The Other Bible - Some Thoughts

[Guest guest]

Some Thoughts on the Other Bible and Freedom of Religion

 

" The Other Bible, " edited by Willis Barnstone, Harper Collins, is a great

collection of other scriptures written by Jews, Christians (including

Gnostic Christians), Mandaeans, Manichaeans, and other movements from

2,000 years ago in the middle east.

 

It's by no means a complete collection, but a great bargain and sampler

of these other scriptures, these other holy books used so long ago, parts

of other western " canons " of scripture.

 

FREEDOM TO THINK AND TO PUBLISH RESEARCH

It's great that we live at a time in history when we are free to read

such ancient books without being squelched by church-state religions

that place politics before scholarship, that would like to prevent free

access or discussion about such texts, and that used to sometimes punish

by death those who read or copied them -- this used to routinely happen

back in the dark ages of humanity. As we know, some in the religious

world place ideology before research and honest inquiry. For instance,

had the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi books been discovered during

the middle ages, surely they would have been burned to a crisp. Even

now on some newsgroups, a collection of the sayings of Jesus known as

the Gospel of Thomas is attacked by some in the fundamentalist world

as a vast conspiracy of a 'new world order.' This, even though Jesus

is supposed to be the founder of the Faith and many of the very same

sayings are also found in the New Testament itself. When ancient books

like Thomas are uncovered, where's the sense of curiosity and wonder?

Why would they automatically greet the news of discoveries in the middle

east with such suspicion and negativity?

 

It's good that there are scholars around who are able to analyze these

ancient books free of rigid ideologies that demand of everyone to give

the 'theologically correct' answer every time, despite any evidence that

may be uncovered which challenges the status quo. Denominations not only

venerate certain writings as sacred and inspired, but also sometimes

venerate or canonize their understanding of them as well!

 

SOME APOCRYPHAL SCRIPTURES ARE VERY INSPIRING AND WONDERFUL

My own view of many of these relatively recent discoveries of apocryphal

texts is that the internal evidence can show divine authorship and inspiration,

wisdom, spirituality, mysticism, truth, and I think most would agree

that these ancient books fill in some of the gaps, are historically important,

greatly expanding our understanding of the religious movements of the

past. The Gospel of Thomas, Odes of Solomon, and psalms of the Dead Sea

Scrolls I find to be some of the most beautiful literature of antiquity.

 

 

WHICH " CANON " OF SCRIPTURE?

I've always found it to be a liberating truth to know that there's more

than one canon of scripture! There's the Orthodox Jewish canon of scripture,

the Catholic Bible, the Protestant Bible, The Orthodox Bible, the Ethiopian

Bible, which is the largest and most diverse of them all including many

other interesting books. The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible of Hebrew and Aramaic

scriptures certainly had many more books in it than Jewish Bibles of

today. In the " canon " of the Valentinian Christians was included Hebrew

scriptures, also much of what we now think of as the New Testament, Gospel

of Truth, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Thomas, and many other books now

labeled " Gnostic " by the church. The Mandaeans of Iraq also have their

Bible as well, containing truly inspiring psalms, hymns, and spiritual

songs.

 

To those who imply that there's only one canon of scripture arranged

not by human beings but by God, that it dropped from the sky one day,

and was caught by King James in 1611, I say, 'Hey, wait a minute!'

 

When other sayings attributed to Jesus are found in the middle east,

when scientists discover how things evolved and that the universe is

12 billion or so (light) years old, I say, 'Tell me more.' I conceive

of God as the God-of-Truth. Truth, Reality, New Discoveries and God I

think are all on the same side.

 

" Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will

be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that won't become exposed,

and nothing buried that won't be raised. " (Greek Gospel of Thomas, Saying

#5)

 

Blessings, Happy New Year,

 

James

 

 

 

 

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