{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/gar/index.htm","path":"gno/gar/index.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/gar/index.htm","text":"In the mid-19th century, eighty years before the chance discovery\nof a treasure trove of Gnostic manuscripts in a dump in Egypt,\nC.W. King collected what was known about the Gnostics\nin this book.\nAt that time there were only three sources of information on Gnosticism:\npolemics against them\nby early Christian writers,\nthe Pistis Sophia,\nand a jumble of confusing images and cryptic inscriptions\non Roman-era gems and amulets.\nIn spite of all of the missing jigsaw pieces, King managed\nto assemble a picture of the Gnostics which is still cited today\nas authoritative.\nRather than one monolithic group, the Gnostics had very diverse\nbeliefs.\nSome thought that Jesus was a man, while others thought that he\nwas a God, and some believed that he became a God only after he\nwas baptized.\nSome believed in a struggle between good and evil, others were non-dualistic.\nMost had widely-varying intricate systems of\nintermediaries between the ultimate\ndeity and humanity.\nOn the face of it, this looks polytheistic,\nbut instead was an attempt to solve the problem of how a perfect God could\ncreate an imperfect world.\nMany of these Aeons later became the demons and angels\nof Medieval and Renaissance magic.\nKing seeks links to Gnostic symbols and beliefs far afield,\nfrom India, to the Templars, Rosicrucians and Illuminati.\nHe discusses Mithra and Serapis worship, and gives many\nexamples of Roman and Greek magical spells and talismans.\nHe discusses the fudged birthdate of Jesus, Masons' marks, and Simon Magus.\nThe book is a fascinating tour of hidden knowledge.\nProduction Notes:\nThis text uses Unicode extensively, so you should\nconsult the sacred-texts Unicode help page\nif the Greek and Hebrew text in this text\nis not displayed correctly in your browser.\nThere are many quotations of Greek and Latin text from inscriptions.\nIn some cases I have silently replaced rare forms of some greek letters\n(particularly uppercase omega) with the more common ones.\nIn the final part of the book, there were no sub-sections.\nTo break up this long part of the book into files, I have inserted\nlogical sub-section headings.\nAs usual, these are in green type.","title":"The Gnostics and Their Remains Index","type":"page"}