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Gnosis, gnostics,
gnosticism
MARVIN MEYER
Gnosis is a Greek word meaning “knowledge”;
gnostic is derived from the Greek gnostikos,
to designate a person of knowledge; and
gnosticism is a modern term for a religion or
philosophy of knowledge. Collectively these
terms are used in the discussion of gnostic
religion or religions – religious traditions that
emphasize the primary place of gnosis as
mystical knowledge that may lead to enlight-
enment. Until fairly recently our knowledge
of gnostic spirituality has been limited, in
large part, to accounts in the Christian
heresiologists, or “heresy-hunters,” but recent
discoveries of gnostic texts have shed new light
on gnostic traditions. Gnostic religious tradi-
tions are of significance in their own right, and
the creative theological challenges of Christian
gnosis also prompted the emerging orthodox
church to become more reflective regarding
matters relating to God, the person of Christ,
and the nature of salvation.
TERMINOLOGY
The terms gnosis, gnostic, and gnosticism have
been used, with some ambiguity, to describe
the mystical religious traditions represented by
a series of spiritual teachers, schools of reli-
gious and philosophical thought, and texts of
knowledge that came to expression at least as
early as the second century CE, if not before.
The word gnosticism is a neologism coined in
the seventeenth century. Some scholars
consider the term gnosticism inappropriate
and imprecise, as a modern term weighed
down with the baggage of polemical biases.
The term gnosticism may also incorporate a
presumption of a monolithic gnostic religion
that in fact may never have existed. Gnosis and
gnostikos (plural, gnostikoi) are ancient terms
attested in the writings of the heresiologists and
(particularly in the case of gnosis) the primary
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,
and Sabine R. Huebner, print pages 2938–2942.
© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah05076
gnostic texts themselves, but they frequently
have been used in a general and uncertain
way, often with heresiological prejudice, so
that issues of definition and classification
relating to gnostic traditions have proved
vexing.
Addressing these terminological problems,
Michael Williams (1996) has urged that the
category “gnosticism” be dismantled and
replaced with a more suitable description of
so-called “gnostic” phenomena, such as
“biblical demiurgical” traditions. With similar
concerns, Karen King (2003) has noted the
political and rhetorical issues that have perme-
ated the discussion of gnosis from the days of
the heresiologists to the present, and she has
suggested that scholars think and speak of
texts and episodes rather than a “larger con-
nected totality,” and thereby affirm the plural-
ity of manifestations of gnosis. Other scholars,
including Bentley Layton (1987) and Birger
Pearson (2007), have pointed out that the
term gnostikos and related terms seem to have
functioned as terms of self-definition and self-
reference for a number of so-called gnostics.
IRENAEUS of Lyon concedes that the followers
of Marcellina and those called gnostikoi
(compare the Sethian school of gnostic
thought; see SETHIANISM) described them-
selves as “gnostics,” but Irenaeus charges that
this is “falsely so-called gnosis.” Further, to the
present day MANDAEANS refer to themselves
as Mandaye, people of manda (that is,
gnostics).
It is apparent in the approach of Irenaeus
that in the second century a battle was raging
over who made the rightful claim to possessing
gnosis: who are the true gnostics – Irenaeus
and his people or self-acclaimed gnostikoi and
their people? It becomes clear from Irenaeus
and other heresiologists that the terms gnosis
and gnostikos were not primarily negative
terms with inflammatory and heretical con-
notations, though they were eventually to be
employed in such a manner by church fathers
and defenders of the faith within the emerging
orthodox church. Initially these were positive
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terms claimed by competing religious adher-
ents in a world of diverse beliefs.
On the basis of these observations it may be
possible to employ the terms gnosis and
gnostikos in a meaningful fashion in the discus-
sion of gnostic spirituality. It may also be
possible to proceed in a phenomenological and
typological manner to extend the definition and
description of gnosis and what is gnostic to
include similar texts, traditions, and perspec-
tives beyond what is known to be specifically
claimed as gnostic by adherents themselves. In
this regard possible historical and literary con-
nections and influences may prove helpful.
