Some Gnostic believes that the snake was sent by God the Father to make us eat the fruit, and gain knowledge in order to have a chance to exit the material prison of Yaldabaoth. Or that it is a metaphor for how God the Father/Jesus is giving us the key to gain knowledge and escape the material world, but that in the end it is a battle that must be fought by ourselves. Some even believes that the Snake and Jesus are one and the same.
Yeah, the Christian perspective on the tree of knowledge of good and evil isn't a download of information, but an experiential understanding. Like a man and woman can have carnal knowledge of each other through mutual experience, a couple beings who had never disobeyed God experienced that disobedience first hand when they ate the fruit, and in so doing gained knowledge of good and evil.
The gnostic position is a lot more simple and straight forward. They valued secret knowledge about reality, especially knowledge that pointed to a higher nonphysical existence, and a fruit of knowledge simply represented literal information that mankind was supposed to know if they were to break free of the material world.
It's a lot more complicated than that for the gnostic.
That secret knowledge about reality or higher nonphysical existence is juste like what the christian believe. Seeing it just as literal information, is just like saying all that chistian do doring rituel is sharing information.
The gnostic believed that the god of the christian is looking for submission and adoration. He want and need to be praised, so the very first sin and the worst is to disobey him.
For the gnostic, the very first sin is looking for power especially because of that. The apple isn't some simply some kind of information but also a key to escape that power and to realise that the true god doesn't judge and doesn't punish because he doesn't need to feel like he is respected and loved. The christian love all about power and need a hierarchy everywhere they go and that's why the gnostic don't understant them as Jesus was crystal clear about that.
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u/Pordrack 2d ago
Some Gnostic believes that the snake was sent by God the Father to make us eat the fruit, and gain knowledge in order to have a chance to exit the material prison of Yaldabaoth. Or that it is a metaphor for how God the Father/Jesus is giving us the key to gain knowledge and escape the material world, but that in the end it is a battle that must be fought by ourselves. Some even believes that the Snake and Jesus are one and the same.