I have, for years, been interested in apocrypha and the gnostic texts and other books of antiquity and scripture that is not part of the canonical bible. There is a very good website which hosts these texts at the Internet Sacred Text Archive. The texts contained in that site are all in the public domain. One can also get a CD or DVD of the site's content.
At about Easter time (which is the usual time for this stuff) the History Channel aired several shows, "Banned From the Bible" and "Banned From the Bible II". Four hours of information discussing ancient texts which, while widely read and well known at the time, were for whatever reasons not included in the official canonical bible we all know and love today.
There are a variety of reasons why these books were left out. Some, especially the gnostic texts, were (and still are by some) considered heretical. As more and more of the earth is used and settled upon and trampled, more and more of these ancient writings are coming to light. They are being found where they were left thousands of years ago. This is terribly fascinating to me.
One of the books discussed in the section we watched last night (we Tivo'ed the shows for later consumption) discussed the "Testament of Solomon". This is one book I would like to read. I couldn't find it on the Sacred-Texts archive, but I'm certain enough of an internet search will reveal one or more translations. In this book, which was discovered as a 14th or 15th century manuscript, but is believed to me much older due to several early AD and even some BC texts that reference the writing.
In "Testament of Solomon", Solomon is not only super wise and super rich, he is also quite the wizard. He is given (I suppose by God or an angel) a special ring which gives him the ability to control Satan and the demons (like "Lord of the Rings" - kinda). He uses the demons as slave labor to build the great Temple of Solomon.
Sheesh, sometimes I just ramble don't I.
Hey, thanks for visiting!
Technorati Tags: Religion, Apocrypha, Ancient Scripture, History, Gnostics
At about Easter time (which is the usual time for this stuff) the History Channel aired several shows, "Banned From the Bible" and "Banned From the Bible II". Four hours of information discussing ancient texts which, while widely read and well known at the time, were for whatever reasons not included in the official canonical bible we all know and love today.
There are a variety of reasons why these books were left out. Some, especially the gnostic texts, were (and still are by some) considered heretical. As more and more of the earth is used and settled upon and trampled, more and more of these ancient writings are coming to light. They are being found where they were left thousands of years ago. This is terribly fascinating to me.
One of the books discussed in the section we watched last night (we Tivo'ed the shows for later consumption) discussed the "Testament of Solomon". This is one book I would like to read. I couldn't find it on the Sacred-Texts archive, but I'm certain enough of an internet search will reveal one or more translations. In this book, which was discovered as a 14th or 15th century manuscript, but is believed to me much older due to several early AD and even some BC texts that reference the writing.
In "Testament of Solomon", Solomon is not only super wise and super rich, he is also quite the wizard. He is given (I suppose by God or an angel) a special ring which gives him the ability to control Satan and the demons (like "Lord of the Rings" - kinda). He uses the demons as slave labor to build the great Temple of Solomon.
Sheesh, sometimes I just ramble don't I.
Hey, thanks for visiting!
Technorati Tags: Religion, Apocrypha, Ancient Scripture, History, Gnostics
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