Gnostics and their teachings. Gnosticism as the most influential variety of religious and philosophical thought

The concept of "gnosticism" is a generalization of the ancient religious concepts of the late time, which in those days there were a great many. The currents used as a basis the events of the Old Testament, the mythological narratives of the East and some Christian beliefs of the early period. Epiphanius of Cyprus in the Panarion described many heresies that mention Borborites and Gnostics. Henry More in the 17th century rooted the name "gnosticism" and attributed to it the emerging heresies of the time.

Basic concepts of Gnosticism

The concept relies in its theory on a secret knowledge called gnosis, representing man as a divine creature, gaining insight into the truth and thus saved.

Development of Gnosticism

The current originated in Rome during syncretic direction, which arose during the reign of Alexander the Great. This was the unification of the eastern and western peoples and the mixing of the religion of ancient Babylon with Greek philosophical trends.

The writings of important Gnostics have been preserved in a collection of individual quotations used in Christian writings, characterized by an uncompromising attitude towards Gnosticism, which reached its highest flowering in the 2nd century. Gnosticism absorbed not only Eastern mystical narratives, an important role was played by the influence of Neo-Pythagoreanism and Platonism, which belong to the ancient philosophy of the late period.

Basic theory

Gnosticism presents matter as a kind of bed of evil, into which the human soul falls, overthrown and fallen into an environment of objects that it desires. The material environment for the soul was created by the Demiurge, a deity of a lower order. Gnostic mysticism ascribes to matter a negative principle with the accumulation of sins. The evil manifestation of the surrounding world requires overcoming the divine particles of light scattered throughout the world, which are attributed to gnostic knowledge. It must be collected bit by bit and returned to the initial divine manifestation.

In almost all Gnostic currents, Christ is the redeemer of sins, but there are also such schemes where his name is not even mentioned. In accordance with the theory, humanity is divided into some areas of spirituality:

• pneumatics represent spiritual people who follow the call of Jesus;
• psychics are not interested in knowledge, their faith allows them to reach the heights of perfection;
• somatics are not interested in spirituality at all, their feelings and pleasures replace their faith and knowledge.

In accordance with the Gnostic concept, the whole world is represented in certain categories, and the rulers of the demonic direction create obstacles to people on the path to redemption.

Philosophical Foundations of Gnosticism

The Gnostic movement included those philosophers who tried to separate knowledge and faith. The religious figures of the East and the philosophers of Greece distinguished the standard beliefs comprehended in church communities from the true religious sacraments, inaccessible to all, into which some people with a strong mind are initiated. Gnosticism is divided into many sects depending on the ideas of the founders - teachers who propagate philosophical or theosophical thoughts.

In the process of development and prosperity, none of the Gnostic sects reached the point of recognizing a single god, who would be the sole creator of everything positive and negative in the universe and who would have unlimited power. According to the teachings of the Gnostics, God is represented by the hidden a creature alien to material evil in which the person exists. To cognize it, it is necessary to cognize and unite the many emanations flowing from it and trying to purify the world.

The visible surrounding reality is represented by the Demiurge, the builder of the world, who, contrary to the will of God, created evil in the form of matter and man himself. Fate controls people, blindly subordinating them to itself, human life depends on various categories of creatures that rule in the visible gap between earth and sky. According to the beliefs of the Greek pagans, the individual is not free to dispose of fate, therefore, is not responsible for their actions.

Material and spiritual basis

The main source of evil in the Gnostic doctrine is recognized the material component of human existence. For the Demiurge who created man, the danger of people does not manifest itself as long as they are under the influence of surrounding things and objects that surround him with evil. The salvation of a person from material imprisonment occurs through entities from the bright side of being, called eons, one of which, according to Gnostic philosophy, is Jesus.

Christ belongs to the aeons of the superior race and appears on earth to draw people into the fullness of divine manifestation, stop the decay of the light side existence. In the Christian religion, Christ is endowed with suffering and death, showing his human nature, in Gnosticism such values ​​are considered a manifestation of the evil material world, and the Son of God is endowed with allegorical and mythical properties.

According to the theory of the Gnostics, a person should strive for liberation from the power of the body by ascetic existence, death finishes the work begun. After the end of life people become spiritual beings who enthusiastically pour into the bright realm. The trend does not use the meaning of church rites in its philosophy, the sacred books remain in the last positions.

The figures of Gnosticism do not infringe on the church faith, rightly believing that its significance for the mainstream human mass is obvious. The Church unites under its protection those masses that cannot understand the true spiritual principle. The Gnostics considered their doctrine and philosophy to be the main thing on earth, much higher than church beliefs.

Morality concept

The way of life of the participants in the Gnostic movement was distinguished by extreme opposites, depending on the teachings in the sect. Some communities have assumed ascetic asceticism, which puts at the head the torture of one's own body and the voluntary torments of the physical plane. in other sects preached the permissiveness of man liberated from material bondage and embarked on the path of enlightenment. In such communities there were no moral criteria and laws, members indulged in pleasures and excessive excesses.

Disagreements in the behavior of members of the sect were not an obstacle to setting the "enlightened" above the mass of ordinary believers, the Gnostics had a great influence in society. Philosophy tried to explain faith with the help of science, to bring them closer. But fantastic ideas were at the core, strong minds often uncovered deceit, the direction of Gnosticism did not have a solid foundation which led to his downfall.

Philosophy or Faith at the Basis of Gnosticism?

During its heyday, the doctrine spread in many areas of life:

• the philosophy of Neo-Pythagoreanism and Neo-Platonism borrowed the postulates of the Gnostics for renewal;
• religious directions, such as Christianity, Manichaeism, Jewish Kabbalah, mendeystvo, combined with theory, attracted a larger number of believers;
• mysticism and occultism have adopted fantastic postulates from the doctrine.

Such an easy way to penetrate into religion, philosophy and occultism is explained by the fact that Gnosticism, being the highest religion, at the time of its formation borrowed many ritual and ceremonial forms from neighboring beliefs. That Gnosticism penetrated and left traces in many religions cannot be seen as his loyalty towards them. It is important to remember the heterogeneity of higher philosophy:

• Persian teaching (Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism) is represented by a light and dark kingdom, where spiritual entities live, who wage an irreconcilable battle for every human soul in visible material space;
• Egyptian belief sees the Demiurge as a God with limited powers;
• Chaldean figures are of the opinion about the great evil of matter, which was created by the founder of the world in the personality of the Demiurge, they do not support the foundations of Jewish beliefs in the worship of the God of evil;
• the magicians correlate the evil god with the Jewish deity Yahweh and consider the surrounding reality as his creation;
• Manichaeism separated from Gnosticism and rushed to conquer the heights, as the most formed religion.

