Gnosticism

Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός, romanized: gnōstikós,

Koine Greek: [ɣnostiˈkos], 'having knowledge') is a collection of
religious ideas and systems which originated in the late 1st century
AD among Jewish and early Christian sects.[1] These various
groups emphasised personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above
the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of traditional
religious institutions. Viewing material existence as flawed or evil,
Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a
supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes
associated with the Yahweh of the Old Testament)[2] who is
responsible for creating the material universe.[3] Gnostics
considered the principal element of salvation to be direct
knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or Pages from the Gospel of Thomas,
esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945.
repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.[3]

Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean world until about the
second century, when the Fathers of the early Church denounced them as heresy.[4] Efforts to destroy these
texts proved largely successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic theologians.[3]
Nonetheless, early Gnostic teachers such as Valentinus saw their beliefs as aligned with Christianity. In the
Gnostic Christian tradition, Christ is seen as a divine being which has taken human form in order to lead
humanity back to the Light.[5] However, Gnosticism is not a single standardized system, and the emphasis
on direct experience allows for a wide variety of teachings, including distinct currents such as
Valentinianism and Sethianism. In the Persian Empire, Gnostic ideas spread as far as China via the related
movement Manichaeism, while Mandaeism is still alive in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities.

For centuries, most scholarly knowledge of Gnosticism was limited to the anti-heretical writings of
orthodox Christian figures such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome. There was a renewed
interest in Gnosticism after the 1945 discovery of Egypt's Nag Hammadi library, a collection of rare early
Christian and Gnostic texts, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Apocryphon of John. A major
question in scholarly research is the qualification of Gnosticism as either an interreligious phenomenon or
as an independent religion. Scholars have acknowledged the influence of sources such as Hellenistic
Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Platonism, and some have noted possible links to Buddhism and Hinduism,
though the evidence of direct influence from the latter sources is inconclusive.[3]

Contents
Etymology
Origins
Jewish Christian origins
Neoplatonic influences
Persian origins or influences
Buddhist parallels
Characteristics
 Cosmology
Dualism and monism
Moral and ritual practice
Concepts
Monad
Pleroma
Emanation
Aeon
Sophia
Demiurge
Archon
Other concepts
Jesus as Gnostic saviour
Development
Relation with early Christianity
Orthodoxy and heresy
Historical Jesus
Johannine literature
Paul and Gnosticism
Major movements
Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism
Sethite-Barbeloite
Samaritan Baptist sects
Valentinianism
Thomasine traditions
Marcion
Hermeticism
Other Gnostic groups
Persian Gnosticism
Manichaeism
Mandaeism
Middle Ages
Islam
Kabbalah
Modern times
Sources
Heresiologists
Gnostic texts
Academic studies
Development
Definitions of Gnosticism
Typologies
Traditional approaches – Gnosticism as Christian heresy
Phenomenological approaches
 Restricting Gnosticism
Deconstructing Gnosticism
Modern scholarship
Psychological approaches
See also
Notes
Subnotes
References
Sources
Printed sources
Web-sources
Further reading
External links

Etymology
Gnosis refers to knowledge based on personal experience or perception. In a religious context, gnosis is
mystical or esoteric knowledge based on direct participation with the divine. In most Gnostic systems, the
sufficient cause of salvation is this "knowledge of" ("acquaintance with") the divine. It is an inward
"knowing", comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus (neoplatonism), and differs from proto-orthodox
Christian views.[6] Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or
perception and learning – as a particular modality for living".[7] The usual meaning of gnostikos in
Classical Greek texts is "learned" or "intellectual", such as used by Plato in the comparison of "practical"
(praktikos) and "intellectual" (gnostikos).[note 1] Plato's use of "learned" is fairly typical of Classical
texts.[note 2]

By the Hellenistic period, it began also to be associated with Greco-Roman mysteries, becoming
synonymous with the Greek term musterion. The adjective is not used in the New Testament, but Clement
of Alexandria[note 3] speaks of the "learned" (gnostikos) Christian in complimentary terms.[8] The use of
gnostikos in relation to heresy originates with interpreters of Irenaeus. Some scholars[note 4] consider that
Irenaeus sometimes uses gnostikos to simply mean "intellectual",[note 5] whereas his mention of "the
intellectual sect"[note 6] is a specific designation.[10][note 7][note 8][note 9] The term "Gnosticism" does not
appear in ancient sources,[12][note 10] and was first coined in the 17th century by Henry More in a
commentary on the seven letters of the Book of Revelation, where More used the term "Gnosticisme" to
describe the heresy in Thyatira.[13][note 11] The term Gnosticism was derived from the use of the Greek
adjective gnostikos (Greek γνωστικός, "learned", "intellectual") by St. Irenaeus (c. 185 AD) to describe the
school of Valentinus as he legomene gnostike haeresis "the heresy called Learned (gnostic)."[14][note 12]

Origins
The origins of Gnosticism are obscure and still disputed. The proto-orthodox Christian groups called
Gnostics a heresy of Christianity,[note 13][18] but according to the modern scholars the theology's origin is
closely related to Jewish sectarian milieus and early Christian sects.[1][19][note 14][20] Scholars debate
Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Neoplatonism and Buddhism, due to similarities in beliefs, but
ultimately, its origins are currently unknown. As Christianity developed and became more popular, so did
Gnosticism, with both proto-orthodox Christian and Gnostic Christian groups often existing in the same
places. The Gnostic belief was widespread within Christianity until the proto-orthodox Christian
communities expelled the group in the second and third centuries (AD). Gnosticism became the first group
to be declared heretical.

Some scholars prefer to speak of "gnosis" when referring to first-century ideas that later developed into
Gnosticism, and to reserve the term "Gnosticism" for the synthesis of these ideas into a coherent movement
in the second century.[21] According to James M. Robinson, no gnostic texts clearly pre-date
Christianity,[note 15] and "pre-Christian Gnosticism as such is hardly attested in a way to settle the debate
once and for all."[22] However, the Nag Hammadi library contained Hermetic teachings that can be argued
go back to the Old Egyptian Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC).[23]

Jewish Christian origins

Contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish Christian origins, originating in the
late first century AD in nonrabbinical Jewish sects and early Christian sects.[24][1][19][note 14]

Many heads of gnostic schools were identified as Jewish Christians by Church Fathers, and Hebrew words
and names of God were applied in some gnostic systems.[25] The cosmogonic speculations among
Christian Gnostics had partial origins in Maaseh Bereshit and Maaseh Merkabah. This thesis is most
notably put forward by Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006). Scholem
detected Jewish gnosis in the imagery of the merkavah, which can also be found in certain Gnostic
documents.[24] Quispel sees Gnosticism as an independent Jewish development, tracing its origins to
Alexandrian Jews, to which group Valentinus was also connected.[26]

Many of the Nag Hammadi texts make reference to Judaism, in some cases with a violent rejection of the
Jewish God.[19][note 14] Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the Greatest case of
metaphysical anti-Semitism".[27] Professor Steven Bayme said gnosticism would be better characterized as
anti-Judaism.[28] Recent research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence,
particularly from Hekhalot literature.[29]

Within early Christianity, the teachings of Paul and John may have been a starting point for Gnostic ideas,
with a growing emphasis on the opposition between flesh and spirit, the value of charisma, and the
disqualification of the Jewish law. The mortal body belonged to the world of inferior, worldly powers (the
archons), and only the spirit or soul could be saved. The term gnostikos may have acquired a deeper
significance here.[30]

Alexandria was of central importance for the birth of Gnosticism. The Christian ecclesia (i. e. congregation,
church) was of Jewish–Christian origin, but also attracted Greek members, and various strands of thought
were available, such as "Judaic apocalypticism, speculation on divine wisdom, Greek philosophy, and
Hellenistic mystery religions."[30]

Regarding the angel Christology of some early Christians, Darrell Hannah notes:

[Some] early Christians understood the pre-incarnate Christ, ontologically, as an angel. This
"true" angel Christology took many forms and may have appeared as early as the late First
Century, if indeed this is the view opposed in the early chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The Elchasaites, or at least Christians influenced by them, paired the male Christ with the
female Holy Spirit, envisioning both as two gigantic angels. Some Valentinian Gnostics
supposed that Christ took on an angelic nature and that he might be the Saviour of angels. The
author of the Testament of Solomon held Christ to be a particularly effective "thwarting" angel
in the exorcism of demons. The author of De Centesima and Epiphanius' "Ebionites" held
 Christ to have been the highest and most important of the first created archangels, a view
similar in many respects to Hermas' equation of Christ with Michael. Finally, a possible
exegetical tradition behind the Ascension of Isaiah and attested by Origen's Hebrew master,
may witness to yet another angel Christology, as well as an angel Pneumatology.[31]

The pseudepigraphical Christian text Ascension of Isaiah identifies Jesus with angel Christology:

[The Lord Christ is commissioned by the Father] And I heard the voice of the Most High, the
father of my LORD as he said to my LORD Christ who will be called Jesus, 'Go out and
descend through all the heavens...[32]

The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian literary work considered as canonical scripture by some of the early
Church fathers such as Irenaeus. Jesus is identified with angel Christology in parable 5, when the author
mentions a Son of God, as a virtuous man filled with a Holy "pre-existent spirit".[33]

Neoplatonic influences

In the 1880s Gnostic connections with neo-Platonism were proposed.[34] Ugo Bianchi, who organised the
Congress of Messina of 1966 on the origins of Gnosticism, also argued for Orphic and Platonic origins.[26]
Gnostics borrowed significant ideas and terms from Platonism,[35] using Greek philosophical concepts
throughout their text, including such concepts as hypostasis (reality, existence), ousia (essence, substance,
being), and demiurge (creator God). Both Sethian Gnostics and Valentinian Gnostics seem to have been
influenced by Plato, Middle Platonism, and Neo-Pythagoreanism academies or schools of thought.[36] Both
schools attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy,[37] and
were rebuffed by some Neoplatonists, including Plotinus.

