CheeseDreams/Storagespace

Herein lie notes for the 2 most difficult sections to write (i.e those re. Paul)



Clement vs. Paul
Ebionites

notes on this section
Marcion's position as inheritor
Gnostic preference for paul - should be in intro

Acts - discrepencies
Acts - Simon Magus
Acts - dig at paul

Ebionites

Paul's distaste for Judaism - why.

'''Paragraphs to go into the article above'''

SECTION ABOUT GNOSTICISM' DEVELOPMENT AND PERSECUTION (title needs work)


Marcion
Mosquito ringtone Marcion, a gnostic, claimed to be the rightful heir of Paul's authority. Despite the criticism of this stance by early church fathers, Marcion did lead the seven communities to which Paul's epistles were addressed, a situation which would be significantly more likely to have occurred had they been gnostic before Marcion took control.

Marcion's following grew particularly large, and the non-Gnostics considered it so dangerous that Marcion was ex-communicated by them. To this day, Marcion has been considered the most dangerous enemy the Roman Catholic Church ever had.

Writings

= descriptive =
Paul wrote a number of letters to Christian churches and individuals. However, not all have been preserved; 1 Cor. 5:9 alludes to a previous letter he sent to the Christians in Corinth that has clearly been lost. Those letters that have survived are part of the New Testament canon, where they appear in order of length, from longest to shortest. A sub-group of these letters, which he wrote from captivity, are called the 'prison-letters', and tradition states they were written in Rome.

His possible authorship of the Sabrina Martins Epistle to the Hebrews has been questioned as early as Nextel ringtones Origen. Since at least 1750, a number of other letters commonly attributed to Paul have also been suspected of having been written by his followers at some time in the 1st century—early enough that religious writers like Abbey Diaz Marcion and Mosquito ringtone Tertullian knew of no other author for them.



Cerinthus (detail)
Cerinthus was early 2nd century.
Scarcely anything is known of Cerinthus's disciples; they seem soon to have fused with the Nazareans and Ebionites
Jesus was mere man, though eminent in holiness. He suffered and died and was raised from the dead, or, as some say Cerinthus taught, He will be raised from the dear at the Last Day and all men will rise with Him. At the moment of baptism, Christ or the Holy Ghost was sent by the Highest God, and dwelt in Jesus teaching Him, what not even the angels knew, the Unknown God. This union between Jesus and Christ continues till the Passion, when Jesus suffers alone and Christ returns to heaven.

Ebionites (detail)
Ebionites. The name may have been self-imposed by those who gladly claimed the beatitude of being poor in spirit, or who claimed to live after the pattern of the first Christians in Jerusalem, who laid their goods at the feet of the Apostles.
Some Ebionites accept, but others reject, the virginal birth of Christ, though all reject His pre-existence and His Divinity.
the general character of their teaching is unmistakably Gnostic
Matter is eternal, and an emanation of the Deity; nay it constitutes, as it were, God's body. Creation, therefore, is but the transformation of pre-existing material. God thus "creates" the universe by the instrumentality of His wisdom which is described as a "demiurgic hand" (cheir demiourgousa) producing the world. But this Logos, or Sophia, does not constitute a different person
Man is saved by knowledge (gnosis)

Marcion (detail)
Marcion rejected the real incarnation of Christ, claiming that he was a manifestation of the Father, he rejected the Gnostic emanation theory
his own truncated version of the New Testament, which included only 10 of the so-called Pauline Epistles and an edited version of St. Luke. He completely rejected the Old Testament. He explained in his Antitheses that since Jewish law was often opposed to St. Paul, all passages in the Bible that suggested the Jewish foundation of Christianity should be suppressed, even including such statements by St. Paul
From St. Paul he cast out the "interpolations" made by the Apostle's successful opponents which had masqueraded ever since as St. Paul's own words.
For all believers the most rigorous asceticism was prescribed as of obligation. Fasts are multiplied, abstinence from meat is perpetual, and upon all there lies the obligation of perpetual celibacy.
by the end of the century Marcionite churches were to be found in every province of the empire
and there is mention of them even so late as the tenth century

