Gnosticism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Origins== The origins of Gnosticism are obscure and still disputed. The proto-orthodox Christian groups called Gnostics a heresy of Christianity,{{refn|group=note|[[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 Pius|Antoninus]]."{{sfn|Huidekoper|1891|p=331}}}}{{sfn|Chadwick|n.d.}} but according to the modern scholars the theology's origin is closely related to Jewish sectarian milieus and early Christian sects.{{sfn|Magris|2005|pp=3515–3516}}{{sfn|Cohen|Mendes-Flohr|2010|p=286}}{{refn|group=note|name="Cohen"}}{{sfn|Brakke|2012|p={{page needed|date=January 2024}}}} Some scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in [[Buddhism]], due to similarities in beliefs,{{sfn|Merillat|1997|loc=ch. 22}} but ultimately, its origins are unknown. As Christianity developed and became more popular, so did Gnosticism, with both proto-orthodox Christian and Gnostic Christian groups often existing in the same places. The Gnostic belief was widespread within Christianity until the proto-orthodox Christian communities expelled the group in the second and third centuries (AD). Gnosticism became one of the first groups to be declared [[heresy|heretical]].{{sfn|Chadwick|n.d.}} 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.{{sfn|Wilson|1982|p=292}} According to [[James M. Robinson]], no gnostic texts clearly pre-date Christianity,{{refn|group=note|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.}} and "pre-Christian Gnosticism as such is hardly attested in a way to settle the debate once and for all."{{sfn|Robinson|1982|p=5}} Most popular Gnostic sects were heavily inspired by [[Zoroastrianism]].{{sfn|Harari|2015|p=247}} ===Jewish Christian origins=== {{See also|Origins of Christianity|Split of Christianity and Judaism}} 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.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3533}}{{sfn|Magris|2005|pp=3515–3516}}{{sfn|Cohen|Mendes-Flohr|2010|p=286}}{{refn|group=note|name="Cohen"}} [[E. S. Drower|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."<ref name=Drower1960/>{{rp|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.<ref name="JE-G">{{Cite encyclopedia |first1=Joseph |last1=Jacobs |first2=Ludwig |last2=Blau |year=1906 |title=Gnosticism |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6723-gnosticism |access-date=2023-09-10 |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia}}</ref> The [[religious cosmology|cosmogonic]] speculations among Christian Gnostics had partial origins in [[Maaseh Breishit and Maaseh Merkavah|''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.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3533}} Quispel sees Gnosticism as an independent Jewish development, tracing its origins to [[History of the Jews in Alexandria|Alexandrian Jews]], to which group Valentinus was also connected.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3534}} Many of the [[Nag Hammadi texts]] make reference to Judaism, in some cases with a violent rejection of the Jewish God.{{sfn|Cohen|Mendes-Flohr|2010|p=286}}{{refn|group=note|name="Cohen"|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.{{sfn|Cohen|Mendes-Flohr|2010|p=286}}}} Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the Greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism".<ref>{{Cite book | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-503607-7 | last = Gager | first = John G. | title = The origins of anti-semitism: attitudes toward Judaism in pagan and Christian antiquity | page = 168 | date = 1985 }}</ref> Professor [[Steven Bayme]] said gnosticism would be better characterized as [[anti-Judaism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bayme |first=Steven |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=56QJ9O7MFJ4C&dq=gershom+scholem+gnosticism+anti-semitic&pg=PA122 |title=Understanding Jewish History: Texts and Commentaries |date=1997 |publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc. |isbn=978-0-88125-554-6 |language=en}}</ref> Research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from [[Hekhalot literature]].<ref name="Kabbalah New Perspectives">{{Cite book |last=Idel |first=Moshe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=utWy5kz5K7IC&pg=PA31 |title=Kabbalah: New Perspectives |date=1988-01-01 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-04699-1 |page=31 |language=en}}</ref> 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 ''[[Archon (Gnosticism)|archons]]''), and only the spirit or soul could be saved. The term ''gnostikos'' may have acquired a deeper significance here.