The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus Quotes

“The One is the invisible spirit. We should not think of it as a god or like a god. For it is greater than a god, because it has nothing over it and no [3] lord above it. It does not [exist] within anything inferior [to it, since everything] exists within it, [for it established] itself.9”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Speak of truth with those who seek it and of knowledge with those who have sinned in their error. [33]”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“People cannot see anything that really is without becoming like it.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Such unity and completeness of humankind was lost, the Gospel of Philip declares, in the separation of Adam and Eve. Originally Adam was androgynous, but the fall from primordial oneness allowed humankind to slip into mortality and death. The Gospel of Philip states, “If the female had not separated from the male, the female and the male would not have died. The separation of male and female was the beginning of death.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“It is not Docetism (in the strict sense) which is the characteristic of gnostic Christology, but the two-nature doctrine, i.e. the distinction between Jesus and Christ, or the doctrine that the redeemer as redeemer did not become man” (162).”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“I disturbed and frightened the whole multitude of the angels and their ruler, and I placed a small thought in the world. I examined all with flame and fire through my thought, and all they did they did through me.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Perfect majesty is at rest in ineffable light, in truth, the mother of all things.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Judas said, “How is the spirit disclosed?” The master said, “How [is] the sword [disclosed]?” Judas said, “How is the light disclosed?” The master said, “[It is disclosed] through itself eternally.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“He answered them, “You are from fullness and you are in a place of deficiency. And look, his light has poured down on me.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“The child of humankind48 greeted them and said to them, “A seed from a power was deficient, and it descended to the earth’s abyss. The majesty remembered [it] and sent the [word to] it. The word brought the seed up into [the presence] of the majesty, so that [136] the first word might not be lost.”49”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“At that moment a word47 issued from the height. As Judas was standing there, he saw how the word came [down]. He asked the word, “Why have you come down?”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“One who does not understand how the body that a person wears came to be will perish with it. “How will someone who does not know the son know the [father]? “All things are hidden from one who does not know the root of all things.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“One who does not stand in the darkness cannot see the [134] light.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“If the word comes from the father’s body, among people, and they do not receive it, it will return back to its place.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“In truth, fear is the power [of darkness]. So if you are afraid of what is about to come upon you, it will overwhelm you, and not one among them will spare you or show you mercy.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“If what is visible to you is obscure to you, how can you comprehend what is invisible? If deeds of truth visible in the world are difficult for you to accomplish, how will you accomplish things of the exalted majesty and fullness, which are invisible?5 How will you be called workers? You are beginners and have not attained the greatness of perfection.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“The spirit animates the soul but the body kills it. The soul kills itself.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Our sister Sophia is the one who descended in an innocent manner to restore what she lacked. For this reason she was called life100—that is, the mother of the living—by the forethought of the sovereignty of heaven and by [the insight that appeared] to Adam.101 Through her have the living tasted perfect knowledge.102”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“But the rulers lingered in front of what they call the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is enlightened insight,89 so that Adam might not behold its fullness90 and recognize his shameful nakedness.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“In the hymn the savior uses aretalogical self-predications (“I am” statements) to describe his—or her—multiple appearances in the world.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“The father is at rest in will. Nothing happens without the father’s pleasure, nothing happens without the father’s will. And his will is incomprehensible. His will is his footprint, but none can understand him, nor does he exist so that they might study him32 in order to grasp him.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Deficiency of matter is not from the infinity of the father, who came to give time to deficiency. In fact, it is not right to say that the incorruptible would actually come in this manner. The father’s depth is profound, and the thought of error is not with him. It is something that has fallen, and something that can readily be set upright through the discovery of the one who has come to what he would restore.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“For whatever has no root has no fruit, and although thinking, “I have come into being,” it will perish by itself. So whatever does not exist will never exist.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“On the one hand, he knows, before anything appears, what he will produce. On the other hand, the fruit that has not yet appeared knows nothing and does nothing.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“I am not saying that those who have not yet come to be are nothing.18 They are [28] within one who may wish that they come into being if at some future point he so wishes.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Rather, they are letters of truth; they speak and know themselves. Each letter is a perfect truth13 like a perfect book, for they are letters written in unity, written by the father for the eternal realms, so that by means of his letters they might come to know the father.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Since she did not know the truth, she assumed a fashioned figure and prepared, with power and in beauty, a substitute for truth.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“But ignorance of the father brought terror and fear, and terror grew dense like a fog, so that no one could see.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“Those who receive the light cannot be seen or grasped. Nothing can trouble such people even while they are living in this world. And when they leave this world, they have already received truth through images, and the world has become the eternal realm. To these people the eternal realm is fullness.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus

“This is what is truly worthy and mighty, and we shall enter through symbols that are weak and insignificant. They are weak compared to perfect glory.”
― Marvin W. Meyer, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus