[HN Gopher] Largest archive of online books about religion, myth...
___________________________________________________________________
Largest archive of online books about religion, mythology, folklore
and more
Author : Woods369
Score : 181 points
Date : 2024-01-04 10:43 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (sacred-texts.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (sacred-texts.com)
| j7ake wrote:
| Happy to see these efforts on more narrowly curated archives.
| curo wrote:
| are there others? (besides Project Gutenberg)
| j7ake wrote:
| Here is one for piano https://www.thepianofiles.com/
|
| And the famous is islmp for sheet music
|
| https://imslp.org/wiki/Main_Page
| Donz1 wrote:
| Great effort
| stonlyb wrote:
| I've been curious lately about the existence of any religion,
| mythology, folklore, etc that capture something closer to the
| current edges of modern physics and astrology. Basic assumption
| is that most/all are based on dated observations of seasons,
| planets, stars, etc -- things that were once mysteries in the
| mechanical universe.
|
| Are there any that touch on quantum weirdness or more recent
| astrophysics (black holes, gravity waves, FRBs, etc)?
|
| Would be interesting to see if new myths are being born. Even
| more interesting if a really ancient one touch on some of these
| only recently discovered mysteries.
| devinjon wrote:
| Well, the new-age has swallowed quantum woo whole. It is a kind
| of religion or attempt at modern myth making, I suppose. More
| respectably, a number of eminent physicists have fallen hard
| for philosophical Hinduism and or certain strands of Buddhism.
| Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, and Bohm among them.
| Podgajski wrote:
| Krishnamurti and Bohm on the ending of time
|
| https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1n30s-LKus4MyNuceRoFAes5.
| ..
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| Depends on what exactly you're looking for.
|
| There is certainly a _tremendous_ amount of religious-feeling
| material that references modern physics by name - Deepak Chopra
| possibly being the most (in)famous example. Some of it is quite
| popular.
|
| In particular, it seems a lot of pseudoscience/mythology is
| arising around the concepts of "Energy", "Vibration/Frequency",
| and "Quantum".
|
| There is also a lot of work always being done by enthusiastic
| internet-dwellers with penchant for capitals and blink tag in
| retrofitting these aspects into ancient texts.
|
| One's ability to consume such content may depend on how much
| attention they paid in high school and other factors :-).
| keiferski wrote:
| Check out Alfred North Whitehead, process philosophy, and some
| of the thinkers that have been influenced by him. They
| incorporate evolution and change much more than basically any
| religious thinker from prior eras.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_theology
| devinjon wrote:
| Except maybe Heraclitus and Lao Tzu.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraclitus
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi
| keiferski wrote:
| Very little to do with Whitehead's system other than being
| broadly "process" oriented.
| devinjon wrote:
| Okay, Heraclitus might be a stretch, I'll give you that.
| But I do recommend giving the Tao Te Ching a read with
| Whitehead in mind. :)
| Podgajski wrote:
| "process philosophy posits transient occasions of change
| or becoming as the only fundamental things of the
| ordinary everyday real world."
|
| I think you need to read more Daoist writings! It
| possesses that it is the transformation of yin into yang
| and back that creates everything in the world.
|
| https://www.heraldopenaccess.us/openaccess/yin-yang-a-
| method...
|
| The discovery that the motion of matter is not the result
| of external dynamics, but the result of the action of
| things themselves. The mutual movement, growth and
| transformation of yin and yang in natural things
| contribute to the process of formation, development and
| decay. All things in nature, from the large celestial
| universe to microscopic particles and human cell, are in
| constant motion in their own yin and yang. This uniform
| law is the absolute law of motion of the universe as a
| whole.
|
| And
|
| https://www.openhorizons.org/daoism-and-process-the-
| daoist-s...
| keiferski wrote:
| Yes, again, Whitehead has a particular system that is
| pretty different from Taoism. It's a little more
| complicated than a Wikipedia summary sentence.
| Podgajski wrote:
| As is Daoism! More complicated!
| Podgajski wrote:
| If you look at religion, folklore, mythology, as metaphors,
| then you really can't exclude anything as a religion, that
| includes science, which is also a metaphor. All language is a
| metaphor. Science as you practice it today, to me, is also a
| religion. I don't mean that to denigrate science in anyway. We
| need metaphors to make the infinite more manageable.
|
| And by metaphor I mean a thing regarded as representative or
| symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.
