Are We Missing Real Historical Perspective of Early Christianity? A Reflection.

A Hidden Truth of Early Christianity! 

Jesus lived four miles from a Greek theater, but we’re expected to believe he only ever read the Torah.

Disclaimer: I got triggered into writing a religious post again! It's a bit heavy if you're not into gnostics and historical first century Palestine save yourself by picking a different one. 

When examining the earliest layers of Christianity, we often overlook common denominators—especially if they're things we assume to be insignificant. In a previous post, I covered one of them: the influence of Greek culture on Jesus. Greece housed significant Jewish communities, the cultures overlapped in both countries. 

Galilee, Northern Palestine was a crossroads of cultures. It's highly probable Greek philosophy like Plato passed from the auditorium of Sepphoris first century messianic holy men, but also to figures like Cerinthus, who was later blamed for that thing called 'Gnosticism'. I know this sounds like an over simplification, but spreading ideas from to a multicultural land is cross pollination, that really is quite simple isn't it? Sepphoris is four miles from Nazareth! 

Ancient Greek Theatron/Auditorium Sepphoris

Cerinthus: Preserving His Time

Cerinthus lived in the first and early second century. Pre-gnostic, maybe a gnostic, it's blurry, because his work vanished after he died. The words of his critics are all we have. Christian heresiologists labelled him a heretic, but he was merely representing the grassroots ideas of his time, which was followed with the Ebionites. Consider these parallels:

1. Cerinthus maintained a distinction between material and spiritual realms, dualism. This meant his Jesus was a human, but the Christ, a seperate spiritual agent worked through him somehow (adoptionism). 

2. Cerinthus held concepts such as redemption via divine experiential knowledge as vital (unity with the divine). 

3. Various cultures embraced these philosophical frameworks. 

4. Cerinthus emphasized spiritual transformation over our bodily desires

5. End Times Belief: Earth will become a paradise focused on bodily enjoyments rather than spiritual matters (a pre-Gnostic concept in dualism, spirit vs body).

6. Cerinthus believed angels created the world. 

Plato's famous Cave Allegory (amongst others) resembles sayings attributed to Jesus, such as: 'My kingdom is not of this world' which shows a messianic platonism. More Plato comparisons exist on my blog post, the link is above. This essentially was another Gnostic group containing similar themes found with the Hermetists and Sethians. 

The Bible hinting at the practice of secret Gnostic teaching: 'Spiritual truths were given to disciples while others received only parables.'

Talmudic references to 'Yeshu ben Pandera' (Jesus) described someone introducing questionable religious ideas that threatened the established orthodoxy.

The Gnostic Evolution

The discovery of the Nag Hammadi library provides strong evidence for a theological trajectory stemming from Hellenic-Jewish roots. These texts retain strong philosophical influence with cosmology but differing Christologies; docetist text describe Jesus as a divine projection, others depict him as human and divine or purely the logos itself. Ideology splits off into various directions because more than one Gnostic group existed. 

Themes of the diverse first and early second century endured, respectively moving forward from the original Jesus movement. But still, the subject matter in all Nag Hammadi scripture is God and his intervention with humanity. How these theological themes relate to other cultures such as Greek philosophy (as we have seen), shows authenticity.

A Universal Pattern of Enlightenment

Ancient Hindu Temple

What's most compelling is that before the Jesus movement was active, the ideas it preached already existed in Sepphoris and Tiberius! Across many countries it was the same: Hinduism's Advaita Vedanta to Daoism, Zen to Zorostrianism, Mandaism to Jainism. Key contemporary philosophers such as David Charmers to Arthur Schopenhauer have championed what these faiths propose. 

Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer 

There is, what seems to be a perennial concept running through many spiritualities. I don't know if this was because of the ancient Middle Eastern melting pot, or maybe a kind of old Palestinian echo chamber of mixed beliefs. Ashoka sent Dharma missionaries across the Middle East, Palestine and Greece 250 years before Jesus was born. People always move their beliefs around. 

Cerenthus in the Bathhouse

My Conclusion... 

The strongest evidence supporting this progression doesn't appear to come from any single Christian text, but from the consistent philosophical threads running through the majority of them all - Hellenic Philosophy, Jesus in the Gospels, Cerinthus, Ebionites and Gnostic sources.

This blog post isn't about accusing Christianity of losing it's vision with Gnosticism, in fact, it seems Gnostic belief became overly reliant on it's own interpretation of Platonic thought and went its own way. According to the Greek Philosopher Plotinus, many of the Gnostic sects misunderstood Plato. 

Numerous religious ideas and scriptures that weren't accepted by the developing church were all bunched together as Gnostic and called heresy. Even though this pre-orthodoxy and Gnosticism sprouted out of the same cultural roots, a spirituality which sadly did not last—one became the modern Christianity we all know after text were thrown to the flames or hid away.