Robin Lane Fox in his "Pagans and Christians" at p.414 writes that:andrewcriddle wrote: ↑Sun Oct 31, 2021 12:32 pmHowever, Eugnostos is clearly borrowing from a Pythagoreanizing type of Middle Platonism and is at the earliest mid 1st century CE.
- "a pagan letter of "Eugnostos the Blessed"... was then given a Christian preface and a conclusion and represented in another copy as the "wisdom" which Jesus revealed to his Apostles after his death."
1) Eugnostos ("Right Thinking"), the Blessed: NHC 3.3
2) --> NHC 5.1
3) --> NHC 3.4 "The Sophia of Jesus Christ"
What was in the mind of the editor(s) of the NHL?
FWIW IMO the editor was providing an exemplar of the process of how pagan literature (of the 1st century perhaps) was modified to become "Christian" literature.
The process is this.
1) Take a pagan letter,
2) add a few Christian Trademark words, and
3) then recast it into the mouth of Jesus.
Yes Eugnostos could well be a pagan letter (selected) from the mid 1st century, and, if the above analysis holds, it was purposefully manipulated in two steps, to become "The Sophia of Jesus Christ".
The mid 4th century editors IMO wanted the readers of the NHL to perceive this process. In the mid 4th century the process of the Christianisation of the populous was accompanied by the Christianisation of the literature. Is this historical allusion valid?