Introduction
- The Da Vinci Code narrative – a powerful church has suppressed dissent and diversity
- Gnostics as the heroes of the church –prototype feminists, a concern for spirituality over dogma etc.
- Nag Hammadi and the Gnostic Gospels (1945) date to 390AD -Coptic
- So who were they and what did they believe
a. An Alternative Creation Story
-God as distant, pure spirit –who doesn’t get his hands dirty
Impersonal –in fact one Gnostic, Basileadis, goes so far as to describe him as “The non-existent God.”
-Between us and God are intermediary spirit beings/gods (demiurges)
-Creation as an unpleasant accident –matter =bad, spirit = good
“The Sophia of the Epionoia,” being an Aeon conceived a thought from herself with the reflection of the invisible Spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth a likeness out of herself without the consent of the Spirit – hand had not approved – and without her consort and without his consideration…And because of the invincible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle and a thing came out of her which was imperfect and different from her appearance.”[1]
-The OT god Yahweh portrayed as one of the demiurges – ruling the world but evil
Marcion –(c85-160), creates his own Bible it contains his own version of Luke’s Gospel and some of Paul’s letters. An attempt t edit out the OT because he sees Yahweh as this evil demi-god opposed to the true Father.
b. An alternative Salvation story
Jesus cannot be fully God –because God is completely other
But nor can he be a real man –because matter is evil
So no atonement –because no real death on the cross
“He whom you saw on the three, glad and laughing, this is the living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they drive the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute being put to shame, the one who came into being in his likeness.”[2]
Salvation is about escape from this world/from matter back to spirit form/oneness. This is possible through being initiated into inner circles of knowledge (gnosis)
Jesus’ role is to give knowledge/wisdom and guidance. Gnostic Gospels are not at all like the Gospels, they are collections of random sayings with no plotline/narrative.
Note far from being feminist they saw women as the low point of matter and so a woman’s first step was to become male
“Simon Peter said to them, Mary should leave us because women are not worthy of life. Jesus responded: Look, I’ll lead her in order to make her male so that she can become a living spirit as you males are. For each woman who makes herself male will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”[3]
So Gnostics (from ‘gnosis’ –Knowledge’) = “people in the know” (Chadwick)
- Irenaeus –the orthodox strike back
Born in Turkey (early 2nd Century AD –C202AD). He becomes a Presbyter (church leader in Lyons) and later a bishop(2nd Century AD)
IN AD 177 he took a letter from Lyons to the bishop of Rome describing the persecution experienced there[4]
He is taught by Polycarp (69-155/160AD) who himself had been a disciple of John (a close link to the Apostles)
His response
Note bluntness:
“And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion who met him on one occasion and said ‘Do you recognise me?’ ‘I do recognise you the first born of Satan.”[5]
- Confidence in the clear and public transmission of Scripture so that despite the church being diverse and spread out across the World they share one common faith
- Uniformity of belief
“For the church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith in one God, the Father Almighty, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation, and in the Holy spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead….”[6]
“…the Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout he whole world, yet as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it.”[7]
- No evidence of secret traditions among the apostles and early church leaders
“If the apostles had known hidden mysteries, which they were in the habit of imparting to ‘the perfect’ apart and privy from the rest, they would have delivered them especially to those to whom they were also committing the churches themselves.”[8]
“But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth for he tarried on earth a very long time and when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom departed this life having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles and which the church hands down, which alone are true.”[9]
- The completeness of Scripture
“But it is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principle winds….”[10]
“For the cherubim too were four faced and their faces were images of the dispensation of the Son of God.”[11]
- Lion –Mark
- Calf –Luke
- Human –Matthew
- Eagle –John
- The cohesion of the Bible narrative –One God who makes man and so of necessity steps down into history as man to save his creation (Recapitualtion)
- Marcion’s two God’s
“Marcion therefore by dividing God into two, maintaining one to be good and the other judicial, does in fact, on both sides, put an end to deity. For he that is the judicial one, if he be not good, is not God, because he from whom goodness is absent is not God; and again, he who is good, if he be not judicial, suffers the same loss as the former, by being deprived of his character of deity.”
- Recapitulation –the fittingness of Christ’s work
“God took the dust of the earth and formed the man, the beginning of mankind. So then the Lord, summing up afresh this man took the same dispensation of entry into flesh, being born from the Birgin, by the will and wisdom of God; that he should also show forth the likeness of Adam’s entry into flesh and there should be that which was written in the beginning, man after the image and likeness of God.”[12]
“For the Lord came to seek again the sheep that was lost; and man it was that was lost” [13]
- Why is this important?
Defending the faith –the conspiracy theories are just that –conspiracy theories which fly in the face of historical evidence
The dangers of false teaching which:
Puts God at a distance
Denies the goodness of God’s creation
Denies the true and full humanity and deity of Jesus
[1] Apocyrphon of John, cited in NE, 68.
[2] The Apocalypse of Peter, in The Nag Hammadi Library Revised Edition, (ed J M Robinson, E.J Brill, rev, 1988), 377
[3] Gospel of Thomans, Aaying 114.
[4] Jonathan Hill, The History of Christian Thought, 22.
[5] Cited in New Esuebius, 116.
[6] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.2 ( New Eusebius, 111-112)
[7] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.3 (New Eusebius, 112)
[8] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III.3.1 (New Eusebius, 114).
[9] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III.3 (New Eusebius, 115).
[10] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, IV.2.2. (New Eusebius, 117).
[11] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, (New Eusebius, 118).
[12] Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Teaching, 32-34 (New Eusebius, 120).
[13] Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Apostolic Teaching, 32-34 (New Eusebius, 120).
Faithroots 