I tend to believe, along with many others, that the evidence of modern forgery is pretty strong, but if it makes the other side happy, I’ll concede that it was written in the 8th or 9th century, in which case, we have a giant nothingburger with a heaping side order of hype and some extra anti-Christian dipping sauce...Read the whole thing.
Short version: This is potentially an 8th or 9th century text that tells us nothing about early Christian history. The probability of modern forgery has not been conclusively eliminated by testing, and textual issues that suggest forgery have not been convincingly rebutted.
Showing posts with label gnosticism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gnosticism. Show all posts
Saturday, April 12, 2014
That Whole "Jesus' Wife" Thing
Aside from the point that anything that refers to the Bride of the Bridegroom might actually, you know, be referring to traditional Christian theology about Christ and His Church. this is a pretty good overview of the whole affair. Excerpts:
Friday, January 15, 2010
Gnosticism vs. Catholicism
I'm also reading through Henry Chadwick's classic The Early Church, which frequently makes reference to the early controversies between the leaders of the Church (going straight back to the apostles and writers of Scripture) and the various Gnostic heresies--that is, those sects which preach salvation through hidden knowledge, or gnosis. And various is the right word for them--they diverge and multiply as the heads of the Hydra!
In the context of the previous posts on Masonry, and reflecting on the traditionally antagonistic relationship between Christianity and Masonry, I was struck rather forcibly by the realization that Gnosticism is truly the one constant opponent of Christianity throughout history, or at the very least, the one strong alternative system offered the Christian at every age. There's always the basic temptations, of course, and any number of ways to damn your soul without going in for esoteric speculation, but really, in terms of serious, long term religious competitors, the Gnostic offer has paralleled the Christian from the earliest days of out history.
There's something incredibly Biblical about this--almost a literal actualization in the world of the two trees in the Garden of Eden. God presented mankind with a garden full of good things, of which man was free to partake. The two trees specifically mentioned in the second creation account (cf. Genesis 2:9) are the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Interestingly, the tree of life is not forbidden to them by God. That tree is among the trees of the garden permitted to them.
Many people find the prohibition of the tree of knowledge an incredible act--he's holding them back! Why on earth would God forbid them from knowing the difference between good and evil? And yet we have much the same understanding today: some sorts of knowledge ought not be had. There are books we wish we hadn't read, images we wish we hadn't seen, thoughts we wish had never crept into our minds in the middle of the night. There are some things that ought never to be known.
Indeed, since evil is the privation of the good, to know evil (especially in the deep sense of knowing indicated throughout the Bible) seems like a very foul thing indeed. But look again at what we are faced with: the two trees, one with the fruit of life, and the other with the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent speaks to the woman, calling her to taste of the fruit of the forbidden tree "and become like God." Funny thing, though--when God speaks his name at the request of Moses, he does not name himself "I am who knows." He says, "I am who am." His self identification is the one who is, the one who lives. He is the God of the living, not the dead. And the consequence of eating of the forbidden fruit was death.
In knowing good and evil, somehow Adam and Eve knew less. They became less wise--they hid from the omnipotent. They attempted to avoid blame. They lost their way, and drew all their children after them. What if Eve had repudiated the serpent, and gone to the tree of life, and eaten of that instead? In much the same spirit--what if people reject the poison pill of gnosis, of secret wisdom, of that inexpressible sense of self satisfied pride of being among the elite, the Inner Circle, as Lewis called it, of the Knowing Ones? What if they instead turned towards the tree of life, the Cross, on which hung the fruit of life, which we must eat if we are to have life within us? What if we walked with the New Eve, the Lady of Sorrow, to the foot of the tree where the serpent was crushed and a new garden, the Church, was planted to feed and save the world?
In the context of the previous posts on Masonry, and reflecting on the traditionally antagonistic relationship between Christianity and Masonry, I was struck rather forcibly by the realization that Gnosticism is truly the one constant opponent of Christianity throughout history, or at the very least, the one strong alternative system offered the Christian at every age. There's always the basic temptations, of course, and any number of ways to damn your soul without going in for esoteric speculation, but really, in terms of serious, long term religious competitors, the Gnostic offer has paralleled the Christian from the earliest days of out history.
