The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition

Finally, an awesome book that provides progress toward the truth! Like Eistein's theory of everything, we need books like this one that combines and explain everything all religions and science together and in correspondence to each other! In addition, to achieve progress toward divine wisdom, these books may help to stop division among people, religions, and science.

Excellent resource. Truly a beautiful compilation of sacred texts.There was someone who previously commented on this and said they found the exegesis on the soul to be sexist. Just want to note that it is NOT sexist, it is pointing out that the soul is androgynous and has no sex, and then uses a bunch of metaphors/symbolism to describe the relationship between the soul, the world, and the divine. So clearly they misinterpreted the text. If you’re reading these comments and are unsure if this is for you GET IT! You won’t regret it :-)

I'm reading this "bible", and find in it great sources of Gnosticism. Any student of myth, and Gnosticism definitely will want this in their library! GREAT buy!

I was reading samples of the book on Google Books (available only as a preview) and I was surprised by many of the things that were not included in the Bible. But more importantly, I was surprised by certain details that were in front of me the whole time but didn't notice. After viewing the samples on Google Books, I decided to order the book to get more in-depth details. It is because of this book and others like it that profoundly changed my life and my view of the world around me and within me.Originally, I was born and raised a Catholic. But after seriously reading the details about the Gnostic Gospels and reviewed the traditional Orthodox Christian bible that I had with me, I came to the realization that I was better off being a Gnostic because much of what I was taught as a Catholic made no sense. Even though Gnostic beliefs share their roots with Christian beliefs as well, how they interpreted the word of Yeshua and the words of Jehovah helped provide the second side of the coin that I was looking for all my life. Reading this even helped fill in holes in the stories as described in the modern-day Christian Bible.

After I had studied almost all of the contents of this book, I regretfully found its treatment of gnosis very misleading. Then Barnstone told me on page 817 that despite “the quality of the historical and religious studies that gnosticism has generated, the many new translations of core scripture, and the general esteem and curiosity that gnosticism elicits…in depth knowledge of the history and nature of gnostic speculation is still rare.”He is correct because this history has been so distorted by the efforts of heresiologists to destroy the gnostic belief system that some speculation is inevitable. However, Barnstone, Meyer and none of the sources on gnosis that are listed in the bibliography have studied the historical record relevant to this history; therefore they also are among those who are unaware of this in depth speculative knowledge. As such, they too are only seekers-after-truth on the subject of gnosis. Since I have searched and speculated, I may be in a better position to evaluate The Gnostic Bible’s effort to educate others on Gnosis and Gnosticism than are those who haven’t.Meyer and Barnstone have ignored the scholarly contribution to our understanding of the early gnostic/christian relationship made by such a distinguished historian as G. R. S. Mead. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, he wrestled with the meager amount of gnostic literature that survived the many Christian efforts to destroy it. In the opinion of the Gnostic Library, “Mead was the first modern scholar of Gnostic tradition. A century later, the corpus of his work remains unequaled in breadth and insight.”The bibliography refers to Dr. Charles Hedrick, emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University and to Kurt Rudolph, who is an internationally recognized authority on Gnosticism. He is professor of history of religion at Philipps University in Marburg, West Germany. Neither is otherwise mentioned in the index or the book. I conclude that some of their books have been read by Barnstone and Meyer but rejected because of their content.In short, I recommend that a seeker-after-truth read the books written by Hedrick, Mead, Rudolph, and others before blindly accepting The Gnostic Bible as a final authority.

Very nice copy. Clean. Perfect condition. Arrived very fast. I ordered through Amazon new perhaps that's why it is in such good condition. Very large heavy book as well and packaged in bubble wrap envelope. Love it!

I'm a follower of this religion and way of thinking, it's logical and makes sense to me, something I have never gotten from the Christian Bible - I've always had an avid interest in reading the Bible, but kept coming up against brick walls that just left me scratching my head and saying, "That just doesn't make sense!"... but not with the Gnostic Bible!... ;-) My God is the God above all gods, The Source from whence my Spiritual self comes - not the Creator God who is responsible for physical life - when the physical wears out it returns from whence it came - when my Spirit/Soul leaves this shell, it will return from whence it came, HOME to my Source... Some people are just not intelligent enough to see the whole picture, and for them, the Church created the Christian Myth... know the difference before you give you Soul to one of them...