In any event, to augment His cult, Yahweh ordered the Israelites to be natalist, to be “fruitful and multiply” and to “subdue the earth”. All told, the Yahweh of the Old Testament had nothing in common with the God which Jesus preached. The implication being that monotheism as preached by the Prophets was itself a delusion, that Yahweh was not alone but one of many and that He was acutely aware of it. He ordered mass killings for instance and constantly reminded the Israelites that He was a “jealous God” who would chastise them if they followed or “whored” after other gods. In any event, to the Gnostics, these passages indicated that Yahweh had a physical body.Īs for His personal attributes, they were found lacking as well. These are by no means exhaustive accounts. In the story of the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah at Mamre He was offered food to eat. In Genesis, we are told for example that God “walked with Adam”. To Hellenistic sensibilities, the inferiority of this creator-god was self-evident, having its basis in the Old Testament Scriptures themselves. Hence the God of the Old Testament was not the real God but a self-deluded semi-divine being, usually called Sammael (“the god of the blind”). According to Gnosticism (which was heavily influenced by Neoplatonism), the created universe was evil.
Specifically, that it has another more nefarious origin in Gnosticism, that is to say, that within that particular heresy, “archons” were terrifying cosmological entities which controlled the universe, all in the service of malevolent Demiurgos (“creator”).Ī word must be said at this point here about this so-called demiurge. There is however a third misgiving about this term, one which I’m afraid has escaped the notice of many Greek Orthodox Christians, hierarchs and priests as well as laymen. Secondly, it scandalizes Christian ears who are cognizant of what Christ Himself said about leaders: that they are “to be last” to be the opposite of what is found in the gentile world, where “their leaders lord it over them” (Matt 20:25). For one thing, it smacks of hubris in that its members are self-proclaimed leaders ( archon in modern Greek means “leader”). This term, however, is unfortunate in many respects. Also known as the Knights of St Andrew, this lay order of business leaders and other eminences was created several decades ago as an auxiliary of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, with a special emphasis on absolute loyalty to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In the past, yours truly has taken issue with the order known as the Archons.
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