Footnotes to New Testament Temple Ritual:

[1]  Hippolytus, The Apostolic Tradition 23:14, in R.P.C. Hanson, Tradition in the Early Church (London: SCM Press, 1962, 32 http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4226045/k.32E/Scripture_and_Tradition_in_the_Early_Church.htm

[2]  Johann L. Mosheim, Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity, 2 vols, (New York; S. Converse, 1854), `:375-376 http://www.archive.org/details/historicalcommen185302mosh

[3]  Mosheim, Historical Commentaries on the State of Christianity, vol 1, 390-391 http://www.archive.org/details/historicalcommen185302mosh

[4]  The Sophia Jesu Christi, in NTA 1:246 In one other Gnostic document, the Apocalypse of Adam, it is related that originally such mystical instruction was given by three heavenly messengers to Adam.  Jesuit scholar George MacRae summarizes:’ Father Adam explains how in the Fall he and Eve lost their glory and knowledge.  Through the revelation imparted to Adam by three heavenly visitors, however, this knowledge is passed on to Seth and his seed.”  MacRae, G.W., Introduction to the Apocalypse of Adam, in Robinson, ed., the Nag Hammadi Library in English, 256

[5  Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Theologian http://elvis.rowan.edu/~kilroy/JEK/03/18.html

[6]  Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 20, in NPNF Series 2, 7:146-148 (translated into English in 1951)

[7]  Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 21, in NPNF Series 2, 7:148-151 (see http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/207/2070037.htm )

[8]  Arthur McCormack, Christian Initiation (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1969(, 65

[9]   Jerome, Letter to Fabiola, quoted in Marriott, Vestiarum Christianum, 13-14

[10] Wellnitz, “The Catholic Liturgy and the Mormon Temple,” 20

[11]   Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church, 298

[12]  Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 23:21, in NPNF Series 2, 7:156 (see http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/207/2070037.htm)

[13]  Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 23:4-8, in NPNF Series 2 7:153-154 (see http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/207/2070037.htm)

[14]   Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 23:9-10, in NPNF Seies 2, 7:154-155 (see http://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/207/2070037.htm)

[15] Book of Mormon, 3rd, Nephi Chapter 19 http://scriptures.lds.org/en/3_ne/19

 [16] Gospel of Philip,  http://wesley.nnu.edu/Biblical_Studies/noncanon/gospels/gosphil.htm

[17]  Widergren,  Mani and Manichaeism, 52.  Cf. Compton T.M., “The Handclasp and Embrace as Tokens of Recognition”

[18]  The Gospel of Philip, in Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English 142 (translated  into English in 1977)

[19]  Ibid, p 139  http://wesley.nnu.edu/Biblical_Studies/noncanon/gospels/gosphil.htm

[20]  Ibid p.151  http://wesley.nnu.edu/Biblical_Studies/noncanon/gospels/gosphil.htm

[21]  Ibid p. 135  http://wesley.nnu.edu/Biblical_Studies/noncanon/gospels/gosphil.htm

[22]  David G. Hunter, Marriage in the Early Church (Minneapolis:  Fortress Press, 1992 ), 15

[23]   Wagner, After the Apostles, 180

[24] The Gospel of Philip, p 139  http://wesley.nnu.edu/Biblical_Studies/noncanon/gospels/gosphil.htm

[25] Constantine's reign as Roman emperor (A.D. 306-337) dramatically changed the direction of Christianity, though in ways far different from those portrayed in The Da Vinci Code. This grew out of his strategy for unifying his empire by creating a "catholic"—meaning universal —church that would blend elements from many religions into one.

While Constantine supposedly converted to Christianity in 312, he wasn't baptized until on his deathbed 25 years later. In the intervening years he had his wife and eldest son murdered, and from all appearances he continued as a worshipper of the sun god. Long after his supposed conversion he had coins minted with a portrait of himself on one side and a depiction of his "companion, the unconquered Sol [sun]" on the other.

The "Christianity" Constantine endorsed was already considerably different from that practiced by Jesus Christ and the apostles. The emperor accelerated the change by his own hatred of Jews and religious practices he considered Jewish.

For example, at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), church authorities essentially replaced the biblical Passover with Easter, a popular holiday rooted in ancient springtime fertility celebrations. Endorsing this change, Constantine announced: "It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast [Easter] we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul . . . Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd" (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3, 18-19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1979, second series, Vol. 1, pp. 524-525).

Constantine's affection for sun worship had earlier led him to endorse Sunday, the first day of the week and a day dedicated to honoring the sun, as a weekly day of rest in the Roman empire . This created considerable hardship on those Jews and true Christians who continued to keep the biblical Sabbath on the seventh day of the week. (A century later the Council of Laodicea would essentially outlaw Sabbath-keeping and Christian observance of the Old Testament Holy Days.)

Constantine's merging religious practices produced a corrupted Christianity that meshed paganism with biblical elements; for example the followers of Isis adored a Madonna nursing her holy child.  Many Christians did not make a clear distinction between this sun-cult [Mithraism] and their own.  They held their services on Sunday, knelt towards the East and had their nativity-feast on 25 December, the birthday of the sun at the winter solstice.

" Did the empire surrender to Christianity, or did Christianity prostitute itself to the empire?  When we consider the vast differences between the mainstream Christianity of today and the original Christianity of Jesus Christ and the apostles, we can trace much of that change to Constantine and the religious system he put in power.  http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn64/code_impact.htm

[26]  “The working of divine agency in human affairs”

Tags: Temple Ritual Esoteric First Century

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