Illusion in Gnostic Philosophy

Matter is illusory, as the doctrine claims. Moreover, the Gnostics, on the basis of firm dogma, prove the implausibility of the existence of matter in contrast to the skepticism of ancient figures. The philosophy of each step of the material world ascribes a demon, imperiously preventing the expiation of sins.

The correct Gnostic represents a spirit that has renounced worldly life, deprived of simple desires, a spirit that contains in its knowledge the light particles of God and strives for eternity. The rest of the masses of people are divided into "psychics" and "giliks". The first group lives only by blind faith according to the laws of a kindred community, without thinking about the essence of the material world.

The Gnostic current is distinguished by the fact that its central concept does not judge individual details that are constantly changing, but to achieve the highest goal. The highest positions were communicated at the end of the path of development, many participants in the current did not know the final goals. In some communities, teaching was conducted in accordance with the developed levels of the sect.

Magical manifestations in the foundations of the doctrine

In the practice of Gnosticism, the foundations of ancient philosophical schools are used, in particular, various spells and prayers are used to communication with the otherworldly spiritual world, namely specific entities. Prior to the advent of Christianity, the combination of Eastern and Western religious practices led to the complex development of spiritual and psychic practices of a secret nature.

Selected adepts, initiated into the secrets of psychic and spiritual practices, are at a high stage of development, relate themselves to the elect, dedicated to the subtleties of the doctrine or community.

Initially, Orphism is the basis of esotericism, which is a mystical practice in the study of the philosophy of Thrace and Greece in ancient times. Uninitiated members were not allowed to the mysteries, rituals, religious events. The power of mysterious initiations united people with the divine manifestation of the bright world, they considered immortal and endowed with power in the other world space.

Association of other theorists with Gnosticism

Marcion

The direction of Marcion cannot be attributed to the Gnostics, since his subordination to philosophical dogmas is debatable:

• Soteriological questions are considered at the heart of the doctrine, but they do not find metaphysical or apologetic reflections;
• great importance is given to pure faith, written in the gospel that is important to them;
• the schools of the current were not based on knowledge or secret teachings, but on faith in God;
• the founder did not confuse Christianity with philosophical explanation;
• unlike the Gnostics, he considered real salvation from faith, and not from learned sciences;
• when cognizing the Bible, he literally perceived the text, without giving it a mystical background.

Pagan Gnosticism in Russia

There are few documents describing Gnosticism of the pre-Christian period, but they run like a red thread. echoes of cult beliefs, mystical hymns and cosmogonies. Up to fifty ancient Latin and Arabic treatises are known, distinguished by Pythagorean elements and Platonic views on the theory of glossology about the world origin. The authors of the works were considered Hermes, the god of science and magic from Greece, who was a negotiator between the divine world and people.

Secret knowledge is precisely the realization by a person of his divinity, and the acquisition of gnosis is in itself salutary.

Basic terminology

Aeons

Aeon is also identified with the penis of Kronos. The image is found in Heraclitus (fr. 93 Markovich), who calls him "a playing child on the throne."

Archons

In Gnosticism: spirits-world rulers. In Gnostic notions, the archons are considered as the creators of the material cosmos, and at the same time the systems of drives and emotions that make a person a slave of matter [ ] .

Abraxas

Abraxas or, in more early form Abrasax is a Gnostic cosmological deity, the Supreme Head of Heaven and Aeons, personifying the unity of World Time and Space. In the Basilides system, the name "Abraxas" has a mystical meaning, since the sum of the numerical values ​​​​of the seven Greek letters of this word gives 365 - the number of days in a year.

According to Kabbalah, the Universe is divided into 365 eons or spiritual cycles; their sum is the Great Father, who is given the Kabbalistic name Abraxas. This is a symbol of the number of Divine emanations.

Abraxas was depicted in ancient Indian, Persian, Egyptian art, on ancient gems as a creature with a human body, a rooster's head and snakes instead of legs. In one hand he holds a knife or a whip, in the other - a shield on which the name Yah is inscribed (Egypt. Jah - a prayer cry, which in the Eleusinian mysteries turned into the name of the deity of the Sun).

Other emanations of this deity are Mind, Word, Wisdom, Strength. It is believed that Abraxas owes its origin to the ancient images of the serpent, dragon.

Demiurge

Demiurge (ancient Greek δημιουργός - "master, craftsman, creator" from other Greek δῆμος - "people" and ἔργον - "business, craft, trade"). Plato was the first to use it in this sense. In Gnosticism, the Demiurge is one of the key figures. Right hand creator of immortal souls, unable to understand love. Strives to show what can create better world than the First God.

The Demiurge creates matter and encloses souls in material bodies. Its incompleteness is considered the cause of all the troubles and imperfections of the world.

Imperfect spirit-creator of the world, "evil" beginning, in contrast to God, "good" beginning. In Gnostic texts - both early (Apocrypha of John) and later (Pistis Sophia) was designated by the name Yaldabaoth (Yaldabaoth); descended from the eon of Sophia, who wished to create without a spiritual half, which led to the appearance of the Demiurge. Described as a vicious, ignorant, limited demon, one of whose epithets was "Saklas" ("stupid", "fool"). Jaldabaoth, according to the Apocrypha of John, became a god above matter, created angels and authorities, together with them created the human body from matter in the likeness of the divine eon of Man, who was much higher than matter.

In Gnostic teachings, the Demiurge was perceived as an "evil god" who created an imperfect and sinful material world. As a rule, he was identified with the Old Testament Yahweh, sometimes with Satan.

Gnosis

Special spiritual knowledge and knowledge, accessible only to the consciousness of the enlightened.

Pleroma

Pleroma - a set of heavenly spiritual entities (eons). According to the Gnostics, Jesus Christ was the aeon that gave people secret knowledge (gnosis) so that they could reunite with the Pleroma.

Sofia

Main Features of Gnostic Esoteric Teachings

The Gnostics believed they had sacred knowledge about God, humanity, and the rest of the universe that the rest of us did not; the belief that salvation is achieved through intuitional Knowledge.

