Questions for my Gnostic Friends! (Jesus, ritual, procreation, reincarnate)

[Bishka]

Hey ya'll.

I have a couple of books, and I started reading "The Nag Hammadi Library" yesterday, which is edited by James M. Robinson.

I actually started reading the Apocryphon of John, because Ashley had a thread on it and I sort of wanted to see what it was about.

So, I have some questions:

Do you actually believe there is a heaven?

Do you believe that this world is inherently evil and why or why not(spiritually evil, matterly evil, physically evil, etc.)?

Who is Yaldabaoth and why is he important and can we realate him to anything in Christianity?

This quote, "Man comes to life when Yaldabaoth is tricked into breathing light-power into him. Thus begins the continous struggle betweeen the powers of ligh and the powers of darkenss for the possession of the divine particles in man. The evil power put man in a material body to keep him imprisioned, and also created women and sexual desire to spread the particles of light and make escape more difficult."

-What are those divine particles?
-Could this be saying that having children will make it harder for us to return to our Heavenly home?


Another quote,
"Only those who possess this knowledge and have lived aestic lives can return to the realm of light; the others are reincarnated until they also come to a saving knowledge."

-Do you personally believe that you will be reincarnated if you don't have that 'saving knowledge'?

When Arimanius approaches John, as saws to him "Where is your master [whom] you followed?" Has Christ already died by this time? Because John said to Arimanius "He had gone to the [place] from which he came." Does this mean heaven or just fromt he city of Nazerene?

What's an aeon?

What is the symbolism or what does the youth, the old man and the servant mean in the vision John sees?

What does the voice that John hears saying, "I an the one who is [with you (pl)] always. I [am the Father], I am the Mother, I am the Son" ? Why isn't daughter included in this, or is it just my book?

Who is this voice that says this, is it Christ or is it a higher being?

Also, what does Against Heresies by Ireabaes have to say about this (if you know)?

Oh, one last one, do you take this literally or figuartivley, and if you take it(the Creation story) figuartivley, how does that work?


Sorry so many questions, I just started reading and I'm curious!

[Buttons*]

I'd be happy to answer those questions a bit later when i get home so just wait for it.

Halcyon will probably have some answers too. Good times!

[Bishka]

Originally Posted by Buttons*

I'd be happy to answer those questions a bit later when i get home so just wait for it.

Halcyon will probably have some answers too. Good times!

No problem, I thought you may be a bit excited (hopefully) when I started asking questions.

[Halcyon]

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Hey ya'll.

I have a couple of books, and I started reading "The Nag Hammadi Library" yesterday, which is edited by James M. Robinson.

Cool!

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

I actually started reading the Apocryphon of John, because Ashley had a thread on it and I sort of wanted to see what it was about.

So, I have some questions:

I'll answer them as best i can, although my answers will be different to Ashley's, there is no doctrine for us to follow so our beliefs are entirely personal.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Do you actually believe there is a heaven?

Personally i believe in different realms and different realities which might be heaven-like. But no, i don't think there is a heaven we go to when we die.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Do you believe that this world is inherently evil and why or why not(spiritually evil, matterly evil, physically evil, etc.)?

I don't think it is evil, but i do believe it is very powerful at blinding us to the truth. Everything here seems very separate and distinct, when in reality it is not. Also, we get easily sucked into material wants and desires when they are not important.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Who is Yaldabaoth and why is he important and can we realate him to anything in Christianity?

Yaldabaoth is the god of the old testament, he is the angry, jealous, murderous being intent on keeping us blind to the truth. Later Gnostics such as the Cathars saw him as the Christian Devil. The God of Jesus is much higher.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

This quote, "Man comes to life when Yaldabaoth is tricked into breathing light-power into him. Thus begins the continous struggle betweeen the powers of ligh and the powers of darkenss for the possession of the divine particles in man. The evil power put man in a material body to keep him imprisioned, and also created women and sexual desire to spread the particles of light and make escape more difficult."

-What are those divine particles?
-Could this be saying that having children will make it harder for us to return to our Heavenly home?

The divine particles are the spirit of God, that exist in all humans (and in my opinion all living things). It is from this spark that Gnosis comes. If you like, its a direct link to God.

