Is This What the Essence of the Ophite Diagram Looked Like?

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Secret Alias
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Is This What the Essence of the Ophite Diagram Looked Like?

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“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: Is This What the Essence of the Ophite Diagram Looked Like?

Post by Ben C. Smith »

In 1981 A. J. Welburn wrote an article about reconstructing the Ophite Diagram, and he came up with this complicated thing:

Ophite Diagram.jpg
Ophite Diagram.jpg (89.18 KiB) Viewed 1778 times

I do not feel competent to comment on it, though.
Last edited by Ben C. Smith on Sat Dec 16, 2017 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Secret Alias
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Re: Is This What the Essence of the Ophite Diagram Looked Like?

Post by Secret Alias »

Me neither. I just saw the Pythagorean diagram (above) and thought it had a lot of the elements - the 'dividing line,' the small circle etc. The small circle goes around a tetrad which was taken by the neo-Platonists to be the Demiurge who is the Son of the Christian understanding. The cross is there too. Since all the gnostic groups venerated the tetrad it's presence at the center of the diagram is significant.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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