The Book of Baruch is a Jewish Gnostic text said to have been written by a certain author named Jephthah that now exists in a form that is lightly Christianized and Hellenized. Baruch is preserved only as a paraphrase in Hippolytus of Rome's Refutation of All Heresies, from which it may be partially recovered. The Book of Baruch recounts the mythic story of the highest god, the Good, along with the male Elohim and the female Edom, and their interactions in the world of humanity. The story of Baruch is a tale of the love of Elohim and Edom, heaven and earth, love that is expressed and is lost. And the mythic tale is related with themes from Genesis, as the text explains how the affairs in the divine realm have an impact upon human history and the fate of people within this world. The text includes a series of characters from the Hebrew tradition, such as Elohim and Edom, the blessed angel Baruch and the serpent-like angel Naas, and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, as well as several figures from Greco-Roman mythological lore.
Oath of Secrecy If you would know what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and what has not arisen in the human heart, and who stands high above all good, swear to keep the mystery of instructions hooked. You drink from the living water, the washing, the spring of living water bubbling up, and there was a separation of waters from waters, and the waters below the firmament belong to the evil creation. In them awash those who are earthly and psychical. The waters above the firmament belong to the good and are alive. The spiritual and the living are washed in them, as Elohim was after the washing. He did not waver. The Myth of the Creators There were three ungenerated principles governing the cosmos. Two male and one female. One of the male principles is called the good, and it alone carries that epithet and knows everything ahead of time. The other male principle is named father of all things, begotten in the world, has no forethought, and he is unknown and invisible. The female is angry. She knows nothing ahead of time, and she has two minds and two bodies. As in Herodotus' myth, she is a virgin above and a viper below. She is called both Edom and Israel. These are the principles of the cosmos, the roots and pools from which all sprang, and nothing else was in the world. When the father, knowing nothing beforehand, saw that half-virgin Edom, he burned for her, and he, the father, is called Elohim, and Edom burned equally for Elohim. Their desire drew them to a single union of love. From this coupling, the father seeded twelve angels for himself through Edom. The paternal angels side with the father and obey his will in everything, and the maternal ones hear their mother, Edom. Their common domain is paradise, about which Moshe tells us, God planted paradise east of Eden, before the face of Edom, and therefore she always looks at paradise, her angels. The angels of paradise are allegorically called trees, and the tree of life is the third paternal angel, and his name is Baruch, while the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the third maternal angel, and he is not God. Moshe spoke these things covertly, because not everyone can hold the truth. The Creation of Adam and Eve After paradise came into being through the love of Elohim and Edom, the angels of Elohim took some of the best earth, not from the bestial, naked part of Edom, but from her upper, civilized regions, and from that good earth they made man, but from the bestial land came wild beasts and creatures. They made man a symbol of their union and love, and planted some of their powers in him. Edom provided the soul, and Elohim the spirit. The man Adam was a seal and memory of their love, an eternal symbol of the wedding of Edom and Elohim. And, as Moshe wrote, Eve was image and symbol, and the seal of Edom preserved forever. Edom set the soul in Eve and Elohim, the spirit, and they were given commandments, be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth. Edom gave away all her power to Elohim, like a marriage dowry. Until this day, in imitation of that first marriage, a woman comes to her husband with a dowry, obeying a holy and hereditary law that Edom carried out toward Elohim. The angels are divided. When, according to Moshe, everything was created, including heaven and earth and all therein, the twelve angels of the mother were divided into four principles, and each quadrant is called a river. Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. Huddled in these four parts, the twelve angels circle around and govern the cosmos. Their authority over the world comes from Edom. When the angels of Pishon rule a region, then famine, distress, and tribulation foul that segment of the earth, for their criterion for ruling is avarice, and in all regions come bad times and disease. There is a torrent of evil pouring out like the rivers, and constantly around the world, Edom's will controls every quadrant. Elohim's Ascent The necessity of evil has this circumstance. When Elohim and Edom, in mutual love, made the cosmos, Elohim chose to rise to the highest part of heaven to see if their creation lacked any elements. He took his angels with him and rose, and he abandoned Edom below, who, being earth, declined to follow her husband upward. When Elohim reached the upper border of heaven, he saw a light stronger than the sun he created, and he said, open the gates for me to enter and to acknowledge the Lord. I had thought I was the Lord. He heard a voice out of the light saying, this is the Lord's gate, so just pass through it. The gate was immediately opened, and the Father, without his angels, went into the good and saw what eye has not