I. SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE
ABOUT GNOSTICISM
For many centuries Gnosticism was known almost
exclusively from the writings of Christian opponents.
By the middle of the second century the Roman apolo-
gist Justin had composed a treatise, now lost, in which
he argued that Gnostic movements, inspired by
demons, first arose after Christ's ascension. The first
Gnostic teacher was Simon Magus (who in Acts 8 is
not depicted as a Gnostic); he was followed by his
disciple Menander and, later on, by Marcion of Pontus.
Justin's argument is not convincing, for Menander held
himself to be the revealer and can hardly have been
Simon's disciple, while Marcion's doctrines had little
to do with either Simon or Menander. Justin was trying
to show the generic development of Gnosticism from
a single, demon-inspired source, and he was uncritically
followed by later antiheretical writers. Different ex-
planations of Gnosticism were sometimes provided.
Thus, Hegesippus (ca. 180) argued that the church,
originally a “pure virgin,” was corrupted by varieties
of sectarian Judaism which led to the major Gnostic
schools of the second century. About the same time
Saint Irenaeus (Church Father, second century)
claimed that Gnostic teaching was due to vanity,
immorality, skill in magic, or love of mythology for
its own sake. These explanations can be called psy-
chological. Other anti-Gnostic writers argued that
Gnostic ideas were derived from Greek philosophers,
though, actually, they provided little proof for the
point.
Modern discoveries made in Egypt have revealed
the existence of many documents used by the Gnostics
themselves, occasionally in Greek but usually in Coptic
translations. The most important works published be-
fore 1956 were the third- or fourth-century Pistis
Sophia and the Berlin versions of the Gospel of Mary
(Magdalene), the Apocryphon (secret book) of John, and
the Sophia (wisdom) of Jesus Christ. In 1956 the situa-
tion began to change, for in that year the first of 51
treatises, bound in 13 leather volumes and found near
Nag-Hammadi (Chenoboskion) in upper Egypt, was
published; this was the so-called Gospel of Truth—
possibly, but by no means certainly, identified with a
Valentinian Evangelium veritatis mentioned by
Irenaeus. The whole collection of Gnostic documents
was later described by H.-C. Puech, J. Doresse, and
(most reliably) M. Krause (see Bibliography). By the
end of 1967 only a few of these documents—discovered
as early as 1945—had been published. These include
the Gospel of Truth, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel
of Philip, three versions of the Apocryphon of John,
an Epistle to Rheginus on the Resurrection, a treatise
without a title, and a collection of apocalypses ascribed
to Saint Paul and Saint James, and to Adam. The
writings in this Gnostic library seem to date from the
fourth century, but in at least one instance it can be
shown that the original was two centuries older. Proof
of this point was given when H.-C. Puech identified
two Oxyrhynchus papyri, written in Greek in the early
third century and previously called the “sayings of
Jesus,” with the newly discovered Gospel of Thomas.
In addition, something like the Apocryphon of John
was known to Irenaeus and used in his Adversus
haereses (i. 29)—though this Gnostic work was evi-
dently subject to a good deal of modification. Two of
the Nag-Hammadi versions are longer than the other
one, which in turn corresponds fairly closely with the
Berlin version; and Irenaeus' source is different from
all of them.
The picture of Gnosticism emerging from the Nag-
Hammadi texts is like that given by the church writers
in that a great deal of variety was present; some docu-
ments are Valentinian, others Sethian, some even con-
sisting of the non-Christian Hermetic writings. A com-
plete assessment can be provided only when all are
published. For the moment it can be said that the only
document thus far clearly non-Christian (apart from
the Hermetica) is the Apocalypse of Adam, apparently
a synthesis of Jewish and Iranian motifs.
