Johannine Versus Thomasine Gnosticism

Exploring the war of texts 

between two ancient 

schools of Gnosticism.

Thomas pokes Jesus in the ribs.

In my last post, I wrote about the earliest text to discuss the creation of memory systems The Rhetorica ad Herennium. I also pointed out the striking correspondence between the text's description of an idea memory tableau and the scene from Mark known as the Scourging of Jesus. Based on the similarities I suggested that perhaps the Synoptic Gospels themselves may have been created so as to serve as a form of literary memory systems encoded with hidden information.

The Synoptic is made up of three individual Gospels. Mark was written first, followed by Matthew and then finally Luke. Each Gospel was written by a certain community at a specific point of time so each is focused on different concerns which are reflected by the different texts. However, above and beyond that, the three Gospels were designed with a hidden purpose. The three texts, when brought together and studied in a special manner, could be unlocked and their secrets revealed. We will explore how to do so in a future post, but for now, it is enough to know that the system exists.

So sometime after 80 AD, all three were in circulation. When all three were grouped together it was possible for those familiar with the process to unlock the hidden information. Then, sometime between 90 and 110 AD, the Gospel of John is written. John is written in such a way that it apparently supplies answers to many of the enigmas raised by the manner in which the Synoptic Gospels are written. 

In time, the Gospel of John came to be seen as the most esoteric of the Gospels. It is certainly the best written and the most spiritually symbolic. Its glamour came to overshadow the Synoptic Gospels that seemed tawdry and redundant next to the glory of John's Gospel. 

These two schools of Christianity were in perpetual conflict. As I see it, based on the evidence of the texts, the school of Thomas was given the mission of preserving and concealing this secret knowledge in such a way that it can be accessed by those who know the proper techniques. 

The school of John, on the other hand, was given the was given the task of ensuring that the knowledge being protected by the school of Thomas never saw the light of day. It was to do everything in its power to eradicate any trace of this hidden data.

The Synoptic texts were too well known and had spread too far. There was no way that they could be completely destroyed. So the Gospel of John was written. It was designed in such a way as to mislead those seekers who assumed that it had been written with the same intention as the Synoptic Gospels, which is to convey a secret message to the diligent seeker. Instead, John was designed with the opposite purpose, to obscure the hidden message by providing a false alternative.

So first there were the Synoptic Gospels, then the Gospel of John was written which essentially obscured the Synoptic Gospels with its lyrical beauty and mystical imagery. 

The school of Thomas responded by creating the Gospel of Thomas. This text of 114 sayings serves as a key to the various mysteries hidden with the Synoptic Gospels and the Old Testament. Once again the focus shifted back to the mysteries encrypted within the Synoptic Gospels.

The school of John responded with the Secret Book (Apocryphon) of John. This text was their ultimate weapon. It created an entire secret heresy. This served two purposes. It swallowed the Gospel of Thomas by creating a hidden secret theology that seemed to align with the views found in the Gospel of Thomas. It also created a secret group with mystical views that would attract seekers looking for esoteric information. 

Rather than finding the actual mysteries hidden within Thomas, the Synoptics, and the Old Testament, students of esoteric Christianity are given the Platonic based theology of the Demiurge and fallen Sophia. There are no enigmatic sayings to unlock, the text just lays it all out, explaining the plot points before throwing in a whole lot of jargon in the form of demonic names and terms from the Greek art of rhetoric.

Eventually, the war between the schools ended with the quiet defeat of the school of Thomas with the last traces of the Gospel of Thomas eradicated or buried beneath the sands of time.