The Homeric Roots of Docetism

[Secret Alias]

I have not read MacDonald's book and I know I should. But I am not so sure (and I may be wrong) that MacDonald is on the right track given what I have read in discussions of the book. Because he is not a Marcionophile he misses the obvious connection between the Pauline writings and the gospel and Paul's statement of the underlying narrative of the Jesus story:

for your sake He became poor [the verb is formed from ptochos, a beggar: "He beggared Himself"] that through his poverty [ptocheia] you may become rich

This is IMO one of the strongest Homeric parallels which (again to my limited knowledge) MacDonald misses. It is only when you see Jesus as a divine being disguised as a beggar (perhaps also the root of the sect 'the Ebionites') that you really get at the Homeric parallels.

The idea came to me watching the 1997 made for TV Odyssey film (2 hours +) with my sick 9 year old. We have to go beyond canonical Mark to the gospel in the possession of the original Pauline community and summarized in the epistles to get at the true Homeric roots of Christianity. I was struck also by the docetic crucifixion too epitomized (in its surviving form) by the Gospel of Barnabas but also referenced in the gospel attributed to Basilides. Jesus transforms himself (and/or others) to achieve the desired results of the final 'contest' at the Passion.

[Secret Alias]

Another thing I noticed when I revisited the Greek text. As Odysseus talks of himself and his adventures he speaks in the third-person calling himself both Anthropos and Outis (Nobody). Odysseus is also the anthropos polytropos, the "man of many ways," or the "man of many tricks."

[Secret Alias]

I've often wondered why it is so important for Jewish converts to Christianity to recognize 'God crucified.' If we look at the gnostic Demiurge there is a strong and early tradition that he begins believing that he is the only God (usually by putting Isa 45:22 in his mouth i.e. For I am God, and there is no other). If - as I have often mused - the crucifixion of the god Man was conceived as an act of repentance that he sinned by not recognizing the heavenly Father Odysseus's eloquent waxing about the nature of the human condition might well have been transferred to the Demiurge:

Nothing feebler (akidnoteron) does earth nurture than a human (anthropos), of all things that on earth are breathing and moving. For, so long as the gods give him strength (aretê) and his knees are quick, he says that he will never suffer evil in time to come; but when again the blessed gods decree him sorrow, this too he grimly bears with steadfast heart (thymos); for the mind (noos) of men upon the earth is even such as the day which the father of gods and men brings upon them. For I, too, was once prosperous (olbios) among men, but I committed many reckless deeds (atasthala), yielding to my might and my strength, and trusting in my father and my brethren. Wherefore let no man at all be lawless (athemistios) at any time, but let him keep in silence whatever gifts the gods give.

[Secret Alias]

The repentance of Man myth in various gnostic sources -

Apocryphon of John

Now the archon who is weak has three names. The first name is Yaltabaoth, the second is Saklas, and the third is Samael. And he is impious in his arrogance which is in him. For he said, 'I am God and there is no other God beside me,' for he is ignorant of his strength, the place from which he had come.

The Treatise of the Great Seth - is probably the oldest of these traditions dating back to the circle of Basilides. Notice the idea here of the Father being a 'secret Man.'

I visited a bodily dwelling. I cast out the one who was in it first, and I went in. And the whole multitude of the archons became troubled. And all the matter of the archons, as well as all the begotten powers of the earth, were shaken when it saw the likeness of the Image, since it was mixed. And I am the one who was in it, not resembling him who was in it first. For he was an earthly man, but I, I am from above the heavens. I did not refuse them even to become a Christ, but I did not reveal myself to them in the love which was coming forth from me. I revealed that I am a stranger to the regions below.

There was a great disturbance in the whole earthly area, with confusion and flight, as well as (in) the plan of the archons. And some were persuaded, when they saw the wonders which were being accomplished by me. And all these, with the race, that came down, flee from him who had fled from the throne to the Sophia of hope, since she had earlier given the sign concerning us and all the ones with me - those of the race of Adonaios. Others also fled, as if from the Cosmocrator and those with them, since they have brought every (kind of) punishment upon me. And there was a flight of their mind about what they would counsel concerning me, thinking that she (Sophia) is the whole greatness, and speaking false witness, moreover, against the Man and the whole greatness of the assembly.

