02-11-2024, 01:07 AM
Quote:The Gnostics also believed that beyond the Creator God lies the true Supreme Being (the existence of whom God doesn’t recognize because he is blinded by his violent temper and jealousy). It was this Supreme Being, they maintain, who sent Christ to earth in the form of a snake to rescue Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden! In other words, it was Christ who appeared to Eve (according to the Gnostics, Eve was more spiritually advanced than Adam) and invited her to eat from the tree of knowledge. But God realized what was happening and threw Eve and Adam out of the Garden before they had a chance to also eat from the tree of eternal life. Because God stopped them from reaching the second tree, humanity remains subject to death to this day.
How could these early Christians equate the snake in the Garden with Jesus Christ? Isn’t the snake supposed to be Satan? The Gnostics pointed out that Jesus was “wise as a serpent” and was hung on a tree just like the snake in the Garden.They also noted that once, when the Israelites were perishing of disease in the desert, Moses hung a brass serpent on a pole to save their lives—an indication that the snake in the Garden was also meant to represent a savior. In short, the Gnostics believed they must reject the malevolent Creator God who wants us to remain trapped in the world of matter, and turn instead to the Supreme Being in the kingdom of light, who is Jesus’ true father, and ours as well.
