#coptic gnostic library

[santmat]

The Vegetarian Prayer of Thanksgiving from the Nag Hammadi Library (Coptic Gnostic Scriptures):

gnostic #hermetic #gnosis #spirituality #gnosticgospels #vegan #vegetarian

The Gnostics Were Vegetarians: The vegetarian Prayer of Thanksgiving is part of the Hermetic scriptures of Egypt and is also part of the Nag Hammadi Library, the Gnostic Gospels. At the end of the prayer the final verse reads: “When they had said these things in the prayer, they embraced each other and they went to eat their holy food, which has no blood in it.”*

“Vegetarian food” — footnote from the Marvin Meyer’s translation of this in, “The Nag Hammadi Scriptures”.

A vegetarian meal. This passage is also found in the Epilogue of Asclepius, in “HERMETICA,” translated by Sir Walter Scott: “Having prayed thus, let us betake ourselves to a meal unpolluted by flesh [animalia] of living things.”

The G.R.S. Mead translation of the same passage: “With this desire we now betake us to our pure and fleshless meal.”

[aristoteliancomplacency]

Appendix: A Note on Gnostic Cheese.

The question of the depths of François Lenormant’s knowledge of the papyri he described in his catalogue has already been raised, and a further instructive instance of a possible error in his interpretation of the Theban Library texts can be found in his description of the beginning of PGM IV, specifically an Old Coptic invocation to Osiris contained in ll. 11-25:

En tête sont trois pages de copte, qui débutent par l’histoire d’un fromage mystique, pour la composition duquel s’associent Osiris, Sabaoth, Iao, Jésus et tous les autres éons. Ce fromage n’est autre que la gnose.

trans: ‘At the beginning are three pages of Coptic, which begin with the story of a mystical cheese, for whose creation Osiris, Sabaoth, Iao, Jesus, and all the other aeons come together. This cheese is no other than gnosis.’

Lenormant’s “mystic cheese” (“fromage mystique”), more often cited as “gnostic cheese” (“fromage gnostique”), has become proverbial as an example of the dismissive attitude of scholars of the mid-nineteenth century towards magical material, cited by Preisendanz and Brashear, among others. Examples of such an attitude towards the magical papyri are not difficult to find, even among the later authors who made a career out of their study: Dieterich called PGMIV an “abschreckenden Schutthaufen” (trans: ‘terrifying rubbish heap’), while Eitrem referred to them as “relics of degenerate religions and of the human mind gone astray.” However, “fromage” in French refers only to the food made from cultured milk curd, and lacks the derogatory sense of “nonsense” which is present in the German “Käse,” and, to a lesser extent, in the English “cheese.” In fact, it seems that Lenormant believed he really had discovered a story in which Osiris, Jesus, and the other aeons create a Gnostic cheese.

(Dosoo, K. 2016. ‘A History of the Theban Magical Library’ in The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists Vol. 53. Pp. 251-274).

Gnostic cheese.

[insidemyfavoritemanuscript]

Episode 20: Paul Dilley on Papyrus, Manichaeism, and Multispectral Imaging

A photo of a page from one of the Medinet Madi Coptic Manichaean Codices taken under ultraviolet light.

In Episode 20 of Inside My Favorite Manuscript, Dot talks with Paul Dilley about one of the Medinet Madi Coptic Manichaean Codices. These seven papyrus manuscripts dating to the 4th and 5th centuries were discovered in Egypt in 1929, and they tell the story of a religion that was intended to draw from Christianity, Buddhism, Gnosticism, and other religions to create something new, but it was later crushed by Christian Roman emperors who considered it heresy. Our conversation ranges from the conservation of papyrus and the details of the beliefs of Manichaeism, to papyrus conservation and multispectral imaging.

Listen here, or wherever you find your podcasts

Below the cut are more images and links relevant to the conversation. Please note that there is an animated gif that switches between light and dark at one second intervals. Please be careful if you are sensitive to flashing lights.

These manuscripts have been minimally digitized, so we don't have many images to show.

