Page 120 - Gnosis volume 2
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                   ward ceremonies of the cult.




                     Are these the characteristics of those who receive the Light and of whom the Apostle
                   says they were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of

                        25
                   God?  It is by the gift of the Ghost and not by the letter that it is possible to enter into
                   the Kingdom of God or into the alliance of Love, the Great esoteric Brotherhood, by the
                               26
                   second Birth .
                     For the chosen people, to understand Jesus' work, two conditions should have been

                   fulfilled: firstly, there should have been a few men amongst the rulers who were already

                   progressing on the Way; secondly, the opinion of these men should have prevailed in

                   the Sanhedrin. Even though there were some personalities in this Senate who fulfilled
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                   the first condition: Gamaliel, Joseph of Arimithea, Nicodemus, Simon , and still others,
                   their  counsel  went  unheeded.  The  three  years  of  Saviour’s  ministry  had  provoked

                   diverse reactions and schisms, but not one opinion was strong enough to impose itself.

                   And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him. For some said, He is
                   a good man; others said: nay, but He deceiveth the people. St. John adds:



























                     25  John, I, 13.
                     26
                        John, III, 3; Romans, X, 12.
                     27
                        According to Tradition, Nicodemus and Joseph were Christ's disciples and used to meet Him
                   secretly without the knowledge of the Jews and as for Gamaliel, who was a learned Rabbi and
                   Saul’s master, the future St. Paul, master, he was baptized in secret by St. John or St. Peter.
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