The Gnostic Gospels By Elaine PagelsCATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Gnosticism. Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only 1. The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word gnosis knowledge, gnostikos, good at knowing, is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i. The-Hidden-Messages-of-Jesus-How-the-Gnostic-Gospel-1143853-4ecbc47dab1136ea5ffb.jpg' alt='The Gnostic Gospels Of Jesus' title='The Gnostic Gospels Of Jesus' />Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were people who knew, and their knowledge at once constituted them a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was essentially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know. A more complete and historical definition of Gnosticism would be. Medical Teaching Evaluation Form Template. A collective name for a large number of greatly varying and pantheistic idealisticsects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God sent Saviour. However unsatisfactory this definition may be, the obscurity, multiplicity, and wild confusion of Gnostic systems will hardly allow of another. Many scholars, moreover, would hold that every attempt to give a generic description of Gnostic sects is labour lost. Origin. The beginnings of Gnosticism have long been a matter of controversy and are still largely a subject of research. The more these origins are studied, the farther they seem to recede in the past. Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly a corruption of Christianity, it now seems clear that the first traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. The Gnostic Gospels Book' title='The Gnostic Gospels Book' />The Nag Hammadi library also known as the Chenoboskion Manuscripts, or as the Gnostic Gospels is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered. Excerpt from The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels. Part of the The Nag Hammadi Library Nag Hammadi Scriptures collection. The site includes the Gnostic Society. Irenaeus and the Gospel according to Mark. Irenaeus writes in Adversus Haereses Now the Gospels, in which Christ is enthroned, are like these. Links and an introduction with scholarly quotes. The Nag Hammadi Library B I B L I O T H Q U E D E N A G H A M M A D I Introduction from The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels In December 1945 an Arab peasant. The Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of thirteen ancient codices containing over fifty texts, was discovered in upper Egypt in 1945. This immensely important. Its Eastern origin was already maintained by Gieseler and Neander F. Ch. Bauer 1. 83. Lassen 1. India Lipsius 1. Syria and Phoenicia as its home, and Hilgenfeld 1. Mazdeism. Joel 1. Weingarten 1. 88. Koffmane 1. 88. 1, Anrich 1. Wobbermin 1. 89. Gnosticism by the influence of Greek. Platonicphilosophy and the Greek mysteries, while Harnack described it as acute Hellenization of Christianity. For the past twenty five years, however, the trend of scholarship has steadily moved towards proving the pre Christian Oriental origins of Gnosticism. At the Fifth Congress of Orientalists Berlin, 1. Kessler brought out the connection between Gnosis and the Babylonianreligion. By this latter name, however, he meant not the original religion of Babylonia, but the syncretisticreligion which arose after the conquest of Cyrus. The same idea is brought out in his Mani seven years later. In the same year F. Mw2 Mod Menu Xbox 360 No Jtag on this page. W. Brandt published his Mandiische Religion. This Mandaeanreligion is so unmistakably a form of Gnosticism that it seems beyond doubt that Gnosticism existed independent of, and anterior to, Christianity. In more recent years 1. Wilhelm Anz pointed out the close similarity between Babylonianastrology and the Gnostic theories of the Hebdomad and Ogdoad. Though in many instances speculations on the Babylonian. Astrallehre have gone beyond all sober scholarship, yet in this particular instance the inferences made by Anz seem sound and reliable. Researches in the same direction were continued and instituted on a wider scale by W. Bousset, in 1. 90. In 1. 89. 8 the attempt was made by M. Friedlnder to trace Gnosticism in pre Christian Judaism. His opinion that the Rabbinic term Minnim designated not Christians, as was commonly believed, but Antinomian Gnostics, has not found universal acceptance. In fact, E. Schrer brought sufficient proof to show that Minnim is the exact Armaean dialectic equivalent for ethne. Nevertheless Friedlnders essay retains its value in tracing strong antinomian tendencies with Gnostic colouring on Jewish soil. Not a few scholars have laboured to find the source of Gnostic theories on Hellenistic and, specifically, Alexandrian soil. In 1. 88. 0 Joel sought to prove that the germ of all Gnostic theories was to be found in Plato. Though this may be dismissed as an exaggeration, some Greek influence on the birth, but especially on the growth, of Gnosticism cannot be denied. In Trismegistic literature, as pointed out by Reitzenstein Poimandres, 1. Gnosticism. Its Egyptian origin was defended by E. Amlineau, in 1. 88. A. Dietrich, in 1. Abraxas Studien and 1. Mithrasliturgie. The relation of Plotinuss philosophy to Gnosticism was brought out by C. Schmidt in 1. 90. That Alexandrian thought had some share at least in the development of Christian Gnosticism is clear from the fact that the bulk of Gnostic literature which we possess comes to us from Egyptian Coptic sources. That this share was not a predominant one is, however, acknowledged by O. Step By Step Algebra Solver S. Gruppe in his Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte 1. It is true that the Greek mysteries, as G. Anrich pointed out in 1. Gnosticism but there remains the further question, in how far these Greek mysteries, as they are known to us, were the genuine product of Greek thought, and not much rather due to the overpowering influence of Orientalism. Although the origins of Gnosticism are still largely enveloped in obscurity, so much light has been shed on the problem by the combined labours of many scholars that it is possible to give the following tentative solution Although Gnosticism may at first sight appear a mere thoughtless syncretism of well nigh all religious systems in antiquity, it has in reality one deep root principle, which assimilated in every soil what is needed for its life and growth this principle is philosophical and religiouspessimism. The Gnostics, it is true, borrowed their terminology almost entirely from existing religions, but they only used it to illustrate their great idea of the essential evil of this present existence and the duty to escape it by the help of magic spells and a superhuman Saviour. Whatever they borrowed, this pessimism they did not borrow not from Greek thought, which was a joyous acknowledgment of and homage to the beautiful and noble in this world, with a studied disregard of the element of sorrow not from Egyptian thought, which did not allow its elaborate speculations on retribution and judgment in the netherworld to cast a gloom on this present existence, but considered the universecreated or evolved under the presiding wisdom of Thoth not from Iranian thought, which held to the absolute supremacy of Ahura Mazda and only allowed Ahriman a subordinate share in the creation, or rather counter creation, of the world not from Indian.