The mystic Trinity, made in Paganism (Documentar istoric)

 

The mystic Trinity, made in Paganism

 

In ancient times, people began to worship the beings they imagined, dressed in the form of animals or even plants. But around 550 BC, the rise of the highly influential religions of Greek philosophy / mysteries began, as a transition from the polytheism of shepherds and farmers to the polytheism of pagan philosophers.

About 550 B. C., the rise of the extremely influential Greek philosophy/mystery religions began. Pythagoras (about 550 B.C.) may have been the founder of Greek philosophy and mystery religions. Certainly he was the earliest of the most influential Greek religious philosopher.

Pythagoras spent years studying with Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hindu religionists. When he finally returned to Greece , he formed a religious organization based on his knowledge gained in those foreign lands. He promoted a numerical symbolism in which he taught that God is three in number. More specifically, the Pythagoreans actually worshiped an equilateral triangle composed of dots.

Although it was a secret religious organization whose "mysteries" were to be known only among its members, we have some clues to Pythagoreanism' s deep "mysteries" that were borrowed from the religions of Babylon , India , and Egypt. Medieval numerologists, for example, admitted that they borrowed this 'mysterious' knowledge from Pythagoreanism: The number three stands for "Trinity and extension of Godhead."

Aristotle said over 300 years before Christ: 

"All things are three, and thrice is all: and let us use this number in the worship of the gods; for as the Pythagoreans say, everything and all things are bound by threes, for the end, and the middle, and the beginning have this number in everything, and these compose the number of the trinity."

So it appears that this "holy" number three used to "worship the gods" in unity came down from Babylon through Egypt and India , and through the extremely influential Pythagoras to the ancient Greek philosophy/mystery religions and even to Plato himself.

From Pythagoras (550 B. C.) until its decline (about 550 A. D.) the great influence of the Greek philosophy and mystery religions was spread by Pythagoreans, Platonists, Neopythagoreans, and finally Neoplatonists.

NEO-PYTHAGOREANISM appeared during the first century B. C. in Rome, whence it traveled to Alexandria - the sect's chief center - where it flourished until Neo-Platonism absorbed it in the 3rd century A. D.

Neo-Pythagoreanism was mainly the old Pythagoreanism with some borrowing from Plato, Aristotle, and Stoicism.

Pythagoreanism is a term used for the esoteric and metapsihical beliefs held by Phytagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, a main inspirational source for Plato and platonism. 

The Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel, "The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches . . . This Greek philosopher's [Plato, fourth century B.C.E.] conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions." -- (Paris, 1865-1870), edited by M. Lachâtre, Vol. 2, p. 1467.

"For, as the Pythagoreans say, the world and all that is in it is determined by the number three, since beginning and middle and end give the number of an 'all', and the number they give is the trinity [Greek trias; English = "trinity"]. And so, having taken these three from nature as (so to speak) laws of it, we make further use of the number three in the worship of the Gods." ("Holy" Aristotle, On the Heavens, Book I, 1)

"Enclosing the greater area with the smallest perimeter, the triangle, derived from the vesica piscis, the Triad was considered by the Pythagoreans as the most beautiful number, as it is the only number to equal the sum of all the terms below it, and the only number whose sum with those below equals their product."

It is difficult to find any reputable reference work that does not acknowledge the post-Biblical origin of the trinity doctrine. The main problem with the trinity doctrine is the dogmatism and judgementalism that customarily accompanies it. This is another evidence of the fragility of its foundation. Were it clearly taught in Scripture, there would be no need for authoritarian imposition of the teaching and heavy pressure to submit to it.

Who imported and imposed this concept of "mystery" in Christianity? The Gnostics.

Gnosticism (Greek: γνῶσις gnōsis, knowledge) refers to a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect god, the demiurge, who is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God.

The demiurge may be depicted as an embodiment of evil, or in other instances as merely imperfect and as benevolent as its inadequacy permits. This demiurge exists alongside another remote and unknowable Supreme Being that embodies good. In order to free oneself from the inferior material world, one needs gnosis, or esoteric spiritual knowledge available through direct experience or knowledge (gnosis) of (this unknowable) God. Within the sects of gnosticism, however, only the pneumatics or psychics obtain gnosis; the hylic or Somatics, though human, are doomed.

Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly a corruption of Christianity, it now seems clear that traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. Gnosticism may have been earlier than the First Century, thus predating Jesus Christ. Then continuing in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the Second and Third Centuries. Gnosticism became a dualistic heresy to Judaism, Christianity and Hellenic philosophy in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths (see Huneric), and the Persian Empire. Conversion to Islam and the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though a few isolated communities continue to exist to the present. Gnostic ideas became influential in the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the late 19th and 20th Centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier Gnostic groups.

In the gnostic book of The First Thought which is in Three Forms (or The Three Forms of the First Thought, in original The Trimorphic Protennoia) appears to have been rewritten at some point to incorporate Sethian gnostic beliefs, when originally it was a treatise from another Gnostic sect. Unusually, the text is in the form of an explanation of the nature of cosmology, creation, and a docetic view of Jesus, in the first person. That is, the text is written as if the writer is God, the three-fold first thought. Like most Gnostic writing, the text is extremely mystical, more so for being in the first person.  Like the more familiar gnostic book The Apocryphon of John, to which it is similar, it is thought to be from the mid-second century.

What happened at the Synod (Council) of Antioch from 268?

Before this Synod, some so called Gnostic Christians from the first and second century AD, have tried to translate pagan philosophical ideas such as the Pythagorean-platonic "Trinity" in Christian words. Some proposed a modalistic Trinity (one being in three revelation), others proposed a trimorphic Trinity (three differing forms in one being) and others a mix between this two.

Bishop Marcellus of Ancyra, a supporter of modalistic Trinity (III-IV century) stated: "Valentinus the heresiarch was the first to invented this in his book entitled by him 'On the Three Natures'. For he was the first to invent three hypostases and three persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he is discovered to have filched this from Hermes and Plato."

Valentinus (also spelled Valentinius; c. AD 100 – c. 160) was the best known and, for a time, most successful early Christian gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome. According to Tertullian, Valentinus was a candidate for bishop but started his own group when another was chosen.

Valentinus produced a variety of writings, but only fragments survive, largely those embedded in refuted quotations in the works of his opponents, not enough to reconstruct his system except in broad outline. His doctrine is known only in the developed and modified form given to it by his disciples. He taught that there were three kinds of people, the spiritual, psychical, and material; and that only those of a spiritual nature received the gnosis (knowledge) that allowed them to return to the divine Pleroma, while those of a psychic nature (ordinary Christians) would attain a lesser or uncertain form of salvation, and that those of a material nature were doomed to perish.

Valentinus had a large following, the Valentinians. It later divided into an Eastern and a Western, or Italian, branch. The Marcosians belonged to the Western branch.

Around 268 bishop Paul of Samosate proposed a view which term - were identical to that proposed later around 325 by Alexander and Athanasius of Alexandria, supporters of the trimorphic Trinity.

But the Synod of Antioch rejected the word (probably for the context) and deposed the bishop:

"Ironically, the synod that deposed Paul of Samosate would reject the term homoousios (consubstantial) by which he designated the identity of God and the Christ; this was the same quality that the Church would impose in the Fourth Century as the only trinitary truth."

The problem with this word homoousios (consubstantial) is the trinitarian oneness context in which this term was proposed, by the trinitarian fractions. And this context is a non-Biblical view.

In 315 emperor Constantine the so called Great, took with force the Churches of heretics and this act forced their bishops to leave or enter in that party of the Church in which his mother profess. In 316 he started o crusade against those who opposed this party's policy. And this party was Trinitarian and contributed to the development of the doctrine of the Trinity in Christianity. Certainly this doctrine does not come from the Bible, but from foreign sources.

Here is the Gnostic-trinitarian doctrine about God in a few words, directly from a primary source:

“The moment I thought about them, behold, the heavens opened, all the creature beneath the sky lit up, and the world shook. I was scared and, here, I saw someone sitting next to me in the light. Looking, he seemed to be someone old. Then he changed his appearance to a young man. Not that there were more faces in front of me, but inside the light, there was a face with more faces. These faces were visible to each other, and the face had three faces.” Apocryphon of John

The Secret Book of John, also called the Apocryphon of John, is a second-century forgery, made by the Gnostic proto-Trinitarians.

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