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| Refering to the suppressed gospels of Thomas and Mary. Esoteric in their nature, meaning, they refer to a few people. Refer to the “secret sayings of which the living Jesus spoke”. |
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| Nag Hammadi is best known for being the site where local farmers found a sealed earthenware jar containing thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices, together with pages torn from another book, in December 1945. The farmers burned one of the books and parts of a second (including its cover). Thus twelve of these books (one missing its cover) and the loose pages survive. The writings in these codices, dating back to the 2nd century AD, comprised 52 mostly Gnostic tractates (treatises), believed to be a library hidden by monks from the nearby monastery of St Pachomius when the possession of such banned writings, denounced as heresy, was made an offence. |
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| There is a discrepancy between the Gospel of Thomas and the synoptic gospels. The Gospel of Thomas is said to contain pieces of which are so similar to the Gospel of Mark, Luke, and John, in that they must stem from the same source, hence, the Q source. |
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| One of the earliest Gnostic gospels found in Nag Hammadi. The one who understands the reading is said to be able to not experience death. It holds sayings of the living Jesus in that are relative to the few he kept close to him. |
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| Anti-establishment orientation of Gnosticism |
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| Anti-establishment orientation of Gnosticism – Found in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus’ sayings include the belief that he has brought comfort to the world, and to not fall for a settled life. He was only willing to truly teach those whom discarded their bindings to society. |
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| Something more privileged in nature (Jesus speaking to his desciples) |
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| Leading women in Christianity. In the Gospel of Mary, Jesus preaches to find peace within oneself. However, it upsets Peter and Andrew, whom are unable to understand Jesus’ teaching. Mary appears to have understood, but Peter is quick to counter in saying he does not believe the Savior’s divine words would take a women before a man. The controversy is not resolved within the Gospel of Mary. |
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| themed within the debate on God’s gender. Two possible outcomes, God is a dyad “whose nature includes both masculine and feminine elements often give a similar description of human nature” or that god is androgynous, being both Mother and Father. |
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| described in “On the Origin of the World”. The Gnostic view of creation takes into account the creation within Genesis and applies elevated changes and consequences from the original, along with discussing the issue of an androgynous diety(s). |
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| Pauline patriarchal backlash |
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| The Pauline Injunction was the turn of Paul’s ambiguity on the role of women in church into a subjugation of women to men in all realms of society. As the religion became more centralized, women became more suppressed. This occurred around the 2nd century AD. |
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