Gnosticism, Patristic Mythological Christianity and the Biblical Jesus

Gnosticism, Patristic Mythological Christianity and the Biblical Jesus

Writer: Evangelos D. Kepenes (Athens, February 19, 2020, 23:59)

Gnosticism

The term "Gnosticism" is a later term that denotes a part-Christian religious attitude with many branches, which combined occult, pagan, mythological, astrological and philosophical elements with elements from the Old Testament and the New Testament. 

Professor Konstantinos Skouteris states: "The term Gnosticism is considered to be a complex religious movement. It is primarily an expression of the syncretistic spirit of the Hellenistic period. Gnosticism demonstrates the Greek way of thinking, Persian dualism, Eastern mysteries, Babylonian astrology, and certainly elements from Jewish literature. Gnosticism adopts, utilizes, and transforms the above elements into a new proposed system of life, a message of salvation." (Skouteris op. cit. 295-6)

Its followers, the "Gnostics," called themselves "consubstantial with God," a term found in the Orphics, in Hermeticism and in the "Orthodox," ecclesiastical, mystical system. They regarded themselves as genuine Christians ("we alone of all men are Christians") and were opposed to the mysterious, spiritual monopoly of the "Catholic Church," though they had much in common at a theological and ritual level.

What is known about their teaching and practices comes mainly from opposing philosophers and writers, such as Hippolytus of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyon, Origen, Epiphanius and from the texts of the Nag Hammadi library that were discovered in the region of Chenoboskion, in Egypt, in the late 1940s.

The time of the appearance of the different Gnostic schools is unclear. The sure thing is that their pseudonymous knowledge expressed either in complete moderation or in unrestrained promiscuity was widespread among the ranks of the first Judeo-Christians with whom they feasted, a fact that testifies to the existence of the Jewish proto-Gnosticism, with concepts similar to those in the ancient Egyptian Hermetic texts and Greek Mythology.

The view that there are traces of Gnosticism in the ascetic, messianic movement of the Essenes who called themselves "the Sons of the Righteous One" and denounced the authoritarian, religiopolitical Jewish power is controversial.

The Gnostics' acts of worship were accompanied by invocations of spirits, hymns or chants with music, prayers, doxologies, and ecstatic utterances (prophecies, speaking in tongues, exorcisms/spells). Having a clear influence from the Orphic motif, "I am a child of Earth and of the starry Heaven; my race is of Heaven," they sought ways to return to Heaven, which they believed was their origin. The same perception is reflected in his own way by the Pythagorean Greek philosopher Empedocles (495-435 BC) in his phrase: "From such heights, from such glory, I fell to this wretched earth, and mingle with these vulgar bipeds."

The Encratite Gnostics were indifferent to worldly matters and, not wanting to trap others in this flawed world, practiced celibacy, considering that "to marry and beget is of Satan"[14]. They condemned meat-eating and wine-drinking and engaged in asceticism (elements also found in the Orphics), thereby punishing the natural flesh, which they considered the prison of the spirit and associated with evil. Derivatives of the Dualism of the Gnostics were Docetism, asceticism (Encratism), and Anti-Judaism, which was the identification of the God of the Old Testament with the evil creator of the material world.

 According to Plato, the confinement of the immortal soul within a body is the same as imprisonment in a tomb (Greek: 'σήμα' in antiquity, referring to a sign or tomb): "The body is the tomb of the soul". The Orphics, on the other hand, understood 'body' (σώμα) to mean both the dead body (the corpse) and the living one, as "that which is safe/whole (unharmed) along with the blood." 

Extreme Practices and Beliefs of the Gnostics

In contrast to the moderate Gnostics, some tendencies, such as the Libertines (or Antitactics), advocated for Antinomianism (a theory that rejects moral law and emphasizes free will) and participated in sexual cultic orgies. They regarded extreme debauchery as the means to combat the evil material flesh, from which the divine nature had to be freed (Orgiastic Gnosticism), while others proceeded to self-castration, which was an extreme personal choice.

Docetism and Gnostic Cosmology

Within Gnosticism, the idea of Docetism developed (Jesus seemingly had a body and was seemingly crucified). It was introduced by the Judeo-Christian Cerinthus, who had an Egyptian education and was also the originator of Chiliasm (Millenarianism). Docetism, with variations, was embraced by most Gnostic groups, besides the Cerinthians. It is speculated that the idea of the transformation of Christ's body—sometimes into material and other times into spiritual—originated among the Messalians, while the Ophites claimed that the resurrected body of Jesus was psychic and pneumatic [15].

The Trichotomy of Man

The Valentinians, a faction of the Gnostics, believed that man was created from three substances: matter (somatic/bodily), the soul (psychic), and the spirit (pneumatic/spiritual). Depending on which prevailed, they categorized humans as Hylics (Material), Psychics (Soulish), and Pneumatics (Spiritual) [16].

• Hylics (Material): Condemned.

• Psychics (Soulish): (The non-Gnostic Christians) Possibility of salvation through faith and works.

• Pneumatics (Spiritual): (The Gnostics themselves) Guaranteed salvation through knowledge.

Gnostic Divine Dualism

The Theogony (origin of the gods), Cosmogony (origin of the universe), and Anthropogony (origin of man) among the Gnostics were varied, based on Pluralism and Dualism:

• Pluralism (Philosophical Pluralism): The philosophical theory or concept which maintains that reality is constituted by multiple, self-sufficient, and mutually independent principles, without a common fundamental principle underlying them (e.g., the chain of Aeons).

• Dualism: The philosophical theory that interprets the world based on two competing creative principles/gods, one evil (Matter/Creator) and one good (The Highest God), from which two separate, dissimilar, and opposing worlds arise: the evil sensible (material) world and the spiritual or intelligible world.

These positions are contrary to the Biblical narrative of One Principle/One God (Monotheism), through whom both the visible and the invisible were created.

“And to shine forth what is the economy of the mystery which has been hidden from the ages in God who created all things; (the visible and the invisible)” (Eph. 3:9 Godbey, Col. 1:16)

The Stoics

Beyond the metaphysical antagonistic dualism found in Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, Orphism, and Pythagoreanism (e.g., Good/Evil, Light/Darkness, Soul/Body), Stoicism developed the concept of a physical duality of two inseparable principles (the Active and the Passive). This duality is cooperative and monistic, unlike antagonistic dualism, and is the focus of the present study.

The Stoics (Philosophers of the "Painted Stoa," ca. 300 BC – 250 AD), who held as their principle «ὁμολογουμένως τῇ φύσει ζῆν» (to live in agreement with nature), which is equivalent to living virtuously (κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν ζῆν), were represented by three periods/schools (or 'trends').

Influenced by Heraclitus, who considered the Logos to be «ουσίᾳ τῆς εἱμαρμένης» (the essence of Fate), which permeates the substance of the whole universe, and by Hermeticism, where "Thoth is the Logos that permeates and pervades all things,"[17] they believed that there are two principles in the universe:

• The Active: God or the Logos («τὸ ποιοῦν» – that which acts/makes).