It is well known to all serious students of the subject that there was an original rent or rift of difference between the preacher Paul and the other founders of Christianity, whom he first met in Jerusalemnamely, Cephas (or Peter), James, and John.

two voices are heard contending in Paul's Epistles
The two doctrines are those of the Gnostic, or Spiritual Christ, and the historic Jesus. Both cannot be true to Paul;

Pauls conversion in Acts vs. Pauls conversion in the Epistles
It is the universal assumption that Paul, the persecutor of the early Christians, was converted by a vision of the risen Jesus, who proved his historic nature and identity by appearing to Paul in person. So it is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The account, however, is entirely opposed to that which is given by Paul himself in his Epistle to the Galatians - It was by revelation of the Christ within, but not by an objective vision.

Realism of Paul
Jesus of Nazareth is unknown to Paul! His name never once appears in the Epistles

Marcion's view of the other apostles
as Irenæus tells us, the Gnostics, of whom Marcion was one, charged the other Apostles with hypocrisy, because they "framed their doctrine according to the capacity of their hearers, fabling blind things for the blind according to their blindness; for the dull, according to their dulness; for those in error, according to their errors."

false preachers
He warns the Corinthians against those "pre-eminent apostles," whom he calls false prophets, deceitful workers, and ministers of Satan, who came among them to preach "another Jesus" whom he did not preach, and a different gospel from that which they had received from him. To the Galatians he says:

"If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be damned;" or let him be Anathema. He chides them: "O, foolish, Galatians, who did bewitch you? Are ye so foolish: having begun in the Spirit, are ye perfected in the flesh?"

blatant wish list forgery in the epistles
And in his Epistle to the Corinthians he is made to declare that he first of all delivered to them that which he had received (not by subjective revelation, but according to the history externalised), received (not by subjective revelation, but according to the history externalised),

"How that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to above five hundred of the brethren at once [this is piling it up!] then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as unto one born out of due time, he appeared to me also, for I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle."

Celsus
Celsus when he says of the Christians:
"Certain most impious errors are committed by them, which are due to their extreme ignorance, in which they have wandered away from the meaning of the divine enigmas";

Acts
Strangest thing of all is it that the book of the Acts, which is mainly the history of Paul, should contain no account of his martyrdom or death in Rome

= Life =

The epistles state
*Paul was born in Sabrina Martins Tarsus
*Paul was an Isrealite
*Paul was a Pharisee
*Paul had a Jewish education
*Paul was self-supporting
*Paul initially persecuted Christians (Phillipeans)
*Paul's authority came direct from God (Galatians)
*After conversion, Paul went to live in Nabataea (for 3 years)
*After Nabataea Paul went to Damascus
*Paul had to flee Damascus in the night
*Paul went to Jerusalem meeting Nextel ringtones James the Just
*Paul left Jerusalem to preach in Syria and Cicilia
*After 14 years, Paul went back to Jerusalem to meet the Abbey Diaz Apostolic Council
*Paul had come to preach his gospel to them
::*Because there were false teachers and spies
*James, Peter, and John gave Paul and his group the highest honour
*Paul met Peter shortly after at Antioch
*Paul attacks Peter for not sharing a meal with a non-Jew
*Paul is later imprisoned with John Mark (collossians)
*Paul travelled through Asia Minor including Macedonia, (incl. Philippi)
*At Phillipi, Paul was badly treated (1 Thessa)

