-Viola, Frank. The Untold Story of the New Testament. Destiny Image Publishers, Shippensburg, PA, 2004, pages 158-160.
-Strobel, Lee. The Case for the Real Jesus. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 2007, page 55.
-Religion For Breakfast: “What Did Gnostic Christians Believe?”
-Religion For Breakfast: ”What Did Marcion Believe?”
-Religion For Breakfast: “Gospel of Judas: What Does it Really Say?”
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Sounds like a form of Christian liberalism to me.
Gnosticism essentially had three elements that combined to form it: Eastern dualism from Persia, Jewish esotericism (e.g. qabbalah), and neoplatonism.
From the Catholic Dictionary:
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=33756
GNOSTICISM
Definition
The theory of salvation by knowledge. Already in the first century of the Christian era there were Gnostics who claimed to know the mysteries of the universe. They were disciples of the various pantheistic sects that existed before Christ. The Gnostics borrowed what suited their purpose from the Gospels, wrote new gospels of their own, and in general proposed a dualistic system of belief. Matter was said to be hostile to spirit, and the universe was held to be a depravation of the Deity. Although extinct as an organized religion, Gnosticism is the invariable element in every major Christian heresy, by its denial of an objective revelation that was completed in the apostolic age and its disclaimer that Christ established in the Church a teaching authority to interpret decisively the meaning of the revealed word of God.
I recently took a course in Gnosticism. The professor, an Eastern European immigrant, is a Gnostic bishop in LA. (We had class discussions online.) It was quite interesting.
Much of this article matches what he is saying. Some doesn’t quite match Gnosticism as I understand it. For example, you did not even discuss Sophia and Gnosticism.
I find Gnosticism fascinating. Apparently, Carl Jung was influenced by Gnosticism. I don’t know a lot about psychology, but I consider myself a Jungian. I’m certainly not a behaviorist.
3. God created Eve first.
Did this give rise to the Lilith myth?