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  1. Rakovsky

    The Gospel of Thomas Unriddled

    WhyIsThatSo, The FAQ did not specify a saying. The FAQ says: The FAQ might be referring to verses like: (100) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, "Caesar's men demand taxes from us." He said to them, "Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God, and give me what...
  2. Rakovsky

    The Gospel of Thomas Unriddled

    Why Is That So, I understand that in Gnosticism, the Jewish God might act in accord with the will of the Supreme God. According to the quote from the Gospel of Thomas FAQ, in the Gospel of Thomas, the Jewish God is the same being as the Supreme God. So this is a reason why it's not clear to me...
  3. Rakovsky

    The Gospel of Thomas Unriddled

    Can it be proven whether the Gospel of Thomas was definitively and categorically Gnostic? It seems that there are debates about this question and that it has verses that seem to be match Gnosticism and contradict Gnosticism. The Gospel of Thomas FAQ provides a distinction between the Gospel of...
  4. Rakovsky

    Yaweh as Borg?

    I wish you well with your spirituality. Out of concern for your difficulty, I want to let you know that maybe the Buddhist idea, approach, and goal for its meditation is not really mentally healthy. There is a lot of skepticism about it in East Orthodoxy, to say the least. It's not that...
  5. Rakovsky

    Yaweh as Borg?

    OK. It looks like there is not much activity on the Gnosticism section. Buddhism seems to me like really a group within Hinduism, or a version of Hinduism. Hinduism seems to refer to the religions from India, including the various sects, and the Buddha was from India and had a sect of his own...
  6. Rakovsky

    Anyone heard of the 2 by 2's religion?

    The Wikipedia article on the Two by Twos says that it is a Protestant anti-Trinitarian group, which suggests that it is not Gnostic. So the thread might be better for another forum section. The Wikipedia article says: So there is nothing about the Demiurge or anti-materialism teachings like are...
  7. Rakovsky

    Yaweh as Borg?

    Wiktionary explains the concept of Borg this way: One issue comes up is that you write: "So what image or symbol would you put of Jesus's Father on your altar?" The classic Eastern Orthodox response is that God the Father is not depicted in religious Church artwork. The EOs aren't supposed to...
  8. Rakovsky

    Questions about organisation and relation to buddhism

    One of the main uniting beliefs in Gnosticism is the concept of Gnosis, meaning Knowledge. The idea is that there is some kind of sacred, core knowledge that the person who joins or accepts Gnosticism acquires that saves the person, brings the person to a higher level, unites the person to God...
  9. Rakovsky

    A Gnostic interpretation of Matthew 2:27-28

    I believe that the common story about the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices in late 1946 is made up. Nicola Lewis, of Claremont College which has photos of the pages of the codices online, has an article directed at debunking that story, and instead suggesting that the codices had been on the...
  10. Rakovsky

    A Gnostic interpretation of Matthew 2:27-28

    Wikipedia relates the December 1945 discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts this way: Nag Hammadi library - Wikipedia The Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in late 1946-1947: I guess that a skeptic about the coincidence of the find could theorize that the British were very interested in archaeology...
  11. Rakovsky

    Why isn't Gnosticism a subset of the Christian DIR?

    As I understand it, some Gnostics like Marcion were dedicated to Christ, and thus could be called Gnostic Christians, ie. Gnostic followers of Christ. However, there were Gnostics like Dositheus who preceded Christianity. So someone could be Gnostic and not be a follower of Christ. So it makes...
  12. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    Here is a photo of the top of page 1 in Codex 1, showing the end of the addressee's name. It's very unlikely that the reason that the name is illegible is because the institutional Church considered Cerinthus a heretic. It's unlikely that this is the reason, because: (A) such a large part of...
  13. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    For Question 1, as far as photos of the texts go, you can find photos of the numbered pages of the codices on the Claremont Colleges website: Nag Hammadi Archive You can find a typed version of the Coptic texts in: Nag Hammadi codex I (The Jung codex), Introductions, Texts, Translations...
  14. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    For Question 6, the reason for the apostles' anger at those who would be born is apparently jealousy. The Apocryphon ends with James and Peter having an ascent to heaven separately from the apostles, and James returning to tell the other apostles that the Lord disclosed to him and Peter about...
  15. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    My answer for Question 4 is that the statement "For none of those who have worn the flesh will be saved" is talking about a default condition of those who have been born in flesh. It doesn't literally and categorically mean that no one who ever wore flesh will be saved no matter what. One reason...
  16. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    For Question 4, I don't think that the dwelling place or city refers to the body, because (1) the spiritual meaning of the believers' city in the NT is the Christian community, AKA the spiritual New Jerusalem. Also, (2), the Apocryphon encourages people to remain in their dwelling place or city...
  17. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    On a sidenote, for Question 2, it would be neat and helpful to get copies of the Greek and second Coptic copies of the First Apocalypse of James. Smith and Landau found the Greek text in 2017, but haven't translated it, and in The Woman Jesus Loved (1996) A. S. Marjanen writes that: In any...
  18. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    For Question 4's part about Augustine's idea, supposing that the author sees wearing the flesh as bringing on a curse, this is different than Augustine's idea. In Augustine's theory, it is descent from Adam that brings on the curse. If wearing the flesh brought on a curse, then if a person...
  19. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    For Question 5, in Christ, the Spirit and the Community of God: Essays on the Acts of the Apostles, Arie W. Zwiep writes that, Zwiep does not mention other early writings having a post-resurrection time of Christ on earth being over a year, and a search online did not turn up other early...
  20. Rakovsky

    The Apocryphon of James (1st - mid-2nd century) Questions.

    Regarding Question 1 (the addressee), the letter opens: Matti Myllykoski notes in "James the Just in History and Tradition" that the addressee ends in -thos, that the text calls him a "minister of the salvation of the saints" - a term suggesting a religious leader who accepts the ideology of...
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