A bit on Gnosticism - that is, <i>before</i> christianity:
http://freetruth.50webs.org/B2b.htm again
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Gnosticism</b>
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Before the so-called New Testament was completed, the leaders of the primitive Christian Church had to do battle with a "heresy" called gnosticism. It is now known that <b>gnosticism is older than Christianity</b>, and an argument can be made that Christianity is a Gnostic heresy, rather than the other way around as traditionally taught.
<b>The Gnostic library discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt provides some examples of how non-Christian materials could have been appropriated for Christian purposes.</b> The so-called "Apocalypse of Adam," a non-Christian phantasy composed of Jewish elements, follows the same general outline and contains many of the same components as does the birth narrative found in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. It is clear that both stories are derived from a common mythological source - a source that Gnostic principles allowed to be adapted for Christian use by "St. John the Revelator."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->...how non-Christian materials could have been transmuted into the documents now found in the New Testament. James M. Robinson, the editor of the Nag Hammadi materials published in English, tells us that
"<b>The Nag Hammadi library even presents one instance of the Christianizing process taking place almost before one's eyes.</b> The <b>non-Christian philosophic treatise Eugnostos the Blessed</b> is cut up somewhat arbitrarily into separate speeches, which are then put on Jesus' tongue, in answer to questions (which sometimes do not quite fit the answers) that the disciples address to him during a resurrection appearance. The result is a separate tractate entitled The Sophia of Jesus Christ. Both forms of the text occur side by side in Codex III."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Some of the Jesus biography was derived from pre-Christian gnosticism, and some material was incorporated from Hellenic-Jewish wisdom literature.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->From: http://www.atheists.org/christianity/jesuslife.html 'How Jesus got a life'<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://freetruth.50webs.org/B2b.htm again
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Gnosticism</b>
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Before the so-called New Testament was completed, the leaders of the primitive Christian Church had to do battle with a "heresy" called gnosticism. It is now known that <b>gnosticism is older than Christianity</b>, and an argument can be made that Christianity is a Gnostic heresy, rather than the other way around as traditionally taught.
<b>The Gnostic library discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt provides some examples of how non-Christian materials could have been appropriated for Christian purposes.</b> The so-called "Apocalypse of Adam," a non-Christian phantasy composed of Jewish elements, follows the same general outline and contains many of the same components as does the birth narrative found in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. It is clear that both stories are derived from a common mythological source - a source that Gnostic principles allowed to be adapted for Christian use by "St. John the Revelator."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->...how non-Christian materials could have been transmuted into the documents now found in the New Testament. James M. Robinson, the editor of the Nag Hammadi materials published in English, tells us that
"<b>The Nag Hammadi library even presents one instance of the Christianizing process taking place almost before one's eyes.</b> The <b>non-Christian philosophic treatise Eugnostos the Blessed</b> is cut up somewhat arbitrarily into separate speeches, which are then put on Jesus' tongue, in answer to questions (which sometimes do not quite fit the answers) that the disciples address to him during a resurrection appearance. The result is a separate tractate entitled The Sophia of Jesus Christ. Both forms of the text occur side by side in Codex III."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Some of the Jesus biography was derived from pre-Christian gnosticism, and some material was incorporated from Hellenic-Jewish wisdom literature.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->From: http://www.atheists.org/christianity/jesuslife.html 'How Jesus got a life'<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->