Gnosticism(; Koine Greek: ) is a collection of different religious and philosophical ideas and systems that fully developed by the mid-second century among sects of early Christianity and other faiths. It is not a singular, homogeneous tradition or religion, but an umbrella term used by modern scholars to describe different groups and beliefs that shared certain characteristics.
These diverse Gnostic groups generally emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the authority, traditions, and proto-orthodox teachings of organized religious institutions.Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion 1958, p. 334. The Gnostic worldview typically distinguished between a hidden, uncorrupted supreme being and an inherently corrupt or flawed demiurge (identified and equivalent with Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, via the Apocryphon of John), responsible for creating material reality and the observable universe. Gnostics held this material existence to be corrupted and believed the principal element of salvation was direct knowledge of your own divine origin, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with ignorance, illusion and enlightenment.
Although the exact origins of Gnosticism cannot be traced, Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean during the second century. In the Gnostic Christian tradition, Christ was generally seen as a divine agent that had descended upon a human form, in order to lead humanity back to recognition of its own divine nature. 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. Syriac–Egyptian groups like the Sethians and Valentinians combined Platonic philosophy and Christian themes, seeing the material world as flawed but not wholly evil. Other traditions include the Basilideans, Marcionists, and Thomasines. Manichaeism, whose prophet grew up Christian-Jewish, adopted Buddhist and Hindu concepts such as cosmic dualism paired with nondualism simultaneously, and Gnostic teachings of ignorance emerged as a major religious movement in the third century, briefly rivaling Christianity.
Early Church Fathers denounced Gnostic ideas as heresy, although early Gnostic sects and teachers such as Valentinus saw themselves as Christians, for their same belief in the archetypal spiritual son. Efforts to destroy Gnostic texts were largely successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic thinkers and theologians.. After declining in the western Mediterranean, Gnosticism persisted in the Near East until at least the sixth century, remaining influential as far as China until the late ninth century. Gnostic ideas resurfaced periodically in medieval European Christian groups like the Paulicians, Bogomils, and Cathars. Islamic and Kabbalistic thought also reflect some Gnostic ideas, while modern revivals and discoveries of Gnostic texts have influenced numerous thinkers and churches up to the present day. Gnosticism survives through Mandaeism, an ancient Middle Eastern religion sometimes described as a Gnostic sect or tradition. The second contemporary religion that may be regarded as a continuation of ancient Gnosticism, particularly Sethianism and Ophitism, is Yezidism, originally practised in northern Mesopotamia, between Mosul, Mount Sinjar and Mardin.
For centuries, most scholarly knowledge about Gnosticism was limited to the biased, anti-heretical, and often incomplete writings of early Christian figures such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome. There has been a renewed interest in Gnosticism since the 1945 discovery in Egypt of the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of rare early Christian and Gnostic texts. Surviving Gnostic writings, such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Apocryphon of John, reveal a very diverse and complex early Christian landscape. Some scholars believe Gnosticism may contain historical information about Jesus from the Gnostic viewpoint, although the majority conclude that apocryphal sources, Gnostic or not, are later than the canonical sources or may have depended on or used the Synoptic Gospels. Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Middle Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts.
Since the 1990s, scholars have debated whether "Gnosticism" is a form of early Christianity; an artificial category created by early orthodox Christians to label heresies; or a distinct religious tradition in its own right. 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. Consequently, modern scholars question the usefulness of "Gnosticism" as a unified category and favor more precise classifications based on texts, traditions, and socio-religious contexts.
Etymology
is a feminine Greek noun which means "knowledge" or "awareness".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. It and the associated verb are often used for personal knowledge, as compared with intellectual knowledge (Greek verb ). A related term is the adjective , "of or for knowledge",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. a reasonably common adjective in Classical Greek.In Perseus databank 10x Plato, Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman 2x Plutarch, Compendium libri de animae procreatione + De animae procreatione in Timaeo, 2x Pseudo-Plutarch, De musica
By the Hellenistic period, it began also to be associated with Greco-Roman mysteries, becoming synonymous with the Greek term . Consequentially, often refers to knowledge based on personal experience or perception. In a religious context, gnosis is mystical or esoteric knowledge based on direct participation with the divine. In most Gnostic systems, the sufficient cause of salvation is this "knowledge of" ("acquaintance with") the divine. It is an inward "knowing", comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus (neoplatonism), and differs from proto-orthodox Christian views. Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or perception and learning – as a particular modality for living". The usual meaning of in Classical Greek texts is "learned" or "intellectual", such as used by Plato in the comparison of "practical" () and "intellectual" (). Plato's use of "learned" is fairly typical of Classical texts.
Sometimes employed in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, the adjective is not used in the New Testament, but Clement of Alexandria who speaks of the "learned" (gnostikos) Christian quite often, uses it in complimentary terms. The use of gnostikos in relation to heresy originates with interpreters of Irenaeus. Some scholars consider that Irenaeus sometimes uses gnostikos to simply mean "intellectual", whereas his mention of "the intellectual sect" is a specific designation. The term "Gnosticism" does not appear in ancient sources, 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. 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)".
Origins
The origins of Gnosticism are obscure and still disputed. Alexandria was central to the birth of Gnosticism. Gnosticism is strongly influenced by Middle Platonism and its theory of forms. Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Middle Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts. The Christian () originated within Jewish Christianity, 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." The proto-orthodox Christian groups called Gnostics a heresy of Christianity.
While rejecting the underlying framing that proto-orthodox Christianity is the 'original' and 'true' Christianity from which Gnosticism and other so-called 'heresies' then deviated, scholars such as and David Brakke 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. 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 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 () may have acquired a deeper significance here.
Other modern scholars hold that Gnosticism arose within Second Temple Judaism and later incorporated stories about Jesus into pre-existing speculation about a cosmic savior and Philo's contemporary Jewish interpretation of Middle Platonic thought about the demiurge and the logos. A small minority of scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Buddhism, given some similarities in beliefs.
Some scholars prefer to speak of "gnosis" when referring to first-century CE 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. According to James M. Robinson, no Gnostic texts clearly predate Christianity, and "pre-Christian Gnosticism as such is hardly attested in a way to settle the debate once and for all."
Jewish Christian origins
Recent scholarship has emphasized the origins of Gnosticism within Judaism rather than in Persia. E. S. Drower argues, "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."