What other texts should I read to learn about the apocrypha and gnostic gospels?

June 27, 2004 5:58 PM

i'm interested in reading and learning about the apocrypha and the gnostic gospels-- especially the books of judith and mary magdalene. any recommendations on texts and/ or analysis?
posted by ronv to Education (9 answers total)

Not exactly about those, but a great general background on the topic: James the Brother of Jesus by Robert Eisenman
posted by anastasiav at 6:46 PM on June 27, 2004

While it may not be as heavy on the commentary as you'd like, the Oxford Study Bible is far and away the best volume a Biblical scholar can own (of course, I am Not a Biblical Scholar).

It includes the apocrypha and excellent footnotes and additional reference materials.

There's also the Oxford Bible Commentary, but I've no personal experience with it.
posted by aladfar at 6:54 PM on June 27, 2004

You can't go wrong with books by the author of your second link, ronv: Elaine Pagels.
posted by jbrjake at 7:38 PM on June 27, 2004

The Nag Hamadi Library anthology has a ton of primary sources of the gnostic, anti-gnostic, and "five people believed this for a couple of weeks" varieties.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:14 PM on June 27, 2004

Gnosticism.
posted by the fire you left me at 9:13 PM on June 27, 2004

The Complete Gospels helped me write many a paper in school, when I was a biblical scholar for a time.

Just a word of advice for those out there. A Religious Studies (non-theology) degree is pretty useless, but fun to study.
posted by karmaville at 9:40 PM on June 27, 2004

Check out Elaine Pagels. She's been writing about this stuff for years.
posted by gwint at 8:22 AM on June 28, 2004

Yeah, I'll second the Pagels recommendation.
posted by bshort at 8:38 AM on June 28, 2004

Pagels, Pagels, Pagels
(her "The Origin of Satan" is awesome)

also Robert J Miller, Bart Ehrman, Marvin Meyer
posted by matteo at 12:28 PM on June 28, 2004