It was not possible for them to know who the Father of Truth, the Man of the Greatness, is. But they who received the name because of contact with ignorance - which (is) a burning and a vessel - having created it to destroy Adam, whom they had made, in order to cover up those who are theirs in the same way. But they, the archons, those of the place of Yaldabaoth, reveal the realm of the angels, which humanity was seeking in order that they may not know the Man of Truth. For Adam, whom they had formed, appeared to them. And a fearful motion came about throughout their entire dwelling, lest the angels surrounding them rebel. For without those who were offering praise - I did not really die lest their archangel become empty.

And then a voice - of the Cosmocrator - came to the angels: "I am God and there is no other beside me." But I laughed joyfully when I examined his empty glory. But he went on to say, "Who is man?" And the entire host of his angels, who had seen Adam and his dwelling, were laughing at his smallness. And thus did their Ennoia come to be removed outside the Majesty of the heavens, i.e.,the Man of Truth, whose name they saw since he is in a small dwelling place, since they are small (and) senseless in their empty Ennoia, namely their laughter. It was contagion for them.

The whole greatness of the Fatherhood of the Spirit was at rest in his places. And I am he who was with him, since I have an Ennoia of a single emanation from the eternal ones and the undefiled and immeasurable incomprehensibilities. I placed the small Ennoia in the world, having disturbed them and frightened the whole multitude of the angels and their ruler. And I was visiting them all with fire and flame because of my Ennoia. And everything pertaining to them was brought about because of me. And there came about a disturbance and a fight around the Seraphim and Cherubim, since their glory will fade, and the confusion around Adonaios on both sides and their dwelling - to the Cosmocrator and him who said, "Let us seize him''; others again, "The plan will certainly not materialize.''

For Adonaios knows me because of hope. And I was in the mouths of lions. And the plan which they devised about me to release their Error and their senselessness - I did not succumb to them as they had planned. But I was not afflicted at all. Those who were there punished me. And I did not die in reality but in appearance, lest I be put to shame by them because these are my kinsfolk. I removed the shame from me and I did not become fainthearted in the face of what happened to me at their hands. I was about to succumb to fear, and I <suffered> according to their sight and thought, in order that they may never find any word to speak about them. For my death, which they think happened, (happened) to them in their error and blindness, since they nailed their man unto their death. For their Ennoias did not see me, for they were deaf and blind. But in doing these things, they condemn themselves. Yes, they saw me; they punished me. It was another, their father, who drank the gall and the vinegar; it was not I. They struck me with the reed; it was another, Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. I was another upon Whom they placed the crown of thorns. But I was rejoicing in the height over all the wealth of the archons and the offspring of their error, of their empty glory. And I was laughing at their ignorance.

And I subjected all their powers. For as I came downward, no one saw me. For I was altering my shapes, changing from form to form. And therefore, when I was at their gates, I assumed their likeness. For I passed them by quietly, and I was viewing the places, and I was not afraid nor ashamed, for I was undefiled. And I was speaking with them, mingling with them through those who are mine, and trampling on those who are harsh to them with zeal, and quenching the flame. And I was doing all these things because of my desire to accomplish what I desired by the will of the Father above.

[Secret Alias]

The idea in the Great Seth treatise seems to be the familiar 'Jesus' (or more correctly 'Man') and 'Christ' where the former is crucified but not the latter.

[Secret Alias]

Trimorphic Protennoia (no specific mention of the Man myth)

I shall tell you a mystery of this realm and of its forces. Birth cries out; hour gives birth to hour, and day gives birth to day. Months reveal months, time follows time. This realm was completed in this fashion, and as quickly, it is thought, as a finger releases a finger and a joint separates from a joint. When the great authorities knew that the time of fulfillment had appeared—just as the time of the birth pangs came, the time of destruction approached—the elements trembled, and the foundations of the underworld and the ceilings of chaos shook, and a great fire shone in their midst, and rocks and earth were shaken like a reed by the wind.

