Genesis is an esoteric study mouthed through exoteric means.
“In the Beginning…” is meant to designate not a moment in time but a moment outside of time, and in fact references a reality self-generated by the expression of consciousness.
God and man both transcend time.
OK, whatever you say.
Nonsense.
According to me that is a corruption that was added lately. In the unedited gnostic texts he’s pretty damn clear that the OT is crap and the priests (or pharisees) are full of shit.
Jesus was about enlightenment/self-realization, not about religion or myths.
I would qualify that and say that SOME parts are esoteric and about self-realization/enlightenment, but that there’s a LOT of corruption to the text. Other than that I agree, but don’t think you will get much traction here where people are only familiar with the Mythic aspect and know nothing about non-duality or real spirituality. In my opinion 99.9% of so called “Christians” in the US don’t have a clue what Jesus was all about and are stuck in a weird literal interpretation that the real Jesus would probably call satanic.
Nonsense. “Unedited Gnostic texts”? The Gnosticizing of the gospel came much later than the original texts. To claim that Jesus thought the OT was “crap” is nonsense. He was a religious Jew. He saw his message as a fulfillment of scripture, not a discarding of it.
From the unedited Gospel of Thomas, the main Gnostic document:
The teaching of Jesus was a standard non-dual set of instructions and injunctions on how to transcend the egoic sense of self and achieve enlightenment and self-realization. Same as Plato and Buddha.
Yes, except it’s just like, your opinion man, that the Gospel of Thomas records what Jesus really meant, and all that other Gospels were faked up.
Besides, those four excerpts don’t give evidence to your point. They all have parallels or near-parallels in the canonical gospels. Jesus did not have much use for the scribes and Pharisees, which is well attested to in the canonical gospels. But that’s a far cry from dismissing the Hebrew scriptures (OT). On the contrary, the reason he was so dismissive of the Pharisees is because they had abandoned the meaning of the scriptures and substituted fervent legalism.
According to Luke, Jesus began his ministry by going to the synagogue and quoting Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he follows it up by saying “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Doesn’t sound like someone who thought the OT was crap.
I am perfectly aware that it is an opinion (or alternative interpretation), but thanks for point that out in an unconstructive way. :dubious:
The benefit of that interpretation, however, is that it makes sense and can sort of be “known” if you follow the injections. I suspect that most Mystics and Contemplative Christians would pretty much agree, but I recognize that most Christians are stuck in their mythical/magical beliefs.
I don’t think you understand the meaning of the quotes I posted, but as the man said, let those who have ears hear. You’re entitled to your opinion.
Spoken like a true Gnostic. Will you please share your received wisdom and enlighten us as to the meaning of those quotes? And maybe explain why they mean something different in the Gospel of Thomas than they do in the New Testament, if that’s your understanding.
Pretty much, yeah.
Orthodox Jews believe that all the commandments are literally ordained by God for the spiritual benefit of humanity; IOW, all of the commandments direct us towards moral behavior, even the ones that have no obvious connection to morals or ethics. In this view, although it can be an enlightening mental exercise to consider why God might have issued a specific commandment, such philosophizing can never legitimately lead to the conclusion that there are some commandments we don’t need to obey.
Liberal Jews don’t believe in the literal divine origin of the commandments, and believe that it is acceptable to use our powers of reasoning to determine which ones we should keep, which need to be amended, and which discarded entirely. But that decision is made on a case-by-case basis; I’m not aware of any Jewish theologian who would consider it useful or appropriate to divide up the commandments into “ritual” and “moral” categories, since many of them could be plausibly argued either way.
While the population would not be ready for the details of cosmology, it would not have been hard to put the creation far back in the future, and get the order of the origins of the Sun, Earth, Moon and animals correct. I believe that Hindu creation myths have it happening a long time ago, so it is not like this is a hard concept.
Back in Usenet days I wrote a version of Genesis 1 with everything happening in the right order and no more complex than the current version. Not as good artistically though - if you think the verses sound good in English, try them in Hebrew. They are beautiful.
So you’re saying god pulled it out of the ass? :eek:
What I believe to be the ‘original’ article can be purchased here.
I actually started typing out an analysis of the questions but then the Holy Spirit talked to me and said “Why are you wasting your time on this one, he is not interested in changing his mind. Didn’t Jesus mention something about swines and pearls?” and I figured I should probably listen to that…
But yeah, Jesus was an enlightenment teacher like every buddha or real saint before and after him. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t grokk that yet.
If you want to find out for yourself, follow the injunctions (meditate or whatnot). It’s supposed to be something you DO and EXPERIENCE not something you “believe” in.
“We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”
Your anachronistic readings of Jesus are roughly equivalent to the infamous Supply Side Jesus in the relation of this false “jesus” to the historical one.
So you’re saying that the version where he’s born by a virgin, does a bunch of magic tricks and then ascends to the skies is more likely than that he had an experience of enlightenment and then spent a few years trying to teach people to “see it”?
To me it seems pretty obvious that Jesus, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, all the Buddhas etc etc are talking about exactly the same thing, just using different language depending on the cultural context. The short version of which being: “You are not what you take yourself to be. All is One, transcend the ego and see for yourself.” Same as the core message in all buddhist traditions and all of the mystical traditions that I am aware of.
Yes, insofar as the canonical Gospels were written first.
Except there is literally no evidence that someone in 1st Century Palestine would have been influenced by Indian spiritual ideas.