It was like a notebook of sayings and had recounted a number of Christ's parables and teachings from the Sermon on the Mount along with other sayings which don't comport with the Word. Generally, it did not "ring true" in my Spirit as I read through it - as the Gospels of John, Matthew, Mark and Luke do.
On to the next one!
The Pseudepigrapha however also includes the Midrashic book Life of Adam and Eve which is dated to the first century A.D. That particular book clearly describes Adam and Eve being in Paradise and includes sections which Satan blaming his banishment on Adam, Eve's recounting how it all happened, repentance, etc.
This is quite fascinating - especially the overlapping between the texts of Nag Hammadi and the Pseudepigrapha!
Oh, nooooo - not that thing. I despised that movie, I have to say - stories about the eeeevil Catholic church suppressing some revelatory theological truth get really old after a while. Fortunately, my wife restrained me from pulling an Elvis and shooting out the picture tube on the TV ;)
Generally, it did not "ring true" in my Spirit as I read through it - as the Gospels of John, Matthew, Mark and Luke do.
That doesn't surprise me. As the Thomas FAQ suggests, the perspective of the text is a sort of lite-beer version of gnosticism - basically, that the Kingdom of Heaven is all around us, if only we can open our eyes to it, and not in some otherworldly place. An interesting perspective, to be sure, but not exactly orthodox.
I just finished the Apocalype of Adam. I recognized it, as I did the gospel of Thomas. So I went to the Pseudepigrapha texts, and sure enough, that is where I first read it!
I'm not familiar with that collection. Sigh - I really need more reading time, but there's very little chance of that in the near future ;)
(114) Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary go forth from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. Jesus said: Behold, I shall lead her, that I may make her male, in order that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who makes herself male shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
X. 38 opened and both of the young men entered in. When therefore those soldiers saw that, they waked up the centurion and the elders (for they also were there keeping 39 watch); and while they were yet telling them the things which they had seen, they saw again three men come out of the sepulchre, and two of them sustaining the other (lit. the 40 one), and a cross following, after them. And of the two they saw that their heads reached unto heaven, but of him that 41 was led by them that it overpassed the heavens. And they 42 heard a voice out of the heavens saying: Hast thou (or Thou hast) preached unto them that sleep? And an answer was heard from the cross, saying: Yea.Just a tiny summary. I remember my Bible professor reading the Gospel of Peter aloud in class and acting out the cross's part. Quite hilarious. :-) Still, these extracanonical Gospels are an entertaining read and a photograph into ancient thought.