This is hyperbole made for television. The Christian faith was hardly shaken by the discovery of Gnostic texts at Nag Hammadi. Gnosticism is a perennial heresy and a powerful competitor to orthodox Christianity in the early centuries of the church. But the undeniable fact, left unacknowledged by many current controversialists and popularizers, is that the church effectively denounced the Gnostics and their texts.
The program presented the core beliefs of the Gnostics fairly well. Professor Meyer explained:
The word "Gnostic" comes from the Greek "gnosis," which means knowledge, but it's not the kind of knowledge that you simply get out of books, but, rather, it is mystical knowledge. It is insight into the true nature of -- of who you are, and what is your relationship to God, and is there an essence, a spark, a bit of the light of God within your own self.
Neeson rightly commented: "The Gnostic message was very seductive: a mix of Greek philosophy, Egyptian religion, and Eastern mysticism, all very contemporary in its spirituality."
Meyer pointed right to the key distinction between the canonical Gospels and the Gnostic texts:
The New Testament Gospels are gospels of the cross. The Gnostic gospels are gospels of wisdom. The New Testament Gospels care about salvation from sin. The Gnostic gospels care about salvation from ignorance. The New Testament Gospels look to stimulate faith. The Gnostic gospels look to stimulate knowledge and insight.
That statement is worth filing away for future use. He got it just right.
The program was less sure-footed when it tried to present Gnostic variants as more friendly to feminist concerns. Meyer claimed: "It was the Gnostics that thought that the role of the female as an image and the role of women within the church should be advanced, so that God is not only male; God is also female. There are not only male leaders; there are female leaders. There are not only male priests; there are female priests. And, in this way, there is a kind of gender balance found in these texts."
Well, as long as you look at the texts that fit that characterization. Neeson quickly commented: "That balance is not found in the Gnostic gospel of Thomas, where Peter asks Jesus to send Mary Magdalene on her way, for women aren't worthy of apostolic life." Ehrman further explains: "And Jesus replies, "Leave her alone, for I shall make her a male, for every woman who becomes a male will enter the kingdom of God." That statement will not go over well where feminist theologians gather. It is also a rejection of New Testament Christianity. As Ehrman notes, "This isn't a very liberating view of women, and not one I think that people probably want to latch on to today."
The panelists helpfully rejected the most hysterical suggestions of recent days, including the claim popularized by The DaVinci Code that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children with her. Further, Neeson also noted: "Perhaps the biggest problem with the Gnostic gospels is that they were written decades, and even centuries, after the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. For some historians, that passage of time raises serious questions of authenticity." Indeed.
In the end, the program was more fair than the advertising materials would have indicated. The most ideological portion of the program came when claims were presented to the effect that early Christianity was "completely egalitarian." This is irresponsible. It is not true to the Gospels, much less to the remainder of the New Testament. The program insinuated or claimed that the development of church offices, the restriction of the teaching office to men, and the development of the New Testament canon were basically due to political concerns rather than theological imperatives.
Finally, the program attempted to explain the transformation of Christianity from a movement oppressed to the point of martyrdom by Rome into a faith officially recognized by the Emperor. In the course of this consideration, the program turned to the Council of Nicea, called by the authority of Emperor Constantine in 325. The program got the theological judgment right, but confused the context.
