The Apostle John & The Master
In J. Philip Newell’s book, “Christ of the Celts”, the author shares a story from a non canonical manuscript. In it, Jesus in a dream, ( it seems John was prone to do some “Holy Dreaming”) encounters the apostle –whom He loved. This is a post resurrection event. and this account is from the Secret Book of John , a second century manuscript uncovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. In the account described in this ancient(2nd century) text, The Risen Eternal Christ says to John—that we… …“as humans have forgotten ourselves, that we all share in this “bond of forgetfulness”. He elaborates, “We do not know ourselves, nor do we remember our beginnings. We are in what is like a deep sleep. The more distant we become from our essential or true self, the more we fall under the sway of the false self, or what he in the encounter calls “the counterfeit self”. There are common traits to this false self, Christ goes on to explain, “The bond of forgetfulness is characterized by three symptoms, ign