Persian origins or influences

Early research into the origins of Gnosticism proposed Persian origins or influences, spreading to Europe
and incorporating Jewish elements.[38] According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a
form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[34] and Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931) most
famously situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.[34]

Carsten Colpe (b. 1929) has analyzed and criticised the Iranian hypothesis of Reitzenstein, showing that
many of his hypotheses are untenable.[39] Nevertheless, Geo Widengren (1907–1996) argued for the origin
of Mandaean Gnosticism in Mazdean (Zoroastrianism) Zurvanism, in conjunction with ideas from the
Aramaic Mesopotamian world.[26]

However, scholars specializing in Mandaeism such as Kurt Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macúch,
Ethel S. Drower, James F. McGrath, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, and Şinasi Gündüz argue for a Palestinian
origin. The majority of these scholars believe that the Mandaeans likely have a historical connection with
John the Baptist's inner circle of disciples.[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] Linguists specializing in Mandaic,
such as Charles G. Häberl, find Palestinian and Samaritan Aramaic influence on Mandaic and accept
Mandaeans having a "shared Palestinian history with Jews".[48][49]

Buddhist parallels
In 1966, at the Congress of Median, Buddhologist Edward Conze noted phenomenological commonalities
between Mahayana Buddhism and Gnosticism,[50] in his paper Buddhism and Gnosis, following an early
suggestion put forward by Isaac Jacob Schmidt.[51][note 16] The influence of Buddhism in any sense on
either the gnostikos Valentinus (c. 170) or the Nag Hammadi texts (3rd century) is not supported by modern
scholarship, although Elaine Pagels (1979) called it a "possibility".[55]

Characteristics

Cosmology

The Syrian–Egyptian traditions postulate a remote, supreme Godhead, the Monad. From this highest
divinity emanate lower divine beings, known as Aeons. The Demiurge, one of those Aeons, creates the
physical world. Divine elements "fall" into the material realm, and are locked within human beings. This
divine element returns to the divine realm when Gnosis, esoteric or intuitive knowledge of the divine
element within, is obtained.

Dualism and monism

Gnostic systems postulate a dualism between God and the world,[56] varying from the "radical dualist"
systems of Manichaeism to the "mitigated dualism" of classic gnostic movements. Radical dualism, or
absolute dualism, posits two co-equal divine forces, while in mitigated dualism one of the two principles is
in some way inferior to the other. In qualified monism the second entity may be divine or semi-divine.
Valentinian Gnosticism is a form of monism, expressed in terms previously used in a dualistic manner.[57]

Moral and ritual practice

Gnostics tended toward asceticism, especially in their sexual and dietary practice.[58] In other areas of
morality, Gnostics were less rigorously ascetic, and took a more moderate approach to correct behaviour. In
normative early Christianity the Church administered and prescribed the correct behaviour for Christians,
while in Gnosticism it was the internalised motivation that was important. Ritualistic behaviour was not
important unless it was based on a personal, internal motivation. Ptolemy's Epistle to Flora describes a
general asceticism, based on the moral inclination of the individual.[note 17]

Concepts

Monad

In many Gnostic systems, God is known as the Monad, the One.[note 18] God is the high source of the
pleroma, the region of light. The various emanations of God are called æons. According to Hippolytus, this
view was inspired by the Pythagoreans, who called the first thing that came into existence the Monad,
which begat the dyad, which begat the numbers, which begat the point, begetting lines, etc.

The Sethian cosmogony as most famously contained in the Apocryphon ("Secret book") of John describes
an unknown God, very similar to the orthodox apophatic theology, but different from the orthodox
teachings that this God is the creator of heaven and earth. Orthodox theologians often attempt to define
God through a series of explicit positive statements: he is omniscient, omnipotent, and truly benevolent.
The Sethian hidden transcendent God is, by contrast, defined through negative theology: he is immovable,
invisible, intangible, ineffable; commonly, "he" is seen as being hermaphroditic, a potent symbol for being,
as it were, "all-containing". In the Apocryphon of John, this god is good in that it bestows goodness. After
the apophatic statements, the process of the Divine in action is used to describe the effect of such a god.

Pleroma

Pleroma (Greek πλήρωμα, "fullness") refers to the totality of God's powers. The heavenly pleroma is the
center of divine life, a region of light "above" (the term is not to be understood spatially) our world,
occupied by spiritual beings such as aeons (eternal beings) and sometimes archons. Jesus is interpreted as
an intermediary aeon who was sent from the pleroma, with whose aid humanity can recover the lost
knowledge of the divine origins of humanity. The term is thus a central element of Gnostic cosmology.

Pleroma is also used in the general Greek language, and is used by the Greek Orthodox church in this
general form, since the word appears in the Epistle to the Colossians. Proponents of the view that Paul was
actually a gnostic, such as Elaine Pagels, view the reference in Colossians as a term that has to be
interpreted in a gnostic sense.

Emanation

The Supreme Light or Consciousness descends through a series of stages, gradations, worlds, or
hypostases, becoming progressively more material and embodied. In time it will turn around to return to the
One (epistrophe), retracing its steps through spiritual knowledge and contemplation.

Aeon

In many Gnostic systems, the aeons are the various emanations of the superior God or Monad. Beginning
in certain Gnostic texts with the hermaphroditic aeon Barbelo,[59][60][61] the first emanated being, various
interactions with the Monad occur which result in the emanation of successive pairs of aeons, often in
male–female pairings called syzygies.[62] The numbers of these pairings varied from text to text, though
some identify their number as being thirty.[63] The aeons as a totality constitute the pleroma, the "region of
light". The lowest regions of the pleroma are closest to the darkness; that is, the physical world[64]

Two of the most commonly paired æons were Christ and Sophia (Greek: "Wisdom"); the latter refers to
Christ as her "consort" in A Valentinian Exposition.[65]

Sophia

In Gnostic tradition, the term Sophia (Σοφία, Greek for "wisdom") refers to the final and lowest emanation
of God, and is identified with the anima mundi or world-soul. In most, if not all, versions of the gnostic
myth, Sophia births the demiurge, who in turn brings about the creation of materiality. The positive or
negative depiction of materiality thus resides a great deal on mythic depictions of Sophia's actions. She is
occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of Achamoth (this is a feature of Ptolemy's version of the
Valentinian gnostic myth). Jewish Gnosticism with a focus on Sophia was active by 90 AD.

Sophia, emanating without her partner, resulted in the production of the Demiurge (Greek: lit. "public
builder"),[66] who is also referred to as Yaldabaoth and variations thereof in some Gnostic texts.[59] This
creature is concealed outside the pleroma;[59] in isolation, and thinking itself alone, it creates materiality and
a host of co-actors, referred to as archons. The demiurge is responsible for the creation of humankind;
trapping elements of the pleroma stolen from Sophia inside human bodies.[59][67] In response, the Godhead
emanates two savior aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit; Christ then embodies itself in the form of Jesus, in
order to be able to teach humans how to achieve gnosis, by which they may return to the pleroma.[68]

Demiurge

The term demiurge derives from the Latinized form of the Greek term
dēmiourgos, δημιουργός, literally "public or skilled worker".[note 20] This
figure is also called "Yaldabaoth",[59] Samael (Aramaic: sæmʻa-ʼel, "blind
god"), or "Saklas" (Syriac: sækla, "the foolish one"), who is sometimes
ignorant of the superior god, and sometimes opposed to it; thus in the latter
case he is correspondingly malevolent. Other names or identifications are
Ahriman, El, Satan, and Yahweh.

