mountainman

I put it to you that in the years following 324 CE and the Council of Nicaea 325 CE that every single Pagan in the Roman empire was looking sideways at Constantine's Bible in a very inescapable manner since it was published widely and lavishly for the explicit purpose of becoming the "Canonised Holy Writ" of the empire.

Religious privileges are reserved for Christians.

--- Codex Theodosianus, 16.5.1, 326 CE

In any other words the non christians were forced (by the sword) to accommodate biblical creationism over and above their previous conceptions of religion and philosophy and metaphysics and way-of-life.

We should expect a political reaction from the huge non christian majority to these Draconian Laws.

mountainman

Do you have any suspicion at all that Augustine was being deliberately untruthful?

darstec

Judging Augustine is difficult. He certainly believed lying to promote the faith was OK. But he also believed in impossible things such as headless men with eyes in their bodies/trunks. Perhaps he thought he was telling the truth.

J-D

If people are compelled by the threat of violence to adopt an official religion, they may give lip-service to it, but that would not give them any reason to expend intellectual effort on reconciling their own philosophies with the official doctrines.

J-D

I have no idea and it makes no difference to the point that was actually at issue because, despite your implied accusation, and no matter what Augustine did or did not say, I never suggested that Porphyry was a Christian.

mountainman

This giving of lip-service to the doctrines of Constantine is one of the characteristic descriptions of those who were called Arians. While they were face-to-face with "The Boss" they had little choice but to agree because they feared for their life. After they were "released" from the Council of Nicaea, many are said to have reverted to their own "ways".

Setting aside for one moment the "reason" for the actions, it seems clear that we have evidence of actions at that specific time related to expending intellectual effort on reconciling "other" philosophies with the official doctrines.

(1) The Intellectual Effort of Arius of Alexandria

We know that Arius authored books which sorely displeased Constantine and the orthodox "new and strange" state Christian Church on the basis of Constantine's reactions to these books and to Arius.

(2) The Intellectual Effort of 4th century Post-Nicaean Gnostic authors

We also know that "unknown" Gnostic authors expended intellectual effort on reconciling their own philosophies with the official doctrines in the epoch following Nicaea. These Gnostic authors used these texts to platform Gnostic philosophy while at the same time "borrowing" from material in the books of new testament canon (published by Constantine). Here is a list of all these "Gnostic Gospels and Acts" which are currently thought to have been authored after the Council of Nicaea:

Post Nicaean "Gnostic Gospels and Acts, etc"

The Acts of John the Theologian
The Acts of the Martyrs
The Death of Pilate
The History of Joseph the Carpenter
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew
The Gospel of Nicodemus
The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary
The Correspondence of Paul and Seneca
The Correspondence of Jesus and Abgar
The Acts of Polyeuctes
The Gospel of Gamaliel
The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles
The Acts of Pilate
The Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena, and Rebecca
The Acts of Thaddaeus
The Acts of Peter and Paul
The Gospel of Bartholomew
The Acts of Philip
The Acts of Simon and Jude
The Acts of Luke
The History of John
The Acts of Mark
The Act of Peter
The Acts of Bartholomew
An Arabic Infancy Gospel
The Gospel of Thomas - A 5th Century Compilation
The Acts of Barnabas
The Acts and Martyrdom of Andrew
The Acts and Martyrdom of Matthew
The Acts of Timothy
The Acts of Titus
The Acts of Matthew
The Secret Gospel of Mark
The Apocryphon of James
The Apocryphon of John
The Revelation of Peter
The Report of Pilate to Tiberius
The Martyrdom of Matthew
The Passing of Mary
The Apocalypse of Adam
The Apocalypse of James - First
The Apocalypse of James - Second
The Apocalypse of Paul - and fragments
The Apocalypse of Peter - and fragments (*R)
The Revelation of Esdras
The Revelation of John the Theologian
The Revelation of Moses
The Revelation of Paul
The Vision of Paul
Community Rule
John the Evangelist
The Book of John Concerning the Death of Mary
The Book of Thomas the Contender
The Consummation of Thomas
The Giving Up of Pontius Pilate
The Avenging of the Saviour
The Epistle to the Laodiceans
The Report of Pilate to the emperor Claudius
The Teachings of Addeus the Apostle
The Three Steles of Seth
The Book of Thomas the Contender
The Narrative of Joseph of Arimathaea
The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
The Sophia of Jesus Christ

I have not included any of the texts in the Nag Hammadi Codices in the above list, however it is likely that ***at least some of these*** were authored after Nicaea.

mountainman

Augustine expanded on Eusebius's false representations of the Persian Sage Mani as being a "Christian". Augustine was an "Imperial Tax Exempt Christian Party Man" along with Jerome and Rufinus and Theodoret and earlier the first Bishop and Pontifex Maximus Damasius. Cyril of Alexandria c.444 CE was of the same ilk. IMO they all lied through their teeth in order to seal up any inauthenicity issues related to "Christian Origins" and the history of any adverse PR, such as that thrown at them by the Emperor Julian and the Arians during the 4th century.

Cyril was given the very descriptive name of "The Seal of the Fathers".
These people constructed and rendered a cement slab across the events of the 4th century.
They twisted the history of the "Pagan" reception of Christianity in the Roman Empire to suit their "Political Objectives".

I dont think so. I think that by the later part of the 4th century you had the power being held by the Christian Emperors and their minions, and they were doing their best to utterly stamp out all and any opposition. I think it was similar to and typical of an extremely powerful (despotic and malevolent) political party. Once you joined and were on the "INSIDE" and had worked your way to the top (such as the abovenamed crew) then the "historical truth" of the bygone era ceased to be relevant. Only the party doctrine was relevant. That's my take anyway.

J-D

No doubt. But that is not evidence for your theory about what their own genuine views actually were.No. Neither Arians nor Gnostics were attempting to reconcile their own philosophies with official doctrine, because they did not accept official doctrine.

Huon

The Codex Theodosianus was published in the eastern half of the Roman Empire in 438. One year later, it was also introduced in the West by the emperor Valentinian III.

mountainman

It contained a compilation of imperially inspired law codes commencing from the rule of Constantine to Theodosius (313 to 453 CE). Many of these law codes may be today appropriately described as Draconian. Here are some extracts It appears Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to draft and introduce law codes that proscribed burning people to death.