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Much of what we know about the teachings and practices of the groups labeled heretics by the church has, until fairly recently, been based on accounts given by defenders of orthodoxy whose main purpose is to ridicule and refute heretical positions and actions. As historical sources, such biased accounts are not unusual; for all historical accounts are biased--even this one. Bias may be innocent, resulting from cultural conditioning, ignorance and prejudice, or it may be more pernicious, resulting from a conscious and deliberate effort to defame and discredit by misrepresentation and distortion. The bias of one author is partially revealed when his report is compared with a separate author's report on the same events.
Since more of the first hand testimony of the alleged heretics themselves has been identified and studied in recent years we are no longer so blinded by the bias of our orthodox sources. It has become obvious that the struggle was more deadly serious for orthodoxy than has usually been assumed. Indeed, the survival of the particular group of Christians holding the traditions called "orthodoxy" was much more precarious and uncertain than has generally been understood. The late first, second and third centuries saw a comparatively small, scattered but tenacious (orthodox) Christian group surrounded on every hand, besieged and outnumbered by the many, sizable, influential and popularly successful quasi-Christian (heretical) groups.
This long held view of the early popularity and triumph of orthodoxy must be laid at the door of the early fourth century historian of Christianity, Eusebius Pamphilius, Bishop of Caesarea Maritima in Palestine whose Ecclesiastical History you have seen often cited in this material. His account was the first and evidently the only surviving attempt to trace the development of Christianity's first three centuries of history. Although Eusebius quoted many original sources some of which have not survived in any other form, modern scholars either have recovered or are aware of the existence of many other sources he did not quote--if he was indeed aware of them. If he was aware of them perhaps he did not refer to them because, in his opinion, they were insignificant for his account. The historian's understanding--or interpretation-- of a particular historical development is always determined by the available sources from which he synthesizes it. In turn, that understanding determines to a large degree the sources he elects to utilize in telling the story to others. Eusebius believed that the orthodox stream of development he was part of was not only the correct form of Christianity but always the most popular and successful form of Christianity from the very beginning. Additional pieces of existing evidence to the contrary illuminate Eusebius' innocent bias. Present day historians of the second century have the advantage of a broader and more articulated perspective than Eusebius' rather simple and uncluttered view.
One of the sources Eusebius trusted and used was Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons. Irenaeus' stance in Adversus haereses is defensive or polemical as he was seeking to protect his flock and other would-be converts to Christianity from the persuasive and attractive claims of Gnosticism in its several forms. As we have noted elsewhere Irenaeus was the first to utilize the doctrine of Apostolic Succession as a means of combating the claims of the leadership of the pseudo-Christian sects. And Adversus haereses contributed substance to an understanding of the concepts of heresy and orthodoxy.
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It is clear that our traditional understanding of Gnosticism has depended, until this century, largely on Irenaeus' understanding of the movement. The recovery and publication of the Nag Hammadi Library of Gnostic texts after its discovery in 1945 has very much illuminated, expanded and corrected our knowledge of Gnosticism. In this added light we now understand that what the pagan world labeled Christianity in the second century was, indeed, a broad multifaceted stream consisting of a great deal more than just orthodox Christianity. Some parts of this movement were scarcely comparable to what we know as orthodox catholic doctrine or practice but they nonetheless claimed the name Christian. It may well be that the term "Gnostic" applied with more justification to some facets of the movement than to others, yet Irenaeus applied it indiscriminately to all the different heresies.
While some would quibble that it isn't "gnostic" unless it claims to be Christian, we now understand that there were parts of Gnosticism that were without significant Christian associations. Indeed, this has led some scholars to attempt to identify a Jewish Gnosticism, but the clearest example of such non-Christian gnostic thought system is found in the Corpus Hermeticum, a body of writings believed to have originated in the second and third centuries AD in the Hellenistic culture of Roman Egypt. It is built largely around the Hellenistic cult of Hermes-Thoth, otherwise known as Hermes Trismagistus.
In the larger context of the intellectual history of the ancient world the several brands of Gnosticism are among the many different ways civilized men sought to organize and synthesize the accumulated knowledge from all the ancient cultural traditions. A variety of syntheses emerged in the search for a system of thought, a worldview, at once logically coherent and comprehensive. When the creative synthesis drew together a mixture of ideas from various Greek philosophical schools it was called eclecticism. When the synthesis drew not only on the Greek cultural tradition but also on the Egyptian, the Mesopotamian, and the Hebrew and combined not only philosophy but also religion, both in their broadest scope the result was called Gnosticism.
