Gnosticism Resources, Definition, and Links

Ancient Gnostic Leaders

Simon Magus: He was one of the earliest Gnostics. He was skilled in the arts of magic. He interpreted the Garden of Eden, exodus from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea as allegories. He may have been the Simon mentioned in Acts 8:9-24. Simon believed in Jesus and was baptized with a group of other believers.

But none had received the Holy Spirit until Peter and John placed their hands on the new converts. Simon asked for the laying on of the apostles' hands and even offered money. Peter refused, because Simon's heart was not right with God.

Marcion: (85-160 CE) He organized a series of Gnostic congregations in the eastern Mediterranean which survived into the 3rd century CE. He wrote a book called Antitheses which earned him excommunication by the Christian leaders of Rome.

He rejected the institution of marriage. He believed that the Demiurge arranged Jesus' persecution and crucifixion. But the death of Christ on the cross was only a hallucination, since Jesus did not have a physical body. Marcion invented the New Testament based on Paul.

Valentinus: He was born in Egypt, traveled to Rome about 140 CE and then moved to Cyprus. He was the founder of perhaps the largest and most influential school of Gnosticism which lasted until it was suppressed in the 4th century CE.

He taught that groups of Aeons made up the "pleroma (fullness) of the High God. One group, the Ogoad are called: Depth, Silence, Mind, Truth, Word, Life, Man and Church. Another group was the Decad (10) and Dodecad (12). The last of the Docecad was Wisdom, also called Sophia.

Carpocrates: (circa 140 CE); He taught reincarnation. An individual had to live many lives and adsorb a full range of experiences before being able to return to God. They practiced free sexuality. They believed that Jesus was the son of Joseph.

Some theologians believe that the Carpocratian Gnostics were the target of Jude's attack about "...certain men" who " have secretly slipped in among you,". The book of Jude, Verses 4 to 19, deals mainly with these infiltrators.

Matthew 4:8-9 describes how Satan took Jesus to a very high mountain and offered him all of the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would only bow down and worship him. This passage implies that the world belonged to the Devil and that he was able to give it away to Christ. But the passage matches Gnostic belief very closely.

Gnostic Sects

Gnostic sects included the Valentinians, the Ophites (so-named because they worshiped the serpent of Genesis as the bestower of knowledge). Perhaps Marcion of Sinope and Simon Magus both had Gnostic tendencies, but they were not completely Gnostics. Others were the Bogomils, the Cathars. (Cathari, Albigenses or Albigensians)

There is a direct line from Apostle Paul to Marcion to St Augustine (former Manichaein and avid neo-Platonist) to Calvin/Luther to Protestant Christian fundamentalists today. The "faith alone" doctrine is part of ridding Christianity of "works" meaning Judaism. (Thus all of Jesus moral/ethical teachings can be ignored.)

Sources

We have two main historical sources for information on Gnosticism: attacks on Gnosticism by orthodox Christians, and extant Gnostic works.

Neither of these two sources is entirely satisfactory. Attacks on Gnosticism by orthodox Christians, hostile as they are, most likely suffer from some degree of bias; and orthodox Christians had a tendency to merge together the many differing groups opposed to them.

Many Gnostics scriptures and other works were written, but until the late 19th and the 20th centuries, none of them were available, except in isolated quotations in the writings of their opponents. Many 19th century scholars devoted considerable effort to collecting the scattered references in the works of opponents and reassembling the Gnostic materials.

Several finds of manuscripts have been made since, most importantly the Nag Hammadi codices. But though we now possess a reasonable collection of Gnostic texts, they are still often difficult to interpret, due to the esoteric nature of Gnostic teaching. We are also faced with difficulties in identifying which teachers or sects authored which texts.

Nag Hammadi Library

To quote, "The Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of thirteen ancient codices containing over fifty texts, was discovered in upper Egypt in 1945. This immensely important discovery includes a large number of primary Gnostic scriptures -- texts once thought to have been entirely destroyed during the early Christian struggle to define 'orthodoxy' -- scriptures such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth."

Gnostic Resources and Links

Some Possible Gnostic Themes from the Bible

In reality knowledge, faith, and revelation are often interchangeable. The Encyclopedia Britannica states: "Among the majority of the followers of the movement, 'Gnosis' was understood not as meaning 'knowledge' or 'understanding', in our sense of the word, but 'revelation'. These little Gnostic sects and groups all lived in the conviction that they possessed a secret and mysterious knowledge, in no way accessible to those outside, which was not to be proved or propagated, but believed in by the initiated, and anxiously guarded as a secret. This knowledge of theirs was not based on reflection, on scientific inquiry and proof, but on revelation..."

And this from www.britannica.com, "While Gnosticism drew from and influenced in turn many traditional religions, its effect was most clearly felt on nascent Christianity...The designation Gnosticism...is a term of modern scholarship. Evidence for the Gnostic phenomenon...reveals a diversity in theology, ethics, and ritual that defies strict classification. Yet Gnostic sects appear to have shared an emphasis on the redemptive power of esoteric knowledge, acquired not by learning or empirical observation but by divine revelation..."

Romans 8:3-4, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Luke 3:6 says, And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Paul never met Jesus in the flesh, but claimed revelation, knowledge, etc. from spiritual beings, etc.

Romans 16:25, Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith...

A Word on Dualism

Theological usage ("Western")

In theology, dualism can refer to the belief that there are two gods in the universe that work in opposition to each other. One god is good, the other evil; some religions hold that one god works for order, the other for chaos. The Zoroastrian religion, three millennia old and still extant, and the Manichaean religion, which has died out (some "Neo-Manichaeans" have revived it, but they lack most of the writings of the prophet Mani) are dualistic. The Christian heretic Marcion of Sinope held that the Old and New Testaments were the work of two opposing gods.

This is where both Christianity and Islam get their views of the Devil, Satan, etc. along with their apocalypse themes. The Satan of the Old Testament/Torah and the Serpent in the Garden are not the Devil or Satan, these themes were added later.

Theological usage ("Eastern"/"mystic")

Alternatively, dualism can mean the tendency of humans to perceive and understand the world as being chunked into different categories. In this sense, it is dualistic when one perceives a tree as a thing separate from everything surrounding it, or when one perceives a "self" that is distinct from the rest of the world. In traditions such as Zen, a key to enlightenment is overcoming this sort of dualism. This is notoriously difficult, and may require a lifetime of practice.

Usage in philosophy of mind

In philosophy of mind, dualism refers to a narrow variety of views about the relationship between mind and matter, which are seen as totally different kinds of things.

Additional Resources

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me draft and refine this article. The final edits and perspective are my own.