And a great thunder disturbed the allotments of fate and those who apportion the houses. The thrones of the powers were disturbed because they were overturned, and their king was afraid. And those who follow fate paid their allotment of visits to the path, and said to the powers, “What is this disturbance and this shaking we have felt through the voice of exalted speech? And our entire world has been shaken, the entire circuit of our path of ascent has been destroyed, and our way up to the chief creator of our birth no longer exists for us.”

Then the powers answered, saying, “We too are at a loss about it because we did not know what caused it. But get up and let’s go to the chief creator and ask him.” And the powers gathered and went up to the chief creator. They said to him, “What kind of boasting is this? Didn’t we hear you say, ‘I am god, and I am your father and it is I who produced you, and there is no other god but me’? Now look, the aeon’s voice of invisible speech has appeared. We don’t recognize the voice, nor to whom we belong, for the voice that we heard is foreign and its origin unknown. It came and terrified and weakened our arms. So let’s weep and mourn bitterly! And let us fly away before we are forcibly imprisoned and taken down to the bowels of the underworld. Already the slackening of our bondage is near, and time is short, and the days are brief, and our time fulfilled. The weeping of our destruction is near and we may be taken to the place we recognize. The tree from which we grew has fruit of ignorance. Death is in its leaves, and darkness under the shadow of its boughs. In deceit and lust we harvested the tree through which ignorant chaos became our home. For look, even the chief creator of our birth, about whom we boast, did not know this speech.”

O children of thought, hear me, hear the speech of the mother of your mercy. You have earned the right to own the mystery hidden from eternity. Now accept it. And the end of this realm and of the life of injustice is near, and the beginning of the coming eternal realm dawns and will never change.

I am androgynous. I am mother and father. I copulate with myself. I copulate with myself and with those who love me, and through me alone all are standing firm. I am the womb that gives shape to all by bearing light shining in splendor. I am the coming eternal realm. I am the fulfillment of all, Meirothea the glory of the mother. I cast the voice’s speech into the ears of those who know me.

I invite you into the high perfect light. When you enter light, you will be glorified by those who give glory, and those who enthrone will enthrone you. You will receive robes from those who give robes, the baptizers will baptize you, and you will become exceedingly glorious, the way you first were when you were light.

I hid in everyone and revealed myself in them, and every mind seeking me longed for me, for I gave shape to the full realm when it had no form. I transformed their forms into other forms until the time when form is given to everyone. The voice came through me. I created breath in my people. And I cast the eternally holy spirit into them, and I ascended and entered my light. I got on my branch and sat among the children of holy light. And I withdrew to where they lived. Amen.

[Secret Alias]

The Man myth is present in the Reality of the Rulers

Because of the reality of the authorities, inspired by the spirit of the father of truth, the great messenger referring to the authorities of the darkness told us that “our contest is not against flesh and blood, rather, the authorities of the universe and the spirits of wickedness.” I have sent you this because you inquire about the reality of the authorities.

Their chief is blind. Because of his power and his ignorance and his arrogance he said, with his power, “I am god; there is no other but me.”

When he said this, he sinned against all. This speech rose up to incorruptibility. Then there was a voice that came forth from incorruptibility, saying, “You are wrong, Samael,” that is, god of the blind.

His thoughts became blind. And having expelled his power—that is, the blasphemy he had spoken—he pursued it down to chaos and the abyss, his mother, at the instigation of Pistis Sophia. She established each of his offspring in conformity with its power, after the pattern of the realms that are above, for by starting from the invisible world the visible world was invented.

As incorruptibility looked down into the region of the waters, her image appeared in the waters, and the authorities of the darkness became enamored of her. But they could not lay hold of that image which had appeared to them in the waters, because of their weakness, since beings that merely have soul cannot lay hold of those that have spirit. For they were from below, while it was from above.



THE CREATION OF ADAM AND EVE

This is the reason why incorruptibility looked down into the region, so that, by the father’s will, she might bring all into union with the light.

