Book 2:4 Gnostic Gospels

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

I’ve been meaning to read this ever since The Da Vinci Code came out.  Yes, elitist propgandhis, I liked that book.  Maybe it was just pop-arting something you knew for AGES and AGES, because you’re so fucking intellectual, but it was news to me, and it made me want to research more.  Not so much that I actually did read other books, but you know I THOUGHT about it. (I apologize for the unusual level of ire.  It’s just that I had to deal with so much hatred and scorn for actually swallowing the Koolaid on this one from coworkers at the IgNoble).

My brother had bought the Matrix videogames when Da Vinci was making its rounds.  The games take place between Matrix II and III.  In the game you have to fight the Merovingians vampires and werewolves.  So I researched the term Merovingian, and found out that it derives from grail legend, supposedly a bloodline that thought it was immortal.  It’s where we get the myth of the vampire.  Consider my mind fucking blown.  What?  Jesus made Dracula?  Fuck. Yeah.

The Gnostic Gospels are part of a group of scrolls found in a cave in an area of the world called Nag Hammadi.  They supposedly offer extra gospels to the four of the new testament.  It’s all part of the whole Jesus storyline.  The Gnostics were people that essentially believed in free thought and knowledge, and that the key to betterment was within each and every person.  Oh, and also that Jesus passed on some secret to enlightenment like Yoda and the Jedis. 

I had thought that the Gnostic Gospels would actually be expanded out in the book, but I had thought wrong.  Instead, it’s sort of a study of the impact of gnosticism versus orthodox Christianity.  It was very dry and dull, but it made a few really intriguing points.

Essentially, the gnostics were sort of new agey and the orthodox were right wing fanatics.  That’s painfully simplifying things, and kind of inaccurately, but it’s a pretty solid argument.  The Gnostics believed that Jesus imparted secret wisdom on enlightenment to his disciples (and these are the cats who support Mary Magdalene being the wife of Jesus) and that if you reached that stage, you could become Jesus.  Taking into consideration that Jesus’ kinda went on a Eastern Religions World Tour between pulling his teen angsty tantrum kicking over the moneylenders’ temple, and coming back spouting fortune cookie parables even the oldest gramma can cross-stitch on an ominous handwoven craft, it makes sense. 

This, of course, didn’t jive well with how the emerging Christian church wanted things.  They were organizing the hierarchy of bishop, deacon, priest and so they didn’t want people to believe they just had to look to themselves to pray and to find peace and enlightenment.  Even worse, the Gnostics claimed that since Jesus was spirit, you could essentially become a Christ yourself.  So the church spent the next few years hiding and burning all record of these “heretical” texts. 

That’s the part that fascinated me.  That supposedly Jesus was influenced by the Eastern arts.  You know, that the three wise men were from different faiths (Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam).  And so, now Christianity has become hardcore and misogynestic, and all this came about so that Christians could build a core church that would defend against persecution from Rome.  That tenets of meditation and inner spirituality would be thrown away because the Church didn’t want to let girls play. 

Interesting further was the aspect of the Roman persecution.  This was a time when the Christians were being used as spear targets and lion food.  Since Jesus was killed on the cross, tortured, and cast aside, the orthodox Christians viewed their sacrifices as akin to that of Jesus.  They figured they’d achieve enlightenment because they were literally dying as their savior.  The Gnostics, favoring knowledge, felt that to die was missing Christs message of achieving self gnosis, so they would avoid persecution.  This is the same argument you see today among intellectuals versus hardcore faithers.  The same people who bomb abortion clinics can’t understand how a couple of bearded dudes can drive a plane into a building.  The same people call those who won’t die for their country cowards because it’s not a cause they believe in. 

I don’t want to paint the Gnostics in some sort of bright shiny light.  They were more holier than thou than the shiniest haired evangelist.  They claimed that Jesus imparted secret wisdom to his favored disciples and that you had to pass tests and seek this knowledge and then alone would you be worthy.  It’s that sort of self-righteous arrogant assurance one expects from the New Age worshippers.  It smacks of elitism. 

I like the way the new gospels portray the disciples.  As in-fighting, jealous, and scared.  It makes them human.  It makes them fallible.  I like that Jesus might have faked the whole thing.  This book wasn’t what I was looking for, and I have since found websites where I can actually…kinda…read what was in the Gnostic Gospels.  I will be reading further on this topic, as I’m looking towards Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Sword and The Chalice.  Right now, I’m actually moving along on the other aspect of this that fascinates me with the Templars and the conspiracy theorist stuff.

I’m also trying to find a more accessible version of the Eastern faiths.  I plan on trying to read the Tao Te Ching, some of the Bhagadavita (I know I butchered the shit out of that), and some of the Qu’ran.  I really liked Eastern Religion when I was introduced to it college, and I’d like to read more.  I also want to read the Wiccan stuff, because it ties nicely into my Catholicism. 

It’s not giving me the mind opening like I’d hoped yet, but it’s definitely increasing my appreciation for politics, history, and spirituality.