The demiurge creates the physical universe and the physical aspect of
humanity.[71] The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named
A lion-faced deity found
archons who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present
on a Gnostic gem in
obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it.[59] The inferiority of the Bernard de Montfaucon's
demiurge's creation may be compared to the technical inferiority of a work of L'antiquité expliquée et
art, painting, sculpture, etc. to the thing the art represents. In other cases it représentée en figures
takes on a more ascetic tendency to view material existence negatively, which may be a depiction of
then becomes more extreme when materiality, including the human body, is Yaldabaoth, the
perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants. Demiurge; however, cf.
Mithraic Zervan
Moral judgements of the demiurge vary from group to group within the broad Akarana[69]
category of Gnosticism, viewing materiality as being inherently evil, or as
merely flawed and as good as its passive constituent matter allows.[72]

Archon

In late antiquity some variants of Gnosticism used the term archon to refer to several servants of the
demiurge.[67] According to Origen's Contra Celsum, a sect called the Ophites posited the existence of
seven archons, beginning with Iadabaoth or Ialdabaoth, who created the six that follow: Iao, Sabaoth,
Adonaios, Elaios, Astaphanos, and Horaios.[73] Ialdabaoth had a head of a lion.[59][74]

Other concepts

Other Gnostic concepts are:[75]

sarkic – earthly, hidebound, ignorant, uninitiated. The lowest level of human thought; the
fleshly, instinctive level of thinking.
hylic – lowest order of the three types of human. Unable to be saved since their thinking is
entirely material, incapable of understanding the gnosis.
psychic – "soulful", partially initiated. Matter-dwelling spirits
pneumatic – "spiritual", fully initiated, immaterial souls escaping the doom of the material
world via gnosis.
kenoma – the visible or manifest cosmos, "lower" than the pleroma
charisma – gift, or energy, bestowed by pneumatics through oral teaching and personal
encounters
 logos – the divine ordering principle of the cosmos; personified as Christ. See also Odic
force.
hypostasis – literally "that which stands beneath" the inner reality, emanation (appearance)
of God, known to psychics
ousia – essence of God, known to pneumatics. Specific individual things or being.

Jesus as Gnostic saviour

Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to
bring gnōsis to the earth,[76][68] while others adamantly denied that the supreme being came in the flesh,
claiming Jesus to be merely a human who attained enlightenment through gnosis and taught his disciples to
do the same.[77] Among the Mandaeans, Jesus was considered a mšiha kdaba or "false messiah" who
perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist.[78] Still other traditions identify Mani and
Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, as salvific figures.

Development
Three periods can be discerned in the development of Gnosticism:[79]

Late-first century and early second century: development of Gnostic ideas,

contemporaneous with the writing of the New Testament;
mid-second century to early third century: high point of the classical Gnostic teachers and
their systems, "who claimed that their systems represented the inner truth revealed by
Jesus";[79]
end of the second century to the fourth century: reaction by the proto-orthodox church and
condemnation as heresy, and subsequent decline.

During the first period, three types of tradition developed:[79]

Genesis was reinterpreted in Jewish milieus, viewing Yahweh as a jealous God who
enslaved people; freedom was to be obtained from this jealous God;
A wisdom tradition developed, in which Jesus' sayings were interpreted as pointers to an
esoteric wisdom, in which the soul could be divinized through identification with
wisdom.[79][note 21] Some of Jesus' sayings may have been incorporated into the gospels to
put a limit on this development. The conflicts described in 1 Corinthians may have been
inspired by a clash between this wisdom tradition and Paul's gospel of crucifixion and
arising;[79]
A mythical story developed about the descent of a heavenly creature to reveal the Divine
world as the true home of human beings.[79] Jewish Christianity saw the Messiah, or Christ,
as "an eternal aspect of God's hidden nature, his "spirit" and "truth", who revealed himself
throughout sacred history".[30]

The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths,[81] and the Persian
Empire. It continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd
centuries, but decline also set in during the third century, due to a growing aversion from the Nicene
Church, and the economic and cultural deterioration of the Roman Empire.[82] Conversion to Islam, and
the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the
Middle Ages, though Mandaean communities still exist in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities. Gnostic and
pseudo-gnostic ideas became influential in some of the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements
of the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify
themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier gnostic groups.

Relation with early Christianity

Dillon notes that Gnosticism raises questions about the development of early Christianity.[83]

Orthodoxy and heresy

The Christian heresiologists, most notably Irenaeus, regarded Gnosticism as a Christian heresy. Modern
scholarship notes that early Christianity was diverse, and Christian orthodoxy only settled in the
4th century, when the Roman Empire declined and Gnosticism lost its influence.[84][82][85][83] Gnostics
and proto-orthodox Christians shared some terminology. Initially, they were hard to distinguish from each
other.[86]

According to Walter Bauer, "heresies" may well have been the original form of Christianity in many
regions.[87] This theme was further developed by Elaine Pagels,[88] who argues that "the proto-orthodox
church found itself in debates with gnostic Christians that helped them to stabilize their own beliefs."[83]
According to Gilles Quispel, Catholicism arose in response to Gnosticism, establishing safeguards in the
form of the monarchic episcopate, the creed, and the canon of holy books.[89]

Historical Jesus

The Gnostic movements may contain information about the historical Jesus, since some texts preserve
sayings which show similarities with canonical sayings.[90] Especially the Gospel of Thomas has a
significant amount of parallel sayings.[90] Yet, a striking difference is that the canonical sayings center on
the coming endtime, while the Thomas-sayings center on a kingdom of heaven that is already here, and not
a future event.[91] According to Helmut Koester, this is because the Thomas-sayings are older, implying
that in the earliest forms of Christianity Jesus was regarded as a wisdom-teacher.[91] An alternative
hypothesis states that the Thomas authors wrote in the second century, changing existing sayings and
eliminating the apocalyptic concerns.[91] According to April DeConick, such a change occurred when the
end time did not come, and the Thomasine tradition turned toward a "new theology of mysticism" and a
"theological commitment to a fully-present kingdom of heaven here and now, where their church had
attained Adam and Eve's divine status before the Fall."[91]

Johannine literature

The prologue of the Gospel of John describes the incarnated Logos, the light that came to earth, in the
person of Jesus.[92] The Apocryphon of John contains a scheme of three descendants from the heavenly
realm, the third one being Jesus, just as in the Gospel of John. The similarities probably point to a
relationship between gnostic ideas and the Johannine community.[92] According to Raymond Brown, the
Gospel of John shows "the development of certain gnostic ideas, especially Christ as heavenly revealer, the
emphasis on light versus darkness, and anti-Jewish animus."[92] The Johannine material reveals debates
about the redeemer myth.[79] The Johannine letters show that there were different interpretations of the
gospel story, and the Johannine images may have contributed to second-century Gnostic ideas about Jesus
as a redeemer who descended from heaven.[79] According to DeConick, the Gospel of John shows a
"transitional system from early Christianity to gnostic beliefs in a God who transcends our world."[92]
According to DeConick, John may show a bifurcation of the idea of the Jewish God into Jesus' Father in
Heaven and the Jews' father, "the Father of the Devil" (most translations say "of [your] father the Devil"),
which may have developed into the gnostic idea of the Monad and the Demiurge.[92]

Paul and Gnosticism

Tertullian calls Paul "the apostle of the heretics",[93] because Paul's writings were attractive to gnostics, and
interpreted in a gnostic way, while Jewish Christians found him to stray from the Jewish roots of
Christianity.[94] In I Corinthians Paul refers to some church members as "having knowledge" (Greek: τὸν
ἔχοντα γνῶσιν, ton echonta gnosin).[95] James Dunn claims that in some cases, Paul affirmed views that
were closer to gnosticism than to proto-orthodox Christianity.[96]

According to Clement of Alexandria, the disciples of Valentinus said that Valentinus was a student of a
certain Theudas, who was a student of Paul,[96] and Elaine Pagels notes that Paul's epistles were interpreted
by Valentinus in a gnostic way, and Paul could be considered a proto-gnostic as well as a proto-
Catholic.[75] Many Nag Hammadi texts, including, for example, the Prayer of Paul and the Coptic
Apocalypse of Paul, consider Paul to be "the great apostle".[96] The fact that he claimed to have received
his gospel directly by revelation from God appealed to the gnostics, who claimed gnosis from the risen
Christ.[97] The Naassenes, Cainites, and Valentinians referred to Paul's epistles.[98] Timothy Freke and
Peter Gandy have expanded upon this idea of Paul as a gnostic teacher;[99] although their premise that
Jesus was invented by early Christians based on an alleged Greco-Roman mystery cult has been dismissed
by scholars.[100][note 22] However, his revelation was different from the gnostic revelations.[101]

Major movements

Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism

Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism includes Sethianism, Valentinianism, Basilideans, Thomasine traditions, and

Serpent Gnostics, as well as a number of other minor groups and writers.[102] Hermeticism is also a
western Gnostic tradition,[82] though it differs in some respects from these other groups.[103] The Syrian–
Egyptian school derives much of its outlook from Platonist influences. It depicts creation in a series of
emanations from a primal monadic source, finally resulting in the creation of the material universe. These
schools tend to view evil in terms of matter that is markedly inferior to goodness and lacking spiritual
insight and goodness rather than as an equal force.