Also, the features of Gnosticism include:

Common to gnostic systems is dualism (contradiction of spirit and matter). Gnostic myth was based on the notion that the world is in evil and this evil could in no way be created by God. It followed from this that the world was created either by an evil or a force limited in its power, which the Gnostics call demiurge(the Gnostic Demiurge has nothing to do with the Demiurge (craftsman god) of Plato), and the Highest God lives in the heavenly region, however, out of compassion for humanity, he sends his messenger (or messengers) to people to teach them how to free themselves from under the power of the Demiurge. Also at the heart of belief systems is the reconciliation and reunification of the deity and the world, absolute and relative being, infinite and finite. The Gnostic worldview differs from all pre-Christian philosophy by the presence in it of the idea of ​​a definite and unified expedient world process. The life of the material world is based only on chaotic mixing heterogeneous elements(gr. σύγχυσις ἀρχική ), and the meaning of the world process consists only in separation(gr. διάκρισις ) of these elements, in the return of each to its own sphere.

"Chosen" perfect gnostic living in the "illusory world" of secret knowledge

In the world, according to the Gnostics, particles of otherworldly light are scattered, which must be collected and returned to their origins. Redeemers are enlightened forces who know the secret meaning of being, primarily Christ, but only “spiritual” people (“pneumatics”) follow their call, while “spiritual” people (“psychics”) who have not accepted Gnostic initiation, instead of genuine “knowledge”, achieve only “faith”, and “carnal” people (“somatics”) do not go beyond the sensual sphere at all [ ] .

Gnosticism is based on the doctrine of the illusory nature of matter. The Gnostics went even further than ancient skepticism and their "the doctrine of the pure appearance of matter is not skeptical, but absolutely dogmatic in its denial of the existence of matter." Gnosticism is characterized by the idea of ​​the levels, or spheres, of the world and their demonic rulers, who prevent redemption.

This is how the perfect “gnostic” arises, as a spirit who has renounced the world, who controls himself, lives in God and prepares for eternity. The rest of the people are "giliks". But there are outstanding teachers (schools of Valentine) who distinguish "giliks" from "psychics", calling the latter people who live by law and faith, for whom the faith of the community is sufficient and necessary. The center of gravity of the gnostic systems was not in the changing details that we do not know for certain, but in their purpose and basic assumptions. Higher speculations were communicated only at the end and, obviously, not to everyone; the various stages of teaching may be inferred from Ptolemy's letter to Flora.

Magic in Gnosticism

A magical Hermetic prayer-spell is known to call beings from the world of spirits (it describes a number of principles and beings borrowed by the Gnostics) with an addition: “When God comes, look down and write down what was said and the name he gives you. And he will not leave your tent until he tells you in detail what concerns you.

Story

Hellenic origins

The philosophy of Gnosticism is associated with ancient philosophical schools (Hermeticism, Orphism, Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Neoplatonism). Of course, the role of the interpenetration of philosophies and religions of the West and East as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great (long before the birth of Christianity) is also important.

The ideas of the pre-Christian Gnostics are based on "a complex of specific interpretations of reality that claim to be secret and are confirmed by special psycho-spiritual practices." The adept perceived himself as already at a higher stage of personality, initiated into the secrets of some society or doctrine, open only to the elect.

The emergence of Gnosticism

Gnosticism is the product of a great syncretic movement in the Roman Empire (the beginnings of the movement were the short-lived empire of Alexander the Great, which connected East and West), which began as a result of the transition of religion from one nation to another, as a result of the contact of the east (ancient Babylonian religion) with the west and as a result of the influence of the Greek philosophy on religion.

The writings of the Gnostics have come down to us mainly in the form of isolated quotations cited in the writings of Christian theologians who fought against Gnosticism. The first known Gnostic is Simon the Magician of Samaria, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. Gnostic tendencies reach their highest development in the 2nd century.

In addition to the influence of Judaism and Eastern religious mysteries, Gnosticism is characterized by the assimilation of a number of ideas of late antique philosophy, mainly Platonism and neo-Pythagoreanism. Gnosticism is based on the idea of ​​the fall of the soul into the lower, material world, created by the demiurge - the lower deity. In the dualistic mysticism of Gnosticism, matter is viewed as a sinful and evil principle, hostile to God and subject to overcoming. Particles of otherworldly light are scattered in the world, which must be collected and returned to their origins.

First of all, Christ is the Redeemer (as, by the way, there are such gnostic schemes in which he is absent), but only “spiritual” people (“pneumatics”) follow his call, while “spiritual” people (“psychics”) who did not accept the Gnostic initiation ”), instead of genuine “knowledge”, only “faith” reaches, and “carnal” people (“somatics”) do not go beyond the sensual sphere at all. As A.F. Losev noted, “Gnosticism is characterized by the idea of ​​the steps, or spheres, of the world and their demonic rulers, who prevent redemption.”

Influence of Gnosticism

The development of Gnosticism at the beginning of our era received:

• in religious philosophy (many ideas of gnosticism became widespread in neoplatonism and neopythagoreanism, etc.);
• in religions (in Manichaeism, in various heresies in Christianity, in Jewish Kabbalah, modern mendeystve, etc.);
• in the occult, and in mysticism, etc.

Its easy penetration into any nearby religions is also justified (that is, over-religiosity, since the Gnostic teaching successfully borrowed the main ritual forms and mythological images of neighboring religions). However, this does not mean that Gnosticism should be considered as a religion that had a positive attitude towards all other creeds. It is important to understand that Gnosticism as a phenomenon is heterogeneous, and if Egyptian Gnosticism saw in the Demiurge only a limited God, who in itself is not evil, then Chaldean Gnosticism was of the opposite opinion. So the Gnosticism characteristic of Simon Magus and Menander presents this world as a malicious creation of an evil God, which directly correlates with the Jewish Yahweh. Thus, we can argue about the rigid rejection of the Jewish religion by the Chaldean Gnostics as a form of worship. evil god.

At the same time, Gnosticism also claimed to be a "higher", dominant religion over all existing religions and philosophies. It was this aspiration of Gnosticism that developed into the sprout of Manichaeism from the bowels of Gnosis into a more widespread, established religion.

Classification of Gnostic teachings

Gnosticism of the 1st-3rd century, competing with early Christianity

• followers of magic and the teachings of Simon Magician, a contemporary of the apostles

Syro-Chaldean Gnosticism

Persian Gnosticism

At the beginning of the third century, the Gnostic systems begin to lose their importance. They are being replaced by a new heretical doctrine, similar in principles to Gnosticism, but differing from it in that, while total absence ideas of Greek philosophy and the teachings of Judaism, it is a mixture of Christianity with the beginnings of the religion of Zoroaster.

• Mandaean - the name comes from the Aramaic "knowledge". Founded in the 2nd century AD. e. Representatives of this movement considered themselves followers of John the Baptist. There are still small groups of Mandaeans in southern Iraq (about 60 thousand people), as well as in the Iranian province of Khuzistan.
• Manichaeism is a syncretic religious teaching of the Persian Mani (III century), composed of Babylonian-Chaldean, Jewish, Christian, Iranian (Zoroastrianism) Gnostic ideas.