| edgyquant wrote:
| You're definitely correct about the religion part. That
| people want their religion to have "modern physics" shows
| just how religious science has become in the last century.
|
| Religion is supposed to be about guidance for people and how
| to live a good life as a part of the whole. Dealing with
| ethical codes, coping with the human condition of stress and
| suffering, familial and social bonds etc. Science on the
| other hand, at least hard science, is focused on making
| predictions about the material world. The two have very
| little overlap in general and trying to mix them I fear will
| not result in good science or good religion.
| Podgajski wrote:
| > Science on the other hand, at least hard science, is
| focused on making predictions about the material world.
|
| This was a purpose of the I Ching, divination!
|
| What else is science, but only a more refined method of
| this practice?
|
| And your definition of religion is very limited. Science
| can also guide us. I had to live a good life as part of a
| hole. It can also help cope with stress and suffering.
| Science gave us air-conditioning, and that reduces a lot of
| our suffering!
| kiba wrote:
| _Religion is supposed to be about guidance for people and
| how to live a good life as a part of the whole. Dealing
| with ethical codes, coping with the human condition of
| stress and suffering, familial and social bonds etc._
|
| It's all just mythology that also have some moral guidance,
| some of which is incompatible or purported to be
| incompatible with existence of people I care about.
|
| It isn't made for you and me today. It's made for people
| who lived thousand of years ago with their concerns and
| values.
|
| _Science on the other hand, at least hard science, is
| focused on making predictions about the material world. The
| two have very little overlap in general and trying to mix
| them I fear will not result in good science or good
| religion._
|
| Science is one of our most valuable and most reliable way
| to answer questions about reality. As such, it will always
| be a useful tool to help inform our moral questions, even
| if it's basically mostly silent on that question.
| dirtyhippiefree wrote:
| New Myths?
|
| Snopes dot com
|
| I know it's not exactly what you're looking for, but it's the
| most comprehensive telling of every modern myth they can find.
|
| Here are the ones in Technology...
|
| https://www.snopes.com/search/technology/
| JeffSnazz wrote:
| I'd assume unverifiable but narratively meaningful theories
| like multiverse theories, "the universe is a hologram", etc
| fill that role nicely. Sci-fi is full of them. "New Age"
| beliefs are what you're looking for at face value, of course.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| some have said - since we are ultimately, just humans..
| inquiry has to fit what a human is able to see-hear-think
| etc.. so human-centered inquiry took over the public process,
| over time. Humans are dangerous predators so, not being
| attacked by other humans while doing whatever is a non-
| trivial aspect of growth over time.
| stonlyb wrote:
| Thanks. Thought of these. I wondered if anyone has taken it a
| step further and created new gods (of the hologram, of the
| multiverse, etc) beyond the metaphysical/new-age trend
| towards "the self as god". I suppose Roko's basilisk true
| believers and their AI god counts.
| AlecSchueler wrote:
| In all seriousness I would recommend reading into the
| subculture around salvia.
| edgyquant wrote:
| >Basic assumption is that most/all are based on dated
| observations of seasons, planets, stars, etc -- things that
| were once mysteries in the mechanical universe.
|
| I think this is pretty much propaganda from anti-religious
| people. I have read all of the major religious texts over the
| last two years and If you look at most religions and their
| scriptures they deal very little with the physical world in
| general and are more focused on psychology and sociology than
| having serious thoughts on physics.
|
| Sure some of them have foundation myths which we may say is
| wrong, but that's a small part of any given religion and I
| don't believe anyone every took them serious in the way we
| think of something like the Big Bang.
| cyberpunk wrote:
| Did you include the shobogenzo?
| serf wrote:
| > I have read all of the major religious texts over the last
| two years
|
| you're doing better than a lot of monks did over their entire
| life time.
|
| call me a skeptic, but even if I was able to accomplish such
| a herculean feat over 2 years time I doubt I would have the
| time to grasp much of any of the content that I blazed
| through -- but of course we're different people -- allow me
| to express my awe.
| naremu wrote:
| Many of these texts have been around long enough for many
| dedicated people to put forth their own translations, and
| if relevant (like with many Chinese texts) with some kind
| of further researched commentary/citations to better
| explain linguistic concepts/cultural references that may
| not immediately be obvious otherwise.
|
| It helps a lot of texts without/before involving deities
| can actually be quite short and sweet, comparatively.
