Gnostic Belief
A background to Gnosticism, as an editorial adjunct to the previous article
Shortly before our Lord’s birth, Gnostic belief emerged. It was a mixture of Judaism that was awed by Platonic Greek Philosophy but departed from both sacred Biblical text and Platonism. Gnosticism set forth a basic tenet of error — that all creation excepting the inaccessible divine creator was an amalgam of spirit and matter. They believed, that the greater the proportion of spirit, the closer to perfection. This issue is addressed in The Divine Plan of the Ages, Study X, Natures Distinct. In Gnostic belief, the God of Creation in the Bible was held to be ignorant, or worse. Salvation came by the Spirit’s direct revelation of knowledge (Gnosis in Greek), not by Jesus’ sacrifice. What follows is an abridged quote from Mircea Eliade, one of the 20th century’s leading scholars on comparative religion.
“GNOSTICISM was an outlook contemporary with early Christianity in which the common denominator is a particular set of myths. There is the myth of a female Trickster, the heavenly goddess Sophia (Wisdom) who produces the catastrophe or at least the unpleasant situation that leads to the creation of the visible world; and the myth of a male Trickster, the miscarried son of Sophia, who makes the world starting either from an ignominious substance called “Water” (from Genesis 1:6), or from litter or fragmented dreams fallen from on high, from the true God. This creator or fashioner of this world is usually identified with the Old Testament God. He is not unequivocally evil, except in a few testimonies; he is said to be ignorant, proud, and “mad” in a number of Coptic texts that are part of the collections of Gnostic codices, the largest of which was dug up in Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945. In testimonies pertaining to the gnosis of Valentinus (fl. 140-150), the ignorant creator repents and is pardoned for having created the world. Gnosticism is revolutionary insofar as it contradicts the two principles asserted both by the Bible and by Plato: the first principle according to which the world has been created by a benevolent and intelligent cause, and the second principle, according to which this world has been purposefully created for mankind and mankind has been created for this world. On the contrary, Gnosticism asserts that the creator of the world is bumbling and ignorant, so that consequently the world is bad, and human beings are superior to both the world and its creator for being endowed with a spark of Spirit stemming from the distant and good Father of the divine emanations. The goal of the Gnostic is thus to escape from the prison of the world.”
Michaelangelo Sistine Chapel — God uses his left arm to hold Sophia (Wisdom) of Gnostic belief.
“Gnosticism most often used Christian materials, and its Redeemer is usually called Jesus Christ. His function is to reveal to adepts the existence of the spark of Spirit enclosed in their souls, which is at the same time the eternal gnosis [knowledge] that would allow them to ascend beyond the cosmos to the realm of divine plenitude. This Jesus Christ does not generally have a physical body, and consequently he could not have suffered and died on the cross. Interpretations of his passion and death are extremely varied. In some cases someone else (Simon of Cyrene) is crucified in his stead, while the true Savior stands laughing in the shadow of the cross. This mocking smile of Jesus directed toward the blind demiurge [creator] and his henchmen has certainly no correspondent whatsoever in the gospels.” (Mircea Elaide and Ioan P. Couliano, The Eliade Guide to World Religions, Harper Collins Pub., San Francisco, 1992, Section 9.2.)
Eliade, while accurate, does not sketch out what believers found attractive in Gnosticism. Most Gnostics were not scholars and receiving, as they believed, direct divine inspiration, they felt untethered to the written word. A more detailed picture can be gained by a short quotation from a contemporary Gnostic:
“The theme of the many writings identified as “Gnostic” is as follows: In a time before time, there was no thing, only an overarching Unity, or light. Differentiation occurred, shattering the wholeness of the light into fragments, which fell through many levels of increasing density and created in their wake every quality of good and evil and every form. Eventually coming down to this world, the fragments of the divine light hid themselves as tiny sparks in the souls of human beings. Gnosis entails an awareness of the spark within, and Gnostic writings tell of efforts to bring about an awareness of this inner mystery. The tasks of one who has gnosis are threefold: to reveal the inner spark (which we here interpret as consciousness of the divine Spirit within the human being), to release it from the bonds of this world, and to return it to the world of light. There it is to be reunited with the All in a new way, for through suffering and travail consciousness may enter into the community beyond time and space.” (June Singer, A Gnostic Book of Hours, Harper Collins Publishers, San Francisco, 1988, page xx.)
— Br. Richard Doctor