What is "The Nag Hammadi Library"?The Nag Hammadi Library was discovered accidentally by two farmers in Egypt in December 1945. The name came from location near the hidden place where the Coptic documents were hidden for centuries. Muhammad Ali discovered at Nag Hamamdi a collection of thirteen codices with over fifty ancient texts, most of them previously unknown. Now the Nag Hammadi documents together with other discoveries of ancient texts made at different times, such as the texts in the Berlin Gnostic Codex and most recently, a newly available codex with more texts in it, including a Gospel of Judas, are known under generic name
The Gnostic Gospels.
Gnostic believers were considered hereticsPrior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, "Gnosticism" typically was considered to be an early and dangerous Christian heresy, and much of our knowledge of Gnostic religion was learned from the writings of the Christian who criticized those.
The early Christian authors attempted to establish discipline and expose heresy into increasing number of Christian communities. They destroyed Gnostic documents as many they can get for many centuries. The Christian writers disagreed vehemently with Christian Gnostics on matters of faith and life, and as a result they portrayed Gnostic believers as vile heretics.
The Gnostic discoveries impact usSince the discovery of the Gnostic Gospels and related texts, the study of Gnostic religion and its impact upon ancient and modern religion has been fundamentally transformed.
The novelist Dan Brown has published "The Da Vinci Code," a book that has attracted an unprecedented number of readers internationally. The tale was developed from Gnostic Gospels, chiefly the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Philip.
The issues of the roles of Mary and Peter, although presented in a provocative fashion in "The Da Vinci Code," are the issues of the Gospels of Mary and Philip and other Gnostic texts. As the reception of the novel indicates, they remain powerful issues today. For me the eighteen century Pompeo Batoni's paint "The fall of Simon Magus" and the strange Vatican rejection after ten years of studies and work has a clear explanation. The Vatican does not want as altarpiece the story of Apostle Peter defending in sorcery competition a levitating Magus. The Simon Magus was falling but he was falling from the sky where he was levitating.
In 1756 after so many centuries the Vatican wanted people better forget about
Simon Magus's legend.
This is exactly what happened to me. I needed to know who was Simon Magus. The result of my research are these web pages. I come to the Gnostic Myths trying to explain to you and myself the Pompeo Batoni's paint
"The Fall of Simon Magus".
Today you have access to all these stories. Enjoy them! This page was worked with info sourcing from en/wikipedia.org, and gnosis.org
Resorces for more info and a basic library on GnosticismWhat is Gnosticism?
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