Late Gnosticism

The problem of interpretation by Gnostic theorists

Marcion

More than 40 Arabic and Latin treatises of the 1st century, containing Platonic-Pythagorean elements of teaching and mystical views on the epistemological theory of the origin of the world and soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), in particular, borrowed from the works of Posedonius. The authorship of the Hermetic works was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the Greek god of science and the patron of magic, who was considered an intermediary between the gods and man.

Jewish Gnosticism

therapists

The therapists devoted themselves to a contemplative and pious life, they denied all possessions and lived alone in the wilderness, spending their time in the study of the Holy Scriptures and fasting. Their interpretation of the Old Testament was dominated by an allegorical approach. They likened the Torah to a living creature, whose body was literal prescriptions, and whose soul was an invisible meaning hidden in words. Apparently, the main content of their activities was reduced to a syncretic reconciliation of Judaism and Hellenistic thought, with the help of allegorical interpretation. They were distinguished by abstinence from family life and strict asceticism.

Essenes

Information about the Essenes (from the end of the 2nd century BC to the end of the 1st century) we find in Philo, Joseph Flavius ​​and Pliny the Younger.

All sources on the Essenes basically agree among themselves on the main characteristics of this movement. Essene communities were built partly on a Jewish basis. At the same time, many of their features cannot be derived from pure Judaism. Sun worship, excessive asceticism and celibacy, knowledge of the secret names of angels, mysteries of initiation and meals, special ablutions, rejection of anointing with oil, hierarchical four-level structure, dualistic view of human nature, isolation special people acting as mediums for predicting the future, rejecting slavery and taking oaths - all this and much more does not follow from the Jewish views and the socio-religious structure of Jewish life.

The external influence is obvious, although it is difficult to judge which influence - neo-Pythagoreanism, middle Platonism or Parsism - was dominant. However, the Gnostic character is clearly represented, firstly, by the religious soteriological orientation of Essenism, and secondly, by dualistic anthropology and asceticism emanating from it, the hierarchical structure of the community, a special period of obedience, special vows upon admission, etc. Apparently, the dogma Essenes was reflected in special secret books.

The legacy of the cult of Isis in Gnosticism

Gnostic hymn associated by researchers with Isis: “Let there be no one who does not know me anywhere and never! Beware, do not be ignorant of me! For I am the first and the last. I am honored and despised. I am a harlot and a saint. I am a wife and a maid. I am mother and daughter. I am members of my mother's body. I am barrenness, and there are many of her sons. I am the one whose marriages are many, and I have not been married. I facilitate childbirth and the one that did not give birth. I am the comfort in my birth pangs. I am a newlywed and newlywed. And my husband is the one who gave birth to me. I am my father's mother and my husband's sister, and he is my offspring."

Discoveries of Gnostic texts in the 20th century

Until the middle of the 20th century, the Gnostics were known only from the writings of the Fathers of the Church, and above all - Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, Hippolytus and Epiphanius. Only in 1945 was a whole library of Coptic Gnostic texts discovered in a large earthenware vessel buried in a field near Nag Hammadi (Nag Hammadi Library) in Egypt (about 500 km south of Cairo, 80 km northwest of Luxor).

Sources

• Gnostic writings
  • Mandaean texts
  • Texts of the Valentinian school in Coptic:
  • Library Nag Hammadi, from Upper Egypt
  • Manichaean papyri
• Polemical writings of the Fathers Churches
  • Justin  Philosopher Syntagma
  • Irenaeus  Lyon Against heresies
  • Hippolytus Roman Refutation of all heresies
  • Clement of Alexandria Stromata
  • Epiphanius of Cyprus Panarion
  • Aurelius Augustine About heresies
  • Tertullian On the rejection of the objections of heretics

see also

Notes

1. Gnosticism / Shaburov N. V. // New Philosophical Encyclopedia: in 4 vols. scientific-ed. advice of V. S. Stepin. - 2nd ed., corrected. and additional - M.: Thought, 2010. - 2816 p.
2. Irenaeus of Lyon. Against Heresies Book 1., Ch.1-5
3. See John Lead. About months IV 64 // Losev A. F. Mythology of the Greeks and Romans. - M., 1996. - S. 791

Gnosticism (from the Greek "gnosis" - knowledge) is a religious and philosophical trend that originated in the 1st century BC. in Jewish Samaria and in Syria; then it spread to Antioch, Alexandria, and finally to Rome, where Christian hereseologists would encounter and fight against it: St. Justin and St. Irenaeus in the 2nd century, Clement of Alexandria at the end of the 2nd century, and later St. Epiphanius in the 4th. in.; it is mainly through their labors that we know the teachings of the Gnostics.

It is known from their writings that there were very many Gnostic writings written in Greek or Kopi, but nothing or almost nothing has survived to our time. From the same Christian sources we know something about the authors of Gnostic writings: Simon and Dositheus were from Samaria, Menander and his successor Tserint were from Palestine; Alquiades, Cerdon, Satornilos wrote in Syriac; Basilides, Valentinus and Carpocrates came from Antioch and Alexandria; Marcion was from Sinope Pontus.

In Gnosticism, a lot of topics are considered: the position of man in the world, fantastic interpretations of the Bible and the Gospel, references to the Kabbalah or Hermeticism. Some Gnostics, such as Simon (referred to in the Acts of the Apostles as Simon Magus), seem to have created extravagant doctrine from the biblical texts; others tried to create a synthesis of philosophy and Christianity (for example, Carpocrates, who included Plato, Socrates and Jesus in his pantheon); finally, others, like Marcion, getting rid of contradictions and complexities, chose dualism, opposing the God of the Old Testament (the Avenging God) and the God of the New Testament (the God of Good), whose incarnation is Jesus. However, all Gnostics have the same pessimism associated with the realization of the absurdity of being and with the desire to free themselves from its power with the help of religious purification and rituals. In the end

Roger Carotini

In the long run, this direction is quite close to the aspirations of Christians for salvation; it was the solution offered to sinners of the problem of human existence that the Gnostics seduced many Christians to apostasy. Therefore, the Fathers of the Church fought hard with them, and they had a hard time. The most famous of the Gnostics, Valentinus, whose "acme" refers to 150, founded a sect in Rome, and his teaching had adherents in the East even into the 4th century.