The Greek noun, gnôsis, connotes the result of an investigation, an organized body of knowledge, a concept or an understanding. The adjectival noun, gnôstikos, meant something capable of, or fit for, knowing, something cognitive or knowable, and by extension, theoretical science, that which may be known even though it has perhaps not heretofore been known, the speculative. Today we would call it the hypothetical, a defensible synthethic understanding of otherwise unrelated bits of knowledge. Hence, Gnosticism was the label for any number of different knowable results drawn from the unique syntheses of different cultural traditions.
When analyzing Gnosticism, another way of describing it is to understand that it was an uncontrolled use of mystical thought in search of gnosis about God and revealed from God. Such mystical thought traces its origin to Academic philosophy and the Classic and Hellenistic Mysteries. Since it began in a polytheistic, that is to say, multi-cultural world, ideas about Deity were diverse and numerous. The Gnostics made it thier business to reconcile and synthesize all these pagan traditions together with some Jewish and Christian traditions.
In this broad sense the development of orthodox Christian theology was part and parcel of this enterprise, not something altogether different from it. Both the systems of the quasi-Christian Gnostic heretics and the orthodox Christians were alike in their speculative and venturesome intellectual curiosity and mysticism. They were, however, very unlike in the fact that the orthodox synthesis preserved all (at least theoretically) the ingredients of the Christian tradition judged to be essential while the heretical systems only included some more or less superficial fraction of that essential Christian tradition.
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Scholars study this question without being able to resolve it. The uncertainty involves whether it is appropriate to identify a type of Jewish Gnosticism antedating the more familiar Gnosticism of the Christian Era. Certainly we may consider some of the work of Philo Judaeus of Alexandria as such an achievement synthesizing together Hebrew thought and Hellenistic philosophy. We find other early examples of such activity both specifically and implicitly in the New Testament books.
Luke provides us information on Simon the wonder worker of Samaria in Acts 8:9-24. Because Luke describes him as using the skills of a magus, magician or sorcerer, he is usually referred to as Simon Magus. Some consider him the founder of Christian Gnosticism because he attempted to incorporate Christianity into his "bag of tricks". Although, like the other converts he was baptized by Philip, Peter realized Simon's actions were not motivated by repentance and faith, but by a bitterness resulting from the fact the Philip was now more popular than he in the city. Nevertheless Simon seems to have founded a quasi-Christian sect called the Simonians which can be traced into the third century. Menander of Antioch was Simon's disciple and successor who flourished in the late first century.
Paul mentions Hymenaeus and Philetus (II Timothy 2:16-18) who were condemned for a characteristic Gnostic teaching that the resurrection had already occurred. What we do know of the existence of the following sects makes it certain that most of them were essentially Gnostic. They carried over into the second century AD and in some cases longer. The Nicolaitans are mentioned in Revelation 2:6 and 15. This sect is described by Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History, III. 29) as being "short-lived". The clear implication of the references in Revelation associates them with eating meat offered to idols and engaging in sexual immorality. Irenaeus and later churchmen identify the title of the sect with Nicholas of Antioch, one of Stephen's colleagues mentioned in Acts 6:5. Nicholas is quoted by members of this sect as the author of their teaching, "the flesh must be treated with contempt". This they apparently understood to justify a total indifference to moral standards. Clement of Alexandria (Stromateis, II.20) defends Nicholas by explaining that all he did was divorce his wife because "the Apostles accused him of jealousy." The one Apostle that Clement names is Matthias. Clement interprets the Apostle's teaching and Nicholas' action as a case of renunciation of desire so as not to be guilty of having two masters.
The Cerinthians are also reported in this period. The founder, Kerinthus (Kérinthos), was described in later Christian tradition as an Egyptian Jew, a student of Philo Judaeus and a contemporary of Paul (Cf. Galatians 2:4. II Corinthians 11:13). Modern scholars are skeptical of the early date and see him in the first half of the second century. He allegedly believed the creation had been accomplished by some subordinate being, not by God, and that Jesus was a human who was blessed by the descent of a "heavenly anointing" or "heavenly spirit" in the form of a dove. He also believed that this special heavenly presence departed from Jesus before his death. The third allegation against him was teaching a post-resurrection millennial rule of Christ in the earthly Jerusalem. This latter position seems to have resulted in a group of anti-Jewish Christians in Asia Minor suggesting that Kerinthus was the author the Gospel of John and The Revelation.
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In the second century AD three major regional schools of Gnosticism developed, the Syrian, the Egyptian and the Pontic. The Syrian School consisted of the followers of Menander, the disciple of Simon Magus. Saturninus, sometimes spelled Satornilos, evidently the pupil of Menander, had a big following at Antioch in the days of Hadrian. Tatian (the Apologist) came to be considered a Gnostic in his later life because of his association with the severely ascetic sect called Encratism. According to the fourth century Jerome, Encratism condemned meat, wine, and marriage as evils true Christians must forego.
