cleverly disguised by removing the original chapter/verse divisions. You have to read the footnotes to figure out where the gaps are. After comparing the original to the excerpt it was not clear to me why they chose to cut out what they did. Was it not interesting enough for their tastes? Or did removing the passages make the story conform better to the editors' notions of the genre they decided to assign to it? They never explain themselves.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection is even more diverse than the assembly of texts selected for the Bible. The ancient, usually nameless voices range in mood from thoughtfully compassionate to volcanically vengeful, and from bizarre psycho-babble to critical, insightful reflection. Clearly, people have always been able to take their pick in the ever-shifting market for religious teaching.

[Sherri Moorer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was interesting. It gave me a broader perspective on The Bible and the context of the history of our faith. The gnostic gospels can make your head spin and, of course, all of this is open to interpretation. I feel that it's beneficial for Christians to read because we can learn a lot from the text here that wasn't accepted into cannon, although I do recommend reading with great discresion and discernment.

[adam prometheus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best collection I've seen of material that was deleted from the official "Bible" by the Church (Emperor Constantine, etc.)- including gnostic and qabbalistic texts, and basically anything that contained any real empowering spiritual wisdom or revealing mythological connections, was labelled as "pagan" and removed from the canon... but they are every bit as legitimate (or more so), source-wise, as the books that they approved! Reading them you can clearly see how vital elements were left out to enable easier psychological control of the masses- it sheds a lot of light on what Christ was actually trying to tell people, and it makes a whole lot more sense.
And the creation fables are especially interesting- my favorite is the part where it's explained that the Creator-god is actually a malevolent demiurge who sinned against the true God by stealing divine Light and trapping it in matter. The serpent then represents not Satan but the earliest incarnation of Christ, and he came to help mankind to free themselves from the matter-trap by explaining to them that the demiurge doesn't want them to eat the fruit because then they would work their way through the Knowledge (Gnosis) of the Tree until finally they would obtain the Tree of Life, at which point they would have the same powers as the demiurge and have the ability to create their own worlds!
And that's just the beginning!

