The oldest Gnostic-related text we have is the Gospel of Thomas, discovered at Nag Hammadi, written probably near the end of the 1st century. This sayings gospel refers to secret teachings and shows a dualistic worldview, which are aspects of Gnosticism. As such, it may reflect the beliefs of an early proto-Gnostic community, but it centers on a teacher named Yeshua (Jesus) and its characters are all Jewish.
Manichaeism conceives of two coexistent realms of light and darkness that become embroiled Per mezzo di conflict. Certain elements of the light became entrapped within darkness, and the purpose of material creation is to engage Per the slow process of extraction of these individual elements. In the end, the kingdom of light will prevail over darkness.
[110] An alternative hypothesis states that the Thomas authors wrote Per mezzo di the second century, changing existing sayings and eliminating the apocalyptic concerns.[110] According to April DeConick, such a change occurred when the end time did not modo, and the Thomasine tradition turned toward a "new theology of mysticism" and a "theological commitment to a fully-present kingdom of heaven here and now, where their church had attained Adam and Eve's divine status before the Fall."[110]
For the Gnostics, on the other hand, who worked within and upon the latter question, giving it a positive, if somewhat mytho-poetical answer, rational principles, which seem to be culled from a mere contact with sensible reality, are held to be reminders of a unified existence that is an eternal possibility, open to anyone capable of transcending and, indeed, transgressing
Almost all of the several dozen internet sites with collections of texts similar to our own obtained their material by directly or indirectly copying some files present at the Gnosis Archive. Ours was perhaps the first major collection of such texts to appear on "the web" Con 1994, and thus has served as a source for others creating "their own" collections. Unfortunately transcription errors, typos, and primitive HTML formatting were present in the massive amount of material added to the Gnosis Archive Per our first years; Per a repeated process of "copying" they have been very widely propagated around the internet.
With an interest in Gnosticism awakened by the Nag Hammadi materials, scholars are now re-examining Manichaeism and beginning a more serious consideration of the many Manichaean writings discovered just Sopra the last century.
The Gnostics differed widely Per their beliefs, and some scholars have wondered if it is appropriate to use a single term to denote all of them. Nevertheless, Birger Pearson has provided a list of several categories that broadly describe Gnosticism:
The remainder of Ptolemy’s account is concerned with the production of the material cosmos out of the hypostatized “passions” of Sophia, and the activity of the Savior (Jesus Christ) Sopra arranging these initially chaotic passions into a structured hierarchy of existents (Irenaeus 1.
Prior to the discovery at Nag Hammadi, a limited number of texts were available to students of Gnosticism. Reconstructions were attempted from the records of the gnostic principles, gnosticism hylics, gnosticism psychic, gnosticism pneumatic, gnosis article, gnosis spirituality, gnostic spirituality, gnosticism and spirituality, gnostic blog, gnosis and religion heresiologists, but these were necessarily coloured by the motivation behind the source accounts. The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of Gnostic texts discovered Con 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt. Twelve leather-bound papyrus codices buried Con a sealed jar were found by a local farmer named Muhammed al-Samman.[207] The writings Durante these codices comprised fifty-two mostly Gnostic treatises, but they also include three works belonging to the Corpus Hermeticum and a partial translation/alteration of Plato's Republic.
) responsible for the creation of the cosmos. Durante the account preserved by Irenaeus, we are told nothing of any cosmic drama Durante which “divine sparks” are trapped Per mezzo di fleshly bodies through the designs of the Demiurge.
What we do know is that a minority of Christians were educated, and sometimes traveled, and they wrote about their beliefs and those of other Christians. It’s the documentation left behind by this very-small number of believers, that leads us, in the 21st century, to talk about Christian sects Sopra distinct terms. Some of them, especially within the sphere of “literalist” Christianity, had a lot to say about the Gnostic sects and their beliefs.
The Thomasine Traditions refers to a group of texts which are attributed to the apostle Thomas.[172][note 26] Karen L. King notes that "Thomasine Gnosticism" as a separate category is being criticised, and may "not stand the test of scholarly scrutiny".[173]
By these three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that came out of their mouths a third of the human race was killed.
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