The papyrus is quite damaged, and the text is so faded it can be difficult to read.

Multispectral imaging can help clarify the ink.

And here is a little animated gif that illustrates the difference between the two photos.

And finally, the photo of Paul ready to put the manuscript through the machine!

Dr Brent Seales, "Reading the Invisible Library: Virtual Unwrapping and the Scroll from En-Gedi" (Video on YouTube, February 2023)

[sight-decoding]

[Eleleth:] There, I have taught you about the pattern of the rulers; and the matter in which it was expressed; and their parent; and their universe.

[Norea:] But I said, "Sir, am I also from their matter?"

[Eleleth:] You, together with your offspring, are from the primeval father; from above, out of the imperishable light, their souls are come. Thus the authorities cannot approach them, because of the spirit of truth present within them; and all who have become acquainted with this way exist deathless in the midst of dying mankind. Still, that sown element will not become known now. Instead, after three generations it will come to be known, and it has freed them from the bondage of the authorities' error.

[Norea:] Then I said, "Sir, how much longer?"

He said to me, "Until the moment when the true man, within a modeled form, reveals the existence of the spirit of truth, which the father has sent.

Then he will teach them about everything, and he will anoint them with the unction of life eternal, given him from the undominated generation.

Then they will be freed of blind thought, and they will trample underfoot death, which is of the authorities, and they will ascend into the limitless light where this sown element belongs.

Then the authorities will relinquish their ages, and their angels will weep over their destruction, and their demons will lament their death.

Then all the children of the light will be truly acquainted with the truth and their root, and the father of the entirety and the Holy Spirit.

~ Hypostasis of the Archons (The Reality of the Rulers), A Nag Hammadi Codex

[As translated & prepared by members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate School.]

'The Hypostasis of the Archons or The Reality of the Rulers is an exegesis on the Book of Genesis 1–6 and expresses Gnostic mythology of the divine creators of the cosmos and humanity.' Wikipedia

Artwork: 'Prana Data' by Kamora Jones

(GIF Animation by Jova Gnostech)

[jacuzzi-rose]

He is considered in Midrashic texts to be a member of the heavenly host with often grim and destructive duties. One of Samael's greatest roles in Jewish lore is that of the main angel of death and the head of satans. Although he condemns the sins of man, he remains one of God's servants. He appears frequently in the story of the Garden of Eden and engineered the fall of Adam and Eve with a snake in writings during the Second Temple period.[5] However, the serpent is not a form of Samael, but a beast he rode like a camel.[8] In a single account he is also believed to be the father of Cain,[6][9] as well as the partner of Lilith. In early Talmudic and Midrashic literature he is not identified with Satan yet. Only in later Midrashim he is entitled "head of satans".[10]

As guardian angel and prince of Rome, he is the archenemy of Israel. By the beginning of Jewish culture in Europe, Samael had been established as a representative of Christianity, due to his identification with Rome.[11][7]: 263 

In some Gnostic cosmologies, Samael's role as source of evil became identified with the Demiurge, the creator of the material world. Although probably both accounts originate from the same source, the Gnostic development differs from the Jewish development of Samael, in which Samael is merely an angel and messanger of God.

The Hypostasis of the Archons, also called The Reality of the Rulers or The Nature of the Rulers,[1] is a Gnostic writing.[2] The only known surviving manuscript is in Coptic[3] as the fourth tractate in Codex II of the Nag Hammadi library. It has some similarities with On the Origin of the World, which immediately follows it in the codex.[1][4] The Coptic version is a translation of a Greek original, possibly written in Egypt in the third century AD.[4] The text begins as an exegesis on Genesis 1–6 and concludes as a discourse explaining the nature of the world's evil authorities.[4] It applies Christian Gnostic beliefs to the Jewish origin story,[4] and translator Bentley Layton believes the intent is anti-Jewish.[1][5]

COLI JOLIEUX

[madamlaydebug]

A number of leather codices were found at Nag Hammadi in Southern Egypt in 1945.

