Gnosticism

Podcast Transcript

In the first and second centuries, a Christian sect found a wide following throughout the Roman world.

They weren’t your normal run-of-the-mill Christians. They had beliefs that were nothing like those of any Christian sect today, and they drew the ire of many Christian leaders at the time.

What we knew about them was limited to the writings of their critics until a stunning find in the mid-20th century shed new light on them.

Learn more about Gnosticism and the Gnostics, their beliefs, and the reaction to them on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Gnosticism is a difficult subject to discuss because our knowledge of Gnosticism is limited, and there is no general agreed-upon definition of what Gnosticism is or who exactly the Gnostics were.

The Gnostics rose to prominence in the first and second centuries, very soon after the rise of Christianity.

If you have heard of the Gnostics or have come across it in the past, it was probably in the context of the Gnostic Heresy.

This is because historically, the Gnostics were the losers, and history, in this case, was literally written by the winners.

One note before I go any further. I’m going to be using the term ‘orthodox’ for the rest of the episode. I’m going to be using orthodox with a small ‘o’, not a capital “O”. I’m not referring to the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches that exist today. However, those churches and others would fall under that small ‘o’ orthodox belief system that I’ll be referring to.

The term “Gnosticism” comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “knowledge.” Gnostics believed salvation came through special, esoteric knowledge about the divine and humanity’s true nature.

Gnosticism was not a single, unified religion but a broad and diverse movement, often intertwined with early Christianity, Judaism, and Greco-Roman thought.

Again, Gnosticism was not one single movement, and its leaders had differing views, which is why it is so hard to define, but there were some tenets that were commonly shared.

The first is Dualism. Gnostics typically saw the universe as a battleground between two opposing forces: the spirit, which was good, and matter, which was evil. The material world was often viewed as corrupt, imperfect, or even a trap created by a malevolent deity.

The material world was said to be created by a lesser deity known as the Demiurge, which was sometimes identified as the God of the Old Testament. The Demiurge was often portrayed as ignorant or evil.

The view of the physical world as being evil led some gnostics to become ascetics who didn’t care for their bodies.

Some Gnostics concluded that Jesus didn’t have a physical body for this reason. They contended that he was purely a spiritual being.

Above the Demiurge was a supreme, unknowable God or source of divine light, far removed from the material world.

The demiurge was associated with impure, evil matter, and the unknowable God was associated with the pure, good spirit.

This view led some Gnostics to accept a light form of polytheism. While they believed in one ultimate higher God, they also believed in lesser deities below that supreme God.

Gnostics believed that within humans exists a divine spark or fragment of the supreme God. This spark is trapped in the physical body and can only be freed through gnosis.

Unlike orthodox Christianity, again small o orthodox, which emphasizes faith and grace, Gnostics believed salvation came through acquiring secret knowledge, aka gnosis, that revealed the divine spark and the true nature of reality.

The idea that salvation came from secret knowledge led some Gnostics to lead hedonistic lifestyles, the exact opposite of other Gnostics. If they were guaranteed salvation from secret knowledge, once they had that knowledge, there really was no reason to lead a good and moral life.

Gnostics also often described the universe and human history in terms of complex myths involving divine beings, archons or rulers, and the struggle of the soul. Some of the myths were extremely complicated, and it would take the better part of this episode just to go through them.

Much, but not all, of what we knew about the Gnostics came from their critics, in particular one person: Irenaeus of Lyon.

His most famous work was Adversus Haereses, which is Latin for Against Heresies. It was written around 180, and it is one of the most important early Christian works addressing heretical teachings, particularly Gnosticism.

The text is a five-book polemic aimed at refuting Gnostic doctrines and defending the orthodox Christian faith. It provides one of the earliest comprehensive critiques of Gnosticism

Irenaeus was not the only church father to criticize the gnostics.

Tertullian was a 2nd–3rd century Christian theologian and apologist from Carthage. Known for his sharp rhetoric, Tertullian attacked Gnostic doctrines, especially their rejection of the resurrection of the flesh.

Hippolytus of Rome was a 3rd-century Christian theologian, scholar, and the first known antipope. His Refutation of All Heresies systematically denounced Gnostic cosmology and theology.

Origen of Alexandria was a 3rd-century Christian theologian, scholar, and philosopher, though accused of having Gnostic leanings, Origen defended orthodox Christianity and criticized Gnostic interpretations of scripture.

Based on these critiques of Gnosticism, we know that there were several different leaders who led different factions.

One group was the Sethians. This was a group that revered Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, as a bringer of gnosis.

Another was Valentinians, who were followers of Valentinus, a prominent Gnostic teacher who developed a sophisticated theological system.

The Basilideans were a group founded by Basilides of Alexandria, who taught a complex cosmology.

There were also the Marcionites. They followed the teaching of Marcion of Sinope. Though not strictly Gnostic, they shared dualistic ideas and rejected the Old Testament.

One of the reasons why Gnosticism was able to find fertile ground was that Christianity wasn’t very organized in the second century.

For starters, depending on who the emperor was, many Christians had to be underground in the practice of their religion.

Second, there was no central organized structure. Each community was independent and was run by a local bishop. That meant that some local churches would often go their own way and develop their own doctrines.

The organization of the Christian church wouldn’t come about until the rise of Emperor Constantine in the late 4th century.