• The Passive: Matter («τὸ πάσχον» – that which is acted upon/suffers).

Divine Principles and Pantheism

The Logos, inherent in Matter (an immanent or intra-cosmic God), created beings through it, maintaining their unity and the eternal order. For the Stoics, God is simultaneously every individual thing in nature (Pantheism) and all things together are God (Material Monism). The duality in Stoicism is an internal, functional distinction within the single substance (Active element within the Passive) and not a distinction between two separate worlds. It is:

• Physical (Materialistic): Both principles (Active/Passive) are ultimately material.

• Cooperative: The two principles do not clash but coexist and cooperate. The Active Principle (Logos/Pneuma) acts within the Passive Principle (Matter) to create the cosmic order.

Fate, Soul, and Astrology

They believed in Fate (Eimarmene) and Divine Providence and taught that humans are connected to the World-Soul through an inner personal divinity, which was the «Δαίμων ἑαυτοῦ» (one’s own Daemon or guiding spirit). Consequently, there was an interaction between celestial and terrestrial beings ("the Principle of Sympathy"). This view is related to Chaldean Astrology and Theurgy and provided the groundwork for astrological predictions and divination.

The French philosopher Jean-Baptiste Gourinat, in his book "Les Stoïciens sur l’âme" (The Stoics on the Soul), states: "The Stoics in antiquity were considered to oppose Plato because they did not believe in metempsychosis (reincarnation) and the immortality of the soul (SVF, II.814-17), but also to oppose Epicurus, because they did not believe in the complete annihilation of the soul at death. According to them, only the souls of irrational animals die with their bodies: for rational souls, the end of their mixture with the body does not mean the simultaneous disappearance of the elements composing them. The soul separates from the body and survives for a period in a 'diminished' form of existence. According to Chrysippus, the soul then takes a spherical form, and according to some Stoics, the souls that will endure the longest wander among the stars or around the moon. Only the soul of the wise person survives for a long time, before disappearing in the periodic Ekpyrosis (cosmic conflagration) of the universe. It is thus a teaching of the Stoics that the divine fire, which animates the universe, periodically sets it ablaze: then the universe is reborn (Palingenesis), and everything begins to move again to the rhythm of an eternal recurrence."

 The Stoic Chrysippus defines the soul as «πνοή ἔμφυτος ἡμῖν, συνεχὴς, διήκουσα δι' ὅλων τῶν μερῶν τοῦ σώματος»[18] (i.e., "a breath innate in us, continuous/cohesive, permeating through all parts of the body"). This "psychic breath" (or Pneuma), the Stoics classified into eight parts (the eight-part soul): the Hegemonikon (or intellect / mind), which was the center of all, the five Senses, the Spermatikon (reproductive power), and the Phonetikon (speech/reason).

Ekpyrosis and cyclical time

It is noteworthy that the doctrine of "Palingenesis" (Regeneration/Rebirth) as held by Heraclitus and the Stoics—who maintained the "cyclical course of the universe towards eternity" through repeated, identical regenerations of the visible world (eternal recurrence) that occurred after every Ekpyrosis (Conflagration)—had and has an influence on most religious and philosophical systems.

Influence on Gnostic Eschatology

The salvation of Spiritual people and their return to the Fullness of God will mark the end of the power of the Creator of the visible (Ialdabaoth) and his rulers. At the end of the world, the material, flawed world will be destroyed (by burning or dissolution), as it has no value. 

Influence on Patristic Thought (Patristics)

It also influenced Patristic Thought (the writings and ideas of the Early Church Fathers), which preserved and continued the classical Greek spirit (A' Patr. Papadop. p. 69). The key difference is that Patristic Thought advocates for the "straight-line trajectory of the universe" and anticipates events that will inevitably bring about, through fire, the end of the history of sensible (perceptible) things and their continuation in another form.

Influence on Modern Cosmology

Furthermore, this idea also influenced and shaped the modern "Conformal Cyclic Cosmology" (CCC) proposed by certain astrophysicists. These scientists view Fire (or extreme energy/heat) as the culmination of the vital force that will bring about the end of the universe, only to be followed by a new Big Bang that will create a new universe.

The effects of the “Regeneration” of Heraclitus and the Stoics abolish the eternity of the Gospel of Salvation and weaken its power and the “in Christ” perfection of man in this earthly life, as well as the life-giving power of the heavenly man Jesus, who acts the Regeneration (Tit. 3:5) here and now (new spiritual man / new spiritual creation / new spiritual people). They thus alter God’s good eternal plan for the mortal earthly man, which (plan) He had predestined according to His good pleasure (Eph. 1:9) and mock God who “worked all things in wisdom.” (Ps. 104:25)

Anthropological Dualism of the Gnostics

A derivative of the Divine Dualism of the Gnostics and other philosophical systems is Anthropological Dualism, which divides man into two elements: the sensible, mortal body and the intelligible, immortal soul (the pre-existent soul, according to the Chaldeans, Plato, Philo—who attempted to connect Platonism with Jewish thought—and others). Consequently, man is a participant in both principles, the Good and the Evil, and if he escapes from the body, which participates in the Evil principle, he is saved.

This idea is opposed to the biblical narrative, where "soul" signifies the origin of life from the one Life-Giver God, present in every living creature, without the Platonizing distinction adopted and radicalized by the Gnostics. The Gnostics viewed the material body as the creation of a lower god (Demiurge) and the soul as a spark of the true, higher God, which must "escape" through knowledge (Gnosis).

Asking Job, God says to him: "Or didst thou take clay of the ground, and form a living creature, and set it with the power of speech upon the earth?" (Job 38:14 LXXA). According to the Hebrew Bible, therefore, the "soul" does not refer to only one part of human existence, but signifies the entire human being, as a unified living entity: "and the (earthly) man became a living soul," which was subsequently subjugated by the enemy of man, death: "death reigned" (Gen. 2:7, Rom. 5:14-17), and the right to eat from the tree of life was removed from him.

Conversely, in Platonic anthropology, the death of the body is a friend of man because it allows the immortal soul to be freed and ultimately return to its heavenly state.

Characteristic is a funeral epigram by the Hierophant, where he states: "A truly beautiful esoteric teaching (was conveyed to us) by the Gods: That death is not only not detrimental to humans, but on the contrary, it is a beneficial thing."

The assurance that the first mortal earthly man (choikos anthrοpos) is psychosomatic (holistic) and not dualistic is also confirmed by Epiphanius. 

"For indeed, Adam, having been molded from the earth on the sixth day from the beginning, received the breath and was made alive ." (Epiphanius, Panarion, Chapter 4)

In contrast to the Platonic concept of the soul's immortality, the Bible teaches that the soul dies.