They are Coptic translations of Greek Gnostic documents. They likely belonged to an Egyptian monastery were disposed of after Gnostic literature was categorically rejected by decree of St. Athanasius of Alexandria.

The leather bound volumes contain the following works. They are mostly Valentinian Gnostic texts that were popularized in Egypt after the second century A.D.

Codex I (The Jung Codex)

The Prayer of the Apostle Paul

The Apocryphon of James

The Gospel of Truth

The Treatise on the Resurrection

The Tripartite Tractate

Codex II

The Apocryphon of John

The Gospel of Thomas a sayings gospel

The Gospel of Philip a sayings gospel[citation needed]

The Hypostasis of the Archons

On the Origin of the World

The Exegesis on the Soul

The Book of Thomas the Contender

Codex III

The Apocryphon of John

The Gospel of the Egyptians

Eugnostos the Blessed

The Sophia of Jesus Christ

The Dialogue of the Saviour

Codex IV

The Apocryphon of John

The Gospel of the Egyptians

Codex V

Eugnostos the Blessed

The Apocalypse of Paul

The First Apocalypse of James

The Second Apocalypse of James

The Apocalypse of Adam

Codex VI

The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

Authoritative Teaching

The Concept of Our Great Power

Republic by Plato [The original is not gnostic, but the Nag Hammadi library version is heavily modified with current gnostic concepts.]

The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth – a Hermetic treatise

The Prayer of Thanksgiving (with a hand-written note) – a Hermetic prayer

Asclepius 21-29 – another Hermetic treatise

Codex VII

The Paraphrase of Shem

The Second Treatise of the Great Seth

Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter

The Teachings of Silvanus

The Three Steles of Seth

Codex VIII

Zostrianos

The Letter of Peter to Philip

Codex IX

Melchizedek

The Thought of Norea

The Testimony of truth

Codex X

Marsanes

Codex XI

The Interpretation of Knowledge

A Valentinian Exposition, On the Anointing, On Baptism (A and B) and On the Eucharist (A and B)

Allogenes

Hypsiphrone

Codex XII

The Sentences of Sextus

The Gospel of Truth

Fragments

Codex XIII:

Trimorphic Protennoia

On the Origin of the World

[mirandamckenni1]

Liked on YouTube: Gnosticism - The Apocryphon / Secret Writing of John - Introduction to Gnostic Texts Scriptures || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22kxcbN8B_A || Gnosticism has produced some of the richest and most difficult spiritual texts of the ancient world. With the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library one is confronted with numerous, often obscure and difficult texts - where to begin? This episode of Esoterica argues that the best first text is the Apocryphon / Secret Writing of John, a text found two recensions (long and short) in four manuscripts from antiquity. Here we introduce, summarize and discuss this amazing gnostic text. Recommended Readings: Meyer - The Nag Hammadi Scriptures - 978-0061626005 Robinson - The Nag Hammadi Library - 978-0060669355 Davies - The Secret Book of John - 978-1594730825 King - The Secret Revelation of John - 978-0674030558 van den Broek - Gnostic Religion in Antiquity - 978-1107514799 Lambdin - Introduction to Sahidic Coptic - 978-0865540484 Williams - Rethinking "Gnosticism": An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category - 978-0691005423 #gnosticism #gnostic #apocryphon

[bottheologian]

The Enigmatic Gospel of Thomas: Unlocking the Secrets of Jesus' Sayings

The Gospel of Thomas is a fascinating text that has captured the attention of scholars and laypeople alike for decades. It is a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus, with no narrative structure or story arc. This makes it quite different from the canonical Gospels, such as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which tell a story of Jesus' life, teachings, and deeds.

The Gospel of Thomas was discovered in 1945, in a clay jar buried in the Egyptian desert near the town of Nag Hammadi. It is believed to have been written in the 2nd century, although some scholars argue that it may have been composed as early as the 1st century. The text is written in Coptic, a language spoken in ancient Egypt, and is one of the most important finds of the Nag Hammadi library.

