Gnostics

Summary. "Gnostics" is the name given to a disparate group of Christian teachers and their followers especially in the period 130-190. "Gnostics" can be translated "people with knowledge", and the gnostics claimed to have secret revealed wisdom about creation and the way of redemption. In fact, characteristically, gnostics thought that knowledge itself could be redemptive. In "the great Church," gnostics were seen as a threat, and many developments in the second century of doctrinal formulation and organization can be seen as its response to this threat.

1. What we know about the Gnostics

• Until the twentieth century, most of what people knew about the Gnostics came from their opponents, notably Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 130-200), Tertullian of Carthage (fl. 200), and Hippolytus of Rome (d. ca. 236)
• Celsus, a pagan critic of Christianity in the late second century, also speaks of the Gnostics
• In 1945, several books of Gnostic writings were discovered by accident near Nag Hammadi in Egypt. These documents have revolutionized our understanding of the movement

2. Some important Gnostic names

• Basilides, fl. ab. 130-150
• Valentinus, fl. ab. 140-160
• Heracleon, fl. ab. 170-180
• The Sethians

3. Views held by the Gnostics
(N.B. Because the term "Gnostics" was given broadly to a large assortment of disparate thinkers and groups, there is no single Gnostic theory. The term "Gnosticism", which was apparently invented in the seventeenth century, is now generally avoided in academic literature because it may suggest that there was a single Gnostic religion or theory. )

• Many Gnostics are "dualistic", drawing a sharp distinction between spiritual reality and physical reality, and counting the former as alone important
• Many regard secret knowledge as redemptive
• Many are "syncretistic", combining the stories and wisdom of the Bible with various other religions and secular philosophies, notably Platonism
• Many propound broad cosmological theories

Origins of the Gnostics

• Some Gnostic groups may pre-date the New Testament. One example may be the Sethians. These groups may then have added a Christian dimension to their teaching in the first and second centuries
• Some Gnostic groups may originate in early Christianity. For instance, Simon Magus (Acts 8:9ff.) may be an early Gnostic teacher. See also I Thess. 4:6-7, Col. 2:8. Paul and John may be in dialogue with Gnosticism
• Some Gnostic groups may have originated in a more mainstream Christianity but then have struck off in a direction of their own. If so, their motivation may have been :

  Extreme acculturation to their hellenistic environment (Harnack calls Gnosticism "the acute hellenization of Christianity); or

  Disappointment in the delay of the parousia (R. M. Grant); or

  Existential alienation (Hans Jonas)

The response of "the Great Church"

• Organizational development, e.g., an increased authority for the office of bishop
• A greater emphasis on a public written canonical Scripture
• Greater attention to teaching and orthodoxy, as seen in a "rule of faith", baptismal creeds, esteem for tradition, catechism
• More careful doctrinal formulation, especially in respect of:

  The bodily resurrection of Christ

  Monotheism

  The fatherhood of God the creator

  The real bodily passion of Christ

  One holy catholic and apostolic Church

  The communion of saints