Nevertheless . . .
The secretive angle has two levels. One is the concept of special, secret knowledge, which looks to me like product differentiation in re: the official story. "Hey! Look at our kool secrets!" Two is the secrecy of the texts and thoughts which result from suppression by the Church. It's not that authors of the renegade gospels wanted to keep their ideas a secret, it's that they had to dodge the authorities. Nor is there any literal "conspiracy theory" in the texts, AFAIK.
There is no single current of heresy. A hundred flowers bloomed, and the Church tried to stamp them out wherever they could.
Pagels argues convincingly that notions in Christianity elaborated at length in Gnostic Gospels that did not suit the political needs of an institutionalized Church allied with patriarchal, feudal authority came to be branded as heresy.
These days, it's impossible to suppress debate so the Judas text is being spun as nothing new that contradicts the official story.
The Brown book is a hoot, but he winps out at the end, letting the Jesuits off the hook.
go in peace, mbs
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]On Behalf Of Josh Narins Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 9:20 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Gnostic Gospels and Conspiracy Theory
> Joanna wrote:
> <blockquote>It was Neitzche who said that the death of Socrates and
> Jesus were the
> two best disguised suicides in history. I always thought he was right;
> now, there's evidence
>
>
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1669766,0015002500000000.htm</blockq
uote>
>
>
> But if Judas didn't betray Jesus, there would be no real conflict and
> no human drama!
>
> The structure of gnostic gospels resembles that of conspiracy theory,
> or rather conspiracy theory may have taken its narrative structure
> from gnostic gospels.
>
> Also, the idea of secret teaching in gnostic gospels makes the story
> less democratic than the story in the four gospels in the New
> Testament.
1.
The Cainite "Gospel of Judas" isn't really confirmed yet as authentic, to the best of my knowledge.
It would have been, and likely is, the product of a group of 2nd c. Christians who were never considered mainstream. Apparently, they did lots of this type of work (writing great evil-doers into "Part of God's Plan") probably as an exercise in theodactic yoga.
2.
A very large collection of Gnostic Gospels, the entire Nag Hammadi library, is available here:
http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html
I don't see how anyone would either a) find structure amongst them, or b) find a conspiracy theory.
Standard dating for the authorship of even the synoptic gospels is problematic, with John ranging (last I heard) from 90-110 CE, so it isn't _that_ big a deal to describe any Gnostic Gospel as being from 100-200 CE.
Three, Truth, Philip and Thomas, seem right at home with Mark, Matthew and Luke. Some are perfectly consistent with Hellenic philosophical thought of that era. Some seem perfectly at home in the religion of the banks of the Nile.
If you are interested in this material, spend a couple hours or more reading the Gnostic Gospels. But I wouldn't waste more than a few moments reading anything _about_ them.
There seem to be two camps, those that want to make it all go away (and they are useless) and those that want to make it seem like the Real Secret comes from these works. I haven't found anything resembling a middle ground.
Dan Brown should get some (quanta) of credit for popularizing the existence of the Gnostic Gospels, but his theories (stolen, as they were, from decades old discredited pseudo-academia) are bunk.
Luke 19:27 (Kill all who would not make Jesus King!) Exodus 21:15-17 (Kill children who curse or hit their parents!) Matthew 5:17-18 (Nothing in the Old Testament changes until all is fulfilled!)
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