Many of these movements used texts related to Christianity, with some identifying themselves as
specifically Christian, though quite different from the Orthodox or Roman Catholic forms. Jesus and
several of his apostles, such as Thomas the Apostle, claimed as the founder of the Thomasine form of
Gnosticism, figure in many Gnostic texts. Mary Magdalene is respected as a Gnostic leader, and is
considered superior to the twelve apostles by some gnostic texts, such as the Gospel of Mary. John the
Evangelist is claimed as a Gnostic by some Gnostic interpreters,[104] as is even St. Paul.[75] Most of the
literature from this category is known to us through the Nag Hammadi Library.

Sethite-Barbeloite

Sethianism was one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd to 3rd centuries, and the prototype
of Gnosticism as condemned by Irenaeus.[105] Sethianism attributed its gnosis to Seth, third son of Adam
and Eve and Norea, wife of Noah, who also plays a role in Mandeanism and Manicheanism. Their main
text is the Apocryphon of John, which does not contain Christian elements,[105] and is an amalgam of two
earlier myths.[106] Earlier texts such as Apocalypse of Adam show signs of being pre-Christian and focus
on the Seth, third son of Adam and Eve.[107] Later Sethian texts continue to interact with Platonism.
Sethian texts such as Zostrianos and Allogenes draw on the imagery of older Sethian texts, but utilize "a
large fund of philosophical conceptuality derived from contemporary Platonism, (that is, late middle
Platonism) with no traces of Christian content."[36][note 23]

According to John D. Turner, German and American scholarship views Sethianism as "a distinctly inner-
Jewish, albeit syncretistic and heterodox, phenomenon", while British and French scholarship tends to see
Sethianism as "a form of heterodox Christian speculation".[108] Roelof van den Broek notes that
"Sethianism" may never have been a separate religious movement, and that the term refers rather to a set of
mythological themes which occur in various texts.[109]

According to Smith, Sethianism may have begun as a pre-Christian tradition, possibly a syncretic cult that
incorporated elements of Christianity and Platonism as it grew.[110] According to Temporini, Vogt, and
Haase, early Sethians may be identical to or related to the Nazarenes (sect), the Ophites, or the sectarian
group called heretics by Philo.[107]

According to Turner, Sethianism was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism, and originated in
the second century as a fusion of a Jewish baptizing group of possibly priestly lineage, the so-called
Barbeloites,[111] named after Barbelo, the first emanation of the Highest God, and a group of Biblical
exegetes, the Sethites, the "seed of Seth".[112] At the end of the second century, Sethianism grew apart
from the developing Christian orthodoxy, which rejected the docetian view of the Sethians on Christ.[113]
In the early third century, Sethianism was fully rejected by Christian heresiologists, as Sethianism shifted
toward the contemplative practices of Platonism while losing interest in their primal origins.[114] In the late
third century, Sethianism was attacked by neo-Platonists like Plotinus, and Sethianism became alienated
from Platonism. In the early- to mid-fourth century, Sethianism fragmented into various sectarian Gnostic
groups such as the Archontics, Audians, Borborites, and Phibionites, and perhaps Stratiotici, and
Secundians.[115][36] Some of these groups existed into the Middle Ages.[115]

Samaritan Baptist sects

According to Magris, Samaritan Baptist sects were an offshoot of John the Baptist.[116] One offshoot was
in turn headed by Dositheus, Simon Magus, and Menander. It was in this milieu that the idea emerged that
the world was created by ignorant angels. Their baptismal ritual removed the consequences of sin, and led
to a regeneration by which natural death, which was caused by these angels, was overcome.[116] The
Samaritan leaders were viewed as "the embodiment of God's power, spirit, or wisdom, and as the redeemer
and revealer of 'true knowledge' ".[116]

The Simonians were centered on Simon Magus, the magician baptised by Philip and rebuked by Peter in
Acts 8, who became in early Christianity the archetypal false teacher. The ascription by Justin Martyr,
Irenaeus, and others of a connection between schools in their time and the individual in Acts 8 may be as
legendary as the stories attached to him in various apocryphal books. Justin Martyr identifies Menander of
Antioch as Simon Magus' pupil. According to Hippolytus, Simonianism is an earlier form of the
Valentinian doctrine.[117]

The Basilidians or Basilideans were founded by Basilides of Alexandria in the second century. Basilides
claimed to have been taught his doctrines by Glaucus, a disciple of St. Peter, but could also have been a
pupil of Menander.[118] Basilidianism survived until the end of the 4th century as Epiphanius knew of
Basilidians living in the Nile Delta. It was, however, almost exclusively limited to Egypt, though according
to Sulpicius Severus it seems to have found an entrance into Spain through a certain Mark from Memphis.
St. Jerome states that the Priscillianists were infected with it.
Valentinianism

Valentinianism was named after its founder Valentinus (c. 100 – 180), who was a candidate for bishop of
Rome but started his own group when another was chosen.[119] Valentinianism flourished after mid-second
century. The school was popular, spreading to Northwest Africa and Egypt, and through to Asia Minor and
Syria in the east,[120] and Valentinus is specifically named as gnostikos by Irenaeus. It was an intellectually
vibrant tradition,[121] with an elaborate and philosophically "dense" form of Gnosticism. Valentinus'
students elaborated on his teachings and materials, and several varieties of their central myth are known.

Valentinian Gnosticism may have been monistic rather than dualistic.[note 24] In the Valentinian myths, the
creation of a flawed materiality is not due to any moral failing on the part of the Demiurge, but due to the
fact that he is less perfect than the superior entities from which he emanated.[124] Valentinians treat physical
reality with less contempt than other Gnostic groups, and conceive of materiality not as a separate substance
from the divine, but as attributable to an error of perception which becomes symbolized mythopoetically as
the act of material creation.[124]

The followers of Valentinius attempted to systematically decode the Epistles, claiming that most Christians
made the mistake of reading the Epistles literally rather than allegorically. Valentinians understood the
conflict between Jews and Gentiles in Romans to be a coded reference to the differences between Psychics
(people who are partly spiritual but have not yet achieved separation from carnality) and Pneumatics
(totally spiritual people). The Valentinians argued that such codes were intrinsic in gnosticism, secrecy
being important to ensuring proper progression to true inner understanding.[note 25]

According to Bentley Layton "Classical Gnosticism" and "The School of Thomas" antedated and
influenced the development of Valentinus, whom Layton called "the great [Gnostic] reformer" and "the
focal point" of Gnostic development. While in Alexandria, where he was born, Valentinus probably would
have had contact with the Gnostic teacher Basilides, and may have been influenced by him.[125] Simone
Petrement, while arguing for a Christian origin of Gnosticism, places Valentinus after Basilides, but before
the Sethians. According to Petrement, Valentinus represented a moderation of the anti-Judaism of the earlier
Hellenized teachers; the demiurge, widely regarded as a mythological depiction of the Old Testament God
of the Hebrews (i.e. Jehova), is depicted as more ignorant than evil.[126]

Thomasine traditions

The Thomasine Traditions refers to a group of texts which are attributed to the apostle Thomas.[127][note 26]
Karen L. King notes that "Thomasine Gnosticism" as a separate category is being criticised, and may "not
stand the test of scholarly scrutiny".[128]

Marcion

Marcion was a Church leader from Sinope (present-day Turkey), who preached in Rome around
150 CE,[129] but was expelled and started his own congregation, which spread throughout the
Mediterranean. He rejected the Old Testament, and followed a limited Christian canon, which included
only a redacted version of Luke, and ten edited letters of Paul.[130] Some scholars do not consider him to
be a gnostic,[131][note 27] but his teachings clearly resemble some Gnostic teachings.[129] He preached a
radical difference between the God of the Old Testament, the Demiurge, the "evil creator of the material
universe", and the highest God, the "loving, spiritual God who is the father of Jesus", who had sent Jesus
to the earth to free mankind from the tyranny of the Jewish Law.[129][7] Like the Gnostics, Marcion argued
that Jesus was essentially a divine spirit appearing to men in the shape of a human form, and not someone
in a true physical body.[132] Marcion held that the heavenly Father (the father of Jesus Christ) was an
utterly alien god; he had no part in making the world, nor any connection with it.[132]
Hermeticism

Hermeticism is closely related to Gnosticism, but its orientation is more positive.[82][103]

Other Gnostic groups

Serpent Gnostics. The Naassenes, Ophites and the Serpentarians gave prominence to
snake symbolism, and snake handling played a role in their ceremonies.[129]
Cerinthus (c. 100), the founder of a heretical school with gnostic elements. Like a Gnostic,
Cerinthus depicted Christ as a heavenly spirit separate from the man Jesus, and he cited the
demiurge as creating the material world. Unlike the Gnostics, Cerinthus taught Christians to
observe the Jewish law; his demiurge was holy, not lowly; and he taught the Second
Coming. His gnosis was a secret teaching attributed to an apostle. Some scholars believe
that the First Epistle of John was written as a response to Cerinthus.[133]
The Cainites are so-named since Hippolytus of Rome claims that they worshiped Cain, as
well as Esau, Korah, and the Sodomites. There is little evidence concerning the nature of
this group. Hippolytus claims that they believed that indulgence in sin was the key to
salvation because since the body is evil, one must defile it through immoral activity (see
libertinism). The name Cainite is used as the name of a religious movement, and not in the
usual Biblical sense of people descended from Cain.
The Carpocratians, a libertine sect following only the Gospel according to the Hebrews
The school of Justin, which combined gnostic elements with the ancient Greek religion.
The Borborites, a libertine Gnostic sect, said to be descended from the Nicolaitans[134]

Persian Gnosticism

The Persian Schools, which appeared in the western Persian province of Babylonia (in particular, within
the Sassanid province of Asuristan), and whose writings were originally produced in the Aramaic dialects
spoken in Babylonia at the time, are representative of what is believed to be among the oldest of the
Gnostic thought forms. These movements are considered by most to be religions in their own right, and are
not emanations from Christianity or Judaism.

