Egypt, Gnosticism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism

I found the following video clip at Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices -- Old Video.

The texts of the Nag Hammadi Library are important because they represent the Gnostic part of the intellectual milieu that gave birth to orthodox Christianity, Islam, Talmudic (later Rabbinic) Judaism. The texts can help clarify what is meant by sectarianism, fornication, hypocrisy, atheism, polytheism, heresy, libertinism (epicurianism), and idolatry in religious discourse from the second through the seventh century CE.

The video clip is also interesting for providing some insight into Egyptian society from 1945-1956.

To learn more about related topics, check out [Patricia Crone] What do we actually know about Mohammed?


Note

Gnostic Christianity has become associated with New Age relgion, and there are many texts more recent than that of Jonas. Pagels book is considered readable, and its Amazon page links to many other books.

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