Two Examples of Gnostic Theology: Simon and Basilides

The first was identified with Simon the Magus, who in the Acts of the Apostles offered Peter money for bringing down the gifts of the Holy Spirit upon himself, which the apostle indignantly rejected (the term "simony" was used later to refer to the practice of selling or buying church positions). As for Basilides, who apparently wrote (about 120) 24 books of the Exposition of the Gospels and works on magic, he was strongly influenced by the Kabbalah.

Simon's teaching

At the beginning of everything is God the Father, the biblical Yahweh, the All-devouring fire, the Root of the great tree of Genesis. This Fire, thinking and speaking, gives birth to three pairs of beings, Aeons: Intellect and Reflection, Voice and Name, Reasoning and Consciousness (or Desire). The thought emanating from God gave birth to angels, the creators of all things. But - and this is precisely the source of all the misfortunes of mankind - these angels imprisoned the Thought (Eunola) in the body of a woman, which underwent a series of metamorphoses (Eunola was embodied, among others, in the body of Helen from the myths of the Trojan cycle and in the body of one Syrian prostitute, whom Marcion constantly took with him). To save the Thought, to smash the criminal angels and save their "chosen ones". God took the form of Jesus and then Simon himself.

The Teachings of Basilides

Here, too, everything begins with a single God (Sabaoth, comparable to Yahweh); below Him are his helpers (Elohim, Adonai, etc.), who are present at the battle of Light and Darkness; in the third row we see the astral gods, in the fourth - a god equivalent to the Zoroastrian god Akhurmaz-de, and in the fifth row the mother goddess, called by various names (Enoia, Elena, the Queen of Heaven, Parthenos, etc.), embodying at the same time the original purity and depravity. The Mother Goddess unites with the Pleroma, in which the image of the first man, the Anthropos, is guessed, and together they show a certain image of the Trinity (Father, Mother, Son). Anthropos is the fallen

Philosophy of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

In the first centuries of the Christian era, many other idle fabrications were in circulation: belief in the influence of stars and in alchemy (the name is of Arabic origin, but the essence was Greek, alchemy was practiced in Alexandria from the 2nd century BC, trying to magically achieve transformation metals), etc.; this mysterious knowledge was once obtained by Pythagoras in Egypt, whose hieroglyphs intrigued the Greeks, who saw them as sacred writings (by the way, this is the meaning of the word “hieroglyph”). Standing apart are the creeds that are also associated with Egypt, with its ancient secret texts, which allegedly contain instructions and instructions from the god of wisdom, letters and accounts of Thoth, whom the Greeks identified with their god Hermes, "Thrice the greatest" (Trismegistus). The word "hermetism", meaning "secret knowledge", comes from the name Hermes. Hermetic religious and philosophical currents combine elements of Platonism, neo-Pythagoreanism, Stoicism, Manichaeism, etc.: the position of a person is explained by his dual nature (he is both pure and impure), he can be saved thanks to secret knowledge received from Hermes. Their practical application helps to free oneself from the shackles of the flesh and save one's soul.

