Wisdom From Forgotten Gospels, Part ONE

[Guest guest]

James Bean jamesbean

spiritualawakening

 

 

WISDOM FROM FORGOTTEN GOSPELS, PART ONE

 

By James Bean

 

Copyright, December 1997

 

Though it does seem like it sometimes, Christianity was not invented

by Europeans or Americans! The first churches flourished 2,000 years

ago in places like Israel, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and other

countries of the Near and Middle east. Orthodoxy, the Christianity that

we're familiar with, got established during the fourth century AD. Though

the history of the early church before Orthodoxy is very sparse and still

somewhat shrouded in mystery, nevertheless, it's possible to discover

some of the secrets of these now defunct and long forgotten expressions

of apostolic Christianity.

 

In addition to the books of the New Testament, Christians during the

early years of the faith possessed and studied many other documents written

by saints, apostles, and contemplatives. These scriptures served as

a means of communication, articulating to readers in the ancient world

the views of other spiritual communities that once existed within the

Christian movement. For example, there are several books attributed

to the apostle Thomas which present another very distinct version of

Christianity -- that of the Thomas branch of the church based in Syria.

Saint Thomas is said to have founded churches in Syria and to the East,

eventually traveling on a missionary journey to India. It's interesting

to note that even now, there are millions of Thomas Christians in India

who preserve the belief that Thomas arrived there during the first century.

Other apostles from the original inner circle of Christ are said to

have also traveled, founding churches that developed their own unique

traditions of faith. Most of these were eventually converted and absorbed

by Orthodoxy, or faded into oblivion.

 

The New Testament, arranged by the Orthodox during the fourth century,

is dominated by the writings of the apostle Paul, who went on many missionary

journeys around the Roman Empire. Almost half the words contained in

the Orthodox New Testament were attributed to Paul, with little attention

given to the whereabouts, activities or teaching of the other apostles

and churches. So, in order to catch a glimpse of the other expressions

of early Christianity (Syrian, Egyptian, Ethiopian, etc.), it's necessary

to examine the surviving scriptures that were excluded from the New Testament.

Indeed, many other fascinating gospels accounts, letters, revelations,

psalms and spiritual discourses have been preserved. English translations

of the other books exist and can be ordered through any good bookstore.

 

Think of all these documents, both in the New Testament and the other

apocryphal scriptures, as being like pieces of a puzzle. If we combine

all these pieces together, a larger, more complete picture starts to

become visible. For me, by exploring all of these writings, a much more

colorful, diverse, amazing, and spiritually satisfying Christianity can

be rediscovered. Rather than being ignored, the rich spirituality and

history of Christianity in Syria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Persia, and India

should be celebrated, as should the wisdom of the early Hebrew Christians,

Gnostics and Valentinians.

 

The primary reason why I've become a collector of apocryphal books is

that I find a vast amount of spiritual wisdom there; evidence of an ancient

Christianity-with-spirituality. I also like questioning authority, especially

in light of the fact that sometimes religious groups tend to retroactively

impose their theology upon history, perhaps even giving us a skewed version

of events. Like the saying goes, " history is written by the victors. "

One technique I use to evaluate the authenticity of a religion or spiritual

movement is to examine where a tradition came from or where a teacher

derived his or her spiritual knowledge from. I've found this approach

of examining the ROOTS of a tradition to be VERY illuminating. In fact,

its caused me to change my spiritual path on more than one occasion over

the years!

 

PART ONE///

 

Part Two of Wisdom from Forgotten Gospels will focus upon the forgotten

wisdom, what some of the lost teachings are. These are to be found in

ancient books like the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and

the Gospel of Truth.

 

In the Sound and Light of Gnosis,

 

James

 

 

 

_________________

To get your own FREE ZDNet Onebox - FREE voicemail, email, and fax,

all in one place - sign up today at http://www.zdnetonebox.com