"For all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sins shall die." (Ezek. 18:4 LXX)

"And he shall not go in to any dead soul (teleteutēkyia psychē); he shall not defile himself for his father or his mother." (Lev. 21:11 LXX)

"Let every soul (psychē) be subject to the governing authorities." (Rom. 13:1)

"[...] so Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five souls (psychais) ." (Acts 7:14, ERV )

"[...] saying, 'Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child's life (tēn psychēn tou paidiou) are dead.'" (Matt. 2:20)

"And Samson said, 'Let my soul die (apothanetō psychē mou) with the Philistines." (Judges 16:30, Bishops)

         "but he that slayeth a beest, shall paye for it. Soule for soule." (Lev. 24:18, Coverdale)

We see, therefore, that the Hebrew biblical references and the anti-heretical Epiphanius refute the Platonizing Eastern belief in the immortality of the soul, as it is also formulated in a funeral service (Exodiastikon) for hieromonks from the 16th century:

"O our God, the Creator and Benefactor of all creation, who fashioned man from a sensible and earthly body and an intelligible and immortal soul (noeras kai athanatou psychēs)..."[19].

Aristotle similarly refutes Plato by stating:

"It is clear that the soul is not separate from the body, nor are any parts of it – if it is by nature divisible"." (About the soul. 657: 413a 4-6)

The doctrine of the "immortality of the soul" is directly connected to the belief in metempsychosis (transmigration of the soul), where the soul, after the death of the body, departs and enters another body (of a human, animal, or plant), until its purification is complete and it returns to its pre-fall state.

This view, along with the Platonizing "Christian" perspective that mortal man possesses within him an intelligible, immortal substance that will either enjoy beatitude or be tormented incessantly by the executioner "Triune God" after the death of the body, stands in complete contradiction to the term "mortal" and the apostolic saying that God is "the only one who has immortality" (1 Tim. 6:16), as well as the verse: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Cor. 15:53).

Therefore, according to the religious views (influenced by Platonism), God created man with the purpose of tormenting him eternally if he does not submit to His three hypostases and His will.

The fullness of God according to the Gnostics

According to the version of the Egyptian Valentinus, one of the supposed "Fathers" of Gnosticism, thirty (30) spiritual entities—the Aeons (Aiones)—were emanated from the True, Ineffable, Good, and Transcendent God in the archetypal world, which is characterized by good order within the Pleroma, arranged in a hierarchical order. They bridge the gap between the infinite God and the material world. This process of emanation explains how the Infinite produces the Finite without being diminished or altered.

According to Irenaeus, the primordial state or Aeon is called the Abyss (Bythos) or Forefather (Propator). After ages of silence and inactivity, he projects a seed, which is received by his consort, Silence (Sigē) or Thought (Ennoia) or Grace (Charis), and the production of the remaining Aeons begins.

The Aeons created erotic pairings, the "androgynous unities" (Syzygies), in three triadic groupings: 8 Aeons (Ogdoad), 10 Aeons (Decad), and 12 Aeons (Dodecad), totaling 30 Aeons. The concept of the "androgynous unities" or Syzygies is fundamental, as it emphasizes the harmonious complementarity and balance within the Divine World. From these 30 Aeons, other lower-ranking Aeons proceeded. All the Aeons together constituted the Pleroma (Fullness) of God.

Valentinus' version of the Pleroma of God is related to:

a) The emanations ("Sefirot") mentioned in the esoteric texts of the Kabbalah and the Kabbalistic "Tree of Life." b) The Labdoma or Tetractys of the Pythagoreans and the ancient Greek "Tree of Life." c) The Theogony of Hesiod, according to Epiphanius.

Explanations

• Kabbalah (Sefirot): The Sefirot are the ten emanations through which the infinite God (Ein Sof) reveals Himself and continuously creates both the physical and metaphysical realms, famously arranged on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.

• Pythagoreans (Tetractys): The Tetractys is a triangular figure of ten points arranged in four rows (1+2+3+4=10), representing the four elements, the organization of space, and the perfection of the number ten, symbolizing the cosmos and the source of harmony.

• Hesiod's Theogony: While the Theogony is a mythological genealogy of the gods, Epiphanius (an early Church Father writing Against Heresies) likely emphasized this connection to show that Valentinus' system of emanated beings was a derivative of pagan myth, rather than unique Christian revelation.

The "Aeon Jesus" of the Gnostics

The Gnostic Pleroma and the Fall of Sophia

N.B. "Aeons" (Aiones) in the language of the Gnostics are the intermediate spiritual beings that bridge the gap between God and humans.

The last Aeon of the Pleroma, Sophia (Wisdom), dissatisfied with her rank, desired to unite with the Unspeakable (Bythos), the Source of all things. This forbidden desire caused a crisis in the Pleroma and led to the expulsion of her Passion (Pathos), from which the Chthonic Sophia or Achamoth arose. To restore order, Bythos asked the first Aeon, Nous (Mind), to project two new Aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit, who taught the Aeons their limits and restored stability.

The "Chthonic Sophia Achamoth" was cast out of the Pleroma of God and gave birth to the evil god, the hermaphroditic Ialdabaoth or Saclas (meaning "Son of Chaos"), whom they depicted as a lion-headed Serpent . This being, unaware that a higher God existed above him, created the present material, inferior, and flawed world. For the Gnostics, this figure was the God of the Old Testament, a fundamentally anti-Judaic position that led them to honor the disobedient figures of the biblical narrative. For modern theosophists, Ialdabaoth is the true, perfect Serpent, the seven-headed god.

Note on the "Aeon Jesus" and the Patristic Thought

It is noteworthy that in all variations of Gnostic myths, the pre-cosmic birth of the "Aeon Jesus" is detected, which has a spiritual affinity with the philosophical "Patristic thought" regarding the pre-cosmic and pre-eternal existence of the Son, the second person/God, the Mystery of the "Three-Hypostasis Monad," as defined in the Symbol of Faith: «τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων» ("begotten of the Father before all ages").

Furthermore, according to Patristic thought, although the Son is "begotten" before all ages, he is simultaneously "co-eternal" (synaionios) and "co-unoriginate" (synanarchos) with the Father, and although he is "consubstantial" (homoousios) with the Father, he is also super-substantial (hyperousios)!!!

Trans-essential

The term "Trans-essential" (Hyperousios = lying beyond essence) was used to characterize God by the theologians of the early post-Christian centuries (Patristic Christianity) (Justin, Athanasius the Great, John of Damascus, and others).

However, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the mythological Trinitarian Godhead, is also hymned as Trans-essential (Hyperousios) by the hymnographers of the state Christian Church: "The Virgin today gives birth to the Trans-essential one... etc."

Among the Neoplatonists, who had accepted the doctrine of Zoroastrian Dualism, is the work of Iamblichus, On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, which states that from the One Transcendent God emerged a Second God (Nous), who was "prior to being and the beginning of the being (of things)" and the god of the subordinate intermediate gods (i.e., the first creator of the intelligible/invisible world). 

Pre-essential = the one existing before all essence (matter) 

Professors of Philosophy Vasilis Kalfas and George Zografidis state that:

"The cryptic expression "beyond being" (epekeina tēs ousias) formed the basis for the belief that Plato developed an "unwritten" philosophy, of mathematical inspiration, exclusively for the initiates of the Academy. A constitutive element of this philosophy is the ontological priority of the Good (which is identified with the One), and the production of the Forms (Ideas) and mathematical entities from it. Be that as it may, the placement of the Good "beyond being" (epekeina tēs ousias) still conveys a simpler meaning: that, for Plato, all knowledge has an ethical foundation, and that ethics precedes epistemology." 