Additionally, in acknowledgment of the plural-
ity of religious and philosophical traditions that
might be termed gnostic, it may be suggested
that the discussion move beyond the singular
formulation made famous by Hans Jonas
(1958, 1963), “gnostic religion,” to a plural
formulation that recognizes the diversity of
ancient and Late Antique gnosis, “gnostic
religions.”
SOURCES
Prior to the modern period, what was known
of ancient gnosis and gnostic traditions
came from the accounts of heresiologists
and a modest handful of original sources. The
heresiologists who write about – and against –
gnosis and gnostics include Irenaeus of Lyon,
Hippolytus of Rome, Clement of Alexandria,
Origen, Epiphanius of Salamis, and others, and
while the information they provide may be
examined with value, their accounts are delib-
erately polemical: they seek to expose the false-
hood of the “heretical” gnostics. Among the
heresiologists some, such as Irenaeus, may be
more historically reliable than others, such as
Epiphanius, whose Panarion, or Medicine
Chest, with an orthodox antidote for every sort
of gnosis, is sensationalistic. Sometimes the
heresiological accounts quote or paraphrase
sources of gnosis. In his work Adversus haereses
(Against Heresies), Irenaeus includes a section
that parallels part of the opening portion of the
Apocryphon of John (see JOHN, APOCRYPHON OF);
Hippolytus cites Justin’s Book of Baruch, the
Great Revelation, and the Naassene Sermon;
Clement of Alexandria incorporates excerpts
from the Valentinian teacher Theodotus;
Clement and Origen both include portions of
a commentary on the Gospel of John by
another Valentinian teacher, Heracleon; and
Epiphanius quotes Ptolemy’s Valentinian
Letter to Flora.
Among the original sources of gnosis already
known for some time, Pistis Sophia survives in
the Askew Codex, and the two Books of Jeu
and an untitled Sethian text are preserved in
the Bruce Codex. In the Corpus Hermeticum
are to be found texts that many scholars clas-
sify as gnostic (see HERMETIC WRITINGS). Scholars
disagree about the precise classification of the
Odes of Solomon and the “Hymn of the Pearl”
within the Acts of Thomas (see THOMAS, ACTS OF).
The Mandaeans include among their sacred
texts the Ginza, the Canonical Prayerbook,
and the Book of John. Questions remain about
whether or not Manichaean literature and the
texts of so-called Islamic gnosis (for example,
the Mother of Books and the Book of Shadows)
should be considered gnostic, as is also the case
with the later literature of the Bogomils and
Cathars (see MANI/MANICHAEISM).
In recent decades original texts of great sig-
nificance for the understanding of ancient
gnosis have been recovered from the sands of
Egypt. In 1896 a Coptic codex, now called the
Berlin Gnostic Codex (Codex Berolinensis
8502), came to light; the codex contains four
texts: the Gospel of Mary, the Apocryphon of
John, the Sophia of Jesus Christ, and the Acts
of Peter. In 1945 the thirteen Coptic codices of
the NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY were recovered, and
of the more than fifty texts copied onto the
papyrus pages of the Nag Hammadi codices,
more than thirty are reasonably well preserved
and previously unavailable. Most of these Nag
Hammadi texts either are considered gnostic
or are important for the exploration of gnostic
traditions. In the 1970s another Coptic manu-
script, Codex Tchacos, was found in Egypt,
and it has yielded more gnostic texts: the Letter

of Peter to Philip, James (both texts are also
known from the Nag Hammadi library), the
Gospel of Judas, and a Book of Allogenes, along
with what have been identified as fragments of
Corpus Hermeticum XIII.
GNOSTIC TRADITIONS
Gnostic sources reflect a variety of systems or
schools of thought. A set of interests may be
seen to inform the development of the various
religions of gnostic spirituality, and this obser-
vation may lead to an appreciation of what King
calls “continuity in difference” (2003: 229).
