[lbo-talk] Gnostic Gospels and Conspiracy Theory

[Josh Narins]

> ....and his name was Jerusalem Slim.
> 
> I kind of like the idea of amplifying the Gnostics.  Haven't they got that
> "Book of Mary" (aka Magdeline)in their library of 'testimonials'?  Whew, just
> think of the splits amongst the relgious dogmatists!  Bringing up all this
> stuff just takes us back to the times when the ruling powers that were, were
> trying to get control of this ideological baggage and make it serve rc purposes
> at what was it....the Council of Nicea.  Let the fundamentalists stew in their
> own Idealist juices for awhile.  Maybe, it'll keep them out of politics. 

The Gospel of Mary had been known of, just barely, prior to the
discovery of the Nag Hammadi, which has most of the text.

I think it is important to remember the rulers back them.

Augustus and Gaians were now hereditary Emperors of the Roman Empire,

 and no Galilean could ever hope to really sway them.
The Tetrarchy was, for Judea, now in the hands of Herod IV, the

  hereditary (grandson of Herod the Great) ruler, for whom a Galilean

  peasant was probably about as important as dirt.
The Hebrew Priesthood, hereditary scholars and scribes of what is "good"

  and "true." Actually there were two sets of hereditary priests, the

  pre-Hasmoneans (often seen as more Hellenistic and servile) and the

  Hasmonean (often seen as usurpers by the other group).  They,

  arguably, coincide with the Sadducees and Pharisees of the NT.

Galilee itself had been conquered, only a couple generations before
Jesus, and all the adult males forcibly circumcised and made into
Hebrews.