Acts states
*Paul studied in Jerusalem
*Paul studied under Free ringtones Gamaliel
*Paul made tents
*Paul was a Roman citizen
*Paul had a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus
*Paul had to flee Damascus in the night
*Paul went to Jerusalem meeting Majo Mills James the Just
*Paul left Jerusalem for Antioch then Cyprus and Asia Minor to preach
*Paul left Asia Minor for Syria and then Cicilia
*After 14 years, Paul went back to Jerusalem to meet the Cingular Ringtones Apostolic Council
*Paul was the head of the delegation from Antioch
*Paul had come to discuss whether Jewish Law should still be observed
::*including circumcision
::*including trafficking is kashrut/dietary law
*Peter says there is no distinction between Jews and non-Jews to God
*James (the Just) states that things should be made easy for non-Jews
*Paul takes back a letter
::*removing the duty of non-Jews to obey certain parts of Jewish law
::*referring to Paul and his group as dear friends
*Paul leaves Antioch to return to the converts he made earlier
*Barnabus and Paul fall out
::*Paul doesn't want to take John Mark with them
*At Phillipi, Paul exorcised a spirit from a slave
::*ruining her ability to tell fortunes
::::*which was theft from the slave owner, putting Paul in prison
*Paul then went to Thessalonica, then Greece
*At athens, Paul gave a speech claiming to speak for the fully imagined Unknown God
*Paul then went to Corinth, and started his epistles
*Jews brought a prosecution to death theory Gallio against him
::*(Archaologically Gallio was only the Proconsul in Corinth in 52 AD)
::*The case was dismissed as being worthless
*Paul returned to Antioch and then came back to Corinth
::*In Ephesus, a pro-Artemis-worship mob attacked him
::::*Because silver statues of her were their income
*Paul returned to Palestine to bring alms for a famine
::*In doing so, Paul avoided Ephesus by taking a detour by boat
*When Paul got to Palestine, from play Ananias had Paul imprisoned
::*Paul got moved to a Rome prison by claiming Roman citizenship

Traditions include
*Paul later visited Spain (attested by her bible 1 Clement and the former cantor Muratorian fragment)
*neighbor against Eusebius of Caesarea states that Paul was beheaded in the reign of the and dedicated Roman Emperor accountable democrats Nero
*Gaius, who wrote during the time of chamber sometimes Pope Zephyrinus, states Paul's tomb stood on the be frequent Via Ostensis.
*It is commonly accepted that Paul died as a such mediocre martyr.

Disputed information includes
*The epistles never mention Paul having Roman Citizenship
::*Some scholars thus doubt he had it
::::*especially as the honour to a non-Roman was uncommon at the time
*The Damascus vision of Jesus is apparantly not described in Epistles
::*Some scholars doubt Paul had such a vision
::*The Epistles state that Jesus appeared "last of all, as to one untimely born"
*Paul's conversion has subtle differences between Acts and Epistles
*Acts recounts nothing of Paul meeting Peter at Antioch.

=Alternative views of paul's reasoning=

The Paul is a supporter of the mystery religions view
*Supporters include isabel in Hyam Maccoby (a Talmud scholar)
*Paul was originally a hellenic non-Jew (and lying when he claims otherwise)
::*Paul's Epistles demonstrate ignorance of the creates such Jewish Law
*Paul converted to Judaism to become a Pharisee scholar
*Paul found employment as a policeman (in the SS style) for the High Priest (a Sadducee)
::*Paul's employment conflicted with his religion
::::*Paul's "experience" on the way to Damascus was one of realising this inner conflict
*Paul fused the mystery religions and Judaism
*The Gospels were written to support Paul's views

The Paul is a villain heretic (of Judaism) view
*Supporters include the else davis Talmidi Jews
*The Christian church bases itself on Paul rather than on Jesus

The Paul is a villain heretic (of Christianity) view
*Supporters include A. Victor Garaffa
*Paul usurped the authority of the apostles (under we fail James the Just)
*an aggressive power struggle existed (preserved in the canonical New Testament)
*see [http://www.comparative-religion.com/articles/pauline_conspiracy/].)

