jwindley@cheap.cs.utah.edu (Jay Windley) writes...

[...]


This is curious. I read in _EH_...

"The Lord imparted the gift of knowledge to James the Just, to John 
and Peter after his resurrection, these delivered it to the rest of 
the apostles, and they to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one."
			 
			--- Eusebius, _Ecclesiastical History_

It seems that the Lord imparted the gift of knowledge, not that the
Lord imparted secret information.

[...]


I'm afraid that I cannot find this portrayal in _EH_. 
I don't see anywhere in 3:32:7-8 where Eusebius mentions that certain 
gnostics had the wrong gnosis.

The closest is when Eusebius summarizes Hegesippus' statements, 
"...whilst if there were any at all, that attempted to pervert 
the sound doctrine of the saving gospel, they were yet skulking 
in dark retreats..."


"Favorably interpreted?" Just in looking at two of the four 
references that you gave (I have the _EH_ handy, Irenaeus and the 
_Clemetine Recognitions_ I will have to look for) I see no room for 
such 'interpretations.'

And any such 'interpretation' still falls short of an equivalence to 
the Temple Ceremonies. 

The links for Jay's using _EH_ for support are: "imparting the gift 
of knowledge" = "imparted secret information" = "being given secret 
signs and tokens to gain entrance to heaven."  But there is not
enough equivalence between the the ideas for us to be able to call 
this "favorable interpretation."  It appears to be closer to 
"fabrication."