The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions by (Anchor Bible Reference Library) [Paperback]

Bentley Layton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0385478437 | ISBN-13: 978-0385478434 | Publication Date: August 1, 1995

This definitive introduction to the gnostic scriptures provides a crucial look at the theology, religious atmosphere, and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism.

Maps and tables.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Bentley Layton’s The Gnostic Scriptures is the one indispensable book for the understanding of Gnosis and Gnosticism. No other translations are within light-years of Layton’s in eloquence, pathos, and accuracy, while no other commentaries match his as an introduction to this perpetually relevant religious stance. Layton is particularly brilliant in his appreciation of Valentinus, the central Gnostic visionary, whose Gospel of Truth is marvelously served in this translation.”
—Harold Bloom, author of The Book of J and The Western Canon

From the Publisher

This definitive introduction to the gnostic scriptures provides a crucial look at the theology, religious atmosphere, and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism.

Maps and tables.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Anchor Bible (August 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385478437
• ISBN-13: 978-0385478434
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #391,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best of its class, anymore, February 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions by (Anchor Bible Reference Library) (Paperback)

I own this book and have read it. It was wonderful for its time, but if I were buying now I'd buy the recent Nag Hammadi Library in English. Mr. Layton's collection isn't as comprehensive and I found his format a little annoying, as well as the New Age cover! The book omits some material from the Nag Hammadi find that I found myself really missing after a while. That said, I've used this book for years and have benefited enormously from it.

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Investigation of the Highest Quality, June 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions by (Anchor Bible Reference Library) (Paperback)

The book provides an in depth look at a specific class of ancient Christian literature, the so-called "Gnostic" materials (primarily found in the Nag Hammadi corpus). The book also covers some of the more interesting accounts by the so-called Church Fathers with regards to the various "gnostic" sects. Several important "Gnostics" texts are presented in new translations, all of which are superb owing to Layton's first-rate command of Coptic.

The above review by [e-mail] does not do justice to the content of the work. The sexual acts referred to above are not the assertion of the author (B. Layton), but rather the assertions of a Christian heresiologist covered in the work: Epiphanius. The work itself takes into account the myriad reports given to us via the Fathers and the archaeological record in order to interpret these reports and to reconstruct a plausible socio-historical setting for the various "Gnostic" sects, if indeed there ever were such sects (a topic the book confronts). It is an academic work of the highest quality.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Anthology of Gnostic Texts, March 6, 2006

By 

Greg (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introductions by (Anchor Bible Reference Library) (Paperback)

While some have criticised this collection of Gnostic Scriptures, in my own experience Layton's translations of the texts and the accompanying notes are very useful. After all, how is the modern reader, removed by 1700 years from texts which were originally kept from all but the 'initiated', supposed to understand the myths and works of the Gnostics, so far removed from our conventional Philosophy and Religious ideas?

So who were the Gnostics? What on Earth is Gnosis?

The Gnostics were a fairly amorphous movement of syncretic spiritual seekers who sought direct knowledge or 'Gnosis' of God without an intermediate power controlling their access to God. Gnostics generally rejected churches, temples, and other religious institutions or when they attended them, felt as if they were the 'elite.' This caused considerable annoyance to the religious authorities, especially the Christian ones, as some Gnostics adapted Christian theology and ideas and re-shaped them to their own religious purposes. However, the Gnostics also borrowed liberally from other areas too, from Neo-Platonic Philosophy to Babylonian astrological lore. Indeed at times it is extremely hard to understand what the Gnostics believed in, especially since non-rational modes of mystical experience (such as dazzling visions of heaven and its inhabitants) are so bizarre, unmatched in our own time except perhaps by William Blake.

Layton's collection contains most of the important Gnostic texts and movements, including the Secret Book of John, The Gospel of Thomas, the Hypostasis of the Archons, and the Gospel of Truth by Valentinus.

The Gnostic texts are often rambling and incoherent and weave fervent visions of the spiritual universe in with magical incantations, colourful rites including baptism, singing and shouting, hymns to various heavenly beings, curses against the creator of this world (Iadobloth), as well as various obscure rites and mysteries, such as the 'Bridal Chamber.' The three most beautiful and coherent texts are the Secret Book of John, the Gospel of Truth by Valentinus, and the Gospel of Thomas.

