The Apocryphon of John is one of the most intriguing gnostic texts. Like all the gnostic gospels the church considers this heretical since it contains teachings that differ from mainstream Christianity. When we go through this text we should keep in mind that many gnostic sects were persecuted and put to death for following these philosophies.
The content of the text describes Jesus appearing in a vision and revealing secret knowledge (gnosis) to Apostle John The Apocryphon of John also is one of the most misunderstood texts and various interpretations of it from the academic to the conspiratorial float around. There are four separate surviving manuscripts of “The Secret Book of John”. Three of these were found as a part of the Nag Hammadi corpus, while the fourth was found independently 50 years earlier from another site in Egypt. All four versions are conservatively dated to the 4th century. Under the reign of emperors like Theodosius, the church could have you put to death for possessing these texts so not many copies survived.
The secret book of John talks about concepts like the reincarnation (samsara), turning away from the material world, ignorance of the divine spirit within, and other very Dharmic concepts.
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