The Gospel of Truth is an early Christian homily in which an anonymous and independent-minded teacher communicates his understanding of the core Christian message to his own immediate circle and a wider audience elsewhere. For this author, the gospel is the good news that in the person of Jesus, the divine Father has made himself known to his elect, calling them out of a nightmare-like existence in ignorance and illusion into the knowledge of himself. In this volume, Francis Watson provides a new and accessible translation of this text, along with a thorough analysis of it, both in its own terms and in its reception by later readers. He argues that its closest affinities lie with New Testament texts such as the Gospel of John and the Pauline letters. Watson also demonstrates how The Gospel of Truth is a work of literary quality and theological originality and why it deserves the attention of all students and scholars of early Christianity.

• Provides a translation of the Coptic text of the Gospel of Truth
• Focuses on the literary qualities, the structure, and the theological originality of the text, and its close links with other early Christian literature, especially the texts of the New Testament
• Examines the history of the text's reception, including its role within 2nd century theological controversy, its incorporation into two of the Nag Hammadi codices, and the story of its modern rediscovery and its mixed scholarly reception