Gnosticism

Early Christian and Jewish religious systems

Not to be confused with Agnosticism.

Page from the Gospel of Judas

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Gnosticism

Gnostic concepts

* Adam kasia
* Adam pagria
* Aeon
* Anima mundi
* Archon
* Barbelo
* Demiurge
* Five Seals
* Gnosis
* Kenoma
* Luminary
* Manda
* Monad
* Ogdoad
* Pleroma
* Sophia
* Uthra
* World of Light
* World of Darkness
* Yaldabaoth

Gnostic sects and founders

* List of Gnostic sects

* * *

Proto-Gnosticism

* Maghāriya
* Thomasines

Judean / Israelite

* Adam
* Mandaeism
* Elksai
* Elkasaites
* Samaritan Baptist
* Dositheos
* Simon Magus (Simonians)
* Menander
* Quqites

Christian Gnosticism

* Apelles
* Cerinthus
* Justin
* Marcion
* Marcionism
* Nicolaism
* Perates
* Saturninus
* Ophites
* Sethianism
* Basilides
* Basilideans
* Valentinus
* Valentinianism
* Marcus
* Marcosians
* Florinus
* Naassenes
* Thomasine
* Barbelo
* Borborites
* Carpocratians (Gnostic sect)
* Cerdo (Gnostic)

Persian Gnosticism

* Mani
* Manichaeism

Chinese Gnosticism

* Chinese Manichaeism

Islamic Gnosticism

* Druze
* Nusayrism

Modern

* Modern schools

Scriptures

* List of Gnostic texts

* * *

Texts

* Nag Hammadi library
* Pseudo-Abdias
* Clementine literature
* Gnosticism and the New Testament
* Mandaean scriptures

Codices

* Codex Tchacos
* Cologne Mani-Codex
* Askew Codex
* Bruce Codex
* Berlin Codex
* Codex Nasaraeus

Influenced by

* Apocalyptic literature
* Early Christianity
* Christology
* Docetism
* Paul and Gnosticism
* Merkabah mysticism
* Middle Platonism
* Philo
* Wisdom (personification)

Influence on

* Carl Jung
* Esoteric Christianity
* Christian theosophy
* Gnosticism in modern times
* Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
* Perennial philosophy
* Thelema
* Theosophy (Blavatskian)
* Western esotericism
* René Guénon
* Rudolf Steiner

* v
* t
* e

Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός, romanized: gnōstikós, Koine Greek: [ɣnostiˈkos], 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Generally, in Gnosticism, the Monad is the supreme God who emanates divine beings; one, Sophia, creates the flawed demiurge who makes the material world, trapping souls until they regain divine knowledge. Consequently, Gnostics considered material existence flawed or evil, and held the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.[1]

Gnosticism likely originated in the late first and early second centuries around Alexandria, influenced by Jewish-Christian sects, Hellenistic Judaism, Middle Platonism, and diverse religious ideas, with scholarly debate about whether it arose as an intra-Christian movement, from Jewish mystical traditions, or other sources. Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean world around the second century, when the Early Church Fathers denounced them as heresy.[2] Efforts to destroy these texts were largely successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic theologians.[3] Nonetheless, early Gnostic teachers such as Valentinus saw themselves as Christians. Gnostic views of Jesus varied, seeing him as a divine revealer, enlightened human, spirit without a body, false messiah, or one among several saviors.

Judean–Israelite Gnosticism, including the Mandaeans and Elkesaites, blended Jewish-Christian ideas with Gnostic beliefs focused on baptism and the cosmic struggle between light and darkness, with the Mandaeans still practicing ritual purity today. Syriac–Egyptian groups like Sethianism and Valentinianism combined Platonic philosophy and Christian themes, seeing the material world as flawed but not wholly evil. Other traditions include the Basilideans, Marcionites, Thomasines, and Manichaeism, known for its cosmic dualism. After declining in the Mediterranean, Gnosticism persisted near the Byzantine Empire and resurfaced in medieval Europe with groups like the Paulicians, Bogomils, and Cathars, who were accused of Gnostic traits. Islamic and medieval Kabbalistic thought also reflect some Gnostic ideas, while modern revivals and discoveries such as the Nag Hammadi texts have influenced numerous thinkers and churches up to the present day.

Before the 1945 discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, knowledge of Gnosticism came mainly from biased and incomplete heresiological writings; the recovered Gnostic texts revealed a very diverse and complex early Christian landscape. Some scholars say Gnosticism may contain historical information about Jesus from the Gnostic viewpoint,[4] although the majority conclude that apocryphal sources, Gnostic or not, are later than the canonical sources and many, such as the Gospel of Thomas, depended on or used the Synoptic Gospels.[5][6][7] Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Middle Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts.[3] Academic studies of Gnosticism have evolved from viewing it as a Christian heresy or Greek-influenced aberration to recognizing it as a diverse set of movements with complex Jewish, Persian, and philosophical roots, prompting modern scholars to question the usefulness of “Gnosticism” as a unified category and favor more precise classifications based on texts, traditions, and socio-religious contexts.[8][9][10]

## Etymology

[edit]

Main article: Gnosis

Gnosis is a feminine Greek noun which means "knowledge" or "awareness".[11] It and the associated verb are often used for personal knowledge, as compared with intellectual knowledge (Greek verb εἴδειν eídein). A related term is the adjective gnostikos, "of or for knowledge",[12] a reasonably common adjective in Classical Greek.[13]

By the Hellenistic period, it began also to be associated with Greco-Roman mysteries, becoming synonymous with the Greek term mysterion. Consequentially, Gnosis often refers to knowledge based on personal experience or perception.[citation needed] 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.[14] Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or perception and learning – as a particular modality for living".[15] 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][subnote 1] Plato's use of "learned" is fairly typical of Classical texts.[note 2]

Sometimes employed in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, the adjective is not used in the New Testament, but Clement of Alexandria[note 3] who speaks of the "learned" (gnostikos) Christian quite often, uses it in complimentary terms.[16] 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.[18][note 7][note 8][note 9] The term "Gnosticism" does not appear in ancient sources,[20][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.[21][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)".[22][note 12]

## Origins

[edit]

The origins of Gnosticism are obscure and still disputed. Alexandria was of central importance for the birth of Gnosticism. Gnosticism is strongly influenced by Middle Platonism and its theory of forms.[24][25][26] Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Middle Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts.[3] 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."[27] The proto-orthodox Christian groups called Gnostics a heresy of Christianity.[note 13][29]

While rejecting the underlying framing that proto-orthodox Christianity is the 'original' and 'true' Christianity from which Gnosticism and other 'heresies' then deviated, scholars such as Simone Pétrement[30] and David Brakke[31] have argued that Gnosticism originated as an intra-Christian movement, being one of several responses to the life, death, and presumed resurrection of Jesus, with Pétrement tracing it specifically to tendencies in the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John.[32] Within early Christianity, the teachings of Paul the Apostle and John the Evangelist 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.[27]

Other modern scholars hold that Gnosticism arose within Judaism and later incorporated stories about Jesus into pre-existing speculation about a cosmic Savior and Philo's Jewish interpretation of Middle Platonic thought about the demiurge and the logos.[33][34][35][36][37][note 14][38] A small minority of scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Buddhism, due to similarities in beliefs.[39]

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.[40][41] 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."[42]

### Jewish Christian origins

[edit]

See also: Origins of Christianity and Split of Christianity and Judaism

A common position is that Gnosticism has Jewish Christian origins, originating in the late first century AD in nonrabbinical Jewish sects and early Christian sects.[43][36][37][note 14] Ethel S. Drower adds, "heterodox Judaism in Galilee and Samaria appears to have taken shape in the form we now call Gnostic, and it may well have existed some time before the Christian era."[44]: xv

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.[45] The cosmogonic speculations among Christian Gnostics had partial origins in Maaseh Breshit 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 merkabah mysticism, which can also be found in certain Gnostic documents.[43] Quispel sees Gnosticism as an independent Jewish development, tracing its origins to Alexandrian Jews, to which group Valentinus was also connected.[46]

Many of the Nag Hammadi texts make reference to stories and characters from the Hebrew Bible, in some cases with a violent rejection of the Jewish God.[37][note 14] Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the Greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism",[47] though Professor Steven Bayme said Gnosticism would be better characterized as anti-Judaism.[48] However, recent research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from Hekhalot literature.[49]

### Angel christology

[edit]

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.[50]

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...[51]

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".[52]

### Platonic influences

[edit]

See also: Platonic Academy, Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism and Christianity

In the 1880s Gnostic connections with Platonism were proposed.[53] Ugo Bianchi, who organised the Congress of Messina of 1966 on the origins of Gnosticism, also argued for Orphic and Platonic origins.[46] Gnostics borrowed significant ideas and terms from Platonism,[54] 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 Neopythagorean academies or schools of thought.[55] Both schools attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy.[56]

The Gnostics were strongly opposed by Plotinus and later Neoplatonists, who rejected their radical dualism and pessimistic view of creation. In his work Against the Gnostics (Enneads II.9), Plotinus criticized Gnostic cosmology, arguing that the material world was not inherently evil but rather a reflection of the One through a series of divine emanations. Neoplatonists such as Porphyry and Proclus continued this critique, defending the Demiurge as a benevolent force and emphasizing the soul's ascent to the divine through intellectual and contemplative purification, rather than through esoteric knowledge (gnosis) alone. While Neoplatonism retained some mystical and hierarchical elements that paralleled Gnostic thought, it ultimately positioned itself as an alternative, philosophical path to transcendence that was rooted in classical Greek rationalism rather than Gnostic revelation.[57]

### Persian origins or influences

[edit]

Early research into the origins of Gnosticism proposed Persian origins or influences, spreading to Europe and incorporating Jewish elements.[58] According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[53] and Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931) situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.[53]

Carsten Colpe (b. 1929) has analyzed and criticised the Iranian hypothesis of Reitzenstein, showing that many of his hypotheses are untenable.[59] 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.[46]

