DOCSLIB.ORG

The Ophites and the “Ophite” Diagram in Celsus and Origen

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

1783-08_JECS_05_Ledegang kopie 31-03-2009 14:09 Pagina 51 Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 60(1-4), 51-83. doi: 10.2143/JECS.60.1.2035275 © 2008 by Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. All rights reserved. THE OPHITES AND THE “OPHITE” DIAGRAM IN CELSUS AND ORIGEN FRED LEDEGANG* OPHITISM In the beginning of Genesis the serpent is associated with Evil: he seduces the first men to ignore God’s commandments by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 2,16-17; 3,1-7). It leads then to his cursing and to enmity between the serpent and man and finally it will ruin him (Gen 3,15). It would not be surprising, however, if in gnostic circles the serpent would be valued positively, since he showed the way to all knowledge (gn¬siv) and due to this he could have in a way the role of a saviour. Two movements within Gnosticism, the Ophites and the Naassenes, are explicitly named after the serpent (∫fiv; wcn). Ps.-Tertullian speaks about ‘those heretics who are called Ophites, for they magnify the serpent to such a degree that they prefer him even to Christ Himself’.1 And Origen writes: ‘they pride themselves on being called Ophians, taking their name from the snake, which is a reptile very hostile to men, believing him to be the originator of good gifts’.2 About the origin of the name Clement of Alexandria says that sects are called after their founder, nation or dogmas and that the Cainists and the Ophians take their designation from their ‘sup- positions and from the objects of veneration’, i.e. their myths and religious symbols.3 * Dr. Fred Ledegang is a pastor emeritus of the Protestant Church of the Netherlands and an expert at Alexandrian Theology, esp. at Origen. From 1979 until 1984 he was a research scholar at the University of Nijmegen. 1 Ps.-Tertullian, Adv. omnes haereses II,1 (CC II,1403). 2 Origen, Contra Celsum VI,28,29-31 (SC 147,250); cp.28,21-25 (248). Epiphanius, Haer. 37,1,2 (GCS 31,50); 5,2 (57) agrees with it: ‘They are called Ophites, because they worship a serpent that provides people with knowledge’; cp. Isidore, Etymologiae VIII,5,10 (BAC 433,694): ‘Ophitae a colubro nominati sunt. Coluber enim Graece ∫fiv dicitur. Colunt enim serpentem, dicentes ipsum in paradiso induxisse virtutis cog- nitionem.’ 3 Clemens, Stromata VII,xvii,108,1-2 (GCS III,76,20-30). 1783-08_JECS_05_Ledegang kopie 31-03-2009 14:09 Pagina 52 52 FRED LEDEGANG Ophitism, however, within Gnosticism reaches further than the two move- ments mentioned.4 Scott counts eleven groups among this movement.5 Others widen the circle even more.6 But the difference between them is too great to put them in the same category.7 And though their names lead one to suspect otherwise, not the same group is meant by Ophites and Naassenes.8 Ophitism must have been propagated before 180 A.D., as it is already described by Irenaeus in his Adversus haereses. In general this author is well informed about gnostic groupings and their ideas. Partly this is founded on his own reading of gnostic writings, partly on information of earlier heresi- ologists, whose writings have disappeared.9 Hippolytus in his Philosophumena or Refutation of all heresies also makes mention of the Ophites. Although he depends to a large extent on Irenaeus, he uses also gnostic writings. In his book, written after 222 A.D., he enters among others into the Naassenes, Ophites, Perates, Sethians, the gnostic Justin and the Nicolaitans.10 In the work Adversus omnes haereses, that is in the name of Tertullian, there is not much original evidence.11 4 B.A. Pearson, ‘Ophites’, in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. W.J. Hane- graaff et al. (Leiden – Boston, 2006), pp. 895-898. 5 E.F. Scott, ‘Ophitism’, ERE, 9 (1961), p. 500: except the Ophites and Naassenes also the Cainites, Perates, Sethians, the “Gnostics” of Irenaeus, the Barbelo-Gnostics, the Severians, Nicolaitans, Archontics and Justinians. 6 E. Amann, ‘Ophites’, in Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, XI (Paris, 1932), cc. 1063- 1064. 7 J-D. Kaestli, ‘L’interprétation du serpent de Genèse 3 dans quelques textes gnostiques et la question de la gnose “ophite”’, in Gnosticism et monde hellénistique (Actes du Colloque de Louvain-la-Neuve 1980), ed. J. Ries, Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain, 27 (Leuven, 1982), pp. 116-130. 8 Kaestli, ‘L’interprétation du serpent’, pp. 117f; G. Bornkamm, ‘Ophiten’, in Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Bd. 35 (Stuttgart, 1939), c. 658; G. Kretschmar, ‘Ophiten und Naassener’, in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, IV (Berlin, 1960), c. 1659. Differently: P.