“As a last word, the Christian Gnostics sprang into existence toward the beginning of the second century, and just at the time when the Essenes most mysteriously faded away, which indicated that they were the identical Essenes, and moreover pure Christists, viz.: they believed and were those who best understood what one of their own brethren had preached. In insisting that the letter Iota, mentioned by Jesus in Matthew (verse 18), indicated a secret doctrine in relation to the ten aeons, it is sufficient to demonstrate to a kabalist that Jesus belonged to the Free masonry of those days; for I, which is Iota in Greek, has other names in other languages; and is, as it was among the Gnostics of those days, a password, meaning the SCEPTRE of the FATHER, in Eastern brotherhoods which exist to this very day.
But in the early centuries these facts, if known, were purposely ignored, and not only withheld from public notice as much as possible, but vehemently denied whenever the question was forced upon discussion. The denunciations of the Fathers were rendered bitter in proportion to the truth of the claim which they endeavored to refute.
“It comes to this”, writes Irenaeus, complaining of the Gnostics, “they neither consent to Scripture nor tradition.” And why should we wonder at that, when even the commentators of the nineteenth century, with nothing but fragments of the Gnostic manuscripts to compare with the voluminous writings of their calumniators, have been enabled to detect fraud on nearly every page? How much more must the polished and learned Gnostics, with all their advantages of personal observation and knowledge of fact, have realized the stupendous scheme of fraud that was being consummated before their very eyes!
Why should they accuse Celsus of maintaining that their religion was all based on the speculations of Plato, with the difference that his doctrines were far more pure and rational than theirs, when we find Sprengel, seventeen centuries later, writing the following – “Not only did they (the Christians) think to discover the dogmas of Plato in the books of Moses, but, moreover, they fancied that by introducing Platonism into Christianity, they would elevate the dignity of this religion and make it more popular among the nations.”
They introduced it so well, that not only was the Platonic philosophy selected as a basis for the trinity, but even the legends and mythical stories which had been current among the admirers of the great philosopher – as a time-honored custom required in the eyes of his posterity such an allegorical homage to every hero worthy of deification – were revamped and used by the Christians.
Without going so far as India, did they not have a ready model for the “miraculous conception”, in the legend about Periktioné, Plato’s mother? In her case it was also maintained by popular tradition that she had miraculously conceived him, and that the god Apollo was his father. Even the annunciation by an angel to Joseph “in a dream”, the Christians copied from the message of Apollo to Ariston, Periktioné’s husband, that the child to be born from her was the offspring of that god. So, too, Romulus was said to be the son of Mars, by the virgin Rhea Sylvia.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 