| Personally, I've found the greek classics to be much more
| difficult to get into than most of these "sacred texts".
| edgyquant wrote:
| I'm extremely proud of your skepticism at something I
| really haven't put much effort into.
|
| To clarify I haven't read every religious text, but I have
| now read the Old/New Testament, The Baghavad Gita, The Tao
| te Ching, The Quaran and currently working my way through
| the Buddhist Sutras (looking to start on Sikhism next).
| That is the main text of all major religions and I only
| read 20-30 pages a day (with some overlap/not reading one
| at a time.). It's very possible if you stick to it
| lifeline82 wrote:
| Buddhism is derivated from Christian heresy called
| Manicheism.
|
| Created and spread in Asia from Pakistan by third
| generation after apostle, called Mani.
|
| There isn't any evidence of any existing trace of
| Buddhism before 4th century AC, most Buddhism art are
| based on grec, and Syrian Christian artists who followed
| St Thomas the apostle into the east.
|
| Mani predated those early Christian with his fake
| teaching which founded Buddhism.
|
| Time to learn history.
|
| In short: Buddhism is just a Christian heresy
| (manicheism)
| tremon wrote:
| And in the same spirit, Christianity is just a Jewish
| heresy. What's your point?
| elefanten wrote:
| Seems like the natural gulf between a serf and an edgy
| quant. :shrug:
| naremu wrote:
| People seem quick to forget that religion/philosophy was
| originally married to the quest to discover more about our
| world.
|
| Carl Sagan, before lamenting about modern astrology, reminds
| us in Cosmos that astrology was once an actual attempt to
| make heads or tails of an impercievably large cosmic system
| and understands these are largely attempts at answers that
| simply lack the information/ability to falsify them yet.
|
| What psychological tendencies the common man has about those
| beliefs/theories presented to them is a whole other topic.
|
| I've finally read enough texts from various sources to feel
| ready to start Aldous Huxley's book on The Perennial
| Philosophy which I'm finding a refreshingly well researched
| alternative to, as you say, propaganda from whoever passes by
| in conversation.
| basil-rash wrote:
| Do we take the Big Bang seriously? As far as I can tell it's
| just a vague description of what a "rolling back" of the
| clock until we don't know how to go further might look like,
| under a whole ton of assumptions that are almost never
| stated. It's interesting to consider in basically the exact
| same way the 7 day creation story is, and it's quite likely
| that neither one is all that true - or all that false. Indeed
| they are quite compatible with each other, and incomplete.
| eropple wrote:
| Y...yes? We do take the Big Bang seriously because there
| are observable effects _of_ it.
|
| "As far as you can tell" is doing a massive amount of
| incurious lifting. Is phrenology making a comeback next?
| basil-rash wrote:
| That's tautological. We observe the effects, and assume
| they _must_ propagate backwards under rules we think we
| know, then say that the theory must be true because we
| observe the current state is the forward propagation
| under those same _assumed_ rules. It's unfalsifiable and
| accordingly uninteresting.
| slim wrote:
| I don't believe anyone ever took them serious
|
| I was surprised when I asked a religious person. They don't
| talk about it much, but they believe all of it in a literal
| way. Like they believe humanoid translucid creatures called
| Angels live with us. _We_ think it is a metaphor when they
| say the word, but it is not for them.
| stonlyb wrote:
| Im reminded of Roko's basilisk which I suppose may have gained
| a significant number of new believers in the last year.
|
| What I'm looking for is something specific to physics or
| astrophysics and that is at the scale of god / mythical
| creature creating. Like someone writing a literal (mythical?)
| interpretation of "Maxwell's Demon" into a new-new testament.
| CrypticShift wrote:
| So, you are looking for a "religiously presented" science
| text [1] rather than "scientifically presented" religious
| text (as most comments here suggest)?
|
| [1] i.e inferring classic religious ideas, like
| God/demons/etc from scientific premises
| stonlyb wrote:
| Both but yes more interested in "religiously presented"
| science. Again, based on the assumption that most religions
| started as tools approximately explaining what was known at
| the time (or for defining and increasing adherence to local
| policy).
| epiccoleman wrote:
| These aren't exactly "religion" or a "new myth", but the Seven
| Secular Sermons project is sort of in the wheelhouse:
|
| https://sevensecularsermons.org/
|
| I like them overall, though the meter breaks down in certain
| places which drives me crazy after being raised on Dr. Suess
| and Jack Prelutsky.
