The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels

The Gnostic Gospels
(Tr. Spa-Eng. from a review by Marttín Lucas Pérez)

 This American historian interprets the Coptic Writings appeared in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. These texts form a set of gospels, prophecies and poems by the so-called Christian Gnostics, who argued in the first centuries of our era, and especially in the second century, with the Church Fathers. Although the manuscripts were produced in the third and fourth centuries, when some monks hid them in the place where now they were found, most of them collect tradition "as old as or more than the Canonical Gospels".
 Pagels points out that until a few years ago Gnosticism was known only through a few writings and especially through fragments of their doctrines including the so-called Church Fathers' in their works of heresies refutation. However, some classics specialists such as Hans Jonas, had already interpreted these doctrines in 1934 as "a philosophy of pessimism about the world combined with an attempt at self-transcendence". According to Jonas' analysis, "many people of that time was deeply alienated from the world they lived and longed for a miraculous salvation as a means to escape the confinement of political and social existence". 

 Another specialist, R.M. Grant, had also suggested that Gnosticism "appeared as a reaction to the destruction of traditional religious views, Jewish and Christian, after the Romans razed Jerusalem in 70 AD", while Quispel proposed "Gnosticism had its origin in an experience of the potentially universal Self projected into religious mythology".
 For Pagels, a first look at the Gnostic writings reveals important differences between them and the Catholics' doctrines: while the orthodox God is an abyss away from mankind, for Gnostics knowledge of oneself is the knowledge of God, i.e., the Self and the divine are identical; the Gnostic Jesus is not coming to save us from sin, but as spiritual guidance until the pupil ceases to be and becomes identical to his master. Much like eastern theories of enlightenment.
 Pagels explores the political significance of doctrinal controversy with the Catholic Church. The Orthodox proclaim Christ's body's resurrection, which once risen appears to Peter and gives him authority to represent him on Earth. Gnostics rejected that Christ was carnal and for them, the resurrection is not a historical fact but the way you can experience Christ in the present. Therefore, they do not admit that the Church is in possession of any authority superior to all the faithful who experience Christ.

 For the Gnostics, the God of the Bible that the Orthodox worship is a minor deity, a Demiurge (creator), which aims to hide the true God and that men revere it as unique. The knowledge of the divine spirit (gnosis) means the independence of the Demiurge. Those who claim to believe without the gnosis are the Demiurge's offspring and, as bishops and priests, represent an authority and not the Supreme Spirit.
 Gnostic Christianity also gives an important role for women, while most of the Orthodox hardly take them into account. The divine principle of Gnostics has male and female characteristics. In their doctrine, Eve gives life to Adam, rather than being created from his rib, and it is her who receives from the snake (animal revered by some Gnostic sects) the knowledge that makes the biblical Demiurge jealous.
 The spiritualism of the Gnostics leads them to reject the martyrdom the Orthodox encouraged to masochism: "Your cruelty is our glory", wrote the orthodox Tertullian to the proconsul of Carthage. Christians and pagans have historically recognized that martyrdom gave impetus to the Church and did to bind the faith of the early Christians. Gnostics believed that those who had not obtained the gnosis would not find the kingdom of God in exchange for offering a few hours of suffering to the "cannibal god" of the Roman Christians. They believed that only for those who already possessed the knowledge of God martyrdom would do to improve them.
 Finally, the Kingdom of God of the Gnostics was not a thing of the future and did not believe in the resurrection of the flesh either. The Kingdom "is here, within you" and it is that state of transformed consciousness achieved through gnosis, i.e., a qualitative leap after prolonged self-knowledge, which was expressed in the phrase of Thomas' Gospel: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you get will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will lost you".