Church History, Volume 1 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Religion
Church History, Volume 1 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
All the men characterized in the Old Testament as godless are
esteemed by them genuine pneumatical beings and martyrs for the
truth. The first who distinguished himself in conflict with the
God of the Jews was Cain; the last who led the struggle on to
victory, by bringing the psychical Messiah through his profound
sagacity to the cross, was Judas Iscariot. The Gnostic =Justin=
is known to us only through Hippolytus, who draws his information
from a _Book of Baruch_. He taught that from the original essence,
ὁ Ἀγαθός or Κύριος, יְהוָֹה, emanated a male principle, Ἐλωείμ, אֱלֹהִים,
which had a pneumatical nature, and a female principle, Ἐδέμ, עֵדֶן,
which was above man (psychical) and below the serpent (hylic).
From the union of this pair sprang twelve ἄγγελοι πατρικοί, who
had in them the father’s nature, and twelve ἄγγελοι μητρικοί,
on whom the mother’s nature was impressed. Together they formed
Paradise, in which Baruch, an angel of Elohim, represented the
tree of life, and Naas, an Edem-angel, represented the tree
of knowledge. The Elohim-angel formed man out of the dust
of Paradise; Edem gave him a soul, Elohim gave him a spirit.
Pressing upward by means of his pneumatical nature Elohim raised
himself to the borders of the realms of light. The Agathos took
him and set him at his right hand. The forsaken Edem avenged
himself by giving power to Naas to grieve the spirit of Elohim
in man. He tempted Eve to commit adultery with him, and got Adam
to commit unnatural vice with him. In order to show the grieved
spirit of man the way to heaven, Elohim sent Baruch first to
Moses and afterwards to other Prophets of the Old Testament;
but Naas frustrated all his efforts. Even from among the heathen
Elohim raised up prophets, such as Hercules whom he sent to fight
against the twelve Edem-angels (his twelve labours), but one of
them named Babel or Aphrodite robbed even this divine hero of his
power (a reminiscence of the story of Omphale). Finally, Elohim
sent Baruch to the peasant boy Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary.
He resisted all the temptations of Naas, who therefore got him
nailed upon the cross. Jesus commended his spirit into the hands
of the Father, into whose heaven he ascended, leaving his body
and soul with Edem. So, after his example, do all the pious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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