Willis Barnstone

A good and clear translation of a great variety of texts from different times, religious movements, and places and the best sampler of what an alternate history Bible might have looked like (if Christianity had never existed, or a more Jewish form had won out, or a more Gnostic one etc.) Contains Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish mysticism, Christian literature, Gnostic works, poems and much more.

Full of a splendid assortment of wonders (and a helpful selection of rarities like the Odes of Solomon) show more grouped by type of book. (Read the Acts of the Apostles and wondering what the deed-books of other disciples read like? Read on. Read the Book of Revelation and wondering what other books of its ilk read like -- they were a genre. Read on.) Nearly every work I would wish to give a reader to show the variety and splendor of non-Biblical literature is here, a thoughtfully chosen anthology.

Best read in small doses for its sheer strangeness and variety, but warmly recommended.

-Kushana show less

Excellent collection of Early Christian era texts. Contains Gnostic, Dead Sea Scroll, Apocrypha and Jewish texts. Pretty obvious why most of these didn't make it into the Christian Bible. But these are valuable texts that rival the bible in importance when we consider the evolution of religious thought in the formative period of the Christian Church. The Gnostics are the most heavily represented. Several branchs of Gnostic texts are included here. It would be nice to see the Nag Hammadi show more books represented a little better however. While the texts of the christian authors are interesting, the introductory matter to each of the individual texts makes this Bible well worth buying. Barnstones introductions help bring this disparate group of Christian thinkers into perspective. show less

Facing page Greek and English. This book has an excellent introduction to Sappho and her work. There's not much left to us after the Christians destroyed what they could. Many of these are only fragments, starting and ending abruptly. Some are only a few words. Read her if you haven't. I found Barnstone's translations lyrical and easy to read.

Disclaimer: I only listened to the CDs.

A few good bits, lots and lots of waffle. Like with canonical Christianity, I am much more interested in the ideas and realities surrounding the religion than with its poorly written rambling texts.

I think these CDs would be better for someone who already had a great familiarity with the material and some of its 'hidden' (i.e. invented) meanings.