-Th. Camelot, ‘Ophites’, in Catholicisme, X (Paris, 1985), c. 100; H. Leisegang, Die Gnosis (Leipzig, 1924, 21934), p. 113. 9 J. Quasten, Patrology. Vol. I. The Beginnings of Patristic Literature (Utrecht-Antwerp, 51975), pp. 288-292; U. Hamm, ‘Irenaeus von Lyon’, in Lexikon der antiken christlichen Literatur, hrsg. S. Döpp und W. Geerlings (Freiburg-Basel-Wien, 21999), pp. 311-312. 10 J. Quasten, Patrology. Vol. II. The Ante-Nicene Literature after Irenaeu (Utrecht-Antwerp, 41975), pp. 166-169; B.R. Suchla, ‘Hippolyt’, in Lexikon der antiken christlichen Literatur, p. 298. 11 The booklet originates probably from circles around Zephyrinus of Rome (198/199-217). See C. Smidt, ‘Zephyrinus von Rom’, in Lexikon der antiken christlichen Literatur, p. 636. 1783-08_JECS_05_Ledegang kopie 31-03-2009 14:09 Pagina 53 THE OPHITES AND THE “OPHITE” DIAGRAM IN CELSUS AND ORIGEN 53 THE “OPHITE” DIAGRAM The interesting thing is that via Origen we become acquainted with a dia- gram, in which according to him the views of an ophite group are described. In the sixth book of his defence Contra Celsum from about 248 Origen reacts to the comparison which Celsus had made seventy years earlier between Mithraic religion and Christianity. It is about the entering of the soul after death into the divine reality. Celsus in this respect prefers the ideas of Plato to those of the Christians, who according to him show much similarity to the Mitraic thoughts.12 Origen, however, finds that Celsus does not talk about the orthodox Christian faith, but about ideas which exist within ‘the most undistinguished sect of the Ophians’. Celsus founds his view partly on a schematic representation (diágramma), which describes the system of this sect. Origen tells that after industrious research he has managed to obtain a copy of this diagram, which however on certain points differs from Celsus’. Origen’s copy appears to be more com- prehensive. Therefore he can say that Celsus could base himself ‘only partly’ on the diagram. And he continues: ‘Although I have travelled many places in the world and have inquired everywhere of those who professed to be learned, I have not met with anyone who believed in the teachings of the dia- gram’.13 Because of the observations that it is about an ‘undistinguished sect’, that ‘after industrious research’ Origen had managed to obtain a copy of the dia- gram and that in spite of his many journeys he has never met an adherent of this sect, one could conclude that Origen was not well informed about their views, as in his days this group had virtually become extinct.14 This remains, however, to be seen. Even in the fourth century Epiphanius can say that he has received oral information from somebody about the Ophite liturgy.15 12 Origen, Contra Celsum VI,18,1-24,9 (SC 147,222-238). 13 Contra Celsum VI,24,10-24 (238-240). 14 This is the opinion of B. Witte, Das Ophiten-diagramm nach Origenes’ Contra Celsum VI,22-38, Arbeiten zum spätantiken und koptischen Ägypten, 6 (Altenberge, 1993), p. 97, who bases himself among others on Contra Celsum VI,26,18-20 (244), where Origen says that the Ophians are a sect, ‘which probably does not exist any longer and has entirely disappeared, or which, if it does survive, consists of a very few people of no significance’. 15 Epiphanius, Haer. 37,5,7 (57). 1783-08_JECS_05_Ledegang kopie 31-03-2009 14:09 Pagina 54 54 FRED LEDEGANG Apparently there were still gatherings of Ophites in his days. Moreover, Origen speaks elsewhere also about the Ophians. In his reply to Celsus he says, that Ophians and Cainites ‘do not share with us the name of Jesus’: they have totally turned their back on Him.16 And in his Commentary on Matthew he counts the Ophites among those who ‘multum a proposita errant via, qui omnino contraria sapiunt veritati’.17 Therefore we should deem his remark about “a most undistinguished sect” to belong to the apologetic jargon. We shall soon find out whether Origen is ignorant of the way of thinking of the “Ophians”, as he calls them.18 THE FUNCTION OF THE DIAGRAM Diagrams, as mentioned by Celsus and Origen, were not unusual in gnostic circles. We find numerous examples e.g. in the two Books of Jeû, which prob- ably date from the third century.19 According to Witte the function of such a diagram is that it plays a part in contemplation, the descent inwards into one’s own self, as well as in the ascent of the soul after death, a function which afterwards was to prevail. At seeing the diagram the gnostic is able to visualize the content of his faith, in contemplation and concentration, or in the course of certain cult acts which make the ascent of the soul after death possible. According to him we have to do with a formulary in preparation to the initiation into a gnostic sect, that also may be helpful in individual med- itation.
Recommended publications
  • A Gnostic Catechism

