Paradise reconsidered in Gnostic mythmaking : rethinking Sethianism in light of the Ophite evidence /
This book offers a new understanding of Sethianism and the origins of Gnosticism by examining the mythology in and social reality behind a group of texts to which certain leaders of the early church occasionally attached the label 'Ophite.' In the unique Ophite mythology, which rewrites th...
Main Author:
Format: eBook
Language: English
Published:
Leiden ; Boston :
Brill,
2009.
Series:
Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies
68.
Biblical Studies, Ancient Near East and Early Christianity E-Books Online, Collection 2010, ISBN: 9789004222731.
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Call Number: BT1390 .R38 2009
| Summary: | This book offers a new understanding of Sethianism and the origins of Gnosticism by examining the mythology in and social reality behind a group of texts to which certain leaders of the early church occasionally attached the label 'Ophite.' In the unique Ophite mythology, which rewrites the Genesis paradise story and is attested, for example, in Irenaeus' Adversus haereses 1.30, The Apocryphon of John and On the Origin of the World , the snake's advice to eat of the tree of knowledge is considered positive, the creator and his angels are turned into demonic beasts and the true Godhead is presented as an androgynous heavenly projection of Adam and Eve. It is argued that Hans-Martin Schenke's influential model of the 'Sethian system' only reveals part of a larger whole to which the Ophite material belongs as an important and organic component. |
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| Item Description: | Revision of the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Helsinki and Université Laval, 2006. |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-312) and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 9789047426707 |
| Access: | Available to subscribing member institutions only. |