Cryptic = someone who is skillful at hiding something or himself / herself, secretive, hypocrite (Dictionary by Skarlatos D. Vyzantios)

The philosophical cryptic term "trans-essential" (hyperousios) or "beyond being" (epekeina tēs ousias), or "pre-essential" (proousios)—which refers to the second creator god in Egyptian Mythology, in Neoplatonism, and to the Second Person/God of the imposed "Three-Hypostatic Monad" of Greek Orthodoxy—is non-existent in "Apostolic Thought," the opposing camp to "Patristic Thought."

"Patristic Thought" crystallized and interpreted not the Apostles, but the developed "Neoplatonic thought," which posits as the creator of beings a second "pre-essential" god that was projected from the First.

The early Christian Apologists and Fathers (such as Justin Martyr and the Cappadocian Fathers) consciously employed Hellenistic philosophical concepts to express the Christian revelation to an educated Hellenistic audience, and the influence of Platonism/Neoplatonism (especially on the concepts of the Logos as a Second God/Principle, Ousia [Essence], and Hypostasis [Subsistence/Person]) is undeniable. 

The anthropogony of the Gnostics

The assistants of the evil god were his creations, the "Archons" or the 360 "Angels" according to the Sethians. They were the ones who fashioned the biblical earthly Adam (choikos Adam = man) in the image of the archetypal, hermaphrodite, perfect, and great-named Spiritual Man [25], who was the reflection of the also androgynous or asexual supreme god whom they called the Metropator (Mother-Father of all), identified as Pigeradamas or Geradamas.

For the Naassenes, the archetypal man was trifold (body, soul, spirit) and they called him Arch-Man (Archantropos), Man from Above, or Adamant (Adamanta). The Manichaeans called him the "First Man" who fell victim to the darkness. The Kabbalists and modern theosophist Neo-Gnostics call him Adam Kadmon. In Greek Mythology, where the "primordial Greek mysteries" are described, they call him Prôtolaos.

Ialdabaoth, with the permission of his mother, "Sophia Achamoth," empties himself of his power (kenosis) by breathing the breath of life into the earthly Adam, but this breath contained his mother's divine elements. Thus, man acquired a divine spark and consciousness of divine origin from the Pleroma of the Godhead, which, however, Ialdabaoth imprisoned with the chains of forgetfulness (or oblivion). Man's only hope for "self-salvation" was the awakening of this inner divine spark through esoteric, intuitive Gnosis (knowledge) and the recovery of its memory—a position related to modern theosophists and to Plato, who taught that "knowledge is recollection (anamnesis)

The divine spark of the Gnostics is also related to the myth of the Titan Prometheus, the creator of man from clay and fire. This myth described that magical moment when the intellectual spark was spiritually ignited in man, with the help of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, distinguishing him from the rest of the "irrational" (alogon) animal kingdom. 

The incarnation of the "Aeon Jesus" according to the Gnostics

Subsequently, the Gnostic "Father" Valentinus hands down to us the following false knowledge: The Aeon Jesus (or Saviour, created by all the Aeons as an offering) is incarnated, meaning he is clothed in a material body, and acquires a second nature, that of the perfect man Jesus (who is the seed of Gnosis).

Valentinus' "thought" is related to the "thought" of the Apologists who stated: "The first power after the Father of all and Master God is the Son, the Logos, who was made man by being incarnated in a certain manner" [27], as well as the revelatory "Patristic thought" of the incarnation of the pre-existent Son into a perfect man.

The Aeon Jesus then appears to people in the form of the man Jesus (who was the incarnation of the Aeon Jesus), in whom the Aeon Christ (see explanation) had dwelt at the time of his baptism in the Jordan River, with the purpose of restoring them to the spiritual light. He subsequently abandons the man Jesus before his crucifixion. For the Gnostics, the crucifixion of Jesus does not save, but was the liberation of the Aeon Jesus from his material body.

Explanation of the Aeons 'Christ' and 'Holy Spirit' in Valentinianism 

"The relationship between the Aeon Christ and the Holy Spirit in Gnosticism (particularly Valentinianism) is one of complementarity rather than direct identity. While both are Aeons emanating from the Pleroma, they often form a pair (Syzygy) or represent two distinct, yet complementary, saving powers. The Aeon Christ (Soter) is generally the entity responsible for stabilizing the Pleroma and entering the man Jesus to bring Gnosis. The Holy Spirit, or the Aeon Pneuma, is often considered a separate, co-emanated power whose primary role is to assist in the spiritual perfection and salvation process of the elect, often acting as the intellectual principle that guides the individual to Gnosis." 

The purpose of the incarnated Aeon Jesus was:

• The awakening and salvation of the fallen soul, the divine element in man, through the illumination brought by the Aeon Jesus. This was achieved by the "Pneumatics" (Spiritual ones) by recovering the memory of their origins. Thus, the "Pneumatics" self-save through Gnosis (knowledge), thereby becoming Gnostics and entering the Pleroma of God.

• The restoration of androgyny or asexuality according to the eternal archetype of the hermaphrodite or asexual Spiritual Man (or Adamant), who was the reflection of the supreme androgynous or asexual Metropator God (Mother-Father of all). Their entry into the Pleroma of God will allow their reunion with their celestial "other halves" to form Syzygies (pairs), thus restoring the dual balance lost with the fall of the Lower Sophia (Achamoth).

• The dismantling of the authority of the evil God of the Old Testament. The salvation of the spiritual people will signify the end of the authority of the Demiurge (Ialdabaoth) and his archons. At the end of the world (Gnostic Eschatology), the material, flawed world will be destroyed (by conflagration or dissolution), as it holds no value.

• The destruction of the flawed material world and the "fleshly / material" men through conflagration or dissolution.

• The expulsion of the "Psychics" (Soulish ones) from the divine Pleroma.

• The restoration of the divine order within the Pleroma of God.

Therefore, the man Jesus Christ, who was the "incarnation of the Aeon Jesus," provides the Gnosis for the self-salvation of the "spiritual" people, and he also saves/restores the "divine Pleroma."

Incarnation

The Gnostics engaged with ancient Philosophy and Mythology, which they used as a reservoir of thought. Thus, they adopted the anti-biblical view of incarnation and reincarnation (or metempsychosis), which was a standard teaching of the Orphics, the Pythagoreans, the Platonists, the worshippers of Dionysus, and others, which was incompatible with Judeo-Christianity.

The common belief of these currents was that the immortal souls of men were spirits who fell from celestial bliss into matter (the descent of the soul) due to an unspecified prior sin. As a punishment, they were incarnated (clothed) in a material body. Hence, the objective of life is purification through potential multiple reincarnations and their ultimate restoration to their original spiritual origin.

The Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria used the biblical narrative to symbolize this fall:

• The fall of the soul from heavenly bliss into the earthly body is symbolized by the "garments of skin" that God gave Adam and Eve to wear before expelling them from the Garden of Eden.

