The discussions focused on the cosmology of Gnosticism, its belief that that the world was not created by the Jewish deity but by a supernatural, or perhaps it would be clearer to say a suprametaphysical being, known as the Demiurge.
Gnostics insisted that their followers abjure the material world for the life of the spirit. Gnosticsm has many similarities to Buddhism, Jewish Cabbalism, and Zoroastrianism, but it is best known through its Egyptian form, which may have developed as early as the 5th century BCE, when Pythagoras established his own pseudo-Gnostic cult.
Many scholars have pointed out the many Zoroastrian connections in the canonical Jesus story (starting with the three Magi, who were priests of Zoroaster), as well as the fact that Jesus, according to Matthew 2:13, spent his childhood in exile in Egypt.
Christian orthodoxy after the councils of Nicea and Ephesus declared Gnosticism to be an apostasy, a heresy, and contrary to "true" Christian belief; Gnostic texts were destroyed, or may have been concealed in the Vatican archives.
Gnostics insisted that their followers abjure the material world for the life of the spirit. Gnosticsm has many similarities to Buddhism, Jewish Cabbalism, and Zoroastrianism, but it is best known through its Egyptian form, which may have developed as early as the 5th century BCE, when Pythagoras established his own pseudo-Gnostic cult.
Many scholars have pointed out the many Zoroastrian connections in the canonical Jesus story (starting with the three Magi, who were priests of Zoroaster), as well as the fact that Jesus, according to Matthew 2:13, spent his childhood in exile in Egypt.
Christian orthodoxy after the councils of Nicea and Ephesus declared Gnosticism to be an apostasy, a heresy, and contrary to "true" Christian belief; Gnostic texts were destroyed, or may have been concealed in the Vatican archives.
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