However, scholars specializing in Mandaeism such as Kurt Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macúch, Ethel S. Drower, James F. McGrath, Charles G. Häberl, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, and Şinasi Gündüz argue for a Judean–Israelite origin. The majority of these scholars believe that the Mandaeans likely have a historical connection with John the Baptist's inner circle of disciples.[44][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] Charles Häberl, who is also a linguist specializing in Mandaic, finds Palestinian and Samaritan Aramaic influence on Mandaic and accepts Mandaeans having a "shared Palestinian history with Jews".[67][68]

### Buddhist parallels

[edit]

Main article: Buddhism and Gnosticism

In 1966, at the Congress of Median, Buddhologist Edward Conze noted phenomenological commonalities between Mahayana Buddhism and Gnosticism,[69] in his paper Buddhism and Gnosis, following an early suggestion put forward by Isaac Jacob Schmidt.[70][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 called it a "possibility".[74]

## Characteristics

[edit]

### Cosmology

[edit]

The Syrian–Egyptian traditions postulate a remote, supreme Godhead, the Monad.[75] From this highest divinity emanate lower divine beings, known as Aeons. The Demiurge arises among the Aeons and creates the physical world. Divine elements "fall" into the material realm, and are latent in human beings. Redemption from the fall occurs when the humans obtain Gnosis, esoteric or intuitive knowledge of the divine.[76]

### Dualism and monism

[edit]

See also: Nontrinitarianism

Gnostic systems postulate a dualism between God and the world,[77] 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.[78]

### Moral and ritual practice

[edit]

Gnostics tended toward asceticism, especially in their sexual and dietary practice.[79] In other areas of morality, Gnostics were less rigorously ascetic, and took a more moderate approach to correct behavior. In normative early Christianity, the Church administered and prescribed the correct behavior for Christians, while in Gnosticism it was the internalized motivation which was important. Ptolemy's Epistle to Flora described limited fasting, but maintained that true "spiritual" fasting would be to refrain from everything bad.[note 17] For example, ritualistic behavior was not seen to possess as much importance as other practice, unless it was based on a personal, internal motivation.[81]

### Female representation

[edit]

The role women played in Gnosticism is still being explored. The very few women in most Gnostic literature are portrayed as chaotic, disobedient, and enigmatic.[82] However, the Nag Hammadi texts place women in roles of leadership and heroism.[82][83][84]

## Concepts

[edit]

### Monad

[edit]

Main article: Monad (Gnosticism)

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.

### Pleroma

[edit]

Main article: 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 its divine origins. The term is thus a central element of Gnostic cosmology.

The term ‘pleroma’ is also used in the general Greek language, and it 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 which must be interpreted in a Gnostic sense.

### Emanation

[edit]

Main article: Emanationism

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.[clarification needed][citation needed]

### Aeon

[edit]

Main article: Aeon (Gnosticism)

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,[85][86][87] 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.[88] The numbers of these pairings varied from text to text, though some identify their number as being thirty.[89] 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.[citation needed]

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.[90]

### Sophia

[edit]

Main article: Sophia (Gnosticism)

In Gnostic tradition, the name Sophia (Σοφία, Greek for "wisdom") refers to the final emanation of God, and is identified with the anima mundi or world-soul. She is occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of Achamoth [dubious – discuss] (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.[91] 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 and negative depictions of materiality depend on the myth's depictions of Sophia's actions. Sophia, in this highly patriarchal narrative, is described as unruly and disobedient, which is due to her bringing a creation of chaos into the world.[84] The creation of the Demiurge was an act done without her counterpart's consent. Because of the predefined hierarchy between them, this action contributed to the narrative that she was unruly and disobedient.[92]

Sophia, emanating without her partner, resulted in the production of the Demiurge (Greek: lit. "public builder"),[93] who is also referred to as Yaldabaoth and variations thereof in some Gnostic texts.[85] This creature is concealed outside the pleroma;[85] 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.[85][94] In response, the Godhead emanates two savior aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit; Christ then takes on material form in the figure of Jesus, in an act of divine embodiment, in order to teach humans how to achieve gnosis, by which they may return to the pleroma.[95]

### Demiurge

[edit]

Main article: Demiurge

A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon's L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures may be a depiction of Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge; however, see Mithraic Zervan Akarana.[96]

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",[85] "Saklas" (Syriac: sækla, "the foolish one"), or "Samael" (Aramaic: sæmʻa-ʼel, "blind god"), 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 human nature.[98] The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named archons who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it.[85] The inferiority of the demiurge's creation may be compared to the technical inferiority of a work of art, painting, sculpture, etc. to the thing the art represents. In other cases, it takes on a more ascetic tendency to view material existence negatively, which then becomes more extreme when materiality, including the human body, is perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants.

Moral judgments of the demiurge vary from group to group within the broad category of Gnosticism, viewing materiality as inherently evil or as merely flawed and as good as its passive constituent matter allows.[99]

### Archon

[edit]

Main article: Archon (Gnosticism)

In late antiquity, some variants of Gnosticism used the term archon to refer to several servants of the demiurge.[94] 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.[100] Ialdabaoth had a head of a lion.[85][101]

### Other concepts

[edit]

Other Gnostic concepts are:[102]

* sarkic – earthly, hidebound, ignorant, uninitiated. The lowest level of human thought is the fleshly, instinctive level of thinking.
* hylic – lowest order of the three types of humans. They cannot 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.
* hypostasis – literally "that which stands beneath" the inner reality, emanation (appearance) of God, known to psychics
* ousia – the essence of God, known to pneumatics. Specific individual things or being.

## Jesus as Gnostic saviour

[edit]

Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the earth,[103][95] 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.[104] Others believed Jesus was divine, although did not have a physical body, reflected in the later Docetist movement. Among the Mandaeans, Jesus was considered a mšiha kdaba or "false messiah" who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist.[105] Still other traditions identify Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, and Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, as salvific figures.

## Development

[edit]

Three periods can be discerned in the development of Gnosticism:[106]

* 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";[106]
* 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:[106]

* Genesis was reinterpreted in Jewish milieux, 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.[106][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 resurrection;[106]
* A mythical story developed about the descent of a heavenly creature to reveal the Divine world as the true home of human beings.[106] 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".[27]

The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths,[108] 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.[109] 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

[edit]

Part of a series on the

History of
Christian theology

Background

* Christian theology
* Diversity in early Christian theology
* Adoptionism
* Arianism
* Docetism
* Gnosticism
* Marcionism
* Montanism
* Early Christianity
* Proto-orthodox Christianity
* Timeline
* History of Christianity
* Template:History of Christianity
* Ecclesiastical polity
* Trinitarianism
* Nontrinitarianism
* Christology
* Paterology
* Pneumatology
* Mariology
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* Deuterocanon
* Hermeneutics
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* African American
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* Philosophical theology
* Christian philosophy
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* Persecution and tolerance
* Historical theology

Ecumenical Creeds

* Apostles'
* Nicene

Chalcedonian
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Patristics and Councils

* Great church
* ante-Nicene period
* Church Fathers
* Apostolic Fathers
* Cappadocian Fathers
* Desert Fathers
* Desert Mothers
* Augustine

Nicaea
* Ephesus
* Chalcedon

Post-Nicene development

* Heresy
* Monophysitism
* Monothelitism
* Byzantine Iconoclasm
* Gregory I
* Alcuin
* Photios
* East–West Schism
* Scholasticism
* Aquinas
* Anselm
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Reformation

* Martin Luther
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* Trent
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Dillon notes that Gnosticism raises questions about the development of early Christianity.[110]

### Orthodoxy and heresy

[edit]

See also: Diversity in early Christian theology

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.[111][109][112][110] Gnostics and proto-orthodox Christians shared some terminology. Initially, they were hard to distinguish from each other.[113]

According to Walter Bauer, "heresies" may well have been the original form of Christianity in many regions.[114] This theme was further developed by Elaine Pagels,[115] who argues that "the proto-orthodox church found itself in debates with Gnostic Christians that helped them to stabilize their own beliefs."[110] 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.[116] On the other hand, Larry Hurtado argues that proto-orthodox Christianity was rooted into first-century Christianity:

> ...to a remarkable extent early-second-century protoorthodox devotion to Jesus represents a concern to preserve, respect, promote, and develop what were by then becoming traditional expressions of belief and reverence, and that had originated in earlier years of the Christian movement. That is, proto-orthodox faith tended to affirm and develop devotional and confessional tradition [...] Arland Hultgren[117] has shown that the roots of this appreciation of traditions of faith actually go back deeply and widely into first-century Christianity.[118]

### Historical Jesus

[edit]

See also: Jesus in comparative mythology and Christ myth theory

The Gnostic movements may contain information about the historical Jesus, since some texts preserve sayings which show similarities with canonical sayings.[119] The Gospel of Thomas in particular has a significant amount of parallel sayings.[119] 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.[120] 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.[120] An alternative hypothesis states that the Thomas authors wrote in the second century, changing existing sayings and eliminating the apocalyptic concerns.[120] 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."[120] According to scholar-priest John P. Meier, scholars predominantly conclude that the gospel of Thomas depends on or parallels the Synoptics.[6] Meier has repeatedly argued against the historicity of the Gospel of Thomas, stating that it cannot be a reliable source for the quest of the historical Jesus and also considers it a Gnostic text.[121] He has also argued against the authenticity of the parables found exclusively in the Gospel of Thomas.[122] According to James Dunn, the Gnostic emphasis on an inherent difference between flesh and spirit represented a significant departure from the teachings of the Historical Jesus and his earliest followers.[123]

### Johannine literature

[edit]

The prologue of the Gospel of John describes the incarnated Logos, the light that came to earth, in the person of Jesus.[124] 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.[124] 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."[124] The Johannine material reveals debates about the redeemer myth.[106] 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.[106] According to DeConick, the Gospel of John shows a "transitional system from early Christianity to gnostic beliefs in a God who transcends our world."[124] 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.[124]