    A Gnostic Catechism

    Ecclesia Gnostica A Gnostic Catechism Prepared by The Most Reverend Stephan A. Hoeller Los Angeles, California A.D. 1998 © Stephan A. Hoeller, 1998 Electronic Edition printed by The Gnostic Society Press, 2010 ii CONTENTS Preface ____________________________________________________________________ v Prayers and Creeds _____________________________________________________ 1 Lesson I. Of God And The Universe ___________________________________ 8 Lesson II. Of The Spiritual Worlds and the Demiurge ____________ 13 Lesson III. Of the Human Being ______________________________________ 18 Lesson IV. Of Gnosis and Salvation __________________________________ 21 Lesson V. Of the Lord Christ __________________________________________ 24 Lesson VI. Of Our Lady Sophia _______________________________________ 28 Lesson VII. Of the Holy Spirit and Grace ____________________________ 32 Lesson VIII. Of the Church and the Communion of Saints _______ 35 Lesson IX. Of the Sacraments or Mysteries ________________________ 41 Lesson X. Of the Sacraments, Considered Singly: Part I _________ 45 Lesson XI. Of the Sacraments, Considered Singly: Part II ________ 51 Appendix A. Prayer ____________________________________________________ 56 Appendix B. The Gnostic in the World ______________________________ 57 Bibliography ____________________________________________________________ 58 iii iv P R E F A C E Why a Gnostic Catechism? "A Gnostic Catechism? What a preposterous idea and a contradiction in terms to boot!" Such and similar objections are likely to be forthcoming in response to the present effort. The word "catechism" readily conjures up visions of dogmatic belief, enshrined in rigidly formulated articles and designed to be memorized and mindlessly recited by children and by adults of childish minds. Yet a catechism is truly but a compendium of instructions, usually of a religious nature, arranged in the form of questions and answers.
  • Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies

    Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies

    Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies Editors Johannes van Oort & Einar Thomassen Editorial Board A. D. DeConick—W.-P. Funk—I. Gardner C. W. Hedrick—S. N. C. Lieu—A. Marjanen P. Nagel—L. Painchaud—B. A. Pearson S. G. Richter—J. M. Robinson—M. Scopello W. Sundermann—J. D. Turner—G. Wurst VOLUME 68 Paradise Reconsidered in Gnostic Mythmaking Rethinking Sethianism in Light of the Ophite Evidence By Tuomas Rasimus LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rasimus, Tuomas. Paradise reconsidered in Gnostic mythmaking : rethinking Sethianism in light of the Ophite evidence / by Tuomas Rasimus. p. cm. — (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies ; v. 68) Revision of the author’s thesis (doctoral)—University of Helsinki and Université Laval, 2006. Includes bibliographical (p. ) references and indexes. ISBN 978-90-04-17323-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Sethians. 2. Ophites. I. Title. II. Series. BT1390.R38 2009 273'.1—dc22 2009029148 ISSN 0929-2470 ISBN 978 90 04 17323 1 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
  • Archons (Commanders) [NOTICE: They Are NOT Anlien Parasites], and Then, in a Mirror Image of the Great Emanations of the Pleroma, Hundreds of Lesser Angels

    Archons (Commanders) [NOTICE: They Are NOT Anlien Parasites], and Then, in a Mirror Image of the Great Emanations of the Pleroma, Hundreds of Lesser Angels

    A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES A R C H O N S HIDDEN RULERS THROUGH THE AGES WATCH THIS IMPORTANT VIDEO UFOs, Aliens, and the Question of Contact MUST-SEE THE OCCULT REASON FOR PSYCHOPATHY Organic Portals: Aliens and Psychopaths KNOWLEDGE THROUGH GNOSIS Boris Mouravieff - GNOSIS IN THE BEGINNING ...1 The Gnostic core belief was a strong dualism: that the world of matter was deadening and inferior to a remote nonphysical home, to which an interior divine spark in most humans aspired to return after death. This led them to an absorption with the Jewish creation myths in Genesis, which they obsessively reinterpreted to formulate allegorical explanations of how humans ended up trapped in the world of matter. The basic Gnostic story, which varied in details from teacher to teacher, was this: In the beginning there was an unknowable, immaterial, and invisible God, sometimes called the Father of All and sometimes by other names. “He” was neither male nor female, and was composed of an implicitly finite amount of a living nonphysical substance. Surrounding this God was a great empty region called the Pleroma (the fullness). Beyond the Pleroma lay empty space. The God acted to fill the Pleroma through a series of emanations, a squeezing off of small portions of his/its nonphysical energetic divine material. In most accounts there are thirty emanations in fifteen complementary pairs, each getting slightly less of the divine material and therefore being slightly weaker. The emanations are called Aeons (eternities) and are mostly named personifications in Greek of abstract ideas.
  • GNOSIS and NAG HAMMADI Anne Mcguire

    GNOSIS and NAG HAMMADI Anne Mcguire

    12 GNOSIS AND NAG HAMMADI Anne McGuire Introduction Introductory remarks on “gnosis” and “Gnosticism” “Gnosticism” is a modern European term that !rst appears in the seventeenth-century writings of Cambridge Platonist Henry More (1614–87). For More, “Gnosticism” designates one of the earliest Christian heresies, connected to controversies addressed in Revelation 2:18–29 and in his own day.1 The term “gnosis,” on the other hand, is one of several ancient Greek nouns for “knowledge,” speci!cally experiential or esoteric knowledge based on direct experience, which can be distinguished from mere perception, understanding, or skill. For Plato and other ancient thinkers, “gnosis” refers to that knowledge which enables perception of the underlying structures of reality, Being itself, or the divine.2 Such gnosis was valued highly in many early Christian communities,3 yet the claims of some early Christians to possess gnosis came under suspicion and critique in the post-Pauline letter of 1 Timothy, which urges its readers to “avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of falsely so-called gnosis.”4 With this began the polemical contrast between “false gnosis” and “true faith.” It is this polemical sense of “false gnosis” that Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons took up in the title of his major anti-heretical work: Refutation and Overthrow of Falsely So-Called Gnosis, or Against Heresies, written c. "# 180.5 Irenaeus used 1 Timothy’s phrase not only to designate his opponents’ gnosis as false, but, even more important, to construct a broad category of
  • Christianity As the Pleroma

