The Original Teachings of Jesus: Recovered, Translated and Explained

There are two lost gospels, one found almost 60 years ago, and the other found less than twenty years ago, that we now know contain the oldest, largest and most accurate collections of the teachings of Jesus. These are The Gospel of Thomas and a gospel called Q1. These teachings amaze some people and disturb others because these documents were written before the early Christian church rewrote Jesus' words to give us the New Testament gospels.The Original Teachings of Jesus offers a unique translation of these two gospels. The sayings have been organized to make sense and flow as they would from the mouth of Jesus. Additionally, this translation recovers root meanings and idioms from Jesus' native Aramaic to bring the subtleties and flavor of his own culture to print. For example, God is called "The One." Heaven is called the "World of Light." Hell is never mentioned.The original teachings of Jesus are deeply spiritual, but they are not religious. Salvation is offered, but it is accomplished by spiritual enlightenment and has nothing to do with sin. These teachings offer a clear set of instructions for achieving spiritual enlightenment and promise that seeking and practicing bring one to a personal experience of God and of The World of Light.This is the only book to date that combines these two lost gospels in a way that uncovers the spiritual teachings of this mystic Aramaic teacher, Jesus. There are 134 teachings, accompanied by an explanation of what they meant in the context of Jesus' time and culture and a commentary on what the teachings mean in our own time. Last, but not least, the Introduction tells the compelling stories behind both lost gospels.Chapters include: Spiritual Awareness, How To Live, Jesus' Students, God, Jesus, Wisdom and The Judeans.

Doctor Buckner was a Methodist minister from 1972-1986, having completed a Master of Divinity from Duke University in 1979. He then completed a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and worked as a psychologist until 2002, when he retired and began to pursue research about the spiritual teachings of the historical Jesus. Doctor Buckner resides in East Tennessee with his psychologist wife and their daughter.