Abstract
Roman Christianity had grown in parallel with the Palestinian Jesus-movements. But there was another considerable Jesus-movement that is only too often overlooked by the historians. It had been there from the start of the Jesus-movements. This was Christian Gnosticism . Within the context of early Christianity, this Jesus-movement (or more correctly, Jesus-movements) was of great significance. The texts examined are the Nag Hammadi texts, found in Egypt, the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Judas. From these the main constituents of the Gnostic Myth are described: gnosis, The Great Invisible Spirit, Adam and Eve, Gnostic Jesus). These are then situated in the main facets of the same Myth: the search for gnosis, the Gnostic World, Gnostic Salvation and the Departture of Jesus.
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Notes
- 1.
All Gnostic texts are taken from Robinson (1978). The Nag Hammadi Library in English, HarperSanFrancisco: San Francisco.
- 2.
Barbelo is an unusual name and its Hebrew etymology is contested. It has been suggested that it should be transcribed as ‘b’arba-‘El’ meaning ‘in the four (i.e. the four letters of YHWH), there is God’.
- 3.
Sophia had become a personal figure in Jewish thought towards the time of the Christian period. She is found in the Book of Proverbs, the Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach as personified Wisdom.
- 4.
The notion of syzygy was proper to only some forms of Gnosticism, particular that attached to Valentinus who moved from Asia Minor to Rome.
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Crotty, R. (2017). The Christian Gnostics. In: The Christian Survivor. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3214-1_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3214-1_11
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