Finally, there was no set scripture. The Bible as we know it didn’t exist yet, at least in the form of the set canon of books. All the various New Testament books were passed around as separate letters and texts. In addition to the books that would become part of the canon of the bible there were also apocryphal books that were circulated as well that did not become part of the bible’s canon.

In the case of the Gnostics, they used many apocryphal books.

The biggest breakthrough in our knowledge of the Gnostics and their beliefs came in 1945 via a remarkable find outside the town of Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

A collection of thirteen leather-bound codices containing over fifty texts was unearthed by local farmers. These texts, written in Coptic and dating to the 4th century, are believed to be translations of earlier Greek works.

These texts provided invaluable insight into the beliefs, cosmology, and practices of Gnostic movements, which had previously been known primarily through the critiques of early Church Fathers like Irenaeus and Tertullian.

One of the most famous texts, the Gospel of Thomas, is a sayings gospel containing 114 attributed sayings of Jesus, emphasizing self-knowledge and spiritual enlightenment.

This Gospel of Thoms is different from the other apocryphal book known as the Infant Gospel of Thomas, which covered the early life of Jesus, including a story of him striking one of his playmates dead.

The Apocryphon of John revealed a detailed Gnostic creation myth, describing the supreme God, divine emanations, the fall of Sophia, the divine emanation that governed wisdom, and the creation of the flawed material world by the Demiurge.

The Gospel of Philip explored sacramental and mystical themes, offering alternative interpretations of Christian rituals like baptism and marriage.

Other significant works include The Gospel of Truth, attributed to Valentinus, which presents a poetic meditation on salvation through gnosis, and The Tripartite Tractate, a theological exploration of the relationship between the divine, the cosmos, and humanity.

The library also contained texts like The Thunder, Perfect Mind, a mystical poem with a divine feminine voice, and The Hypostasis of the Archons, which reinterprets Genesis through a Gnostic lens, portraying the archons and Demiurge as oppressive rulers.

If you have even the slightest understanding of Christian theology, regardless of the Christian tradition, you probably realize that the beliefs of the Gnostics are far removed from orthodox, again small ‘o’, Christianity.

So, how did this happen? How did the Gnostics develop this theology and claim it had Christianity when it was so far from the orthodox beliefs at the time?

The Nag Hammadi Library went a long way in helping researchers understand where the Gnostic beliefs probably originated from.

It is most likely that Gnostic ideas developed well before the rise of Christianity, and then those ideas were attached to Christian beliefs as Christianity began to spread.

Gnostic ideas were deeply influenced by Hellenistic thought, particularly the philosophy of Plato known as Platonism. Plato’s distinction between the imperfect material world and the perfect, transcendent world of forms resonated with Gnostic dualism, which viewed the material world as corrupt and inferior to the spiritual realm.

Additionally, Middle Platonism and Neopythagoreanism contributed to Gnostic ideas of a hierarchy of divine emanations known as aeons, as well as the ineffable Supreme God.

Gnosticism inherited themes from Jewish apocalyptic literature, such as the battle between cosmic forces of good and evil, as well as mystical traditions like Merkabah mysticism, which explored visions of the heavenly realms and God’s throne. Gnostics reinterpreted the Hebrew scriptures, often portraying the God of the Old Testament, which they considered to be the Demiurge, as a flawed or malevolent deity who created the material world.

Ancient religions of the Near East, including Zoroastrianism and Babylonian mythology, contributed dualistic cosmologies and narratives of cosmic struggle. For example, Zoroastrianism has a sharp distinction between Ahura Mazda, the lord of light, and Angra Mainyu, the lord of darkness, paralleled the Gnostic themes of a spiritual battle between forces of light and darkness.

Gnosticism also borrowed from Greco-Roman mystery religions, such as those dedicated to Isis, Mithras, or Dionysus, which emphasized secret rituals and knowledge that promised salvation or enlightenment for initiates.

So, based on the teachings derived from the Nag Hammadi Library, Gnosticism probably existed before the rise of Christianity in several different forms and then was grafted onto various Christian teachings.

So, what happened to the Gnostics? Why didn’t Gnosticism survive into the modern world?

Well, Gnosticism was considered heretical by most of the early Christian Church. As I mentioned, church Fathers like Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus wrote extensively against Gnosticism, condemning it as a perversion of Christian doctrine.

Their view spread from church to church, becoming the dominant view. The Gnostics were never more than a very loud minority of Christians.

As Christianity became more organized, especially after becoming the Roman Empire’s state religion in the 4th century, Gnostic texts were banned, and their followers were persecuted.

After the Council of Hippo in 393 codified the books of the bible, there was now a reference for local churches to know what scriptures they could actually use and, more importantly, which ones they should not use.

The pressure from orthodox churches and the Roman Empire was simply not an environment for gnosticism to thrive.

Gnosticism was one of the first major heresies of the young Christian religion. In terms of how much it deviated from orthodox theology, it was probably the greatest.

There would be a host of other heresies that would engulf the Christian world in the next several centuries, including Arianism, Donatism, and Nestorianism, just to name a few.

Most of these heresies were actually rather minor disagreements over points of theology compared to massive differences of Gnosticism.

Despite the fact that there are almost no direct contributions from Gnosticism to modern religions, the reaction to Gnosticism did help form early Christianity.