Manichaeism

Manichaeism was founded by the Prophet Mani (216–276). Mani's father was a member of the Jewish-
Christian sect of the Elcesaites, a subgroup of the Gnostic Ebionites. At ages 12 and 24, Mani had
visionary experiences of a "heavenly twin" of his, calling him to leave his father's sect and preach the true
message of Christ. In 240–41, Mani travelled to the Indo-Greek Kingdom of the Sakas in modern-day
Afghanistan, where he studied Hinduism and its various extant philosophies. Returning in 242, he joined
the court of Shapur I, to whom he dedicated his only work written in Persian, known as the Shabuhragan.
The original writings were written in Syriac Aramaic, in a unique Manichaean script.

Manichaeism conceives of two coexistent realms of light and darkness that become embroiled in conflict.
Certain elements of the light became entrapped within darkness, and the purpose of material creation is to
engage in the slow process of extraction of these individual elements. In the end, the kingdom of light will
prevail over darkness. Manicheanism inherits this dualistic mythology from Zurvanist Zoroastrianism,[135]
in which the eternal spirit Ahura Mazda is opposed by his antithesis, Angra Mainyu. This dualistic teaching
embodied an elaborate cosmological myth that included the defeat of a primal man by the powers of
darkness that devoured and imprisoned the particles of light.[136]
According to Kurt Rudolph, the decline of Manichaeism that
occurred in Persia in the 5th century was too late to prevent the
spread of the movement into the east and the west.[137] In the
west, the teachings of the school moved into Syria, Northern
Arabia, Egypt and North Africa.[note 28] There is evidence for
Manicheans in Rome and Dalmatia in the 4th century, and also in
Gaul and Spain. From Syria it progressed still farther, into
Palestine, Asia Minor and Armenia. The influence of
Manicheanism was attacked by imperial elects and polemical
writings, but the religion remained prevalent until the 6th century,
and still exerted influence in the emergence of the Paulicians,
Bogomils and Cathari in the Middle Ages, until it was ultimately
stamped out by the Catholic Church.[137]

In the east, Rudolph relates, Manicheanism was able to bloom,

because the religious monopoly position previously held by
Christianity and Zoroastrianism had been broken by nascent Islam.
In the early years of the Arab conquest, Manicheanism again
found followers in Persia (mostly amongst educated circles), but Manicheanism priests writing at their
flourished most in Central Asia, to which it had spread through desks, with panel inscription in
Iran. Here, in 762, Manicheanism became the state religion of the Sogdian. Manuscript from Khocho,
Tarim Basin.
Uyghur Empire.[137]

Mandaeism

Mandaeism is a Gnostic, monotheistic and ethnic

religion.[140]: 4 [141]The Mandaeans are Semites and speak a
dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. They are the only
surviving Gnostics from antiquity. Their religion has been
practised primarily around the lower Karun, Euphrates and Tigris
and the rivers that surround the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, part of
southern Iraq and Khuzestan Province in Iran. Mandaeism is still
practiced in small numbers, in parts of southern Iraq and the
Mandaeans in prayer during baptism
Iranian province of Khuzestan, and there are thought to be
between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide.[142]

The name 'Mandaean' is said to come from the Aramaic manda meaning knowledge.[143] John the Baptist
is a key figure in the religion, as an emphasis on baptism is part of their core beliefs. According to
Nathaniel Deutsch, "Mandaean anthropogony echoes both rabbinic and gnostic accounts."[144] Mandaeans
revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. Significant amounts
of original Mandaean Scripture, written in Mandaean Aramaic, survive in the modern era. The primary
source text is known as the Ginza Rabba and has portions identified by some scholars as being copied as
early as the 2nd–3rd centuries. There is also the Qolastā, or Canonical Book of Prayer and the Mandaean
Book of John (Sidra ḏ'Yahia).

According to most scholars, Mandaeism originated sometime in the first three centuries CE, in either
southwestern Mesopotamia or the Syro-Palestinian area.[145] However, some scholars take the view that
Mandaeism is older and dates from pre-Christian times.[146] Mandaeans assert that their religion predates
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a monotheistic faith.[147] Mandaeans believe that they descend directly
from Shem, Noah's son,[148] and also from John the Baptist's original disciples.[149]
Due to paraphrases and word-for-word translations from the Mandaean originals found in the Psalms of
Thomas, it is now believed that the pre-Manichaean presence of the Mandaean religion is more than
likely.[150]: IX [151]

Middle Ages

After its decline in the Mediterranean world, Gnosticism lived on in the periphery of the Byzantine Empire,
and resurfaced in the western world. The Paulicians, an Adoptionist group which flourished between 650
and 872 in Armenia and the Eastern Themes of the Byzantine Empire, were accused by orthodox medieval
sources of being Gnostic and quasi Manichaean Christian. The Bogomils, emerged in Bulgaria between
927 and 970 and spread throughout Europe. It was as synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism and the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church reform movement.

The Cathars (Cathari, Albigenses or Albigensians) were also accused by their enemies of the traits of
Gnosticism; though whether or not the Cathari possessed direct historical influence from ancient
Gnosticism is disputed. If their critics are reliable the basic conceptions of Gnostic cosmology are to be
found in Cathar beliefs (most distinctly in their notion of a lesser, Satanic, creator god), though they did not
apparently place any special relevance upon knowledge (gnosis) as an effective salvific force.

Islam

The Quran, like Gnostic cosmology, makes a sharp distinction

between this world and the afterlife. God is commonly thought of
as being beyond human comprehension. In some Islamic schools
of thought, somehow identifiable with the Gnostic
Monad.[152][153] However, according to Islam and unlike most
Gnostic sects, not rejection of this world, but performing good
deeds leads to the heaven. And according to the Islamic belief in
strict Oneness of God, there was no room for a lower deity; such
as the demiurge.[154] According to Islam, both good and evil come
from one God, a position especially opposed by the Manichaeans. In Sufism, Iblis rules the material
Ibn al-Muqaffa depicted the Islamic deity as a demonic entity who world in a manner that resembles the
"fights with humans and boasts about His victories" and "sitting on Gnostic Demiurge.
a throne, from which He can descend". It would be impossible that
both light and darkness were created from one source, since they
were regarded as two different eternal principles.[155] Muslim theologists countered this accusation by the
example of a repeating sinner, who says: "I laid, and I repent";[156] this would prove that good can also
result out of evil.

Islam also integrated traces of an entity given authority over the lower world in some early writings: Iblis is
regarded by some Sufis as the owner of this world, and humans must avoid the treasures of this world,
since they would belong to him.[157] In the Isma'ili Shia work Umm al Kitab, Azazil's role resembles
whose of the Gnostic demiurge.[158] Like the demiurge, he is endowed with the ability to create his own
world and seeks to imprison humans in the material world, but here, his power is limited and depends on
the higher God.[159] Such Gnostic anthropogenic can be found frequently among Isma'ili traditions.[160] In
fact, Ismailism has been often criticised as non-Islamic. Ghazali characterized them as a group who are
outwardly Shias but were actually adherence of a dualistic and philosophical religion. Further traces of
Gnostic ideas can be found in Sufi anthropogenic.[161] Like the gnostic conception of human beings
imprisoned in matter, Sufi traditions acknowledge that the human soul is an accomplice of the material
world and subject to bodily desires similar to the way archontic spheres envelop the pneuma.[162] The Ruh
must therefore gain victory over the lower and material-bound psyche, to overcome its animal nature. A
human being captured by its animal desires, mistakenly claims autonomy and independence from the
"higher God", thus resembling the lower deity in classical gnostic traditions. However, since the goal is not
to abandon the created world, but just to free oneself from ones own lower desires, it can be disputed
whether this can still be Gnostic, but rather a completion of the message of Muhammad.[155] It seems that
Gnostic ideas were an influential part of early Islamic development but later lost its influence. However the
Gnostic light metaphorics and the idea of unity of existence still prevailed in later Islamic thought.[153]