[Carmel Attard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book consists of a collection of ancient, ‘lost,’ religious texts, mainly Jewish, Christian, and Gnostic, written in the ‘intertestamental’ period, i.e., between the Old and New Testaments from ~300BCE to ~500CE (p.xx). These ancient texts were censored and practically all destroyed by Christians as they considered them ‘heretical’ (p.xix). They were rediscovered mostly at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945 or at Khirbet Qumran, Israel, among the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls,’ in 1947-1956. The author-editor, Barnstone, explains, “The Jewish texts are in large part called pseudepigrapha, which includes the Dead Sea Scrolls; the Christian texts are called Christian Apocrypha; the Gnostic scriptures … were called by their orthodox rivals heretical.” (p.xvii) These treatises trace the rugged path traversed by Christianity: some were for, some against the Christian faith.
The book has priceless introductions to every one of these tractates, without which, I think, it would be practically impossible to comprehend the majority: their concepts are so alien to us.
It also includes a glossary of unusual terms: mythological names, and ancient religions or sects (though perhaps requiring some additions) making it a magnificent piece of literary work.
Modern Science
Some concepts found in these ancient texts are superior to the Bible’s, in the sense that they conform better to modern science; consequently, the Church has tacitly adopted them—despite what the Bible says—surprisingly enough. However, it begs the question of why they aren’t also in our Scriptures. Apparently, God did not bother to include any of them in the Bible’s canon (official list): showing the choice of Scriptures was a strictly arbitrary, human choice and not God-driven or ‘inspired.’ Following are some examples.
(1) Creation from Nothing
The (first-century) ‘Second Book of Enoch’ has, “First, I [God] created things from nonexistence into existence, and from invisible into visible. … I created everything from the highest to the lowest.” (p.4)
Most Christians don’t realize that this is not what the Bible says in Genesis: it says primordial waters existed as raw material (Genesis 1:2) prior to God’s creation of the earth and the universe: even before God created the first thing, light (Genesis 1:3).
Creation from nothingness was out-of-the-box thinking for Genesis’s author and contemporaries. In her book, ‘A History of God’ (p.7), religious affairs author and commentator, Karen Armstrong, states, “In Babylonian myth—as later in the Bible—there was no creation out of nothing, an idea that was alien to the ancient world. Before either the gods or human beings existed, this sacred raw material had existed from all eternity.”
(2) Creation of Space
Not only matter, but apparently also space was created by God according to the Gnostics. The (second-century) ‘Gospel of Truth’ has, “Each space which, on its part, is in the Father comes from the existent one, who, on his part, has established it from the inexistent.” (p.293)
(3) Expanding Space
The (fifth-century) ‘Haggadah’ (Jewish legend) has, “The heavens and the earth stretched themselves out in length and breadth as though they aspired to infinitude, and it required the word of God to call a halt to their encroachments.” (p.18)
This sound like the expansion of space in our universe (discovered in 1929)—but excluding nearby galaxies.
In the Bible, we only find the concept of the ‘firmament’ being ‘beaten-out’ like a metallic canopy: the ‘stretching-out’ is in area not in volume (Job 26:7, 37:18; Isaiah 40:22, 42:5, 42:22, 44:24, 45:12, 51:13; Jeremiah 10:12, 51:15; Psalms 104:2; Zechariah 12:1).
(4) Big Bang Theory
Introducing (second-century) Basilides’s Gnostic system, Barnstone writes, “The Basilides system as given by Hippolytus begins with a cosmogony where there is nothing, neither spirit nor matter. But there is a nonexistent God who ‘wished’ … to make a universe. This was the first universe. But a second universe came about because the nonexistent universe contained a seed out of which our universe came.” (p.627) Hippolytus was a second/third century Bishop of Rome, the first antipope, and Christian martyr; he writes, “The seed of the universe had everything within it, just as the grain of a mustard seed, collecting everything in the smallest space, contains it all together.” (p.630)
This sounds like our universe originating from a ‘singularity’ as proposed by the ‘big bang theory.’ However, I fail to see how an inexistent God could possibly wish anything.
(5) Software
A software program is practically ‘an inexistent universe’: every kind of seed is programmed to produce a particular organism; but its program is intangible—one might even say ‘inexistent.’
(6) Light’s Timelessness
The (second-century) ‘Secret Book of John’ has, “It is the immeasurable Light, the holy and pure purity, the indescribable, perfect and imperishable. … Time does not belong to it. … Time is not allotted to it.” (pp.53-54)
This agrees with Einstein’s ‘Relativity Theory’: no time elapses over anything travelling at light’s speed.
(7) Light’s Duality
Again, in the ‘Secret Book of John,’ its author wonders: “If it [a phenomenon] is a unity with many forms because of the light?” (p.53)
This sounds like the duality of light in ‘Quantum Mechanics’: i.e., that light behaves both as a wave and as a particle (photon).
Light versus Darkness
At other times, the Bible fared better than these ancient texts. In the Bible, light was created by God on the first Creation day (Genesis 1:3). Light is a form of energy, a strictly physical quantity. But the Gnostics, especially, thought it was some kind of divine substance existing before everything else—opposed to darkness, identified with evil.
Despite what the Bible says, Christianity was so influenced by this concept that it adopted it in the Nicene Creed, which goes, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ … God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.”
The ‘Secret Book of John,’ identifies light with the ‘eternal Spirit’: “It [the Spirit] is a Beginning that none precedes … for it is eternal. … It is light. … It is … not a creature.” (p.53) He also calls it “the giver of life” (p.54): same as Christians identify the ‘Holy Spirit’ in the Nicene Creed. This is probably where the expression originated from.
Gnosticism
Admittedly the Gnostics’ Creation Myths were outlandish, but their doctrine rivalled that of Christianity: for one thing it explained much better the ‘problem of evil.’ Gnostics liked to quote biblical verses, but they tended to quote them out of context or distort their meaning—quoting them allegorically to suit their purpose. Gnostics were obsessed with ‘gnosis’ (Greek for ‘knowledge’), a sort of ‘inner illumination’ of the mind—thinking it absolutely necessary for ‘salvation.’
