The Forgotten Bible

In the years leading up to the Common Era, the Jewish people drew faith from hundreds of sacred writings, many of which claimed to contain the words of prophets, kings and patriarchs—even Adam. Similarly, the early Christians produced a wealth of texts that the established Church dismissed or branded heretical: they range from legends about the boy Jesus to the mystical Gnostic gospels. Because these powerful, often beautiful works were written out of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, for centuries most remained unknown outside a small circle of theologians and academics. With profound scholarship, Professor J. R. Porter has now gathered these ancient texts in a richly illustrated anthology, pairing translated extracts in accessible, modern language with commentaries that illuminate their character and importance.