Welcome and thank you for visiting the Aeon Eye. Here, you will find all sorts of musings on philosophy, religion, fiction, writing and other subjects. Enjoy your stay! My name is Alexander Rivera. The Aeon Eye is a blog dedicated to the author’s research and ideas regarding scholarship in theology, including world religions, the Bible, the Apocrypha, patristics, and Fortean good times.
I call this blog, The Aeon Eye, because “aeon” generally means “age” in Greek but also “eternal truth” and is a term that is used heavily in many mystical traditions. The “eye” is in reference to Plato’s Metaphor of the Sun in the Republic in which the mind’s eye is the vessel for “nous” or illumination.
When the mind’s eye rests on objects illuminated by truth and reality, it understands and comprehends them, and functions intelligently; but when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems to lack intelligence.
The result from the combination between these two terms should be obvious. I do believe the human eye contains the secrets of the universe.
I also want to say that I am not a Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox (yet), Coptic Orthodox, Seventh Day Adventist. I am also not a Satanist, Luciferian, Theosophist, Republican, Democrat, or any other thing one might fantasize about accusing me of being. I am a follower of the Way of Christ. I believe in the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. I know the truth about the parables, the law, and the mission of Jesus.
If you have any questions, comments, grievances, complaints, suggestions etc., feel free to contact me in the contact section. Please don’t hesitate to comment on any of my articles or express your thoughts directly to me. Please do express your views, even if they contradict mine.
I hope you enjoy it all and please leave some feedback! May the flame of gnosis light a fire under your arse.
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The Aeon Eye 
Thank you for your work.
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subscribed, thank you for putting all this information together. i know of a similar website, http://www.wedietorememberwhatwelivetoforget.com, which you may find helpful.
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Link shows it expired.
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Pop me a line on sam239 * cornell * edu (replace with @ and .) and I’ll send you the PDF.
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Hey Alex it is kind of funny that you went the blogger route these days but I do the blog thing now for nearly twelve years but I always had a single entry journal so when I e-mailed you I sent the link to the single entry journal I use for my nightmares.
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Extremely interesting and enlightening. Keep blogging!
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Thanks for the interview of Gabreille Faust. And thanks for putting your link on crows nest.
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Hi, Alex. I’ll look.
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OK, so, I re-read the Gospel of Judas and your reading of Judas being the one that is sacrificed isn’t supported by the source text. Nor is he some enlightened Gnostic visionary in Sethian/Simonian writings. That’s more a Valentinian innovation. It’s very clear that Judas sacrifices Christ’s counterfeit image or flesh.
“Judas said to Jesus, “Look, what will those who have been baptized in your name do?” Jesus said, “Truly I say [to you], this baptism [56] […] my name [—about nine lines missing—] to me. Truly [I] say to you, Judas, [those who] offer sacrifices to Saklas […] God [—three lines missing—] everything that is evil. “But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”
I really doubt Jesus is telling Judas to sacrifice himself. What the Gospel of Judas is saying that the crucifixion as a blood sacrifice to God is a bad thing, because this inferior god demands animal and human sacrifice. So in the author’s eyes, how can this god who demands blood sacrifice and atonement be the Supreme God? This god is interpreted as Sakla, the Satanic demiurge or archon. So, Judas becomes a tool of the demiurge or a dupe of the archons and has Jesus sacrificed as a sacrificial lamb. Judas represents the growing influence of Catholicism of the time as well as the eucharist, and the Sethian author condemns the Orthodox soteriology and practices in the strongest terms.
But, Jesus uses Judas to trick the archons by destroying the counterfeit flesh of Jesus, thus releasing the spiritual Savior from archonic enslavement. Jesus still uses Judas to ultimately defeat the archons, because rather than destroying the spiritual Christ (which they have no power over), he tricks them into destroying the counterfeit physical form, their own creation, thus releasing the spiritual Christ from the flesh. It’s actually very Pauline and Marcionite in its views on Christ and the Cross. Also, Judas is mentioned in the Concept of Our Great Power in a similar context. The Gospel of Judas reads like a Sethian/Marcionite hybrid writing to me because of its Pauline and Barbelo/Sethian terminology. For example, we do see Jesus elevating Judas above the rest of the apostles and speaks of a hidden God in which “no eye of an angel has seen” which is very Pauline.
