Posted on 01/19/2005 1:47:22 PM PST by Unam Sanctam
I would just love for anyone who buys into the DaVinci code to read about gnostics cults. Far from the libertine lifestyle that the DaVinci implicitly endorses, the gnostics who used the Gospel of Thomas were ultra-ascetics who refrained from sex altogether, and were pagan in ways that neo-pagans and New Agers would blanche at.
I can confirm that "Wisdom" has been called the "the Wisdom of Solomon." In the research I have done about the canonicity of the deuterocanonicals (what the Protesants incorrectly call the apocrypha*), I have not read specific debate over the Wisdom of Solomon, so I can't be sure this does refer to the same work, even though they both have the same title.
For instance: The Council of Nicea (I think that's the one) explicitly condemned the wicked heresies of "The Gospel of Thomas." It was long thought that a book, now referred to as "the Infancy Narrative of Thomas" was condemned, until the gnostic-pagan laugh-fest so beloved by the authors of the Five Gospels and the Historical Jesus movement was discovered.
"But was there really no such thing as "orthodoxy" before the fourth century? Is it really the case that Gnosticism was harshly suppressed without being given a fair trial?"
lol. Gnosticism wouldn't have been harshly suppressed if there weren't orthodoxy. I love when arguments contain the seeds of their own deconstruction.
AMEN
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.