David Ovason, The two children.

Condition : good, minor signs of shelf wear, slightly browned, former book owner's plate, price-clipped.

There is a long-forgotten spiritual tradition that two children, both named Jesus, were born in Bethlehem to two sets of parents named Joseph and Mary. This tradition is supported by the various accounts of the nativity and life of Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Although the Church chose to ignore this tradition, elements of it have survived in early Christian art and symbolism. The full tradition has only been preserved in the literature of esoteric sects such as Gnosticism, which has remained outside the official teachings of institutionalised Christianity. In The Two Children, David Ovason explores the literature in which this tradition has been preserved, particularly in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, Coptic, and Greek manuscripts, such as the scrolls discovered at Qumram, near the Dead Sea, and the ancient codexes of Chenoboskion (Nag Hammadi), in Upper Egypt. Ovason also explores other fascinating and 'apocryphal' texts that refer to the two children. These references have subsequently been suppressed or glossed over by church apologists.