"These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke, and which the twin (Didymos) Judas Thomas wrote down (recorded.)"
These are the opening words of the Gospel of Thomas, first discovered in the 1890's and also included in the documents that comprise the collection known as the Gnostic Gospels.
It begins in the desert. It always begins in the desert.
The year is 1945. An Arab named Muhammed Ali al-Samman and his brothers had gone to collect sabakh, a soft soil used to fertilize crops. Digging at an obscure place called Naj 'Hammadi near Jabal al-Tarif, a huge cliff near the Nile River honeycombed with caves, Muhammed discovered a red earthenware jar of obvious antiquity. At first, he was afraid to open it lest it contain a jinn or spirit. But then he thought, perhaps it contained gold. Greed won out over fear, he raised his mattock and shattered the jar. Inside were thirteen papyrus books, bound in leather.
He took the books home, where loose papyrus leaves piled on the ground next to the oven. His mother would use some of the pages as kindling for the fire. A few weeks later, Muhammad would use the same mattock in a vengeance killing. Fearing that the police would come to his house and find the books, he sold them on the black market. Eventually the books would make their way to the Coptic Museum in Cairo.
You can find a complete listing of the books and translations at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.html At times, the books repeat sayings familiar from the New Testament. Other times, they offer images markedly different from the Orthodox view of the life of Jesus:
"As for the Wisdom who is called 'the barren,' she is the mother of the angels. And the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. But Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, 'Why do you love her more than all of us?' The Savior answered and said to them, 'Why do I not love you like her?'"
- Gospel of Philip
See http://www.mystae.com/restricted/reflections/messiah/magdalene.html
Does this mean that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were lovers and that Mary was the mother of angles? Before we land any credence to such an idea, we need to ask who wrote these works and when were they written?
We will probably never know who the authors were. What is clear from the books and from recorded events, was that early Christianity was divided. One view emerged as dominant and is known as Orthodox. But early Christians worshiped according to different beliefs. Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons was one of the leaders of the Orthodox movement and spoke out against the Gnostics around 180 AD, saying that they were heretics who "boasted that they possess more gospels than there really are." He complained that such writings were in wide circulation in Gaul and Rome, in Greece and Asia Minor. (Source: The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels.)
Originally, the works were dated as having been written around 140 AD, while we thing that the New Testament was written between 60 AD to 110 AD. Other historians, such as Helmut Koester, ordained Lutheran Minister and former president of the Society of Biblical Literature, teacher at Harvard Divinity School, date the Gnostic Gospels as being written between 50 and 100 AD, and may even be older than the New Testament.
The worship of the Gnostics was very different from the Orthodox Church. Gnosis is defined as "Intuitive apprehension of spiritual truths, an esoteric form of knowledge sought by the Gnostics." Gnostics believe that the individual can have direct contact with the Infinite, without priestly intercession. At Gnostic services, lots were sometimes drawn to select who would conduct the service. Sometimes, women were allowed to conduct services in the Gnostic churches.
The Orthodox church was quite different. There was a set order, priests had to be ordained by Bishops. Bishop Tertullian complained of the Gnostics that "every one of them, just as it suits his own temperament, modifies the traditions he has received, just as the one who handed them down modified them, when he shaped them according to his own will."
The Orthodox church, in contrast, believed that spiritual authority descended from the twelve Apostles, to the Bishops, who passed the wisdom to the priests, who led the laity. Diversity of teaching was heresy. To quote Irenaeus again, "For it is necessary that every church should agree with this church, on account of its preeminent authority."
The Orthodox church also disagreed with the Gnostics on the importance of martyrdom. Gnostics did not believe that martyrdom was important. But history demonstrates that martyrdom, the willingness to die sometimes horrible deaths, was a key factor to winning over the Romans.
I encourage everyone to read the Gnostic Gospel for themselves, if only to see the diversity of beliefs that they encompassed. Gnostic beliefs differed as to the life of Jesus, the Crucification, the Resurrection. Some did not accept the Creator as the only deity. Others used the Hebrew term "ruah" which means "wind" or "spirit" to describe the Holy Ghost. The importance of this is that "ruah" has female gender in Hebrew. So one member of the Trinity was taken to be female. See http://www.adishakti.org/_/term_spirit_translates_the_hebrew.htm
In the end, Orthodoxy won out. The Gnostic Gospels were buried, hidden, so that they would not be burned by the Church. How one particular form of Christian worship gained ascendancy will be discussed next.