Another eastern Gnostic was the son of a displaced Persian aristocratic family who was educated in Edessa among the associates of the future king Abgar VIII. Bardesanes gained a historical reputation as a precision shot in archery from his having entertained Emperor Septimius Severus with a dazzling display of his rapid fire marksmanship in 195 when the Emperor visited Abgar VIII's court in Edessa. Born about 154 he was converted at age 25 as a result of having visited a Church service in Edessa probably out of curiosity. He enthusiastically embraced his new faith and was soon numbered among the clergy. As a gifted and highly educated individual he was soon making a name for himself as an apologist for his Church, defending it against the adherents of Marcion's teachings. Like other broadly educated synthetic and speculative thinkers in the second century he sought to find a satisfying way to reconcile all the opposing issues. In his search he was eventually drawn to some speculative conclusions that, to some contemporaries and later heresy hunters at least, seemed at an incidental point or two to ape the doctrines of the "Egyptian" Gnostic, Valentinian. These defenders of orthodoxy promptly condemned him as a Valentinian. Those modern scholars who have taken the time to study Bardesanes' own written work are more sympathetic and less harsh in their condemnation. His son, Harmonius, continued in Edessa as the spokesman for his father's views.
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The Egyptian School was founded by the first important Egyptian Gnostic, Basilides. He taught in Alexandria after c. AD 120. Carpocrates was a Gnostic sect-leader contemporary with Basilides in Alexandria who founded the Carpocratians. His most important disciple was Marcellina, a woman who taught in Rome in the middle of the century. They reportedly worshipped an image of Christ pagan style along with images of other philosophers. Valentinian, another younger contemporary of Basilides, became the dominant Gnostic teacher not only in Alexandria but also in Rome where he lived and taught from c. 140 to 154. Valentinian's pupil, Theodotus, succeeded him in Alexandria. Ptolemy and Heracleon, Valentinian's pupils at Rome, became the most important Gnostic teachers in the west. They flourished c. 170-180. Marcus, another of Valentinian's pupils is believed to have lived and taught in Asia Minor and in Gaul. His followers were known as Marcusians.
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The dominant personality in the Pontic School was the sometime Christian Marcion, the archenemy of the Judaizers in Asia Minor whose vigorous defense of Christianity carried him into heresy. Widely traveled, he lived in Rome between c. 140 and 155 AD where he first came in contact with Gnostic teaching through a minor representative of the Syrian School named Cerdo. The Marcionite sect was found in Italy, Egypt, North Africa, Cyprus and Syria as well as in Asia Minor, but there was little cohesion or uniformity among them. Prepo, Lucanus and Apelles were the chief successors of Marcion.
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It can be very misleading to generalize about Gnosticism in an attempt to simplify it or make it less confusing. We must remember that each Gnostic teacher's synthesis of concepts was typically unique and often highly detailed and closely reasoned but very scantily and unreliably documented. However, since the discovery of the fourth century Gnostic library at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, some Gnostic writings can now be studied first hand.
Perhaps the following observations will indicate something of the mind-set or worldview shared by many Gnostics. They believed the outward world was evil and beyond redemption; some even argued that it had been created by mistake. They turned their attention from the outward world into the inward mind-world of gnôsis, "knowledge". This inward "known" world, unlike the outward, physical world, is good. Outward man is evil but inward man is righteous and divine. The soul of man was tricked and trapped or "buried" in flesh, in this evil, alien place. The "resurrection" of a man's soul takes place when the outward man becomes knowledgeable of his inward self--when a person becomes aware of the "divine spark" or "christ" that is his or her soul.
The following is an attempt to give a thumbnail sketch of alleged Valentinian thought as an example of Gnosticism. For Valentinian God was the totality (Greek: pleroma) of reality, but consisting of thirty elemental parts, persons, entities, attributes, or aeons. (Remember that the concept of the trinity was still very much a debatable issue for Christians in the second century.) The first eight aeons constitute the essential nature of God. They are brother-sister pairs named Profundity and Silence, Mind and Truth, Logos and Life, Ideal Man and Church. The remainder of the aeons constitute all the rest of true reality. The bottom most pair of aeons, number 29 and 30, were Gnosis and Sophia. Apparently, Sophia unwisely seduced her partner Gnosis, with the undesirable result of an inappropriate pregnancy. Demiurge (a philosophic term meaning craftsman, worker, creator) was born, but he was not part of the Pleroma. This Demiurge created the material world and Adam, somehow implanting a "seed of the spirit" in Adam. Because of this accidental chain of events which the upper part of the Pleroma had not initiated, the evil world of flesh and bone now persists due to the tiny spiritual "seeds" of reality which are passed from generation to generation. Then Mind created a new male-female pair, numbers 30 and 31: Christus and Holy Spirit. From their union came the last and final aeon, Christ the savior. This spiritual being came to the lower world masquerading as a human being and saving all those who would accept and were able to comprehend his perfect knowledge.
