Very interesting article.
I have always hesitated to discuss some of the gnostic gospels here because of the fear that such content might stimulate or encourage certain prurient sexual interests (ah hmmmmm).
Sex is a sin, and should be guarded against as one guards against the coiled snake on a loaf of bread.
But this does seem like an appropriate time to remember that these "gospels" were just as real as any of the others which were sorted, discarded, or kept as the "legitimate" preachings of those who were victorious in gaining the power and authority to present their own particular ideas and viewpoints...while discarding or repudiating others.
jdt.unl.edu
Here are a couple of quotes from the above link (which, of course, is decidely longer)...
"Epiphanius reports similar activity on the part of the Borborites, whom he connects with the Sethians (see below on sexual sacramentalism); in particular, he mentions two communal meals of theirs: a eucharist consisting of offering up and consuming menstrual blood and spent semen withheld from intercourse as the blood and body of Christ, and a Passover meal devoted to the consumption of a mangled fetus extracted from any woman who accidentally happens to become pregnant during such sexual exchange (Panarion 26.4.5-5.6)."
Or this:
"According to Epiphanius (Panarion 26.3-12), the later Sethians, whom he calls Borborites, Barbelites, Phibionites, Stratiotici and Coddians, engaged in a thorough-going sexual sacramentalism. Their symbolic actions included a ritual handshake (featuring tickling beneath the palms of joined hands), a love feast in which spouses were exchanged, homosexual intercourse on the part of a special class called Levites, naked prayer featuring the elevation to the 365 Archons (e.g., Iao, Saklas, Seth, Daveithai, Eloaeus, Yaldabaoth, Sabaoth, Barbelo, the Autogenes Christ, and the supreme Autopater) of hands smeared with semen and menstrual blood (apparently symbolizing the elevation of the host and wine commemorating the "passion" of Christ), and consumption of the same as a form of eucharist. If one of the women accidentally conceived, the fetus was extracted and sacramentally consumed to prevent the further dispersal of the divine spirit in another human body.
According to Stephen Gero,[50] "the central, distinguishing feature of the sect, its devotion to the so-called sperma cult, described by [Epiphanius] in vivid detail, can hardly be dismissed as a prurient invention. In the simplest of terms it involved the extraction, collection and solemn, sacramental consecration and consumption of bodily fluids, male and female, which contributed to the further propagation of the human race, and thus to the continued entrapment of the divine substance by the evil archons. In these fluids is concentrated the spiritual element, found scattered in the world, in particular in food-stuffs (including meat!), of which the initiates can and should partake. The mythology proper is a version of the Barbelo-gnostic myth, as known from Irenaeus and the Apocryphon of John." Although Epiphanius does not say that they called this rather unrestrained ritual sex a "mystery" or rite of the bridal chamber, it seems clear that its intent was the same, effecting a restoration of the lost primordial unity by physical coupling and attempting to reverse the natural course of the propagation of the species."
I think if we are to question Morton Smith's scholarship, we would probably need to go back to some of the sources listed in the above article, as linked. I have not read him, but I presume that these primary sources would have been a part of his research, and are likely listed in his book on the subject.
It seems clear to me that the "Gospels" of Thomas, Eve, or any of the others are every bit as "TRUE" as any of the Gospels that appealed to the beliefs and the prejudices of those who eventually were to formulate the textual and theoretical corpus of the Christian Church.
______________________
This site is also interesting reading...and even though it is a bit of reading, it rewards the reader with an honest context by which to consider the "Gospels".
personal.kent.edu
...While this explains a bit of what poor Epiphanius had to endure in his personal search for TRUTH and MEANING:
members.aol.com |
