What is Gnosticism Veeky Forums and why did it die out despite it being prevalent in both Europe and the Middle East?

Gnostics said you had to drink Christ's saliva to be saved.

YOU MUST BE MENTALLY IMPAIRED IF YOU CANNOT RECOGNIZE AND COMPREHEND BASIC METAPHORS.

Really? What great wisdom is hidden behind the ""metaphor"" 'Drink from my mouth'?

IT MEANS THAT ONE OUGHT TO DRAW INSPIRATION FROM THE SOURCE, RATHER THAN SEEKING WHAT IS IMMANENT AND INTERNAL IN WHAT IS TRANSEUNT AND EXTERNAL.

THIS IS MY LAST REPLY TO YOU; YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

Oh no it's the allcaps retard again
Please go away

Learn how to hide posters.

Well I would rather drink his saliva than drink his blood and eat his flesh as catholics do.

>gnostics get to kiss Jesus-senpai

It comes closer to the truth than other forms of Christianity. They were one of the only sects to break the depiction rule and show us how the one who calls himself 'I am who I am' truly appears as, which gives us a clue to what this Demiurge's true identity is.

AKA, 'shut it down, the goys know'

Gnosticism is a misunderstanding of Plato's Timaeus.

Plotinus was right

Plotinus and the Neoplatonists viewed Gnosticism as a form of heresy or sectarianism to the Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy of the Mediterranean and Middle East.[note 1] He accused them of using senseless jargon and being overly dramatic and insolent in their distortion of Plato's ontology."[note 2] Plotinus attacks his opponents as untraditional, irrational and immoral[note 3][note 4] and arrogant.[note 5] He also attacks them as elitist and blasphemous to Plato for the Gnostics despising the material world and its maker.[note 6]

thriceholy.net/Texts/Plotinus5.html "Against Those That Affirm the Creator of the Cosmos and the Cosmos Itself to Be Evil"

He's quite fun

like the retarded autist you'd let hang around so you can laugh at him

>prevalent in both Europe and the Middle East?

But that's not true.

I feel like we should start a gnostic cult, lads

no we should start a neoplatonic cult

plebbus

1. PLATON, GEMISTUS PLETHO, AND PLOTINUS, WERE THE SAME PERSON, THEREFORE PLATONISM, ACADEMISM, AND NEOPLATONISM, ARE THE SAME IDEOLOGY.

2. NEOPLATONISM, AND GNOSTICISM, ARE NEITHER EQUIVALENT, NOR COGNATE; THE FORMER IS ESSENTIALLY INTELLECTUALISTIC; ID EST: IT IS STUNTED AT THE PURELY RATIONAL LEVEL, LACKING SPIRITUALITY, WHILST THE LATTER IS A HOLISTIC IDEOLOGY COMPRISING THE PHYSICAL, THE MENTAL, AND THE SPIRITUAL.

GNOSTICISM IS ESSENTIALLY ANTITHETICAL TO NEOPLATONISM; PLATON/GEMISTUS PLETHO/PLOTINUS HIMSELF DESPISED GNOSTICISM, SO TO DISMISS GNOSTICISM BY CLAIMING THAT IT IS A "LESSER FORM OF NEOPLATONISM" IS JUST IGNORANT AND IDIOTIC.

NEOPLATONISM HAS JUDAIC TRAITS IN ITS WORLDVIEW, SO IT IS PROBABLE THAT PLATON/GEMISTUS PLETHO/PLOTINUS HIMSELF WAS JEWISH, OR PART JEWISH —IT IS NO WONDER THAT HE DESPISED GNOSTICISM SO MUCH.

Don't some gnostic theologans belive that there is some malevent being pretending to be God? I personally think that idea is a good way of handling the problem of evil, or even the role of satan in christian philosophy. what with satan being the master of lies, one could say that the more grusome things God has done were actually sanan or the thing pretending to be him and framing him.