    Christianity As the Pleroma

    CHRISTIANITY AS THE PLEROMA. BY THE EDITOR. [continued.] GNOSTICISM AND THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. WE call Christianity the grandchild of paganism because there is an intermediate link between Christianity and the ancient polytheistic paganism of Graeco-Roman mythology. Ancient pagan- ism represents a stage in the religious development of mankind which has become typical for all religions characterized by being limited to well-defined boundaries. These boundaries were very narrow in the beginning. There were state religions in Athens, in Sparta, in Ephesus, in Syracuse, in Rome, in the several cities of Egypt, in Tyre and Sidon, in the great centers of population in Babylonia, Assyria, Phoenicia etc., and the mass of people in each district came little in contact with their neighbors. But as trade and commerce expanded, people of different cities became acquainted with each other and with their several religious views. The different legends were retold in foreign countries and persisted there, so far as it was possible, side by side with the native religion. We know that much confusion originated in this way ; e. g., the genealogies of the gods were different in different cities, and so were the mar- riage relations between gods and goddesses. Thus in Greece when the different local traditions were combined and systematized, the conflicting traditions were adjusted as well as could be done in the haphazard way in which the religious development took place. It is in this shape that Greek mythology has been preserved in the well-known poem of Hesiod, and students of classic lore are some- times puzzled by the many contradictions.
  • Martyred for the Church

    Martyred for the Church

    Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament · 2. Reihe Herausgeber / Editor Jörg Frey (Zürich) Mitherausgeber/Associate Editors Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford) · James A. Kelhoffer (Uppsala) Tobias Nicklas (Regensburg) · J. Ross Wagner (Durham, NC) 471 Justin Buol Martyred for the Church Memorializations of the Effective Deaths of Bishop Martyrs in the Second Century CE Mohr Siebeck Justin Buol, born 1983; 2005 BA in Biblical and Theological Studies, Bethel University; 2007 MA in New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; 2009 MA in Classical and Near Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota; 2017 PhD in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity, University of Notre Dame; currently an adjunct professor at Bethel University. ISBN 978-3-16-156389-8 / eISBN 978-3-16-156390-4 DOI 10.1628/978-3-16-156390-4 ISSN 0340-9570 / eISSN 2568-7484 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 2. Reihe) The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2018 Mohr Siebeck Tübingen, Germany. www.mohrsiebeck.com This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to repro- ductions, translations and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed by Laupp & Göbel in Gomaringen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Nädele in Nehren. Printed in Germany. Preface This monograph represents a revised version of my doctoral dissertation. It has been updated to take into account additional scholarly literature, bring in new argumentation, and shorten some sections for relevance.
  • EARL 8/2 No. 2