Gnostic spirituality
Gnostic religions are religions of gnosis:
mystical knowledge and insight into the true
meaning of life in the world. People of gnosis
seem to have been painfully aware of the exis-
tence of imperfection, mortality, and evil in
this world, and in their reflection they came
to a realization that the life of bliss and joy is
the inner life, the life enlightened by the know-
ledge that a spark of the light of the divine
resides within people of gnosis. In the face of
the problem of evil in the world, gnostics
reached the conclusion that while there is
darkness and woe here below, there is light
and repose in the transcendent fullness of the
divine on high as well as in the hearts of
people of gnosis in this world. The means by
which the divine light penetrates this world
and comes to rest within the souls of people
is frequently worked out in complex mytho-
logical narratives describing the infinite
quality of divinity in the Pleroma or fullness
of light, and the subsequent evolution or devo-
lution of the light down into human souls.
On account of the radical difference perceived
between the light of the divine and this world
of darkness, gnostic religions often posit
a fall or jolt in the godhead to account for
the emergence of the cosmos. This may be
described as the fall of Sophia, the Wisdom
of God. The DEMIURGE, or creator of this
world, is usually thought to be a lower archon,
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sometimes with a megalomaniacal disposition.
Neoplatonists in the school of Plotinus of
Rome, who associated with gnostics and read
their texts, complained that gnostics were too
hard on the demiurge.
In gnostic formulations, the light of the
divine is housed, and trapped, in physical bodies
within a world of corruption, and human
beings are seduced by the distractions of the
world and lulled into the sleep of ignorance.
Therein lies the problem in human life,
according to gnostic accounts: people may
have a spark of the divine within, but often
they are unaware of it. In gnostic texts, the
most pressing problem in human existence is
not sin but ignorance. A revelatory voice is
needed to wake up the sleepers and call to the
ignorant, and that call may come from any one
of a number of gnostic revealers, depending on
the gnostic tradition. In Christian gnostic tra-
ditions, the revealer is ordinarily understood
to be Christ, who is thought to save not by
dying for sins upon the cross but by revealing
the way to gnosis and enlightenment. (On the
place of the crucifixion in gnostic texts,
see JUDAS, GOSPEL OF; PETER, COPTIC APOCALYPSE OF;
SECOND TREATISE OF THE GREAT SETH.)
Gnostic schools of thought
In their accounts of the early schools of
thought that represent gnostic religions,
Irenaeus and a number of other heresiologists
assert that the father of gnosis was Simon
Magus, who is presented in the New Testament
Acts of the Apostles as a mere magician. In the
heresiological accounts Simon is said to pro-
claim that the Great Power of God was made
manifest through him and the fall and redemp-
tion of the soul through his female partner
Helena, who was said to be the First Thought
of the divine. A literary work, the Great Reve-
lation, is attributed to Simon Magus in the
account of Hippolytus, and a Nag Hammadi
text, the Exegesis on the Soul, narrates a tale of
the soul that resembles what the heresiologists
say of the teachings of Simon Magus. The vicis-
situdes in the fall and redemption of Helena
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according to the heresiologists may anticipate
the description of the fall and redemption of
Sophia in gnostic texts and traditions.
In their accounts the heresiologists go on to
claim that Menander was a disciple of Simon
Magus and succeeded him as a teacher of gnosis.
The heresiologists then list a series of other
early gnostic teachers – Saturninus, Cerinthus,
Carpocrates, Marcellina, and more – but the
accounts and evaluations of these figures must
be read with caution. About the gnostic teacher
Basilides somewhat more is reported by the
heresiologists, though the evidence remains
fragmentary. What is clear is that Basilides was
a proponent of Christian gnosis, and he seems
to have authored learned works.
The original texts of gnosis, some previously
known and some discovered more recently,
represent a wide variety of perspectives and
points of view. Commonly scholars distinguish
at least four schools of thought among the
texts in the Nag Hammadi library and other
collections: Thomas Christianity, Sethian gnosis,
Valentinian gnosis, and Hermetic religion.
Some texts with gnostic perspectives do not
appear to conform to any of these schools of
thought.
Thomas Christianity is represented by the
Gospel of Thomas, the Book of Thomas, the Acts
of Thomas (including the “Hymn of the
Pearl”), and other texts. The Gospel of Thomas
cannot be considered gnostic without consid-
erable qualification (see THOMAS, GOSPEL OF).
