Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: rick@jts.com (Rick Yazwinski) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Pagans and Christ (was Re: Christians abetting Satan?) Message-ID: Date: 7 Oct 90 07:21:57 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: JTS Computer Systems Ltd. Lines: 46 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu >[People have certainly criticized concentration on the Bible by >claiming that the selection of the books in the Bible are arbitrary. >Alternatives proposed include various books with Gnostic leanings >(which were an issue during the first few centuries of Christianity, >and the issue of the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals (which are primarily >an issue between Catholics and Protestants now). However claims of a >Pope changing the Bible in the 15th Cent. have to be wrong. Current >Bibles are translated from documents dating from 2nd to 5th Cent's. >The only later chnages would be the Protestant rejection of the >Apocrypha. I've never heard of Pistis Sophia. --clh] I believe that my date of the 15th Cent. was wrong; however, the Pistis Sophia is said to be part of Paul's work, and was at one time part of the Christian bible, and was at some point (unfortunately I don't have the precise date) removed. Another example of mortals modifying the word of God is the King James VERSION. I believe that this is one of the most common versions around. It was explicitly modified by King James for POLITICAL REASONS!!! Rick... -- Rick Yazwinski | To Be Silent JTS Computer Systems Ltd. | To Dare --------+-------- To Know {yunexus,uunet,geac,torsqnt}!jts.com!rick | To Will [OK, now I'm at home so I have my reference works. New Testament Apocrypha, edited by Hennecke, is the main reference on books outside the current NT. It has some samples from Pistis Sophia, and a few pages about it. It is a Gnostic work, where Christ after his resurrection tells his disciples the secrets of the heavenly places. Typical Gnostic. The manuscript on which Hennecke's account is based (there could be more recent info from Nag Hammadi or something) appears to be late 4th Cent. Scholars believe the document was written between 250 and 300, except for a separate part at the end which seems to be from the first half of the 3rd Cent. Whether it was ever part of the Bible is a matter of definition. It presumably had some status for the group that originated it. There were lots of these Gnostic gospels. But it doesn't seem to have ever been part of the tradition that led to our current Bible (i.e. the Catholic tradition). We have lists of canonical books beginning at about 200. I've looked through these various lists, and don't see Pistis Sophia on them. There are certainly things that appear on some of these lists (e.g. the Shepherd of Hermas) that are not in our current NT. But that's fairly unusual. Generally the debates were over whether to include certain books that are in our NT, not other books. --clh]