Item #63302 Materials for the Study of the Apostolic Gnosis Part I; Containing preface and apologia, introduction, historical article, the naming of St. John the Baptist, the parables in St. Matthew XIII. Frederick Bligh BOND, Thomas Simcox Lea.
Materials for the Study of the Apostolic Gnosis Part I; Containing preface and apologia, introduction, historical article, the naming of St. John the Baptist, the parables in St. Matthew XIII
Materials for the Study of the Apostolic Gnosis Part I; Containing preface and apologia, introduction, historical article, the naming of St. John the Baptist, the parables in St. Matthew XIII

Materials for the Study of the Apostolic Gnosis Part I; Containing preface and apologia, introduction, historical article, the naming of St. John the Baptist, the parables in St. Matthew XIII

Oxford: B.H. Blackwell, 1919. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo, 127pp + ipp advert. Original deep green cloth with gilt titling to spine. The true first Edition - preceding the US edition by a year. An exploration of the Gnostic system of numbers (Greek Kabbalah - Gematria) discovered in the Greek Testament and the Septuagint. Thomas Simcox Lea (c. 1853 - 1939) was an Oxford educated clergyman with a profound interest in gnosticism and the hidden meanings of the Bible, whose theories on the metaphysical symbolism of the geometric and mathematical aspects of the Bruce Gnostic papyrus attracted the attention of Frederick Bligh Bond (1864 -1945) who came to collaborate with him on several works on the subject. Bond was an architect, Freemason, Theosophist, and member of both the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the Society for Psychical Research, with a great interest in the esoteric. He was famously employed by the Church of England to undertake the excavations at Glastonbury Abbey, to which task he applied the skills normally associated with psychism and Spiritualism in addition to the more conventional archaeological and historical method. This brought down the wrath of the Church hierarchy, who eventually dismissed him. Cloth rubbed, all edges and extremities chafed, corners and spine ends bruised and chafed, penciled note and ink stamp on front pastedown, a very few scattered spots of browning, else a tight, unmarked VG copy. Scarce in first edition. Item #63302

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