The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition Paperback – June 30, 2009

Very nice copy. Clean. Perfect condition. Arrived very fast. I ordered through Amazon new perhaps that's why it is in such good condition. Very large heavy book as well and packaged in bubble wrap envelope. Love it!

I love this product and it does not disappoint. received a timely manner and in great condition

Great reaf

Mr. Barnstone is an interesting author. One must remember that though he is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Spanish at Indiana University where he has been a member of East Asian Languages & Culture, and the Institute for Biblical and Literary Studies, he has no degree in ancient Greek studies OR any form of Biblical studies. Because of his work with Gnostic writings he has made a name for himself as something of an “expert” and has a loose association with the Jesus Seminar (which is recognized in most Biblical study circles as being very controversial). So as long as one understands that there might be possible some bias concerning his “translations” his work is still worthwhile reads.The primary goal of Mr. Barnstone in this volume (as well as most of his other New Testament works) is to bring back “poetry” to the New Testament much as the King James translation is much more poetic compared to current versions. He often restores the Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew names to their original form. For Pilate, Andrew, Jesus and James, one reads Pilatus, Andreas, Yeshua, and Yaakov. He often delineates the words of Jesus as verse and renders man of Paul's letters into blank verse. He has stated that he believes that the Book of Revelation is the “great epic poem” of the New Testament.Some times his penchant for see everything as poetry gets in the way of his translation but still makes for interesting reading.

After I had studied almost all of the contents of this book, I regretfully found its treatment of gnosis very misleading. Then Barnstone told me on page 817 that despite “the quality of the historical and religious studies that gnosticism has generated, the many new translations of core scripture, and the general esteem and curiosity that gnosticism elicits…in depth knowledge of the history and nature of gnostic speculation is still rare.”He is correct because this history has been so distorted by the efforts of heresiologists to destroy the gnostic belief system that some speculation is inevitable. However, Barnstone, Meyer and none of the sources on gnosis that are listed in the bibliography have studied the historical record relevant to this history; therefore they also are among those who are unaware of this in depth speculative knowledge. As such, they too are only seekers-after-truth on the subject of gnosis. Since I have searched and speculated, I may be in a better position to evaluate The Gnostic Bible’s effort to educate others on Gnosis and Gnosticism than are those who haven’t.Meyer and Barnstone have ignored the scholarly contribution to our understanding of the early gnostic/christian relationship made by such a distinguished historian as G. R. S. Mead. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, he wrestled with the meager amount of gnostic literature that survived the many Christian efforts to destroy it. In the opinion of the Gnostic Library, “Mead was the first modern scholar of Gnostic tradition. A century later, the corpus of his work remains unequaled in breadth and insight.”The bibliography refers to Dr. Charles Hedrick, emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University and to Kurt Rudolph, who is an internationally recognized authority on Gnosticism. He is professor of history of religion at Philipps University in Marburg, West Germany. Neither is otherwise mentioned in the index or the book. I conclude that some of their books have been read by Barnstone and Meyer but rejected because of their content.In short, I recommend that a seeker-after-truth read the books written by Hedrick, Mead, Rudolph, and others before blindly accepting The Gnostic Bible as a final authority.

I look forward to reading it. Table of contents appended to assist others in deciding whether to purchase this volume.

I'm reading this "bible", and find in it great sources of Gnosticism. Any student of myth, and Gnosticism definitely will want this in their library! GREAT buy!

Finally, an awesome book that provides progress toward the truth! Like Eistein's theory of everything, we need books like this one that combines and explain everything all religions and science together and in correspondence to each other! In addition, to achieve progress toward divine wisdom, these books may help to stop division among people, religions, and science.