Greek gnosis - cognition, knowledge) - an eclectic religious and philosophical trend of late antiquity, which acted as one of the cultural forms of communication between the emerging Christianity and the mytho-philosophical Hellenistic background and the creeds of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Babylonian mystery cults. The main sources of study are Gnostic writings from the Nag Hammadi archive (discovered in 1945), as well as fragments of Gnostics in the works of Christian critics and texts of early Christian and medieval heresies. G. arises in the 1st century. and goes through three stages in its development: 1) early G., contradictorily combining unsystematic heterogeneous elements of ancient myths and biblical stories (for example, the cult of the serpent among the Ophites, which goes back, on the one hand, to the archaic mythologem of the winged serpent, personifying the unity of the earth and the sky as cosmogonic progenitors, and on the other hand, to the symbol of the biblical serpent that destroyed the harmony of paradise): 2) mature G. 1-2 centuries. - the classical Gnostic systems of Valentinus (Egypt) and Basilides (Syria), as well as Carpocrates of Alexandria, Saturninus of Syria and Marcion of Pontus; sometimes the so-called 3) late G. - Christian dualistic heresies of the Middle Ages (Paulicism, Bogomilism, Albigensian heresies of the Cathars and Waldensians) are also attributed to G.. The concept of knowledge ("gnosis") sets the main problem of G., centered around the question of the essence of man and his spiritual destiny. According to Theodotus, the role of gnosis lies in the ability to answer the eternal human questions: "Who are we? Who have we become? Where are we? However, this value-semantic core of the Gnostic teaching stems from the general cosmological problem inherited by G. from ancient philosophical classics (see Ancient Philosophy) and - indirectly - from mythology, namely, the problem of the binary world opposition, understood as a tense confrontation and connection of the material ( earthly, maternal) and heavenly principles (see Binarism). In the cosmology of myth, their connection was understood as a sacred marriage with creational semantics (see Love). This paradigm of the creative interpenetration of cosmic structures is also preserved in ancient philosophy, although it is solved in a completely new semantic key. So, in Plato, the unity of the material and ideal worlds is ensured by two channels: from the world of ideas to the world of things (vector "down") - embodiment, and from the world of creation to the world of perfection ("up") - knowledge. The first channel ("down") is actually a creational channel, the second ("up") is formalized by Plato as recognition ("remembering") of the absolute pattern in the perfect creation ("love for seen beauty") and the subsequent ascent of the ladder of love and beauty "to the very beautiful up" - up to the comprehension of truth in the absolute idea of ​​perfection (see Plato, Eidos, Beauty). In Neoplatonism (see Neoplatonism), the creation vector retains its integrating semantics, but as for the “up” vector, it is filled with a new meaning: the ascent from the earthly mortal world to the consubstantial one is possible on the path of ecstatic filial love for the creator, which is resolved in contemplation of the source of being. Entangled in the snares of earthly temptations, a blinded soul turns away from God (a typical metaphor for Plotinus: a virgin is “blinded by marriage” and forgets her father, for daughter love is heavenly, earthly is “base, like a harlot”). The gap between the earthly and the heavenly (in the new sense) began to be practically outlined. In the Christian interpretation, the binary opposition of cosmic structures turned out to be axiologically loaded and rethought as a duality of "downhill" and "higher"; superimposing on the traditional cosmological paradigm, Christianity determines the interpretation of the connecting vertical from God to the world no longer as cosmogenesis, and not even as an emanation of God into the world, but as a creation. Philosophical issues related to the “bottom-up” vector also turn out to be relevant for Christianity, however, under the influence of new worldview meanings from the Platonic ladder of love and beauty, only the first step of love for one’s neighbor and the last step, love for the Creator, remained: the idea of ​​two worlds is preserved in the model of the universe , but the link connecting them is destroyed. The principle of anti-cosmic dualism is the basis of the Gnostic model of the world: the world is the opposite of God. The rethinking of the ancient idea of ​​emanation (see Emanation) of the beginning also shifted the emphasis towards anti-cosmism: the world remains hierarchically organized, but the emanating entities serve not to unite, but to isolate God and the world. The essence of the first principle, which generates emanations, is not comprehended through the knowledge of the latter and remains hidden. The number of these intermediate links in Gnostic concepts is, as a rule, quite large: from 33 in Valentinus to 365 in Basilides. So, in the system of Valentine lies the idea of ​​absolute fullness - the Pleroma, manifesting itself in a series of aeons (see Aeon). The pleroma, in essence, acts as a typological analogue of the ancient apeiron: everything capable of becoming comes from it and returns to it. "At the invisible and inexpressible heights" (which it would be convenient to describe in the terminology of transcendentalism) there is the Depth - the perfect aeon of the beginning. The incomprehensible content of the Depth is constituted in Silence (compare with the fundamental principle of mysticism: divine revelation is "ineffable", i.e., non-intersubjective and inexpressibly verbal). "Comprehension becomes the beginning of everything", giving rise to the Mind and its objectification - Truth (a typological parallel of the future Kantian gap between the "thing-in-itself" and a priori forms as the beginning of knowledge - see Kant). Fertilizing each other, Mind and Truth give rise to Meaning and Life, which, in turn, give rise to Man and the Church (ie society). These four pairs of aeons make up the sacred ogdoad. Then Meaning and Life give rise to ten more eons (sacred decan), and Man and the Church - twelve more (sacred dodecad). All 30 eons make up the expressed fullness of being - the Pleroma. The circle seemed to be closed. However, the last of the 30 eons is the female eon - Sophia, kindling with a fiery desire to directly contemplate the First Father - the Depth ("the wife of her desired one"), i.e. comprehend the truth (cf. the mythological parallel of sacred marriage, the Neoplatonic concept of returning to the father on the paths of knowledge and filial love). The fundamental asymptotic nature of this impulse plunges Sophia into a state of "bewilderment, sadness, fear and change." The latter is fraught with the emergence of Achamoth, which is an objectified desire for knowledge, a formless offspring of an unsatisfied craving for truth. In addition, Sophia's passionate aspiration sets for her the most dangerous prospect of dissolution in the universal substance, however, boundless vectority meets the Limit, returning Sophia to her place in the structural hierarchy of eons. The Gnostic interpretation of the Limit is actually Christian in nature: it is understood as the Purifier (Redeemer) and is symbolized by the figure of the cross; its redemptive role is connected with the emergence of two new aeons - Christ and the Holy Spirit. The ordering (with the meeting of the rebellious Sophia of the Limit) of the eons inspires a flash of creative potential in them - in the act of revelation and unity, the eons give rise to a special eon ("the total fruit of the Pleroma"), involved genetically and meaningfully in all eons and therefore called the All (the Gnostic thesis "everything in each and everyone in everything" as a semantic parallel of ancient preformism and the idea of ​​unity in Christianity). However, the harmony is not complete, for Achamoth, having been torn out of the Pleroma, remains in darkness (cf. identification of darkness and chaos in ancient culture, the symbolism of light in Christianity). For salvation, Christ puts into her the unconscious idea of ​​the Pleroma (an analogue of the ancient "innate ideas") in order to save her from the hopelessness of scalar peace, allowing her to feel the sorrow of separation from the Pleroma and "the bright foreboding of eternal life." This vector set by Christ directs Achamoth after Christ to the Pleroma, but the Limit-Cross holds it back. Achamoth plunges into a state of "confused passion", being itself the objectification of Sophia's passionate impulse for knowledge. Thus, if the first act of the Gnostic-cosmological tragedy was associated with Sophia's unsatisfied desire for truth, then the heroine of her second act is Achamoth in her striving for the spokesman of this truth. Her unsatisfied passion materializes in the objective world: water is Achamoth's tears for the lost Christ, light is the radiance of her smile at the memory of him, her petrified sorrow is the firmament of the earth, etc. And when, in response to the prayers of Achamoth from the Pleroma, the Comforter (Paraclete) was sent to her, then from the contemplation of him and the angels accompanying him, she produced her highest generation - the spiritual principle. It is from these material and spiritual creations that Achamoth the Demiurge creates the earthly world, which opposes the world of eons. In this context, the doctrine emphasized in G. about a person as the focus of the world process is formed: on the one hand, he is created and created, and therefore rooted in the world of dark forces, on the other hand, his soul is a derivative of the intelligible world of aeons, it is supranatural and carries the light of the divine fullness of the Pleroma. Man is involved in all beginnings, and therefore occupies an exceptional position in the world, having a higher destiny. G. sets the trichotomy of carnal, mental and spiritual people, i.e. - respectively - those in whom only the carnal principle is realized (material generation of Achamoth); those in whom the ability to distinguish and choose good and evil received from the Demiurge is realized; and finally those in whom the spiritual generation of Achamoth is realized, embodying her impulse to the truth. This spiritual principle, embedded in the soul of a spiritual person, is gnosis - knowledge that manifests itself in striving, calling for deliverance from the bonds of sinful materiality and indicating the path to salvation. With the constitution of Christian orthodoxy (see Orthodoxy), homology is pushed to the ideological periphery, and in the Middle Ages it manifests itself only as a semantic aspect of heresies. So, for example, the concept of cathars ("pure") is based on the principle of radical dualism: matter is declared absolute evil, and carnal sin is the maximum of sins, a pregnant woman is thought of as being in the special care of the devil, and it is he who creates flesh from flesh and spirit from spirit in her womb. The interpretation in such an axiological context of the phenomenon of the Immaculate Conception acquires a refined speculative meaning: Christ ("the word of God") enters Mary's ear and leaves her mouth (a paraphrase of the text of Psalm 44: "Hear ... and incline your ear ..."). The term "apocrypha", which entered classical Christian usage, was originally introduced to refer to the esoteric texts of G. The development of G. had a serious impact on the evolution of alternative Christian currents in Western European culture; Mandaeism as taking shape in the 2-3 centuries. on a Semitic-Babylonian cult basis, an offshoot of G. (Aramaic manda - knowledge) has been preserved in the context of Eastern culture (now in Iran) to this day. (See also Sophia, Aeon.)