### Paul and Gnosticism

[edit]

Tertullian calls Paul "the apostle of the heretics",[125] 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.[126] In I Corinthians (1 Corinthians 8:10), Paul refers to some church members as "having knowledge" (Greek: τὸν ἔχοντα γνῶσιν, ton echonta gnosin). James Dunn writes that in some cases, Paul affirmed views that were closer to Gnosticism than to proto-orthodox Christianity.[127]

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,[127] and Elaine Pagels notes that Paul's epistles were interpreted by Valentinus in a Gnostic way, and Paul could be considered a proto-gnostic and a proto-Catholic.[102] Many Nag Hammadi texts, including, for example, the Prayer of Paul and the Coptic Apocalypse of Paul, consider Paul to be "the great apostle".[127] 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.[128] The Naassenes, Cainites, and Valentinians referred to Paul's epistles.[129] However, his revelation was different from the Gnostic revelations.[130]

## Major movements

[edit]

### Judean–Israelite Gnosticism

[edit]

Although Elkesaites and Mandaeans were found mainly in Mesopotamia in the first few centuries of the common era, their origins appear to be Judean–Israelite in the Jordan valley.[131][132]

#### Elkesaites

[edit]

Main article: Elcesaites

The Elkesaites were a Judeo-Christian baptismal sect that originated in the Transjordan and were active between 100 and 400 AD.[131] The members of this sect performed frequent baptisms for purification and had a Gnostic disposition.[131][133]: 123  The sect is named after its leader Elkesai.[134]

According to Joseph Lightfoot, the Church Father Epiphanius (writing in the 4th century AD) seems to make a distinction between two main groups within the Essenes:[135] "Of those that came before his [Elxai (Elkesai), an Ossaean prophet] time and during it, the Ossaeans and the Nasaraeans."[136]

#### Mandaeism

[edit]

Main article: Mandaeism

Part of a series on

Mandaeism

Prophets

* Adam
* Seth
* Noah
* Shem
* John the Baptist

Names for adherents

* Mandaeans
* Sabians
* Nasoraeans
* Gnostics

Scriptures

* Ginza Rabba
* Right Ginza
* Left Ginza
* Mandaean Book of John
* Qulasta (list)
* Haran Gawaita
* The Wedding of the Great Shishlam
* The Baptism of Hibil Ziwa
* Diwan Abatur
* The Thousand and Twelve Questions
* Scroll of Exalted Kingship
* The Coronation of the Great Shishlam
* Alma Rišaia Rba
* Alma Rišaia Zuṭa
* Zihrun Raza Kasia
* Scroll of the Parwanaya
* Book of the Zodiac
* Dmut Kušṭa
* Scroll of the Rivers
* Secrets of the Ancestors
* Scroll of the Ancestors

Priests

* Rishama
* Ganzibra
* Tarmida
* Shganda

Individual leaders

* Miriai
* Shlama beth Qidra
* Zazai of Gawazta
* Anush Bar Danqa
* Yahya Bihram
* Dakhil Aidan
* Jabbar Choheili
* Sattar Jabbar Hilow
* Najah Choheili
* Salah Choheili
* Brikha Nasoraia

Rituals

* Masbuta
* Masiqta
* Tamasha
* Rishama
* Kushta
* Qabin
* Misha

Ritual food and drink

* Mambuha
* Halalta
* Hamra
* Pihta
* Fatira
* Zidqa brikha
* Lofani
* Sa
* Dukrana

Practices

* Belief in Oneness of God
* Daily prayer
* Baptism
* Fasting
* Almsgiving

Objects and symbols

* Drabsha
* Rasta
* Burzinqa
* Pandama
* Klila
* Taga
* Riha
* Skandola

Cosmology

* Hayyi Rabbi
* World of Light
* Mana
* Manda
* Uthra
* Manda d-Hayyi
* Yushamin
* Abatur
* Ptahil
* Hibil
* Shitil
* Anush
* Sam Ziwa
* Bihram Rabba
* Adathan
* Yadathan
* Shilmai
* Nidbai
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* Ruha
* Ur
* Krun
* Gaf
* Qin
* Zahreil
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* Giu
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* Zartai-Zartanai
* Hag
* Mag

Festivals

* Parwanaya
* Dehwa Rabba
* Dehwa d-Shishlam Rabba
* Dehwa Daimana
* Dehwa Hanina
* Abu al-Haris (Ashoriya)
* Ead Fel

Places

* Yardena
* Beth Manda
* Shkinta
* Andiruna

Prayers

* Sidra d-Nishmata
* Asut Malkia
* Rushuma
* Rahma
* Tabahatan
* Shumhata
* Bshuma

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Mandaeans in prayer during baptism Mandaean Beth Manda (Mashkhanna) in Nasiriyah, southern Iraq, in 2016, a contemporary-style mandi

Mandaeism is a Gnostic, monotheistic and ethnic religion.[137]: 4 [138] The Mandaeans are an ethnoreligious group that speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. They are the only surviving Gnostics from antiquity.[139] Their religion has been practiced 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 Iranian province of Khuzestan, and there are thought to be between 60,000 and 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide.[140]

The name 'Mandaean' comes from the Aramaic manda meaning knowledge.[141] 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."[142] 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 most important holy scripture is known as the Ginza Rabba and has portions identified by some scholars as being copied as early as the 2nd–3rd centuries,[133] while others such as S. F. Dunlap place it in the 1st century.[143] There is also the Qulasta (Mandaean prayerbook) and the Mandaean Book of John (Sidra ḏ'Yahia) and other scriptures.

Mandaeans believe that there is a constant battle or conflict between the forces of good and evil. The forces of good are represented by Nhura (Light) and Maia Hayyi (Living Water) and those of evil are represented by Hshuka (Darkness) and Maia Tahmi (dead or rancid water). The two waters are mixed in all things in order to achieve a balance. Mandaeans also believe in an afterlife or heaven called Alma d-Nhura (World of Light).[144]

In Mandaeism, the World of Light is ruled by a Supreme God, known as Hayyi Rabbi ('The Great Life' or 'The Great Living God').[144][133][141] God is so great, vast, and incomprehensible that no words can fully depict how immense God is. It is believed that an innumerable number of Uthras (angels or guardians),[62]: 8  manifested from the light, surround and perform acts of worship to praise and honor God. They inhabit worlds separate from the lightworld and some are commonly referred to as emanations and are subservient beings to the Supreme God who is also known as 'The First Life'. Their names include Second, Third, and Fourth Life (i.e. Yōšamin, Abathur, and Ptahil).[145][62]: 8

The Lord of Darkness (Krun) is the ruler of the World of Darkness formed from dark waters representing chaos.[145][133] A main defender of the darkworld is a giant monster, or dragon, with the name Ur, and an evil, female ruler also inhabits the darkworld, known as Ruha.[145] The Mandaeans believe these malevolent rulers created demonic offspring who consider themselves the owners of the seven planets and twelve zodiac constellations.[145]

According to Mandaean beliefs, the material world is a mixture of light and dark created by Ptahil, who fills the role of the demiurge, with help from dark powers, such as Ruha the Seven, and the Twelve.[146] Adam's body (believed to be the first human created by God in Abrahamic tradition) was fashioned by these dark beings, however his soul (or mind) was a direct creation from the Light. Therefore, Mandaeans believe the human soul is capable of salvation because it originates from the World of Light. The soul, sometimes referred to as the 'inner Adam' or Adam kasia, is in dire need of being rescued from the dark, so it may ascend into the heavenly realm of the World of Light.[145]

Baptisms are a central theme in Mandaeism, believed to be necessary for the redemption of the soul. Mandaeans do not perform a single baptism, as in religions such as Christianity; rather, they view baptisms as a ritual act capable of bringing the soul closer to salvation.[147] Therefore, Mandaeans are baptized repeatedly during their lives.[148] Mandaeans consider John the Baptist to have been a Nasoraean Mandaean.[133]: 3 [149][150] John is referred to as their greatest and final teacher.[62][133]

Jorunn J. Buckley and other scholars specializing in Mandaeism believe that the Mandaeans originated about two thousand years ago in the Judean region and moved east due to persecution.[151][132][152] Others claim a southwestern Mesopotamia origin.[153] However, some scholars take the view that Mandaeism is older and dates from pre-Christian times.[154] Mandaeans assert that their religion predates Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a monotheistic faith.[155] Mandaeans believe that they descend directly from Shem, Noah's son,[133]: 182  and also from John the Baptist's original disciples.[156]

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.[156]: IX [157] The Valentinians embraced a Mandaean baptismal formula in their rituals in the 2nd century AD.[132] Birger A. Pearson compares the Five Seals of Sethianism, which he believes is a reference to quintuple ritual immersion in water, to Mandaean masbuta.[158] According to Jorunn J. Buckley, "Sethian Gnostic literature ... is related, perhaps as a younger sibling, to Mandaean baptism ideology."[159]

In addition to accepting Mandaeism's Israelite or Judean origins, Buckley adds:

> [T]he Mandaeans may well have become the inventors of – or at least contributors to the development of – Gnosticism ... and they produced the most voluminous Gnostic literature we know, in one language... influenc[ing] the development of Gnostic and other religious groups in late antiquity [e.g. Manichaeism, Valentianism].[132]

#### Samaritan Baptist sects

[edit]

According to Magris, Samaritan Baptist sects trace back to John the Baptist.[160] 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.[160] The Samaritan leaders were viewed as "the embodiment of God's power, spirit, or wisdom, and as the redeemer and revealer of 'true knowledge'".[160]

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.[161]

The Quqites were a group who followed a Samaritan, Iranian type of Gnosticism in 2nd-century AD Erbil and in the vicinity of what is today northern Iraq. The sect was named after their founder Quq, known as "the potter". The Quqite ideology arose in Edessa, Syria, in the 2nd century. The Quqites stressed the Hebrew Bible, made changes in the New Testament, associated twelve prophets with twelve apostles, and held that the latter corresponded to the same number of gospels. Their beliefs seem to have been eclectic, with elements of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, astrology, and Gnosticism.

