@Cricetus Cricetus schrieb:Die Gnosis hinterließ jetzt ja auch nicht wirklich viele Spuren innerhalb des Christentums und soweit ich weiß, ist auch nicht wirklich zweifelsfrei festzustellen, woher die Gnosis kam und ob sie wirklich buddhistische inspiriert ist. Es ist nur festzustellen, dass es eine Menge Parallelen gab, aber mehr auch nicht.
Ich denke, das hängt auch alles ein gutes Stück davon ab, was wir als Gnosis definieren. Aber davon abgesehen, gibt es mehr als nur die vielen Parallelen. Klar, Kirchenväter wie Irenäus von Lyon oder sich christlich nennende Polemiker wie Cyrill von Jerusalem haben vielen Gnostikern das Christ-Sein abgesprochen, aber davon sollte man sich nicht beeindrucken lassen, denn viele Gnostiker sahen sich als Christen oder in der Nachfolge Christi.
So schreibt etwa Cyrill von Jerusalem über Terebinthus und und Scythianus Folgendes:
"22. There was in Egypt one Scythianus, a Saracen by birth, having nothing in common either with Judaism or with Christianity. This man, who dwelt at Alexandria and imitated the life of Aristotle, composed four books, one called a Gospel which had not the acts of Christ, but the mere name only, and one other called the book of Chapters, and a third of Mysteries, and a fourth, which they circulate now, the Treasure. This man had a disciple, Terebinthus by name. But when Scythianus purposed to come into Judaea, and make havoc of the land, the Lord smote him with a deadly disease, and stayed the pestilence.
23. But Terebinthus, his disciple in this wicked error, inherited his money and books and heresy, and came to Palestine, and becoming known and condemned in Judaea he resolved to pass into Persia: but lest he should be recognised there also by his name he changed it and called himself Buddas. However, he found adversaries there also in the priests of Mithras: and being confuted in the discussion of many arguments and controversies, and at last hard pressed, he took refuge with a certain widow. Then having gone up on the housetop, and summoned the daemons of the air, whom the Manichees to this day invoke over their abominable ceremony of the fig, he was smitten of God, and cast down from the housetop, and expired: and so the second beast was cut off.
24. The books, however, which were the records of his impiety, remained; and both these and his money the widow inherited. And having neither kinsman nor any other friend, she determined to buy with the money a boy named Cubricus: him she adopted and educated as a son in the learning of the Persians, and thus sharpened an evil weapon against mankind. So Cubricus, the vile slave, grew up in the midst of philosophers, and on the death of the widow inherited both the books and the money. Then, lest the name of slavery might be a reproach, instead of Cubricus he called himself Manes, which in the language of the Persians signifies discourse. For as he thought himself something of a disputant, he surnamed himself Manes, as it were an excellent master of discourse. But though he contrived for himself an honourable title according to the language of the Persians, yet the providence of God caused him to become a self-accuser even against his will, that through thinking to honour himself in Persia, he might proclaim himself among the Greeks by name a maniac."Dazu muss man wissen, dass es von Scythianus heißt, er sei in Indien gewesen und hätte von dort Bücher, etwa jenes der zwei Prinzipien, mitgebracht. Dies jedenfalls sagen ebenfalls mehrere christliche Quellen über Scythianus. Und Scythianus war der Lehrer des Terebinthus, der sich Buddha nannte. Und diese beiden möglicherweise Vorläufer des Manichäismus. Jedenfalls aber, unabhängig davon, gilt wohl als gesichert, dass der Manichäismus buddhistisch inspiriert wurde. Nicht nur, aber auch.