It is a sayings gospel containing hidden sayings
of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom, and readers are
invited to interact with his wise insights in
order to find interpretations that may provide
enlightenment. The Book of Thomas continues
to muse upon sayings of Jesus, but in a more
ascetical, world-renouncing way, and the Acts
of Thomas, with the “Hymn of the Pearl”
embedded within it, recounts the legendary
travels of the apostle Thomas to India.
According to Irenaeus, devotees of what is
termed the Sethian school of gnostic thought
called themselves gnostikoi; Layton (1987)
refers to them as classic gnostics. These
gnostics produced the Apocryphon of John as
well as the Gospel of Judas, the Holy Book of
the Great Invisible Spirit, the Apocalypse of
Adam, the Three Steles of Seth, the Trimorphic
Protennoia, and other works. Sethian gnostics
build upon Hellenistic Jewish speculation,
with a strong Platonic flavor. The Apocryphon
of John offers a dramatic account of the fall and
redemption of Sophia, and it adds a provocative
retelling of the story of Genesis, according to
which Adam and Eve, who eat from the tree of
knowledge (gnosis), oppose the efforts of the
creator, who seeks to keep them ignorant and
confined in this world. Eventually Adam and
Eve are saved with the aid of Epinoia (Insight).
According to Irenaeus, again, Valentinus,
a renowned teacher whose students organized
the Valentinian school of gnostic thought,
adapted ideas of the gnostic school of thought –
the Sethians – to form his own system
(see VALENTINUS/VALENTINIANS). Layton (1987)
hypothesizes that Valentinus, who was from
Alexandria, may have been familiar with both
the gnostic teacher Basilides and a version of
the Gospel of Thomas. The Valentinians were
Christians, and some of them were thoughtful
scholars and prolific writers. Among their
works, in addition to those already mentioned,
are the GOSPEL OF TRUTH (which Valentinus
himself may have composed), the Treatise on
Resurrection, the Tripartite Tractate, the Gospel
of Philip (see PHILIP, GOSPEL OF), the Interpretation
of Knowledge, and the Valentinian Exposition.
Although Valentinians seem to have associated
with other Christians, they regarded them-
selves as uncommon Christians, pneumatikoi,
that is, “spiritual people.”
Hermetic religion is the religion of Hermes
Trismegistus, thrice greatest Hermes, and it is
presented in texts from the Corpus Hermeticum
and codices from Egypt – especially the
Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, the Prayer
of Thanksgiving, and Asclepius (Excerpt from
the Perfect Discourse) from the Nag Hammadi
library. In Hermetic religion, which shares many
characteristics with gnostic thought, Hermes
Trismegistus aids worshippers in their quest
for the divine. As the word of thanks directed
to God in the Prayer of Thanksgiving states,

“You have made us divine through your
knowledge.”
SEE ALSO: Hairesis; Marcion and Marcionites.
REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Barnstone, W. and Meyer, M., eds. (2003, 2009) The
gnostic bible. Boston.
Dunderberg, I. (2008) Beyond gnosticism: myth,
lifestyle, and society in the school of Valentinus.
New York.
Jonas, H. (1958, 1963) The gnostic religion: the
message of the alien god and the beginnings of
Christianity. Boston.
King, K. L. (2003) What is gnosticism?
Cambridge, MA.
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Layton, B. (1987) The gnostic scriptures: a new
translation with annotations and introductions.
New York.
Marjanen, A., ed. (2005) Was there a gnostic religion?
Göttingen.
Meyer, M. (2005) The gnostic discoveries: the impact
of the Nag Hammadi Library. San Francisco.
Meyer, M., ed. (2007) The Nag Hammadi
scriptures: the international edition.
New York.
Pagels, E. H. (1979) The gnostic gospels. New York.
Pearson, B. A. (2007) Ancient gnosticism: traditions
and literature. Minneapolis.
Rudolph, K. (1983) Gnosis: the nature and history
of gnosticism. San Francisco.
Williams, M. A. (1996) Rethinking “gnosticism”:
an argument for dismantling a dubious category.
Princeton.