Zaccheus was Gnostic

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Giuseppe
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Zaccheus was Gnostic

Post by Giuseppe »

In red the proto-catholic interpolations in Mcn:

19 Jesus was going through the city of Jericho. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus, who was a very important tax collector, and he was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because he was too short to see above the crowd. 4 He ran ahead to a place where Jesus would come, and he climbed a sycamore tree so he could see him. 5 When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down! I must stay at your house today.”
6 Zacchaeus came down quickly and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to complain, “Jesus is staying with a sinner!”
8 But Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “I will give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times more.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, because this man also belongs to the family of Abraham. 10 The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”
(Luke 19:1-10)

Note that the principal feature of Zaccheus is the his absolute departure from the evil matter:
climbing a sycamore tree allegorizes the fact that, in order to see the Son of the Alien God, the man has to separate himself from the evil world created by the Demiurge.

A clue to the heretic Gnostic meaning of the sycamore tree is given by the command given by Jesus to Zaccheus in the our canonical proto-catholic versions: has he to give up only half of the his possessions? Surely not the same command given by Jesus to the young rich: give up all your possessions.

Clearly here is meant again an advise to separate himself absolutely (and not relatively) from the evil demiurgical world. By having still only half of the his possessions, Zaccheus is not that hater of the Demiurgical Creation as he was in the original story, after all.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
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Location: Italy

Re: Zaccheus was Gnostic

Post by Giuseppe »

Zaccheus became so the symbol of a Gnostic sect mentioned by Ephiphanius with the name of ''Zacchaeans'':

4:3 The first, Simonians. The second, Menandrians. The third, Satornilians. The fourth, Basilideans. The fifth, Nicolaitans. The sixth, Gnostics, who are also known as Stratiotics and are the same as the Phibionites, but some call them Secundians, others, Socratists, others, Zacchaeans, and by some they are called Coddians, Borborites, and Barbelists. The seventh, Carpocratians. The eighth, Cerinthians, also called Merinthians. The ninth, Nazoraeans. The tenth, Ebionites. The eleventh, Valentinians. The twelfth, Secundians, with whom Epiphanes and Isidore are associated. The thirteenth, Ptolemaeans.
5:4 There are likewise thirteen Sects in the second Section of the first Volume, as follows: Simonians; Menandrians; Satornilians; Basilideans; Nicolaitans; Gnostics, also called Stratiotics and Phibionites, but Secundians by some, Socratists by others, Zacchaeans, Coddians, Borborites and Barbelists by others; Carpocratians; Cerinthians, also called Merinthians; Nazoraeans; Ebionites; Valentinians; Secundians, with whom Epiphanes and Isidore are associated; Ptolemaeans.
2:5 26. Gnostics are the successors of these sects, but insanely perform the obscene action more than all of them. In Egypt they are called Stratiotics and Phibionites; in Upper Egypt, Secundians; in other places, Socratists, and Zacchaeans in others.
3:7 And so, regarding them as outcastes, their fellow immigrants have named them Koddians. But in Egypt the same people are known as Stratiotics and Phibionites, as I said in part earlier. But some call them Zacchaeans, others, Barbelites.
25:9 But he showed the spiritual kind, by saying 'Let the dead bury their own dead; but go thou and preach the kingdom of God'; and by saying of Zacchaeus the publican, 'Make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house.' For they assert that these were of the spiritual kind.
https://www.masseiana.org/panarion_bk1.htm#37.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
Posts: 13732
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2015 5:37 am
Location: Italy

Re: Zaccheus was Gnostic

Post by Giuseppe »

The allegorical gnostic meaning of the tree named

[wiki]Ficus sycomorus[/wiki]

...was so evident that that tree, in particular among all the trees, was hated (and accordingly destroyed) by the proto-catholic Jesus: it was hated because it didn't bear more fruit.

Clearly, the fig tree bearing no fruit is allegory of the temple, we are said.

But wasn't the sexual abstinence so common in the Gnostic/Marcionite communities?

In this sense the fig tree without fruit could work also as allegory of the Gnostics. By destroying it, Jesus destroyed also the Gnostic heresy, and not only the temple. The old Israel had to share the same fate of death and destruction of the heretics. For Tertullian, Jews and Marcionites were allied.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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