The Paul was a good Jewish boy view
*Theory due to Rabbi romance he Jacob Emden (many variations 1697 to wobegon we 1776 AD)
*Saul was a devout and learned roughhew the Pharisee
*Saul changed from Shammaite views to believe that gentiles could also be saved
*Under a guiding authority (Simon Kepha), Saul developed a related religion for gentiles to achieve this aim
*BUT Saul did insist that Jews obeyed Jewish law.
*This theory is most defended by the (orthodox) Rabbi Harvey Falk

Important note

The greeks had a god called "the unknown god"

the epistles
= Romans, Phillip, and 1 Corinth ("undisputed", doctrinals) =

Romans Contains
#Complements the Romans (those he was writing to) on their religion
#Assertion that sin leads to "death"
#Assertion that belief in the "resurrection" results in "salvation"
#Assertion that "justification" is not by morality, rites, or ceremony, but as a free gift via the religion of Jesus
#A list of 24 Christians in Rome

Philip contains
#Statement that being imprisoned actually furthered the gospel (due to preaching to those guarding him)
#Asserts that the church is a commonwealth
#Sets forth the "personal glory of Christ"
#Asserts similar ideas to the epistle to Romans

1 Corinth contains
#Dealing with the unfortunate (Christian) religious divisions in Corinth
#Dealing with apparant (apparantly notorious) violations of morality in Corinth
#Dealing with "spiritual gifts" such as glossolalia (speaking in tongues)
::*"Spiritual gifts" are not condemned
::*"Spiritual gifts" should be used only in an orderly manner
::*"Spiritual gifts" should be considered w.r.t. the higher gifts - faith, hope, and love.
#Dealing with abuses w.r.t. the eucharist
#Dealing with the status of women in the church
::*Thought by some to be a forged passage as it fits uncomfortably in the dialog (which also reads better and continuously without it)
#(Extensive) Defence of the doctrine of resurrection of the dead

= Galatia & 2 Corinth ("undisputed", anti-Jacobean)=

Galatia Contains
#Defence of Paul's claim to be an apostle
#"Demonstration" of the "evil" influence of "Judaizers/Judaizing" elements in "destroying" the religion's essence
#Assertion that "justification" is not by morality, rites, or ceremony, but as a free gift via the religion of Jesus
#Exhortation to resist the "evil" influences
#A statement that Paul wrote the whole letter himself (implying that he didn't normally, showing how earnestly he felt about the issues in this one)

2 Corinth Contains
#Description of Paul's life
#Description of Paul's religious development
#Instructions w.r.t. alms for the poor (Christians) in Judea
#Defence of Paul's claim to be an apostle
#Defence against insinuations of a specific false teacher

= From Philemon ("undisputed") =

Contains
#Personal intercession (to Philemon) on behalf of Philemon's deserted slave Onesimus (who Paul had met and converted)





= From Colos and Ephesus (disputed by most) =

The epistle to the Ephesians and the one to the Collossians have strong similarities
:*Over 40 appearant expansions of equivalent verses in Collossians
:*Similarity of style
:*Similarity of subject

Most scholars think that the epistle to the Colloseans was written first, and then that to the Ephesians was simply an expansion and reworking of it.

There are issues raised about the greeting of Ephesians
# The letter lacks any references to any events Paul experienced in Ephesus.
# Phrases such as "ever since I heard about your faith" seem to indicate that the writer has no firsthand of knowledge his audience, but we know from the book of Acts that Paul spent a significant amount of time with the church in Ephesus, and in fact was one of its founders.

There are various explanations provided for the discrepency of this issue
*it is not about Ephesus (as references to Ephesus are absent from the earliest known manuscripts)
*the letter was not written by Paul
*Paul sent letters out en-masse, changing the greeting as he saw fit

A small majority of critical scholarship (e.g. Raymond Brown) holds that Paul did not write these letter because of
*language
*style
*absence of characteristic Pauline concepts
Those who hold that Paul did write it claim the differences are due to human variability.

