mountainman

They mimicked the Jesus story in order to mock it. Jesus appears in all sorts of forms and then disappears, the apostles float around on bright clouds and seem to be casting lots for dominion of various nations. Utterly impossible miracles are presented, including the apostles casting down pagan temples.

The non canonical narratives introduce combinations and permutations of the canon and take the opportunity to add new material. The authors took the opportunity to platform their gnostic philosophy.

The Arians preserved the non canonical books. There is reason to suspect that Arius himself may have authored some of these "prohibited books". The Arians and the orthodox were diametrically opposed.

mountainman

Show me the claimed evidence for the christian community before the 4th century and I will show you a very weak argument for it.






I want the names of the authors of the entire chronologically and historically bogus Canonical books, and those of the chronologically and historically bogus non canonical books, WHEN they were written, HOW they were assembled, WHERE these fabrications were authored and manufactured, and WHY.

It is not enough to say that Bullneck published bullshit. A pwopper investigation needs to be set in place to identify the criminals, whom Julian appears to have referred to as "wicked men".

Duvduv

If they were gnostic believers in Christ, they must have had teachings beyond mimicking the orthodox. Why waste their time on mimicking anyway? Especially if they were supposedly facing persecution, which is not even clear.
And why mimick certain orthodox ideas and not others? When did such gnostics come into existence?

mountainman

If President Obama suddenly took over the internet and declared a world religion based on Joseph Smith's Books of Mormon, we would see the appearance of a mass of literature about the angel Moroni, Smith and other players in the Mormon Hall of Fame.

When people are forced to do something which is bullshit, they often complain by making fun of it. By satire and parody, and by embellishing the story to make jokes of it. None of this literature is being generated because these SEDITIOUS authors believe in Christ. They are characterized by their UNBELIEF.




It is clear enough in the Decretum Gelasianum, which has roots back to the time of Damasius.



We have to study the gnostic gospels and acts as a set to answer this question.




IMO the gnostics included the indigenous Egypto-Graeco-Roman milieu of religious cults and philosophical schools. At Nicaea they were the indigenous religious milieu without any centralization other than the "Sacred Assembly of Pontifices" which advised the Pontifex Maximus.

The centralised state monotheistic orthodox came into existence at Nicaea, with the appearance of the NT Bible, and I therefore expect that the gnostics reacted to this codex by manufacturing their own responses to it.

I see the period 325-336 CE as a war of books - they were important books for some people in a very real political sense. IMO both sets of books were fictional fabrications.