{"product_id":"2940013775459","title":"The Gospel of Philip the Deacon","description":"This work is put before the reading public purely as literature, relying\u003cbr\u003eentirely upon its intrinsic merits as a narrative and probability as an\u003cbr\u003eaccount, given in great detail, of the birth, mission, and death of the\u003cbr\u003egreat Prophet of Christendom, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah foretold in\u003cbr\u003ethe sacred writings of Israel. The doctrinal matter it contains will\u003cbr\u003efurnish the student with a further criterion of its reliability.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe reader is free to ignore, if he prefer to do so, any a priori claim\u003cbr\u003eto authenticity which the document itself may suggest and it were better\u003cbr\u003ethat he should in this respect form for himself an entirely unbiased\u003cbr\u003eopinion. He will then be free to consider whether the nature of the\u003cbr\u003esubject matter and its treatment may not in itself constitute a proof for\u003cbr\u003ehim that the work does in fact enshrine the veritable memories and\u003cbr\u003eimpressions of one who lived in the lifetime of Jesus and witnessed much\u003cbr\u003eof what He taught and did.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe work is not a translation, as its perusal will plainly shew. It is a\u003cbr\u003erendering into fair English of a somewhat 'biblical' flavour of a\u003cbr\u003enarrative purporting to come direct from the original source; and this is\u003cbr\u003eobtained by a method of recovery which, though still unfamiliar to the\u003cbr\u003emajority of students, is now winning increasing attention in circles\u003cbr\u003edevoted to psychological enquiry. It is in fact the fruit of a sustained\u003cbr\u003eand earnest experiment in the recall of past memories through the\u003cbr\u003esubconscious channels of the mind of the living, and by the involuntary\u003cbr\u003euse of the hand,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhence, then, the biblical English in which the Gospel of Philip is cast?\u003cbr\u003eWe cannot certainly answer: for the scribe is unnamed and is only known\u003cbr\u003eto us as one of a group employed in the rendering of such documents into\u003cbr\u003eour mother-tongue in a framework of words which might be considered\u003cbr\u003esuitable to the nature of the subject, to emphasize its special character\u003cbr\u003eas the record of a Christian evangelist. Assuming the facts as stated, it\u003cbr\u003ewould seem to be the work of one who was living some two centuries ago:\u003cbr\u003ebut there is a blending of influences in the literary character and we\u003cbr\u003eseem to detect the hand of more than one intermediary in the\u003cbr\u003einterpretation and expression of Philip's thought.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe work is received in fair and legible manuscript, the presence of two\u003cbr\u003epersons, one being the actual amanuensis, being always needed for the\u003cbr\u003etask. From the first transcript through three successive stages of\u003cbr\u003eamendment the work has taken rather over two and a half years to evolve\u003cbr\u003eto the state of comparative perfection as a harmonious prose narrative\u003cbr\u003ewhich it now assumes. It is not perfect: for the conditions attending its\u003cbr\u003etransmission render anything approaching finality of perfection\u003cbr\u003eimpracticable: but it is at least an honest and conscientious attempt to\u003cbr\u003ebring into being the best rendering of the mind and intention of Philip\u003cbr\u003ethat, in our present state of knowledge and practice, is feasible to\u003cbr\u003ethose engaged in the task.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Gospel of Philip is here published in its entirety for the first\u003cbr\u003etime. A minor part of it (embracing Sections I, IV, and V.) has appeared\u003cbr\u003ein serial form in the pages of an English weekly, whence it was reprinted\u003cbr\u003ein a limited edition, and circulated among a small group of interested\u003cbr\u003epersons. The work came into the hands of one eminent scholar, Revd. W. O.\u003cbr\u003eE. Oesterley, D.D., examining chaplain to the Bishop of London, by whom\u003cbr\u003eit was favorably spoken of. It was also the subject of an interesting\u003cbr\u003ereview by the premier English Church newspaper, the 'Guardian', whose\u003cbr\u003ereviewer, writing in the issue for Dec. 24, 1925, under the heading\u003cbr\u003e'Subconscious Tradition' says:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In a short introduction it is stated that this writing claims to be a\u003cbr\u003erecord from the 'Tree of Memory' which ever endures notwithstanding the\u003cbr\u003edestruction of the material record. It claims to be inspired by Philip\u003cbr\u003ehimself (i.e. Philip the Deacon of Acts vi. 5.) and to be given through\u003cbr\u003ethe agency of intermediates, scribes or recorders, whose task it is to\u003cbr\u003erender the thoughts and mental images of Philip into ideas and terms\u003cbr\u003efamiliar to the modern English mind and hence appreciable to us,....\u003cbr\u003eAmong the living there is sometimes a mysterious intercommunication\u003cbr\u003ebetween minds attuned to one another: and if we believe in life beyond\u003cbr\u003ethe grave and in the continued existence of personal identity as being\u003cbr\u003eindependent of time and space, there does not necessarily seem any a\u003cbr\u003epriori reason why such intercommunion should not take place simply\u003cbr\u003ebecause one of two attuned minds has ceased to be trammelled by the\u003cbr\u003eflesh. We have therefore read this book with an open unprejudiced\u003cbr\u003emind....","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47166474125552,"sku":"2940013775459","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013775459_p0.jpg?v=1763590072","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013775459","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}