• According to Philo, the imprisonment of the fallen soul in the material body resembles the subjugation of the Hebrews in Egypt, and therefore, the soul must seek its "Exodus" (exit) from matter towards the Divine Logos.

(Note: Philo uses the Logos as the spiritual realm or state, which is opposed to matter (Egypt/the body). The Logos is the realm of knowledge and virtue.)

Also, the "Chaldean Oracles" say:

"Regarding the substance of the soul, the Chaldean Oracles state that: "As for the substance of the soul, it has a mediating and reductive role. With its descent into bodies, it becomes a prisoner of matter, but without ceasing to constitute a fluid reality, retaining a non-fallen part of itself in the intelligible world. Ultimately, it is destined to ascend to its place of origin, the celestial vault, escaping the forgetfulness of the senses." 

The Gnostic idea of the incarnation of the archetypal Aeon Jesus into the earthly man Jesus is attested by anti-heretical sources and in the recently discovered Gnostic apocryphal Gospel of Judas. In this text, the "traitor" Judas appears to possess special knowledge (Gnosis), and his betrayal was a redemptive act intended to free the incarnated Spirit of Jesus from the material element so it could return to the Pleroma of God. According to the apocryphal text, Jesus told Judas, "You will sacrifice the man that clothes me".

The theory of the incarnation of the "Philosophical Jesus" was drawn from the same reservoir of thought—Philosophy and Mythology—by "Patristic thought" and its related doctrines, which profess belief in the "incarnated Son." This concept arose from the theological interpretation of the apostolic saying, "the Logos became flesh (sarx = body)," where the verb egeneto (Aorist II of gignomai), meaning "became," was used to justify the theological doctrine of the Incarnation, thereby differentiating the Christian position from Gnostic Docetism.

Terminology (Stamatakos' Dictionary)

• Become (Gignomai) = to be born || to come into being, to become || to be.

• Incarnate (En-sarkonō) = to materialize || to give material substance to something || to embody || to reincarnate || to transmigrate the soul.

Gnostic Influence and the Subobrdination of Christ's Birth

Deeply influenced by the Gnostic doctrine of the incarnation of the "Aeon Jesus," the "Fathers" of the "Catholic Roman Church" and related denominations not only adopted the philosophical concept of incarnation but also downgraded the unique, supernatural birth of Jesus Christ. In this way, they removed His "foreordained" character (Acts 3:20) as the true Son of God who was born in time, 100% of the holy Spirit, incorporating Him into a scheme of materialization (incarnation) that relates to the corresponding Gnostic idea. Furthermore, the apostolic word makes a clear distinction between the biblical genesis and the dogmatic incarnation.

"Now the birth (hē genesis—not the incarnation) of Jesus Christ was as follows: When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the holy Spirit." (Matt. 1:18)

• "Γένεσις" (Genesis) (as used in Matt. 1:18): means birth, beginning of existence, or origin—implying an event that happens in time.

• "Ενσάρκωση" (Encarnation) (the Patristic term): means materialization or embodiment—implying the taking on of material nature by a pre-existent spiritual entity.

The "Fathers" did not focus on the apostolic word but, copying the myths of ancient religion and Gnosticism, proclaimed that the pre-eternal Second God the Son, who is inseparable from the Father, was eventually separated and came down from heaven and was incarnated (clothed Himself in an earthly body) as defined in the Patristic Creed: "Who came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man."

This statement is mythological and, according to "Patristic thought," involves three parts: a) the pre-existent Son, b) the holy Spirit, and c) the mortal Mary. However, it refers to a conjunction of Heaven and Earth, thus relating to the mythical union of the god Uranus (the first mythical male element) and the goddess Gaia (the material side of the world). The theologian and professor Panagiotis Christou confirms this affinity, noting that the Gnostic duality of the two deities (male and female) essentially constitutes "the heaven and the earth of the old Greek religion".

Furthermore, the emphasis on the Incarnation and the descent contrasts with the apostolic belief that the heavenly man Jesus was the image of the invisible God the Father (Col. 1:15)—a position that, although it supports equality, was used in the Nicene Creed to support the dogma of the pre-existent Son who took flesh from the earth.

"Also, Patristic thought, by utilizing the Nicene Creed, shifted the focus from the 'heavenly man Jesus' (the one born of the Holy Spirit – 1 Cor. 15:47), who was the image of the invisible God the Father (Col. 1:15), to the pre-existent Son-God as the central figure of salvation. In this way, the emphasis on the unique birth in time (Matt. 1:18: 'Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise' (Grk txt: Τοῦ δὲ Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ ἡ γένεσις οὕτως ἦν) receded and was replaced by the pre-eternal origin and the mythological descent and incarnation. 

The doctrine of the two natures of Jesus is a borrowing from Mythology.

This combined verdict of the Synodal Fathers—that the pre-existent Second God (the Son) was incarnated "by the holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary" [thus Jesus was not the Son of God but the incarnation of the pre-existent Second God-Son]—inevitably led to the not-so-novel idea of the two natures of Jesus. This idea has predecessors in mystical and philosophical systems (such as Hermeticism, Platonism, Gnosticism) that speak of the dual nature (Immortal/Mortal) of man. Consequently, the idea of the two natures is a spiritual legacy of Mythology.

Already in mystical Hermeticism ("a metaphysical system and a body of systematized, magical, astrological, and alchemical practices"), we encounter the idea of the two natures of the archetypal man who fell into the physical world.

"And the (archetypal) man himself, marveling at his image, falls in love with himself and wishes to dwell on earth. Thus we have the fall of man, and Nature surrounds him everywhere. And because of his fall, man has a dual nature: mortal as regards the body and immortal as regards the essence, a slave and simultaneously a sovereign of Fate, which is ultimately determined by all the spheres" (Hermetic texts: preface, page 15)

Greek, Aeschylus, Dionysus, and Heracles

Furthermore, according to the decryption of the Phaistos Disc, the Greek, as the true son of God, is born of an earthly womb and heavenly seed. 

In the work of Aeschylus, "Prometheus Bound" (Prometheus Desmotes), Prometheus foretells that his Redeemer, "the one who will unbind him" (ho lyson), will be born of a God and the mortal virgin Io [34].

Furthermore, Dionysus, whom the ancient Greeks called "Saviour" (Sotir), "suffering god" (paschon theos), and "divine infant" (theio brephos), also possessed a dual nature, since he was the offspring of the union between the god Zeus (celestial primary fire) and the mortal nymph Semele (earthly substance). He was also thrice-born (trigonos): Dionysus-Phanes, Dionysus-Zagreus, and the resurrected Dionysus who was called by Zeus to reign.

The greatest of the Greek mythical heroes, Heracles, whose parents were Zeus, the father of gods and men, and the mortal Alcmene, also had two natures, as did many others.

Hybridity and Philosophy

Also found in Mythology is another form of dual nature, that of the Mixanthropos (mixanthropos, lit. mixed-man) which means half-man and half-beast (katà tò hḗmisu ánthrōpos kaì katà tò hḗmisu ktēnos, Themist. 284A, cf. Liban. 3. 282.) (Liddell-Scott). One such figure was the mythical Typhon, son of Gaia.

