thanks Rakovsky interesting
On the Odes i'm not sure about Bardeisan authorship. Not sure there's any of his doctrines identifiable in them?
I've seen some pretty orthodox writers not see them as gnostic, the book by JH Bernard is one. He calls the Pistis Sophia a strange, repulsive book but he loves the Odes... the Pistis Sophia is the Trout Mask Replica of Gnosticism after all. I just don't know in what way the Odes are gnostic
What you said about the Ebionites and their gnostic tendancies is exactly why i wondered of a connection between them and the preaching of peter
there's scope for this if they had a non-pauline theology. but this probably is just idle speculation without anything much to go on.
I saw something else gnostic-like about the papyrus. The author claims Eve was born from Adam not just in body but soul and spirit as well - ie she is not made in God's image at all. This profound anti-femaleness is a habit of some orthodox and gnostic groups. Sometimes they can end up looking more alike than opposite at times
A common idea in Gnosticism was even that the ultimate true Deity and the OT Jehovah were two separate gods, and the Gnostics looked down on the latter, calling him Yaldabaoth
That's where I recon the earliest Christians didn't go along with this
Because it looks polythiestic to so very easily believe that your opponents' god actually exists (and is not your God misunderstood) and read their scripture negatively
It seem like the Christian approach is to better define the character of the one God and correct misunderstandings, even big ones but not go there
To me the Gnostics fit better into a Greek world than a Jewish one where polytheism was ingrained and natural
So i see the Odes as 'defining' the character of God and so not Gnostic
The author of this papyrus is also in the business of defining God, as particularly wrathful, so he's skirting with heresy himself!