Initially published in 1979 by Random House, with subsequent paperback editions from Vantage Books (Knopf Doubleday) and Penguin Books, The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels continues to offer a comprehensive overview of many of the 52 ancient texts discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. This book remains significant even 46 years after its original release. Elaine Pagels is widely recognized as a leading expert on the history of early Christianity, from the death of Jesus Christ to the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

The texts were written between 100 and 350 AD, during a time when different groups of Jesus's followers were interpreting and teaching his messages. Gnosticism, a sect that drew many followers and offered various interpretations and teachings, flourished at the same time that the Orthodox Christian Church was beginning to take shape. Over time, Orthodoxy gained more influence because its organization gave it power over the Gnostics. The new orthodoxy labeled the Gnostics as heretics, which led to Gnosticism losing its influence and eventually being overshadowed by the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, Gnosticism continued to exist as a fringe group into modern times. Today, some groups still teach Gnosticism through texts such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Apocryphon of John, and Pistis Sophia, found at Nag Hammadi.

Gnosticism offers a uniquely fascinating view of the formation of the cosmos. It describes the Aeons, spiritual divine emanations that originate from the ultimate unknown source, the Monad, or primary God. The Aeons appear in pairs, masculine and feminine, called syzygies. Each Aeon represents a specific divine primary attribute, or essence. The Aeons exist in the fullness of the divine light called the Pleroma.

One Aeon, Sophia, goes astray and tries to create her own world, but in doing so, she creates a flawed monster called Yaldabaoth, or the Demi-Urge, who is inherently imperfect and evil. Yaldabaoth, who inherits the power of creation from his mother, Sophia, along with his created minions, the Archons, forms the material world, which is also imperfect and evil. This is the world we live in. Each person is born with a divine spark that's a remnant of the fullness of light from which Sophia emanated. This divine spark is that which Gnosticism teaches must be awakened through Gnosis—the recognition of the divine within each of us. 

Gnosis is achieved through intuition and introspection to discover the divine spark within, nurturing it into fruition, which leads to knowledge of the power and fullness of the light from which it originated. Gnosticism considers Jesus a divine messenger who has come from the Pleroma to reveal the secret of Gnosis, so we can be reunited with the fullness of light, or God—the Monad, the true God, the ultimate God—rather than being a captive of the Demiurge who created this evil world. Gnosticism sees Jesus as ascending into the Aeon’s world, the Pleroma, to defeat the wicked Archons who work with Yaldabaoth in keeping the world in an evil state. Gnostics view salvation as being achievable through Gnosis, not faith or Grace. 

Gnosticism does not see sin as the fall of man, unlike Orthodox Christianity. As a result, it does not emphasize atonement or redemption. This perspective is quite different from what Orthodox Christianity teaches today, a faith rooted in the principles established by the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which created the Nicene Creed as we know it. The clergy at that council chose certain texts and gospels from numerous writings in the second and third centuries to organize and unify the various interpretations of Jesus' teachings that existed at that time. 

This selection of specific texts and gospels over others was approved by the powerful Orthodox Church to maintain order and consistency in Christian worship and to establish a Church hierarchy of bishops with ecclesiastical authority. This hierarchy could then preserve power rather than allowing individual believers to have it. Gnostics were considered heretics for their beliefs, and many so-called heretical texts were destroyed. Some were hidden by Gnostics to ensure their survival, such as the texts found at Nag Hammadi roughly two thousand years later.

Christian theology would look very, very different today if, in 325 AD, a decision had been made to select texts other than those selected for reasons of expediency. The clergy at that council made huge decisions in deciding which interpretations of the teachings of Jesus would survive as “acceptable.”  Seen in this light, we need to understand just how Christian theology developed. It was not a given; it was subject to a specific interpretation as seen by a small number of members of the clergy, whose intellectual honesty and objectivity can certainly be questioned. 

This book is about 200 pages and is not difficult reading. It represents a huge contribution to the study of the roots and development of early Christianity; the early Christianity we should pay attention to because it was formed before the thousands of years of re-interpretation, translation, and revisions of Biblical texts had a chance to distort the true facts of history. Gnosticism remains one interpretation of Christianity among many variations. It provides a challenging insight into how the Orthodox Christian Church was really formed.

This post also appears in the blog section at my author's website. johnstrapasonbooks.com