mountainman

If Jesus was so all powerful and most gnostic what caused the emergence of gnostic hereticism?






εὐδαιμονία | eudaimonia

Iskander

Is that how they spell heroticism Down Under? What caused the rising Gnostic hereticism? I think it was Cleopatra; she had the same effect on Julius Cesar and Marc Anthony.


PS one of those Monty Python misunderstandings or perhaps school eroticism.

Cheerful Charlie

Gnosticism was an extension of neoplatism. Aeons were emanated beings from God.
To the Gnostcs, Jesus was just an Aeon, often paired with Sophia, Wisdom personified.
This line of speculative thought preceded Christianity by many years.

The idea of Aeons had roots in ancient Greece, Primal Chaos emanated not quite Gods, Earth and Night that generated the primordial Gods whose off sping, the Olympians gods would displace them. Many early religions featured this primordial chaos in some form or other. These ancient ideas were the foundation of Gnosticism.

As the concept if Jesus spread, it was adopted by Gnostics and seems to have revitalized ancient Gnosticism in the form of Christian Gnosticism. The idea of a primordial God displaced non-conscious primordial Chaos. I suspect Stoicism played a role in this change of ideas over time.

Cheerful Charlie