### Syriac–Egyptian Gnosticism

[edit]

Syriac–Egyptian Gnosticism includes Sethianism, Valentinianism, Basilideans, Thomasine traditions, and Serpent Gnostics, and a number of other minor groups and writers.[162] Hermeticism is also a western Gnostic tradition,[109] though it differs in some respects from these other groups.[163] The Syriac–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,[164] as is even St. Paul.[102] Most of the literature from this category is known to us through the Nag Hammadi Library.

#### Sethite-Barbeloite

[edit]

Main article: Sethianism

Sethianism was one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd to 3rd centuries, and the prototype of Gnosticism as condemned by Irenaeus.[165] Sethianism attributed its gnosis to Seth, third son of Adam and Eve and Norea, wife of Noah, who also plays a role in Mandaeism and Manicheanism. Their main text is the Apocryphon of John, containing two earlier myths.[166] Earlier texts such as Apocalypse of Adam show signs of being pre-Christian and focus on Seth.[167] Later Sethian texts continue to interact with Platonism. Sethian texts such as Zostrianos and Allogenes draw on the imagery of older Sethian texts, but use "a large fund of philosophical conceptuality derived from contemporary Platonism, (that is, late middle Platonism) with no traces of Christian content."[55][note 22]

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".[168] 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.[169]

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.[170] According to Temporini, Vogt, and Haase, early Sethians may be identical to or related to the Nazarenes, the Ophites, or the sectarian group called heretics by Philo.[167]

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,[171] named after Barbelo, the first emanation of the Highest God, and a group of Biblical exegetes, the Sethites, the "seed of Seth".[172] At the end of the second century, Sethianism grew apart from the developing Christian orthodoxy, which rejected the Docetic view of the Sethians on Christ.[173] 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.[174] 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.[175][55] Some of these groups existed into the Middle Ages.[175]

#### Valentinianism

[edit]

Main article: Valentinianism

Valentinianism was named after its founder Valentinus (c. 100 – c. 180), who was a candidate for bishop of Rome but started his own group when another was chosen.[176] 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,[177] and Valentinus is specifically named as gnostikos by Irenaeus. It was an intellectually vibrant tradition,[178] 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 23] 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.[181] 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.[181]

The followers of Valentinus 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 24]

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.[182] 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.[30]

#### Basilideans

[edit]

Main article: Basilideans

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.[183] 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.

#### Thomasine traditions

[edit]

The Thomasine Traditions refers to a group of texts which are attributed to the apostle Thomas.[184][note 25] Karen L. King notes that "Thomasine Gnosticism" as a separate category is being criticised, and may "not stand the test of scholarly scrutiny".[185]

#### Marcion

[edit]

Marcion was a Church leader from Sinope (a city on the south shore of the Black Sea in present-day Turkey), who preached in Rome around 150 AD,[186] 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.[106] Some scholars do not consider him to be a Gnostic,[187][note 26] but his teachings clearly resemble some Gnostic teachings.[186] 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.[186][15] 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.[188] 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.[188]

#### Hermeticism

[edit]

Hermeticism is closely related to Gnosticism, but its orientation is more positive.[109][163][clarification needed]

#### Other Gnostic groups

[edit]

* Serpent Gnostics. The Naassenes, Ophites and the Serpentarians gave prominence to snake symbolism, and snake handling played a role in their ceremonies.[186]
* Cerinthus (c. 100), the founder of a 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.[189]
* The Cainites are so-named since Hippolytus of Rome claims that they worshiped Cain, and venerated Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and Judas Iscariot. 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.[190]
* The Carpocratians, a libertine sect following only the Gospel according to the Hebrews.[191]
* The school of Justin, which combined gnostic elements with the ancient Greek religion.[192]
* The Borborites, a libertine Gnostic sect, said to be descended from the Nicolaitans[193]

### Persian Gnosticism

[edit]

The Persian schools, which appeared in the western Persian Sasanian province of Asoristan, and whose writings were originally produced in the Eastern Aramaic dialects spoken in Mesopotamia 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.[citation needed]

#### Manichaeism

[edit]

Main article: Manichaeism

Manichean priests writing at their desks, with panel inscription in Sogdian. Manuscript from Qocho, Tarim Basin.

Manichaeism was founded by 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 240–241, Mani travelled to the Indo-Greek Kingdom of the Sakas in what is now 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, an Eastern Aramaic language, 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,[194] 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.[195]

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.[145] In the west, the teachings of the school moved into Syria, Northern Arabia, Egypt and North Africa.[note 27] There is evidence for Manicheans in Rome and Dalmatia in the 4th century, and also in Gaul and Spain. From Syria, it progressed further into Syria Palestina, Anatolia, and Byzantine and Persian Armenia.

The influence of Manicheanism was attacked by imperial edicts and polemical writings, but the religion remained prevalent until the 6th century, and still exerted influence in the emergence of Paulicianism, Bogomilism, and Catharism in the Middle Ages, until it was ultimately stamped out by the Catholic Church.[145]

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 flourished most in Central Asia, to which it had spread through Iran. There, in 762, Manicheanism became the state religion of the Uyghur Khaganate.[145]

### Middle Ages

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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.[198]

#### Islam

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Some Sufistic interpretations depict Iblis as ruling the material desires in a manner that resembles the Gnostic Demiurge.

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, God is identifiable with the Monad.[199][200]

However, according to Islam and unlike most Gnostic sects, it is not rejection of this world but the performing of good deeds that leads to Paradise. According to the Islamic belief in tawhid ("unification of God"), there was no room for a lower deity such as the demiurge.[201]

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.[202]

In the Isma'ili Shi'i work Umm al-Kitab, Azazil's role resembles whose of the demiurge.[203] Like the demiurge, he is endowed with the ability to create a world and seeks to imprison humans in the material world, but here, his power is limited and depends on the higher God.[204] Such anthropogenic[clarification needed] can be found frequently among Isma'ili traditions.[205] In fact, Isma'ilism has been often criticised as non-Islamic.[citation needed] Al-Ghazali characterized them as a group who are outwardly Shia but were adherents of a dualistic and philosophical religion.

Further traces of Gnostic ideas can be found in Sufi anthropogeny.[clarification needed][206] 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.[207] The ruh (pneuma, spirit) must therefore gain victory over the lower and material-bound nafs (psyche, soul, or anima) 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 lower desires, it can be disputed whether this can still be Gnostic, but rather a completion of the message of Muhammad.[208]

It seems that Gnostic ideas were an influential part of early Islamic development but later lost its influence. However light metaphors and the idea of unity of existence (Arabic: وحدة الوجود, romanized: waḥdat al-wujūd) still prevailed in later Islamic thought, such as that of ibn Sina.[200]

#### Kabbalah

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Gershom Scholem, a historian of Jewish philosophy, wrote that several core Gnostic ideas reappear in medieval Kabbalah, where they are used to reinterpret earlier Jewish sources. In these cases, according to Scholem, texts such as the Zohar adapted Gnostic precepts for the interpretation of the Torah, while not using the language of Gnosticism.[209] Scholem further proposed that there was a Jewish Gnosticism which influenced the early origins of Christian Gnosticism.[210]

Given that some of the earliest dated Kabbalistic texts emerged in medieval Provence, at which time Cathar movements were also supposed to have been active, Scholem and other mid-20th century scholars argued that there was mutual influence between the two groups. According to Dan Joseph, this hypothesis has not been substantiated by any extant texts.[211]

Moshe Idel however has argued that the Gnostic or esoteric ideas found in Kabbalah have Jewish roots from ancient times, though we do not have written records of them.[212]

### Modern times

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Main article: Gnosticism in modern times

Found today in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities, the Mandaeans are an ancient Gnostic ethnoreligious group that follow John the Baptist and have survived from antiquity.[213] Their name comes from the Aramaic manda meaning knowledge or gnosis.[141] There are thought to be 60,000 to 70,000 Mandaeans worldwide.[140][145] A number of modern Gnostic ecclesiastical bodies have been 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, and the North American College of Gnostic Bishops.[214] A number of 19th-century thinkers such as Arthur Schopenhauer,[215] 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.[216] 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),[217] and, though small, is still active today.

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.[216] Celia Green has written on Gnostic Christianity in relation to her own philosophy.[218] 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.[219]

## Sources

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### Heresiologists

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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 against 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'.[220] Irenaeus (died c. 202) wrote Against Heresies (c. 180–185), which identifies Simon Magus from Flavia Neapolis in Samaria as the inceptor of Gnosticism. Irenaeus charted an apparent spread of the teachings of Simon through the ancient "knowers" into the teachings of Valentinus and other contemporaneous Gnostic sects.[note 28] Hippolytus (170–235) wrote the ten-volume Refutation Against all Heresies, of which eight have been found. It also focuses on the connection between pre-Socratic ideas and the false beliefs of early Gnostic 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 – c. 230) from Carthage wrote Adversus Valentinianos ('Against the Valentinians'), c. 206, and five books around 207–208 chronicling and refuting the teachings of Marcion.