seen, or ear heard, and what has not arisen in the human heart. The good said to him, sit down at my right hand. The Father said to the good, let me destroy the cosmos I made. My spirit is imprisoned among people. I want to take it back. Then the good told him, nothing which comes from me can be evil. In your companion love, you and Edom made the world. Let Edom keep the creation as long as she wishes, but you must stay with me. Edom's response. Then Edom knew she was abandoned by Elohim, and sorrowfully began to gather angels around her, and adorn herself brightly to arouse His return. But under the good's control, Elohim no longer descended to Edom. Then Edom commanded Babel, which here means the goddess Aphrodite, to incite fornication and divorce among people, so that as she was separated from Elohim, the spirit of Elohim and people might feel affliction, and be tormented and suffer like her, Edom, his abandoned wife. And Edom gave grand authority to Naas, her third angel, to torture the spirit of Elohim and people with all possible tortures, so through that spirit Elohim might himself be tortured, he who would abandon Edom in cold violation of their covenant. Elohim sends down his angel Baruch. When the father Elohim saw these things, he sent down Baruch, his own third angel, to comfort the spirit living in all people. When Baruch came, he stood among the angels of Edom in the midst of Paradise. Paradise was the angels among whom he stood, and he commanded the people to eat from every tree in Paradise, except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which tree is Naas. They could obey the other eleven angels of Edom, for though they have passions, they do not disobey the commandment. But Naas disobeyed. He approached Eve and seduced her, and debauched her, which is a transgression. And he approached Adam and played with him as a boy, which is a transgression. So adultery and pederasty were born. Since then evil and good have ruled people. It began from a single source. When the father ascended to the good, he showed the way for those who wish to rise. And by leaving Edom, he began the evil for his spirit in people. Baruch searches for a savior. Baruch went to Moshe, and through him spoke to the children of Israel to turn them back to the good. But Edom's third angel, Naas, barred his way. Naas expunged Baruch's orders, and only Naas' commandments were heard. And so soul was set against spirit, and spirit set against soul. The soul is Edom, while the spirit is Elohim, and each is in both man and woman. Then Baruch was sent down to the prophets so that the spirit living in people might hear and flee from Edom and her corrupt creation, as once father Elohim fled. But Naas, using his old tactics, dragged the father's spirit down into the soul of people he seduced who scorned Baruch's words and Elohim's commandments. Then Baruch chose a prophet from the uncircumcised, Heracles, and sent him to subdue the twelve angels of Edom and free the father from the twelve evil angels of the creation. These are the twelve labors in which Heracles contended from first to last, with the lion, the hydra, the boar, and the rest. And they are names of nations given to them from the power of the maternal angels. Just when he seemed victorious, Amphalae, who was Babel or Aphrodite, attacked him and seduced him and took away his strength and Baruch's commandments ordered by Elohim. And then she wrapped him in her own robe, the power of Edom, the power from below. Heracles' prophecies and work were nothing. Baruch finds Yeshua. Finally, in the days of King Herod, Baruch was sent once more by Elohim and he came to Nazareth and found Yeshua, son of Joseph and Miriam, a boy of twelve, feeding sheep, and he told him everything that had happened from the beginning, from Edom and Elohim and all that will be. He said, all the prophets before you were seduced, but Yeshua, earthly son, try not to be seduced and preach the word to people and tell them about the Father and the good and ascend to the good and sit with Elohim, Father of us all. Yeshua's crucifixion and ascent. And Yeshua obeyed the angel. He said, Lord, I will do all things. He affirmed this. Naas wanted to seduce him too, but he could not. Yeshua kept faith with Baruch. Then Naas was enraged because he could not seduce him and he had him crucified. Yeshua left his body to Edom by the tree and ascended to the good. He said to her, woman, here is your son. He left his soul, an earthly body, but his spirit he placed in the hands of the Father and then he ascended to the good. Allegorical interpretations. The good is Priapus, who created before anything was. He is called Priapus because he made everything. So in temples, everywhere, he is honored by all creation. On the roads he walks carrying fruit, fruits of creation, whose cause he was since he created before anything was. Now, when you hear that the swan lay on Leda and produced a child from her, the swan is Elohim and Leda is Edom. When you hear one say that gold came upon Danai and produced a child from her, the gold is Elohim and Danai is Edom. In this way, these tales are interpreted comparing them to similar myths. When the prophets say, hear heaven and listen earth, the Lord has spoken. The spirit of Elohim and people is heaven and soul living with the spirit and people is earth. The Lord is Baruch and Israel Edom and Elohim's wife is called Edom and Israel. Israel did not know me and if she had known that I am with the good, she would not have tortured the spirit that lives in people because of the ignorance of the father. When the prophet is said to take a woman for himself to fornicate because the earth has fornicated behind the Lord, even as Edom behind Elohim.