The Gospel of Thomas contains 114 sayings attributed to Jesus, and many of them are similar to sayings found in the canonical Gospels. However, there are also many differences, and some of the sayings are quite challenging and thought-provoking. For example, in Saying 22, Jesus says, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female." This saying has been interpreted in many different ways, but it seems to suggest that the divisions we create between things are not real, and that everything is ultimately connected.

Another interesting aspect of the Gospel of Thomas is the way it portrays Jesus. In this text, Jesus is not the miracle-working Son of God, but rather a wise teacher who is focused on helping people understand themselves and the world around them. Jesus speaks in riddles and paradoxes, forcing his listeners to think deeply and critically about what he is saying.

The Gospel of Thomas has been the subject of much debate among scholars, with some arguing that it represents an early form of Christianity that was later suppressed by the church, and others arguing that it is simply a collection of sayings that were never intended to be a complete gospel. Some have even suggested that it represents a different tradition of Christianity altogether, one that was influenced by Gnostic and other mystical beliefs.

Whatever its origins and meaning, the Gospel of Thomas is a fascinating text that provides a unique perspective on the teachings of Jesus. Its cryptic sayings and enigmatic imagery continue to inspire and challenge readers today, and it remains an important part of the diverse landscape of Christian literature.

Gospel of Thomas #Jesus #Christianity #Nag Hammadi library #Coptic language #ancient Egypt #mystical beliefs #Gnostic #wisdom #cryptic sayings

[triste-le-roy]

Cover to The Coptic Gnostic Library: A Complete Nag Hammadi Codices—Brill edition (artist/designer unknown, 2002).

(via Amazon)

[occvltswim]

The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics: An Introduction to the Gnostic Coptic Manuscripts Discovered at Chenoboskion — “Tells the story of the discovery and rescue of an astounding collection of sacred Gnostic texts, believed by many scholars to surpass the Dead Sea Scrolls in importance, discovered in the late 1940s in an Egyptian village after being concealed for sixteen centuries. Includes the famous Gospel According to Thomas.”

[santmat]

Hedonists and Gnostic Cave-dwellers Somewhere in Time By James Bean

The classic Gnostic soul struggled against the cruel hand of fate, astral archons (rulers), principalities, powers, emperors, and bishops. The Gnostic teachings from the Coptic/Greek period have quite an ascetic tone. "The material universe is evil", "be not of this world." Holy texts were studied by Pachomian monks living in caves not far from Nag Hammadi, Egypt. The discovery site of the Gnostic Gospels was near those caves. On the walls of some of those caves are examples of graffiti: crosses and fish symbols. After the Fourth Century, Gnosis mostly disappears from the scene in the Roman Empire due to extreme persecution from those who paid lip-service to phrases like "love your enemies", and' "turn the other cheek", but they had no concept of democracy and freedom of religion -- freedom for all religions. The Library of Alexandria was burned, the Nag Hammadi Library, buried.

In the East however, Gnosis continued to develop and evolve, taking on more of an ecstatic, poetic ethos during the medieval period. The type of Eastern Gnosis I follow isn't so ascetic as Nag Hammadi mysticism. After all, the lower material universe is no longer a "prison" for those who can freely come and go as they please. This changes everything. I know of some mystics that are very otherworldly and yet can also enjoy looking at the stars, feasting on great Indian food, love the ocean or a beautiful sunset. Very out-of-this-world during meditations, and at the same time, we come to see the Light of God everywhere, within everyone, in this outer plane of existence as well, all as a result of those advanced meditation experiences. "His Presence fills the Three Worlds". (Adi Granth) Such extremists we humans are, either hedonists or cave-dwellers. We were meant to go from state to state, from the world of action to the world of contemplation, from the waking state to the dream state to the unconscious state of deep sleep, and there is also the Fourth State beyond. This too can be divided into several levels or states: astral, causal or akashic, mental, etheric, and spiritual, the True State (Timeless, Sat, Haq, "Spirit and Truth". Full circle we come. The spiritual state can also be perceived as four different stages, ranging from the "drop" (the soul) remaining separate, to "nearness", and all the way to that of Oneness or merging into the Divine Ocean (Kaivalaya, Anadi, Anami, Ra-Dha-Swam-I, the "Nameless One in the Eighth").

