Johnny Skeptic

I look forward to reading comments from readers.

Johnny Skeptic

For that matter, if Jesus bodily rose from the dead, why wasn't the Roman government in Jerusalem aware of it? Of all places, Jerusalem would have been the most likely place that the Roman government would have been aware of Jesus rising from the dead, and performing miracles. It is quite typical for God to always withhold the most convincing kinds of evidence.

GakuseiDon

Which gnostics weren't aware of it? You'll need to provide some more information. A source would be good. Various gnostics believed various things, e.g. that someone else was crucified instead of Jesus.

Johnny Skeptic

The Microsoft Encarta Deluxe Encylopedia Deluxe 2004 says the following:

"Although most Gnostics considered themselves Christians, some sects assimilated only minor Christian elements into a body of non-Christian Gnostic texts. The Christian Gnostics refused to identify the God of the New Testament, the father of Jesus, with the God of the Old Testament, and they developed an unorthodox interpretation of Jesus' ministry. The Gnostics wrote apocryphal Gospels (such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary) to substantiate their claim that the risen Jesus told his disciples the true, Gnostic interpretation of his teachings: Christ, the divine spirit, inhabited the body of the man Jesus and did not die on the cross but ascended to the divine realm from which he had come. The Gnostics thus rejected the atoning suffering and death of Christ and the resurrection of the body. They also rejected other literal and traditional interpretations of the Gospels"

If Jesus bodily rose from the dead, why did some Gnostics reject literal and traditional interpretations in the Gospels that say that he did?

GakuseiDon

Okay, I see now. Fair question.

Chili

Because there was no much gnostic about them? Someone should have told them that a gnostic has been raised from the dead to be gnostic; kind of like Paul or Jesus, or did they not know what gnostic means?

Merlin

The reference does not say that the gnostics were unaware of the ressurection.
It says they rejected (religiously) the teaching.

wordy

A historical Jesus would be a heretic interpretation for them? to them Christ was spiritual?

Merlin

Yes, Jesus was considered a heretic to many.
You only need to read the Gospels to see that.

Chris Weimer

Depends on "they/them". Gnosticism was not a monolithic movement.