Gnosticism is a form of Christianity that believes that the material world was not created by God, but by an evil “mirror God”. Jesus Christ was the son of the one true God, and he came to the world to teach men how to escape the evils of the material world through gnosis, which is a mystical union with the divine that resembles Buddhist enlightenment.
Importantly, gnosis can only be achieved on an individual level through spiritual action, and cannot be achieved through institutions, sacraments, confessions, and so forth, cornerstones of the mainstream Christianity that would emerge at the same time as Gnosticism.
Origins of Gnosticism
Christianity began as a branch of Judaism after a prophet, named Jesus, appeared in the first century BCE/CE. However, Christianity as we know it today did not emerge fully formed within the lifespan of Jesus. During Jesus’ life, and in the centuries following his death, his followers had many different and often conflicting beliefs.
What we know about Gnosticism comes from two different historical traditions. The first are texts written by heresiologists or those who study heresy. These are mainstream Christians who were involved in what would become Catholicism and Orthodoxy who would describe Gnostic belief for the purpose of disputing them. Some famous names include Tertullian and Hippolytus.
The other source are religious treatises written by Gnostics themselves which can be considered among the apocrypha. Basically, during the first, second, and third centuries CE there was no canonical New Testament. There were lots of religious treatises written by followers of Christ, many of which were contradictory. As different sects developed their spiritual beliefs, they chose which writing they considered “right” and which ones should be ignored. In the end, those who “won” and created mainstream Christianity chose the canonical works that now make up the New Testament. The texts that didn’t make the cut are apocrypha.
Not all apocrypha are Gnostic texts, as there were other Christian sects and beliefs, but some of the most important Gnostic texts include the Secret Book of John about creation, the Reality of the Rules about the Archons, and the Treatise on Resurrection about how salvation can be achieved.
Gnostic Creation
The Gnostics had a dualist vision of the university called anticosmicism, which means “conflicting worlds”. They believe that the divine realm and the material realm do not exist in harmony with one another. While the divine world is transcendent, the material world is a place of horror and chaos. The aim is to escape the world of chaos and join the transcendent.
The material world is evil because it was not created by God. God was the first thing and is perfection, but is also beyond human comprehension is humanity is below his concern. God, in perfect harmony with himself, had no need to actively create anything, but as the source of all things, the heavens, or the divine transcendent world, which the Gnostics called pleroma (fullness), came into being from him without active, conscious creation. His thoughts also overflowed from his being and created other heavenly beings. The most important of these beings are the trinity, made up of God himself, Jesus Christ, and a feminine factor often called Barbelo. She is the mother of Christ and also the Holy Spirit.
All existence was in beautiful harmony until another divine being, Sophia (wisdom), decided that she wanted to create. She gave birth to a being commonly called the demiurge without any participation from God. Consequently, this new divine being was hideous and malevolent with the body of a snake, the head of a lion, and eyes like lightning bolts.
The demiurge was thrown out of heaven, and in his loneliness created the material world, which was chaotic and corrupt like him. He also created a group of being called the Archons to help him rule his new world. The Archons are also mishappen, hermaphrodites with the heads of animals. Together, they trapped the true divine spark of the pleroma in each human body and rendered humans subject to their dystopian rule. Therefore “original sin” does not belong to humans, but is an essential part of the material world.
Salvation
The Gnostic vision of creation can seem quite nihilistic, but they also believe that Christ, who is a part of the true God, came to earth to show mankind, with their true divine spark, how to liberate themselves from the evil world of the demiurge and the Archons.
To do this, Christ took possession of the body of a man called Jesus and traveled the world teaching people how they can reach gnosis, not dissimilar from Buddha teaching how to achieve enlightenment.
The evil rules of the material world, under the influence of the Archons, killed Jesus. But Christ, being divine, survived the execution and demonstrated the immortality of spirit beyond the body.
While the New Testament focuses on Jesus’ teachings around love and compassion, a more apocalyptic interpretation is not inconsistent with what is known about Jesus’ life and teachings. Jesus spoke about a new world order in which the meek would inherit the Earth, the implication was that this was coming soon and would happen within the lifetimes of the people he was preaching to. In that sense, Jesus was kind of a doomsdayer. He was then killed as a common criminal and none of his prophecies came to fruition, so his followers had to reinterpret his words to focus on the kingdom of heaven.
Gnostic beliefs can be seen in the biblical Gospel of John, in which he implies that the world is evil, and Jesus is the answer to liberating souls from that world.
Heresy
Gnosticism thrived throughout the second and third centuries CE, and two main groups emerged. The first are Classica Gnostics, or Sethians, who lived an ascetic life as part of their pursuit of gnosis and therefore largely separated from other groups. The Valentinians on the other hand believed that gnosis was something that happened internally and was consistent with living and worshipping alongside other Christians.
However, when orthodox Christianity emerged in the fourth century CE, following the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine, other Christians did not return the tolerance of the Valentinians and they were persecuted along with their ascetic cousins. This is also when the New Testament with canonized, with the Catholic Church establishing its Biblical canon in 382 CE.
While Gnosticism continued to be practiced, it was considered heretical and violently suppressed by mainstream churches.
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