Fathers of Christian Gnosticism - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The "Fathers of Christian Gnosticism" are the supposed early teachers of Gnosticism

Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...

. There is no evidence that ancient Gnostic Christians used this term for their leaders, but it is sometimes used today by analogy with the term "Church Fathers

Church Fathers

The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...

" or "Fathers of the Church" applied to early influential writers in the orthodox

Orthodoxy

The word orthodox, from Greek orthos + doxa , is generally used to mean the adherence to accepted norms, more specifically to creeds, especially in religion...

Christian Church

The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...

.

Several figures are mentioned as founding figures of ancient Christian Gnosticism. The term "Gnosticism" is used by scholars with a wide variety of meanings and levels of specificity. Sometimes the term refers only to those Sethians who used the term "gnostikoi" to describe themselves. Sometimes it is used more broadly to include Valentinians, followers of Basilides

Basilides

Basilides was an early Gnostic religious teacher in Alexandria, Egypt who taught from 117–138 AD, notes that to prove that the heretical sects were "later than the catholic Church," Clement of Alexandria assigns Christ's own teaching to the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius; that of the apostles,...

, and others. Likewise, one scholar may consider Simon Magus

Simon Magus

Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Magician, in Latin Simon Magus, was a Samaritan magus or religious figure and a convert to Christianity, baptised by Philip the Apostle, whose later confrontation with Peter is recorded in . The sin of simony, or paying for position and influence in the church, is...

a gnostic, where another considers him a proto-gnostic. Some early Church fathers, such as Irenaeus

Irenaeus

Saint Irenaeus , was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...

, seemed to think that all heresies were Gnosticism at root, and thus that any heretic was in a sense a Gnostic. Modern scholar Michael Williams has argued that the whole category of "Gnosticism" is more trouble than it is worth. Here we will try to list any writers who might plausibly be considered Fathers of Christian Gnosticism.

Important early Gnostics include Simon Magus

Simon Magus

, Cerinthus

Cerinthus

Cerinthus was a gnostic and to some, an early Christian, who was prominent as a "heresiarch" in the view of the early Church Fathers. Contrary to proto-orthodox Christianity, Cerinthus's school followed the Jewish law, used the Gospel according to the Hebrews, denied that the Supreme God had made...

, Carpocrates

Carpocrates

Carpocrates of Alexandria was the founder of an early Gnostic sect from the first half of the 2nd century. As with many Gnostic sects, we know of the Carpocratians only through the writings of the Church Fathers, principally Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria. As the former strongly...

, and Basilides

Basilides

. Early figures such as Marcion, Theudas

Theudas

Theudas was a Jewish rebel of the 1st century AD. His name, if a Greek compound, may mean "gift of God", although other scholars believe its etymology is Semitic and might mean “flowing with water”...

, and Nicolas of Antioch are more debatable. By the 2nd century several major schools are separating out, such as the Sethians (with no clear leaders), and the Valentinians following the teachings of Valentinus

Valentinus (Gnostic)

Valentinus was the best known and for a time most successful early Christian gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome...

. By the 3rd century the prophet Mani

Mani (prophet)

Mani , of Iranian origin was the prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a gnostic religion of Late Antiquity which was once widespread but is now extinct...

gave birth to Manicheanism a syncretic gnostic religion which was influenced by Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...

and Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

Early leaders of Gnosticism

Gnostics often considered pre-Christian figures to be among their important early teachers and leaders. Adam and his son Seth

Seth

Seth , in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is the third listed son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, who are the only other of their children mentioned by name...

were especially important. Several figures appear in Gnostic versions of old testament

Old Testament

The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

stories who do not appear in canonical versions, such as Norea

Norea

Norea is a figure in Gnostic cosmology. Sometimes she is said to be the syzygy of Adam, or wife of Noah, and daughter of Eve. Norea is perceived within gnostic thought as Sophia after her fall from grace....

, who saves the Gnostics from the flood in the time of Noah

Noah

Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...

. The three companions of Daniel

Daniel

Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...

are called by many names in Gnostic texts

Gnostic texts

Gnosticism used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts or are lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings.-Full or fragmentary:These texts exist in surviving manuscripts.*Acts of John**The Hymn of Jesus...

, and often invoked. Eugnostos is a proto-Sethian writer of the Nag Hammadi

Nag Hammâdi

Nag Hammadi , is a city in Upper Egypt. Nag Hammadi was known as Chenoboskion in classical antiquity, meaning "geese grazing grounds". It is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Qena Governorate, about 80 kilometres north-west of Luxor....

text of the same name, and may have lived as early as the 1st Century BCE. John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

is sometimes claimed as an early Gnostic leader — for example, by the Mandaeans. Other figures are more difficult to locate in time, such as the Prophets Barcoph and Barkabbas, mentioned by Basilides

Basilides

and Epiphanius

Epiphanius

Epiphanius was the name of several early Christian scholars and ecclesiastics:*Epiphanius of Pavia *Epiphanius of Salamis , bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, author of the Panarion, or Medicine Chest against Heresies*Epiphanius of Constantinople, , Patriarch of Constantinople*Epiphanius Scholasticus ,...