Know also that the Reality has described Himself as being the Outer and the Inner, Manifest and Unmanifest. He brought the Cosmos into being as constituting an Unseen Realm and a Sensory Realm, so that we might perceive the Inner though our unseen and the Outer through our sensory aspect. (Ibn `Arabi, "Ibn Al `Arabi - The Bezels of Wisdom", Paulist Press) Not an easy balancing act, this concept of having one's feet upon the earth and yet one's third eye-soul ascending through various realms going toward the Great Light during practice each day, yet everyone will make it back there eventually. It's simply a matter of "time" and how receptive we are to this experience during the present life. Some are in a hurry to return while others travel much much much more slowly. It was for the sake of the God-conscious beings that our True Lord created this earth, and began this play of birth and death. (Guru Nanak) To Him We Shall Return I died as mineral and became a plant; I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was a man. Then why fear disappearance through death? When was I less by dying? Next time I shall die To soar -- with angels blessed, But even from angelhood I must pass on; All except God doth perish. When I have sacrificed my angel soul, I shall become what no mind ever conceived. What you cannot imagine, I shall be that. Oh! let me not exist, for non-existence Proclaims in organ-tones, 'To Him we shall return.' -- Rumi "We have come from the Light and will return there again." We're already in heaven if we did but know it. A great Master by the name of Huzur Baba Sawan Singh was once asked, "How long does it take you to go to Sach Khand (the spiritual realm, Sat Lok)"? He closed his eyes for fifteen seconds, and then opened them again, saying, "just that long". This is the real Secret. Thy Light is within the beings, And the beings are all within Thy Light. O supremely Incomprehensible Lord, Thou Art perfectly filling all things. It is the Light that lives in every heart, And Thy Light that illuminates every soul. It is only through the guru's teachings that Light comes to be shown. (Guru Nanak, Peace Lagoon translation of the Adi Granth)

[dogstardigitalindex]

Title: Gospel of Thomas: Why Is It Not In the Bible? Channel: ReligionForBreakfast (Dr. Andrew Henry) Length: 7:21

The entire text is preserved in a 4th century Coptic manuscript found in the Nag Hamadi Library, but likely originates in the 2nd century and was in Greek. It has no narrative, just 114 short "sayings of Jesus." People assume it is Gnostic but it lacks the theological features key to Gnosticism. Some of the quotes have close parallels with canonical scripture and may be an independent source, not one source copying the other, though other portions do look to be directly influenced by the canonical Gospels.

The Gospel of Thomas is not included in the canon because the there quickly became a movement that supported the exclusivity of the four Gospels we know now, and the Gospels of Thomas were called heretical.

[neoyorzapoteca]

The Nag Hammadi Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson, translated and introduced by members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont, California

have not stopped thinking about this since Ariana Reines read it at a Zoom poetry reading some months ago–

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

top 10 spookiest phylums

The Library of Babel

The Library on Tiberias

Coptic manuscripts

7th Century Gnostic texts

Vatican City

The Dead

The House ofprototype

The Book of the New Sun

Shang Han

H.P. Lovecraft

Elite guards at a nuclear testing facility

The Vatican's Solfeggio device

The Church of the SubGenius

The Hermetia Pamplemimmeria

[panatmansam]

The Other Gospels

by Saṃsāran

“For there exists a great and boundless aeon, whose extent no generation of angels could see, in which is the great invisible Spirit, which no eye of an angel has ever seen, no thought of the heart has ever comprehended, and it was never called by any name.” 

— The Gnostic Gospel of Judas (ca 120 CE)

The Gospels which we now call Gnostic were circulated in the Christian world in the years after Jesus was crucified and Paul began his ministry to the Greco-Roman world. Most were written in Greek and then translated into other languages such as Latin and Coptic. There were over thirty such Gospels including the four we know today as part of the New Testament.

