The Gnostic Scriptures (Anchor Bible Reference Library) - Softcover

The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation With Annotations and Introductions.

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Buchbeschreibung Original brochure. Zustand: Gut. 530 p. From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - Cracked binding and Yellowed book edges. Otherwise in good condition. - Content: In this book I have tried to make a readable, coherent collection of the scriptures of ancient gnostic religion and its relatives. The works in this collection are heretical a heretical counterpart of the holy scripture of Christianity and Judaism (which gnostics also read). But despite their highly unorthodox character these works shed great light on the theology, atmosphere, and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism. The gnostic movement did not simply share in the culture to which early Christianity belonged. Gnostics in fact made up one of the earliest and most long-lived branches of the ancient Christian religion, as Map 2 makes abundantly clear; it was only after centuries of struggle that they could be eradicated by the established church. After the official Christianization of the late Roman empire (a.d. 313-81), theological objections to the gnostic scriptures were given the force of law, and most copies of these scriptures were banned and eventually perished. By a lucky accident of preservation and the careful efforts of modern scholars, the gnostic scriptures have now begun to be known again. Orthodox Christian doctrine of the ancient world and thus of the modern church was partly conceived of as being what gnostic scripture was not. For this reason, a knowledge of gnostic scripture is indispensable for anyone who hopes to understand the historical roots of Christian theology and belief. Moreover, the gnostic myth grew up in an intimate dialogue though often a hostile one with Jewish learning of the Greek-speaking synagogue. Thus the gnostic scriptures cannot fail to increase, however obliquely, our knowledge of the foundations of classical Judaism. Gnostics did not have a fixed bible, as church and synagogue do today: the selection of what to include in this book has had to be my own, based on principles set forth in the "General Introduction" that follows. Accordingly, a number of works sometimes labeled "gnostic," though only in a vague and looser sense, have been deliberately omitted. All English translations in this book are my own, made from revised editions of the original texts. My aim has been to translate all important terms in a similar way, so that readers can confidently compare the wording of one work with another. 1 have also tried, so far as possible, to avoid theological jargon or mere transcription of Greek terms in these translations. Except for a few deliberate obscurities, gnostic scripture was coherent in antiquity; there is no reason why it should not be so today. At the publisher s suggestion I have written this book for the general public as well as students and scholars, without the usual network of references to primary and secondary sources. Instead, the annotations are simply meant to help the reader understand the immediate sense of the text; such annotations are especially needed with gnostic literature. Although they lay a foundation for close study of the text, these annotations do not try to decide what gnostic scripture ultimately meant: readers must make that important decision for themselves. The historical introductions to the five parts of this book and the introductions to individual works are meant to help interpreters, but not to impose any particular theological or philosophical point of view. Interpreters will also find help in the many select bibliographies, scattered throughout the book, which list scholarly studies that are accessible, broadly relevant, and sound in their manner of approach. But the general reader and the student must be cautioned that in a field as controversial as this one, where much of the evidence was published only in recent years, there are no standard or accepted lines of interpretation. In particular, three famous questions about the works translated in this book still remain to be answered: (1) In which religious milieu (Jewish? Christian? other?) was classic gnostic myth and religion born? (2) Did such a thing as the gnostic myth exist in the day of St. Paul or St. John, and if so can it be seen reflected in their writings? (3) In what sense is a historian justified in speaking of a general pattern, whether psychological or philosophical, called gnostic ism? These ultimate questions have troubled scholarship for more than two hundred years. Because the third question has never gotten a satisfactory answer I prefer not to start from a philosophical description of something called "gnosticism." Rather, I begin my exploration of this theme concretely, with the first coherent sect that actually called itself "gnostic," then trace its historical and ideological evolution into a later form. I believe that this essentially historical method of description takes the reader to the real heart of the gnostic phenomenon and that it sheds considerable light on the broader concepts of "gnosticism," "gnostic religion," and "gnosis." ISBN 9780385478434 Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 698. Artikel-Nr. 1168445

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