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Jesus as a Jewish Gnostic, July 1, 2004
This review is from: River of God, The: A New History of Christian Origins (Paperback)
This work by Gregory Riley of the Claremont School of Theology, also author of "One Jesus, Many Christs," makes the case that the major doctrines of the New Testament and early Christianity came from the Jewish Gnostics, who were centered in Galilee, Jesus' home base.
The peoples of the Mediterranean world, including the Hebrews, all believed that the earth was a flat disk sitting on top of a disk of water. Over that was a hard dome, not more than a few thousand feet high, on top of which sat the gods. All the gods had bodies, including the Chief One. The Hebrews, like everyone else, never believed that God was an immaterial spirit or that people had spiritual souls that could unite with God after death. People just lived out their lives on earth under the gaze of the gods and the fates.
This view was challenged by the great mathematician Pythagoras in the 6th century b.c., who stated the earth is a sphere, and by Eratosthenes, who in the 3rd century b.c. computed that the earth is 40,000 kilometers in circumference, wonderfully close to its actual size. Riley says we cannot over emphasize the dramatic effect this new Greek science had on religious beliefs (the whole premise of his book is that religious beliefs are constantly changing in response to their times). For one thing, these discoveries made the material universe immense, infinite. For another thing, there was a commensurate change in the idea of God. The Greeks developed the via negativa method of describing the new God as immaterial, ineffable, and unknowable. Plato extended this idea of God to humans, describing their bodies as shells from which the soul-an emanation of God of sorts-would escape after death and return to God.
Riley says that these ideas were slow to catch on, but they did. In Jewish society they took root among the very well educated class, especially in Galilee-a true crossroad of many cultures and religions. (Jerusalem was in the isolated highlands). Riley says that at the time of Jesus, all the Pharisees, Essenes, Gnostics, and Hellenists together were a very tiny fraction of Jewish society. The educated classes among the Jews, especially the Gnostics, were very interested in the new Greek ideas of God. If God was all perfect, however, what caused evil in the world? For that answer, the Jewish Gnostics relied on Persian Zoroastrian religion, which proposed a cosmic conflict between the god of good and the god of evil.
The Gnostics had to demote the Evil One from a god to a fallen angel, but he served the purpose of drumming up all the evil and suffering in the world. In their scenario, a lesser emanation of God had created a very imperfect world, which God allowed the devil to corrupt and control in order to test his human creations. The New Testament teachings of Jesus embody the doctrines of the Jewish Gnostics almost verbatim. Riley emphasizes what revolutionary teaching this was at the time. People did not know they had immortal souls. Neither did they suspect what great danger they were in. This constituted the "new wine" of Jesus' teaching. Riley writes:
"Fundamental to the teaching of Jesus was the dualism of body and soul. From the point of view of religious studies, Jesus was a genius-what scholars call a master figure-and his dualism was unique. In many ways it was similar to that of Orphism, Pythagoranism, and Plato, yet it is fair to say that the cosmos of Jesus had a darker side, for he was also conscious of the spiritual warfare inherent in the kingdom of God. No Greek philosopher believed in the Devil, nor did the Zoroastrians have a view of body and soul based in science (as did the Greek philosophers), Jesus brilliantly combined both traditions into something new."
Riley says that the signature parable of the NT was the first parable seen in the Gospel of Mark (4:3-8, 14-20) of the sower going out to sow his seed. The seed that fell beside the road was picked up by the birds (the devil), on rocky ground (persecution), and in the weeds (cares and temptations of the world).
Riley states that the new doctrine overturned the values of the world, making death, suffering, and persecution the means of eternal happiness. Jesus himself would submit to "persecution" (orchestrated by the Devil, no less) to demonstrate his belief in the afterlife. The Devil would use every means of tripping up people, including the use of "false prophets and religions." This warning gave impetus to the desire of bishops from the beginning to stamp out religious dissent and other religions-all seen as instruments of the devil.
This negative view of the world goes a long way in explaining the incipient violence of Christianity and its ability to alienate people from the world, nature, and their own bodies and emotions. These doctrines still have a powerful grip on western society.
Riley is also able to point out where the writers of the New Testament and later Church councils were picking and choosing among Gnostic doctrines. For example, Plato had assigned five concentric shells that would isolate the Monad from the world, emanations of the godhead that did his bidding. The Gnostics extended this divine group, called the "pleroma" or "fullness," to 365 beings. The author of John limits these intermediary gods to the Word. The author of Colossians states twice that in Jesus alone "is the "pleroma" of God (The Holy Spirit would be worked in later.)
Jesus as springing from the Jewish Gnostics makes him a much more interesting character. Just his being from Galilee sets the authorities of Jerusalem on edge. And how did Jesus as the (perhaps illegitimate) son of a tradesman ingratiate himself with the well-educated Gnostic Hellenists of Galilee? He could have distinguished himself by his special talents or beauty or both.
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