The Banned Gospels, complete.
Not summaries. Not someone's take. The texts themselves, in translations that belong to everyone, free to read from the first line to the last. Open one, read it slowly, and decide for yourself what was buried and why.
The buried canon
Each text opens at a public source where the complete translation can be read for free.
The Gospel of Thomas The Hidden Sayings of Jesus
One hundred fourteen sayings, no crucifixion, no resurrection narrative. The kingdom is inside you and outside you. Know yourselves and you will be known.
- 114 sayings
- Composed between about 60 and 140 AD
- Read at gospels.net
The Gospel of Mary The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene as the one who understood. Sin is not a crime against a lawgiver. The Savior came to restore you to your root.
- About half survives: pages 1 to 6 and 11 to 14 are missing
- Composed in the second century
- Read at gospels.net
The Gospel of Philip A Valentinian anthology
Sacraments as symbols, the bridal chamber as reunion of the divided self. Names are given in a language that deceives; the truth is behind the names.
- About 120 short passages
- Compiled in the third century from older Valentinian material
- Read at gospels.net
The Gospel of Judas Codex Tchacos
The disciple who understood the plan. The body is a prison and its release is not a betrayal. The god the others worship is not the one Jesus came from.
- About 26 damaged pages
- Composed in the mid second century
- Read at gospels.net
The Gospel of Truth A Valentinian homily, possibly by Valentinus himself
Forgetting came from not knowing the Father. When the Father is known, forgetting ceases to exist. A sermon on the joy of being found.
- About 20 pages
- Composed between about 140 and 180 AD
- Read at gospels.net
The Secret Book of James The Apocryphon of James
Be full of the Spirit but lacking in reason, for reason belongs to the soul. The private teaching James wrote down and sent on.
- About 16 pages
- Composed in the first half of the second century
- Read at gospels.net
The Gospel of Peter The Akhmim fragment
Did you preach to those who sleep? And from the cross came the answer: Yes. The resurrection as the guards saw it.
- 60 verses survive
- Composed in the second century
- Read at gospels.net
The Egerton Gospel Papyrus Egerton 2, the Unknown Gospel
Jesus and the lawyers, a leper healed, a question about tribute, and a miracle on the Jordan that appears nowhere else.
- Four short fragments
- Manuscript from about 150 to 200 AD, among the earliest surviving
- Read at gospels.net
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas The childhood deeds of Jesus
A child with the power of God and the temper of a child. The church never knew what to do with it.
- 19 chapters
- Composed in the second century
- Read at gospels.net
The Infancy Gospel of James The Protevangelium of James
The gospel the church used for everything it believes about Mary's parents and childhood, and then left out of the canon.
- 25 chapters
- Composed around 150 AD
- Read at gospels.net
The Secret Gospel of Mark The Mar Saba letter of Clement
A longer, more spiritual Mark that Clement says was kept for those being initiated into the great mysteries.
- Two short fragments
- The letter claims a second-century origin
- Read at Early Christian Writings
Pistis Sophia The Askew Codex
The risen Christ teaching for eleven years: the fall of Sophia, her repentance, and the mysteries by which the soul climbs back through the rulers to the light.
- Four books, about 150 chapters
- Composed in the third or fourth century
- Read at sacred-texts.com
The Secret Book of John The Apocryphon of John
The full map: the Monad, the emanations, Sophia's fall, Yaldabaoth the craftsman, and the spark breathed into Adam that the rulers could not control.
- About 30 pages in the long version
- Composed before 180 AD, when Irenaeus quoted its myth
- Read at The Gnostic Society Library
The Thunder, Perfect Mind Nag Hammadi Codex VI, 2
I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one. A voice that refuses every box it is put in.
- One poem of about 8 pages
- Composed in the second or third century
- Read at The Gnostic Society Library
The Reality of the Rulers The Hypostasis of the Archons
The rulers said, Come, let us make a man of dust from the earth. Genesis as the Gnostics read it, with the snake on the side of knowledge.
- About 10 pages
- Composed in the third century
- Read at The Gnostic Society Library
Read the guide first, or after
Plain-language companions to the texts above, from the Library.
What Is Gnosis?
Gnosis is direct knowledge of where you come from, not belief in a doctrine. A plain guide to Gnosticism: the Monad, the…
The Monad
In Gnostic teaching the Monad is the One: the unknowable source before every god, from which the Pleroma of light emanat…
Who Is the Demiurge?
The Demiurge, called Yaldabaoth in the Gnostic texts, is the craftsman who made the material world and believes he is th…
Sophia and the Fall
Sophia, Wisdom, is the aeon whose longing for the source produced the Demiurge and the material world. The Gnostic myth …
The Pleroma and the Divine Spark
The Pleroma is the fullness of light emanating from the Monad; the divine spark is the fragment of it hidden in every hu…
The Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus with no crucifixion, no resurrection story, and a kingdom t…