There are way, way more Christian texts than just the bible, and Jesus shows up fairly often in these non-canonical books. Sometimes he's pontificating spiritual teachings, sometimes he's describing the creation of the cosmos, and sometimes he's even disclosing secret knowledge to Mary Magdalene.
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00:00There are way, way more Christian texts than just the Bible, and Jesus shows up fairly
00:04often in these non-canonical books. Sometimes he's pontificating spiritual teachings, sometimes
00:10he's describing the creation of the cosmos, and sometimes he's even disclosing secret
00:14knowledge to Mary Magdalene.
00:16Before going further, bear in mind that this video exists to discuss secret teachings of
00:20Jesus described in unconventional ancient texts. We don't aim to change your interpretation
00:25of Jesus' words. Belief belongs in the hands of the viewer.
00:29To start, let's look at the Sophia of Jesus Christ, a.k.a. The Wisdom of Jesus Christ.
00:35The book recounts one longish conversation between Jesus and his most devout followers,
00:3912 disciples and seven unnamed women. This all takes place following Jesus' crucifixion
00:44and after he comes back to Earth. Jesus' followers grill him about the, quote,
00:48underlying reality of the universe and the plan, the invisible spirit, and why Jesus
00:53looks like he has a body made of light. What ensues is a profoundly weird conversation
00:58replete with undefined mystical terminology. It's kind of like Old Testament stuff, real
01:03esoteric, like the Wisdom of Solomon. Talking about himself in the third person, Jesus says,
01:08He embraces the whole of the totalities, while nothing embraces him, for he is all mind.
01:14Regarding his origins, Jesus says,
01:16Son of man consented with Sophia, his consort, and revealed a great androgynous light. His
01:22male name is designated Savior, Begetter of all things. His female name is designated
01:27All-Begetteress Sophia.
01:29In discussing the creation of the universe and the nature of God, Jesus throws in terms
01:33like Archbegetter, who is called Yaldabaoth, Assembly of the Eighth, Self-Perfected Mind,
01:39First Existent Unbegotten Father, and more. The earliest text fragments from the Sophia
01:43of Jesus date to around 200 A.D.
01:47Because the books of the canonical New Testament represent a highly curated vision of Jesus
01:51and the early Christian church, many of Jesus' non-canonical teachings come across as bizarre,
01:56kind of like in the Sophia of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, certain teachings are recognizable
02:01and even echo canonical biblical passages. This is the case with the Gospel of Thomas,
02:05a very quotable book divided into sayings of Jesus, like standalone micro-lessons.
02:11Sayings 16, for instance, reads,
02:12Maybe people think that I've come to cast peace on the world, and they don't know that
02:16I've come to cast divisions on the earth — fire, sword, and war.
02:20Christians will recognize these lines from Matthew 10, where it is written,
02:23Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace,
02:27but a sword.
02:29Similarly, saying 20 describes the famed mustard seed parable found in Matthew 13, comparing
02:34the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed that shelters birds in its branches.
02:38Saying 54 even contains the blessed are the poor beatitude. There are many more examples
02:43like this.
02:44At the same time, the Gospel of Thomas contains some head-scratching stuff. In saying 56,
02:49Jesus calls the world a corpse, and in saying 36, he advises not worrying too much about
02:53your clothes. Some of Jesus' teachings seem vague or self-evident, like saying 58's,
03:00Blessed is the person who's gone to a lot of trouble.
03:02Yet other parts sound like dime-store spiritual guru quotes, like saying 67, which reads,
03:08Whoever knows everything, but is personally lacking, lacks everything.
03:12The Gospel of Thomas really picked up steam in the 20th century when a copy was discovered
03:16in Egypt in 1945. Scholars put a date on it from around 250 A.D. to as early as 60
03:22A.D. If it's the earlier of the date range, that would make it a non-biblical account
03:27of Jesus, technically speaking.
03:29Despite the name of the book, Mary Magdalene doesn't feature prominently in the Gospel
03:32of Mary Magdalene — at least, not until the end. Rather, the book consists of Mary
03:36quoting teachings that Jesus told her and no one else, largely the same kind of mystical
03:41musings about the nature of God and the cosmos that we've already encountered. This book
03:45does not contain some of the more juicy innuendo that's cropped up over the years about Jesus
03:49and Mary Magdalene being married, being intimate, etc.
03:52-"Who is she?"
03:53-"My dear, that's Mary Magdalene."