{{sfn|Magris|2005|p=3516}} 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]], [[Wisdom (personification)|speculation on divine wisdom]], Greek philosophy, and [[Greco-Roman mysteries|Hellenistic mystery religions]]."{{sfn|Magris|2005|p=3516}} Regarding the angel Christology of some early Christians, Darrell Hannah notes: {{blockquote|[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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hannah|first=Darrell D.|title=Michael and Christ: Michael Traditions and Angel Christology in Early Christianity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qKtXVU9EQTIC&pg=PA214|year=1999|publisher=Mohr Siebeck|isbn=978-3-16-147054-7|pages=214f}}</ref>}} The [[Pseudepigrapha|pseudepigraphical]] Christian text ''[[Ascension of Isaiah]]'' identifies Jesus with angel Christology: {{blockquote|[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...<ref>{{cite book|author=M.A. Knibb (trans.)|editor=James H. Charlesworth|title=The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RU77ekrD_vIC&pg=PA173|volume=2|year=2010|publisher=Hendrickson Publishers|isbn=978-1-59856-490-7|page=173|chapter=Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah}}</ref>}} [[The Shepherd of Hermas]] is a Christian literary work considered as [[biblical canon|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".<ref name="Papandrea2016">{{cite book|last=Papandrea|first=James L.|title=The Earliest Christologies: Five Images of Christ in the Postapostolic Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x_akCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA29|date=2016|publisher=InterVarsity Press|isbn=978-0-8308-5127-0|page=29|quote=The most prominent example of Angel Adoptionism from the early Church would have to be the document known as ''The Shepherd'' of Hermass. In ''The Shepherd,'' the savior is an angel called the "angel of justification", who seems to be identified with the archangel Michael. Although the angel is often understood to be Jesus, he is never named as Jesus.}}</ref> ===Neoplatonic influences=== {{See also|Platonic Academy|Neoplatonism and Gnosticism|Neoplatonism and Christianity}} In the 1880s Gnostic connections with neo-Platonism were proposed.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} Ugo Bianchi, who organised the Congress of Messina of 1966 on the origins of Gnosticism, also argued for Orphic and Platonic origins.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3534}} Gnostics borrowed significant ideas and terms from Platonism,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pearson|first=Birger A.|date=1984|title=Gnosticism as Platonism: With Special Reference to Marsanes (NHC 10,1)|journal=The Harvard Theological Review|volume=77|issue=1|pages=55–72|jstor=1509519|doi=10.1017/S0017816000014206|s2cid=170677052 }}</ref> using Greek philosophical concepts throughout their text, including such concepts as [[hypostasis (philosophy)|hypostasis]] (reality, existence), ''[[ousia]]'' (essence, substance, being), and demiurge (creator God). Both [[Sethian]] Gnostics and [[Valentinius|Valentinian]] Gnostics seem to have been influenced by [[Plato]], [[Middle Platonism]], and [[Neo-Pythagoreanism]] academies or schools of thought.{{sfn|Turner|1986|p=59}} Both schools attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy,<ref name ="Schenke1">Schenke, Hans Martin. "The Phenomenon and Significance of Gnostic Sethianism" in The Rediscovery of Gnosticism. E.J. Brill 1978</ref> and were rebuffed by some [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonists]], including Plotinus. ===Persian origins or influences=== Early research into the origins of Gnosticism proposed Persian origins or influences, spreading to Europe and incorporating Jewish elements.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3531}} According to [[Wilhelm Bousset]] (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian [[syncretism]],{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} and [[Richard August Reitzenstein]] (1861–1931) situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3532}} Carsten Colpe (b. 1929) has analyzed and criticised the Iranian hypothesis of Reitzenstein, showing that many of his hypotheses are untenable.