The idea of the two natures had precursors not only in mythical models of coupling (Zeus/Semele) and hybridity (Mixanthropos), but also in abstract philosophical schemes (Pythagoras) that placed duality within the principle itself (the One).

Pythagorean Duality

According to the Pythagoreans, nature is interpreted arithmetically, and numbers constitute the essence of beings. The number One (1), due to its dual nature, is both 'even' (tautēzomenos: identified with the 'Infinite') and 'odd' (tautēzomenos: identified with the 'Finite') (Metaphysics, 987a17, 986a19-20).

A Brief History of the "Union of the Two Natures of Jesus." in One Person

The Ecumenical Councils were aimed at finding conciliatory and compromising solutions by the bishops of the Imperial religion to their internal church disputes, as a multitude of Gnostics and other "heretics" had been members of the "official Church" for some time. The resolution of dogmatic disputes often occurred in an "atmosphere of terror," involving bribery and fanatic armed monks who plundered rival churches and murdered their bishops (e.g., the "Robber Council" of 449 AD), where political violence and imperial interventions played a significant role.

The Council of Chalcedon (451 AD)

Thus, the Christological doctrine of the composite dual nature of Jesus in one hypostasis (person) was formulated in 451 AD by the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, convened by the Roman imperial couple Marcian and Pulcheria. Its purpose was to address the contentious teaching of Archimandrite Eutyches, a form of Monophysitism and collaborator of Cyril of the Alexandrian school, who maintained that the human nature of Christ was absorbed into the divine nature, and therefore, Jesus had only one nature, the divine one.

Instead of the "absorption" of one nature by the other, the "union" of the natures in one hypostasis prevailed, a position supported by the School of Antioch and confirmed by the Tome of Leo (Bishop of Rome). The new synodal formula regarding the identity of Jesus' nature led to a schism, and the churches that broke away were called Anti-Chalcedonian (or Oriental Orthodox non-Chalcedonian Churches).

The Definition of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon stated:

"The union of the two natures in Christ was achieved in such a way that they are unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, and inseparably [ενωμένες—united], without the distinction between the two natures being eliminated at all because of this union, which was brought about in such a way that each nature preserves its properties, but that both are united in one person and in one hypostasis."

The biblical Jesus

The apostles taught that Miriam, the Jewish servant of God, gave birth to Jesus, whom she had miraculously conceived without her biological involvement. What was conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit.

“But while he was thinking of these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take home Mary your wife; for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” (Mat. 1:20, Anderson)

“And the angel answered and said to her: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for which reason, also, that which is begotten, being holy, shall be called the Son of God.” ( Luk. 1:35, Anderson)

Natures are special and distinct and they are not composed, except in Mythology. Jesus did not have two parents, a father and a mother, like the biological man and the mythical god-men, nor did he have two natures united in one hypostasis, a biological, earthly one and a heavenly one, but he was whole, "Born" by the will of the heavenly Father, who was in His Son, and the Son was in His Father.

“But if I do them, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (John 10:38)

 Jesus was "the living bread which came down from heaven," "the image of the invisible God," "the Master of life," "the Son (the Offspring) of God's love,"  "the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person" (Character of His  Hypostasis), "the true, Living Temple of God." Jesus was the tangible, visible, living image of the Father, the brightness of the glory of the invisible God, "who only hath immortality."

Jesus was not the manifestation of the tangible, visible hypostasis of the mortal, earthly man, whom God created in the image of God, “for in the image of God I made man” (Gen. 9:6, LXXE)  and who  was "the type of the one who was to come," (Rom. 5:14) which means that the earthly man will receive the image of the "heavenly Jesus."

Jesus was the manifestation of the invisible and immortal Hypostasis of the Eternal God and functioned (spoke, listened, acted, gave life) just like His Father, because He was the True God Himself and the Eternal Life, and not a second god who became a god-man, “my glory I give to no other”. (Isa. 42:8)

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself. The Father who dwells in me, he does the works.” (John 14:10, Anderson)

The "Word" did not enter into physical flesh, as the apologists and philosophers were saying, but became heavenly flesh (John 6:51)  "the Word became flesh" and so the One God of the Old Testament appeared, became visible, "God was manifest in the flesh," "For the Life was manifested,"

He who descended from heaven was not the intermediate god of Plato and the Gnostics, nor the second god of the Apologists, the Hermitists and the "fathers of the Catholic Church," but was the Father God with a heavenly body that He himself gave birth to. Anyone who saw the body of Jesus saw the Eternal God.

“He that has seen me, has seen the Father» (John 14:9)

“But I said to you, that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe.” (John 6:36)

And God said to Moses, "I am come down to deliver them" (out of Egypt), but back then, he came down bodiless, having no body, because he had not yet given birth to His only-begotten Son. (John 2:21, 6:51, Acts 7:34)

Jesus the Christ was not clothed in an earthly body

"Heavenly bodies and earthly bodies." Jesus the Christ, the Master of salvation, the Word of life, had a separate / unique, heavenly body, "not of men blood", which was identified as "the Resurrection" and "the Life", "I am the resurrection, and the life."

When Jesus asked, "But whom say ye that I am?" Peter did not say, "You are the Son of Mary," nor did he say, "You are the incarnate pre-existing Son of God," but he said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah; for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mat. 16:16-17)

“Also, the apostle John did not declare "dualism" but emphatically declared that: “Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5)

Jesus was "the Son of the Spirit, the Son of God," because he was born of the Eternal God / the Eternal Spirit. He did not have, nor did he put on the body of an earthly man. On the contrary, the earthly man, who is " "the type of the one who was to come," by receiving Jesus, "he shall bear the image of the heavenly man."

“The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man, the Lord from heaven. As the earthy man was, such also are the earthy; and as the heavenly man is, such also shall the heavenly be. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1 Cor. 15:49)

Jesus' body was not illusory, as the Docetists believed, but it was visible and tangible, -just like the manna from heaven, which was visible and tangible- containing his own precious blood.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life.” (1 John 1:1)

If, in the light of the New Testament, we compare the "heavenly" body of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 15:47), the second man (Adam = man), with the tangible, earthly body of the first man, we observe that the body of Jesus was a likeness / portrait of the tangible, sinful (fleshly) body of the earthly man, and not the brightness of his glory or the express image of his hypostasis.

After all, Isaiah shouts, “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty  is like the flower of the field” (40:6).  And Job says, “a mortal born of woman [is] like an ass in the desert.” (11:12, LXXE)

What likeness is

Likeness = something which is similar to something else //  resemblance // similitude.