Barnstone explains, “Their scriptures were anathema to orthodox Christians, for they reversed fundamental notions of Christian theology—although they thought themselves the true and uncorrupted Christians.” (p.xix) He introduces (third-century) ‘Manichaean Creation Myths’: “For the Gnostics, [our] God was not good at all. … He was associated with the Zoroastrian devil. … The Old and New Testament God was called variously the Demiurge (after Plato’s Demiurge [Greek for ‘Creator’]), Ialdabaoth [Yaldabaoth], Sabaoth, and Saclas [Satan], and it was his evil act of creation, an attempt to catch spiritual light in ignorance and darkness, rather than Adam and Eve’s disobedience, which brought misery and corruption. Indeed, Adam and Eve were heroic in their disobedience, aided by the Promethean figure of the serpent, who gave them knowledge, and who will later return in some sects as Jesus, the serpent Jesus, to redeem humanity by teaching disobedience to the curse of the laws of Yahweh the Creator.” (p.40)
Let’s have a look at some salient unorthodox Gnostic doctrines.
(1) Androgynous God
The (second-century), ‘Odes of Solomon’ has, “The Son is the cup and he who is milked is the Father and he who milked him is the Holy Ghost [Spirit]. His breasts were full … The Holy Ghost mingled the milk from the Father’s two breasts.” (p.279)
Gnostic gods were often androgynous and so could beget offspring unaided.
(2) Savior
Most Gnostics believed Jesus was the world’s ‘Savior,’ but not quite the same way. Augustine of Hippo (354-430CE) was a Gnostic, a Manichean officer (p.39), for about nine years; in ‘De Haeresibus ad Quodvultdeum’ (46.4) [Latin for ‘On Heresies to Quodvultdeus’], he writes, “They [Gnostics] assert … Christ was the one called by our Scriptures the Serpent and they assure us that they have been given insight into this in order to open the eyes of knowledge and to distinguish between Good and Evil.” (p.41)
Introducing (second-century) Marcion’s theology, Barnstone explains, “The unknown alien ‘Good God’ … is not concerned with anything on earth in a daily way. … [He] affected the cosmos in only one way: by sending down his son to redeem us and save us from the Jewish-Christian God of creation. … [His] generous gift of salvation derives solely from gratuitous goodness.” (p.644)
(3) Jesus’s Twin
The (third-century) ‘Book of Thomas the Contender’ has, “The Savior [Jesus] said, ‘Brother Thomas … it has been said that you are my twin.” (p.583)
‘Thomas,’ in Hebrew, means ‘twin,’ as does ‘Didymos’ in Greek. According to the canonical (official) gospels Jesus, had four male siblings: none by the name of ‘Thomas’ (but see John 11:16). However, one of Jesus’s brothers was called ‘Judas’ (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3), and the (first-century) ‘Gospel of Thomas’ is attributed to “Didymos Judas Thomas.”
Now, if Jesus and Thomas were truly twin brothers, it creates a doctrinal problem since Jesus was supposedly born of a virgin (Mary) through the Holy Spirit: so how could Thomas be Jesus’s twin brother? The (third-century) ‘Acts of Thomas’ portrays “Judas Thomas” declaring, “I am not the Son of God.” (p.479) Not surprisingly, faith doesn’t follow reason.
(4) Mary Magdalene
The (third-century) ‘Gospel of Philip’ has, “The companion of the Savior [Jesus] is Mary Magdalene. But Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth.” (p.92)
Naturally, this begs the question of whether Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. The evangelist ‘John’ refers to ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ six times (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2, 8; 21:7, 20). In particular, we read, “Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.” (John 13:23, KJV) Kind of strange, don’t you think?
(5) Christology
In (second-century) Gnostic leader Ptolemaeus’s account of Valentinus’s system, we read, “Each one of the Aeons [angels] gave and contributed what it had that was most beautiful and bright—wove together and united their contributions harmoniously, and emitted an emanation …. This was the most perfect beauty and the star of the Pleroma [spiritual universe], its perfect fruit, Jesus, who is also called Savior and Christ and Logos [Word].” (p.613)
Logos
Barnstone elaborates, “The Word or logos in the Fourth gospel [John 1:1, 14] comes from Philo of Alexandria (~20BC-AD40) who linked the Stoic logos with the Platonic world of ideas, making logos the means of knowing the transcendent God.” (p.xxi)
Spirit, Soul, Mind & Body
Introducing (second-century) ‘Poimandres’ (Greek for ‘Shepherd of Man’), Barnstone explains, “Poimandres proposes a severely dualistic view of life in which the body represents everything dark, deceptive, temporal, and mortal while the mind (nous) represents light, truth, timelessness, and eternal salvation. The purpose of life is to free the soul from the prison of the body through gnosis (knowledge and enlightenment) and to return to the heavenly realm of light.” (p.568)
The text portrays Poimandres saying, “Man, who was formed of Life and Light, became soul (psyche) and mind (nous): soul from Life and mind from Light.” (p.571)
There’s some confusion in Gnostic terminology; Barnstone continues, “In [most] other Gnostic works the soul (psyche) is of a lower order than the spirit (pneuma), and soul is associated with earthbound entities, particularly with the biblical Creator God. But in ‘Poimandres,’ soul rather than spirit, is the highest quality of Anthropos [Man], and both nous and psyche contain this meaning.” (p.568)
Crucifixion
Introducing (second-century) Basilides’s Gnostic system, Barnstone writes, “Jesus assumed [Cyrenian] Simon’s [Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26] form and was crucified [instead]. Of course, being incorporeal he [Jesus] did not suffer. In fact, he stood by and laughed at his executioners, at their blindness and ignorance in thinking they were hurting an ordinary man.” (p.627)
Conclusion
I wish I had more space: I think there’s no way anyone can do real justice to this great opus in a short review. These ancient texts give us a glimpse of the tortuous path taken creating ‘Holy Scriptures.’ Some of our steps have been good, others not. It makes one wonder what criterion was used by Christianity in selecting the Bible’s canonical books.
Barnstone comments, “In the second century, Valentinus, a major Gnostic thinker, sought election as Pope of Rome. Surely the fixation of the New Testament in Carthage in 397 [CE] would have been drastically different had Valentinus succeeded; and what would have been the views of that former Gnostic, Saint Augustine? … As Jorge Luis Borges notes in his essay on the Gnostics, ‘Had Alexandria triumphed rather than Rome, these esoteric writings would seem perfectly ordinary.’” (pp.xvii,xxv)
I feel nobody really wants to face the truth about our Bible. Christians are reluctant, even scared, to ask questions about the Bible; lest they open up a can of worms. Yet, most Christians still insist every biblical verse is God’s word.