| criddell wrote:
| Scientology probably has a great deal of that.
| chiefgeek wrote:
| They are doing some interesting stuff over at
| https://scienceandnonduality.com
| naremu wrote:
| I suppose if you're a cold hard logic type only just dipping
| your toes into it, the Stoicism of old might be more your
| speed, as they considered logic and reason their hammer and
| nails, yet still retain a certain universal appreciation that I
| find vaguely similar to Taoism from China (along with a concept
| that change is the only constant)
|
| Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius has quite an interesting journal
| that also illustrates some of the thoughts and theories of the
| time (unable to confirm or deny it, he merely repeatedly brings
| up the possibility of atomism.)
|
| Atomism also apparently makes an appearance in some Indian
| philosophical texts, though I don't know them off hand.
|
| Philosophy was originally married to the "natural sciences",
| and so you'll find many scientific concepts originating in
| mystical thinking if you look past whatever simple version that
| suburban cavepeople of the area have decided is king.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Let's just make our own. I've always thought we should come up
| with a new religion around quantum immortality.
|
| Some basic thoughts could be:
|
| Since you are the only immortal one from your point of view,
| all of your loved ones will die before you, so don't worry too
| much about meddling in their affairs or changing them, just
| love them unconditionally. Your time with them is brief, so you
| may as well enjoy it.
|
| Make good memories together, you will carry them along
| eternally (meanwhile, from others' point of view, you will die
| at some point, but they will go on forever, so give them some
| good memories of you).
|
| Work toward the world and society you want to live in forever.
|
| Hold yourself to unusually high standards, because you will
| have to deal with the consequences of your actions for an
| unusually long time. Also someday you will probably be noticed
| as one of the earliest immortals, so try to live a life that
| stands up to some scrutiny.
|
| To avoid the stress of being incompatible with modern values,
| you'll have to keep updating your moral framework. Big jumps in
| your moral framework will be unpleasant to deal with mentally,
| so keep up with where society is going. You don't have the
| benefit of dying and becoming a product of your time at some
| point.
| nonrandomstring wrote:
| You would probably enjoy Nietzsche's "Eternal recurrence"
| bee_rider wrote:
| Hmm, even just reading the Wikipedia article has brought up
| some annoying philosophical/physics questions. I think we
| should instead aim to hit a critical mass of supporters
| with feel-good pablum and hopefully one of them will be
| good at arguing with philosophers, as that is beyond me. :)
|
| Jokes aside, interesting article thanks.
| kukkeliskuu wrote:
| Check out the Jung/Pauli letters.
|
| https://www.themarginalian.org/2017/03/09/atom-and-archetype...
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| They have text and illustrations of _The Secret Teachings of All
| Ages_ but the images are B &W scans. https://sacred-
| texts.com/eso/sta/index.htm
|
| The large color illustrations are why I have a copy of the book
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22the+secret+teachings+of+all+age...
| edgyquant wrote:
| I did like this book but feel a lot of it was Halls fan
| fiction. Especially the section on Gnosticism seems completely
| false compared to what we've uncovered from actual gnostics and
| their scriptures over the past 30 years
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| I'm pretty much with you. Originally I qualified my post with
| some remark about not heaping trust on a 1910s understanding
| of the occult - and cut it out for brevity.
|
| I bought an 80's ed of TSTAA when I was big on spiritualism -
| and even then I approached it like an art piece. Maybe the
| sampler format doesn't work for me.
|
| Or maybe it was Manly Hall's glamour shot. https://upload.wik
| imedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Manly_P....
| rapjr9 wrote:
| You can't download an entire work, you can only view HTML pages
| of chapters. You can indeed read the texts online but the site
| seems designed to prevent downloading an entire text, try Project
| Gutenberg or the Internet Archive first if you want a local copy.
|
| "Q: Why all the short files? I want to download the entire book
| in one file! A: Sorry. The short files are for technical reasons
| which greatly reduce the cost of hosting the site. Newer books
| typically have a one-file text-only version, which is optimized
| for screen reader software. Look for the links on the index pages
| that say 'Text'"
|
| There is no text file for the I-Ching on sacred-texts, if you
| want to download it here's the archive.org versions:
|
| https://archive.org/details/I-Ching
|
| Here's the James Legge translation of the Tao Tey King in one
| text file:
|
| https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/216/pg216.txt
| huytersd wrote:
| It would be great if someone could make a torrent of all of
| these in one go.
