Gnostics & Orthodox Christians
"It is not permitted for a woman to speak in the church, nor is it permitted for her to teach, nor baptize, nor to offer the eucharist, nor to claim for herself a share in any masculine function-least of all, in priestly office" (p.155). In the beginning of Christianity this was not the view towards women and even today's modern times many of these restrictions against women have been removed. Orthodox Christians placed many of these restrictions against women in the first century after the death of Christ. These restrictions were strongly rejected by the Gnostics who felt that women were equals to men. In this paper the differences between the orthodox Christians and the Gnostics will be examined. Such issues as views of sexuality, creation, the Trinity, the gender of God, and the role of women in church will be discussed. I hope to have provided a full understanding of all these issues and differences by the end of this paper. Many people think that the battle of the sexes is a new thing but this war has been raging since the time of Jesus with males being the predominant winners. When it comes too superior or not superior the orthodox will take men over women every t
Christians disagreed so much over the role of women in the church because of the repercussions it might have on society. Many thought that if women were allowed to be active participants in the church that soon they would be wanting to be active participants in society getting educations and working outside the home. This would have turned societies upside down because every since early Mesopotamian times women have been subordinate to men and if they were allowed freedoms that men shared that would make them equals and men did not want that. Sp by having women be subordinate to men in the church it reflected on to society and kept women subordinate to men at all times giving them little to no rights and making them little more than the objects of men. The Secret Books of the Gnostics were hidden from the orthodox for fear of them being destroyed. This is why none of the writing made their way into the Bible. If they had then the view that we have of God towards women may be completely different than the one we have today. It is to bad that two hundred years after the death of Christ the orthodox were able to suppress the Gnostics and do away with all their philosophies. If it were not for the finding of the Secret Books we would never have known that some people had different views about the roles of women in church. The orthodox way of Christianity prevailed over the Gnostics and is the way we think and worship today but there are some signs of Gnosticism in the way we worship. When it come to the story of creation the orthodox believe in the story that is told today to describe cre
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1094
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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