"Zeitgeist" Online Movie: Part One

Refuted©

Posted: August 23, 2007

Was Jesus a Solar Deity of “the Gnostic Christian”

Sect?

The narrator claims that Jesus was the solar deity of the Gnostic Christian sect. A plethora of problems plague this notion. First, there were many “Gnostic” sects. In fact, modern scholars have emphasized that no one has developed a definition that encompasses all of the beliefs associated with being classified as a “Gnostic.” 1

Second, not all Gnostic sects believed the same things—for example, some Gnostics believed Jesus died on the cross 2 while other Gnostics did not.

Third, there is no evidence indicating that Gnostics even existed until after the canonical gospels were finished. 3

Fourth, all of the primary sources for Gnostic sects post-date the writing of the canonical gospels. 4

Thus, the narrator engages in anachronistic reasoning by asserting that any Gnostic Christian sect possessed the earliest conception of Jesus.

Endnotes:

1. Consult: Karen L. King. What is Gnosticism? Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003; and Michael Allen Williams. Rethinking Gnosticism: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996.

2. The Nag Hammadi Library in English: The Definitive Translation of the Gnostic Scriptures Complete in One Volume, ed. James M. Robinson (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1978), 436.

3. Consult: Edwin M. Yamauchi. Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Survey of the Proposed Evidences. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Tyndale Press, 1973.

4. Edwin M. Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Survey of the Proposed Evidences (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Tyndale Press, 1973), 170.

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