John Kesler

Biblical scholar Elaine Pagels will speak in Charleston, WV on October 26--in the very building where I work! If anyone would like to join me, please e-mail me at [email protected]. Here is the press release:

John Kesler

I am bumping this because the lecture is tomorrow, and I want to make sure that anyone who can attend is aware of Dr. Pagels' talk. If there is a Q & A session, I plan to ask Dr. Pagels why gnosticism should be considered evidence of the diversity of "early Christianity" rather than viewed as an aberrant sect. I will also ask her how many years removed from Jesus' life a religious text can be and still be viewed as historically accurate.

Khatzek

I've been meaning to pick up her book on the origins of Satan. I would love to hear this lecture. If you are able to take an audio or video recording device in, that would be awesome.

Julian

We will be interested to hear from you once the lecture is done. Make sure you post a follow-up in this thread.

Julian

John Kesler

The lecture was scheduled to start at 7:30, and when I arrived at a little before 7:00, there was already a sizeable crowd. The facility where Pagels spoke has an official capacity of 464, but the actual attendance was 550. Pagels began her lecture with an introduction to gnosticism, then narrowed her focus to three gospels: Judas, Thomas, and Mary Magdalene. Much of the introduction contained information familiar to me: Gnosticism derives its name from the word for knowledge, but the knowledge sought was not factual but "knowledge of the heart" or "relational knowledge." The texts themselves, numbering over 50, were discovered by an Arab farmer in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. These manuscripts are in Coptic, an ancient Egyptian language, but according to Pagels, they were originally written in Greek. Pagels said that these texts were very popular, and were also translated into Ethiopic and Syriac. Because Egypt has such a dry climate, the papyrus manuscripts stored there survived. Pagels said that as the early church faced persecution, this led to a desire for more uniformity of creed, canon, and clergy, and the gnostic texts were unwelcome. In the second century, Irenaeus denounced gnosticism, and Athanasius' "Easter letter" of 367 is the first to list all 27 of the "accepted" books of the New Testament. However, some monks defied Athanasius and stored "heretical" texts in sealed jars. Pagels stated that martyrdom, based at least in part on Jesus' words in Matthew 10:33, became more common in the second century (Ignatius of Antioch was cited as an example), and the gospel of Judas counters the belief that martyrdom is something to be desired, expressing the belief that encouraging martyrdom is complicity with killing. There was a Q & A session after the lecture, but I waited until after the presentation to speak with Dr. Pagels. I pointed out that Jude speaks of a "faith once for all delivered to the saints," which seems to indicate that some sort of "orthodox" belief was extant at that time. Why, then, should gnosticim be considered "early Christianity"? Pagels concurred that belief was being streamlined, and mentioned 2 Peter's denoucement of those who twist Paul's writings (2 Peter 3:16). Pagels said that all sorts of beliefs existed. She stated that undoubtedly some sayings attributed to Jesus in gnostic manuscripts are not accurate, but pointed out that the same is true of the canonical gospels, and one cannot dismiss the gnostic texts out of hand. Pagels specifically mentioned Luke 14:26 as a verse which probably goes back to Jesus, since, she said, this verse is "pretty awful" and probably would not be attributed to Jesus unless he really said it. I didn't get to talk with Dr. Pagels for very long, but I was impressed with how attentively she listened to all questions, including mine. She gave thoughtful answers which showed a respect for the questioners.