Chapter 12 Student Reading Guide

Jesus from Different Perspectives: Other Gospels in Early Christianity

1. What is the context of the Johannine epistles, and how do these letters respond to this context?

2. What are our sources for understanding ancient Gnosticism? What is the Nag Hammadi library, and how has it contributed to our knowledge of Gnosticism?

3. What was the basic theological perspective of Christian Gnosticism (i.e., its views of the world, the divine realm, the human race, salvation, Christ, the church, and ethics)? How might Sethians and Valentinians have answered some components of this question differently?

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