Willis Barnstone - The Gnostic Bible

This book may well be the most comprehensive collection of gnostic materials ever gathered in one volume. What is clear from the sourcebook is the tremendous diversity of thought that exists under the gnostic umbrella including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Zoroastrian, and Greco-Roman themes. A valuable resource for students and scholars.

Publishers Weekly

The selection of texts ranges across two millennia and various cultures. Each work, some translated into English for the first time, is accompanied by a clear introduction and synopsis. This is an important sampler of relatively unknown spiritual literature.

Library Journal

To read The Gnostic Bible is to witness something astonishing.... I read it with dizzy excitement.

Ian Cant, Ascent Magazine

A Godsend for anyone interested in alternative Christianity, the history of Christianity, or spirituality in general.

Turks Head Review

An enormously rich collection of sourcesa wonderful achievement!

Elaine Pagels, author of The Gnostic Gospels and Beyond Belief

Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyers Gnostic Bible joins Bentley Laytons Gnostic Scriptures as one of the true critical sourcebooks for gnostic texts. Here, from China to Catalonia, from the first to the fourteenth centuries, gnosticism is seen as a global meditation.

Harold Bloom, author of Genius: A Mosaic, Hamlet: Poem Unlimited, and The Western Canon

I feel as if I had been waiting for this book all my life.

Carolyn Kizer, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet

Everyone interested in the tumultuous origins of Christianity and in a mysticism of direct, unmediated communion with God should fall on this brilliant and ground-breaking book. In it, for the first time, are assembled all the major texts of gnosticism, with illuminating notes and introductions, and in translations that radiate clarity.

Andrew Harvey, author of Sun at Midnight, Son of Man, and The Direct Path

These ancient texts have not lost any of their power to awaken higher consciousness. Seekers of knowledge owe an enormous debt to Barnstone and Meyer for presenting these works to us in a fresh, clear, and accessible form.

Richard Smoley, author of Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition

In this wonderfully readable anthology the authors have brought together a large number of interesting selections from a wide chronological, geographical, and cultural range of traditions that nevertheless illustrate fascinating overlapping patterns in religious symbolism and worldviews.

Michael Williams, author of Rethinking Gnosticism

These two wise men have written an amazing bookthe best of its kind, ever. They bear lit matches in our dark tunnelsometimes they are the matches themselves.

Gerald Stern, author of American Sonnets and What I Cant Bear Losing

ABOUT THE BOOK

Gnosticism was a wide-ranging religious movement of the first millennium CEwith earlier antecedents and later flourishingswhose adherents sought salvation through knowledge and personal religious experience. Gnostic writings offer striking perspectives on both early Christian and non-Christian thought. For example, some gnostic texts suggest that god should be celebrated as both mother and father, and that self-knowledge is the supreme path to the divine. Only in the past fifty years has it become clear how far the gnostic influence spread in ancient and medieval religionsand what a marvelous body of scriptures it produced.

The selections gathered here, in poetic, readable translation, represent Jewish, Christian, Hermetic, Mandaean, Manichaean, Islamic, and Cathar expressions of gnostic spirituality. Their regions of origin include Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, the Middle East, Syria, Iraq, China, and France. Also included are introductions, notes, an extensive glossary, and a wealth of suggestions for further reading.

WILLIS BARNSTONE, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, where he is also a member of the Institute of Biblical and Literary Studies. His many books include The Poetics of Translation, The Other Bible, The New Covenant, With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires, The Complete Poems of Sappho, and The Restored New Testament. A Guggenheim Fellow, his awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities award, an Emily Dickinson Award of the Poetry Society of America, a W. H. Auden Award of the New York State Council of the Arts, the Midland Authors Award, and four Pulitzer Prize nominations for poetry. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Doubletake, Harpers, New York Review of Books, Poetry, Paris Review Poetry, Partisan Review, the New Yorker, and the Times Literary Supplement.

MARVIN MEYER, PhD, (19482012) was Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University, Orange, California, and one of the foremost scholars of Coptic and gnostic studies. His books include The Gospel of Judas, The Gospel of Thomas, and, with James Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures.

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THE GNOSTIC BIBLE

Revised Edition

EDITED BY

Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer

SHAMBHALA

Boston & London

2011

Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

2003, 2009 by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Revised Edition

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The gnostic Bible/edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer.Rev. ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2414-0

ISBN: 978-1-59030-631-4 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Gnosticism. I. Barnstone, Willis, 1927 II. Meyer, Marvin W.

BT1390.G4937 2009

299.932dc22

2008036431

We would like to acknowledge several people and organizations that have helped in the production of this volume. For a number of years Chapman University has given generous encouragement to the scholarly research of Marvin Meyer on gnostic texts by providing sabbatical leaves and financial assistance, and the work on this volume has been undertaken with the support of the Griset Chair in Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University. Nathaniel Deutsch and Paul Mirecki have contributed insightful introductions to Mandaean and Manichaean literature in this volume, and Heather TerJung has produced an English translation of the German version of the Mother of Books. Linden Youngquist has provided essential computer expertise for formatting the texts and preparing the bibliography. The editorial staff of Shambhala Publications has taken on this large publishing project with creativity and resourcefulness. Joel Segel has brought his editorial vision to the creation of the book and has been a model of patience, persistence, and professionalism. Kendra Crossen Burroughs and Dave ONeal have seen the manuscript successfully through press. Lastly, we recognize our colleagues, friends, and family members who have long endured our preoccupations and have offered us, in many ways, insights into wisdom and gnosis.