.

Likewise, it may not have been unusual for even Christian Gnostics to consider a variety of important pre-Christian figures as among their early leaders. Irenaeus claims that followers of Carpocrates honored images of Pythagoras

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...

, Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

, and Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

along with images of Jesus Christ. Philo of Alexandria, Zoroaster

Zoroaster

Zoroaster , also known as Zarathustra , was a prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism who was either born in North Western or Eastern Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism...

, and Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes Trismegistus

Hermes Trismegistus is the eponymous author of the Hermetic Corpus, a sacred text belonging to the genre of divine revelation.-Origin and identity:...

may have occupied similar roles among other early Christian gnostics.

Jesus Christ is usually claimed as a gnostic leader by gnostics, as are several of his apostles, such as Thomas the Apostle

Thomas the Apostle

Thomas the Apostle, also called Doubting Thomas or Didymus was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is best known for questioning Jesus' resurrection when first told of it, then proclaiming "My Lord and my God" on seeing Jesus in . He was perhaps the only Apostle who went outside the Roman...

, often thought of as the founder of the Thomasine form of Gnosticism. Indeed, Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...

is respected as a Gnostic leader, and is considered superior to the twelve apostles by some gnostic texts, such as the Gospel of Mary

Gospel of Mary

The Gospel of Mary is an apocryphal book discovered in 1896 in a 5th-century papyrus codex. The codex Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 was purchased in Cairo by German scholar Karl Reinhardt....

. John the Evangelist

John the Evangelist

Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...

is claimed as a Gnostic by some Gnostic interpreters. As is even St Paul

Paul of Tarsus

Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...

.

A student of Valentinius claims that Theudas

Theudas (teacher of Valentinius)

Theudas was allegedly the name of a Christian Gnostic thinker, who was a follower of Paul of Tarsus. He went on to teach the Gnostic Valentinus. The only evidence of this connection is the testimony of Valentinius' followers....

was a student of St. Paul

Paul of Tarsus

, and in turn taught Valentinius, which would put Theudas in the late 1st century if true.

Nicolas of Antioch and Jezebel of Thyatira are sometimes claimed as leaders of the "Nicolaitans" described in the Book of Revelation

Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...

. They were late 1st century figures. It's unclear just how Gnostic these figures were, but Epiphanius

Epiphanius

believes that the Archontic

Archontics

The Archontics, or Archontici, were a Gnostic sect that existed in Palestine and Armenia, who arose towards the close of the 2nd century CE...

Gnostics are descendents of the Nicolatians.

Gnostic schools of thought

In the late 1st century or early 2nd century Cerinthus

Cerinthus

founds a Gnostic offshoot of the Ebionites

Ebionites

Ebionites, or Ebionaioi, , is a patristic term referring to a Jewish Christian sect or sects that existed during the first centuries of the Christian Era. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah and insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites...

, teaching a Supreme God distinct from the creator of this world. By the early 2nd century Carpocrates

Carpocrates

has founded the Carpocratians. His students include Marcellina the Carpocratian and his son Epiphanes (not Epiphanes of Salamis). Another early 2nd century theologian was Basilides

Basilides

. His son Isidore succeeds him around 150. A Gnostic teacher named Cerdo

Cerdo (gnostic)

Cerdo was a Syrian gnostic who was deemed a heretic by the Orthodox Church around the time of his teaching, circa 138 AD.Cerdo started out as a follower of Simon Magus. He taught at about the same time as Valentinus and preceded Marcion...

is teaching in Rome sometime in 136-142. Marcion is a 2nd century theologian whose links to Gnosticism have been hotly disputed, although his disciple Apelles

Apelles (gnostic)

Little is known about Apelles . He was a disciple of Marcion, probably at Rome, but left the Marcionite society...

the Marcionite seems to have interacted with the Alexandrian Gnostics later on. Apelles was also friends with Philumene, an Alexandrian prophetess.

Little is known of founders of Sethian

Sethianism

The Sethians were a Christian Gnostic sect who may date their existence to before Christianity. Their influence spread throughout the Mediterranean into the later systems of the Basilideans and the Valentinians. Their thinking, though it is predominantly Judaic in foundation, is arguably strongly...

Gnosticism, which may have existed in a pre-Christian form, and which also flourished in the 2nd century AD. Early Sethian leaders might include:

Barkabbas - a prophet mentioned by Basilides and linked to the Gnostics by Epiphanius;
Zostrianos
Zostrianos
Zostrianos is a Sethian Gnostic text from the New Testament apocrypha. The main surviving copies come from the Nag Hammadi library, but it is heavily damaged ....

