In the spring of 367, the archbishop of Alexandria sent an Easter letter to the churches of Egypt, ordering believers to reject what he called illegitimate and secret books. His name was Athanasius, his letter contained the first known list of the New Testament exactly as we have it, and somewhere up the Nile, most likely at a monastery whose monks treasured the forbidden volumes, somebody responded by sealing a library in a jar instead of feeding it to a fire. ...
For roughly two centuries, the movements we now call Gnostic and orthodox Christianity were neighbors, rivals, and frequently members of the same congregation. They read many of the same texts, revered the same Christ, and sometimes shared the same eucharist until a bishop found out. The split between them was real and it was slow, and understanding where the two actually differed beats every caricature in circulation. This post lays out the differences fairly, with no side’s polemic doing the talking. Seven divides carry most of the weight. ...