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Part of a series on 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 Syrian-Egyptian Ophites Sethianism Alexandrian Basilides Basilideans Roman Valentinus Valentinianism Marcus Marcosians Florinus 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 Rene Guenon Rudolf Steiner
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Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: γνωστικός, romanized: gnōstikós, Koine Greek: , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the proto-orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions.

Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes associated with the biblical deity Yahweh)^[1] who is responsible for creating the material universe. 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.^[2]

Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean world around the second century, when the Fathers of the early Church denounced them as heresy.^[3] Efforts to destroy these texts proved largely successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic theologians.^[4] Nonetheless, early Gnostic teachers such as Valentinus saw their beliefs as aligned with Christianity. In the Gnostic Christian tradition, Christ is seen as a divine being which has taken human form in order to lead humanity back to recognition of its own divine nature. However, Gnosticism is not a single standardized system, and the emphasis on direct experience allows for a wide variety of teachings, including distinct currents such as Valentinianism and Sethianism. In the Persian Empire, Gnostic ideas spread as far as China via the related movement Manichaeism, while Mandaeism, which is the only surviving Gnostic religion from antiquity, is found in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities.^[5] Jorunn Buckley posits that the early Mandaeans may have been among the first to formulate what would go on to become Gnosticism within the community of early followers of Jesus.^[6]

For centuries, most scholarly knowledge about Gnosticism was limited to the anti-heretical writings of early Christian figures such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome. There was a renewed interest in Gnosticism after the 1945 discovery of Egypt's Nag Hammadi library, a collection of rare early Christian and Gnostic texts, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Apocryphon of John. Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts.^[4] Since the 1990s, the category of "Gnosticism" has come under increasing scrutiny from scholars. One such issue is whether Gnosticism ought to be considered one form of early Christianity, an interreligious phenomenon, or an independent religion. Going further than this, other contemporary scholars such as Michael Allen Williams,^[7] Karen Leigh King,^[8] and David G. Robertson^[9] contest whether "Gnosticism" is still a valid or useful historical category at all, or if instead it was simply a term of art of proto-orthodox heresiologists for a disparate group of contemporaneous Christian groups.

Etymologyedit

Gnosis is a feminine Greek noun which means "knowledge" or "awareness."^[10] It is often used for personal knowledge compared with intellectual knowledge (εἴδειν eídein). A related term is the adjective gnostikos, "cognitive",^[11] a reasonably common adjective in Classical Greek.^[12]

By the Hellenistic period, it began also to be associated with Greco-Roman mysteries, becoming synonymous with the Greek term musterion. 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.^[13] Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or perception and learning – as a particular modality for living".^[14] 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.^[15] 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.^{[17][note 7][note 8][note 9]} The term "Gnosticism" does not appear in ancient sources,^{[19][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.^{[20][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)".^{[21][note 12]}

Originsedit

The origins of Gnosticism are obscure and still disputed. The proto-orthodox Christian groups called Gnostics a heresy of Christianity,^{[note 13][24]} but according to the modern scholars the theology's origin is closely related to Jewish sectarian milieus and early Christian sects.^{[25][26][note 14][27]} Some scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Buddhism, due to similarities in beliefs,^[28] but ultimately, its origins are unknown.

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.^[29] 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."^[30]

Most popular Gnostic sects were heavily inspired by Zoroastrianism.^[31]

Jewish Christian originsedit

Contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish Christian origins, originating in the late first century AD in nonrabbinical Jewish sects and early Christian sects.^{[32][25][26][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."^[33]: 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.^[34] 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.^[32] Quispel sees Gnosticism as an independent Jewish development, tracing its origins to Alexandrian Jews, to which group Valentinus was also connected.^[35]

Many of the Nag Hammadi texts make reference to Judaism, in some cases with a violent rejection of the Jewish God.^{[26][note 14]} Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the Greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism".^[36] Professor Steven Bayme said gnosticism would be better characterized as anti-Judaism.^[37] Research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from Hekhalot literature.^[38]

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.^[39]

Alexandria was of central importance for the birth of Gnosticism. The Christian ecclesia (i. e. congregation, church) was of Jewish–Christian origin, but also attracted Greek members, and various strands of thought were available, such as "Judaic apocalypticism, speculation on divine wisdom, Greek philosophy, and Hellenistic mystery religions."^[39]

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.^[40]

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...^[41]

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".^[42]

Neoplatonic influencesedit

In the 1880s Gnostic connections with neo-Platonism were proposed.^[43] Ugo Bianchi, who organised the Congress of Messina of 1966 on the origins of Gnosticism, also argued for Orphic and Platonic origins.^[35] Gnostics borrowed significant ideas and terms from Platonism,^[44] using Greek philosophical concepts throughout their text, including such concepts as hypostasis (reality, existence), ousia (essence, substance, being), and demiurge (creator God). Both Sethian Gnostics and Valentinian Gnostics seem to have been influenced by Plato, Middle Platonism, and Neo-Pythagoreanism academies or schools of thought.^[45] Both schools attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy,^[46] and were rebuffed by some Neoplatonists, including Plotinus.

Persian origins or influencesedit

Early research into the origins of Gnosticism proposed Persian origins or influences, spreading to Europe and incorporating Jewish elements.^[47] According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,^[43] and Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931) situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.^[43]

Carsten Colpe (b. 1929) has analyzed and criticised the Iranian hypothesis of Reitzenstein, showing that many of his hypotheses are untenable.^[48] 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.^[35]

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 Palestinian origin. The majority of these scholars believe that the Mandaeans likely have a historical connection with John the Baptist's inner circle of disciples.^{[33][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]} 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".^[56][57]

Buddhist parallelsedit

In 1966, at the Congress of Median, Buddhologist Edward Conze noted phenomenological commonalities between Mahayana Buddhism and Gnosticism,^[58] in his paper Buddhism and Gnosis, following an early suggestion put forward by Isaac Jacob Schmidt.^{[59][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".^[63]

Characteristicsedit

Cosmologyedit

The Syrian–Egyptian traditions postulate a remote, supreme Godhead, the Monad.^[64] 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.^[65]

Dualism and monismedit

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