    EARL 8/2 No. 2

    ATTRIDGE/VALENTINIAN AND SETHIAN APOCALYPSES 173 Valentinian and Sethian Apocalyptic Traditions* HAROLD W. ATTRIDGE The paper reexamines the relationship between “apocalyptic” and “gnostic” traditions, on the assumption that global definitions of these phenomena are problematic. Valentinian and Sethian corpora in the Nag Hammadi collection display different appropriations of apocalyptic literary forms and conceptual schemes. Apart from a few late works with traces of Valentinian positions, this tradition largely ignores features characteristic of apocalyptic literature. Valentinian eschatology seems to be founded primarily on philosophical cosmology and psychology. Sethian texts preserve many features of Jewish revelatory literature, and many details associated with various eschatological schemes familiar from apocalyptic sources. The most extensive use of the characteristic “heavenly ascent” topos in Sethian literature, however, seems to be a third-century development, perhaps responding to contemporary forms of religious propaganda. It has been almost forty years since R. M. Grant made his famous, and frequently discussed, suggestion that Gnosticism was born out of disap- pointed apocalyptic hopes.1 While containing an element of truth, the very formulation seems curiously dated. At the end of the millennium we are much more aware of the difficulties of dealing with each term of *A version of this paper was presented to the joint session of the Nag Hammadi and Pseudepigrapha groups at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Orlando, November 22, 1998. The subject of the joint session was the relationship of “apocalyptic” and “Gnosticism.” 1. Robert M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1959; rev. ed. 1966), 27–38.
  • Marcion Wrote New Testament

    Marcion Wrote New Testament

    Marcion Wrote New Testament Is Gustavus kymographic or gonidic after eliminative Giffer botch so intransitively? When Vinod retyped his tamales diapers not unsafely enough, is Marlon close? Dibasic and ascensional Samuel admiring: which Johnathon is towerless enough? In his epistles some commentators have on the spotless virginal bride of new testament In only the war Gospel in Marcion's Bible is two thirds of Luke Actually overcome's it. The Lord there with Jehoshaphat because he followed the ways of just father David before him. Mountains, North Africa, it is of true theme the intention of the scribes has some association with the sublimation of violence. New Testament books are authoritative, as a kind of figure of enlightenment, so Luke would only need familiarity with the OT to record this. He completely rejected the Old Testament as being relevant for Christians. Marcionite-Scripture Original-Biblecom. God were accompanied by a just as revolutionary idea about the identity of Jesus and his relationship to God. Either that wrote luke, whether this god is at sinope and testament marcion wrote. The Story going The Storytellers The Emergence Of flame Four. The situation obviously changed in the second century, which is not appropriate to make public before all, and a backsliding from the truth. Separatio legis et evangelii proprium et principale opus est Marcionis. It is accepted in his canon, because they do a decade or ten pauline authorship attestation prior to any other. Who wrote the new Testament DVD video 2004 WorldCat. It gained some esteem elsewhere, which teaches that appear are two opposed divine principles, this new Marcionism is a distortion of the finish to precise it align more closely to current ideologies.
  • HISTORIES of the HIDDEN GOD Acumen

    HISTORIES of the HIDDEN GOD Acumen

    Histories of the Hidden God Concealment and Revelation in Western Gnostic, Esoteric, and Mystical Traditions Edited by APriL D. DEConicK and Grant Adamson acumen CHAPTER 2 AdoiL OUtside the cosmos God Before and after Creation in the Enochic tradition Andrei A. Orlov … vessels shattered and collapsed, for they were not able to con- tain the light expanding and emanating from within them … the saints in their death transform these sparks of holiness. Chaim Vital, Etz Chaim Unlike other early Enochic writings, the 2 (Slavonic) Apocalypse of Enoch depicts a unique story of primordial creation, revealing an elaborate course of events that preceded the visible creation of the world.1 The importance of this mys- tical account is underlined by the fact that it was delivered to the seventh antediluvian hero by God himself. Chapter 25 of 2 Enoch recounts how, at the end of the patriarch’s celestial tour to the Throne of Glory, the deity unveils to the seer that prior to the visible creation he had called out from nothing the luminous aeon Adoil to become the foundation of the upper things. The account describes the enigmatic event of Adoil’s disintegration in the course of which the aeon becomes the cornerstone of the visible creation upon which the Deity establishes his Throne. Here, similar to the depictions found in the Lurianic Kabbalah, the bursting of the primordial vessel of light is envi- sioned as the first creative act of the deity that gives life to the visible order of everything. Even more striking is that this primordial act of establishing the visible reality is then paralleled in the later chapters of the Slavonic apocalypse that focus on the eschatological demise.
  • 5 Fragments of a Forgotten Aiÿn an Outline on a Gnostic Myth