[Mary Overton]

07/14/2009: read 'THE GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS,' a text once considered part of the canon and wildly popular during Medieval times. '...a passion gospel purporting to be an official report of the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus.... one of the most dramatic and moving documents of early Christianity. Argumentative rather than spiritual, it reads like an exciting eyewitness report of murder, miracle, and resurrection.... a fabricated record of the third or fourth century written specifically as a pious counterblast to Pagan statements concerning Jesus.... Faith or disbelief makes one person's miracles another's sorcery.... In keeping with other works of the period, the Gospel is virulently anti-Jewish. It attempts editorially to dissociate Jesus as well as early biblical figures from Jewish identity.... the term 'Jews' becomes a stereotyping device to condemn a rival alien people.' (359-360)

From the first part, 'Acts of Pilate': Medieval romance writers invented the Holy Grail from legends about Joseph of Arimathaea, who claimed the body of Jesus and placed it in the tomb. Before that happened, though, Jewish leaders advocating for Jesus' death imprisoned Joseph. He is rescued by divine intervention. Joseph describes how, 'at midnight as I stood and prayed, the house where you shut me in was raised up the four corners, and I saw as it were a lightning flash in my eyes. Full of fear, I fell to the ground. And someone took me by the hand and raised me up from the place where I had fallen, and something moist like water flowed from my head to my feet, and the smell of fragrant oil reached my nostrils.' (372)

From the second part, 'Christ's Descent into Hell': Hades is the personification of death, a being who devours the dead and holds them in his gut. He and Satan are fearful that Jesus will steal all the dead from them and bring the dead up to heaven.
'Then Hades said to his demons: 'Make fast well and strongly the gates of brass and the bars of iron, and hold my locks, and stand upright and watch every point. For if he [the crucified Jesus:] comes in, woe will seize us.'' (376)
Of course, Jesus breaks through all the brass and iron and redeems those lost souls who died before His coming. Then Hades and Satan squabble about who is to blame.
'And Hades took Satan and said to him: 'O Beelzebub, heir of fire and torment, enemy of the saints, through what necessity did you contrive that the King of glory should be crucified, so that he should come here and strip us naked? Turn and see that not one dead man is left in me, but that all which you gained through the Tree of Knowledge you have lost through the tree of the cross.' (377)

10/14/2008: read the 'Infancy Gospels' -- of James, Matthew, Thomas, as well as the Latin & Arabic ones -- researching Mariology; also dipped into the 'Apocalypses.'

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Other Bible contains 86 writings of ancient scriptures taken from Gnostic Gospels, Dead Sea Scrolls, Christian Apocrypha, Jewish Pseudepigrapha, and Jewish Kabbalah. Reading the variations of these Jewish and early Christian writings shed light on the religion and faith of early Christians who didn’t fit the mold that became the Catholic Church.