I. The origin of Gnosticism. The general conditions for the emergence of Gnosticism, as well as other related phenomena, were created by that cultural and political mixture of various national and religious elements of the ancient world, which was started by the Persian kings, continued by the Macedonians and completed by the Romans. The source of Gnostic ideas in various pagan religions, on the one hand, and the teachings of Greek philosophers, on the other, was clearly recognized from the very beginning and was already indicated in detail by the author rapprochements are equally solid. There is no doubt, in any case, that certain national-religious and philosophical factors participated in the formation of certain Gnostic systems to varying degrees, as well as what was added to various combinations of ideas that already existed, with greater or lesser force and originality, and personal mental work on the part of the founders and distributors of these systems and schools. It is all the less possible to analyze all this in detail, since the writings of the Gnostics are known to us only from a few passages and from someone else's, moreover, polemical exposition. This presents a wide scope for hypotheses, of which one deserves mention. In the last century, some scholars (for example, the Orientalist I. I. Schmidt) put Gnosticism in a special connection with Buddhism. It is only reliable here: 1) that from the time of the campaigns of Alexander the Great, Asia Minor, and through it the entire Greco-Roman world, became accessible to influences from India, which ceased to be an unknown country for this world, and 2) that Buddhism was the last word of Eastern "wisdom "To this day remains the most tenacious and influential of the religions of the East. But, on the other hand, the historical and prehistoric roots of Buddhism itself are far from being revealed by science. Many scholars, not without reason, see here a religious reaction on the part of the dark-skinned pre-Aryan inhabitants, and the ethnological connection of these Indian tribes with the cultural races that have long inhabited the Nile Valley is more than likely. The general background of religious aspirations and ideas had to correspond to the general tribal soil, according to which in India, thanks to the influence of the Aryan genius, such a harmonious and strong system as Buddhism was formed, but which in other places turned out to be not fruitless. Thus, what is attributed in Gnosticism to the influence of Indian Buddhists may be related to the closer influence of their African relatives, especially since the highest flowering of Gnosticism occurred precisely in Egypt. If the external historical connection of Gnosticism specifically with Buddhism is doubtful, then the content of these teachings undoubtedly shows their heterogeneity. In addition to various religious elements alien to Buddhism, Gnosticism absorbed the positive results of Greek philosophy and in this respect stands immeasurably higher than Buddhism. It suffices to point out that Buddhism gives only a negative definition of Nirvana to absolute being, while in Gnosticism it is positively defined as fullness (pleroma). An undoubted connection with Gnosticism has another, insignificant in its distribution compared with Buddhism, but in many respects very curious religion of the Mandaeans or Sabians (not to be confused with Sabaism in the sense of star worship), which still exists in Mesopotamia and has its sacred, ancient origin, although they have survived to us in a later edition, books. This religion arose shortly before the advent of Christianity and is in some obscure connection with the preaching of St. John the Baptist: but the dogmatic content of the Mandaean books, as far as it can be understood, makes us see in this religion the prototype of Gnosticism. The very word manda, from which it got its name, means in Chaldean the same as Greek ?????? (knowledge).

II. The main features of Gnosticism. At the heart of this religious movement lies the seeming reconciliation and reunification of the Divine and the world, absolute and relative being, infinite and finite. Gnosticism is an apparent salvation. The Gnostic worldview favorably differs from all pre-Christian wisdom by the presence in it of the idea of ​​a definite and unified expedient world process; but the outcome of this process in all Gnostic systems is devoid of positive content: it essentially boils down to the fact that everything remains in its place, no one gains anything. The life of the world is based only on a chaotic mixture of heterogeneous elements, and the meaning of the world process is only in the separation of these elements, in the return of each to its own sphere. The world is not being saved; saves, i.e. returns to the realm of divine, absolute being, only the spiritual element inherent in some people (pneumatics), originally and by nature belonging to the higher sphere. He returns there from the world mixing safe and sound, but without any prey. Nothing from the lowest in the world rises, nothing dark is enlightened, nothing of the flesh and soul is spiritualized. The most brilliant of the Gnostics, Valentinus, has the rudiments of a better worldview, but remained without development and influence on the general character of the system. The most sober philosophical mind among them - Basilides - clearly expresses and emphasizes the idea that the desire for elevation and expansion of one's being is only the cause of evil and disorder, and the goal of the world process and the true good of all beings is that everyone knows only himself. and his sphere, without any thought or conception of anything higher.

With this basic limitation of Gnosticism, all other main features of this teaching are logically connected. In general, Gnostic ideas, despite their factual and mythological shell, in their content are the fruit of a more analytical than synthetic work of the mind. Gnostics divide or leave divided everything that in Christianity (and partly in Neoplatonism) is one or united. Thus, the idea of ​​the consubstantial Trinity breaks up among the Gnostics into a multitude of hypostatized abstractions, to which an uneven relation to the absolute beginning is attributed. Further, all Gnostic systems reject the very root of communion between absolute and relative being, separating the supreme Deity from the Creator of heaven and earth with an impenetrable abyss. This division of the beginning of the world corresponds to the division of the Savior. Gnosticism does not recognize the only true God-Man, who united in himself the fullness of absolute and relative being: it admits only God, who seemed to be a man, and man, who seemed to be God. This doctrine of an illusory God-man, or docetism, is as characteristic of Gnostic Christology as the division between the supreme Deity and the creator of the world is of Gnostic theology. The illusory Savior also corresponds to illusory salvation. The world not only does not gain anything, thanks to the coming of Christ, but, on the contrary, loses, being deprived of that pneumatic seed that accidentally fell into it and is extracted from it after the appearance of Christ. Gnosticism knows no "new heaven and new earth"; with the release of the highest spiritual element, the world is forever affirmed in its finiteness and separation from the Divine. With the unity of God and Christ, Gnosticism also denies the unity of mankind. The human race consists of three classes, unconditionally separated by nature: material people who perish with Satan; - spiritual righteous, who remain forever in base complacency, under the rule of a blind and limited Demiurge, - and spiritual or Gnostics, ascending into the sphere of absolute being. But even these naturally privileged chosen ones gain nothing through the work of salvation, for they enter the divine pleroma not in the fullness of their human being, with soul and body, but only in their pneumatic element, which already belonged to a higher sphere.

Finally, in the practical realm, the inevitable consequence of the unconditional separation between the divine and the mundane, the spiritual and the carnal, are two opposite directions, equally justified by Gnosticism: if the flesh is unconditionally alien to the spirit, then one must either completely renounce it, or give it full will, since it can in no way damage a pneumatic element that is inaccessible to it. The first of these directions - asceticism - is more decent for people of the soul, and the second - moral licentiousness - more befits perfect gnostics or spiritual people. However, this principle was not carried out with complete consistency by all sects. Thus, Gnosticism is characterized by an irreconcilable division between the Divine and the world, between the forming principles of the world itself, and finally, between the constituent parts in man and humanity. All the ideological and historical elements included in Christianity are also contained in Gnosticism, but only in a divided state, on the level of antitheses.

