Customer Reviews

The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis (Monograph Series (Society of Biblical Literature))

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Much like Pagel's work on Paul, this text explores Gnostic hermeneutics in action. She starts with plausible hermeneutic principles derived from a good understanding of the writings of the heresy hunters and the actual Gnostic texts and teachings, and then applies such principles when reading the New Testament Gospel of John.

This sort of work helps to demonstrate the sort of approach certain Gnostics may have used, and helps those of us who are interested in a Gnostic Path today, to work out our own hermeneutics, to flesh out the path in depth, developing our own insights and tweaking the principles accordingly.

Extreme reading for scholars. Have your dictionary available and be prepared to read sentences and paragraphs more than once. The author is way up there on the intelligence and information scale, but the delivery is difficult for the average person to grasp. I got through it and gleaned out ancient wisdom, but it was a workout. Perhaps I am the one who is "out of shape." :^)

If you have the urge to really understand early Christianity, this volume will be of help, but will not provide definitive answers( it was not intended to do so). Though it is, at times, dry and a little pedantic,
it is a source for information you are unlikely to find elsewhere.