A wild gnostic appears!

[Pierac]

Define united. Most of the gnostic "churches" were small groups of scribes who worked together to produce the scriptures that they then taught from. They were spread across the ancient near east, existed for a few hundred years at best and then were eliminated or absorbed by the Catholic church.

Only a small sect of Mandeans still exist to this day in Iraq.

Oh, and the Dura Europos synagog is in Syria, and is dated to about 244 CE. It would seem to be built by diasporatic Jews due to the art and the scrolls found inside, and also a Torah shrine pointed towards Jerusalem.

Gnostic's were a people not just scribes!
Diasporatic Jews indeed, but what Jew would allow pagan images on their walls! Your out of school now Deepskyy , there is no professor you need to impress by regurgitating what you have been told! Your no longer obligated to follow university teachings, .... your now free to actually read and research History as it was written, not as it was told!

You will find the documents your professors quoted, to be different when your not being graded on the professors bias!

Your the professor now. It's time for you to unlearn what you paid good money to be told what to believe! Some things never change, You get what you pay for! :think:

 

[Deepskyy]

Jewish syncretists would have allowed pagan art to both be present and influence their own art.
The artwork at Dura would have been an example of "the adoption of Greek and Iranian conventions 'only to show that Judaism, when properly understood, presents all religious values, even pagan values, better than the pagans themselves." -Jacob Neusner citing Erwin Goodenough.
While not a common practice, Hellenistic Jews would utilize pagan themes from time to time. Dura did change the mentality that scholars held, causing them to have to explain, rather than explain away the instances where syncretism goes so far as to seem to have been influenced by pagan traditions.

Got my access to the JSTOR working again finally. Stupid password.