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|pp=3534–3535}} 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.{{sfn|Albrile|2005|p=3534}} However, scholars specializing in Mandaeism such as [[Kurt Rudolph]], [[Mark Lidzbarski]], [[Rudolf Macúch]], [[E. S. Drower|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.<ref name=Drower1960>{{Cite book | last =Drower | first =Ethel Stephana | author-link =E. S. Drower | date =1960 | title =The secret Adam, a study of Nasoraean gnosis | location =London UK | publisher =Clarendon Press | no-pp =true}}</ref>{{sfn|Rudolph|1987|p=4}}<ref name="Gunduz 1994">{{cite journal|title=The Knowledge of Life: The Origins and Early History of the Mandaeans and Their Relation to the Sabians of the Qur'ān and to the Harranians|first=Şinasi|last=Gündüz|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1994|issn=0022-4480|isbn=0-19-922193-6|journal=Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement|volume=3}}</ref><ref name="Buckley 2002"/><ref>McGrath, James F.,{{cite web|url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1194&context=facsch_papers|title=Reading the Story of Miriai on Two Levels: Evidence from Mandaean Anti-Jewish Polemic about the Origins and Setting of Early Mandaeism}}ARAM Periodical / (2010): 583–592.</ref><ref>Lidzbarski, Mark 1915 Das Johannesbuch der Mandäer. Giessen: Alfred Töpelmann.</ref><ref>Macuch, Rudolf A Mandaic Dictionary (with E. S. Drower). Oxford: Clarendon Press 1963.</ref><ref>R. Macuch, “Anfänge der Mandäer. Versuch eines geschichtliches Bildes bis zur früh-islamischen Zeit,” chap. 6 of F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, Die Araber in der alten Welt II: Bis zur Reichstrennung, Berlin, 1965.</ref> Charles Häberl, who is also a linguist specializing in [[Mandaic language|Mandaic]], finds Palestinian and Samaritan Aramaic influence on Mandaic and accepts Mandaeans having a "shared Palestinian history with Jews".<ref>Charles Häberl, "Hebraisms in Mandaic" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDSDXF5_K8Q, Mar 3, 2021]</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Häberl |first1=Charles |year=2021 |title=Mandaic and the Palestinian Question |url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:37489/ |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=141 |issue=1 |pages=171–184 |doi=10.7817/jameroriesoci.141.1.0171 |issn=0003-0279 |s2cid=234204741 |doi-access=free}}Journal of the American Oriental Society 141.1 (2021) pp. 171–184.</ref> ===Buddhist parallels=== {{main|Buddhism and Gnosticism}} In 1966, at the Congress of Median, Buddhologist [[Edward Conze]] noted phenomenological commonalities between [[Mahayana Buddhism]] and Gnosticism,{{sfn|Verardi|1997|p=323}} in his paper ''Buddhism and Gnosis'', following an early suggestion put forward by [[Isaac Jacob Schmidt]].{{sfn|Conze|1967}}{{refn|group=note|The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first proposed by the Victorian gem collector and numismatist [[Charles William King]] (1864).<ref>Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Clare Goodrick-Clarke ''G. R. S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest'' 2005 p. 8. Quote: "The idea that Gnosticism was derived from Buddhism was first postulated by Charles William King in his classic work, The Gnostics and their Remains (1864). He was one of the earliest and most emphatic scholars to propose the Gnostic debt to Buddhist thought."</ref> [[Henry Longueville Mansel|Mansel]] (1875) <ref>H. L. Mansel, ''Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries'' (1875); p. 32</ref> considered the principal sources of Gnosticism to be Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism.<ref>''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: E–J'' ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (1982). Quote: "Mansel ... summed up the principal sources of Gnosticism in these three: Platonism, the Persian religion, and the Buddhism of India." p. 490.</ref>}} The influence of Buddhism in any sense on either the ''gnostikos'' Valentinus (c.{{nbsp}}170) or the Nag Hammadi texts (3rd century) is not supported by modern scholarship, although [[Elaine Pagels]] called it a "possibility".{{sfn|Pagels|1989|p=21}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page