View Single Post
Old 04-29-2008, 07:58 PM   #16
SeattleUte
 
SeattleUte's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 10,665
SeattleUte has a little shameless behaviour in the past
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Solon View Post
Nice.

I should add that the word "gnostic" gets thrown around like it was a standard set of beliefs, when it seems to have been a smorgasbord of all sorts of ideas, some of them really kooky.

I tend to think the gnostics were a Christian version of Hellenistic mystery cults, such as Isis or Mithras or Orpheus or Eleusis.
I think you will agree they had no scruple against creating scripture that deliberately immitated earlier gospels and pretended to be based on eyewitness accounts. The Gospel of Judus a prime example. This seems to be a signature trait of Gnostics to this day.
__________________
Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be.

—Paul Auster
SeattleUte is offline   Reply With Quote