What Is Gnosticism? Ancient Sources and a Modern Label

Gnosticism is a name commonly used for several currents in ancient religion, including some early Christian writings that make knowledge of divine reality central to salvation. The Greek word gnosis means knowledge. The historical question is how different writers understood that knowledge and who gives us access to their ideas. A bishop arguing against rival teachings, a letter explaining the law of Moses and a collection of manuscripts from Egypt each provide a different kind of evidence. Irenaeus, preface to Against Heresies · Ptolemy, Letter to Flora · The Coptic Museum, Nag Hammadi codices

What we learn from a writer arguing against the teachings

In the late second century, Irenaeus wrote Against Heresies to expose teachings he considered misleading. The preface explains that he intends to describe the ideas of people associated with Valentinus and to provide arguments against them. Elsewhere in the first book he describes what he regards as the shared teaching of the churches, including belief in one God who made heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ. That statement shows what he thought was at stake in arguments about a creator and a higher divine realm. Irenaeus, Book I, preface · Irenaeus, Book I, chapter 10

Irenaeus is evidence for the existence and importance of those disputes. His descriptions also serve the argument he is making. He selects examples to show why he thinks certain interpretations of scripture are wrong. When his account is our witness to a position, the distinction between what he reports and the purpose for which he reports it matters. Irenaeus, Book I, preface · Irenaeus, Book I, chapter 10

What changes when we read a letter from inside the debate

The Letter to Flora, attributed to the Valentinian teacher Ptolemy, survives because a later critic, Epiphanius, reproduced it. In the letter Ptolemy asks what kind of authority the law of Moses has for Christians. He distinguishes laws he attributes to God, Moses and the elders. He then makes further divisions within the divine portion. In his account, the Savior fulfills the commandments of the Decalogue, sets aside rules of retaliation and gives symbolic observances a spiritual meaning. For example, he explains Sabbath rest in terms of abstaining from harmful deeds. Ptolemy, Letter to Flora, Cambridge edition

At the end of the letter, Ptolemy places the lawgiving creator between the perfect Father and the adversary. He calls the creator just and assigns him an intermediate position. His account gives the law a place in his reading of Christianity and distinguishes its different kinds of instruction. That detail matters when the label Gnosticism is used to describe teachings about a lower creator. The label alone leaves open how a particular writer understands the creator’s character. Ptolemy, Letter to Flora, sections 5–7

What the manuscripts from Nag Hammadi preserve

The papyrus codices discovered near Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945 preserve Coptic copies of a range of works. The scholarly catalogue lists, for example, the Apocryphon of John, the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip in the same codex. It also records copies of the Apocryphon of John in other books. These are records of how texts were copied and collected. They give readers the opportunity to examine a revelation narrative or a set of sayings directly alongside what ancient critics said about related ideas. The Coptic Museum, manuscript collection · Brill, Coptic Gnostic Library Online, codex catalogue

Scholars have questioned how far a single category can cover that variety. Michael Allen Williams’s Rethinking Gnosticism is a sustained criticism of the impression that the word names one ancient movement. One way to keep the category useful is to name the text or teacher and explain which claim is under discussion. The comparison of two Nag Hammadi works takes that approach to the subject of saving knowledge. Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking Gnosticism

Conclusion

Gnosticism is an entry point into ancient debates about creation, scripture and salvation. Irenaeus shows how a critic framed those debates. Ptolemy’s letter gives a close view of one teacher’s reasoning. The Nag Hammadi manuscripts preserve several works that can be read in their own right. Which of those sources we are reading determines what we can say about the people and ideas it describes.

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