Kabbalah

Gnostic ideas found a Jewish variation in the mystical study of Kabbalah. Many core Gnostic ideas
reappear in Kabbalah, where they are used for dramatically reinterpreting earlier Jewish sources according
to this new system.[163] The Kabbalists originated in 13th-century Provence,[note 29] which was at that time
also the center of the Gnostic Cathars. While some scholars in the middle of the 20th century tried to
assume an influence between the Cathar "gnostics" and the origins of the Kabbalah, this assumption has
proved to be an incorrect generalization not substantiated by any original texts.[165] On the other hand,
scholars such as Scholem have postulated that there was originally a "Jewish gnosticism", which influenced
the early origins of gnosticism.[166] Kabbalah does not employ the terminology or labels of non-Jewish
Gnosticism, but grounds the same or similar concepts in the language of the Torah (the first five books of
the Hebrew Bible).[167] The 13th-century Zohar ("Splendor"), a foundational text in Kabbalah, is written
in the style of a Jewish Aramaic Midrash, clarifying the five books of the Torah with a new Kabbalistic
system that uses completely Jewish terms.[168]

Modern times

The Mandaeans are an ancient Gnostic ethnoreligious group that have survived to this day and are found
today in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities.[169] Their namesake owes to their following John the Baptist
and there are thought to be 60,000 to 70,000 worldwide.[142][169] A number of modern gnostic
ecclesiastical bodies have set up or re-founded since the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, including
the Ecclesia Gnostica, Apostolic Johannite Church, Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, the Gnostic Church of
France, the Thomasine Church, the Alexandrian Gnostic Church, the North American College of Gnostic
Bishops,[170] and the Universal Gnosticism of Samael Aun Weor.[171] A number of 19th-century thinkers
such as Arthur Schopenhauer,[172] Albert Pike and Madame Blavatsky studied Gnostic thought extensively
and were influenced by it, and even figures like Herman Melville and W. B. Yeats were more tangentially
influenced.[173] Jules Doinel "re-established" a Gnostic church in France in 1890, which altered its form as
it passed through various direct successors (Fabre des Essarts as Tau Synésius and Joanny Bricaud as Tau
Jean II most notably), and, though small, is still active today.[174]

Early 20th-century thinkers who heavily studied and were influenced by Gnosticism include Carl Jung
(who supported Gnosticism), Eric Voegelin (who opposed it), Jorge Luis Borges (who included it in many
of his short stories), and Aleister Crowley, with figures such as Hermann Hesse being more moderately
influenced. René Guénon founded the gnostic review, La Gnose in 1909, before moving to a more
Perennialist position, and founding his Traditionalist School. Gnostic Thelemite organizations, such as
Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and Ordo Templi Orientis, trace themselves to Crowley's thought. The
discovery and translation of the Nag Hammadi library after 1945 has had a huge effect on Gnosticism since
World War II. Intellectuals who were heavily influenced by Gnosticism in this period include Lawrence
Durrell, Hans Jonas, Philip K. Dick and Harold Bloom, with Albert Camus and Allen Ginsberg being
more moderately influenced.[173] Celia Green has written on Gnostic Christianity in relation to her own
philosophy.[175] Alfred North Whitehead was aware of the existence of the newly discovered Gnostic
scrolls. Accordingly, Michel Weber has proposed a Gnostic interpretation of his late metaphysics.[176]
Sources

Heresiologists

Prior to the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 Gnosticism was known primarily through the
works of heresiologists, Church Fathers who opposed those movements. These writings had an
antagonistic bias towards gnostic teachings, and were incomplete. Several heresiological writers, such as
Hippolytus, made little effort to exactly record the nature of the sects they reported on, or transcribe their
sacred texts. Reconstructions of incomplete Gnostic texts were attempted in modern times, but research on
Gnosticism was coloured by the orthodox views of those heresiologists.

Justin Martyr (c. 100/114 – c. 162/168) wrote the First Apology, addressed to Roman emperor Antoninus
Pius, which criticised Simon Magus, Menander and Marcion. Since then, both Simon and Menander have
been considered as 'proto-Gnostic'.[177] Irenaeus (died c. 202) wrote Against Heresies (c. 180–185), which
identifies Simon Magus from Flavia Neapolis in Samaria as the inceptor of Gnosticism. From Samaria he
charted an apparent spread of the teachings of Simon through the ancient "knowers" into the teachings of
Valentinus and other, contemporary Gnostic sects.[note 30] Hippolytus (170–235) wrote the ten-volume
Refutation Against all Heresies, of which eight have been unearthed. It also focuses on the connection
between pre-Socratic (and therefore Pre-Incantation of Christ) ideas and the false beliefs of early gnostic
heretical leaders. Thirty-three of the groups he reported on are considered Gnostic by modern scholars,
including 'the foreigners' and 'the Seth people'. Hippolytus further presents individual teachers such as
Simon, Valentinus, Secundus, Ptolemy, Heracleon, Marcus and Colorbasus. Tertullian (c. 155–230) from
Carthage wrote Adversus Valentinianos ('Against the Valentinians'), c. 206, as well as five books around
207–208 chronicling and refuting the teachings of Marcion.

Gnostic texts

Prior to the discovery at Nag Hammadi, a limited number of texts were available to students of Gnosticism.
Reconstructions were attempted from the records of the heresiologists, but these were necessarily coloured
by the motivation behind the source accounts. The Nag Hammadi library [note 31] is a collection of Gnostic
texts discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt. Twelve leather-bound papyrus codices buried
in a sealed jar were found by a local farmer named Muhammed al-Samman.[178] The writings in these
codices comprised fifty-two mostly Gnostic treatises, but they also include three works belonging to the
Corpus Hermeticum and a partial translation/alteration of Plato's Republic. These codices may have
belonged to a nearby Pachomian monastery, and buried after Bishop Athanasius condemned the use of
non-canonical books in his Festal Letter of 367.[179] Though the original language of composition was
probably Greek, the various codices contained in the collection were written in Coptic. A 1st- or 2nd-
century date of composition for the lost Greek originals has been proposed, though this is disputed; the
manuscripts themselves date from the 3rd and 4th centuries. The Nag Hammadi texts demonstrated the
fluidity of early Christian scripture and early Christianity itself.[note 32]

Academic studies

Development

Prior to the discovery of Nag Hammadi, the Gnostic movements were largely perceived through the lens of
the early church heresiologists. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1694–1755) proposed that Gnosticism
developed on its own in Greece and Mesopotamia, spreading to the west and incorporating Jewish
elements. According to Mosheim, Jewish thought took Gnostic elements and used them against Greek
philosophy.[38] J. Horn and Ernest Anton Lewald proposed Persian and Zoroastrian origins, while Jacques
Matter described Gnosticism as an intrusion of eastern cosmological and theosophical speculation into
Christianity.[38]

In the 1880s, Gnosticism was placed within Greek philosophy, especially neo-Platonism.[34] Adolf von
Harnack (1851–1930), who belonged to the School of the History of Dogma and proposed a
Kirchengeschichtliches Ursprungsmodell, saw Gnosticism as an internal development within the church
under the influence of Greek philosophy.[34][181] According to Harnack, Gnosticism was the "acute
Hellenization of Christianity."[34]

The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule ("history of religions school", 19th century) had a profound influence
on the study of Gnosticism.[34] The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule saw Gnosticism as a pre-Christian
phenomenon, and Christian gnosis as only one, and even marginal instance of this phenomenon.[34]
According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian
syncretism,[34] and Eduard Norden (1868–1941) also proposed pre-Christian origins,[34] while Richard
August Reitzenstein (1861–1931), and Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) also situated the origins of
Gnosticism in Persia.[34] Hans Heinrich Schaeder (1896–1957) and Hans Leisegang saw Gnosticism as an
amalgam of eastern thought in a Greek form.[34]

Hans Jonas (1903–1993) took an intermediate approach, using both the comparative approach of the
Religionsgeschichtliche Schule and the existentialist hermeneutics of Bultmann. Jonas emphasized the
duality between God and the world, and concluded that Gnosticism cannot be derived from Platonism.[24]
Contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish or Judeo-Christian origins;[24] this
theses is most notably put forward by Gershom G. Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–
2006).[182]

The study of Gnosticism and of early Alexandrian Christianity received a strong impetus from the
discovery of the Coptic Nag Hammadi Library in 1945.[183][184] A great number of translations have been
published, and the works of Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, especially The
Gnostic Gospels, which detailed the suppression of some of the writings found at Nag Hammadi by early
bishops of the Christian church, have popularized Gnosticism in mainstream culture,[web 3][web 4] but also
incited strong responses and condemnations from clergical writers.[185]

Definitions of Gnosticism

According to Matthew J. Dillon, six trends can be discerned in the definitions of Gnosticism:[186]

Typologies, "a catalogue of shared characteristics that are used to classify a group of objects
together."[186]
Traditional approaches, viewing Gnosticism as a Christian heresy[187]
Phenomenological approaches, most notably Hans Jonas[188]
Restricting Gnosticism, "identifying which groups were explicitly called gnostics",[189] or
which groups were clearly sectarian[189]
Deconstructing Gnosticism, abandoning the category of "Gnosticism"[190]
Psychology and cognitive science of religion, approaching Gnosticism as a psychological
phenomena[191]

