Joseph, Constructor, Athena, Mystery Cults, Forms vs Deities

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• Platonic
• Forms
• Gnosticism
• Joseph
• Mary
• Jesus
• Mystery
• Cult
• Wisdom
• Sophia
• Mary (mother Of Jesus)

[InvincibleIronyMan]

I haven't been this enthralled by such far out theology since I read VALIS by Philip K. Dick. I was never sure he was a trustworthy source, however as he seemed more than a little bit unhinged. He claimed to be a Valentinian gnostic, I'd love to have a reference to find out more about that.

[Xoroaster]

@InvincibleIronyMan I haven't heard of that book. I'll see if I can get ahold of it. I ran into a "self-proclaimed" Valentinian recently, and I found the same problem that I find with all versions of Christianity. They ignore certain aspects, in exchange for whatever they want to believe. It's a very complicated theology, and dumbing it down makes little sense.

[InvincibleIronyMan]

You have a great, characterful face. I'm just looking at your expressions in the thumbnails and trying to guess what you were talking about when they were taken.

[Xoroaster]

@InvincibleIronyMan lol, thank you! ;-D

[Requiemxtoxinnocence]

So before the schism caused by martin luther, how much of a schism was there in the early church? And who decided what went into the bible, I know they had the nicean creed but there must have been something previous to that right, like an order of power.

[Xoroaster]

@Requiemxtoxinnocence I should do a video on this subject. The earliest "schism" would be around 120CE with Marcion. And it was followed up almost immediately with Valentinianism. When Irenaeus speaks in 185CE, he lists dozens of "heretic" religions. It's more a matter of did "orthodoxy" exist, than "schisms." Because it doesn't appear that there existed a "majority" Christian religion before 185CE.

[MrNightlyProductions]

Xororoaster thanks for all the work you are doing thus far. I have seen you have studied a lot on this subject and a recent Evangelical gave me this site discussing the dating of the 4 NT gospels.

carm.org/when-were-gospels-wri­tten-and-by-whom

Would be interested in seeing some refutation of this because they do give good reasons supporting their theories. Specifically the Matthew quote in Ignatius pointing to an early date for that text.

[Requiemxtoxinnocence]

@Xoroaster It's amazing, its like christianity started out as many different cults, formed for a few centuries then schismed when luther came along. I guess christianity is really more or less a combination of faiths in certain doctrines combined and then splits off again.

[MisterBoswell]

@Xoroaster Ah, okay, i thought so. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure since Serapion is also the name of a few writers of antiquity, and also the temples to Serapis, if I recall correctly, were called Serapion as well. So no biggie, the confusion is understandable.

[Xoroaster]

@MisterBoswell Yep, Serapis. Thanks for the correction. I don't know where I picked up Serapion. ;-D

[MisterBoswell]

Sorry to nit pick, this was another good video, but this is the 2nd time I've heard you say Serapion, when the context makes it sound you mean Serapis, no?

[InvincibleIronyMan]

I just found another interesting looking resource at archive.org, called the Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325 (1869). I'd put in a link if I could, but a search will bring it up.

[InvincibleIronyMan]

I'd just like to point out for anyone who's interested that the works of Philo Judaeus are available at archive.org for free, translated by Charles Duke Yonge.