The Secret Book of John purports to record a dialogue between the risen Jesus and the Apostle John, after his faith in Jesus is undermined by a rather unpleasant Pharisee. Jesus, after appearing in an amazing vision, then proceeds to recount to John the stock Gnostic myths of an invisible, ineffable and totally unknowable 'Father' who then for some reason creates a whole series of spirit beings in the spiritual universe, called the Pleorama. At first, everything seems to go fine, until one of these beings (Sophia) decides to try and imitate the Father and instead for reasons not entirely clear, brings forth a monster called Iadobloth. Ashamed of her failure, Sophia hides Iadobloth in a cloud of fire, and leaves.

Iadobloth however, not knowing his origin, and having mighty powers (somewhat like Blake's Urizen) proceeds to create a material universe as well as fellow beings called 'Rulers' or 'Archons', who then try to trap 'sparks' of light which live in the Pleorama into matter. Then Adam is created, first as a spirit being, and then by the evil of the Rulers he is trapped in a material body, and a consort (Eve) is made for him. The Father, finally becoming aware of this disaster, then sends another Aeon, Jesus, to redeem the trapped sparks of light in matter through saving Gnosis.

The Gospel of Truth is a work of brilliant rhetorical power by a famous Gnostic poet, teacher and theologian called Valentinus. A very subtle and beautiful attempt to wed Gnostic myth with Orthodox Christianity, Valentinus argues all our pain and suffering come from ignorance of our true Father, who while ineffable, sends forth wisdom and also the Son to redeem fallen humanity. Valentinus attempts to avoid the extremes of myths like John and in the Gospel of Truth there is no explicit cursing of the creator God, yet at the same time Valentinus does say with some subtlety that this world is a bad copy of the original heavenly pleorama, and our true happiness is to be found there. The ideas of Valentinus, presented very systematically and far more logically than by any other Gnostic anywhere else, deeply influence other Gnostic works like the Gospel of Phillip and the Acts of Thomas and John.

The third work, the Gospel of Thomas, is in my view surpassingly beautiful and the finest of all the works in this collection. Much like the simple yet profound Buddhist Heart Sutra, this mystical poetic work purveys itself as a collection of 'secret' sayings Jesus communicated with his disciples, and written down by Thomas, the 'doubter' in John. The work claims to provide the keys to immortality, provided right 'Gnosis' is present: 1 And he said, "Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death." (Saying 1)

While this 'Gospel' probably was written later than the canonical ones, it probably does include some authentic sayings of Jesus not included in the canonical gospels. Even if many were not spoken by Jesus, they still have great beauty and appeal.

Saying three for example points out a truth well known to Socrates: Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and it is outside you.

When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty." (Saying 3)

Some are somewhat less appealing: "114 Simon Peter said to them, "Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life." Jesus said, "Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven." (Saying 114)

Another work of immense poetic power is the 'Thunder, Perfect Mind', probably a hymn to the Egyptian Goddess Isis imported into Gnostic circles (which included many women) and addressed to Sophia or Noria, Gnostic Goddesses.

Yet there is also much in this collection which is dark and almost sinister. A lot of the works point out how horrible this world is and how bad a thing it is to be trapped in a body of material; countless references to spirit beings and daemons and emanations from the unknowable Father; various descriptions of a Godhead which is sometimes ineffable and unsayable, other times Mother/Father, Mother/Father/Son, and at other times related to a heavenly Seth. Sometimes it is very hard to understand the mythical worldview of the Gnostics, but then, maybe they didn't wish to be understood by 'outsiders.'

This collection of texts is invaluable for any student of Gnosticism, however one should also purchase the excellent 'Nag Hammadi Library in English' as a companion volume to this. It is also useful to read one of the scholarly introductions to Gnosticism (i.e. Elaine Pagels) because otherwise the ideas and myths which were stamped out 14 centuries ago make no sense to one raised in the Orthodox Christian tradition.

Who knows how our religious beliefs would be, had Gnosis won out?