III. Classification of Gnostic teachings. This basic character of Gnosticism, according to the degree of its manifestation, can also serve as a guide for the natural classification of Gnostic systems. The incompleteness of sources and chronological data, on the one hand, and the significant role of personal fantasy in the speculation of the Gnostics, on the other hand, allow only large and approximate divisions. In the division I propose, the logical basis coincides with the ethnological one. I distinguish three main groups: 1) the irreconcilability between the absolute and the finite, between the Divine and the world, which is essential for Gnosticism, appears, comparatively, in a hidden and softened form. The origin of the world is explained by ignorance or inadvertent falling away or separation from the divine fullness, but since the results of this falling away are perpetuated in their finiteness, and the world is not reunited with God, the basic character of Gnosticism remains here in full force. The Creator of heaven and earth - the Demiurge or Archon - is here also completely separate from the supreme Deity, but not an evil, but only a limited being. This first kind is represented by Egyptian Gnosticism; here belong both the rudimentary form of Gnosticism, in the teachings of Cerinthus (a contemporary of the Apostle John the Theologian and "learned in Egypt", according to St. Irenaeus), as well as the richest in content, the most processed and durable teachings, namely the systems of Valentinus and Basilides - Plato and Aristotle of Gnosticism, with their numerous and variously ramified schools; the Egyptian Ophites, who left us a monument of their teaching, in the Coptic language, in the book "Pistis Sophia" should also be attributed here. 2) The Gnostic bifurcation appears with complete sharpness, precisely in cosmogony: the world is recognized as a directly malicious creation of anti-divine forces. Such is the Syro-Chaldean gnosis, to which belong the Asiatic Ophites or Nakhashenes, Perates, Sethians, Cainites, Elcesaites, the followers of Justin (not to be confused with St. Justin the philosopher and martyr), then Saturnil and Vardesan; The followers of Simon Magus and Menander can serve as a link between Egyptian and Syro-Chaldean gnosis. 3) Gnosis Asia Minor, represented mainly by Kerdon and Marcion; here Gnostic antitheses appear not so much in cosmogony as in religious history; the opposite is not between evil and good creation, but between evil and good law (antinomianism), between the Old Testament principle of formal truth and the gospel commandment of love.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Gnosticism(Greek gnosis - knowledge), a religious trend that developed in parallel with Christianity. Gnosticism, in its developed forms, was a combination of Eastern and Hellenistic motifs with a Christian interpretation of the history and destiny of mankind, going back to the letters of the Apostle Paul. Common to the Gnostic systems is a sharp dualism - the opposition of spirit and matter. Gnostic myth was based on the notion that the world is in evil and this evil could in no way be created by God. From this it followed that the world was created either by a limited in its power, or by an evil force, which the Gnostics call the Demiurge. The Gnostic Demiurge has nothing in common with the Demiurge (God-craftsman) of Platonic Timaeus, which is conceived as unconditionally good and creating the visible world in accordance with the divine model. According to the Gnostics, the Highest God lives in the heavenly realm, but out of compassion for humanity, he sends his messenger (or messengers) to people to teach them how to free themselves from the power of the Demiurge. Some Gnostic sects identified the Demiurge with the God of the Jewish religion and, accordingly, viewed the Jews as a people chosen to prevent the salvific activity of the messengers of the Highest God.

The teachings of the various Gnostic sects found their way into an extremely large corpus of writings, but for the most part these writings were destroyed as heretical. The most famous founders of the Gnostic sects were Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, Cerinthus (1st century AD), Basilides (d. c. 140), Valentinus (mid-2nd century) and Marcion (2nd century), each of these had their own gnostic system.

Until the middle of the 20th century. Gnostics were known only from the writings of the Church Fathers, and above all - Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, Hippolytus and Epiphanius. However, the information they reported was most often borrowed from second hand and based on other people's evidence, and not on the writings of the Gnostics themselves. It was not until 1945 that a whole library of Coptic Gnostic texts was opened, which was discovered in a large earthen vessel buried in a field near Nag Hammadi in Egypt, about 40 km south of Cairo; among them was a list of famous works by Valentine - Gospels of Truth.

On the basis of the information that scholars have today, it can be concluded that Gnosticism had Hellenistic rather than Jewish or Judeo-Christian roots. Gnostic writings are full of quotations from early Christian writings and echoes of a form of Christian doctrine that goes back to the tradition associated with the name of the apostle Paul, and which is marked by a dualistic orientation or downplays the importance of the flesh and exaggerates the power of evil (for example, 1 Jn 5:19: "We know that we are from God and what the whole world lies in evil”; or Rom 8:3: "in the likeness of sinful flesh"). Meanwhile, the Hebrew Bible emphatically rejects the dualistic debasement of the material world, and even some New Testament texts point to strong opposition to 1st century gnostic dualism.

Scholars who adhere to a theory that sharply contrasts the Jewish-Christian tradition in early Christianity with the Hellenistic one believe that, although the apostle Paul did not share the Gnostics' hostile attitude towards the God of Israel and the Torah as such, he introduced a number of Gnostic motifs into his version of Christianity. Thus, Paul believed that evil rules in our earthly world and that salvation is possible only outside of it. The expression "the powers of this world" (1 Corinthians 2:8) does not refer to the earthly rulers, but to the supernatural forces that rule "this age", that is, the earthly world in this cosmic age. In addition, he constantly uses the favored Gnostic terms "principalities" and "authorities" (eg, Eph 6:12) to refer to the supernatural forces of evil that Jesus and Paul himself opposed. The Apostle Paul imagined the forces of evil as forces that have power independent of God and oppose God, who is involved in a great cosmic enmity, in which legions of evil supernatural forces acted as earthly opponents of God.

Although pure Gnosticism disappeared early on, Gnostic dualism continued to be an essential component of Western spirituality. A gnostic in a broad sense can be called someone who turns his mind's eye to the world of invisible, spiritual entities and seeks salvation through the knowledge received through divine Revelation about the true essence of man and the need to get rid of the shackles of the vicious world of matter. Yes, in gospel of truth says: "The one who knows[this truth, or knows himself], belongs to the heavenly world. When he is called, he listens, he answers, he turns to God, who calls him, in order to return to Him.