The rulers laid plans and said, “Come, let us create a human that will be soil from the earth.” They modeled their creature as one wholly of the earth.

The rulers have bodies that are both female and male, and faces that are the faces of beasts. They took some soil from the earth and modeled their man, after their body and after the image of god that had appeared to them in the waters.

They said, “Come, let us lay hold of it by means of the form that we have modeled, so that it may see its male partner and we may seize it with the form that we have modeled,” not understanding the partner of god, because of their powerlessness. And he breathed into his face, and the man came to have a soul and remained on the ground many days. But they could not make him rise because of their powerlessness. Like storm winds they persisted in blowing, that they might try to capture that image which had appeared to them in the waters. And they did not know the identity of its power.

and

But I said, “Sir, teach me about these authorities. How did they come into being? By what genesis, and out of what material, and who created them and their power?”

The great angel Eleleth, understanding, spoke to me: “Incorruptibility inhabits limitless realms. Sophia, who is called Pistis,wanted to create something, alone, without her partner, and what she created was celestial.

“A veil exists between the world above and the realms below, and shadow came into being beneath the veil. That shadow became matter, and that shadow was projected apart. And what she had created came to be in matter, like an aborted fetus. It assumed a shape molded out of shadow, and became an arrogant beast resembling a lion. It was androgynous, as I have already said, because it derived from matter.

“Opening his eyes he saw a vast quantity of endless matter, and he turned arrogant, saying, ‘I am god, and there is no one but me.’

“When he said this, he sinned against all. And a voice came from above the realm of absolute power, saying, ‘You are wrong, Samael,’ that is, god of the blind.

“And he said, ‘If any other thing exists before me, let it become visible to me!’ Immediately Sophia pointed her finger and introduced light into matter, and she pursued it down to the region of chaos. And she returned up to her light. Once again darkness returned to matter.

“This ruler, by being androgynous, made himself a vast realm, an endless precinct. And he contemplated creating offspring for himself, and created seven offspring, androgynous like their parent.

“And he said to his offspring, ‘I am the god of all.’

“Zoe the daughter of Pistis Sophia shouted, saying to him, ‘You are wrong, Sakla’ (for which the alternate name is Yaldabaoth). She breathed into his face, and her breath became a fiery angel for her; and that angel bound Yaldabaoth and cast him down into Tartaros, at the bottom of the abyss.

“Now, when his offspring Sabaoth saw the strength of that angel, he repented and condemned his father and his mother matter.

[Secret Alias]

On the Origin of the World

Since that day, the heaven has been consolidated along with its earth by means of Sophia, the daughter of Yaldabaoth, who is beneath them all. After the heavens and their powers and all of their government set themselves aright, the chief creator exalted himself and was glorified by the whole army of angels. And all the gods and their angels gave him praise and glory.

And he rejoiced in his heart, and he boasted continually, saying to them, “I do not need anything. I am god and there is no other god but me.” But when he said these things, he sinned against all of the immortal imperishable ones, and they kept their eyes on him.

Moreover, when Pistis saw the impiety of the chief ruler, she was angry. Without being seen, she said, “You’re wrong, Samael,” that is, “blind god.” “An enlightened, immortal human exists before you and will appear within your fashioned bodies. The human will trample upon you as potter’s clay is trampled. And you will go with those who are yours down to your mother, the abyss. For in the consummation of your works, all of the deficiency that appeared in the truth will be dissolved. It will cease, and it will be like something that never existed.”

After Pistis said these things, she revealed the likeness of her greatness in the waters. And so she withdrew up to her light.

[Secret Alias]

Tertullian on the Valentinians:

Meanwhile you must believe that Sophia has the surnames of earth and of Mother--"Mother-Earth," of course--and (what may excite your laughter still more heartily) even Holy Spirit. In this way they have conferred all honour on that female, I suppose even a beard, not to say other things. Besides, the Demiurge had so little mastery over things, on the score, you must know, of his inability to approach spiritual essences, (constituted as he was) of animal elements, that, imagining himself to be the only being, he uttered this soliloquy: "I am God, and beside me there is none else." But for all that, he at least was aware that he had not himself existed before. He understood, therefore, that he had been created, and that there must be a creator of a creature of some sort or other. How happens it, then, that he seemed to himself to be the only being, notwithstanding his uncertainty, and although he had, at any rate, some suspicion of the existence of some creator?