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Such doctrines led to a variety of contrasting conclusions about outward human behavior, tending usually to one or the other extreme. On the one hand some favored extremely moralistic asceticism and self-discipline coupled with sharp denunciation of individual and social sins. On the other hand others favored extreme anti-nomianism coupled with hedonistic immorality practiced shamelessly as a demonstration that the inward man is capable of being serenely detached from the outward circumstance of this existence. Among the Gnostics women were sometimes denigrated and avoided as evil, sometimes treated as common possessions, and sometimes, if intelligent and quick to learn, treated as equals with men.
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Many Gnostic sects claimed to be the true Christianity while they labeled the orthodox Christian tradition as well as other Gnostic sects as ignorant and in error, i.e., heresy. They claimed special authority for their own unique tradition, frequently asserting that it derived from individuals of the Apostolic community such as Philip the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene or Thomas the Apostle. The Nag Hammadi library does contain, among other types of materials, such pseudepigraphical works as: Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Mary, and Gospel of Thomas. Frequently, however, they insisted that their special knowledge had been passed along secretly and privately from someone like Nicholas the deacon or Matthias the Apostle from the first century and written down only recently, even anonymously, in the second century. Hence, Nag Hammadi titles such as The Book of Thomas the Contender, The Teachings of Sylvanus, and the anonymous Tripartate Tractate, illustrate such authorities.
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Other sects with certain Gnostic ideas in common include the Naasenes and the Ophites which are alike in taking the names, the first in Hebrew the second in Greek, from the word for "serpent", which they seem to understand as the medium of divine revelation. Still other sects like the Sethians and the Cainites took their names from the sons of Adam and Eve. We have already mentioned above the cult of Hermes-Thoth that provides us with the best example of a mystical, gnostic-like world-view/theology without making any claims relative to either Judaism or Christianity.
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Another new religion emerged in Iraq during the third century and spread through the bilingual Syriac/Greek speaking population pockets located in commercial centers across the Empire in the late third century. As most Gnostics had done in the second century, this religion also identified itself as the true Christianity. The Christians called it Manichaeism after its founder.
Mani was born in a Jewish family near the city of Babylon in 216 and died a martyr to his cause in prison near Susa. Mani's family belonged to the Jewish Christian sect known as the Elkesaites. At twelve years of age Mani began to have visions and revelations from what he called his "comforter" or "heavenly twin". He, his father and two other converts were eventually expelled from the Elkesaites in 240, after which he began to write, send out missionaries and travel extensively as far as India preaching his Manichaean "gospel".
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Mani styled himself as the "apostle of light" whose "gospel" was a synthesis of Christian concepts mixed with Zoroastrian and Buddhist-like doctrines together with speculations drawn from the Syrian and Pontic schools of Gnosticism.
Manichaeism was basically a radical dualism of darkness versus light. Particles of divine light have gotten trapped in the darkness of this material cosmos. The good news he declared was that these particles could eventually escape and return to their source, the heavenly Garden of Light. Even though mankind was trapped by creation--an action of demonic powers--in an evil, material body, because the pattern used by the demons was of heavenly origin, humans can aid in the release of the light particles and speed their way to heaven along the Milky Way.
Some individuals, both men and women, are so spiritually pure and sensitive that they are set apart as "elect." These clergy disdain all creature comforts and earthly responsibilities in a rigorous asceticism. They wander about preaching their gospel and forgiving "hearers" of their sins, thus releasing the particle of light trapped in the soul by sin. When one of the elect dies their spirit and light particle are escorted through the realms of darkness by a spirit of light and taken to the heavenly Garden of Light.
The "hearers", as members of the Manichaean churches are called, provide for all the physical needs of the elect. When a hearer dies a spirit of light escort comes for them, but they are not taken to the heavenly Garden of Light. Salvation for the hearer is simply to be reincarnated at a "higher" level, as a plant(!) or, perhaps, as one of the elect.
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The Sassanid Persian rulers who took over Babylonia, Media and Persia about 242 favored the Zoroastrians and persecuted the Manichaeans after 273 driving many out of the Persian area. Many Syriac speaking Manichaeans fled westward across the Roman frontier and scattered westward. Others moved northeastward into central Asia. The Manichaeans organized Churches where ever they went. They were particularly noteworthy in cities like Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage, Massilia and wherever settlements of Syrian traders were established.
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