Melanie Layton shares the argument that the early Christian/Latter-day Saint similarities highlighted by Erickson “do not confirm, they condemn if one considers the source of the parallels. For example, Irenaeus famously designated Gnostic writings as “an abyss of madness and blasphemy against Christ.”1 While the Nag Hammadi corpus has proven a treasure trove for secular scholars, traditional Christians have generally dismissed the documents as Gnostic heresy and doctrinally trivial.2 This line of argument was the essence of the evangelical response to Erickson’s audio series. One reason is that many of the Nag Hammadi texts were produced and cherished by Gnostics - groups whose writings and beliefs were directly attacked by early Church Fathers. Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 Unported license. © 2019 Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. Melanie Layton shares the argument that the early Christian/Latter-day Saint similarities highlighted by Erickson “do not confirm, they condemn if one considers the source of the parallels.”3 Los gnsticos dividieron el mundo en fuerzas opuestas del bien y del mal, y crean que tenan acceso a la sabidura secreta (gnosis en griego significa conocimiento). One reason is that many of the Nag Hammadi texts were produced and cherished by Gnostics - groups whose writings and beliefs were directly attacked by early Church Fathers. Pero los textos de Nag Hammadi revelaron una combinacin de misticismo asitico, magia, astrologa y Cabal juda en un entorno cristiano. While these texts have had an intensely dramatic effect on New Testament scholarship, they have had relatively little impact upon members of the Restored Church of Christ, especially its lay members. It is forty years later, and Erickson’s prediction of a tidal wave of faith affirming scholarship has yet to emerge at least it has not emerged from the sands near Nag Hammadi. He would always conclude his presentation with the question, “Where did Joseph Smith get this?” After hearing about all of these remarkable discoveries, I eagerly anticipated the impending wave of confirmatory evidences from ancient hidden texts that would definitively prove the miracle of the restoration. I still remember his vivacious voice reading tantalizing snippets from ancient texts and favorably comparing them to aspects of the restored gospel of Christ. Through the lens of Silvanus, Latter-day Saint and Calvinist positions are evaluated relative to the early and late Silvanus authors and are found to be most compatible with the early and late portions of the text, respectively.Īs a teenager my first exposure to the Nag Hammadi texts came via a series of Einar Erickson audio tapes that my mother purchased. Latter-day Saints have long contended that the Restored Gospel is more closely aligned with the earliest strains of Christianity vis-à-vis the creedal form. Silvanus’ provenance, therefore, allows this single document to serve as a potential microcosm evidencing the change and alteration of early Christian thought and doctrine. Was such survival philosophical demonstrable (as Socrates had argued in the Phaedo)? What form might it take? (Immortality of the soul? Resurrection of the body? Reincarnation?) When would such survival be experienced? (At death? At Christ's final return? Perhaps even before death?) The New Testament teaching was somewhat ambiguous on several of these points, though within the great church there seemed general agreement on at least two matters: the prototype and basis of hope for such survival was the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of individuals would entail their retention of personal identity.Abstract: Scholars have recently suggested that The Teachings of Silvanus, a text from Nag Hammadi Codex VII, is the product of several authors with the earliest portion dating to the late first or early second century and the latest portion to the third or early fourth century. By the late second century, the probable time of its composition, Christians - whether Gnostic or orthodox - were struggling with certain challenges and questions. 52): "The importance of this short, eight-page, didactic letter lies in its witness to a distinctively unorthodox interpretation of Christian teaching about survival after death. Peel writes ( The Nag Hammadi Library in English, p. Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on the Treatise on the Resurrection
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