Questions to think about during this lesson…

• What are the Nag Hammadi writings?
• What is the Gospel of Thomas and why do Christians reject it? (Hint: We can tell from the very first line in the book that it’s false)
• What is the Gospel of the Egyptians and why do Christians reject it?
• What is the Epistle of Peter to Philip and why do Christians reject it?
• What is the Gospel of Mary and why do Christians reject it?
• Considering Dan Brown’s claims in the Da Vinci Code, what does the Gospel of Mary actually say about Jesus’ relationship with Mary Magdalene?
• In recent years, the Gospel of Judas has received a lot of attention from the media. While it wasn’t a part of the Nag Hammadi discovery, it is obviously a Gnostic writing. How do we know this?
• Even though some people like to claim that the manuscript of the Gospel of Judas has been “authenticated” (it’s been carbon dated to around the year 280AD), that doesn’t necessarily verify or authenticate the actual content of the book. In fact, how do we know that this is a false apostolic writing?
• What language were the writings of the Nag Hammadi writings written in? 
• How was the National Geographic Society’s presentation, promotion and positive portrayal of Judas extremely misleading? 
• What is a specific example of how the text was mistranslated from Coptic to English? 
• The Gnostic writings were clearly not apostolic or truthful. As a result, they were never in the running for the canon of Scripture by the Church (they didn’t appear on anyone’s canonical list). Yet the media often promotes these writings and gives the misleading impression that their claims are on par with the apostolic writings that the Church ultimately accepted. Why do you think this is? 

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