Many years of study of Christian origins have convinced some of us that it is impossible to be absolutely certain historically of any objective fact relating to the life of Jesus as handed on by tradition. -from the Foreword How much of the New Testament gospel story is true? This is the stunning question posed-and answered-in this provocative volume, first published in 1903 and just as…

Everybody in Christendom has heard of Simon, the magician, and how Peter, the apostle, rebuked him, as told in the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles. Many also have heard the legend of how at Rome this wicked sorcerer endeavoured to fly by aid of the demons, and how Peter caused him to fall headlong and thus miserably perish. And so most think that there is an end of the matter, and either…

This is one of the best books about the Gnostics written prior to the Nag Hammadi discoveries. G.R.S. Mead, who also translated the Pistis Sophia, summarizes what was known about the Gnostics at the turn of the 20th century. At that time, a better picture of the Gnostics was emerging, based on several papyri which had been recently discovered.

Through the life of Apollonius of Tyana, Mead, in this 1901 work, brings in to focus a previously unknown time in history. Very little was known about the lives and motivations of those living in the first century A.D. Nor was there much information about how Christianity developed immediately after the life of Jesus.