They contain
#Attempts to correct the church at Ephesus/Collossae 's "misinterpretations"
::*General description of what the gospel is (i.e. what the religion is)
::*Prayer for "spiritual enrichment" of the recipients
::*Injunctions
::*Note on ongoing religious "warfare"
#Anti-heretic notes
::*warning that those who think that the doctrines of Oriental mysticism or asceticism are part of Christianity are wrong
::*warning that there are some trying to draw people to Judaism by using jewish practices
::*Christians should not be drawn away from Jesus in whom dwelt the Godhead (Christianity)/Christian Godhead
::*Christ was the head of the church
#Duties
::*mind out for the heretics
::*mortify evil principles in ones-self
::*special duties to evidence christian character

= From 1&2 Tim & Titus (pastorals - extremely disputed by most) =

The authorship of the pastorals by Paul
#traditionally accepted
#In significant doubt today

Reasons for doubt include:
*Marcion doubted their authorship (about 140AD) (according to Tertullian's reporting of this fact)
*Irenaeus is the 1st person to quote from them (about 170AD)
*The vocabulary is not similar to those which are "undisputed"
*The style is not similar to those which are "undisputed"
*The situation of Paul in the letter doesn't fit into the description of his life in acts or in his other epistles
*The letters address issues of the late 2nd century church rather than of the earlier late 1st century

The content of Titus is very similar to the content of 1&2 Tim (considered together)

Content
#Asserts that the religion should be entrusted to ordained presbyters (an office that was not really around in the 1st century)
#Describes how the church should worship
#Describes how the church should be organised
#Describes the responsibilities of church elders
#Exhortation to retain the faith against the common "errors" (i.e. Marcionism and Gnosticism)
#(In 2 Timothy only) Request for Timothy to return to Paul with Mark
#Assertion of Paul's impending death
#Exhortation to resist "false teaching"
#Asserts counter-arguments to "false teachings"
#Assertion of handing charge of the church to Timothy/Titus (respectively)

= From the Hebrews (totally disputed by virtually everyone) =

Authorship by paul is
#Traditionally (up to 1600) accepted
#Totally doubted by modern scholars

Doubt of authorship is due to
*Lack of any claim in the epistle to being written by Paul
*Substantially different writing style
*Polished greek rather than 2nd language greek of an aramaic speaker
*The understanding of Judaism in it is inaccurate and more accurately reflects a Christain interpretation of the Septuagint

HOWEVER, It is thought by most that it was written by an associate of Paul or a later follower of similar ideas such as Clement of Alexandria (based on its "similarity" of ideas)

The epistle
*references most of the other Pauline epistles
*partly acts as a commentary on Leviticus and worship at the Temple (of Jerusalem)
*Explains that the Jewish priesthood foreshadowed Jesus, who replaced it
*Explains that Judaism was superseeded by Jesus' teaching
::*It is thought that this is to counter the Ebionites

From The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

Gospel according to Thomas
*Identifies itself as a secret gospel
*Contains new testament sayings
::*And goes on to show they have a gnostic meaning
*Contains otherwise new sayings in the koan style

Gospel of Phillip
*States Christ loved Mary Magdelane, and kissed her mouth often

Secret book (Apocryphon) of John
*Claims to reveal secret teachings of Jesus

The texts from Nag Hammadi
*are Coptic translations from 375ADish
*the originals are mentioned by Irenaeus
*some suggest the originals date from AD140 (based on them being heresy)
*some suggest the originals date from AD75ish (pre-Mark)

The Testimony of Truth
*Records the garden of eden story from the Serpent's viewpoint

The Thunder, Perfect Mind contains the lines
*For I am the first and the last.
*I am the honored one and the scorned one.
*I am the whore and the holy one.
*I am the wife and the virgin....
*I am the barren one, and many are her sons....
*I am the silence that is incomprehensible....
*I am the utterance of my name.

The Gospel of Truth
*Was denounced by Ireneaus as especially full of blasphemy

By the time of the Emperor Constantine
*Possession of books denounced as heretical was made a criminal offense.
*Copies of such books were burned and destroyed.

Gnostics think
*self-knowledge is knowledge of God
*the self and the divine are identical.

According to Christian legend, and Acts, in the apostles time, all Christians
*lived communally
*believed the same teaching
*worshipped together
*revered the authority of the apostles

Unfortunately the evidence is that the gnostics existed at that time.

