Gnosticism: The Earliest Travesty of the Gospel

I. INTRODUCTION

The early history of the church reveals a significant amount of controversy regarding Jesus’ dual status as both divine and human. Many seemed to have been doing theology proper to explain God and his relation to Jesus. Division and conflict within the body of Christ had been her predicament. Some of the major players in the conflict genuinely seek the truth. They were dealing with the metaphysical realities. The controversies were their pursuit to explain how God became a man and to what extent his incarnation affects our understanding of God and his world.

II. OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUE

Throughout Christian church history, we see that God worked to establish the church amidst challenges, demonstrating patience while preserving his remnant—distinguishing between the wheat and tares, as well as false teachings and true teachings. In this period of Greco-Roman rule, Jewish and pagan influences were rising since the doctrine of the person and the work of Jesus Christ was developing. There was a constant attack on the cardinal doctrine of Jesus’ humanity from one end, and the other end was trying to hijack the divinity of Jesus.

III. Gnosticism: The Earliest Travesty of the Gospel

A. The Origin of Gnosticism

It is very difficult to tell precisely how Gnosticism has its origin. They acquired their name from the Greek word γνῶσις, which literally means “knowledge.” It emerged in the 2^nd century AD.[1] Gnosticism is the earliest philosophical attempt to explain the person and the work of Jesus through Greek philosophy and Jewish tradition. In this sense, it is an admixture of pagan mysticism and Jewish Christian traditions that sought to deal with the theological issues, as they saw them as problematic to the Christian belief.[2] They were denying the reality of Jesus and were in pursuit of salvation through mystical gnosis or knowledge. Since they stressed “the importance of gnosis—direct inner knowledge of God”[3], they held a belief distinctively not orthodoxy. However, they were one of the driving forces in the first- and early second-century Greco-Roman world.

The early Gnosticism is believed to predate Christianity. Nevertheless, the dating of its origin for scholars is still a matter of debate. One thing is for sure: we can claim that all Gnostic writings we have found are later than the New Testament. The early church Fathers bore the heavy responsibility of countering the tenets of Gnosticism through their writings. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Polycarp, and Origen were a few of them.

B. The Influence of Greek and Oriental Thought on Gnosticism

Their stem easily traces the influence of Greek and Oriental thought. Gnosticism came out of their positive desire to restate and reunite the gospel that is compatible with the oriental and Greek thoughts of their time. As Stephen Hoeller succinctly explains, Gnostic Christians believed that human beings have access to direct, personal, and absolute knowledge of the authentic truth of their existence, which can only be attained through gnosis. [4] The ultimate realization of this knowledge liberates the person from the world. Having said that, the fundamental precepts of Gnosticism ought not to be misunderstood as faith or charity. The accentuation of attaining knowledge is more on intellectual and psychological aspects of a person than embracing the belief system without any validity. Gnosis also quashed the necessity of work or the do-good concept, as gnosis is the sole responsible agent that can lead any human beings to their destiny.

C. The Complexity of Gnosticism

Gnosticism is also characterized by a variety of forms and sects. A particular form of Gnosticism is connected with a certain Gnostic teacher. The correlation between a promoter and the idea being promoted makes it even more complex. Some of the prominent teachers who took Gnosticism in the midst of elites were Valentinus, Basilides, and Marcion.[5] The overwhelmingly mystical idea was the chief selling point in the 2^nd century AD throughout the Roman Empire. Nothing is much more appealing to people than Gnosticism because of its complexity and mystical obscurity. Their chief characteristics thus made Gnosticism extremely exciting and attractive.

D. The Gnostic System of Valentinus and Cerinthian in 2^nd Century

Both of these Gnostic teachers held ontological dualism, which means that both matter and spirit are co-eternal and co-existent. Their dualistic stance posits that matter is evil, so it must be antagonistic to the spirit.[6] The spirit, which is opposed to matter, is identified as God himself, who is good and pure. Thus, matter and spirit are irreconcilable. Valentinus is regarded as one of the greatest Gnostic teachers. Immensely complex form of Gnosticism was championed that was the biggest threat to the Christian church. He blended mythology into his form of Gnosticism and made it even more complicated while trying to make it compatible with Christianity.[7] For his attempt to harmonize his version of Gnosticism with the mainstream Christian church, he never got tired of introducing himself as a Christian in his writings.

To fully understand the complex form of Gnosticism, we have to know their basic tenets on God, gnosis, and the fullness of the Godhead. Their understanding of matter being evil and the spirit being good and pure has its root in the creation story. Reading the early Gnostic works helps us to dig deep water down there to get a better picture of their reason for rejecting the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the future bodily resurrection of believers, along with rejecting the God of the Old Testament. The mythical cosmology clearly shows why the early church condemned them as heresy, and we must reject any notion of Gnosticism in our reading of the Gospels.