    5 Fragments of a Forgotten Aiÿn an Outline on a Gnostic Myth

    Kervan – Rivista Internazionale di studii afroasiatici n. 2 – luglio 2005 FRAGMENTS OF A FORGOTTEN AIŸN AN OUTLINE ON A GNOSTIC MYTH di Ezio Albrile Gnostics regard the cosmos as the result of an «error» or of a hybris begotten in the transcendent world. Reality is perceived as a great dream intentionally moulded by the Demiurge in order to forget the Light concealed in the creations. By consequence, the power of the Demiurge consists precisely in being the creator and keeper of a level of existence limited in space and time. Gnostic imagination plastically depicts the homicide and ignorant Demiurge with the features of an abnormous creature with the head of a lion and wings, enveloped in the coils of a snake. Thus, Gnostics reinterpreted a key figure in the syncretic pantheon of late Hellenism, i. e. AiŸn, the god of endless eternity, the Saeculum, the Iranic Zurw…n, the Jewish ‚Ol…m. This means that AiŸn involved contacts with two different visions: the AiŸnes are the creations that populate the gnostic pl‡rŸma, immortal and eternal entities, and outside the pl‡rŸma the demiurgic AiŸn arises as the result of a divine «fault», a monstrous being whose somatic features can be found in the Orphic and Mithriac iconography. The central idea of Gnosticism, as of all the mystery religions, is that of salvation; a or inner knowledge was offered to the elect, through which the soul might be delivered from its condition of bondage. Salvation, as understood by Christianity is fundamentally ethical or «religious» in its meaning (Gnoli 1967: 290), but in Gnosticism the ethical aspect of redemption falls almost completely into the background of a ritual praxis.
  • The Trinitarian Theology of Irenaeus of Lyons

    The Trinitarian Theology of Irenaeus of Lyons

    Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Dissertations (1934 -) Projects The Trinitarian Theology of Irenaeus of Lyons Jackson Jay Lashier Marquette University Follow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Lashier, Jackson Jay, "The Trinitarian Theology of Irenaeus of Lyons" (2011). Dissertations (1934 -). 109. https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations_mu/109 THE TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY OF IRENAEUS OF LYONS by Jackson Lashier, B.A., M.Div. A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 2011 ABSTRACT THE TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY OF IRENAEUS OF LYONS Jackson Lashier, B.A., M.Div. Marquette University, 2011 This dissertation is a study of the Trinitarian theology of Irenaeus of Lyons. With the exception of two recent studies, Irenaeus’ Trinitarian theology, particularly in its immanent manifestation, has been devalued by scholarship due to his early dates and his stated purpose of avoiding speculative theology. In contrast to this majority opinion, I argue that Irenaeus’ works show a mature understanding of the Trinity, in both its immanent and economic manifestations, which is occasioned by Valentinianism. Moreover, his Trinitarian theology represents a significant advancement upon that of his sources, the so-called apologists, whose understanding of the divine nature converges in many respects with Valentinian theology. I display this advancement by comparing the thought of Irenaeus with that of Justin, Athenagoras, and Theophilus, on Trinitarian themes. Irenaeus develops Trinitarian theology in the following ways. First, he defines God’s nature as spirit, thus maintaining the divine transcendence through God’s higher order of being as opposed to the use of spatial imagery (God is separated/far away from creation).
  • This Is a Digital Copy of a Book That Was Preseived for Generations On

    This Is a Digital Copy of a Book That Was Preseived for Generations On

    This is a digital copy of a book that was preseived for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you. Usage guidelines Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying. We also ask that you: + Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for personal, non-commercial purposes. + Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google 's system: If you are conducting research on machine translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us.