I particularly found the gnostic writing fascinating with their explanations of how the God of the Old Testament, who was a jealous God and sent the flood to kill all humanity except Noah & his family, could coexist with Jesus, who taught to love and forgive each other. The references to Lilith in the Jewish writing was fascinating as well. If you want a more encompassing, accurate understanding of the competing interpretations of the god of Abraham, this is a great resource.

I give The Other Bible 4/5 stars because it is fascinating, as a resource to understand religious history it is a great asset, but depending on the individual scripture it was an emotionally engaging read or extremely dry.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, this book is pretty interesting. Many religious works omited from the Bible, all together in one place. Currently, I am reading the Kaballah. It is so interesting to compare the differences in religion and points of view, though the stories are pretty much the same. It is facinating to learn how the Hebrew "alpha-bet" is used to "create" the universe by God. Very interesting. Though I am a bit lost in some spots, not being familiar with the religion, I still can't help but be drawn to read more. If anyone has any insight they would like to share on the Alphabet, feel free. :) I need all the help I can get.

Very cool. Facinating to see the differences in relgions, though there seem to be more similarities than contrasts. I especially liked the Kaballah and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[Kyle Muntz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An immense, incredibly rich collection of noncannonical Jewish and Christian writings, with special focus on the Gnostics and their notion of an evil creator God, "an abortion of darkness".

This book had me thinking a lot about the idea of divinity (the "god feeling") as a poetics/cosmology of the sublime; of fantasy as a means for humans to grapple with an incomprehensible universe, and the power that has within the context of fiction.

I just wrote a much longer review, but I think I'm going to be expanding it into a post for Entropy, so keep your eyes open!

(Also, it's difficult to read this without thinking of the incredibly powerful role fanfiction has had on the development of culture, which isn't what I'm going to write about but a super rich look into the history of writing and how ideas are formed.)

[Suzanne Singman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank goodness I finished this book. It was very long and dry. I am interested in religion and in it's various forms. This book includes many pieces of biblical literature that have been found that are not included in the "good book" (for any number of reasons). There is a lot of what they call inter-testamental writings, to explain the difference between the god of the old testament and the new testament. But overall it was just hard to read. I am not a scholar, so it was harder for me to hold on to the multiple ideas thrown about. and i got so tired of the ridiculous creation stories and the number of heavens and angels and depths of hell. I had the same trouble when I read my first Kabbalah book by Gershom Sholam (I think that's his name). I just didn't have enough context.

So i don't recommend this for casual reading.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this a year or so ago, but it ended up back on the bookshelf before I finished it (it is 732 pages). It contains the text of the Gnostic Gospels, Dead Sea Scrolls, Visionary Wisdom Texts, Christian Apocrypha, Jewish Pseudepigrapha, and Kabbalah. Instead of all of the books being sandwiched into one, the book is edited so that it begins with Creation Myths taken from each of these sources, with subsequent sections organized in the same manner. I'm reading it again because the Apocrypha is required reading for a literature class I'll be taking soon.

[Cam Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing collection of all the most important bible-adjacent books: gospels and letters that didn't make the cut, heretical gospels, alternative psalms, mandaean, manichean, and gnostic texts, apocrypha, apocalypses, etc

Something to keep in mind: the quality of these texts simply aren't as good as the books of the bible (genesis, exodus, the new testament gospels) - the overall experience of reading them is more laborious and not as rewarding: less imagery, fewer intelligent observations, and less world building. In other words, there's a reason apart from theology that explains why these books didn't make it into the bible

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

so far this book is quite interesting. Looking at some of the early scriptures that were suppress by mainstream Christianity and other forces of the early day. This book includes th Gnostic scriptures, Dead sea Scrolls, Visionary wisdom texts, Christian Apocrypha, Jewish Pseudepigrapha, and the kabbalah. There is a descrian of what each of these are and translations.
Thise that are interested in relious history and alternative spirituality, this text is for you. It will not only challenge and allow you to see religion and spirituality from a very different point of View.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting reading of additional scripture texts that have been found - especially the books of Enoch and of Adam. These texts were accepted as legitimate texts back in Jesus' time and shortly there after, but were later culled from the holy books and destroyed where possible.

This mostly isn't page-turner reading, though it is in places. Even so, it's a great resource and worth checking out.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Western religion from a respectful and alert perspective. Here is the developing biblical tradition in all its diversity: Gnostic, Samarian, Blakean...

The translations are crisp and accessible, the introduction and notes informative in the extreme.

This book contains much of what has been missing in the average person's religious education. And it will broaden the reader's perspective even as it conveys the intensity of the search for God.

