The Orthodox Study Bible: Gnosticism
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The Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms, (1993) Saint Athanasius Orthodox Academy, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee.
Glossary: Reverend John W. Morris, PhD
Gnosticism
Cited
'A very complex ancient heresy that was manifested in many different forms and beliefs. The Gnostics taught that Christ has imparted secret knowledge, "gnosis" to a select few, who in turn transmitted hidden truths to an elite. Central to Gnosticism is the denial of the goodness of matter, leading to the denial of the reality of the Incarnation of the Son of God and of His bodily Resurrection. Several schools of Gnosticism taught that salvation consisted of liberation from the physical body and growth to a hidden, non-physical, spiritual level of existence. Orthodoxy has always rejected Gnosticism, teaching that the world and man were created good and will be redeemed in Christ and transformed at the end of this age...'(799).
Agreed. The salvific work of the atoning and resurrection work, of God the Son, Jesus Christ, applied to believers through regeneration (John 3, Titus 3) and by grace through faith (Ephesians 2, Romans, Galatians, Hebrews as examples); documents both the physical and spiritual nature of sin, salvation and the culminated Kingdom of God. Salvation is biblically and theologically, reasonably and certainly not a non-physical concept. It is both a physical and spiritual salvific work, leading to the eventual resurrection of believers (1 Corinthians 15, Revelation 20-22) in a restored, culminated Kingdom of God.
Biblical considerations
Example from Hebrews 7: 26-27 New American Standard Version (NASB) 26 For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens; 27 who has no daily need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because He did this once for all time when He offered up Himself.
A physical death of atonement, being forsaken by God the Father on the cross from Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, also includes Jesus Christ as a human being, being spiritually, separated from God the Father for the first time.
Cited
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Those terrifying words occur in two Gospels — Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 — as Jesus is hanging on the cross near death.
“Jesus seems to have known that the whole of Psalm 22, in some way or other, was about him.”
It says, “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice,” — Amazing. How did he have any strength to do it with a loud voice? — “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” — the Aramaic form — “that is, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46).
Now, one very important fact to remember is that these words are the exact first words of Psalm 22. And that is important because Jesus seems to have known that the whole psalm, in some way or other, was about him.
The judgment was to have God the Father pour out his wrath, and instead of pouring it out on us, he pours it out on him. That necessarily involves a kind of abandonment. That is what wrath means. He gave him up to suffer the weight of all the sins of all of his people and the judgment for those sins.
We cannot begin to fathom all that this would mean between the Father and the Son. To be forsaken by God is the cry of the damned, and he was damned for us. So he used these words because there was a real forsakenness.
Cited
At that time Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” As Matthew explains, the Hebrew Eli (Mark uses the Aramaic form, “Eloi,” 15:34) means, My God, and lama sabachthani means, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?
Because Jesus was quoting the well-known Psalm 22, there could have been little doubt in the minds of those who were standing there as to what Jesus was saying. They had been taunting Him with His claim to be God’s Son (v. 43), and an appeal for divine help would have been expected. Their saying, “This man is calling for Elijah,” was not conjecture about what He said but was simply an extension of their cruel, cynical mockery.
In this unique and strange miracle, Jesus was crying out in anguish because of the separation He now experienced from His heavenly Father for the first and only time in all of eternity. It is the only time of which we have record that Jesus did not address God as Father. Because the Son had taken sin upon Himself, the Father turned His back.
γνῶσις
Cited
Strong's
Concordance
gnósis: a knowing, knowledge
Original Word: γνῶσις, εως, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: gnósis
Phonetic Spelling: (gno'-sis)
Definition: a knowing, knowledge
Usage: knowledge, doctrine, wisdom.
["Gnosticism" is literally, "the cult based on having special, personal knowledge" (1108 /gnṓsis).]
STRONG, J. (1890)(1986) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Pickering, Ontario, Welch Publishing Company.
Archived: gnosticism
The Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms, (1993) Saint Athanasius Orthodox Academy, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee.