Much of the work of Valentinus is either lost or destroyed. Today, we only have fragments or quotes from the early church Fathers and the Nag Hammadi text, the Gospel of Truth. Due to the lack of autographs by Valentinus or primary sources on his writings, we can at most surmise his best-developed form of Gnosticism. Drawing texts from those two early sources, we bump into the same idea that was floating around in the 2^nd century AD that we have the potential to attain gnosis. The spark of the divine is within the person, and only gnosis can lead the way to salvation.

Valentinian Conception of God

Valentinus outsmarts his contemporaries by bringing together Greek and Oriental ideas with Christian concepts. In this manner, he makes it comprehensive and appealing to people. The cosmology of Valentinian Gnosticism begins with positing that there is a God known as the Unknown Father. He, in the beginning, existed by himself yet is said to have a female counterpart known as “Silence”.[8] Hence, he is not in the state of solitude. The God of Gnosticism, who existed before everything, is thought to be living in the Pleroma—the complete fullness of the divine—where he is in a peaceful and pure state, ready to show himself later. Since he is pre-existent, he has no end; hence, he is eternal. He is great and has established himself as unchangeable. He is beyond natural order. His identity cannot be reduced to anything or altered. Without his will, nothing can be deducted from his existence. No force can change his will, because he is an unalterable, immutable one who is also known as “without a beginning” and “without an end” because he is unbegotten and immortal.[9] Obviously, these traits of the Unknown Father set him aside and above everything. There is no one to match him and his virtues. For this reason, he is distinguished as unique, with no one like him having existed before, after, or yet to come. Therefore, he is god, the Father.

The Unknown Father desires to have more companions, so he produces two Aeons, which are divine beings named Mind and Truth, in their male and female forms, respectively. From them emanates another duo—World-Life and Man-Church. Ultimately, they form the Pleroma with the Unknown Father—the fullness of Godhead or the divine being.[10] The process of serial emanation of Aeons continues from the former, resulting in a total of thirty Aeons. For adding up numbers to thirty, World-Life generated ten other Aeons, while Man-Church produced twelve Aeons.

The sum of thirty Aeons is the main reason behind the apostasy of some early Christians to Gnosticism. The Gnostic interpretation of the parable of Vineyard in the New Testament was impressive and very appealing to many. When we count all the numbers mentioned in the parable, for example, the first hour, third hour, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours, they sum to thirty. Jesus began his earthly ministry at the age of thirty.[11] The playful and creative allegorical interpretation of the scripture made sense to people. For some, it still does.

Martin lays out an even more detailed account of those Aeons. They who reflected the Unknown God are said to be Dyadic (a father-mother).

The most important are the first four pairs: Bythos (‘primal depth,’ the male principle) and Ennoia (‘thought,’ also called Charis, meaning ‘grace,’ and Sige, meaning ‘silence,’ who is feminine); Nous (‘understanding,’ male) and Aletheia (‘truth,’ female); then Logos (‘the Word,’ male) and Zoë (‘life,’ female); and finally Anthropos (‘man,’ male) and Ekklesia (‘church,’ female). The emanations continue, right down to the last, who, as in other systems, is Sophia (‘wisdom,’ female). At the border of the Pleroma is Horos (‘the Limit’), within which the aeons happily resided until the creation of the Kenoma (‘Lower World’, also known as the Deficiency).[12]

All these Aeons have distinctive characteristics. Among all these Aeons, Sofia (wisdom), however, yearns to know her creator, the Unknown Father. Sofia is left with distress as she learns that her intense longing to identify her creator, as Gnosticism teaches, is unknowable. She produces her offspring very abnormally without the help of her male counterpart as a result of distress. This abnormal emanation of Aeon is named Achamoth, meaning Uncertain.[13] Aeons only from natural generation can join the Pleroma. This negates the possibility of Achamoth joining Pleroma. That is to say, she was ostracized from joining other Aeons in Pleroma.

We can see how the harmony of Pleroma is affected by this event. Sofia is reported to have divided into two—higher self (Wisdom) and lower self (Wisdom)—resulting in disharmony in Pleroma because of her ignorance. The higher self stops at Horos (Limit) and goes back to join other Aeons in Pleroma, while the lower self is broken only to be trapped in matter.[14] Sofia of the higher self, once again, was left to grieve for Achamoth while realizing her misdeed and stricken even more by guilt now. She is by herself to mourn her ignorance. But her grievance certainly does not go unnoticed by her fellow Aeons. They also grieve with Sofia and show corporate support.

As far as Gnostic teachings claim, Truth and Mind come forward to help Sofia come out of this guilt. They emanate two other Aeons, named Christ and the Holy Spirit.[15] In this manner, Sofia is liberated from her ignorance, and Pleroma, once again, is full of harmony among Aeons. The narration of Aeons’ emanation does not end up here. It even goes further to tell the readers how grateful they were to one another. Their way of showing gratitude turns out to be another chance to produce a whole new Aeon named Jesus.[16] Now, Jesus also joins the pantheons of all-time outstanding Aeons, but he is reduced merely to an aeon of the highest rank.

