Detailed Study Notes on Gnosticism, Docetism, and Lost Gospels

Gnostics believed in mental freedom, allowing outward conformity while holding inner truth.

Gnostics often promoted asceticism.
Asceticism: Training to overcome fleshly desires (food, drink, sleep, comfort, sexual relationships, marriage, family).
These desires connect individuals to the world, which Gnostics sought to avoid, emphasizing the soul's importance.
Jesus' Role: Revealing the truth, with enlightened 'Agnostics' considered superior.

Jesus was never truly human.
Forms include:
- Monophysite: From "mono" (one) and "physi" (nature), meaning Jesus had only one nature, divine, not human.
- Passage: "I have never suffered in any way. I've never been distressed.".
- The soul is immortal and defines Jesus, not the body.

The preexistent Jesus entered a body, lived, and then left before death. (e.g., Book: The Laughing Savior).
Post-resurrection dialogues depict Jesus dismissing the significance of his death, stating he left the body before it died on the cross and mocked the Romans.
Another version: Jesus entered a body and displaced the original soul.
Docetism (one-off), substitution are important ideas in the second century.

Drunkenness Metaphor: Jesus says he found everyone drunk on worldly desires, oblivious to true knowledge.
Parallels the great banquet parable: People are too consumed with worldly affairs (new hawks, marriage, land) to seek spiritual truth.
Jesus is saddened by their blindness.
Verse 56: "Whoever has come to know the world has discovered a corpse." Worldly things/body = dead matter. Knowing this makes one superior to the world.
Verse 80: Restates that recognizing the world as a body leads to superiority.
Verse 42: "Be passers by." Implies traversing the world without being tainted by its desires or pressures, maintaining detachment.
Verse 3: The kingdom of God isn't a physical place to be sought externally; it's internal. Know yourself (your soul, not just body), and you'll understand your divine origins and status as a child of God. Ignorance of this is ruinous.
Verse 108: "If you drink from my mouth, you will become me." Understanding Jesus' words leads to transformation/oneness, revealing the heavenly world. Encourages listeners to become like Jesus.
Author: Didymus Judas Thomas (Twin in Greek and Aramaic). Claims to be Jesus' twin, suggesting we are all his twins, capable of divine status.
Twinship (oneness) is good; separation is bad.

Discovery of texts in Egypt revealed more than twenty gospels, fifteen apocalypses, and nearly 50 other "terms" about Jesus existed in the first 400 years after Jesus' death.
These gospels were discarded by early church fathers.
These texts offer different forms of Christianity.

Athanasius, a powerful bishop in Alexandria, wrote a letter in 367 AD that defined the 27 books of the New Testament canon.
He condemned other Christian literature, restricting approved texts.

Seven farmhands discovered a jar containing papyri books with over 50 individual works from early Christianity.
Manuscripts date to the fourth century, with some possibly composed earlier.
Alternative Visions: The texts presented alternative visions of Jesus, Christianity, God, and Jesus' teachings during his ministry.
The manuscripts were buried.

The ledear ripped the papers up and divided them between companions, who in turn threw them to a courtyard which was reserved for animals.
The lost texts are now housed in the Coptic Museum.

One of the manuscripts found. Attributed to "doubting" Thomas.
Collection of 114 sayings of Jesus in Coptic.
Lacks narrative framework, focusing on Jesus' statements. Puzzles and qualities for the reader to understand.
Written to the reader to "think" not "believe".

Some sayings mirror those in the New Testament gospels, while some are new.
Contains the famous ending saying of Peter asking that Mary go away from them because women are not worthy of life.
Jesus responds, Behold, I will lead her so that she might become male, so that she might become also a living spirit like you males. Because any woman who makes herself male will go into the kingdom of the heavens.
- Many believe this isn't meant literally, but instead means that becoming more complete moves a woman to the kingdom of heaven. Some see it as an example of sexism in a male chauvinistic religion.

The gospel is not straightforward, and written to be deliberately obscure.
"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy."
It emphasizes secret knowledge (gnosis) for salvation.
Gnostic Christians believed in salvation through secret knowledge.

Traditional Christianity stresses salvation for all believers in Jesus' death and resurrection.
Gnostic texts suggest salvation only for those "in the know" with knowledge.

Early Orthodox Christian leaders saw Jesus' victory over death as central.
Martyrdom: Jesus' suffering on the cross and resurrection provided a model for those facing persecution.
The Gospel of Thomas did not put importance on Jesus' death or physical resurrection like Thomas.

The Four Gospels record that Jesus chose male disciples.
The gospels, which were lost, portray women as taking center stage. Suggests that in the years of Jesus' life, women were even involved at the heart of his mission.
Mary Magdalene is depicted as a prominent disciple.

Suggests an intimate relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
"The savior loved her more than all the disciples".
Says that Jesus kissed her on the mouth many times. This leads scholars to imagine a sexual relationship.
The kiss could also possibly be a sharing of spiritual knowledge. Communicating a special level of wisdom and knowledge.
Suggests a shared strong spiritual connection.
*
The Coptic church has always frowned upon such relationships.

Excavation of Egyptian trash revealed a fragment of Mary Magdalene.
Suggests an excerpt from a document never-before seen.
Mary reveals details of a visions she's had of Jesus. The disciple Peter is hostile asking whether Jesus would really have spoken privately with a woman than openly to them.
Gospels suggest that Mary should've been the first Pope.

Revealing that some in the early centuries of the fledgling church were more influential than is traditionally believed.
Seem women were at the heart of the faith. May reflect a second century past struggle between men and women over the leadership of the church or a battle with the sexes.