There's something incredibly Biblical about this--almost a literal actualization in the world of the two trees in the Garden of Eden. God presented mankind with a garden full of good things, of which man was free to partake. The two trees specifically mentioned in the second creation account (cf. Genesis 2:9) are the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Interestingly, the tree of life is not forbidden to them by God. That tree is among the trees of the garden permitted to them.
Many people find the prohibition of the tree of knowledge an incredible act--he's holding them back! Why on earth would God forbid them from knowing the difference between good and evil? And yet we have much the same understanding today: some sorts of knowledge ought not be had. There are books we wish we hadn't read, images we wish we hadn't seen, thoughts we wish had never crept into our minds in the middle of the night. There are some things that ought never to be known.
Indeed, since evil is the privation of the good, to know evil (especially in the deep sense of knowing indicated throughout the Bible) seems like a very foul thing indeed. But look again at what we are faced with: the two trees, one with the fruit of life, and the other with the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent speaks to the woman, calling her to taste of the fruit of the forbidden tree "and become like God." Funny thing, though--when God speaks his name at the request of Moses, he does not name himself "I am who knows." He says, "I am who am." His self identification is the one who is, the one who lives. He is the God of the living, not the dead. And the consequence of eating of the forbidden fruit was death.
In knowing good and evil, somehow Adam and Eve knew less. They became less wise--they hid from the omnipotent. They attempted to avoid blame. They lost their way, and drew all their children after them. What if Eve had repudiated the serpent, and gone to the tree of life, and eaten of that instead? In much the same spirit--what if people reject the poison pill of gnosis, of secret wisdom, of that inexpressible sense of self satisfied pride of being among the elite, the Inner Circle, as Lewis called it, of the Knowing Ones? What if they instead turned towards the tree of life, the Cross, on which hung the fruit of life, which we must eat if we are to have life within us? What if we walked with the New Eve, the Lady of Sorrow, to the foot of the tree where the serpent was crushed and a new garden, the Church, was planted to feed and save the world?
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Masonry (cont.)
A run-down of Masons of note and terms. Ignatius Insight blog has a post on Catholicism and Freemasonry, as well as a brief comment on The Lost Symbol and a book recommendation:
What is it about Freemasonry that would cause churches to forbid or openly discourage seventy million Americans from membership? Why have eight popes condemned the Lodge? Why has the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Masonic order been strained for centuries? Christianity and American Freemasonry answers these and many other questions and describes why Christ ianity and Freemasonry are incompatible. Today over two million American men belong to the Masonic order, the largest and oldest secret fraternal society. In earlier history the Freemasons boasted a prestigious membership, including fourteen American presidents and such founding fathers as Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, and Alexander Hamilton. [Christianity And American Freemasonry, by William J. Whalen] is the most complete reference book available on the subject. Chapters discuss the rituals and oaths, the Scottish and York rites, allied organizations such as the Shriners, and the historic antagonism of Christianity toward Masonry.From the same book:
After the Reformation had practically halted the construction of new church buildings, the waning masonic lodges began to admit "honorary" or nonworking members to their ranks. The original lodges were unquestionably orthodox in their adherence to the Catholic religion that they served so admirably. One of the earliest masonic charges reads: "The first charge is that you shall bee true man to God and holy church, and that you use no heresie or error by your understanding or by teachings of indiscreet men." Eventually the honorary members outnumbered the operative masons, more or less dispossessed the active members, and took over the symbols and secret signs of the lodges to form what we know as speculative Masonry. Members were expected to believe in God and in the immortality of the soul, but otherwise their religious views were completely irrelevant to the lodge. In 1717 a governing authority known as the "Grand Lodge of England" was established at a meeting of four surviving lodges in the Apple Tree Tavern in London...Also, current Catholic apologist and ex-Mason on Masonry. All very interesting. All suggesting that more time might be profitably spent examining the group which has, for most of the modern age, been counted amongst the Churches most persistent and effective foes.
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