I can't find this exact passage, so a assume its different in my text, or i overlooked it.
However, where it says about Yaldabaoth creating women and sex as evil acts, this is contradicted in other texts - women are normally seen in a good light, equal to men.
Some Gnostic sects did teach against procreation as they believed it wrong to trap more divine sparks in this world.
Personally though, i don't believe it works like that, i have quite liberal beliefs when it comes to the evilness of this world.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Another quote,
"Only those who possess this knowledge and have lived aestic lives can return to the realm of light; the others are reincarnated until they also come to a saving knowledge."

-Do you personally believe that you will be reincarnated if you don't have that 'saving knowledge'?

I don't know, its a possibility. I'd prefer to reunite with God as Jesus did, but that means finding Gnosis first.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

When Arimanius approaches John, as saws to him "Where is your master [whom] you followed?" Has Christ already died by this time? Because John said to Arimanius "He had gone to the [place] from which he came." Does this mean heaven or just fromt he city of Nazerene?

Neither, he has returned to God and become fully one with God again, as we all eventually will. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes and spirit to spirit.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

What's an aeon?

An aspect of the divine mind of God, like Sophia is the wisdom of God. Aeons are beings in their own right, but are also totally at one with God. They are also metaphor for how the human mind acts and its relation to God.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

What is the symbolism or what does the youth, the old man and the servant mean in the vision John sees?

I have child instead of servant, but yeah; to me its saying that the being that speaks is outside of time, thus it has no age but is all ages.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

What does the voice that John hears saying, "I an the one who is [with you (pl)] always. I [am the Father], I am the Mother, I am the Son" ? Why isn't daughter included in this, or is it just my book?

My translation has child, so it could be of either sex. But even with son, its just saying that the One/God is all things - the origin of everything as the Father/Mother, but also the result, the child or Son.

[quote=beckysoup61
Who is this voice that says this, is it Christ or is it a higher being?[/quote]
It is the One/God, the highest 'entity'.
I've been thinking of a way of explaining it from a Mormon perspective actually.

Remember a while ago I annoyed you all with lots of questions?
Well, from them i learnt that there is the belief in the LDS church that God was once a man, and that he was created by his own God, and that his God was inturn once a man created by yet another God etc etc.
Well, The One - the God we believe in - is the very first step in that lineage, the source of all things that have ever existed.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Also, what does Against Heresies by Ireabaes have to say about this (if you know)?

I haven't read Irenaeous, but i know his opinion on us.
He would have said that the Apocryphon of John is a warping of the orthodox Christian myth to suit our heretical views, thus it is totally without merit and is in fact evil.
He may be right in that the ancient Gnostics did re-write the myths in such a way as to get across our views of the world to a Christian audience, we can't know. Personally i don't think it matters though, i don't see evil i see truth and understanding.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Oh, one last one, do you take this literally or figuartivley, and if you take it(the Creation story) figuartivley, how does that work?

I take it both ways. I personally believe everything you can imagine and even more you can't exists, and that it all exists within the body of God. I believe in the existance of the Aeons and of Yaldabaoth, but i also see them as mythological characters used to explain concepts.

I don't believe any Gnostic text was a direct revelation from God, so i don't believe anything actually happened as it is written - not in this universe anyway. But i believe it is still relevant and helpful when we attempt to understand the nature of this universe.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Sorry so many questions, I just started reading and I'm curious!

Don't be sorry, we're always happy to answer questions, not that we have all the answers mind.

[Bishka]

So who is the God of the New Testament. I haven't even gotten a full pae in the Apochryphon yet, so I'm still new to many terms you are presenting!

So basically this 'main god' so to speak is sort of like what the LDS believe in?

[Bishka]

Okay, those divine particles. Would that be something like the LDS believe that our spirits/intelligences were made out of?

[Halcyon]

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

So who is the God of the New Testament. I haven't even gotten a full pae in the Apochryphon yet, so I'm still new to many terms you are presenting!

The God of the NT is the God of Jesus, the One God, the sources of all things. But Jesus was also a Jew, so his beliefs would have incorporated many Jewish aspects as well.

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

So basically this 'main god' so to speak is sort of like what the LDS believe in?

No, not really. Although i can't tell you what sort of god you believe in.

From what i know your God is very human, to the point of having a human-like body. He was once a man and worshipped his own God, he has a wife. He created this world and humanity as specifically separate beings.

Our God is nothing like a man; no body, no gender; no thoughts, emotions or mind that is anything like a human. It is more like the Tao.

[Halcyon]

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Okay, those divine particles. Would that be something like the LDS believe that our spirits/intelligences were made out of?

Yes, something like that. Although we believe the soul and spirit are two different things.