gnostics? (Jesus, reject, gospel, mystic, beliefs)

[bradleykavin]

what are the gnostics i keep hearing of? could someone explain their significance and or when they came about?

[Buttons*]

Originally Posted by bradleykavin

what are the gnostics i keep hearing of? could someone explain their significance and or when they came about?

First, how did you hear about Gnostics? (im curious!)

We do have a forum for the Gnostics, if you're interested in reading there a bit.

They were a religious movement that thrived in the 1st century. They had radical texts/beliefs that they followed such as the Gospel of Mary, Thomas, others....Their texts, as well as the majority of believers, were extinguished for herecy in the Church.

The writings we have from them now are mostly from the Nag Hammadi Library. A giant discovery of ancient writings that the Gnostics hid in a cave near Nag Hammadi.

The modern Gnostics are varied. Gnostic is a term meaning "inner knowledge" ... from our perspective. It's a greek word. So think of Gnostic as you would Mystic. There are Christian Gnostics, Jewish Gnostics, Islamic Gnostics, just plain Gnostics.... a whole variety, just depending on which spin takes your preference.

anything else?

[maggie2]

The only thing I would add is that I don't think their writings were 'radical' as Buttercup says. Having read several of the texts I found nothing radical about them. They are very similar to the current gospels.

[Buttons*]

Originally Posted by maggie2

The only thing I would add is that I don't think their writings were 'radical' as Buttercup says. Having read several of the texts I found nothing radical about them. They are very similar to the current gospels.

1) I'm Buttons, Ashley, not Buttercup.... I'm the panda, not the Chimp!!!!

2) I'm Gnostic, so i dont believe that they are radical, come now silly woman

[bradleykavin]

if they werent radical, why were they rejected by the church?

[Goat]

Gnostics WERE an odd group of reversers from Catholicism. The run down is thus as far as I've been told (and I may be wrong):
The serpent was trying to liberate us from what we call the "demiurge" in the garden of eden. Also pictured as a snake but with the head of a lion. Our reality is the body of a female Aeon who preceded the Demiurge and is unconceptualizable- yet mated to the m ale Demiurge who'se job is to mutilate her.
Jesus was the serpent come back to attempt to liberate us again. Hence the gnostic symbol of the snake nailed to the tree.

The main idea is that some thing has gone terrible wrong, and is on the path to mending. They also freely incorperated other belief systems into their own such as chakra systems, palmestry etc. because they see all views on faith correct but refuse the dominion of god over men. God as the laymen chrsitian knows Him is a tyrant to the gnostic. This is all I really know about it, would like to know more though.

Modern Gnostics may have modern ideas.

[Bishka]

Originally Posted by bradleykavin

if they werent radical, why were they rejected by the church?

She said that 'SHE didn't believe they were radical'. This doesn't mean the Church did not find them as such.

[ChrisP]

Originally Posted by bradleykavin

if they werent radical, why were they rejected by the church?

Because people always fear what they don't understand. Fear breeds hate... and from there I'm sure even your limited imagination can work it out.

The other argument would be that it went against the leaders of the early Catholic churches beliefs. Mostly this means that gnostic thinking challenges the need for leadership and places the emphasis on each and every one of us thinking and searching for ourselves, which is always a bad thing if you need followers.

[bradleykavin]

do you believe the gnostics actually held secrets of jesus? i know im going on a da vinci code rampage i suppose..and im not trying to find out if he was married..but do u think there were a lot of characteristics of jesus that were hidden? made up? the whole water into wine, ressurection, evertyhing?

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by Buttons*

They were a religious movement that thrived in the 1st century. They had radical texts/beliefs that they followed such as the Gospel of Mary, Thomas, others....Their texts, as well as the majority of believers, were extinguished for herecy in the Church.

If you're talking of Christian Gnostics, their height was actuallly in the second century. There were also quite a number of gnostic sects later in history. The gnostic 'movement' (not sure you can really call it this as there were radically diferent beliefs in different groups) considerably pre-dates Christianity and was highly syncretistic. They pretty much seem to have picked and chosen from amongst the contemporary religions and taken what they liked best. In the case of the Christian Gnostic sects this tended to be a mix of stories about Christ, Greek mythology and a Persian style dualism.

James