Judas is actually only the abortion of Sophia in the Valentinian system. In other words he’s basically a symbol of the demiurge’s regret and return to grace. It’s like he’s the one who makes up for Sophia’s mistake. He isn’t the demiurge. He’s more like Seth, being a replacement for the shitty son Cain. Cain is the demiurge. Judas redeems Sophia by allowing material creation to die. Just like eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge allows Eve to realize she’s naked for Yaldabaoth to perve over.
In the Valentinian system, Judas opens our eyes to the hidden reality that we are not our flesh. The demiurge is stroking his Peter to our misfortune of spiritual entrapment. In the Valentinian system, Judas symbolizes restoration for a Gnostic. Not through inverted hermeneutic as they claim but because in the world he is seen as a traitor and the one replaced. There are multiple ways to view Judas, just like every other character in the OT and the NT. Almost every character in the Bible can be viewed in terms of archetypes and symbols.
The Gospel of Judas isn’t as forgiving of Judas because it’s a very biting and polemical anti-gospel. Judas does serve a purpose in the Gospel of Judas, though, much like the archons do in Sethian cosmology. However, I don’t think he’s a Gnostic visionary or Saint like Marvin Meyer thinks nor do I think Judas is a demon destined for hell like DeConick claims. I think both views are very exaggerated and jump to hasty conclusions. They both jump the shark, frankly. Judas is somewhere in the middle because he is used as a tool by Jesus to trick and betray the archons. Judas still serves a valuable purpose. The Gospel of Judas is too fragmentary to be really certain, though. I do like Marvin Meyer’s latest translation from 2011, though, which adds the later fragments.
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Yeah, I don’t see this conversation going anywhere. You’re throwing all kinds of stuff at me to see where any of it sticks but I see little validation. I don’t feel the need to engage with your sanctimonious tone here nor do I feel the need to defend my views, in this case. Orthodox bias? That’s rich. But, what do I know? Thanks for the comments, anyway. Peace.
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Jesus only escaped death ordered by the King, was born of a virgin, had twelve disciples, was betrayed and murdered, and ascended to heaven because Romulus and Julius Caesar did. Also, the globe on top of the obelisk by the Vatican once had a globe shaped urn with Julius Caesar’s ashes in it. It had a T shape on it an symbolized the apple of discord and the T shaped ‘world map’ of the ancients. A cross was later placed over it and it was the symbol of power for the ancien’ regime of France. Most of Etruscan, Venetian, and Latin Italy was once part of the French kingdom.
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Alex,
I’m not “throwing all kinds of stuff at you, sanctimoniously”. Didn’t I SAY *I* have bias??? I’m not excluding myself about orthodox bias. We all have it, even if we don’t see it. The Christian myth is that pervasive and ingrained in our Western culture. If you don’t recognize it, it is *because* you have it. You said *yourself* that “people like April DeConick said there might be an orthodox bias in scholarship”! Why be so defensive? We are all just trying to understand.
We agree on a lot. The “standing one” is a very important thread throughout all these traditions. Paul = “the Small one”. Are you familiar with Douglas Del Tondo, and his “Jesus Words Only”? Jesus Words Only.com is his website and his book is on Amazon. Great guy. I know him personally. He goes into Paul extensively as the “false apostle”. That is part of the title of his book, in fact. You will want to learn all he says about the antinomian Paul. I found your bit about Sethianism attacked in the DSS interesting. I want to know what you know about that. And Simon as “standing one”. Magus as Zoroastrian “Magi” is another point I would like to know more about. We learn from *each other*. The perfect living Masters tradition is my contribution. The Sant Mat Masters (rssb.org) go back at least 500 years in Beas, India, to Nanak, and that is how I came to know ‘Judas’ was really James throughout the NT. That one piece of information alone is crucial to moving our Western cultural awareness forward. I hope everyone makes it their own.
I’m on Aeon Byte now if you want to listen to me and Miguel. I hope you do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYKMAIjxJvM
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Eisenmann knows squat about Gnosticism. Also, the oldest tradition regarding Judas’ death is not in the gospel accounts or Acts. He was run over by a chariot and his guts spilt out.
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KJ! Dude! Where have ya been? Judas being chariot roadkill? I wasn’t aware of that. Eisenmann tries to blame Paul for the Gentile corruption of Jewish Christianity, and claims that James the Just, Jesus’ brother, was the sole legitimate heir of Christianity. I’m not sure we should take Eisenmann’s stuff as gospel. 😉
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Papias as quoted by Church Fathers, “Judas walked about in this world a sad example of impiety; for his body having swollen to such an extent that he could not pass where a chariot could pass easily, he was crushed by the chariot, so that his bowels gushed out.” Been busy with work.
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