| _a_a_a_ wrote:
| Or you could buy it, that's what the site's for IIRC.
| huytersd wrote:
| I guess but it's $127 for information I can read in its
| entirety for free already. I'm sure if they had a more
| nominal price around $10-20 they would get a lot more
| purchases. After all it's really an aggregation of existing
| texts.
| nprateem wrote:
| Kind of related to what I was mentioning on the Godel thread, but
| IMO the Kundalini (or whatever you call it) experience is the
| "grand unifying theory" of religion and mythology (although it's
| not actually a theory, but an experience).
|
| It provides an explanation for where religions may have come
| from, beyond our typically pompous attitude that earlier
| generations of people were superstitious and stupid. Instead, it
| suggests that the founders of religions experienced dramatic
| shifts in consciousness which they were trying to explain in the
| language of the day (and which, since their followers rarely had
| such experiences themselves, were subsequently misinterpreted).
| amanaplanacanal wrote:
| Is that the same thing as "The mystical experience" as we know
| it in western writings, or "kensho" as the zen folks call it?
| nprateem wrote:
| To be honest, I haven't read into western writing too much,
| but kundalini certainly leads to mystical experiences. It's
| closer to the Holy Spirit in Christianity, an animating
| principle (where the Father is pure awareness).
|
| Kensho sounds more like insight gained into reality. While
| kundalini isn't required to have such insights, some authors
| say that attainment of it makes it easier to have them.
|
| Generally, in Buddhism, they don't explicity talk about
| kundalini, except Tibetan Buddhism, where they have the
| rainbow body and vajrayana. Several authors do mention it,
| e.g. Culadasa in The Mind Illuminated and Shinzen Young
| amongst others. It's also clear from the Buddha's
| descriptions that he'd awoken his kundalini (at least that's
| my belief).
| naremu wrote:
| The Perennial Philosophy (both the concept and the book)
| focuses on more these types of things.
|
| It brings up that even in Christianity you can easily point at
| the non-personified elements of the theology and find
| conceptual relation to geographically unrelated beliefs.
|
| One interesting bit he mentions is how dangerous it could be to
| be one of those people without being in some prophetic or
| theologically defensible position; Meister Eckhart being quoted
| heavily talking about the divinity of god being in all things,
| in a similar way as hinduism or etc might talk about
| divinity/all being in all things.
|
| Of course he eventually _was_ tried as a heretic in the papal
| courts, as it seems the beauty of unity revealed to the sage is
| often the nightmare of the local conqueror.
| nprateem wrote:
| Yeah, historically, and even now, there were good reasons for
| not talking about altered states of consciousness too much.
| It seemed like a good way to end up being executed.
|
| Now describing some of the experiences that are supposed to
| accompany altered states (hallucinations, strange abilities,
| etc) could still lead to reputational damage. Hopefully
| things are changing though, as Western scientists are
| beginning to study spiritual awakenings:
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8417526/
|
| https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-34730-006
| a-ungurianu wrote:
| Wonder how hard would it be to convert all the public domain
| texts to Standard Ebooks. I know there's already ebooks of most
| of these texts, but having them all together in a standard form
| would be nice.
| fnorder wrote:
| This would be a cool project for a Uni Humanities Department
| and would lend some credibility to the finished product. Get
| them rolling with some basic infra; a site, wiki, bugtracker
| and git repo.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| Happy three-kings day from California
| emporas wrote:
| Nice collection that is. I always find old tales and stories from
| the past very entertaining. Their knowledge about neutrinos was
| not very advanced, but still...
|
| Nostradamus: "When the animal domesticated by man
|
| After great pains and leaps will come to speak"
| xrd wrote:
| I was thinking this would be a fun way to get access to more
| monster stories. I'm bored of the usual ones.
|
| I started digging into the Shinto text, the Kojiki. This is my
| favorite story so far:
|
| https://archive.sacred-texts.com/shi/kj/kj153.htm
|
| As far as I can tell, it looks like a young prince was mad his
| uncle didn't get mad that the uncle's brother was killed. So the
| prince killed the uncle in a fit of rage. Then, another brother
| was similarly unconcerned, so the prince buried him up to his
| shins which caused eyes to pop out and then die.
|
| No monsters so far. But, about as ludicrous and disjointed as
| most writing from a thousand years ago. It takes a special person
| to twist that into a religion.
