SCROLLS AND TABLETS [PART ONE]

EARLY ALTERNATIVE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES

For over sixteen centuries, most Christians have only been familiar with Greek translations of the New Testament and have believed that these versions are all that exist or should be read. But in the last seven decades new information dating to the time of Christ has been interpreted by scholars from such places as Harvard, Princeton, Chapel Hill, Stanford, Oxford, and Chapman to profoundly re-tell the story of Jesus Christ and His teachings. These have radically clarified who Jesus' first disciples were, what they believed, and what Jesus actually taught. Previously unknown books that were read and studied by the original Aramaic speaking Jewish-Christians (pre-Paul) living in Israel and Egypt have become available in English. This includes:

1]The Peshetta (The Aramaic Bible)

Most non-scholars think that the Greek New Testament was the first Bible and is the only Bible.  Even many clergy choose to look only at the information they’ve been told to use (that which has been handed down from elders in their community or church). However, the early Ethiopian Church and the Egyptian (Coptic) Church used different versions of the Bible.  There were many versions after the first Bible was issued by Church Father Marcion (85-160 CE). His version excluded the entire Old Testament and the currently accepted four gospels; it used only the Pauline epistles and an edited version of Mark.  Marcion severely condemned congregants who studied the Gospel of Matthew. But those Christians who had actually walked with Christ and established the first churches,

spoke the same Aramaic (a sister language to Hebrew) which Jesus spoke.  They recorded his words in Aramaic, and their version of the New Testament pre-dates the

modern New Testament and is very different.  The oldest known physical copy of The Peshetta states that it was transcribed from an early second century copy. This is one of the most important discoveries of our age and yet very few non-scholars know about it.

[References:

1)http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache:KexPhnyjblMJ:http://www.metamind.net/biblemanus.html+peshetta&ct=clnk

2)http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache:vkAApmqkPYYJ:http://www.advertisingbydesign.com/TheWord/articles/peshitta.html+peshetta&ct=clnk ]

2] The Essene Papers (The Dead Sea Scrolls)

In the late 1940's and into the 1950's a series of archaeological digs in Israel near the Dead Sea revealed Biblical writings dating to before the first century. These are the oldest Biblical writings discovered to date, and in addition to finding ancient versions of all of the Old Testament (except Esther), archaeologists have found manuscripts which were used by a mystical sect of Judaism called the Essene. We had heard of them second-hand from first century historians such as Philo, Pliny and Josephus, but had never before been able to study original documents. Essenes were the only Jews who had an initiation by Baptism, and who used a ritual purification in water before breaking bread. The

Jordan River, where John the Baptizer performed his baptisms, is within walking distance of Qumran, where Essenes lived communally, sharing their wealth, refusing to hold slaves, and expecting the Messiah. The Essenes looked for God within -- which is also what Jesus taught. The Essene Papers let us understand the background, culture, anticipation and experiences of the original Aramaic speaking Jewish-Christians.

[References:

1)http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&cd=5&q=cache:_uOkaN5ssOcJ:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dead_Sea_Scrolls_Deception+the+dead+sea+scrolls+deception&ct=clnk

2)http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&cd=2&q=cache:KN-2aWbJ5rIJ:http://www.crystalinks.com/dss.html+dead+sea+scrolls+conspiracy&ct=clnk

3)http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache:f_RQkEC2iMkJ:http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/dead-sea-scrolls.htm+dead+sea+scrolls&ct=clnk

4)http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache:Yl0IPijb6lkJ:http://www.christiananswers.net/q-abr/abr-a023.html+dead+sea+scrolls&ct=clnk ]

3] The Kabbalah

Jewish theology involves more than the Torah (Old Testament).  It includes the Talmud (oral tradition), the Mishna, the Targums and a vast corpus of philosophy called the Kabbalah, probably used by the Essene community. [Josephus tells us one of the Essene leaders was Rabbi Menachem, whom we know to be a Kabbalist.] The Kabbalah is the more esoteric teachings of the Jews, but this information has only been fully translated into English and published for public purview within the last two decades. The

Kabbalah includes such scriptures as the Sefirot, the Bahir and the Zohar, which explain such things as the meaning of "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", heaven, hell, the Kingdom of God, and the Messiah. The Kabbalah teaches us, like Jesus, to look within to find the Kingdom of Heaven, which is God's living presence. The Kabbalist learns to self reflect, to quieten the mind through meditation and to expect the

Messiah. The Kingdom of Heaven is already upon earth and man has only to

realize (make real) this living presence of God within to enter Eden on Earth. Moreover, the Messiah is not a man but a collective awakening of consciousness within humanity. This explains the meaning of Christ's metaphors and parables.