Most present day christians
*accept the canon of the New Testament
*confess the apostolic creed
*affirm specific forms of church institution

But Irenaeus attests
*a variety of biblical canons existed
*a wide variety of organisational methods existed

Irenaeus declared
*there can be only one church
*outside of the 1 church, there is no salvation
*anyone who disagrees is an heretic

with military support of the empire, the penalty for heresy escalated.

John's gospel and Mark fundamentally diverge
*In John, Jesus is a transcendent and divine being
*In Mark, Jesus is a "hidden Messiah", a more human figure who only teaches to his disciples.

An example from Thomas (saying 108)
: "Whoever drinks from my mouth will become as I am, and I will become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to him".

To the gnostics
*The significance of Jesus is that of a model
*the Gospel of Philip urges followers not to become Christians, but rather new Christs.
*the gospel of Thomas, portrays news of the kingdom of God to be existing both outside and inside of people at a deep level to breaks free when our consciousness is transformed by the knowledge that we are all children of the living God.

The gnostics were considered dangerous because
*The Gnostic idea that one does not have to go through Jesus and the Church, but could approach God on one's own, rendered the Church's existence unnecessary.
*the Gnostic gospels recognize a feminine influence in God as Jesus' origin
*the Gnostics affirm including women in ministry
*the Gnostics support of self-meditation etc. filled the void in Christian spirituality

The merger of 4 gospels
The Diatessaron (of Titian, 172 AD)
Doherty
*argument from silence - gospels are first record of flesh+blood jesus
*the Thomas Jesus never speaks of the Cross or dying for sins or resurrection
*Many features of the Gospel of Peter are clearly reworked canonical story
::*exaggerated miracles
::*anti-Jewish polemic

(counterargument)
*Paul was a Pharisee
*Paul was a student of great Rabbi (Gamaliel)
*Paul was very proud of his tradition.

Counter arguments (using Collossians)
*St. Paul Not indebted to Mystery cults
*Paul Warns against Mystery cults

descriptive

In Mark 4:11-12
:unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand

In Hebrews 6:1-2
:let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment

Celsus alleged that the Christian church
*was a secret society
*taught the masses a false doctrine
*kept the greater truths for those who are initiated

The Essenes did not sacrifice in the temple because they were spiritual, and they perceived the symbolism of the Old Testament scriptures from the perception of a higher mind.

Book review
The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters
Elaine Pagels

I Corinthians
*The gnostics viewed chapter 2 highly as it supports their case

Moreover, the idea of '''baptism for the dead 1 Corinthians 15:29''' is something that has plagued orthodox scholars for over 20 centuries. Yet, the gnostics easily handled this verse by saying that baptism for the dead meant gnostics being baptised in the place of psyhics for their eventual salvation. Since it was the psychics who were dead, ignorant towards God, a pneumatic could be baptized in their stead and effect their awakening and journey into gnosis.

kenoma - the visible or manifest cosmos, "lower" than the pleroma
hypostasis - emanation (appearance) of God, known to psychics
ousia - essence of God, known to pneumatics

IMPORTANT NOTE
The pastorals have been proven to not be by the author of romans by extensive computer analysis (of the kind used in criminal cases)
(ref. Ludemann)

descriptive 3

= Intro =

if Paul really were as anti-Gnostic as the Literalists claim, then it is astounding how many Gnostic texts quote him or are actually attributed to him

Obviously by the end of the second century the view of Paul as a Gnostic teacher was a sufficient threat to motivate someone to create an indisputably Literalist Paul in response.
1 Tim 6:20 attacks gnosis
1 Tim 5:20 enforce the power of the church to rebuke sinners
2 Tim 2:17-18 attacks the gnostics Hymenaeus and Philetus for teaching "resurrection has already occurred"
1 Tim 2:9-15 Attacks women's authority to teach

The gnostics
*Had informal laity not clergy
*Used myth as allegory for wisdoms
*Treated women as equal