Justin or Justinus was an early Gnostic Christian from the 2nd century AD recorded by Hippolytus.[1] He is often confused in sources with Justin Martyr as "Justin the Gnostic".[2][3]
Life
[edit]Justin's life is unknown, although he likely came from a Jewish-Christian background. Most information about him comes from Hyppolytus, who might have been familiar with Justin's most important work, Baruch.[2] He is counted among the earliest Gnostics, having lived in the era of Simonians like Simon Magus, Dositheus, Menander and Saturninus.[4]
Teachings
[edit]His teachings, synthesized in a gospel called Book of Baruch, were a highly syncretic gnostic current that mixed Jewish Christianity with classical mythology.[2] They are considered one of the first transitions between Jewish monotheism and full-blown gnosticism.,[3][4] although they differ substantially from Sethian and Valentian beliefs. For example, Justin omits any concept of the devolution or fall of the divine,[5] and he presents the creation of the world in a positive light.[2][3]
According to Justin, there were three primordial, eternal entities. Reigning supreme was the male Good One, owner of foreknowledge (identified with the Monad and the creator of the universe, as well as the Greek Priapus),[6] under which there were the male Elohim (the Jewish god and Demiurge or creator of the world) and the female Edem (identified with Gaia and described as a "half virgin, half viper" being similar to Echidna).[7] Elohim and Edem, ignorant of the existence of the Good One, fell in love and copulated, giving birth to twenty-four angels of both paternal and maternal nature, also creating the world in the process. Those angels then created mankind out of Edem's human part and the animal kingdom out of her snake part. However, Elohim discovered the Good One and ascended to his heaven, where he was charged to stay to redeem himself from having thought himself the greatest. Dominion over the Earth was thus assigned to Edem who, vengeful and heartbroken by Elohim's departure, released the evils of famine and disease on the world. Her twelve angels ruled the world as archons.[6]
Edem further ordered one of her maternal angels, Naas (identified with the serpent of Edem), to cause adulteries and dissolutions of marriages among men. In response, Elohim send one of his own paternal angels, Baruch, in order to warn Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, which represented Naas himself. However, Baruch failed, as Naas had previously seduced both Adam and Eve, leading them to eat from the tree.[6] Baruch's next attempts to save mankind through Moses and the biblical prophets failed too, so Elohim now chose an uncircumcised man, Heracles, to carry on the task. Heracles defeated all the twelve maternal archons by force, a series of battles known as the Twelve Labors, but he was ultimately seduced and divested of his power by one of the conquered archons, the beautiful Babel or Omphale.[6] Only much later, Elohim found a human who could resist the enticement of the angels, Jesus (son of Elohim in an adoptionist way), who would preach his true word despite being crucifixied by work of Naas.
Only five names of the angels of Elohim are preserved: Baruch, Michael, Gabriel, Amen and Esaddeus. The twelve angels of Edem are Naas, Babel, Achamoth, Bel, Belias, Satan, Sael, Adonaios, Leviathan, Carcamenos, Lathen and Pharaoh.[8]
See also
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