The odium felt amongst them against the devil is the more excusable, even because the peculiarly sordid character of his origin justifies it. For he is supposed by them to have had his origin in that criminal excess of her sorrow, from which they also derive the birth of the angels, and demons, and all the wicked spirits. Yet they affirm that the devil is the work of the Demiurge, and they call him Munditenens (Ruler of the World), and maintain that, as he is of a spiritual nature, he has a better knowledge of the things above than the Demiurge, an animal being. He deserves from them the pre-eminence which all heresies provide him with.

Philosophumena on Valentinus

As, therefore, the primary and greatest power of the animal essence came into existence, an image (of the only begotten Son); so also the devil, who is the ruler of this world, constitutes the power of the material essence, as Beelzebub is of the essence of demons which emanates from anxiety. (In consequence of this,) Sophia from above exerted her energy from the Ogdoad to the Hebdomad. For the Demiurge, they say, knows nothing at all, but is, according to them, devoid of understanding, and silly, and is not conscious of what he is doing or working at. But in him, while thus in a state of ignorance that even he is producing, Sophia wrought all sorts of energy, and infused vigour (into him). And (although Sophia) was really the operating cause, he himself imagines that he evolves the creation of the world out of himself: whence he commenced, saying, "I am God, and beside me there is no other."

Irenaeus on Valentinus

As, then, they represent all material substance to be formed from three passions, viz., fear, grief, and perplexity, the account they give is as follows: Animal substances originated from fear and from conversion; the Demiurge they also describe as owing his origin to conversion; but the existence of all the other animal substances they ascribe to fear, such as the souls of irrational animals, and of wild beasts, and men. And on this account, he (the Demiurge), being incapable of recognising any spiritual essences, imagined himself to be God alone, and declared through the prophets, "I am God, and besides me there is none else."

Irenaeus again in Book Two

Simon Magus was the first who said that he himself was God over all, and that the world was formed by his angels. Then those who succeeded him, as I have shown in the first book,(5) by their several opinions, still further depraved [his teaching] through their impious and irreligious doctrines against the Creator. These [heretics now referred to],(6) being the disciples of those mentioned, render such as assent to them worse than the heathen. For the former "serve the creature rather than the Creator,"(7) and "those which are not gods,"(8) notwithstanding that they ascribe the first place in Deity to that God who was the Maker of this universe. But the latter maintain that He, [i.e., the Creator of this world,] is the fruit of a defect, and describe Him as being of an animal nature, and as not knowing that Power which is above Him, while He also exclaims, "I am God, and besides Me there is no other God."(9) Affirming that He lies, they are themselves liars, attributing all sorts of wickedness to Him; and conceiving of one who is not above this Being as really having an existence, they are thus convicted by their own views of blasphemy against that God who really exists, while they conjure into existence a god who has no existence, to their own condemnation. And thus those who declare themselves "perfect," and as being possessed of the knowledge of all things, are found to be worse than the heathen, and to entertain more blasphemous opinions even against their own Creator.

Excerpta Ex Theodoto

Against Tatian, [3] who says that the words, "Let there be light," [4] are supplicatory. If, then, He is supplicating the supreme God, how does He say, "I am God, and beside me there is none else?"

[John2]

I'm re-reading MacDonald (and re-evaluating his critics) since it's been about ten years since I first read him. I recall that he discusses at least two of the things you mentioned. Odysseus disguising himself as a beggar to hide his identity from the suitors is likened to the Messianic Secret in Mark. This is discussed in chapter 6 ("Recognitions"), one page of which is viewable on googlebooks:

https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkFq ... et&f=false

I'm at work and my copy is at home so I can't comment on this now.

And he likens the "Nobody" reference to Mk. 5:1-20 and that is viewable here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=8JkFq ... ns&f=false