[Christie Bogle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, so I bought this book back in 1990. (maybe a previous version) but I find it interesting that they describe the book as having followed a trend that began with a book that is only, what, five years old? Well, call me a trendsetter! I read the apocryphal texts and the gnostics texts as a CHILD for FUN. Woo hoo! Pays to go to catholic schools,eh?

[K. Emerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful and revealing! A must-read for those looking for "light" and spiritual knowledge!

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book might challenge your faith.
If you enjoy religious research, I recommend this book.

[Leslie Meadows · Rating 5 out of 5]

No, I don't claim to have read all this one. But my college history prof taught a lot about these different movements of thought in an amazingly short time. This book to me stands for a simple and basic proposition, which is before the Biblical canon and any orthodoxies, it was once the wild west of thought out there. People could get fantastic notions and not be burned at the stake. It matters that we as common people now have access to these ideas because they were suppressed in a battle over survival. Once upon a time being baptized was joining a quiet rebellion against the establishment where your life was at stake. It was not the taken for granted baptism of modern American nationalism. Imagine having freedom of thought and then ponder the biblical canon. For me, for instance, Song of Songs is the most intriguing winning voice. Read it closely then imagine the Bible without it. Or simply read psalm 88 because you likely have never ever encountered it. The canon itself celebrates sex and acknowledges depression. Then see the stuff outside the canon and consider what it adds. What you make of that exercise is now up to you if you want to try it. I won't tell.

[David Silveyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a thick and comprehensive book of religious texts. It included many types such a s Gnostic Gospels, Kabbalah and Jewish Pseudepigrapha. Barnstone exhibited a lot of erudition and his comments on the different texts was invaluable. My favorite text, though, has to be the Haggadah. There were plenty of insightful, beautiful, and interesting texts in this absorbing collection. All in all, a good(and long) read!

[Eye Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is kind of all over the place, how it is organized by section, and it is a chore to read cover-to-cover. If you only want Gnostic stuff (or Apocrypha or Jewish Mystical etc.), maybe look elsewhere. But it can be illuminating if all you know is King James Version Judeo-Christian monotheistic outlook.

[Kerwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part of my reference shelf. Keep it right next to The Bible.

[Jeff Beland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of Apocryphil writings

[TediyraBH · Rating 5 out of 5]

0-06-2500309

BS1695 .O87 1984

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Barnstone said in the intro; "These documents, therefore, present an exceedingly interesting area of study for scholars working in the field of religious history, sociology, and psychology... in them there is no grace that leads to salvation...there is only human nature."

Human Nature mixed with God's Earth, Wind, Fire, and Rain.
These are their stories; the stories of greatness.

5/21 Another 5 stars!
By far, to me, the best book in this collection is the last book; Plotinus, The Enneads, (Pagan).
Not because it's the last, because all the books are interesting, but because I like it the best. It's full of Philosophy and Mythology. It makes me pause a moment to think, which leads to worship. This last book brought my mind into a state of worship. That's a good way to end a collection of books, loaded with Gnosticism, which I've come to loathe, on a high note.
This collection of books is well worth a read if you're into historic religionism and it's evolution within the Jewish and Christian Faiths.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good collection of Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi texts; Dr. Barnstone vitiates what could have been a superior collection with the assertion that these apocryphal writings somehow 'disprove' the biblical Canon, ignoring the fact that they were written in the infancy of Christianity when belief was still a work in progress (much like using the Magna Carta or the Plymouth Charter in disproving the U.S. Constitution...)

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference of non-canonical gospels.
I only give it 4 stars because, due to paper contraints (!!), the gospels aren't complete and neither is the body of gospels represented. IMHO it's a 'must read/browse through' for everyone interested or involved in christianity...which sort of includes everyone in america due to our money and all sorts of things w/reference to the word 'God' in it.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this pre-Google, pre-Wikipedia... pre-internet. It has served me well as a quick reference book, alas it takes up precious space on my book case and most of the information can now be found with a few key strokes. Goodbye book, if the library can't use you, may you be recycled into a new and loved form.

[Demi Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between work and the hospital stay with my mother this book provided me with everything I needed to past the time of boredom. I was entertained and at times left in suspense trying to hurry to the next chapter. This author came highly recommended by one of my Goodreads fb friends. This is the first book that I've read by this author, but it won't be the last.

[Dalewoodruff · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've ever wondered what the books left out of the bible were like, this is a GREAT opportunity to read samples of those texts! Includes the gospels of Thomas and Peter and many other gnostic texts.