Talk:Sentences of Sextus

Gnostic?
I think its inaccurate to label this New Testament Apocrypha. Yes, it was found in the Nag Hammadi texts, and it was cited by Church Fathers... but its a non-Christian text and being in the NHL doesn't make it Gnostic any more than Plato's cave parable being in the NHL makes Plato a Gnostic. Its rather a text popular in the wider culture of the time, and used by non-Christians as well as Christians and Gnostics. I think that disqualifies it as being New Testament Apocrypha. Also, this article needs to mention all the various copies of Sextus known before the Nag Hammadi version was found. It had been known before from versions in many languages, Syriac, Armenian, Latin, and its original Greek. Murple 06:03, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I've found a couple of scholarly sources on the Sentences, so it might be possible to expand the article.Graham1973 (talk) 01:22, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

I would like to support the above comment. Where does this nonsense about these being Christian moral precepts come from? There are many parallels in this sentences (akousmata) with the Symbols of Pythagoras.

It is much more likely that Origenes - who was primarily from a Pythagorean-Platonic background, and who incorporated many of those ideas into his Christianity - saw these older Pythagorean monastic-cenobitic precepts as valuable to his emerging Christian audience. That the Pythagoreans had a flourishing monastic tradition long before the Christian monastics adopted it, is clear. And this is just another of many examples of early Christians adopting Pythagorean practices, moral precepts, and philosophy.

Could someone please change the opening paragraph to get rid of that nonsense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.168.128.27 (talk) 21:21, 9 February 2018 (UTC)