Today is the first day of classes for me this semester. I am teaching two courses. The first is an undergraduate lecture course called The Gnostics and their Gospels. This is actually my title for the general audience book I've been wanting to write for years - The Gnostics and their Gospels: An Introduction to Ancient Gnostic Spirituality. So one of my goals this semester is to record in writing as much of my lecture material as I am able, so that by the end of the semester I will have a fairly comprehensive draft of my book complete. It won't be ready to go to press, but much of the hard and detailed thinking and drafting will be done.
In conjunction with this course, I am running the Gnostic Gospels Seminar for my graduate students. We will be retranscribing and retranslating the Gospel of Judas, and we will be immersing ourselves in as much of the primary gnostic literature as we can possibly read in a semester. I have found that when I totally immerse myself in a corpus of literature - whatever the subject is - all kinds of wonderful insights happen. So I am looking forward to this opportunity to reread all the literature over the next fifteen weeks with my terrific students.
My second goal this semester is to complete the editing process of the Codex Judas Congress papers. I hope to do this by the end of February. The title will be: The Judas Codex: Proceedings of the International Congress on Codex Tchacos held at Rice University, Houston, Texas, March 13-16, 2008.
I am also writing my own academic volume on the Gospel of Judas. I have almost all the chapters complete, but I need to do some additional research and some rewriting. I believe that this will have to wait until summer, but it won't be too long before I have a draft ready to send to an academic press on Judas the Apostate. I don't have a subtitle yet.
2 comments:
I wish I could sit in on some of these classes. Are you going to include some of Paul's works? I've been rereading Gal. Eph. Col. for his remarks on the archons and the aeons, putting on the new man and so on. What about the The Gospel According to St. John with its emphasis the preexistance of Christ (among other things)? I would love a book for the general public on Gnosticism.
Here is some important things to consider when discering what texts can possible about the historical first century Pharisee Ribi Yehoshua from Natzrat (Nazareth)
The research of world-recognized authorities in this area implies that Ribi Yehoshua from Natzrath (the Nazareth) was a Pharisee (a Torah-practising Jewish group - who according to 4Q MMT practised both written and oral Torah). As the earliest church historians, most eminent modern university historians, our web site (www.netzarim.co.il) and our Khavruta (Distance Learning) texts confirm, the original teachings of Ribi Yehoshua were not only accepted by most of the Pharisaic Jewish community, he had hoards of Jewish students.
Ribi Yehoshuas teachings have been redacted. The redacted teachings and Hellenistic additions are found in the anti-Torah and anti-Halakhah ‘gospel of Matthew’. According to the most authoritative Christian scholars, e.g., The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, the NT contains redactions. That Ribi Yehoshua was a Pharisee, and that the historical documentation of Josephus shows that Ribi Yehoshuas brother Ya’aqov was defended by the Pharisees logically implies that to be one of his Netzarim (www.netzarim.co.il)-follower one must practise Torah non-selectively.
The historical J*esus is an oxymoron. The historical person was named le-havdil (to
separate from) Ribi Yehoshua. This is not the same person as the Christian
J*esus. If you want to learn about the Historical Ribi Yehoshua, whom Orthodox Jews can live with (witness the Netzarim Jews in Raanana, Israel, members in good standing in an
Orthodox synagogue), you must start with books like How Jesus Became Christian by Prof. Barrie Wilson (most bookstores) and Who Are The Netzarim? (publ. www.schuellerhouse.com) by Israeli Orthodox Jew, Paqid
Yirmeyahu Ben-David.
Finding the historical Jew, who was a Pharisee Ribi and following him brings you into Torah, which gives you a rich and meaningful life hereon earth and great
rewards in life after death (“heaven”)!
From AndersBranderud
Geir Toshav, Netzarim (www.netzarim.co.il)
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