On the Horizon of Gnosticism in New Testament Times

The definition of the word Gnostic is about as easy to nail down as a flopping fish. It is derived from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “to know.” In the case of Gnosticism, what is “known” has shifted over the thousands of years since Gnosticism first reared its head during the formation and solidification of the early church.

One of the more significant developments for Christianity in the second century was the emergence of gnosticism, a religious movement or perspective that appealed to many Christians and became the bane of many prominent church leaders who sought to defend the orthodox faith from what they called the “gnostic heresy.” Gnosticism is difficult to define because as a religious and ideological phenomenon it took many forms and had many different expressions (think, for instance, of how difficult it would be to define exactly what is meant by “new age” religion or thinking today). Gnosticism also demonstrated a remarkable capacity for integration with different religions and philosophies: there were gnostic Jews, gnostic Christians, and gnostic pagans. Ultimately, however, the marriage of gnosticism and Christianity proved especially effective, and throughout the second, third, and fourth centuries gnostic versions of Christianity constituted the primary alternatives to what we usually think of as “mainstream” Christianity. There were hundreds of gnostic Christian churches, complete with their own clergy, bishops, liturgies, and all the other accoutrements of any organized religious system. The gnostics also wrote their own gospels, telling stories about Jesus in ways that reflected their particular interests and then backdating the books by falsely attributing them to Jesus’s disciples or close acquaintances. A library of gnostic writings was discovered in Egypt at Nag Hammadi in 1945, and the availability of that literature has greatly enhanced our knwoledge.

One of the more significant developments for Christianity in the second century was the emergence of gnosticism, a religious movement or perspective that appealed to many Christians and became the bane of many prominent church leaders who sought to defend the orthodox faith from what they called the “gnostic heresy.” Gnosticism is difficult to define because as a religious and ideological phenomenon it took many forms and had many different expressions (think, for instance, of how difficult it would be to define exactly what is meant by “new age” religion or thinking today). Gnosticism also demonstrated a remarkable capacity for integration with different religions and philosophies: there were gnostic Jews, gnostic Christians, and gnostic pagans. Ultimately, however, the marriage of gnosticism and Christianity proved especially effective,

and throughout the second, third, and fourth centuries gnostic versions of Christianity constituted the primary alternatives to what we usually think of as “mainstream” Christianity. There were hundreds of gnostic Christian churches, complete with their own clergy, bishops, liturgies, and all the other accoutrements of any organized religious system. The gnostics also wrote their own gospels, telling stories about Jesus in ways that reflected their particular interests and then backdating the books by falsely attributing them to Jesus’s disciples or close acquaintances.

A library of gnostic writings was discovered in Egypt at Nag Hammadi in 1945, and the availability of that literature has greatly enhanced our understanding of Christian diversity. All the various expressions of gnostic thought derive from a radically dualistic attitude that regards “spirit” as fundamentally good and “matter” as fundamentally evil. Thus the physical world in general and individual human bodies in particular are understood to be material prisons in which divine souls or spirits have been trapped. The most prevalent form of gnosticism known to us held that the world was created by an evil or at least inferior god known as the Demiurge.

Human beings are basically eternal spirits that were captured by the Demiurge and are now being confined in bodies of flesh and in a world of matter. Gnostic Christians believed that Christ had come as a spiritual redeemer (disguised as a human being) to impart secret knowledge (Greek, gnōsis). This knowledge enables the enlightened to be liberated from their material existence and to realize their true identities as spiritual beings. The implications of such a belief system for life in this world varied dramatically. Many (probably most) gnostics held that liberation from the flesh involved renunciation of bodily pleasures and material concerns: they encouraged virginity, celibacy, fasting, strict diets, and other aspects of an ascetic and austere lifestyle that would enable them to become more spiritual. But other gnostics drew the opposite conclusion: they engaged freely in all manner of wanton excesses on the grounds that since the spirit is all that matters, what one does with the flesh is completely irrelevant.

We need to emphasize that gnosticism appears to be a development of the second, third, and fourth centuries; there is no evidence that the movement as such had any traction at the time when events reported in the New Testament were occurring or when the books of the New Testament were being written. Nevertheless, historical scholars do not think that a movement such as this one

simply appeared fully formed in the middle of the second century; the assumption is that the ideas and tendencies that would later define gnosticism must have been present earlier. Thus it has become common for New Testament scholars to speak of an almost invisible and largely unidentified “proto-gnosticism” as part of the milieu that made up the New Testament world. The apostle Paul writes about the distinction between them.