Elaine Pagels

In 1945, fifty-two papyrus texts, including gospels and other secret documents, were found concealed in an earthenware jar buried in the Egyptian desert. These so-called Gnostic writings were Coptic translations from the original Greek dating from the time of the New Testament. The material they embodied—poems, quasi-philosophical descriptions of the origins of the universe, myths, magic, and instructions for mystic...