THE OTHER BIBLE
Willis Barnstone, editor
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| 1 |
"The primal center is the innermost light, of a translucence, subtlety, and purity beyond comprehension. That inner point extended becomes a 'palace' which acts as an enclosure for the center, and is also of a radiance translucent beyond the power to know it." 'Zohar', edited by Gershom Scholem, Schocken, New York 1963
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"From the beginning of all things prevailed divine goodness, without which nothing could have continued to exist." 'Haggadah' (early Kabbalah)
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"The strong power of the mind came into being from the mind of the unbegotten Spirit." The Paraphrase of Shem (Gnostic text, ca. 1st century bce)
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"Every breathing thing glorifies Him, and every creature visible and invisible returns Him praise." The Book of the Secrets of Enoch (2 Enoch, Jewish Pseudepigrapha)
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"Everything that has come to pass has been by Your will. And there is no other beside You." The closing Psalm to 'The Manual of Discipline', a 1st century bce Essene text
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"Remark this: that God, when he made man and clothed him in great honor, made it incumbent that he cleave to him so as to be….of single heart, united to the One by the tie of the single-purposed faith which ties all together." 'The Zohar, The Book of Radiance'
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| 7 |
"The Holy Spirit shepherds everyone and rules all the powers, the 'tame' ones and the 'wild' ones, as well as those which are unique." The Gospel of Philip (3rd century Christian Gnostic sacramental catechism),
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| 8 |
"And the highest One gave the Word to his worlds, which interpret his own beauty, recite his praise, confess his thought, are heralds of his mind, are instructors of his works." The Odes of Solomon (2nd century Gnostic hymnbook), Ode 12
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| 9 |
"Truth is one single thing and it is also many things for our sakes who learn this one thing in love through many things." The Gospel of Philip (3rd century Christian Gnostic sacramental catechism)
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| 10 |
"The Spirit is a Unity….It is the God of Truth, the Father of All, the Holy Spirit, the invisible one, the one who is over the All." The Secret Book of John (1st century Gnostic text)
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| 11 |
"Make sure-footed those who stumble and stretch forth your hands to the sick. Nourish the hungry and set at ease those who are troubled….raise up and awaken those who sleep. For you are this understanding, which encourages." The Gospel of Truth and the Valentinian Speculation (2nd century Gnostic text)
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| 12 |
"Jesus said, 'Take heed of the Living One." The Gospel of Thomas (2nd century Gnostic text)
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| 13 |
"Every soul is a gift of God." Christian Sibyllines, 2nd century Christian Apocrypha
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| 14 |
"The Holy Spirit is Life, the Mother of All." The Secret Book of John (1st century Gnostic text)
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| 15 |
"All souls are prepared for eternity, even before the formation of the world." The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, Jewish Pseudepigrapha
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| 16 |
"He who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge about the depth of the All." The Book of Thomas the Contender, 3rd century Gnostic text
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| 17 |
"I glorify and praise the Invisible Spirit, for because of Thee all things came into existence, and all things aspire to Thee." The Secret Book of John (1st century Gnostic text),
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| 18 |
"One certain seed had within it the whole semination of the universe. It is like the egg of some variegated and many-colored bird, such as the peacock or some other bird which is even more multiform and many-colored, an egg which though one has within it many forms of multiform, many-colored, many-constituted substances." Basilides, 2nd century Syrian-Egyptian Gnostic
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| 19 |
"And He is entirely one, being the All with them all in a single doctrine because all these are from a single spirit." The Second Treatise of the Great Seth (early Christian Gnostic text)
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| 20 |
"I accomplish everything through the Good One, for this is the union of the truth." The Second Treatise of the Great Seth (early Christian Gnostic text)
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| 21 |
"Truth did not come into the world naked, but it came in types and images." The Gospel of Philip (3rd century ad Christian Gnostic catechesis)
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| 22 |
"All things are made fast according to the will of the Holy Spirit through the Self-born." The Secret Book of John (1st century Gnostic text)
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| 23 |
"O nature of man that cannot be parted from God!" The Acts of Peter, 2nd century Christian Apocrypha
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| 24 |
"The substance of the ungenerated Father of all is incorruption and self-existent light, simple and homogeneous." Ptolemaeus' Letter to Flora, 2nd century Gnostic text
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"Nothing exists without the Lord…and our worlds were made by his word, his thought and his heart. Glory and honor to his name." The Odes of Solomon (2nd century Gnostic hymnbook), Ode 16
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We are gathering together the primary insights of spirituality and bringing them together into one place.
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