E. Proper Creator and Creation, Evil, Redemption, and Role of Wisdom

The story of Achamoth aims to justify the Gnostic belief that matter is evil. Gnostics heralded Achamoth as the mother of all matter. The matter contaminated Sofia’s lower self when it trapped her. From her comes the Demiurge, meaning “Workman” in Greek. Although Achamoth is the mother of all matter, her offspring Demiurge is the maker of the world, the creator god[17] in a proper sense. He is the craftsman that envisages forms of matter and provides them shape. The Unknown Father is immutable and eternal, but the Demiurge is credited as a creator god of men. Human souls came out of him. This concept is coherent with Gnostic beliefs. Only the Demiurge could have given the human soul, as he came out of the mother of matter. One pure and good god, if logically followed, cannot make anything out of matter because it is closely tied to Achamoth’s very existence. She came to exist as a result of the illegitimate action of Sofia.

That being the case, she is a byproduct of ignorance and uncertainty, which cost her her place in Pleroma. Had her origin been of nobility and not of inferiority, she would not have been ousted from the Pleroma. For that very reason, matter is evil. It cannot originate from a benevolent and pure God. It would make God the author of evil. Impurities must proceed from the same rank. Just as matter is antagonistic to soul, evil is to God.

The pivotal role of Wisdom is elevated as she influences the work of Demiurge. The sole purpose set aside for the Demiurge is to create human beings. He creates man and gives form and shape in his own image. Wisdom, on the other hand, is the one who is pulling the strings without letting Demiurge know when he produces man. Humans owe Sofia for the good spiritual elements in them. Moreover, she is an influential causative agent for the virgin birth of Aeon Jesus.[18] Under her control and supervision, such an unnatural event as a virgin birth happens in human history. She possesses the gnosis that liberates the soul (spirit) from the human body (matter).

For some people, this knowledge is revealed. Valentinus categorizes humans into three different groups: the ‘spiritual’ (πνευματικοί), the ‘fleshly’ or ‘material’ (σαρκικοί or ὑλικοί), and the ‘psychic’ (ψυχικοί).^[19] The spiritual humans have a spark of divine substance, for they are the chosen ones. They were dividing humanity based on elitism, with the associated group becoming the dominant element. Gnosis illuminates them about their spiritual state, so they are spiritually aware people. The ‘fleshy’ or ‘material’ people are in a state of indulgence. They care about worldly pleasure and their own concerns. The ‘psychic,’ as the term suggests, tends to think and feel things. They do not care so much about their personal concerns or indulgence.[20] The only reason for categorizing humans into three groups is to demonstrate how and why certain people respond to the message of Jesus in a way they do. They argue that only Gnostics are ‘pneumatics,’ or spiritual beings who can fully grasp Jesus’ message. The capability of Gnostics to receive the gnosis from Jesus will lead them back to Pleroma.

What becomes clearer in this sect of Gnosticism is that they have borrowed the Platonic idea of form and Ideal realm. They held the view that the soul is imprisoned in the human body, and the only Aeon who is highest among others can set the soul free from the imprisonment of the body.[21] Evidently, Jesus, the highest Aeon who is impervious to harm, piercing, striking, killing, and death, rather, he abandoned the human body (matter) during the crucifixion. The other form of Gnosticism claims that Jesus could not have incarnated into human flesh only to be contaminated by the matter. Contact with the matter shall contaminate Jesus.[22] It would be absurd to claim that Jesus is the highest Aeon while also asserting that having a human body contradicts the essence of Gnosticism.

At this point, we can say safely that Gnosticism rejects the incarnation of Jesus, his humanity, his death on the cross, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus.Gnostic denial of the Son of Man brackets Jesus into “The Highest Aeon,” which fundamentally leaves Jesus beyond recognition.

Once we get away with these fundamental doctrines of the New Testament, we will have nothing to base our faith on. There is not going to be an empty tomb to talk about. What we will have is teachings that will present the historical Jesus beyond recognition. The Christian cardinal doctrine of atonement is nowhere to be seen. Christ’s death on the cross is of no meaning. All of human fallen nature is lessened merely to evil environments. Thus, hijacking Jesus’ humanity in order to defend his divinity ends up in absurdity and counterfeit spiritual commotion.

Bibliography:

1. Boer, Harry R., A Short History of the Early Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1976).
2. Cross, F. L., and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 3rd ed. rev. (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).
3. Hoeller, Stephen A., The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead (Wheaton, III., 1982).
4. Martin, Sean, The Gnostics: The First Christian Heretics  (Chilton, Spain: Avocet Typeset, 2006).
5. Robinson, James M., Leiden: E. J. Brill, and Richard Smith, Ed. “NHC I 5, 51:7-52:40.” The Nag Hammadi Library in English. 4th ed. 1996.
6. Sell, Henry Thorne, Studies in Early Church History (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1998).