Typologies
The 1966 Messina conference on the origins of gnosis and Gnosticism proposed to designate

... a particular group of systems of the second century after Christ" as gnosticism, and to use
gnosis to define a conception of knowledge that transcends the times, which was described as
"knowledge of divine mysteries for an élite.[192]

This definition has now been abandoned.[186] It created a religion, "Gnosticism", from the "gnosis" which
was a widespread element of ancient religions,[note 33] suggesting a homogeneous conception of gnosis by
these Gnostic religions, which did not exist at the time.[193]

According to Dillon, the texts from Nag Hammadi made clear that this definition was limited, and that they
are "better classified by movements (such as Valentinian), mythological similarity (Sethian), or similar
tropes (presence of a Demiurge)."[186] Dillon further notes that the Messian-definition "also excluded pre-
Christian Gnosticism and later developments, such as the Mandaeans and the Manichaeans."[186]

Hans Jonas discerned two main currents of Gnosticism, namely Syrian-Egyptian, and Persian, which
includes Manicheanism and Mandaeism.[24] Among the Syrian-Egyptian schools and the movements they
spawned are a typically more Monist view. Persian Gnosticism possesses more dualist tendencies, reflecting
a strong influence from the beliefs of the Persian Zurvanist Zoroastrians. Those of the medieval Cathars,
Bogomils, and Carpocratians seem to include elements of both categories. However, scholars such as Kurt
Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macúch, Ethel S. Drower and Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley argue for a
Palestinian origin for Mandaeism.

Gilles Quispel divided Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism further into Jewish Gnosticism (the Apocryphon of
John)[105] and Christian Gnosis (Marcion, Basilides, Valentinus). This "Christian Gnosticism" was
Christocentric, and influenced by Christian writings such as the Gospel of John and the Pauline
epistles.[194] Other authors speak rather of "Gnostic Christians", noting that Gnostics were a prominent
substream in the early church.[195]

Traditional approaches – Gnosticism as Christian heresy

The best known example of this approach is Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who stated that "Gnosticism
is the acute Hellenization of Christianity."[187] According to Dillon, "many scholars today continue in the
vein of Harnack in reading gnosticism as a late and contaminated version of Christianity", notably Darrell
Block, who criticises Elaine Pagels for her view that early Christianity was wildly diverse.[188]

Phenomenological approaches

Hans Jonas (1903–1993) took an existential phenomenological approach to Gnosticism. According to

Jonas, alienation is a distinguishing characteristic of Gnosticism, making it different from contemporary
religions. Jonas compares this alienation with the existentialist notion of geworfenheit, Martin Heidegger's
"thrownness," as in being thrown into a hostile world.[188]

Restricting Gnosticism

In the late 1980s scholars voiced concerns about the broadness of "Gnosticism" as a meaningful category.
Bentley Layton proposed to categorize Gnosticism by delineating which groups were marked as gnostic in
ancient texts. According to Layton, this term was mainly applied by heresiologists to the myth described in
the Apocryphon of John, and was used mainly by the Sethians and the Ophites. According to Layton, texts
which refer to this myth can be called "classical Gnostic".[189]

In addition, Alastair Logan uses social theory to identify Gnosticism. He uses Rodney Stark and William
Bainbridge's sociological theory on traditional religion, sects and cults. According to Logan, the Gnostics
were a cult, at odds with the society at large.[189]

Deconstructing Gnosticism

According to Michael Allen Williams, the concept of Gnosticism as a distinct religious tradition is
questionable, since "gnosis" was a pervasive characteristic of many religious traditions in antiquity, and not
restricted to the so-called Gnostic systems.[196] According to Williams, the conceptual foundations on
which the category of Gnosticism rests are the remains of the agenda of the heresiologists.[196] The early
church heresiologists created an interpretive definition of Gnosticism, and modern scholarship followed this
example and created a categorical definition. According to Williams the term needs replacing to more
accurately reflect those movements it comprises,[196] and suggests to replace it with the term "the Biblical
demiurgical tradition".[190]

According to Karen King, scholars have "unwittingly continued the project of ancient heresiologists",
searching for non-Christian influences, thereby continuing to portray a pure, original Christianity.[190]

Modern scholarship
According to the Westar Institute's Fall 2014 Christianity Seminar Report on Gnosticism, there actually is
no group that possesses all of the usually-attributed features. Nearly every group possesses one or more of
them, or some modified version of them. There was no particular relationship among any set of groups
which one could distinguish as “Gnostic”, as if they were in opposition to some other set of groups. For
instance, every sect of Christianity on which we have any information on this point believed in a separate
Logos who created the universe at God’s behest. Likewise, they believed some kind of secret knowledge
(“gnosis”) was essential to ensuring one’s salvation. Likewise, they had a dualist view of the cosmos, in
which the lower world was corrupted by meddling divine beings and the upper world’s God was awaiting
a chance to destroy it and start over, thereby helping humanity to escape its corrupt bodies and locations by
fleeing into celestial ones. [197]

Psychological approaches
Carl Jung approached Gnosticism from a psychological perspective, which was followed by Gilles
Quispel. According to this approach, Gnosticism is a map for the human development in which an
undivided person, centered on the Self, develops out of the fragmentary personhood of young age.
According to Quispel, gnosis is a third force in western culture, alongside faith and reason, which offers an
experiential awareness of this Self.[190]

According to Ioan Culianu, gnosis is made possible through universal operations of the mind, which can be
arrived at "anytime, anywhere".[198] A similar suggestion has been made by Edward Conze, who
suggested that the similarities between prajñā and sophia may be due to "the actual modalities of the
human mind", which in certain conditions result in similar experiences.[199]