### Gnostic texts

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See also: Gnostic texts and Nag Hammadi library

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 is a collection of mostly 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.[221] 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.[222] 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 29]

## Academic studies

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### Development

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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.[58] 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.[58]

In the 1880s, Gnosticism was placed within Greek philosophy, especially neo-Platonism.[53] Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who belonged to the History of Dogma school and proposed a Kirchengeschichtliches Ursprungsmodell, saw Gnosticism as an internal development within the church under the influence of Greek philosophy.[53][224] According to Harnack, Gnosticism was the "acute Hellenization of Christianity".[53]

The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule ("history of religions school", 19th century) had a profound influence on the study of Gnosticism.[53] The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule saw Gnosticism as a pre-Christian phenomenon, and Christian gnosis as only one, and even marginal instance of this phenomenon.[53] According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[53] and Eduard Norden (1868–1941) also proposed pre-Christian origins,[53] while Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931), and Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) also situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.[53] Hans Heinrich Schaeder (1896–1957) and Hans Leisegang (1890–1951) saw Gnosticism as an amalgam of eastern thought in a Greek form.[53]

Hans Jonas (1903–1993) took an intermediate approach, using both the comparative approach of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule and the existentialist hermeneutics of Rudolph Bultmann.[225]: 94-95  Jonas emphasized the duality between the Gnostic God and the world. Jonas concluded that Gnosticism cannot be derived from Platonism, nor from Judaism. Instead, he proposed that Gnosticism manifested an existential situation triggered by the conquests of Alexander The Great. Following Weber and Spengler, he noted the impact of the conquests on Greek city-states (in the "West") and castes of priest-intellectuals (in the Persian "East").[225]: 107-108 [226] Following Jonas's existential lead and some of his methods, scholarship contemporary to Jonas advocated a different proposal, claiming that Gnosticism has Jewish or Judeo-Christian origins;[225][43] These theses were notably put forward by Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006).[227]

The study of Gnosticism and of early Alexandrian Christianity received a strong impetus from the discovery of the Coptic Nag Hammadi library in 1945.[228][229] A great number of translations have been published, and the works of Elaine Pagels, 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 provoked strong responses and condemnations from clerical writers.[230] As of the 1970s, these and other publications applied the revised version of Jonas's proposal and criticized it, mostly relating to the evidence regarding "Pre-Cristian" Gnosticism.[225]: 115

A prominent shift of emphasis surfaced during the mid-1990s and the early years of the 21st century. In 1996, Michael Williams published his landmark Rethinking "Gnosticism" where he doubted the applicability of "Gnosticism" as a socio-historical category. Instead, and somewhat to the converse, he proposed the use of "Biblical-Demiurgic tradition", where "tradition" is read as a collective religious choice that competes on the religious "marketplace".[225]: 116  In 2004, Karen Leigh King published her equally important What is Gnosticism?. Broadly, King's book traces elements of the history of research, arguing that the term and its typical connotations do injustice to the diversity and breadth of early Christianity. Thus, in King's reading, it is not precisely the category of Gnosticism that is flawed, but the way in which it was conceived and applied, a form of self/other rhetoric that rendered the remaining portion of Christianity less diverse for centuries to come.[225]: 116-117

The effects of Williams and King cannot be understated, to the point that "Gnostic studies" often became "Nag Hammadi studies". Nevertheless, some scholars seem to retain either a nuanced version of the term, considered "the Gnostic school of thought",[231] or as a unique phenomenon regardless of defamation campaigns.[232]

### Definitions of Gnosticism

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According to Matthew J. Dillon, six trends can be discerned in the definitions of Gnosticism:[233]

* Typologies, "a catalogue of shared characteristics that are used to classify a group of objects together."[233]
* Traditional approaches, viewing Gnosticism as a Christian heresy[234]
* Phenomenological approaches, most notably Hans Jonas[235][236]
* Restricting Gnosticism, "identifying which groups were explicitly called gnostics",[237] or which groups were clearly sectarian[237]
* Deconstructing Gnosticism, abandoning the category of "Gnosticism"[238]
* Psychology and cognitive science of religion, approaching Gnosticism as a psychological phenomenon[239]

#### Typologies

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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.[240]

This definition has now been abandoned.[233] It created a religion, "Gnosticism", from the "gnosis" which was a widespread element of ancient religions,[note 30] suggesting a homogeneous conception of gnosis by these Gnostic religions, which did not exist at the time.[241]

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)."[233] Dillon further notes that the Messina-definition "also excluded pre-Christian Gnosticism and later developments, such as the Mandaeans and the Manichaeans."[233]

Hans Jonas discerned two main currents of Gnosticism, namely Syrian-Egyptian, and Persian, which includes Manicheanism and Mandaeism.[43] 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)[165] 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.[242] Other authors speak rather of "Gnostic Christians", noting that Gnostics were a prominent substream in the early church.[243]

#### Traditional approaches – Gnosticism as Christian heresy

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The best known example of this approach is Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), who stated that "Gnosticism is the acute Hellenization of Christianity."[234] 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.[236]

#### Phenomenological approaches

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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.[236]

#### Restricting Gnosticism

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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".[237]

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.[237]

### Criticism of "Gnosticism" as a category

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According to the Westar Institute's Fall 2014 Christianity Seminar Report on Gnosticism, there 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.[244]

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.[8] According to Williams, the conceptual foundations on which the category of Gnosticism rests are the remains of the agenda of the heresiologists.[8] 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,[8] and suggests to replace it with the term "the Biblical demiurgical tradition".[238]

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.[238]

In light of such increasing scholarly rejection and restriction of the concept of Gnosticism, David G. Robertson has written on the distortions which misapplications of the term continue to perpetuate in religious studies.[245]

## Psychological approaches

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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.[238]

According to Ioan Culianu, gnosis is made possible through universal operations of the mind, which can be arrived at "anytime, anywhere".[246] 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.[247]

## Notes

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1. ^ In Plato's dialogue between Young Socrates and the Foreigner in his The Statesman (258e).
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)[17]
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.[18]
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.,])."[18]
9. ^ Of those groups that Irenaeus identifies as "intellectual" (gnostikos), only one, the followers of Marcellina use the term gnostikos of themselves.[19][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"[20]
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."[21]
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 1 Timothy 6:20, and covers various groups, not just Valentinus.[23]
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", giving Basilides and Valentinus as examples[28]
14. ^ a b c 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.[37]
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).[71] Mansel (1875)[72] considered the principal sources of Gnosticism to be Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism.[73]
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 imitating others, nor out of habit, nor because of the day, as if it had been specially appointed for that purpose."[80]
18. ^ Other names include The Absolute, Aion teleos (The Perfect Æon), Bythos (Depth or Profundity, Βυθός), Proarkhe (Before the Beginning, προαρχή), and He Arkhe (The Beginning, ἡ ἀρχή).
19. ^ The relevant passage of The Republic was found within the Nag Hammadi library,[97] wherein a text existed describing the demiurge as a "lion-faced serpent".[85]
20. ^ The term dēmiourgos occurs in a number of other religious and philosophical systems, most notably Platonism. The Gnostic demiurge bears a 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.[107]
22. ^ 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."[55]
23. ^ Quotes:
* Elaine Pagels: "Valentinian gnosticism [...] differs essentially from dualism";[179]
* Schoedel: "a standard element in the interpretation of Valentinianism and similar forms of Gnosticism is the recognition that they are fundamentally monistic".[180]
24. ^ 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
25. ^ 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
26. ^ 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".
27. ^ Where Augustine was a member of the school from 373–382.[196][197]
28. ^ This understanding of the transmission of Gnostic ideas, despite Irenaeus' certain antagonistic bias, is often utilized today, though it has been criticized.
29. ^ 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."[223]
30. ^ 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."[241]

### Subnotes

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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."[19]

## References

[edit]

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### Citations

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11. ^ Liddell Scott entry γνῶσις, εως, ἡ, A. seeking to know, inquiry, investigation, esp. judicial, "τὰς τῶν δικαστηρίων γ." D.18.224; "τὴν κατὰ τοῦ διαιτητοῦ γdeetr." Id.21.92, cf. 7.9, Lycurg.141; "γ. περὶ τῆς δίκης" PHib.1.92.13 (iii B. C.). 2\. result of investigation, decision, PPetr.3p.118 (iii B. C.). II. knowing, knowledge, Heraclit.56; opp. ἀγνωσίη, Hp. Vict.1.23 (dub.); opp. ἄγνοια, Pl.R.478c; "ἡ αἴσθησις γ. τις" Arist.GA731a33: pl., "Θεὸς γνώσεων κύριος" LXX 1 Ki.2.3. b. higher, esoteric knowledge, 1 Ep.Cor.8.7,10, Ep.Eph.3.19, etc.; "χαρισάμενος ἡμῖν νοῦν, λόγον, γνῶσιν" PMag.Par.2.290. 2\. acquaintance with a person, "πρός τινα" Test. ap.Aeschin.1.50; "τῶν Σεβαστῶν" IPE1.47.6 (Olbia). 3\. recognizing, Th.7.44. 4\. means of knowing, "αἱ αἰσθήσεις κυριώταται τῶν καθ᾽ ἕκαστα γ." Arist.Metaph.981b11. III. being known, "γνῶσιν ἔχει τι", = "γνωστόν ἐστι", Pl.Tht.206b. 2\. fame, credit, Hdn.7.5.5, Luc.Herod.3. IV. means of knowing: hence, statement in writing, PLond.5.1708, etc. (vi A. D.). V. = γνῶμα, Hsch. s. h. v.
12. ^ Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek lexicon entry γνωστ-ικός, ή, όν, A. of or for knowing, cognitive: ἡ -κή (sc. ἐπιστήμη), theoretical science (opp. πρακτική), Pl.Plt.258b.c., 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.
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207. ^ Tobias Churton, Gnostic Philosophy: From Ancient Persia to Modern Times, Simon and Schuster, 2005. ISBN 978-1-594-77767-7
208. ^ Nagel 1994, p. 215.
209. ^ Scholem, Gershom. Origins of the Kabbalah, 1987. Pp. 21–22.
210. ^ Scholem, Gershom. Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition, 1965.
211. ^ Dan, Joseph. Kabbalah: a Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 24.
212. ^ Idel, Moshe (1988-01-01). Kabbalah: New Perspectives. Yale University Press. pp. 30–32\. ISBN 978-0-300-04699-1.
213. ^ Rudolph 1987, p. 343.
214. ^ Taussig, Hal (2013). A New New Testament: A Reinvented Bible for the Twenty-first Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 532\. ISBN 978-0-547-79210-1.
215. ^ Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. II, Ch. XLVIII
216. ^ a b Smith, Richard. "The Modern Relevance of Gnosticism" in The Nag Hammadi Library, 1990 ISBN 0-06-066935-7
217. ^ Pearson, Joanne (2007-05-03). Wicca and the Christian Heritage: Ritual, Sex and Magic. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-52427-3.
218. ^ Green, Celia (1981, 2006). Advice to Clever Children. Oxford: Oxford Forum. pp. xxxv–xxxvii.
219. ^ Michael Weber. Contact Made Vision: The Apocryphal Whitehead Pub. in Michel Weber and William Desmond, Jr. (eds.), Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought, Frankfurt / Lancaster, Ontos Verlag, Process Thought X1 & X2, 2008, I, pp. 573–599.
220. ^ Markschies 2003, p. 37.
221. ^ Marvin Meyer and James M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition. HarperOne, 2007. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0-06-052378-6
222. ^ Robinson 1978, Introduction.
223. ^ Layton 1987, p. xviii.
224. ^ Lahe 2006, p. 221.
225. ^ a b c d e f Sariel, Aviram. "Jonasian Gnosticism." Harvard Theological Review 116.1 (2023).
226. ^ Jonas 1963, pp. 3–27.
227. ^ Albrile 2005, pp. 3533–3534.
228. ^ Broek 1996, p. vii.
229. ^ Albrile 2005, p. 3535.
230. ^ Quispel 2004, p. 8.
231. ^ David Brakke, The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), pages 5–10
232. ^ Jonathan Cahana-Blum, Wrestling with Archons: Gnosticism as a Critical Theory of Culture (London: Rowman, 2018).
233. ^ a b c d e Dillon 2016, p. 24.
234. ^ a b Dillon 2016, p. 25.
235. ^ Jonas 1963.
236. ^ a b c Dillon 2016, p. 26.
237. ^ a b c d Dillon 2016, p. 27.
238. ^ a b c d Dillon 2016, p. 28.
239. ^ Dillon 2016, pp. 27–28.
240. ^ Markschies 2003, p. 13.
241. ^ a b Markschies 2003, pp. 14–15.
242. ^ Quispel 2005, p. 3511.
243. ^ Freke & Gandy 2005.
244. ^ "Fall 2014 Christianity Seminar Report on Gnosticism". westar institute. Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
245. ^ Robertson 2021.
246. ^ Dillon 2016, pp. 28–29.
247. ^ Conze 1975, p. 165.

