The Nag Hammadi Scriptures Kindle Edition

The Nag Hammadi Scriptures Kindle Edition
Author: Marvin W. Meyer ID: B003V1WT5Y

Done.
File Size: 1912 KBPrint Length: 866 pagesPublisher: HarperCollins e-books; 1st edition (September 14, 2010)Publication Date: September 14, 2010 Sold by:  Digital Services, Inc. Language: EnglishID: B003V1WT5YText-to-Speech: Enabled X-Ray: Enabled Word Wise: Not EnabledLending: Not Enabled Enhanced Typesetting: Not Enabled Best Sellers Rank: #24,697 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies & Reference > Gnosticism #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies & Reference > Reference #3 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Theology > Gnosticism
For the title of this review I chose an excerpt from "The Dialogue of the Savior" which belonged to NHC III,5. On my quest to better understanding ‘gnosticism’ I first read Andrew Phillip Smith’s book titled, "The Gnostics". His brief treatise on the overall scope of what gnosticism is really all about provided me with a more concise understanding of this exhaustive, scholarly translation of the Nag Hammadi text.

This book is by far the most complete and in-depth translation to date and will probably never be equaled. Scholars such as Marvin Meyer, Elaine Pagels, Madeleine Scopello, Einar Thomassen and John D. Turner are just a few of the names involved with the translation of the Nag Hammadi scriptures. There is an array of backgrounds involved which ultimately provide very different interpretations of the text, but this diversity only helps the reader to draw his/her own conclusions as to interpretation.

One positive aspect to this book is decision NOT to guess what the translation might have been. Quite frankly, much of the text within certain tractates were severely damaged and/or missing. Instead of guessing or including what the text may have said, Meyer and others, merely let the reader know that much of the text itself is missing. This is, of course refreshing, as many modern translations of either other Gnostic or Essene texts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, authors will simply insert modern lexicons assuming that it follows suit to what we have today. Meyer and company don’t do this, instead they provide a well documented, heavily footnoted, scholarly work.
The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts – The International Edition. Edited by Marvin Meyer. New York: Harper Collins, 2008. Paperback, 844 pages. ISBN 9780061626005

The present work, as the most complete and up-to-date English-language edition of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, is probably the finest available edition for the general reader today and should appeal to a wide range of readers with varying interests.

Judging by the reviews, most readers seem to come to these texts with a strong Biblical background and are surprised to see how strikingly different they can be to the Bible.

In my own case I come to them with a background in Asian thought and am amazed at how strikingly similar they can at times be to the sacred texts of the East.

This is understandable since, as Duncan Greenlees pointed out in his excellent anthologyThe Gospel of The Gnostics (page xxvi): "We have not yet worked out the actual influence of India upon the Western … Gnostics; yet it is clear to the sympathetic, and therefore to the honest, student it must have been very great. At times we can almost recognize a direct quotation from some Indian scripture."

To realize that he is right we need only turn, for example, to logion 24 of the Gospel of Thomas where we find Jesus saying (page 143):

"There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark.
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