03:57In the book, Mary states that Jesus said that the all is being dissolved and described a
04:01soul overcoming the third power and seeing the fourth power. That fourth power took seven
04:07forms of darkness, desire, ignorance, the excitement of death, the kingdom of the flesh,
04:12the foolish wisdom of flesh, and the wrathful wisdom. Those powers call the aforementioned
04:17soul the slayer of men and conqueror of space. Ultimately, it's revealed that Jesus was describing
04:23his own creation. He concluded,
04:25-"In an eon, I was released from a world, and in a type from a type, and from the fetter
04:29of oblivion, which is transient."
04:32In the end, Jesus' follower Peter misses the point and instead grumbles about Jesus delivering
04:36private teachings to Mary and not to the rest of them. Levi chastises him for being hot-tempered
04:41and says,
04:42-"If the Savior made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her?"
04:46That's pretty much where the book ends. There's some sort of hint that the Gospel of John
04:51may have influenced the works, though a rough date estimate puts the Gospel of Mary Magdalene
04:55around 90 to 120 A.D. As to who Mary was, there's a few modern scholars who wonder if
05:01Mary could be one of Jesus' sisters. Siblings are mentioned in Mark, Matthew, and another
05:05text you didn't know about, the Gospel of Philip.
05:09The Gospel of Philip is a weird one. It's got some of the same repetitive, mystical
05:12talk of the kingdom of heaven, the cosmos, etc., as the rest of the writings described
05:17in this video. But it differs because the writer provides a lot of non-quoted commentary
05:21about Christian belief and things that Jesus said and did. It's also separated by themes
05:26and dissections like Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, becoming Christians, or overcoming
05:30the world. All in all, it reads like an early attempt at pedagogy mixed with Christian self-help
05:35literature. Kind of like a, like, Who Moved My Cheese Makers?
05:39What's so special about the cheese makers? Well, obviously, it's not meant to be taken
05:43literally. It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.
05:47Much of what the Gospel of Philip relates about Jesus' teachings and actions comes across
05:51as straight-up bizarre to a religion now 2,000 years in the making. Granted, it's got some
05:56of the same material we read in the canonical Bible, like Jesus saying, quote,
06:00"...whoever doesn't eat my flesh and drink my blood doesn't have life in them."
06:04A near copy-paste job from John 6. But it also says stuff like,
06:08"...truth is the mother, but knowledge is the joining. Those who aren't given to sin
06:13are called free by the world."
06:15Regarding people talking about Jesus' immaculate conception via the Holy Spirit, it reads,
06:19"...they're wrong. They don't know what they're saying. When did a woman ever conceive by
06:24a woman?"
06:25It also contains typical riddle-like sayings from Jesus, such as,
06:28"...blessed is the one who exists before existing, because they who exist did exist and will
06:34I have no idea what that means."
06:36The Gospel of Philip generally has a date described as around 300 A.D., maybe as early
06:40as 150 A.D. It was considered out there by the standards of the time and really had no
06:45consideration for inclusion into the Bible.
06:48While there are plenty more writings to choose from when discussing the secret teachings of
06:52Jesus, we might as well end on The Secret Book of James. Judging by the opening of this book,
06:57You Asked Me to Send You a Secret Book Revealed to Peter and Me, it stands to reason that the
07:01writer claims to be James the Apostle. The opening also mentions a previous book of
07:05secret teachings set 10 months prior.
07:08The Secret Book of James starts with Jesus urging his disciples to take the lead regarding
07:12their own salvation, saying,
07:14"...be eager to be saved without being urged. Rather, be ready on your own."
07:18He uses an extended alcohol analogy to explain his position, saying,
07:22"...don't you want to be filled? Your hearts are drunk. Don't you then want to be sober?"
07:27This analogy contains some of the same logic salad we've seen already, like,
07:31So just as it's good for you to be lacking and bad for you to be full, whoever is full is also
07:36lacking. One who's lacking isn't filled the same way that someone who's lacking is filled.
07:40Later, Jesus urges his disciples to remember his parables like
07:44the lamps of the young women and the wage of the workers.
07:47Ultimately, he criticizes them for being hypocrites,
07:50and they criticize Jesus for his hot, cold, unpredictable behavior.
07:53The book ends with Jesus going to heaven and his followers seeing a vision of a, quote,
07:57cacophony of wars and a trumpet blare and a great commotion.
08:01A couple of things. First, the James here is the Apostle James, according to the text.
08:06That's the same James that is referred to as Jesus' brother in the writings of Josephus
08:10and the aforementioned books of Mark, Matthew, and Philip.
08:13The writings could be as early as 100 A.D., but the story is that the version we know of,
08:18discovered in 1945 along with a few others we've mentioned here,
08:21is a Coptic translation of an earlier letter. You could make the argument that the secret
08:26book of James truly was a secret. Very little was known about it prior to that 20th-century discovery.