### Works cited

[edit]

#### Printed sources

[edit]

This article lacks ISBNs for the books listed. Please help add the ISBNs or run the citation bot. (January 2024)

|

* Albrile, Ezio (2005). "Gnosticism: History of Study". In Jones, Lindsay (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.). Macmillan Reference USA. ISBN 978-0-02-865733-2.
* Barnstone, Willis; Meyer, Marvin (2009). The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition. Shambhala Books. ISBN 978-0-834-82414-0.
* Bauer, Walter (1979). Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. Fortress. ISBN 978-0-8006-1363-1.
* Brakke, David (2012). The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674262331.
* Broek, Roelof van den (1996). Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity.[full citation needed]
* Broek, Roelof van den (2013). Gnostic Religion in Antiquity. Cambridge University Press.
* Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen (2010). "Turning the Tables on Jesus: The Mandaean View". In Horsley, Richard (ed.). Christian Origins. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press. pp. 94–111\. ISBN 978-1451416640.
* Campbell, Joseph (1991). Occidental Mythology. Penguin Arkana.
* Chadwick, Henry (n.d.). "Early heretical movements". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
* Cohen, Arthur A.; Mendes-Flohr, Paul (2010). 20th Century Jewish Religious Thought.[full citation needed]
* Conze, Edward (1967). "Buddhism and Gnosis". In Bianchi, U. (ed.). Origins of Gnosticism: Colloquium of Messina, 13–18 April 1966.
* Conze, Edward (1975). "Buddhist prajna and Greek Sophia". Religion. 5 (2): 160–167\. doi:10.1016/0048-721X(75)90017-2.
* Culpepper, R. Alan (1999). "The Christology of the Johannine Writings". In Kingsbury, Jack Dean; Powell, Mark Allan Powell; Bauer, David R. (eds.). Who Do You Say that I Am?: Essays on Christology. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 9780664257521.
* Deutsch, Nathaniel (6 October 2007). "Save the Gnostics". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
* Dillon, Matthew J. (2016). "Gnosticism Theorized: Major Trends and Approaches to the Study of Gnosticism". In DeConick, April D. (ed.). Religion: Secret Religion. MacMillan Reference US. pp. 23–38\. doi:10.17613/0qxh-ed23. ISBN 978-0-02-866350-0.
* Dunderberg, Ismo (2008). Beyond gnosticism: myth, lifestyle, and society in the school of Valentinus. Columbia University Press.
* Dunn, James D. G. (2016). "'The Apostle of the Heretics': Paul, Valentinus, and Marcion". In Porter, Stanley E.; Yoon, David (eds.). Paul and Gnosis. Brill. pp. 105–118\. doi:10.1163/9789004316690_008. ISBN 978-90-04-31669-0.
* Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Christianities. Oxford University Press.
* Freke, Timothy; Gandy, Peter (2005). De mysterieuze Jezus. Was Jezus oorspronkelijk een heidense god? (in Dutch). Uitgeverij Synthese.
* Green, Henry (1985). Economic and Social Origins of Gnosticism. Scholars Press. ISBN 978-0-89130-843-0.
* Haar, Stephen (2012). Simon Magus: The First Gnostic?. De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3110898828.
* Halsall, Guy (2008). Barbarian migrations and the Roman West. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-43491-1.
* Huidekoper, Frederic (1891). Judaism at Rome: BC 76 to AD 140. D. G. Francis.
* Jonas, Hans (1963) [1958]. The Gnostic Religion. Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-5799-1. `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
* Hurtado, Larry W. (2005), Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity, William B Eerdmans
* King, Karen L. (2003). What is Gnosticism?. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01071-0. OCLC 51481684.
* Lahe, Jaan (2006). "Ist die Gnosis aus dem Christentum Ableitbar? Eine Kritische Auseinandersetzung mit Einem Ursprungsmodell der Gnosis". Trames (in German). 10 (3): 220–231\. doi:10.3176/tr.2006.3.02. S2CID 169297876.
* Layton, Bentley (1987). The Gnostic Scriptures. London: SCM Press. ISBN 978-0-334-02022-6.
* Layton, Bentley (1995). "Prolegomena to the study of ancient gnosticism". In White, L. Michael; Yarbrough, O. Larry (eds.). The Social World of the First Christians: Essays in Honor of Wayne A. Meeks. Minneapolis: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-0-8006-2585-6.
* Magris, Aldo (2005). "Gnosticism: Gnosticism from its origins to the Middle Ages (further considerations)". In Jones, Lindsay (ed.). Macmillan Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan Inc. pp. 3515–3516\. ISBN 978-0028657332. OCLC 56057973.
* Markschies, Christoph (2003). Gnosis: An Introduction. Translated by John Bowden. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-567-08945-8.
* McVey, Kathleen (1981). "Gnosticism, Feminism, and Elaine Pagels". Theology Today. 37 (4): 498–501\. doi:10.1177/004057368103700411. S2CID 170277327.
* Mead, G. R. S. (2005). Fragments of a Faith Forgotten. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4179-8413-8.
* Meier, John P. (1991). A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the historical Jesus. New York: Doubleday.
* Meier, John P. (2016). A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume V: Probing the Authenticity of the Parables. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-21647-9.
* Merillat, Herbert Christian (1997). "Buddhism and Gnosticism". The Gnostic Apostle Thomas: "Twin" of Jesus. Retrieved 13 February 2023 – via gnosis.org.
* Nagel, Tilman (1994). Geschichte der islamischen Theologie: von Mohammed bis zur Gegenwart (in German). C. H. Beck. ISBN 978-3-406-37981-9.
* Pagels, Elaine (1975). The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters. Trinity Press International. ISBN 978-1-56338-039-6.
* Pagels, Elaine (1979). The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-679-72453-7.
* Pagels, Elaine (1989). The Gnostic Gospels. Knopf Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-679-72453-7.
* Pearson, Birger Albert (2004). Gnosticism and Christianity in Roman and Coptic Egypt.[full citation needed]
* Petersen, William L. (2010). "The Diatessaron and the Fourfold Gospel". In Horton, Charles (ed.). The Earliest Gospels. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9780567000972.
* Petrement, Simone (1990). A Separate God: The Origins and Teachings of Gnosticism. Harper and Row. ISBN 0-06-066421-5.
* Perkins, Pheme (2005). "Gnosticism: Gnosticism as a Christian heresy". In Jones, Lindsay (ed.). MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religion. MacMillan.
* Quispel, Gilles (2004). "Voorwoord". In Pagels, Elaine (ed.). De Gnostische Evangelien (in Dutch). Servire.
* Quispel, Gilles (2005). "Gnosticism: Gnosticism from its origins to the Middle Ages". In Jones, Lindsay (ed.). MacMillan Encyclopedia of Religion (1st ed.). MacMillan.
* Robertson, David G. (2021). Gnosticism and the History of Religions. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1350137691.
* Robinson, James (1978). The Nag Hammadi Library in English. San Francisco: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-066934-8.
* Robinson, J. M. (1982). "Jesus: From Easter to Valentinus (Or to the Apostles' Creed)". Journal of Biblical Literature. 101 (1): 5–37\. doi:10.2307/3260438. JSTOR 3260438.
* Rousseau, A.; Doutreleau, L. (1974). Saint Irénée de Lyon: Traité contre les hérésies (in French).[full citation needed]
* Rudolph, Kurt (1987). Gnosis: The Nature & History of Gnosticism. Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-067018-4.
* Smith, Carl B. (2004). No Longer Jews: The Search for Gnostic Origins. Hendrickson Publishers.
* Smith, Morton (1981). History of the Term Gnostikos. Netherlands: E.J. Brill.
* Temporini, Hildegard; Vogt, Joseph; Haase, Wolfgang (1983). Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt [Rise and Decline of the Roman World] (in German). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-008845-8.
* Turner, John (1986). "Sethian Gnosticism: A Literary History". Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism and Early Christianity. Archived from the original on 2012-12-11.
* Turner, John D. (2001). "Chapter Seven: The History of the Sethian Movement". Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition. Presses Université Laval.
* Unger, Dominic J.; Dillon, John J. (1992). St. Irenaeus of Lyons Against the heresies. Vol. 1.[full citation needed]
* Valantasis, Richard (2006). The Beliefnet Guide to Gnosticism and Other Vanished Christianities. Beliefnet. p. 12\. ISBN 978-0-385-51455-2.
* Verardi, Giovanni (1997). "The Buddhists, the Gnostics and the Antinomistic Society, or the Arabian Sea in the First Century AD" (PDF). Aion. 57 (3–4): 324–346.3–4&rft.pages=324-346&rft.date=1997&rft.aulast=Verardi&rft.aufirst=Giovanni&rft_id=http://opar.unior.it/1042/1/Articolo_Verardi_pdf.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Gnosticism" class="Z3988">
* Williams, Michael (1996). Rethinking Gnosticism: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-01127-1.
* Wilson, R. McL. (1982). "Nag Hammadi and the New Testament". New Testament Studies. 28 (3): 289–302\. doi:10.1017/S002868850000744X. S2CID 170876890.

