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2020.02.18.Introduction Transcript From the Introduction Gnosticism, Gnostics, and the Gnostic Bible Bible Jam, February 17, 2020 The Gnostic Bible, Barnstone and Meyer Shambala, Boston & London 2009 The gnostics were religious mystics who proclaimed gnosis, knowledge, as the way oF salvation. To know oneselF truly allowed gnostic men and women to know god directly, without any need For the mediation oF rabbis, priests, bishops, imams, or other religious oFFicials. Religious oFFicials were not pleased with such Freedom and independence; they condemned the gnostics as heretical and a threat to the well-being and good order oF organized religion. Heresiologists—heresy hunters oF a bygone age who busied themselves exposing people judged dangerous to the Christian masses – Fulminated against what they maintained was the Falsehood oF the gnostics. Nonetheless From the challenge oF this perceived threat came much oF the theological reFlection that has characterized the intellectual history oF the Christian church. The historical roots oF the gnostics reach back into the time oF the Greeks, Romans, and Second Temple Jews. Their inFluence and their presence, some say, continue to this present day. Gnostics sought knowledge and wisdom From many diFFerent sources, and they accepted insight wherever it could be Found. Like those who came beFore them, they embraced a personiFied wisdom, Sophia, understood variously and taken as the maniFestation oF divine insight. To gain knowledge oF the deep things oF god, gnostics read and studied diverse religious and philosophical texts. In addition to Jewish sacred literature, Christian documents, and Greco Roman religious and philosophical texts, gnostics studied religious works of the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Zoroastrians, Muslims, and Buddhists. All such sacred texts disclose truths, and all were to be celebrated. For their wisdom. Gnostics love to explore who they were and From where they had come, and they read creation stories such as the opening chapters oF Genesis with vigor and enthusiasm. Like others, they recognized that creation stories not only claim to describe what was, once upon a time, but also suggest what is common now, in our own world. The gnostics carried to their reading a conviction that the story oF creation was not a happy one. There is, they reasoned, something Fundamentally wrong with the world, there is too much evil and pain and death in the world, and so there must have been something wrong with creation. Consequently, gnostics provided innovative and oFten times disturbing interpretations oF the creation stories they read. They concluded that a distinction, oFten a dualistic distinction, must be made between the transcendent, spiritual deity, who is surrounded by aeons and is all wisdom and light, the creator oF the world, who is at best incompetent and at worst malevolent. Yet through everything, they’ve maintained, a spark oF transcendent knowledge: wisdom, and light persists within people who are in the know. The transcendent deity is the source oF that enlightened liFe and light. The meaning oF the creation drama, when properly understood, is that human beings – gnostics in particular – derive their knowledge and light From the transcendent god… but through the mean-spirited actions oF the Demiurge, the creator oF the world, they have been conFined within this world. (The platonic aspects oF this imagery are apparent.) Humans in this world are imprisoned, asleep, drunken, Fallen, ignorant. They need to find themselves – to be Freed, awakened, made sober, raised, and enlightened. In other words, they need return to gnosis. This distinction between a transcendent god and the creator oF the world is all the more remarkable when it is recalled that many oF the earliest gnostic thinkers who made such a distinction seem to have been Jews. What might have led them to such a conclusion that seems to Fly in the Face oF Jewish monotheistic aFFirmations? • Could it have been the experience oF the political and social trauma oF the time, culminating in the destruction oF the Second Temple in 70 CE, which prompted serious reFlection upon the problem oF evil and stimulated the production oF Jewish apocalyptic compositions? • Could it have been the reFlection oF Hellenistic Jewish thinkers who were schooled in Judaica and Greek philosophy and recognized the deep philosophical and theological issues surrounding the transcendence oF the high god and the need For cosmic intermediaries to be involved with this world? • Could it have been that among the creative Jewish minds, representative oF the rich diversity oF Judaism during the First centuries beFore and oF the common era, who boldly addressed the real challenges oF Jewish mysticism beFore Kabbalah, of the wisdom and Hockhmah of god, oF world wrenching apocalyptic, oF the odyssey and evil in the world, there were those who Finally drew gnostic conclusions? • We know the names oF some oF these creative Jewish people: John the baptizer, who initiated Jesus oF Nazareth and preached apocalyptic ideas in the vicinity oF Qumran, where Covenantors and Essenes practiced their separatist, ethical dualism; Simon Magus and Dositheos, who lived about the same time as Jesus and advocated their ideas in Samaria and beyond; Philo oF Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish thinker who provided a Greek philosophical perspectives on the Hebrew Bible; Rabbi Abuya, nicknamed Aher, “other,” who dabbled in dualism; and there were more. The role oF the gnostic Savior or revealer is to awaken people who are under the spell oF the Demiurge – not, as in the case oF the Christ oF the emerging Orthodox Church, to die For the salvation oF people, to be a sacriFice For sins, or to rise From the dead on Easter. The gnostic revealer discloses knowledge that Frees and awakens people, and that helps them recall who they are. When enlightened, gnostics can live a liFe appropriate For those who know themselves and god. They can return back to the beginning, when they were one with god, such a liFe transcends what is mundane and mortal in this world and experiences the bliss oF oneness with the divine. As the divine Forethought, or Christ, in the Secret Book oF John says to a person – every person – in the pit oF the underworld, “I am the Forethought oF pure light, I am the thought oF the virgin spirit, who raises you to a place oF honor. Arise, remember that you have heard, and trace your root, which is I, the compassionate.” Notes: • Hokhmah or Chokman – Is the Hebrew word For “Wisdom.” • Sophina – is the Greek Word For Wisdom • The Hellenistic period covers the period oF Mediterranean history between the death oF Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence oF the Roman Empire as signiFied by the Battle oF Actium in 31 BCE. • Historians call the era “Hellensitic period.” It comes From the word “Hellazein,” which means to speak Greek or identiFy with the Greeks. • Zoroastrianism or Mazdayasna is one oF the world's oldest continuously practiced religions. It is a multi-tendency Faith centered on a dualistic cosmology oF good and evil and an eschatology predicting the ultimate conquest oF evil with theological elements oF henotheism, monotheism/monism, and polytheism. • Dositheos was a Samaritan religious leader, Founder oF a Samaritan sect, oFten assumed to be a gnostic. He is reputed to have known John the Baptist and been the teacher oF Simon Magus. • Simon the Magician, or The Sorcerer, (flourished 1st century ad), practitioner oF magical arts who probably came From Gitta, a village in biblical Samaria. • The Second Temple: 516BCE-70CE; First Temple: Solomons Temple 1000-586 BCE .
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