The writers of the Gnostic texts did not call themselves Gnostics. They were simply Christians who had also been exposed to Greek and Roman philosophy and literature. In 180 CE in a bid to organize the Church which had grown a great deal since Paul’s day a Bishop named Irenaeus went through these gospels and discarded all but four. He particularly disliked the Gnostic gospels because they stressed the direct knowledge of God rather than receiving the message through priests and bishops something he believed undermined the authority of the Bishops.

These other Gospels including the gospel of Mary, the gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas were declared heretical and ordered destroyed. Some few were buried by monks to avoid the flames and have been discovered in the caves of the Egyptian desert. What we know for certain is that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write the gospels attributed to them. They, too, were anonymous hand-copied documents circulated through the early church.

The entire collection is in our sangha library:   The Nag Hammadi Texts

The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao The name that can be named is not the eternal name The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth The named is the mother of myriad things

— The Tao Te Ching

[eli-kittim]

The Quran: Revelation or Forgery?

By Goodreads Author Eli Kittim

——-

Did Muhammad Exist?

Before we embark on a brief criticism of the Quran, it’s important to note that there is “very little biographical information” (Wiki) concerning the historicity of its founder, Muhammad:

Attempts to distinguish between the

historical elements and the unhistorical

elements of many of the reports of

Muhammad have not been very successful

(Wiki).

(see: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Muhammad#Views_of_secular_historians).

Of course, this opens up the possibility of whether or not the unknown author of the Quran invented the Muhammad tradition to bolster his credibility. In order to determine the answer to this question, it is crucial to consider the evidence of *intertextuality* in the Quran, that is to say, the literary dependence of the Quran on earlier texts and sources.

——-

How historically reliable is the Quran?

Firstly, with regard to source criticism——that is, the sources that the Quran’s message is derived from——there are some very serious issues involved. For example, there are well-known parallelisms between the Quran and the extra-biblical, non-inspired book of Talmud (e.g. Surah 5:32; cf. Sanhedrin 37a) as well as borrowing from Christian apocryphal works that were written hundreds of years after the purported events and which claim to be legitimate Christian gospels but are not. Case in point, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas:

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is thought to

be Gnostic in origin. . . . Early Christians

regarded the Infancy Gospel of Thomas as

inauthentic and heretical. Hippolytus

identified it as a fake and a heresy in his

Refutation of All Heresies, and his

contemporary Origen referred to it in a

similar way in a homily written in the early

third century. Eusebius rejected it as a

heretical ‘fiction’ in the third book of his

fourth-century Church History, and Pope

Gelasius I included it in his list of heretical

books in the fifth century. While non-

canonical in Christianity, the Infancy Gospel

of Thomas contains many miracles and

stories of Jesus referenced in the Qur'an,

such as Jesus giving life to clay birds (Wiki).

So, the Quran clearly employs Jewish and Christian apocryphal works that were never accepted as canonical or as “inspired” either by Jews or Christians. Thus, at least some of the sources of the Quran are highly dubious.

Secondly, in 632 CE, following Muhammad’s death, the Battle of Yamama ensued where a great number of those who had supposedly retained the Quran in their memory (hafiz) actually died. How then can Muslims claim the preservation of the Quran through memory and oral transmission?

Thirdly, the New Testament is the best attested book from the ancient world as well as the most scrutinized book in history, and one which has a critical edition. By contrast, the Quran has not been critically scrutinized rigorously in the same manner, nor does it have a critical edition, nor is the manuscript evidence made available to scholars for serious study. There’s a secrecy surrounding it that seems to prevent scholarly investigations. For example, because it lacks a critical edition, there are no footnotes in the Quran to notify the reader about manuscript evidence or textual discrepancies or omissions, such that “(some verses eaten by a goat; Ibn Majah, Book of Nikah, p.39) or that (Umar records the missing verses; Bukhari 8.82.816 & 817).