#### Web sources

[edit]

1. ^ perseus.tufts.edu, LSJ entry
2. ^ perseus.tufts.edu, Gnostikos
3. ^ "National Book Awards – 1980". National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
4. ^ Sheahen, Laura (June 2003). "Matthew, Mark, Luke and... Thomas?: What would Christianity be like if gnostic texts had made it into the Bible?". Beliefnet. Retrieved June 7, 2009.

## Further reading

[edit]

Primary sources

* Barnstone, Willis (1984). The Other Bible: Gnostic Scriptures, Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Christian Apocyrypha, Kabbalah, Dead Sea Scrolls. San Francisco: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-081598-1.
* Barnstone, Willis; Meyer, Marvin (2010). Essential Gnostic Scriptures. Shambhala Books. ISBN 978-1590305492.
* Landi, Martin (2024). The Three Distinct Types of Human Beings in Gnosticism: Hylic, Psychic and Pneumatic.

General

* Aland, Barbara (1978). Festschrift für Hans Jonas. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-525-58111-7.
* Burstein, Dan (2006). Secrets of Mary Magdalene. CDS Books. ISBN 978-1-59315-205-5.
* Filoramo, Giovanni (1990). A History of Gnosticism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-18707-3.
* Freke, Timothy; Gandy, Peter (2002). Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-00-710071-2.
* Haardt, Robert (1967). Die Gnosis: Wesen und Zeugnisse (in German). Salzburg: Otto-Müller-Verlag. Translated as Haardt, Robert (1971). Gnosis: Character and Testimony. Leiden: Brill.
* Hoeller, Stephan A. (2002). Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing. Wheaton, IL: Quest. ISBN 978-0-8356-0816-9.
* Jonas, Hans (1993). Gnosis und spätantiker Geist (in German). Vol. 2: Von der Mythologie zur mystischen Philosophie. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 978-3-525-53841-8.
* King, Charles William (1887). The Gnostics and Their Remains – via Sacred-texts.com.
* Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim (1993). Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Texts from Central Asia. San Francisco: Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-064586-1.
* Layton, Bentley, ed. (1981). The Rediscovery of Gnosticism: Sethian Gnosticism. E.J. Brill.
* Pagels, Elaine (1989). The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis. Atlanta: Scholars Press. ISBN 978-1-55540-334-8.
* Tuckett, Christopher M. (1986). Nag Hammadi and the Gospel Tradition: Synoptic Tradition in the Nag Hammadi Library. T & T Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-09364-6.
* Van den Broek, Roelof (2013). Gnostic Religion in Antiquity. Cambridge University Press.
* Walker, Benjamin (1990). Gnosticism: Its History and Influence. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-1-85274-057-3.
* Yamauchi, Edwin M. (1983). Pre-Christian Gnosticism: A Survey of the Proposed Evidences. Baker Book House. ISBN 978-0-8010-9919-9.
* Yamauchi, Edwin M. (1979). "Pre-Christian Gnosticism in the Nag Hammadi Texts?". Church History. 48 (2): 129–141\. doi:10.2307/3164879. JSTOR 3164879. S2CID 161310738.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gnosticism.

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Look up Gnosticism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Texts

* Gnostic Society Library – primary sources and commentaries
* Early Christian Writings – primary texts
* Gnostic texts at sacred-texts.com

Encyclopedias

* Bousset, Wilhelm (1911). "Gnosticism" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). pp. 152–159.
* Gnosticism, by Edward Moore, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
* Gnosticism by Kurt Rudolph, Encyclopædia Iranica
* Gnosticism Catholic Encyclopedia

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Gnosticism topics

Concepts|

* Abraxas/Abrasax
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* Archon
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* Monad
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* Sophia
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|

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|

People|

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Related articles|

* Bosnian Church
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Beliefs condemned as heretical by the Catholic Church (list)

Antiquity|

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Middle Ages|

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* Impanation
* Josephines
* Lollardy
* Migetians
* Pasagians
* Spanish Adoptionism
* Taborites
* Waldensians

Early modernity|

* Antinomianism
* Consubstantiation
* Febronianism
* Gallicanism
* Jansenism
* Josephinism
* Pantheism
* Protestantism
* Anabaptism
* Arminianism
* Calvinism
* Lutheranism
* Quietism

Modernity|

* Americanism
* Community of the Lady of All Nations
* Feeneyism
* Indifferentism
* Jehovah's Witnesses
* Modernism
* Mormonism
* Narco-saints
* Maximón
* Santa Muerte
* Positive Christianity
* Reincarnationism

* Catholic Church portal

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Philosophy of religion

Conceptions of God|

* Brahman
* Demiurge
* Divine simplicity
* Egoism
* God Speaks
* Holy Spirit
* Misotheism
* Pandeism
* Personal god
* Process theology
* Supreme Being
* Unmoved mover

God in|

* Abrahamic religions
* Buddhism
* Christianity
* Hinduism
* Islam
* Jainism
* Judaism
* Mormonism
* Sikhism
* Baháʼí Faith
* Wicca

Existence of God|

| For|

* Beauty
* Christological
* Trilemma
* Resurrection
* Consciousness
* Cosmological
* Kalam cosmological
* Contingency
* Metaphysical
* Degree
* Desire
* Experience
* Existential choice
* Fine-tuned universe
* Knowledge
* Love
* Mathematics
* Miracles
* Morality
* Mystical idealism
* Natural-law
* Necessary existent
* Seddiqin
* Nyayakusumanjali
* Ontological
* Anselm
* Gödel
* Meinongian
* Modal
* Mulla Sadra
* Pascal's wager
* Reason
* Proper basis and Reformed epistemology
* Responses to the problem of evil
* Teleological
* Natural law
* Watchmaker
* Testimony
* Historical events
* Historical personages
* Trademark
* Transcendental

|

Against|

* 747 gambit
* Atheist's Wager
* Evil
* Free will
* Hell
* Inconsistent revelations
* Nonbelief
* Noncognitivism
* Occam's razor
* Omnipotence
* Poor design
* Russell's teapot

Theology|

* Acosmism
* Agnosticism
* Animism
* Antireligion
* Atheism
* Creationism
* Dharmism
* Deism
* Demonology
* Divine command theory
* Dualism
* Esotericism
* Exclusivism
* Existentialism
* Christian
* Atheistic
* Feminist theology
* Thealogy
* Womanist theology
* Fideism
* Fundamentalism
* Gnosticism
* Henotheism
* Humanism
* Religious
* Secular
* Christian
* Inclusivism
* Theories about religions
* Monism
* Monotheism
* Mysticism
* Naturalism
* Metaphysical
* Religious
* Humanistic
* New Age
* Nondualism
* Nontheism
* Pandeism
* Panentheism
* Pantheism
* Perennialism
* Polytheism
* Possibilianism
* Process theology
* Religious skepticism
* Spiritualism
* Shamanism
* Taoic
* Theism
* Transcendentalism

Philosophers
of religion

(by date active)|

| Ancient and
medieval|

* Anselm of Canterbury
* Augustine of Hippo
* Avicenna
* Averroes
* Boethius
* Gaudapada
* Gaunilo of Marmoutiers
* Pico della Mirandola
* Heraclitus
* King James VI and I
* Marcion of Sinope
* Maimonides
* Adi Shankara
* Thomas Aquinas
* William of Ockham

|

Early modern|

* Augustin Calmet
* René Descartes
* Blaise Pascal
* Desiderius Erasmus
* Baruch Spinoza
* Nicolas Malebranche
* Gottfried W Leibniz
* William Wollaston
* Thomas Chubb
* David Hume
* Baron d'Holbach
* Immanuel Kant
* Johann G Herder

1800
1850|

* Friedrich Schleiermacher
* Karl C F Krause
* Georg W F Hegel

* Thomas Carlyle
* William Whewell
* Ludwig Feuerbach
* Søren Kierkegaard
* Karl Marx
* Albrecht Ritschl
* Afrikan Spir

1880
1900|

* Ernst Haeckel
* W K Clifford
* Friedrich Nietzsche
* Harald Høffding
* William James

* Vladimir Solovyov
* Ernst Troeltsch
* Rudolf Otto
* Lev Shestov
* Sergei Bulgakov
* Pavel Florensky
* Ernst Cassirer
* Joseph Maréchal