Likeness = Any construction that resembles outwardly (the form of / the shape of, etc.) something else, which was used as a prototype (a wooden / plaster likeness of the Parthenon), a copy. (Lexigram)

Likeness = An object made to be similar in appearance to a human, animal or thing, but without having the functions of its prototype, e.g. museum of wax likenesses. (Wiktionary)

 What the Apostles said about the flesh / body of Jesus

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,  he condemned sin in the flesh.” (Rom. 8:3)

“ …. but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.” (Phi. 2:7)

“Since then the children partake of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner (Grk txt: παραπλησίως) took part of the same ..,” (Heb. 2:14)

Παραπλησίως (Strong's # 3898) = in a manner near by, (figuratively) similarly

Jesus willingly suffered and was tempted in every way, just like the earthly man suffers and is tempted, so that he could become a merciful and faithful High Priest. And he willingly tasted death, so that he could overcome death for the benefit of all mankind. And he was resurrected to give us Life. (John 3:13, 6:51, Rom. 8:3, Acts 20:28, Phil. 2:8, Heb. 2:16-17, 2:9, 4:15, 10:5, GR / Orthodox)

Incarnation and reincarnation were the predominant beliefs of the pagans, the Gnostics and the Eastern religions

 Just like the terms "consubstantial" and "super-substantial," the term "incarnation" is non-existent in the Bible, found only in ancient religions and philosophical schools.

In Egyptian mythology, water and the sun were considered symbols of life due to geographical location (the Nile River, sunshine). The rulers of Egypt (Pharaohs) were the incarnation of God on earth and the center of religious worship.

In Hinduism, avatar is the descent and incarnation of higher beings on earth, such as the unborn and immortal god Vishnu, who has numerous incarnations in the form of animals, birds, plants and people, in order to save humanity from evil and the demonic forces. Vishnu's main incarnations are in the form of Ramayana or Rama and Krishna. Kalkin's avatar, the incarnation of the white horse, which will restore the golden age on earth and bring about the final liberation of man and the discovery of his divine nature, is awaiting. Hinduism has six (6) Orthodox systems; Vedanta, the oldest philosophical system of self-knowledge, believes that the sensible world is an illusion and the universe is occasionally destroyed and recreated (Heraclitus-Stoics).

Also, the religious trend of Alawites, which is a mixture of Zoroastrian, Christian, Muslim and Gnostic beliefs, believes that the Jewish Jesus of Navi, who conquered the land of Israel, as well as the fourth caliph Ali, who was assassinated by his enemies, the Sunnites, were incarnations of God.

The adherents of the late Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba praise him as the incarnation of the Holy Trinity and Truth, as Lord of creation and savior of mankind. However, when he was young, he said that he was the incarnation of the spiritual teacher Sai Baba of Shirdi.

Most teachers and leaders of Gnosticism, such as Simon and his student Menander, regarded themselves as genuine incarnations of supreme powers.

The Gnostic Sethians took their name from the worship of Seth, the son of Adam, who was believed to be the incarnation of God and held the position of Christ.

Even the Persian Mani, who founded his own religion, Manichaeism, believed that he was the last incarnation of Christ and the Buddha.

Similarly, the emerging, new Chinese religion "The Church of Almighty God," which claims that Christ of the last days appeared in China, adopts theories of incarnations and other Gnostic ideas.

The Melchizedekites of Phrygia and Lycaonia, a mixture of Judaism and Christianity, believed that Melchizedek was the incarnation of the Word. They were violently converted to Islam during the Ottoman period.

Imams (Twelvers), who are part of Shiism, consider the twelve great spiritual leaders (= Imams) to be the incarnation of the divine light. They expect the twelfth Messianic Imam (Mahdi = the rightly guided one) to come in the last days of the world as the savior of Islam, having Christ as his helper, who will come down from heaven for this purpose (Second Coming) and will make all Christians Muslims. And then, the end of the world, the annihilation of matter, the Judgement and eternity will come.

According to Homer and the Homeric school of thought, the gods incarnated and actively participated in human events and human history, as the "Homeric Epics," the Iliad and the Odyssey teach us.

The occult books of the Kabbalists, which prove the historicity of Jesus to the skeptics, state that the spirit of Esau entered into Christ, and that's why Esau, too, was evil.

Also, speaking about the Hellenized Pharisees, Josephus says, "They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment."

The mythological, dualistic ideas of the fall of the immortal soul and its incarnation in an earthly body that resembled a tomb from which it had to be liberated and return purified to the heavenly homeland through reincarnations (doctrine of the recurring reincarnation) had permeated all ancient beliefs. If we accept as valid the testimony of Epiphanius "Against Stoics", where he denounces these ideas as "deceit and impiety", it seems that these Stoics, too, had crossed over to the ideological camp of Platonism.

"The Stoics, in their great deceit, create this impiety, which is called "reincarnation," that is, the transition of souls from body to body in each incarnation, because they claim that the body is perishable, but the soul is immortal and a part of God. (Epiphanius, Panarion, Against Stoics)"

The ideological "Holy Trinity" of the Gnostics and its kinships

According to the Sethians, who were a mainstream of Gnosticism, the One, Transcendent, Good God of Light, gives birth to Barbelo (like "mother-father Zeus" who gave birth to Athena), the supreme Mother-Father of all, who is feminine and androgynous, "the first thought," "his image," "the holy Spirit," "the thrice-male," "the first glory of the invisible Father," "the Eternal Aeon among the invisible ones" and "the first to come forth."

Barbelo, gazing at the supreme Unit, gave birth to the Autogenous Son of light, who is identified with Christ. The Sethians attributed to her three sacred hypostases, "Father - Mother - Son," the hypostasis of Kalyptos (the hidden one), the hypostasis of Photophanes (the unprecedented one) and the hypostasis of Autogenous (the self-generated one). From these three hypostases, the archetypal man, Pigeradamas or Geradamas, emerged.

The idea of ​​the three sacred hypostases, "Father - Mother - Son," is related to the factors of the sacred trinity of the Pythagorean worldview, that is, "of the Unending Motion (Father), of the Perpetual Life (Mother) and of the Perpetual Energy (Son)."

The Pythagoreans believed that numbers were the primary ideas. The odd numbers were divine, male entities and the even numbers were female. The product of 2 × 3 is 6, which was considered to be both male and female and symbolized marriage. They believed that everything is defined by the most sacred number three (3), "Entirety and everything is defined by the number three" (Birth - Life - Death, Past - Present - Future, Length - Width - Height). They taught the occult Dissolution of the Unit into a triad or triads, thus introducing the theory of the triune Units.

"As the Pythagoreans say, entirety and everything is defined by the number three, because the end, the middle and the beginning are represented by the number of everything, which is the number three (3). That's why, having taken these concepts from nature and having accepted them as its laws, we use this number (3) during theurgic ceremonies (theurgies)."

The views of the Pythagoreans were the strongest arguments of the "fathers" and of the evangelists of the "Christian Holy Trinity" against the "unbelieving" and "disrespectful" Gentiles, who respected nothing but female or male "Holy Trinities." However, with the predominance of the "Christian Holy Trinity" and the male-dominated priesthood, the female or male "Holy Trinities" lost their popularity.

The trinitarian idea of ​​the Gnostics is also related to the "Paradise Trinity," which consists of "the Universal Father, the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit," according to the Urantia Book, which spreads ancient Gnostic ideas that they receive, as they claim, from extraterrestrial, higher beings.

