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Nag Hammadi Library And The Gnostic Gospels Analysis

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When Ng Hammadi was digging for “sabakh” a soft soil used in Upper Egypt for fertilizer he discovered earthenware jugs of a reddish color. He removed the enclosed manuscripts and put them on a pile of straw next to his mothers’ stove. Some were carelessly burned, but most of those that remained were sold to antiquities dealers, smuggled out of Egypt or held by the Egyptian government in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. These Gnostic Gospels consisted of fifty-two texts and are seen as the most significant archeological discovery akin to the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1977, American scholar J. M. Robinson published the complete edition of The Nag Hammadi Library, and The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels is a study of the theological significance of the discovered texts and she was the …show more content…

The Orthodox Christians denounced gnostic teachings and the Gnostics denounced Christian teachings, which begs which religion is spiritually correct. While Gnostics thought Christians listened to their church leaders sermons to gain knowledge of Christ rather than seeking Him themselves. They saw our steps to baptism, profession of the creed, and becoming a martyr the wrong path to becoming a true Christian. Only through gaining gnosis was the one truly way to be in touch with spiritual teachings.
The Orthodox Church allowed anyone and everyone into membership and the way to Christianity. The Gnostics saw Christ’s message as encouragement to search for answer rather than actually being the set of answers. Also, the Orthodox considered their teachings to be the absolute truth. Gnostics instead viewed their teachings as a way to find the truth. The Gnostics placed gnosis above all else, making their worship too exclusionary and not a lasting religion. The Orthodox united people under a banner of Christianity and were inept at setting up structures to facilitate their

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