| My eyes have just been opened And they're open very wide Images around me Don't identify inside Just one blur I recognize The one that soothes and feeds My way of life is easy And as simple are my needs Living one long sunrise For to me all things are new I've never watched the sky grow pale Or strolled through fields of dew I do not know of dust to dust I live from breath to breath I live to climb that mountain to The Fountain of Lamneth – The Fountain of Lamneth by Rush G. Lee / N. Peart Chapter 13: The Gnosis of Sophia and Gospel of Truth Alexander the Great defeated Persia in 332 BC, and created the Greek empire which included Syria, Judea and Egypt, and after his death, the Ptolomies fought with each other over the lands of Israel and Judea. In the 3rd Century BC, Ptolemy II conquered Jerusalem and took a thousand Jewish slaves to Egypt, most of which were settled in Alexandria. By the time the New Testament came into being the Jews and Galileans had been under Greek control and influence for over 400 years and many had become acquainted with the ideas of evil in the world being brought through the form of “daimons.” The Jewish bible called the Septuagint was written in Greek, most likely at Alexandria, Egypt in the 3rd century BC, and in here the gentiles as well as the gods are all lumped together as “daimons,” and in this way Jehovah would be elevated to the status of the “supreme god.” (1) It is likely also the beginning of the time period we can ascribe to the Gnostics. The Nag Hammadi Scrolls, or what are sometimes called The Gnostic Gospels are a collection of 4th century AD papyrus manuscripts which consist of twelve codices plus eight leaves from a thirteenth and contain a total of fifty-two tractates. Due to repetitions, there are forty-five separate titles. They were discovered in 1945. Twenty years after the discovery, less than ten percent had been translated into English. In 1966 a team called the “The Coptic Gnostic Library Project” got together to further the work. (2) The titles of the Library are as follows: The Prayer of the Apostle Paul, The Apocryphon of James, The Gospel of Truth, The Treatise on the Resurrection, The Tripartite Tractate, The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Philip, The Hypostasis of the Archons, On the Origin of the World, The Exegesis on the Soul, The Book of Thomas the Contender, The Gospel of the Egyptians, Eugnostos the Blessed, The Sophia of Jesus Christ, The Dialogue of the Savior, The Apocalypse of Paul, The First Apocalypse of James, The Second Apocalypse of James, The Apocalypse of Adam, The Acts of Peter and the Twelve |
Apostles, The Thunder: Perfect Mind, Authoritative Teaching, The Concept of Our Great Power, Plato, Republic 588a-589b, The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, The Prayer of Thanksgiving, Scribal Note, Asclepius 21-29, The Paraphrase of Shem, The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, The Apocalypse of Peter, The Teachings of Silvanus, The Three Steles of Seth, Zostrianos, The letter of Peter to Philip, Melchizadek, The Thought of Norea, The Testimony of Truth, Marsanes, The Interpretation of Knowledge, A Valentinian Exposition, On the Annointing, On Baptism A and B, On the Eucharist A and B, Allogenes, Hypsiphrone, The Sentences of Sextus, Trimorphic Protennoia, and The Gospel of Mary. (3) When the Egyptian language is written in Greek, it’s called Coptic. The Nag Hammadi Library was found written in two Coptic dialects. Therefore, the Greeks had borrowed ancient Egyptian texts to study, and this formed the basis of the “Gnosis.” (4) Irenaeus was talking about the Gnostics when he stated “their Aeons they insist upon terming “gods” and “fathers” and “lords” and “heavens,” along with their Mother whom they call both “Earth” and “Jerusalem,” besides applying a host of other names to her.” (5) This indicates that many early Jews were likely Gnostics from Alexandria. The Gnostic “deities or daemons” Sophia and Eirene, Wisdom and Peace were adopted as saints at the time of Constantinople. As well, according to Westrop and Wake, in Ancient Symbol Worship: “Dionysus, the god of the Mysteries, reappears as St. Denys in France, St. Liberius, St. Eleutherius, and St. Bacchus; there is also a St. Mithra; and even Satan, prince of shadows, is revered as St. Satur and St. Swithin. The Holy Virgin Astraea or Astarte, whose return was announced by Virgil in the days of Augustus, as introducing a new Golden Age, now under her old designation of Blessed Virgin and Queen of Heaven, receives homage as ‘the one whose sole divinity the whole orb of the earth venerates’.” (6) Several Gnostic sects such as the Naassenes, the Nicolaitans, the Collyridians and the Montanists maintained a close relationship with the goddess and the maternal principles embodied in their own Sophia or Prunicus and was identified with the Holy Ghost. (7) (1) Eden’s Serpents, p. 120-21 (2) The Nag Hammadi Library; The Definitive Translation of the Gnostic Scriptures Complete in One Volume, James M. Robinson, Harper, San Francisco, 1990, preface (3) ibid, p. 5 (4) ibid, p. 13 (5) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 192; Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 4, I, I; 2, 146 (6) Ancient Symbol Worship, p. 94 (7) Cult of the Mother Goddess, p. 192; Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, i, 29, 57; ii, 18, iii, 15 |