1920
postwar|

* George Santayana
* Bertrand Russell
* Martin Buber
* René Guénon
* Paul Tillich
* Karl Barth
* Emil Brunner
* Rudolf Bultmann
* Gabriel Marcel
* Reinhold Niebuhr

* Charles Hartshorne
* Mircea Eliade
* Frithjof Schuon
* J L Mackie
* Walter Kaufmann
* Martin Lings
* Peter Geach
* George I Mavrodes
* William Alston
* Antony Flew

1970
1990
2010|

* William L Rowe
* Dewi Z Phillips
* Alvin Plantinga
* Anthony Kenny
* Nicholas Wolterstorff
* Richard Swinburne
* Robert Merrihew Adams
* Ravi Zacharias
* Peter van Inwagen
* Daniel Dennett
* Loyal Rue
* Jean-Luc Marion
* William Lane Craig
* Ali Akbar Rashad

* Alexander Pruss

Related topics|

* Criticism of religion
* Desacralization of knowledge
* Ethics in religion
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* History of religion
* Religion
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* Relationship between religion and science
* Faith and rationality

* Portal
* Category

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Religion

Religious groups and denominations

| Western
and Middle
Eastern|

| Abrahamic|

| Judaism|

* Orthodox
* Haredi
* Hasidic
* Modern
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* Conservative
* Reform
* Karaite
* Haymanot
* Reconstructionist
* Renewal
* Humanistic
* list

|

Christianity|

* Catholicism
* Latin
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* Eastern Orthodoxy
* Oriental Orthodoxy
* Nestorianism
* Ancient
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* Proto-Protestantism
* Hussites/Moravians
* Waldensians
* Protestantism
* Adventism
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* Non-denominational
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* Bible Students
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* Spiritual
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* list

Islam|

* Sunnism
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* Modernist Salafism
* Shi'ism
* Alawism
* Ali-Illahism
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* Zaydism
* Sufism
* Khawarij
* Ibadism
* Alevism
* Ishikism
* Kurdish Alevism
* Ahmadi
* Mahdavism
* Quranism
* Milah Abraham
* Non-denominational
* list

Other|

* Bábism
* Azalism
* Baháʼí Faith
* Druze
* Mandaeism
* Rastafari
* Samaritanism

Iranian|

| Zoroastrian|

* Blagovery
* Ilm-e-Khshnoom
* Mazdaznan
* Zurvanism

|

Kurdish|

* Shabakism
* Yarsanism

Other|

* Assianism/Uatsdin
* Roshani
* Manichaeism
* Chinese Manichaeism
* Yazdânism
* Yazidism

Eastern|

| East Asian|

| Chinese|

* Chinese folk religion
* Confucianism
* Luoism
* Nuo
* Salvationist
* Xiantiandao
* Yiguandao
* Falun Gong
* Taoism
* Folk Taoism
* Yao Taoism

|

Japonic|

* Shinto
* list
* Shugendō
* New religions
* Tenrikyo
* Ryukyuan

Korean|

* Korean shamanism
* Cheondoism
* Jeungsanism

Vietnamese|

* Vietnamese folk religion
* Đạo Mẫu
* Caodaism
* Hoahaoism
* Đạo Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương

Indian|

| Hinduism|

* Vaishnavism
* Krishnaism
* Sri Vaishnavism
* Brahma Sampradaya
* Nimbarka Sampradaya
* Pushtimarg
* Mahanubhava
* Ramanandi
* Warkari
* Swaminarayan
* Shaivism
* Shaiva Siddhanta
* Ganapatya
* Kashmiri
* Kapalika
* Kaumaram
* Lingayatism
* Nath
* Balinese
* Shaktism
* Smartism
* Śrauta
* Sant Mat
* Neo-Hinduism
* list

|

Buddhism|

* Theravada
* Mahayana
* Chan/Zen/Thiền
* Amidism
* Nichiren
* Vajrayana
* Tibetan
* Neo-Buddhism
* list

Other|

* Ayyavazhi
* Kalash
* Jainism
* Digambara
* Śvetāmbara
* Sarnaism
* Kirat Mundhum
* Vedda religions
* Ravidassia
* Sikhism
* Khalsa
* Sects

Ethnic|

| Altaic|

* Turko-Mongolic
* Burkhanism
* Tengrism
* Vattisen Yaly
* Tungusic
* Evenki
* Manchu

|

Austroasiatic|

* Sarnaism

Austronesian|

* Batak Parmalim
* Dayak
* Kaharingan
* Indonesian
* Aliran Kepercayaan
* Kejawèn
* Kapitayan
* Karo Pemena
* Malaysian
* Traditional Sabahan religions
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* Tagalog
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Native
American|

* Abenaki
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* Navajo
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* Wocekiye
* Tsimshian
* Ute
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* Yaqui

Tai and Miao|

* Ahom
* Hmongism
* Mo
* Satsana Phi

Tibeto-Burmese|

* Bon
* Burmese
* Benzhuism
* Bimoism
* Bathouism
* Bongthingism
* Dongba
* Donyi-Polo
* Gurung
* Heraka
* Kiratism
* Qiang
* Sanamahism

Traditional
African|

| North African|

* Berber
* Guanche church

|

Sub-Saharan
African|

* Akamba
* Akan
* Baluba
* Bantu
* Kongo
* Zulu
* Bushongo
* Dinka
* Dogon
* Efik
* Fon and Ewe
* Ik
* Lotuko
* Lozi
* Lugbara
* Maasai
* Mbuti
* Odinala
* San
* Serer
* Tumbuka
* Urhobo
* Waaqeffanna
* Yoruba
* Ifá

* Diasporic:
* Candomblé
* Bantu
* Jejé
* Ketu
* Comfa
* Convince
* Espiritismo
* Kumina
* Obeah
* Palo
* Quimbanda
* Santería
* Tambor de Mina
* Trinidad Orisha
* Umbanda
* Vodou
* Voodoo
* Winti

Other ethnic|

* Aboriginal Australian
* Inuit
* Papuan
* Siberian

New
religious
movements|

| Syncretic|

* Blagovery
* Brahmoism
* Chinese
* Falun Gong
* Coconut Religion
* Japanese
* Meivazhi
* Modekngei
* New Acropolis
* New Age
* New Thought
* Rajneesh
* Rastafari
* Sant Mat
* Radha Soami
* Spiritualism
* Subud
* Tensegrity
* Thelema
* Theosophy
* Neo-Theosophy
* Agni Yoga and Roerichism
* Transcendental Meditation
* Unitarian Universalism
* White Brotherhood

|

Modern
paganism|

* African
* Godianism
* Armenian
* Baltic
* Dievturība
* Romuva
* Caucasian
* Abkhaz
* Circassian
* Celtic
* Druidry
* Germanic
* Hellenism (modern religion)
* Neoshamanism
* Ossetian
* Polytheistic reconstructionism
* Italo-Roman
* Kemetism
* Romanian
* Slavic
* Authentism
* Uralic
* Estonian
* Finnish
* Hungarian
* Mari
* Erzya
* Sámi
* Udmurt
* Wicca
* Zalmoxianism
* list

De novo|

* Anthroposophy
* The Christian Community
* Discordianism
* Eckankar
* Fourth Way
* Goddess
* Jediism
* Satanism
* Scientology
* UFO religion
* Raëlism

Historical religions

* Prehistoric
* Paleolithic
* Ainu
* Armenian
* Baltic
* Latvian
* Lithuanian
* Old Prussian
* Basque
* Celtic
* Druidism
* Irish
* Cook Islands
* Dravidian
* Egyptian
* Atenism
* Etruscan
* Finnish
* Fuegian
* Selkʼnam
* Georgian
* Germanic
* Anglo-Saxon
* Continental
* Frankish
* Norse
* Greek
* Gnosticism
* Greco-Buddhism
* Hermeticism
* Mysteries
* Orphism
* Guanche
* Harappan
* Hittite
* Hungarian
* Hurrian
* Illinois
* Inca
* Jamaican Maroon
* Manichaeism
* Mazdakism
* Melanesian
* Mesopotamian
* Babylonian
* Sumerian
* Micronesian
* Nauruan indigenous religion
* Olmec
* Paleo-Balkan
* Albanian
* Dacian
* Illyrian
* Thracian
* Proto-Indo-Iranian
* Iranian
* Vedic
* Ancestral Pueblo
* Pueblo II
* Pueblo III
* Pueblo IV
* Rapa Nui
* Roman
* Cult of Magna Mater
* Gallo-Roman
* Imperial cult
* Mithraism
* Mysteries of Isis
* Natale di Roma
* Semitic
* Arabian
* Canaanite
* Yahwism
* Punic
* Scythian
* Slavic
* Somali
* Tongan
* Turkic
* Tengrism
* Urartu
* Vainakh
* Zapotec

Topics

| Aspects|

* Apostasy / Disaffiliation
* Behaviour
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* Place

|

Theism|

* Animism
* Deism
* Dualism
* Henotheism
* Monotheism
* Nontheism
* Pandeism
* Panentheism
* Pantheism
* Polytheism
* Transtheism

Religious
studies|

* Anthropology
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Religion
and society

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Secularism
and irreligion

* Agnosticism
* Antireligion
* Atheism
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* Deconstruction
* Objectivism
* Secular humanism
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Overviews
and lists

* Abrahamic prophets
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Religion by country

| Africa|

* Algeria
* Angola
* Benin
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* Burkina Faso
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* Senegal
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* South Sudan
* Sudan
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* Togo
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* Uganda
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

|

Asia|

* Afghanistan
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Europe|

* Albania
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North America|

* Antigua and Barbuda
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Oceania|

* Australia
* Fiji
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* Marshall Islands
* Micronesia
* Nauru
* New Zealand
* Palau
* Papua New Guinea
* Samoa
* Solomon Islands
* Tonga
* Tuvalu
* Vanuatu

South America|

* Argentina
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* Category
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Other|

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