The Apocryphon of St John. And Other Coptic Translations.

Aus der Bibliothek von Prof. Wolfgang Haase, langj�igem Herausgeber der ANRW und des International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT) / From the library of Prof. Wolfgang Haase, long-time editor of ANRW and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition (IJCT). - sehr guter Zustand / very good condition - The material world in which man lives is evil. The God of the Old Testament who created it is the devil, who was born because of a "mistake� or "flaw� at the lowest level of the spiritual realm. Man's tragedy is not original sin, but the fact that his spirit is trapped in this evil, material world. His hope for salvation is not in faith or good works, but in knowledge (in Greek, gnosis) of the truth about the universe. This truth was revealed by Christ to the apostles after His resurrection, and it has been preserved in writing. But the initiate cannot understand it without special instruction. -- From the Bible, as well as from Graeco-Roman philosophy and their ancient, native religious beliefs, the Egyptian Gnostics of the early centuries of the Christian era created the doctrines just described. While their gentle concern for the human condition is clear, their free interpretation of the Bible was profoundly alien to the beliefs familiar to us. The Church declared their doctrines heretical and burned their books. But a few copies, carefully hidden away in the Egyptian desert, were preserved and discovered in modern times. -- These fascinating texts have been available only in difficult translations made by and for scholars. The late Howard N. Bream has made the clearest translations to date of several of these documents, and his commentary on The Apocryphon of John probably resembles the lost explanation given to the Gnostic initiates. -- This book should be read by everyone who wants to understand the complex origins of Christian belief. ISBN 9780961380533