Category:Secret Knowledge in Christianity (subject)

The idea that there is a secret (superior) knowledge behind Christianity, preserved by a group of chosen, was wide-spread since antiquity in Gnostic circles and has resurfaced in modern neo-Gnostic movements.

Overview

The first text to claim that Jesus revealed a secret knowledge to one of his disciples, was the Gospel of Thomas.

Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like:

Simon Peter [=Gospel of Mark] said to him: You are like a righteous angel.

Matthew [=Gospel of Matthew] said to him: You are like a wise philosopher.

Thomas said to him: "My mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like." And Jesus took him and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him. "What did Jesus say to you?" "If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up” (13)

Similar claims are repeated in other later Gnostic Gospels, notably, the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene.

In contrast to the canonical gospels which paint Judas as the betrayer, the Gospel of Judas portrays Judas's actions as done in obedience to instructions given by Christ. The Gospel of Judas does not claim that the other disciples knew about Jesus's true teachings. On the contrary, it asserts that they had not learned the true Gospel, which Jesus taught only to Judas Iscariot, the sole follower belonging to the "holy generation" among the disciples.

In the Gospel of Mary, Peter asks Mary Magdalene to share with them any special teaching she received from the Savior,

“Peter said to Mary, ‘Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of the women. Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember—which you know (but) we do not, nor have we heard them.’”

Mary responds to Peter’s request by recounting a conversation she had with the Savior about visions. Her vision does not meet with universal approval. Andrew and Peter appear to be offended by the discovery that Jesus selected Mary above the other disciples to interpret his teachings.

Andrew answered and said to the brethren, "Say what you think concerning what she said. For I do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are of other ideas." ... Peter also opposed her in regard to these matters and asked them about the Savior. "Did he then speak secretly with a woman, in preference to us, and not openly? Are we to turn back and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?" (Mary 9:2-4)

The controversy with Gnosticism ended with the triumph of "orthodox Christianity and the demise of Gnostic churches in the 4th-5th centuries.

Gnostic tendencies however never completely disappeared in the Church and in fringe esoteric groups

From the end of the 19th century, original Gnostic texts became available once more. The rediscovery of the Gnostic collection at Nag-Hammadi and the publication of the Gospel of Thomas revived interest in ancient Gnosticism.

The contemporary success of conspiracy theories concerning the existence (and suppression) of secret knowledge in Christianity started with the publication in 1982 of Baigent's book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail but it took a novel, The Da Vinci Code in 2003 to transform them into an international mania.