Acts contains veiled criticism of Paul. By the criteria of Acts 1:21 Paul does not qualify as an apostle as he was not with Jesus during his lifetime and had not seen the risen Jesus

=THE GNOSTIC PAUL=

Paul claims Jesus came in the "homoioma" of human flesh. The only place where Paul seems to treat Jesus as a historical figure is in Timothy, which is a forgery. "homoioma" = likeness, figure, representation, image

Like the Gnostics, Paul is extremely disparaging of the externals of religion - ceremonies, holy days, rules, and regulations. (Romans 14:1-5, Phil 3:3, Corinthians 2:20-22)

=APOSTLE OF THE RESURRECTION=

Salvation is immediate (2 Cor 6:2)

=PAUL AND JEHOVAH AND THE TORAH/LAW=

Paul gives a full account of his justification according to Jewish Law- (Phil 3:5-6) - circumcised on the eighth day, Israelite by race, of the tribe of Benjamin, and a zealous Pharisee - "by the law's standard righteous without fault." Startlingly, he says in verse 8 that he counts all this as "so much rubbish."

For Paul, "Nothing is unclean in itself" (Rom. 14:1-15), "All things are authorised for me" (1 Corinth). Later Gnostics, such as Carpocrates, quote Paul to defend their own doctrines of natural morality against those who accused them of immorality.

=CIRCUMCISION=


pro-Jewish Christians who believe that the Church should maintain the old Jewish customs
Paul attacks them with passion. In Galatians 5:2 he proclaims:"Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.". In Phillipeans 3:3 "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

The Book of Acts as Scholars attest today was a late second century document that appeared after Irenaeus in 180 C.E.

Let us not forget who has control of writing these documents at this time; namely anti-Gnostic literalists. Having said that there is absolutely no evidence that there ever existed a Jerusalem Church of the apostles, tn fact, quite the opposite.

'''When in 160 C.E. Bishop Melito of Sardis went to Judea to discover what had become of the legendary Jerusalem Church, to his dismay he found not the descendants of the apostles, but instead a small group - the Ebionites'''
*Irenaeus leaves us in no doubt that the Ebionites were Gnostics.
*Epiphanius tells us that the Ebionites were vegetarians
::*a practice almost universally associated with Pythagoreanism
*they used the Gospel of the Ebionites, Gospel of the Hebrews, Gospel of the Twelve Apostles, and Gospel of the Nazarenes
::*(Nazarenes knew nothing of the Nazareth legend)
::*The Nazarenes were still found scattered throughout Syria and the Decapolis in the late fourth century.
*Eusebius explains that the gnosticism of the Jerusalem Church was due to the entire church becoming apostate from the original (in his view) literalist religion

Gnosticism and the problem of evil

Gnostics are aware that
*In order to nourish themselves, all forms of life consume each other
*The consequence of such consumption is pain, fear, and death
*Natural catasrophes (e.g. earthquakes and floods) cause pain fear and death

descriptive 2

X suggests
1. The Gnostics invent Paul.
2. The orthodox condemn the Gnostics via making the apostles condemn Paul.
3. The orthodox co-opt the Gnostics (the popular Gnostic churches/communities) by co-opting Paul.

"I robbed other Churches, taking wages from them to minister to you." (2 Corinthians 11:8 )

Consider the falling out between James and Paul.... it could just as easily be that James may have attempted to take his brother's teachings and turn them back to a more traditional "Jewish" outline.

Since Matthew is essentially contrived to follow the book of Exodus in a new way, it is possible that it was created as an initiatory outline of the Exodus story.

1 Timothy 4:1-3 condemns ascetic practices, such as rejection of marriage, that some Gnostics practiced.

There are other possible interpretations regarding what the author means by "genealogies" here. In relation to Gnosticism, it could be a reference to the descent of Aeons through the process of emanation.

(Matthew 13:10-17)
quite obscure, it seems as if several logoi from the Q have been randomly put together.