Get out autist! Take your alt history theories to

Gnosticism is a name invented by orthodox Christian theologians for a number of sects that formed during the first centuries AD. The number seems to imply unity between these sects but it's not the case. One common factor among them was the belief that the creator God was evil and that Jesus was a messenger of the true hidden God. They seemed to have influences from second temple Judaism, Zoroastrian dualism, Platonism, Egyptian magic and general Hellenistic eclecticism. They were elitists. No everybody could be saved. They might have disappeared due to persecution, conversion, lack of members due to inherent elitism or a combination of all of these.

Yeah, no.

Abstain from posting about subjects of which you're ignorant.

That is a dictionary entry tier definition. Let's see what you got.

>That is a dictionary entry tier definition.

That's part of my point. You don't know; you're just parroting superficial and erroneous information.

>Gnosticism is a name invented by orthodox Christian theologians for a number of sects
How can you acknowledge this and then continue to write the rest of your post? It's like you didn't even read your own words. It is not at all a "common factor" between various gnostic sects that "God was evil." It's not at all a "common factor" that they were "elitists," whatever that means. The differences between the Bogomils and the Mandeans, who both get called gnostics, make them essentially different religions, and neither of them believe "God is evil."

Contribute or STFU.

>tfw gnosticism would explain so many things so well but you're afraid of looking out through the meat bars of your body because an archon might notice and crush your mind

Plotinus and Gemistus Pletho lived several hundred years and several thousand miles apart.

That's so if you take the a priori premise that they're two separate distinct entities, but they're not. It's just one person.

what if I told you I was your mum and I fucked myself last night

classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html

Gnosticism (not all gnosticism) is mainly a misreading of link related

THE DEMIURGE ISN'T A BAD GUY REEEEEEEEEEEEE

Three different individuals named "Plato", "Pletho", and "Plotinos", spawn three separate and similar ideologies, at three different places, and times... all by mere coincidence.

If you really believe that you're a moron.

God, you're stupid aren't you?

How am I "stupid"?

I'm not sure if this is some really tasty bait or you've just forgotten your clozopine

>why did it die out despite it being prevalent in both Europe and the Middle East?
because it was persecuted by the 'straight thinking' Christians after the Roman daddies gave 'em the green light. It probably influenced Islamic belief and a lot of them were probably incorporated into Sufism. I wonder if they also assimilated into Tantrist circles farther East.

Dude, let me give you a clue becase sometimes you actually sound like you may believe in this:
1) Don't tell it to anyone you know personally, they might think you're a weido;
2) just fucking read Plato, Plotinus and Plethon and lean the difference instead of spouting nonsense;
3) visit a psychiatrist just to be sure.

Cheers.

Watch this. I like the debate between Ireanaeus and Narcissus in the frst part at 34:24. You also see an interview with Muhammad 'Ali, the farmer who discovered the Nag Hammadi codices.
youtu.be/JJeXJAgsEwM
youtu.be/Itap_eAMqQ8
youtu.be/gwhKAT8XvM8
youtu.be/JxxxmXkJums
Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels is a surprisingly unbiased introduction for anyone who actually cared to read it.
sanctuaryinterfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Gnostic-Gospels.pdf

Ad hominem much? It would have been better if you hadn't posted anything, because you can't counterargue.

>because you can't counterargue

>How am I "stupid"?

Is not an argument. Idiot.

Why do I get baited by blockheads like this?

The reason the three have "similar ideologies" is because Plato influenced the other two. Other than that they are three different philophical systems.

Plotinus and Plethon quote FROM and speak ABOUT Plato. They also quote Aristotle and the Stoics (who came after Plato). Plotinus quotes and debates the Gnostics. There's a biography of Plotinus written by one of his students and close associates, Porphyry, with dates and context.

Plethon took his name in hommage to Plato (his real name was Georgios). Plethon was also in the middle of the Bizantine Empire well after Christ. Fuck, Plethon knew Cosimo de Medici!

Every educated person in the Roman Empire knew who Plato was. Every educated person in the Roman Empire knew who Plato was. Nobody has ever thought that Plato, Plotinus and Plethon were the same persons!

Fuck you for baiting me to write this! You flaming retartd! Die choking in your own saliva, you mouth breather!

Fuck you Veeky Forums! This is my last post of the day!

Read the second Roman Empire as Eastern Roman Empire*

Die!!!

...

...