Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

κατὰ φύσιν καὶ κατ' ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπος katá fýsin kaí kat' alítheian ánthropos by nature [i.e. the world soul] and truly human If the human soul reflects the nature of the world soul, then also in the latter even when rationality prevails, when the cosmos comes into being, there is room for disharmon...

Per κέχρισται ἐλαίῳ, | kéchristai elaío, | anointed with oil, My translation: ( De Fuga Et Inventione , 20:108-109). 108. We say that the High Priest is not a man but the Logos of God, and divine from all iniquities heard or inaudible. 109. For Moses says (Leviticus 21:11) that He cannot defile him...

108 ἀνῃρημένων ἀφίξονται. τὸ ἄπορον οὖν καὶ δυσαπολόγητον ἀποδρασόμεθα τῆς δι᾿ ὑπονοιῶν φυσικῆς ἀποδόσεως ἐφιέμενοι. λέγομεν γὰρ τὸν ἀρχιερέα οὐκ ἄνθρωπον ἀλλὰ λόγον θεῖον εἶναι πάντων οὐχ ἑκουσίων μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀκουσίων 109 ἀδικημάτων ἀμέτοχον. οὔτε γὰρ ἐπὶ πατρί, τῷ νῷ, οὔτε ἐπὶ μητρί, τῇ αἰσθήσ...

Philo seems to impart a mediator status to third-god. The principle by which First-god created the world. Philo seems to impart a mother status to the second-god, Sophia. [First] God is said to be the supreme genus and His logos the second one. . . . Philo specifies that [First] God’s logos is the ...

A major debate in early Christian dogmatics was over whether the pre-existent Christ could be classified as “a creature” Not in the first generation. There was no dispute that he was a creature then (hence Colossians 1:15 , though a late first century forgery yet still reflecting Pauline belief: Je...

Plutarch imparts "Negative Demiurgy" to third-god. Marcion, perhaps aware of Plutarch, held that third-god (identified with the Hebrew God) manifested "Negative Demiurgy" and the Jews were ignorant of first-god and second-god. It is possible that Paul commented on the third-god ...

'Negative demiurgy' is an interesting term that Litwa has coined to demote the negative, the 'evil', aspect that can be discerned in the OT concept of god. Plutarch imparts "Negative Demiurgy" to third-god. If the human soul reflects the nature of the world soul, then also in the latter e...

Why could independent religious entrepreneurs not also have been highly literate independent philosophical commentators? A highly literate independent philosophical commentator would have a relevant skill set in order to be an independent religious entrepreneur, I think. Just consider Franklin Jone...

The difference between Plato and Philo has to do with divine principals: Plato believed that there were three 1) The One, 2) the Demiurge (he actually uses three Greek words for this principal), and 3) unformed matter. All were timelessly existent, The One developed by expanding mathematically to i...

Cf. "Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World" (PDF). 2013.