See also
The Esoteric Character of the Gospels
 Marcellina (gnostic)
Mithras

Notes
1. In Plato's dialogue between Young Socrates and the Foreigner in his The Statesman
(258e).[subnote 1]
2. 10x Plato, Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman 2x Plutarch, Compendium libri de
animae procreatione + De animae procreatione in Timaeo, 2x Pseudo-Plutarch, De
musica[web 2]
3. In Book 7 of his Stromateis
4. For example A. Rousseau and L. Doutreleau, translators of the French edition (1974),[9]
5. As in 1.25.6, 1.11.3, 1.11.5.
6. Adv. haer. 1.11.1
7. Irenaeus' comparative adjective gnostikeron "more learned", evidently cannot mean "more
Gnostic" as a name.[10]
8. Williams, p. 36: "But several of Irenaeus's uses of the designation gnostikos are more
ambiguous, and it is not so clear whether he is indicating the specific sect again or using
'gnostics' now merely as a shorthand reference for virtually all of the groups he is criticizing";
p. 37: "They argue that Irenaeus uses gnostikos in two senses: (1) with the term's 'basic and
customary meaning' of 'learned' (savant), and (2) with reference to adherents of the specific
sect called 'the gnostic heresy' in Adv. haer. 1.11.1."; p. 271: "1.25.6 where they think that
gnostikos means 'learned' are in 1.11.3 ('A certain other famous teacher of theirs, reaching
for a doctrine more lofty and learned [gnostikoteron] ...') and 1.11.5 ('... in order that they
[i.e.,])."[10]
9. Of those groups that Irenaeus identifies as "intellectual" (gnostikos), only one, the followers
of Marcellina use the term gnostikos of themselves.[11][subnote 2] Later Hippolytus uses
"learned" (gnostikos) of Cerinthus and the Ebionites, and Epiphanius applied "learned"
(gnostikos) to specific groups.
10. Dunderberg: "The problems with the term 'Gnosticism' itself are now well known. It does not
appear in ancient sources at all"[12]
11. Pearson: "As Bentley Layton points out, the term Gnosticism was first coined by Henry More
(1614–1687) in an expository work on the seven letters of the Book of Revelation.29 More
used the term Gnosticisme to describe the heresy in Thyatira."[13]
12. This occurs in the context of Irenaeus' work On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-
Called Gnosis, (Greek: elenchos kai anatrope tes pseudonymou gnoseos, ἔλεγχος καὶ
ἀνατροπὴ τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως) where the term "knowledge falsely so-called"
(pseudonymos gnosis) is a quotation of the apostle Paul's warning against "knowledge
falsely so-called" in Timothy 6:20,[15] and covers various groups, not just Valentinus.[16]
13. Clement of Alexandria: "In the times of the Emperor Hadrian appeared those who devised
heresies, and they continued until the age of the elder Antoninus."[17]
14. Cohen & Mendes-Flohr: "Recent research, however, has tended to emphasize that Judaism,
rather than Persia, was a major origin of Gnosticism. Indeed, it appears increasingly evident
that many of the newly published Gnostic texts were written in a context from which Jews
were not absent. In some cases, indeed, a violent rejection of the Jewish God, or of Judaism,
seems to stand at the basis of these texts. ... facie, various trends in Jewish thought and
literature of the Second Commonwealth appear to have been potential factors in Gnostic
origins.[19]
15. Robinson: "At this stage we have not found any Gnostic texts that clearly antedate the origin
of Christianity." J. M. Robinson, "Sethians and Johannine Thought: The Trimorphic
Protennoia and the Prologue of the Gospel of John" in The Rediscovery of Gnosticism, vol.
2, Sethian Gnosticism, ed. B. Layton (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981), p. 662.
16. The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first proposed by the Victorian
gem collector and numismatist Charles William King (1864).[52] Mansel (1875) [53]
considered the principal sources of Gnosticism to be Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and
Buddhism.[54]
17. Ptolemy, in Letter to Flora: "External physical fasting is observed even among our followers,
for it can be of some benefit to the soul if it is engaged in with reason (logos), whenever it is
done neither by way of limiting others, nor out of habit, nor because of the day, as if it had
been specially appointed for that purpose."
18. Other names include The Absolute, Aion teleos (The Perfect Æon), Bythos (Depth or
Profundity, Βυθος), Proarkhe (Before the Beginning, προαρχη), and HE Arkhe (The
Beginning, ἡ ἀρχή).
19. The relevant passage of The Republic was found within the Nag Hammadi library,[70]
wherein a text existed describing the demiurge as a "lion-faced serpent".[59]
20. The term dēmiourgos occurs in a number of other religious and philosophical systems, most
notably Platonism. The gnostic demiurge bears resemblance to figures in Plato's Timaeus
and Republic. In Timaeus, the demiourgós is a central figure, a benevolent creator of the
universe who works to make the universe as benevolent as the limitations of matter will
allow. In The Republic the description of the leontomorphic "desire" in Socrates' model of
the psyche bears a resemblance to descriptions of the demiurge as being in the shape of the
lion.[note 19]
21. According to Earl Doherty, a prominent proponent of the Christ myth theory, the Q-authors
may have regarded themselves as "spokespersons for the Wisdom of God, with Jesus being
the embodiment of this Wisdom. In time, the gospel-narrative of this embodiment of Wisdom
became interpreted as the literal history of the life of Jesus.[80]
22. The existence of Jesus is explored in other Wikipedia articles, such as: Christ myth theory,
Historicity of Jesus, Sources for the historicity of Jesus, Historical Jesus, Quest for the
historical Jesus
23. The doctrine of the "triple-powered one" found in the text Allogenes, as discovered in the
Nag Hammadi Library, is "the same doctrine as found in the anonymous Parmenides
commentary (Fragment XIV) ascribed by Hadot to Porphyry [...] and is also found in Plotinus'
Ennead 6.7, 17, 13–26."[36]
24. Quotes:
* Elaine Pagels: "Valentinian gnosticism [...] differs essentially from dualism";[122]
* Schoedel: "a standard element in the interpretation of Valentinianism and similar forms of
Gnosticism is the recognition that they are fundamentally monistic".[123]
25. Irenaeus describes how the Valentinians claim to find evidence in Ephesians for their
characteristic belief in the existence of the Æons as supernatural beings: "Paul also, they
affirm, very clearly and frequently names these Æons, and even goes so far as to preserve
their order, when he says, "To all the generations of the Æons of the Æon." (Ephesians 3:21)
Nay, we ourselves, when at the giving of thanks we pronounce the words, 'To Æons of
Æons' (for ever and ever), do set forth these Æons. And, in fine, wherever the words Æon or
Æons occur, they at once refer them to these beings." On the Detection and Overthrow of
Knowledge Falsely So Called Book 1. Ch.3
26. The texts commonly attributed to the Thomasine Traditions are:
The Hymn of the Pearl, or, the Hymn of Jude Thomas the Apostle in the Country of
Indians
The Gospel of Thomas
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
The Acts of Thomas
The Book of Thomas: The Contender Writing to the Perfect
The Psalms of Thomas
The Apocalypse of Thomas
27. Encyclopædia Britannica: "In Marcion's own view, therefore, the founding of his church – to
which he was first driven by opposition – amounts to a reformation of Christendom through a
return to the gospel of Christ and to Paul; nothing was to be accepted beyond that. This of
itself shows that it is a mistake to reckon Marcion among the Gnostics. A dualist he certainly
was, but he was not a Gnostic".
28. Where Augustine was a member of the school from 373–382.[138][139]
29. Joseph Dan: "The first kabbalistic text with a known author that reached us is a brief treatise,
a commentary on the Sefer Yezira written by Rabbi Isaac ben Abraham the Blind, in
Provence near the turn of the Thirteenth Century.[164]
30. This understanding of the transmission of Gnostic ideas, despite Irenaeus' certain
antagonistic bias, is often utilized today, though it has been criticized.
31. Sometimes popularly known as the Gnostic Gospels after Elaine Pagels' 1979 book of the
same name, but the term has a wider meaning
32. According to Layton, "the lack of uniformity in ancient Christian scripture in the early period
is very striking, and it points to the substantial diversity within the Christian religion."[180]
33. Markschies: "something was being called "gnosticism" that the ancient theologians had
called 'gnosis' ... [A] concept of gnosis had been created by Messina that was almost
unusable in a historical sense."[193]

Subnotes
1. perseus.tufts.edu, LSJ entry: γνωστ-ικός, ή, όν, A. of or for knowing, cognitive: ἡ -κή (sc.
ἐπιστήμη), theoretical science (opp. πρακτική), Pl.Plt.258e, etc.; τὸ γ. ib.261b; "ἕξεις γ."
Arist.AP0.100a11 (Comp.); "γ. εἰκόνες" Hierocl.in CA25p.475M.: c. gen., able to discern,
Ocell. 2.7. Adv. "-κῶς" Procl.Inst.39, Dam.Pr.79, Phlp.in Ph.241.22.[web 1]
2. Williams: "On the other hand, the one group whom Irenaeus does explicitly mention as users
of this self-designation, the followers of the Second Century teacher Marcellina, are not
included in Layton's anthology at all, on the grounds that their doctrines are not similar to
those of the "classic" gnostics. As we have seen, Epiphanius is one of the witnesses for the
existence of a special sect called 'the gnostics', and yet Epiphanius himself seems to
distinguish between these people and 'the Sethians' (Pan 40.7.5), whereas Layton treats
them as both under the 'classic gnostic' category."[11]

References
1. Magris 2005, pp. 3515–3516.
2. Bataille, Georges (1930). "Base Materialism and Gnosticism". Visions of Excess: Selected
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Further reading
Primary sources

Barnstone, Willis (1984). The Other Bible: Gnostic Scriptures, Jewish Pseudepigrapha,
Christian Apocyrypha, Kabbalah, Dead Sea Scrolls. San Francisco: Harper & Row. p. 771.
ISBN 978-0-06-081598-1.
Barnstone, Willis; Meyer, Marvin (2003). The Gnostic Bible (https://archive.org/details/gnosti
cbible00barn/page/880). Shambhala Books. pp. 880 (https://archive.org/details/gnosticbible
00barn/page/880). ISBN 978-1-57062-242-7.
Barnstone, Willis; Meyer, Marvin (2010). Essential Gnostic Scriptures. Shambhala Books.
p. 271. ISBN 978-1-59030-925-4.
Layton, Bentley (1987). The Gnostic Scriptures. SCM Press. pp. 526 pages. ISBN 978-0-
334-02022-6.
Plotinus (1989). The Enneads. 1. Translated by A.H. Armstrong. Harvard University Press.
ISBN 978-0-674-99484-3.
Robinson, James (1978). The Nag Hammadi Library in English. San Francisco: Harper &
Row. pp. 549 pages. ISBN 978-0-06-066934-8.

General

Dillon, Matthew J. (2016), "Gnosticism Theorized: Major Trends and Approaches to the
Study of Gnosticism" (https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:34031/), in DeConick, April D.
(ed.), Religion: Secret Religion, MacMillan Reference US, pp. 23–38
King, Karen L. (2005), What is Gnosticism?, Harvard University Press
Broek, Roelof van den (2013), Gnostic Religion in Antiquity, Cambridge University Press

Sethians

Turner, John D. (2001), "Chapter Seven: The History of the Sethian Movement", Sethian
Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition, Presses Université Laval

External links
Texts

Gnostic Society Library (http://www.gnosis.org/library.html) – primary sources and

commentaries
Early Christian Writings (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/gnostics.html) – primary texts
Gnostic texts (http://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/index.htm) at sacred-texts.com

Encyclopedias

Bousset, Wilhelm (1911). "Gnosticism" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C

3%A6dia_Britannica/Gnosticism). Encyclopædia Britannica. 12 (11th ed.). pp. 152–159.
Gnosticism (http://www.iep.utm.edu/gnostic/), by Edward Moore, Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy
 Gnosticism (http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gnosticism) by Kurt Rudolph,
Encyclopædia Iranica
Gnosticism (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06592a.htm) Catholic Encyclopedia

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