Fourthly, Orientalists have often questioned the historical authenticity of the Quran by charging Uthman ibn Affan (the 3rd Caliph of Islam) of consigning variant copies of the Quran to the flames during his reign.

Fifthly, the controlled transmission of the Quran makes it impossible to know what was the original. Hence its textual integrity is seriously compromised. By contrast, in the case of the New Testament, for example, since no one person controlled all the manuscripts, it would be impossible to uniformly corrupt all the documents. In the case of the Quran, however, the text was in fact controlled by one person, the khalifa, as attested by Uthman's authority to recall and uniformly revise all the manuscripts. Therefore, it would have been extremely easy for the Quran to have been uniformly corrupted in a textually undetectable manner. For example, the “Sanaa manuscript,” which contains earlier developments of the Quran, demonstrates textual variances that diverge from the Uthman copy.

In conclusion, the Quran doesn’t allow us to come any closer to the original text than the Uthmanic Revised Standard Version 20 years removed from Muhammad. Any errors which found their way into the URSV would be permanent and uncorrectable. And, unfortunately, historical accounts from early Islam tell us that such errors existed!

——-

The Quran is Based on Dubious Sources

Besides the numerous and traceable Judeo-Christian apocryphal works that the author used within the Quran itself, he also got a lot of his ideas from a group that was an offshoot of the Ebionites called the “Sabians,” variously known as Mandaeans or Elcesaites. The Sabians followed Hermeticism and adored John the Baptizer:

Occasionally,

Mandaeans are called

‘Christians of Saint

John’ . . . the ‘Sabians’

are described several

times in the Quran as

People of the Book,

alongside Jews and

Christians (Wiki).

According to Origen and Eusebius, the Sabians used an extra-biblical book that they claimed was given by an Angel (maybe another idea adopted by Muhammad?) to deny portions of Scripture as well as the writings of Paul! So, this idea of challenging Christianity and claiming to have received a new revelation from an angel is quite common in ancient times. It is not unique to Islam. Others had made similar claims. Thus, without completely rejecting the possibility of *revelation* in at least some portions of the Quran, the majority of its theological narratives are largely based on dubious and questionable sources, derived from spurious texts that were under the radar of heresiologists across the ancient world!

——-

Two Apocryphal Works Employed by the Quran to Deny the Crucifixion of Jesus

//Second Treatise of the Great Seth is an apocryphal Gnostic writing discovered in the Codex VII of the Nag Hammadi codices and dates to around the third century. The author is unknown, and the Seth referenced in the title appears nowhere in the text. Instead Seth is thought to reference the third son of Adam and Eve to whom gnosis was first revealed, according to some gnostics. The author appears to belong to a group of gnostics who maintain that Jesus Christ was not crucified on the cross. Instead the text says that Simon of Cyrene was mistaken for Jesus and crucified in his place. Jesus is described as standing by and "laughing at their ignorance”// (Wiki).

//The Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter is a text found amongst the Nag Hammadi library, and part of the New Testament apocrypha. Like the vast majority of texts in the Nag Hammadi collection, it is heavily gnostic. It was probably written around 100-200 AD. Since the only known copy is written in Coptic, it is also known as the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter.

The text takes gnostic interpretations of the crucifixion to the extreme, picturing Jesus as laughing and warning against people who cleave to the name of a dead man, thinking they shall become pure. Like some of the rarer Gnostic writings, this one also doubts the established Crucifixion story which places Jesus on the cross. Instead, according to this text, there was a substitute:

He whom you saw on the

tree, glad and laughing,

this is the living Jesus.

But this one into whose

hands and feet they

drive the nails is his

fleshly part, which is the

substitute being put to

shame, the one who

came into being in his

likeness. But look at him

and me// (Wiki).

This is attested in the Quran:

That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ

Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of

Allah’—but they killed him not, nor crucified

him, but so it was made to appear to them,

and those who differ therein are full of

doubts, with no [certain] knowledge, but

only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they

killed him not—nay, Allah raised him up unto

Himself; and Allah is Exalted in Power,

Wise (Sura 4:157-158, Yusuf Ali).

