The books that never made it into the Bible.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Understand I don't wish to learn about the history of Christianity, I wish to learn about the teachings. Of which I am very skeptical of Paul. The teachings should be consistent.

In my humble opinion, the more heretical something is the more it deserves to be learned of.

Then I would focus on three texts: The Book of Enoch, The Gospel of Thomas, and the Hymn of the Pearl. I would not consider various so-called gnostic text niche, as Michael does. Many of the gnostic themes are found repeated in the canonical Gospel accounts and the Pauline epistles.