Time Frames and Taboo Data Blog

Knowledge or expanding one’s intelligence was not exactly a high priority in the early Christian movement. The pursuit of gnosis (Greek, meaning knowledge) was actually regarded as heretical by the early shapers of church thought such as Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and others. The pursuit of knowledge was regarded as a threat to the fledgling sect because those who sincerely wanted to know how the seen and the unseen interact would always ask too many unanswerable questions. This trait to seek out rational explantions is what is referred to in the book 1 Timothy 6:29 (written c. 103-105 CE) as “falsely called knowledge.”

This approach was introduced into the emerging movement’s literature with the character of Paul (c. 84-90 CE) who is presented as seeking to reach and shape adherents from the throngs of common people, i.e. the lesser educated masses. If one doubts that the struggling movement that was to become Christianity sought to keep people in ignorance look more closely at the New Testament for enlightenment. Matthew 10:16 (written c. 70-75 CE) equates wisdom with evil! Matthew 10:19 and Mark 13:11 (revised c. 70-80 CE) instruct persons not to study a problem but to pray and ask for divine guidance. In 1 Corinthians 3:15 (written c. 94-100 CE) it is declared that wisdom is foolishness! And the Roman mindset is disclosed in 2 Corinthians 10:5 (c. 100-105 CE) stating that every thought must be a slave of god—meaning that the church would do the thinking for each person. And because confession was regarded as good for the soul, it is admitted in 1 Corinthians 1:18 and in 2:16 that Christianity was directed to the ignorant, not to the learned and wise.

Wisdom and the quest for wisdom was regarded by the early church “fathers” as a menace, and later theologians captivated by this aversion to seeking genuine wisdom sought to rewrite history by declaring that pre-Christian Gnosticism had attached itself to Christianity like a parasite and drew sustenance from the narrow tenets of the movement! The Gnostics may have early-on expected the young movement to embrace a more rational system of belief, but they refused to knuckle under to what the Gnostics rightfully perceived as being the perversion of supernaturalism that was being marketed as “Gospel.”

Gnosticism sought to reconcile different beliefs through rational study using such interests as Greek philosophy, Jewish cabalistic mysticism, Babylonian mythology, Mithraism, and Persian dualism as inspiration. The Gnostics believed salvation was made attainable by resisting the temptations of the material world that such beliefs encouraged; the Christians and Jews, on the other hand, kept their tight focus on the material advantages harvested in life even as they condemned them.

There are few devoted Christians today who recognize the influence that Gnosticism had on Christian writings, for the church brought all its might to bear to eradicate Gnosticism as a “hated doctrine.” But the “fathers” were unknowingly outmaneuvered—and that is shown in the material presented as the book of Revelation (written c. 135-138 CE), which is a reworking of ancient Gnosis once taught by Pagan mystics. Certainly by c. 135 CE.  the character of Jesus had undergone dramatic psychological changes from the earlier portrayal of him as a gentle teacher, and in the final installment of the NT, Jesus acts more like  the son of the Demiurge who in an orgiastic frenzy passes judgment upon a ravaged world to bring his followers back to materialism (new Earth, new Jerusalem, etc) and his dictatorial order.

This entry was posted on May 14, 2009 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Atheist, Bible, Christianity, culture, enlightenment, history, humanism, life, logic, nontheism, prehistory, random, religion, science, Uncategorized with tags cabalistic mysticism, church "fathers', gnosis, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy, knowledge, Mithraism, Persian dualism, Revelation, salvation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.