——-

A Possible Forgery: Is Muhammad Copying Augustine?

Muhammad (570 – 632 CE) seems to have modelled his conversion on Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 CE), who was without a doubt the greatest theologian and philosopher of his day! Case in point, in 386 CE, Augustine converted to Christianity from the pagan Machanean religion. Similarly, in 610 CE, Muhammad converted to Islam from the “Jahiliyya" religion, which worshipped Allah as the creator god as well as the Kaaba in Mecca. About 224 years earlier St. Augustine had heard a voice that told him to “take up and read,” a line which became very famous and reverberated through the centuries:

As Augustine later told it, his conversion

was prompted by hearing a child's voice

say ‘take up and read’ (Latin: tolle, lege).

Resorting to the Sortes Sanctorum, he

opened a book of St. Paul's writings (codex

apostoli, 8.12.29) at random and read

Romans 13: 13–14: Not in rioting and

drunkenness, not in chambering and

wantonness, not in strife and envying, but

put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no

provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts

thereof (Wiki).

By comparison, Muhammad appears to have used a similar line to claim that he, too, heard an Angel’s voice repeatedly say to him: “Read.” Given that Muhammad was presumably familiar with Judaism and Christianity (and especially with the foremost leading authority of his day, the African Augustine of Hippo), it seems very likely that he modelled his conversion on the latter. And, if true, that would certainly constitute a forgery!

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Are Allah’s Oaths Self-contradictory in the Quran?

The aforementioned textual criticisms are further compounded when we realize that the Quran contains further theological discrepancies. For example, there are numerous verses in the Quran where Allah is swearing by created things that are less-than-God, thus committing “shirk” (i.e. the sin of ascribing divine status to any other beings beside Allah). Here’s a case in point. In sura 81:15, Allah says: “But nay! I swear by the stars.” Another example is sura 91 verse 1: “I swear by the sun and its brilliance.” When God supposedly swears by something which is less than himself the truth value of his assertion is obviously weakened. By definition, an oath is meant to buttress an argument, not to decrease the weight thereof. Therefore, the truth value of an oath is equivalent to, and connected with, the truth value of the one who declares it. As such, Allah’s oaths (swearing by created things) directly contradict his so-called divine status. By contrast, the God of the Bible swears by Himself, since there is nothing greater to swear under (cf. Gen. 22.16; Isa. 45.23; Heb. 6.13). By definition, an oath is a solemn attestation of the truth of one's words. In this case, how can Allah’s oaths be trustworthy if they appeal to something that is less than himself? Answer: they cannot! It appears, then, that the aforementioned oaths in the Quran are reflecting a human rather than a divine author.

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Is Muhammad the Prophesied False Prophet of Revelation?

During the Early Middle

Ages, Christendom

largely viewed Islam as a

Christological heresy

and Muhammad as a

false prophet (Wiki).

In short, following the Arab conquest of the Middle East and due to the *military expansion* of Islam into Europe and Central Asia since the 700’s (toppling one country after another), Muhammad was increasingly seen as a possible candidate for the office of the *false-prophet-of-Revelation* (cf. Rev. 16.13; 19.20; 20.10): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Christian_views_on_Muhammad

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Conclusion

Muslims claim that the Quran is neither corrupted nor influenced by Judeo-Christian sources, and yet upon further scrutiny the book clearly incorporates passages from both the Jewish Talmud and from various Christian apocryphal works. Plagiarism abounds, and so does forgery. Therefore, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to maintain that it’s a “revelation” when at least some of the sources of the Quran are highly dubious!

Moreover, Islam has nothing new to offer by way of revelation. Its doctrine could simply be classified as a modified theological redundancy of the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Biblical heritage that preceded it. The main difference between Islam and Christianity is this. Unlike the Quran’s singular witness and source——given that it was only revealed to *one* man (Muhammad)——the revelations of the New Testament were imparted to many different people, thereby authenticating its message by multiple attestations and witnesses!

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