CONVERSATIONS IN THE PANTHEON - The Truth about God and Religion

Messiah or Light of the World?

Mary: So far, we have seen that James the Just and Saul of Tarsus were the two key players in the Christ Story. James held the disciples together and came up with the resurrection and ascension myth, which catapulted Jesus into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. But, without Saul, the fledgling movement could have quickly been extinguished. Neither the Romans nor the Jews were sympathetic to the new religion. And without Constantine, as you will soon see, Christianity might have been able to achieve only cult status, but certainly not mega religion status. Moreover, without Constantine's intervention, it might have become a gnostic rather than messianic religion. So Constantine was the third key player. If Constantine hadn't sided with the Messianic church, the christian world might have looked a lot different today.

Thomas: Having been a student of roman history, I have learned that almost from the very beginning, the universal church that Constantine helped to put together started splintering.

Mary: You know your history well. Right from the start there were two competing christian movements: one that believed Jesus to be the Messiah; and the other that believed him to be the light of the world, the voice of wisdom, the word of God. During the first century both groups coexisted as Christians. The fault line opened up in the second century. By this time, each movement had many gospels to spread the good news.

Irenaeus, a Greek bishop who travelled to Lyon (France) to expand the new church was concerned about losing ground to the gnostics. He thus narrowed the field of gospels to just four (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John), which later became known as the canonical gospels. He discarded all others because they supported the gnostic church, which he considered a competitor.

In the other corner of the boxing ring was Valentinus, the leader of the gnostic christian movement. He taught first in Alexandria and then in Rome. He was the author of the Gospel of Truth, and perhaps others, which Irenaeus found offensive.

Mathew: While I heard of Gnosticism, I'm not sure I know what it really is. What differentiated it from the messianic movement?

Mary: Besides theological differences, the messianic movement was institutionalized. It built a rigid and authoritarian church hierarchy, with the bishop as the highest authority. Below him were the priests and below them the deacons. The faithful were the laity, who stood below everyone else. Moreover, women were excluded from the hierarchy. For Irenaeus and other bishops, power over the faithful was an essential element of the new church. It was designed to reflect the heavenly kingdom. As God presided over the angels, so did the bishop over the people.

In contrast, the gnostic movement was about sharing wisdom and was completely inclusive and non-hierarchical. Women and slaves were not only welcome, but could participate in all the church's functions and rituals. Power was randomly shared with everyone by drawing lots. This egalitarian structure was very attractive to new christian converts, and so it grew relatively faster than the other movement.

The reason we know anything about the gnostic movement is that Irenaeus attacked it so forcefully and relentlessly. He wrote many letters and refutations of gnostic gospels that are still extant. However, despite the attacks, the gnostic movement kept on growing and even spread outside the Roman Empire.

When Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, the Gnostics were declared heretics and became openly persecuted. For the first three centuries, the Romans persecuted Christians. Now that the emperor was a Christian, it was time for them to do some persecuting of their own. They went after gnostic Christians, believers in the same god, with vengeance. They killed them and burned almost all their religious books.

Thomas: Hadn't Jesus, who they held as their god, told them to love their enemies and turn the other cheek? How quickly his teachings were forgotten! Paradoxically, even as Constantine persecuted the Gnostics, he commissioned the first christian church in Constantinople, which he named Agia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), a gnostic ideal.