[References:

1) http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&cd=2&q=cache:oVAB0EfdQ-QJ:http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/kabbalah.html+kabbalah&ct=clnk

2)http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&q=cache:vOqUdtdYh9gJ:http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1&letter=C+cabala&ct=clnk ]

4]The Nag Hammadi Library

The Nag Hammadi Library is an entire library which was kept by early Christians. Some of these books date to the first century, others to the second or third century but all are still before the formalization of the official New Testament Canon by the Bishop of Alexandria in 369 CE.   Hundreds of papyri and codices include over 40 gospels in addition to those found in the official Canon.  Christians in those areas where Paul evangelized (Turkey, Greece and Rome), used the scriptures with which modern Christians are already familiar, but Christians living elsewhere (Israel, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt) used the more extensive Aramaic alternatives. When the Church in the Greek speaking world became the Official Religion, it began to suppress all non-Greek scriptures.  The various lists of prohibited scriptures published by the Official Church confirm the ancient existence of virtually all of the books now rediscovered in the Nag Hammadi collection.  These include:

The Gospel of Thomas  [For complete text in English, see http://users.misericordia.edu/davies/thomas/Trans.htm or http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/thomas.html ]

We have copies, or pieces of The Gospel of Thomas that date to the first and second centuries. It is not a narrative like the synoptic gospels, but rather a collection of 114 sayings of Jesus, half of which do also appear in the New Testament. The sayings in Thomas are shorter and pithier than in the Synoptics, which suggests that they are the true

original forms.  Jesus says: "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death" and explains to his disciples that they will realize God on Earth by coming to know their true inner nature.  They will see the Kingdom of God "spread out before you". When the disciples ask Jesus "When will the new world come?" he replies "What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it."  In The Gospel of Thomas, Jesus makes it perfectly clear that the path to God is within.

The Book of Thomas  [For complete text in English, see http://lachie.antissa.com/library/bookthom.pdf ]

The Book of Thomas dates to 52 CE and has been in continuous use in India, where Thomas established a Christian church.  There are today over five million adherents to that church.  In The Book of Thomas, Jesus tells Thomas "learn who you are" and "in what way you exist." He says "he who has not known himself has known nothing."

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene  [For complete text in English, with commentary, see http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm ]

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene describes the Apostleship of Mary.   The church fathers confirm that there were numerous churches in the first century which had women bishops who gave baptism and other sacraments and used this gospel.  However, by the third century, Rome had decided that female ministries were sinful and put an end to them. In Mary, Jesus explains the nature of our existence and the way to attain God Realization. This book has been carbon dated to 60 CE, making it the oldest physical Christian

scripture in existence.  

The Gospel of James  [For complete text in English, see http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/infancyjames-mrjames.html ]

The Gospel of James is a little older, but not later than the mid second century, almost two centuries before the New Testament was written by the Greeks, but it was deemed too Jewish to include in the Canon. The Jewish Christian followers of James never accepted the authority of Rome and Rome never accepted any of the Jewish or Israeli Christian scriptures.  The Gospel of James was rejected even though James had been made head of the Church by Jesus himself.  James supports the other Jewish

Gospels with its theme: "that you may know yourselves."  In James, Jesus tells us "they will be enlightened through me."

The Gospel of Philip  [for complete text in English, see http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gop.html ]

The oral tradition of The Gospel of Philip goes back to the Apostles themselves but the first physical copy dates to somewhere in the second or third century. Philip was married and had children including a daughter who was married (we learn this from the Church Fathers too). In Philip, Jesus delves into the nature of existence and the purpose of life. He says "ignorance is the mother of all evil".  In Philip, Jesus instructs his disciples to look within and to know themselves. These earliest teachings all centre on enlightenment.

The Dialogue of the Saviour [for complete text in English, see http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/dialog.html ]  After the Nag Hammadi discovery of this first century text, another smaller papyrus at Yale University was identified to be from the same book. Here Jesus explains the importance of understanding how we come into existence and the nature of our true being.  When the disciples beg Jesus to reveal the light to them, he tells them: "Everyone who has known himself has seen it in everything..."  Hell is the illusion that we are separate from God. 

The Thunder Perfect Mind [for complete text in English, visit http://deoxy.org/thunder.htm ]

A Thunder Perfect Mind is an enlightened mind. The disciples were seeking enlightenment, but instead of going outside of ourselves for answers we are directed by Jesus to look within. There is a state of consciousness where we become conscious of what our own consciousness is, and that awakens our consciousness.  These ideas originate in Kabbalah, which the Essenes were already familiar with, and which Christ taught. God's name in Hebrew is spelled YHWH, the meaning of which is:  I am or I am that which I am, or I am that which is conscious of itself.  Ergo: I am the consciousness itself.  By coming to this realization, we enter the Kingdom of Heaven and see spirit in everything, everywhere, all the time.

by H.S. Paul Franklin