, the supposed writer of a Nag Hammadi text, believed in antiquity to be a follower of Zoroaster
Zoroaster
Zoroaster , also known as Zarathustra , was a prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism who was either born in North Western or Eastern Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism...

;
Satornius (Satornilos, Satorninos) who may have been an early 2nd century Sethian teacher
Marsanes
Marsanes
Marsanes is a Sethian Gnostic text from the New Testament apocrypha. The main surviving copies come from the Nag Hammadi library, albeit with four pages missing, and several lines damaged beyond recovery, including the first ten of the fifth page....

(Marsianos), the supposed author of a Nag Hammadi text, who is also mentioned by Epiphanius of Salamis as a prophet revered by the Archontic Gnostics.

Porphyry

Porphyry (philosopher)

Porphyry of Tyre , Porphyrios, AD 234–c. 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre. He edited and published the Enneads, the only collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. He also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics...

also mentions several of these, as well as Nikotheos and Messos, Gnostic revelation writers whose works don't survive (Nikotheos is mentioned in the Bruce Codex

Bruce Codex

The Bruce Codex is a gnostic manuscript acquired by the British Museum. In 1769, James Bruce purchased the codex in Upper Egypt. It was transferred to the museum with a number of other Oriental texts in 1842...

too, as a "perfect man" who had seen visions of the "triple powered one"), and Adelphios and Aquilinus (mentioned as leaders of the Gnostics by Porphyry). Eutaktos of Armenia is founder of the Archontic

Archontics

The Archontics, or Archontici, were a Gnostic sect that existed in Palestine and Armenia, who arose towards the close of the 2nd century CE...

Gnostics, according to Epiphanius. Peter the Gnostic or Peter of Kapharbarikha is a Palestinian Archontic described by Epiphanius. Martiades is a prophet of Archontics mentioned by Epiphanius, along with Marsanes.

Valentinus

Valentinus (Gnostic)

Valentinus was the best known and for a time most successful early Christian gnostic theologian. He founded his school in Rome...

, who may have been a student of Basilides

Basilides

, and Theudas

Theudas

was a prominent Gnostic teacher of another major form of Gnosticism in the 2nd century AD. He taught many other Gnostic fathers whose names we know, and his school survived for centuries.

His school was later divided into Eastern and Western branches based on a Christological dispute. Western Valentinians include: Ptolemy the Valentinian, whose letter to Flora survives, and who seems to have been martryed in 152; Flora a female Valentinian who corresponded with Ptolemy; Heracleon

Heracleon

Heracleon was a Gnostic who flourished about AD 175, probably in the south of Italy. He is described by Clement of Alexandria as the most esteemed of the school of Valentinus; and, according to Origen Heracleon was a Gnostic who flourished about AD 175, probably in the south of Italy. He is...

who has several surviving excerpts; Hermogenes (the painter) a late 2nd century painter, Monoimus

Monoimus

Monoimus was an Arab gnostic , who was known only from one account in Theodoret until a lost work of anti-heretical writings by Hippolytus was found...

the Arab, and Prodicus the Gnostic, Secundus, Florinus (a presbyter), Alexander, and Theotimus. Eastern Valentinians include: Marcus the Valentinian, a magician interested in using Gematria

Gematria

Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...

with Valentinianism; Axionicus of Antioch, who was alive in time of Tertullian

Tertullian

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...

; and Theodotus who also has several surviving excerpts in Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria

Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...

's Excerpta; Ambrose and Candidus (in the 3rd century).

Later Gnostic fathers

The 3rd century also sees Bardaisan or Bardansanes, an immediate forerunner of Mani. He was a Valentianian at one point but later rejected them. The prophet Mani

Mani (prophet)

Mani , of Iranian origin was the prophet and the founder of Manichaeism, a gnostic religion of Late Antiquity which was once widespread but is now extinct...

founded a religion called Manicheanism but also described himself as "the apostle of Jesus Christ". His religion borrowed heavily from Gnosticism and may well be thought of a form of gnosticism, so it might be fair to think of Mani as a father of Christian Gnosticism, although clearly many would dispute this.

By the early 4th century, gnostics are kicked out the church and officially forbidden to meet, by the mid 4th century their books are widely banned and by the late 4th century Gnosticism carries a death penalty in the Roman empire. The Sethian Gnostics, Archontic Gnostics, Basilidean Gnostics, Valentinian Gnostics, and Manicheans seem to be the only schools of Christian Gnostics to survive into the 4th century. St. Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...

claimed to be a Manichean early in life, but later to have rejected it, and thus was a Church Father who was at one point a gnostic. Likewise, the late 3rd-early 4th century theologian Lactantius

Lactantius

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and tutor to his son.-Biography:...

has sometimes been thought of as being influenced enough by Gnosticism to be a Gnostic father, but this is by no means clear.

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