When we hear the word gospel, we usually think of a holy books or sacred text. Would you be surprised to know that the Greek word for gospel, euaggelion, originally described a style of writing we refer to as “self-help?”
For early Christians, gospels weren’t histories or eye-witness accounts, they were writings aimed at personal transformation. Like current self-help books, the writers offered their own viewpoints and opinions. Gospels were also persuasive writing used to convince someone to follow a certain path. Jesus’ earliest followers were unable to read and write, so they passed their stories around orally. Written gospels started circulating among more educated Greek speaking Christian converts about 25-30 years after Jesus died. During that time the Jesus story went through many transformations.
Early Christians had hundreds of gospels to choose from. During the first three centuries after Jesus’ death, Christianity was extremely diverse. Each gospel that circulated offered a different slant of Jesus’ life and teachings. When you take a close look at the Bible gospels, you’ll see that they each tell a very different story about Jesus. This happened primarily because each of the gospels were aimed at a very different audience. The writer of Matthew directed his message to Jews alone. The author of Mark had a mixed audience of Jews and gentiles, while Luke’s author wrote specifically for a non-Jewish audience. John was written for an audience that wanted to avoid any connection to Judaism and attach itself to the Roman Empire. Since it was impossible to know exactly what Jesus did, said or meant, none of these groups could prove they were right. As the stories circulated, people began to form groups to support the stories they thought were true.
Some of Jesus’ earliest followers were gnostic Christians. Gnostic comes from the Greek word gnosis, and means “knowing” or “knowledge.” But gnosis isn’t an intellectual pursuit and Gnosticism is not a religion. It’s more accurately described as a spiritual “approach” that predates Christianity. It can best be understood as a personal, intuitive, experiential process.
Some groups of early Christians organized and a clergy class developed, but gnostic Christians preferred to learn through independent experience. They felt that Jesus had set the example they were following. Although Gnostics didn’t have churches, they did meet informally and passed around gospels that described what they had learned through a direct, personal experience of the Divine. Since each person’s experience was unique to them, gnostic Christians did not want to create sacred texts or dogma.
Early Christian diversity came to an end when the “Peter group” gained power. This group believed Jesus has told one 
of his followers, Peter, to begin a church. This church aligned itself with the political and military might of the Roman Empire and began to systematically destroy any Christians that disagreed with them. Eventually they chose the four gospel accounts that most agreed with their way of looking at things (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and those four gospels became part of the church approved Bible. At one time gnostic followers of Jesus were in the majority, but their independent nature made them a special enemy of the church. As the church gained more power through its backing by the Roman government and military, it effectively destroyed all its enemies and their writings. It wasn’t long before people forgot there had ever been Christians who held other views. But Bible scholars realized there must have been other groups because they read the denunciations made against them in orthodox Christian literature.
When the Gnostic gospels were found, a very different picture of Jesus emerged. An earthenware jar filled with gnostic texts was accidentally found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. It had probably been buried by monks from a nearby monastery some 1,500 years earlier when they feared that their beloved books would be destroyed by the church. Scholars were thrilled to discover that these books presented a completely different picture of Jesus and early Christianity.
Generally, Gnostics were not literalists who adhered to specific doctrines or holy books. However, some gnostic Christians who may have been closely associated with ancient “mystery schools,” did feel that gnosis was a step-by-step process. Their writings are filled with arcane language that can barely be deciphered. But gnostic writings are quite diverse, and many of the texts are as fresh and valuable today as the day they were written.
Gnostic writings were meant to be interactive. The reader did not accept them as irrefutable truth, but was expected to search his or her own heart and discover meaning themselves. Gnostics felt that Jesus spoke in parables so those who wanted to be spiritually awake would have to extend themselves to discover the deeper meaning. Gnostic Christians believed Jesus was a wisdom teacher who invited his followers to take responsibility for their own spiritual growth and experience God for themselves. In the Dialogue of the Savior, the gnostic teacher Silvanus pointed out that the One Mind we share with Ultimate Reality is the only guide we need, “. . .bring in your guide and your teacher. The mind is the guide. . Live according to your mind. . .Acquire strength, for the mind is strong. . .Enlighten your mind. . .Light the lamp within you.”
It’s impossible to prove that any early Christian writings are more authentic or trustworthy than any others. Regardless of which gospel accounts we read, orthodox or gnostic, it’s important to remember that we’re reading someone else’s opinion, not historic fact. Never-the-less, every Christian sincerely interested in Jesus’ teachings owes it to themselves to find out what early gnostic Christians had to say and see if the information resonates with their own heart.
Copyright© 2011 Lee and Steven Hager