The Gnostics: Who Were They?

Gnosticism is a spiritual path that has been seen throughout history in many settings. This article refers specifically to a movement that occurred in Christianity in the second and third centuries of the Common Era (100's and 200's A.D.), largely dying out by the Council of Nicea (which gave us the Nicene Creed) in the fourth century. Since Gnostics put such emphasis upon direct personal knowledge of God, it is difficult to make generalizations, beyond the belief in salvation by knowledge of God and of self, of what they did or did not believe.

More people are familiar with the word agnostic than with the word gnostic. Although they sound alike, they have very different meanings, just like the words theist and atheist. A theist believes in a theos, a god, while an atheist believes in a-theos, no god. Similarly, a gnostic believes in gnosis, the direct knowledge of God, while an agnostic believes in a-gnosis, that is, in no knowledge of God, that we cannot say anything about Him or Her or It, not even that She or He or It exists.

One belief that many of these Gnostic Christians or Christian Gnostics subscribed to was the dualism of existence. All things are either physical or spiritual. Moreover, with some oversimplification, the physical world is corrupt, while the spiritual world is good. While this may seem alien to us, dualism seems to be a fundamental part of human thought.

Although many Christians seem to regard the material world as somehow wrong, insubstantial, not to be trusted, that is not fundamental Christian doctrine. God created the material world and all that is in it. According to a plaque I've seen in several Christian homes, "I'm OK. God doesn't make junk." Some Christian thinkers, however, have argued that although God's original creation was good, it became corrupt by human sin.

Moreover, God-in traditional Christian teaching-took on human flesh in the incarnation (the in-meat-ation or enfleshment), and in the Mass (according to Catholic teaching) the material bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ.

The Gnostics taught that we are souls trapped in physical bodies. One Gnostic text has Jesus telling his disciples to cast off their clothes and trample them... not as a call for ritual nudity (like that of the Doukhobers - more ) but rather a suggestion that the body is a set of old clothes impeding the spirit.

In Christianity, on the other hand, there is no soul that is going to fly heavenward in a lacy gown. Christianity demands the resurrection of the physical body. (So I'm going to be stuck through eternity in a short, fat body with bad eyes? Some good news that is!)

Read about the Gnostics.

Gnostics and Gnosticism: A Guide for Teachers and Students: Read it.

How Do We Know About Them, and Why Should We Care? Read it.

Who Did They Believe Jesus/Christ Is? Read it.

What Were Their Sources for Authority? Read it.

What Were Their Most Important Beliefs? Read it.

The Gospel of Thomas: Read it.

Read my articles about variations of Christianity here.