What happened to the Gnostics? (#12)

 Continued research for my historical novel: Peter and Paul.

There are two ways to practice religion: through faiths or through knowledge. The inner knowledge is referred to as Gnosis. Faith is often regarded as a ‘gift’, as in ‘gift of faith’; knowledge requires effort. Lots of effort—as in this research for P and P.

It is my contention that Yeshûa was a Gnostic. His power and philosophy sprang from knowledge, not from an act of faith. Thus the Gnostic Gospels of Nag Hammadi (see my Key to Immortality) must be closer to his teaching that the 4 gospels, written 100 years+ after his death, translated hundreds of times, rewritten by hand, and adapted to various predilections by various Christian churches. The matter is further discussed in the chapter Reviewing the Elements in my book Visualization – Creating your own Universe.

No matter.

While Bishop Irenaeus (2nd century AD) of Lugdunom (now Lion in France) had been canonized most probably for his infamous “Adversus Haereses”, (Against Heresies), might be forgiven in his day for attempting to destroy Gnosticism, we have no such excuse. The Gnostic Gospels survived in spite of his unholy onslaught on Yeshûa’s teaching, extended to this day by dubious ‘scholars’ of ‘established’ churches.

To put it differently, when you know something, it is easy to have faith in it; faith “greater than a grain of mustard seed.” (Luke 17:6). Indeed, you could move mountains…