It is also related to the theory of the three hypostases founded by the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus in the "Enneads", where he develops the ontological, hierarchical unity of the Living Being (of the Holy Trinity), "One (Uranus) - Mind (Cronus) - Soul (Zeus)."

By embracing the philosophical view of the holy Trinity that dominates the perceptible universe, our ancestors believed in all three brothers, Zeus - Poseidon - Hades.

The earliest reference to Zeus declaring the first manifestation or Word exists in the Orphics. The poet Virgil calls him a "Great snake." As the Neoplatonic thought evolved, it developed the "Trinity of Zeus," Father (forcefulness), Son (power in action) and Spirit (mind).

The ancient, trinitarian, female or male deities have a strong ideological affinity with the trinity of the Gnostics and a very strong ideological affinity with the "patristic revelation" of the Triune God (Father - Son - Holy Spirit).

The triple hypostasis shows three ontological deities, three Gods, and refers to Polytheism. In this sense, "Christianity", which was formed by the "patristic thought," is a new, polytheistic religion, a variant of the ancient religion and not a monotheistic religion, as it wrongly alleges. Mixing polytheism with monotheism, "the fathers" perpetuated Plotinus' ancient, religious thought that "he who worships the Gods, worships God."

In his article "The Trinitarian Hypostasis of the Divine - The Eternal Fight between Female and Male (Part 2)," the historian Michalis Batis claims that:

"In his work "Phaidon," Plato was the first to speak of a Triune deity, as Christianity tries to describe it. The Good represents the Father, the Word is his Son and the Soul is the Holy Spirit."

In his article "Hellenistic Age and Christianity", the same historian states:

"Another theological element that Christianity received from the ancient tradition and especially from that of later years is the trinitarian conception of the Devine. The formulation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity refers to the beginning of the Orphic Triadity, according to which, the law of the triangle governs everything from the Creation (Night - Uranus - Gaia) to the triune hypostasis of man (Spirit, Soul, Body), to the Three-sun Deity of Julian and the trisection of the soul (sensible, affect, desirable). According to the Neoplatonic philosopher Iamblichus, the One is the beginning of everything, from which the triune mind derives. This triune mind, in the hierarchical order of the Dodekatheon, is expressed through the relation Zeus - Father, Athena - Spirit and Apollo - Word. The corresponding triune conception of the divine in Christianity also derived from these beliefs, while Judaism is mono-worshiping, focusing on Yahweh."

Male and female according to the Gnostics

“And God formed the rib which he took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam.” (Gen. 2:22)

The Gnostics misinterpreted the biblical creation of woman from one side (= the bones that form the thoracic cavity) of the earthly Adam, as an irregular and temporary separation of the female from the male and as the cause of death. They imagined an archetypal, spiritual, androgynous god, (intersexual, male and female), creator of humanity, who split in two and lost his original image of one-genderism. The physical coupling of man and woman reflects the need for the reunification of the genders and the restoration of the archetypal, spiritual one-genderism or non-genderism through erotic pleasure, which was also the utopian ideal of the Gnostics for entering the Kingdom of Heaven. This idea is also found in texts identified as Orthodox, such as the "Second Epistle of Clement" and the "Perpetua's Passion."

Similarly, the homosexual, religious ceremonies of the Naassenes, Carpocratians, Ophites, Borborites and other Gnostic groups in honor of the hermaphroditic, archetypal, mother-father, primal man, aimed at the revival of the primary state of androgyny and, consequently, at the removal of childbearing. With similar myths, the unnatural, homosexual acts, known from the beginning of the creation of the world, acquired a religious character. (Gen. 19:4-5)

"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." (Rom. 1:26-27)

This is the background of today's acceptance and promotion of the unnatural, sexual act and the androgynous model (unisex) by Liberal Christianity and Neognosticism, a model which attempts to stop the ontological distinction of the two biological sexes by launching the social gender in opposition to "be fruitful and multiply".

The myth of the androgynous god or man is also found outside the Gnostic systems, like in the Orphic theogony, where an androgynous deity is born out of an egg, Phanes (= god of light, who is related to the Persian Mithras), "Father - Mother." He has four eyes and four heads (that of a bull, a lion, a serpent and a ram), golden wings and the voice of a lion and a ram. Phanes was also called Phaethon, Metis, Protogonos, Eros, Erikepaios. The communication with Phanes was done through magic ceremonies and spells.

It is also found in Hermes Trismegistus' work "Poimandres," where the first Mind and Father of all is androgynous, as well as in the Platonic myth of the intersexual beings, which is mentioned by Aristophanes in his speech in Plato's "Symposium," where it is said that man was made in three double sexes, double males born from the sun, double females born from the earth and hermaphrodites born from the moon with elements from the sun and the earth. These whole beings defied the heavenly authority, and the gods punished them by bisecting them. Thus, two half-males came from the male, two half-females came from the female, and one half-male and one half-female came from the hermaphrodite. Through love, people have been searching for "their other half" ever since.

Also, during the early Jewish period (1,600 - 1,550 BC), as Philo tells us, the Jews worshiped the goddess Asherah. Her three main aspects were Yarih (the Moon), the daughter, Shekhinah (Gaia), the great mother of life, and Astarte (androgynous) or Anat, the goddess of Wisdom and a warrior as well.

Gnosticism today

In addition to their influence on all religions, the various forms of Gnosticism also played a catalytic role in the formation of anarchist and communist political theories. They also influenced the religious revolution of multi-schismatic Protestantism within the institutionalized, authoritarian, Aristotelian Christianity of the West.

Although the Gnostics were persecuted for their beliefs and for their contempt for the corrupted political and religious authority, the seeds of their beliefs remained alive to this day, recorded in the religious "symbols of faith." The idea that free will is not an obstacle to the salvation of man has also been developed in the circles of Progressive / Liberal Christianity, which believes there are seeds of truth in the Gnostic texts.

The theosophical, guruistic, Neognostic, Scientological and other Eastern organizations of the New, Golden Age of Aquarius, the Masons who regard Pythagoras as their protector, and the Gnostic institutions, such as Urantia, embrace some of the Gnostics' views. These are also the inspirers of the movies "Star Wars," "Matrix," etc., and the instigators of the propaganda about extraterrestrial, higher beings and stellar, dominant superpowers that have good or deceptive interest in human beings. The same centers spread the Kabbalistic, female deity "Shekhinah," aiming to reconnect the female deities in the dead body of religions.

Conclusion

The ideas of modern esotericists / occultists have a great impact on people who have been pushed by the scandalous and bloody "Christian" tradition and by the religionized, "multi-headed Christianity" to turn their back on the useless, "Christian" formalisms and the spiritual dead ends of the institutionally imposed philosophical, "patristic thought," and who seek answers to their existential and metaphysical quests in other religious movements. The mystical, philosophical "Triune deity," the flagship of the "Roman Catholic Church," which evolved into a spiritual legacy to the Greek civilization, is the cause of, and not the solution to, the crisis of the civilization of Modernity.

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