I guess you are referring to the collection of texts discovered in Nag Hammadi in Egypt. The Council was a mess. Many factions jockeying for political positioning. There are so many texts that have been dismissed or considered heresy that I can't keep up. In fact, the Catholic Church adopted the Apocrypha, but Luther insisted in the modern version of the New Testament. So this isn't just something that happened in antiquity. The debate continues on. There are a couple of thoughts I have on this:
1. Many of the books were dismissed because of theological inconsistencies. I am sure you have read them. The Bible has enough as it is without having to complicate things more.
2. Many were afraid that some of the books were heavy on angels. They feared Christians would begin angel worship.
3. With the inconsistencies it is difficult to find out who Jesus was really was.
4. The emperor called the Council because his nation was under duress due to the factional religious turmoil. He demanded they settle and become unified. It has nothing to do with what was right or wrong, but politics.
5. Read Misquoting Jesus by Ehraman. It is a great book that challenges the authenticity of scripture and explains how it really is quite unreliable.
Yes it was and is a patriarchal culture. Please read any of Reuther's writings on the subject. She is a Feminist Theologian and has some very poignant things to say concerning the misinterpretation of scripture. Of course man wrote it, and what do people in power want to do? They want to keep it...so they subjugate women and reduce them to disposable roles.
I took a course a while back and my professor did the following and I have used it several times since then:
She listed "God" on the left side of the board and on the right hand side of the board she wrote the word, "Humanity." From there we all listed other dualisms we were familiar with. "light/dark, mind/body, rational/emotional, right/left, science/mysticism, active/passive, assertive/receptive, subject/object, good/bad". The dualisms were easy to list and we knew the correct order. At the very end, she took a transparency and laid it over our words. On the left hand side of the screen was the word, "male" and on the right hand side was the word "female." A shocking silence followed as we looked at the two lists: God, light, mind, rational, right, science, active, assertive, subject, good, male on one side and humanity, dark, body, emotional, left, mysticism, passive, receptive, object, bad, female on the other side. "This is what feminist theologians are critiquing--an ancient pattern of thought, almost unconscious, that identifies God with male and humanity with female and you can see what is and is not valued in our culture."
The Bible, like everything, is a product of culture. A Christian must be willing to accept this to have a true understanding of Jesus and his mission. I highly recommend reading Remedial Christianity by Paul Laughlin if you want to take your faith seriously. He takes you through the realities of scripture and modern historical criticism so that you can attempt to maintain your faith without totally sacrificing your intellect. |