Gnostics predated Christianity.

[nordskoven]

Thanks, Pat Peterson, for giving me the drill on Babylonian Mystery Religions. I saw that Gnosticism, a kind of enshrinement of the Luciferic “tree of knowledge,” mindpower-as-godmaking, held all the tenets of Babylonian Mystery Religions. Babylonian Mystery Religions are a simply civillized Satanism, encompassing the opposite of what God has revealed about His nature and His will. This is basically a movement as old as the Garden of Eden. So I was delighted to find confirmation that gnosticism, invariably categorized as an early Christian cult, actually predated Christianity.

Gnostics revulsed pre-Christian Romans for their faking of “ancient” documents and other affronts to scholarship. One Roman school of philosophy made it a particular point to refute the phony Gnostic Gnow-It-Alls. Gnosticism, in contradicting all that God reveals, emphasizes homosexuality and a disdain for the Woman & Seed, hating the corporeal body and so either indulging it or denying it, even to suicide. The homosexual Gnostic “gospels” are rarely treated in the gushy pieces like the one I just watched on the History Channel.

The Gnostic “gospel” of Thomas, for example, says that women can’t enter into Heaven, with “Jesus” giving the assurance that he can work the miracle of turning women into men. There is the Gnostic “Laughing Jesus” heresy: “Jesus” responding to all questions by laughing; and the pederast “Jesus” who raises a boy from the dead to have sex with him. Oy! Then there’s the “Jesus” married to “Mary Magdalene” as depicted graphically in DaVinci’s “Last Supper” with a decidedly effeminate “John.” Oy vay!

May the Way, Truth and Life swiftly vanquish the Father of Lies and Murder. AMEN

 

[Hesychios]

Yup,
Gnosticism was present in pre-Christian Judaism. There were probably a whole bunch of influences, and it was so fluid gnostic students didn’t necessarily perpetuate the teachings of their masters intact.

There was a dualism of matter and spirit that was very pronounced in that era. All matter, even our own bodies, was evil according to most gnostic teachers. The Orthodox Christian claim that humankind and all creation was very good according to God and that we are promised a bodily resurrection ran smack into conflict with Gnostic presuppositions of the time.

I think we see something similar to gnosticism in the modern “New Age” type of spirituality, with the Edgar Cayce and Silvia Browne types cultivating their own followings that break up upon their departure to the “great beyond”.

Gnostic Christianity was just another morph. Today with our advanced scientific knowledge we are seeing versions of science-fiction gnosticism too.

Oh well.

 

[Baruch]

Gnosticism infected various religions of the day. Paul speaks against falsely called knowledge (gnosis) in his letter to Timothy (2 Timothy 6:20).

 

[Peace-bwu]

Good post, I find the recent recurrence of an interest in gnosticism extremely disturbing! Especially as seen in popular culture such as the History Channel and the DaVinci Code. If the DaVinci Code were about any other religious group it would be considered hate propaganda because it spreads such horrid lies. Although it is passed by as “historical fiction” it is causing people to question the Catholic Church. I am greatly offended by it. I find it to be an extremely irresponsible use of the historical fiction genre, mostly fiction lacking in history. I would not be as disturbed if the history were not grossly fabricated, people read it and wonder how much is true!

Peace!

 

[Kevan]

Conservative New Testament scholars do not accept the claim that Gnosticism predated Christianity. The things opposed in the NT are referred to usually as “incipient gnosticism.” Gnosticism, as such, is a Christian heresy, and only appears in an identifiable form after the apostolic era.

As this thread has already stated, bad religion has been around since the beginning. The ideas are constantly recycled, reshuffled, and repackaged. Elements of every false religion predated Christianity. But the virus which scholarship knows as Gnosticism needed Christianity as a host on which to feed.