| Loughla wrote:
| What is the metaphor of your eyes popping out when buried to
| your shins?
| xrd wrote:
| Technically, after reading it again, I see it was his loins.
| I'm not sure, is this a riddle?
| Loughla wrote:
| No, my assumption is it's a metaphor.
|
| Loins makes much more sense as the metaphor, as that's an
| area of the body that can get you in real trouble if you
| don't think first.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Is the young prince portrayed as basically the villain or as
| the protagonist (he sounds like the monster)? I could see this
| story as a warning about getting angry on the part of others if
| he's portrayed in a negative light (he did more damage to his
| family by being angry "for" them). Or I could see it as a story
| basically about upholding some social standard, if he's
| portrayed in a positive light (if the story thinks the uncles
| deserve it).
|
| Of course the latter reading is incompatible with modern
| morals, but then the past is a weird place.
| salt-thrower wrote:
| Love this site. I've been reading it periodically since high
| school. Glad it's still around.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| Related: https://archive.org/details/the-context-of-scripture
|
| (Egyptian, Hittite, West Semitic, Akkadian, and Sumerian texts)
| smeej wrote:
| > The Gospel of Thomas Reputedly the writings of the apostle
| 'Doubting Thomas'. This text purports to be a collection of the
| sayings of Jesus. Traditionally Thomas was Jesus' twin brother.
| This text shows strong Gnostic influence.
|
| I'll admit I'm not deeply familiar with most religious
| traditions, but I am absolutely sure none of the major ones have
| any "tradition" in which Jesus had a twin brother. Yes, "Thomas"
| means "the twin," but not because people believed he was actually
| Jesus' twin brother.
|
| It's hard for me to take any of the summaries seriously after
| that, and it's _almost_ enough to make me wonder whether the
| collection would actually include accurate copies of the
| documents it claims to.
| eruleman wrote:
| You're not familiar with this text or gnosticism.
|
| GPT-4: "In Gnostic texts, particularly those found in the Nag
| Hammadi library, Thomas is often referred to as "Didymos Judas
| Thomas." The name "Didymos" is Greek for "twin," and "Thomas"
| is Aramaic for "twin." In the Gospel of Thomas, one of the
| Gnostic gospels, Thomas is depicted as having a special
| understanding or connection to Jesus, but the text does not
| explicitly state that Thomas is Jesus's twin in a biological
| sense.
|
| Instead, the "twin" designation may be symbolic, representing a
| spiritual kinship or a metaphorical relationship rather than a
| literal familial one. Gnostic texts are known for their
| symbolic and allegorical language, and the exact nature of
| Thomas's relationship to Jesus is subject to interpretation.
| It's also worth noting that Gnostic beliefs were diverse, and
| different texts might portray the relationship differently."
| neaden wrote:
| Leaving aside GPT as a source you're saying agreeing with OP
| that Thomas is not traditionally understood to be Jesus' twin
| brother, except in perhaps a spiritual sense so the summary
| is wrong.
| stryan wrote:
| The summary is written in the context of the tradition the
| text is in, not an overall Christian/etc context.
| archon1410 wrote:
| > In later traditions (most notably in the Acts of Thomas, Book
| of Thomas the Contender, etc.), Thomas is regarded as the twin
| brother of Jesus.
|
| Wikipedia cites a primary source, a translation of the Gospel
| of Thomas by John D. Turner, for this claim. It does has say
| "Now, since it has been said that you are my 8 twin and true
| companion [...]" in that translation.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Thomas
|
| http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/bookt-jdt-ln.html
| xhevahir wrote:
| Like the other commenter said, The Gospel of Thomas is a real
| religious scripture from a date very early in the Christian
| era. When Origen, Eusebius, and the other Church Fathers
| decided which texts and doctrines were properly Christian, they
| didn't include the Gospel of Thomas. Assuming they were aware
| of Thomas at all, they would have judged its content to be
| heretical. It's likely, though, that Thomas' readers saw it as
| forming part of the nascent Jesus movement. Not only that, it
| shows signs of having borrowed from the same "sayings gospel,"
| "Q," that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels used as a source
| verisimi wrote:
| What else can you tell us about the historicity Jesus? And how
| is it you are able to say anything about this person that is
| purported to have lived 2000 years ago?
| kouru225 wrote:
| I was curious if this would include books on alchemy.
|
| It does
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