[121] Therefore, Mandaeans are baptized repeatedly during their lives. gnosticism, any of various related philosophical and religious movements prominent in the Greco-Roman world in the early Christian era, particularly the 2nd century. [31], However, scholars specializing in Mandaeism such as Kurt Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macch, Ethel S. Drower, James F. McGrath, Charles G. Hberl, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, and inasi Gndz argue for a Palestinian origin. In a religious context, gnosis is mystical or esoteric knowledge based on direct participation with the divine. The Elchasaites, or at least Christians influenced by them, paired the male Christ with the female Holy Spirit, envisioning both as two gigantic angels. The teaching of Reunification in the Pleroma (Light) is very similar indeed to the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana. Here are some answers. Produced by individuals whom we now identify as "Gnostic," these texts have been put forward in recent years as reasonable alternative forms of Christianity, as branches that were unjustly suppressed, as teachings that should be allowed to modify the dogma that came down to us or as books that should have been incorporated into the Bible. [67] The numbers of these pairings varied from text to text, though some identify their number as being thirty. Beginning in certain Gnostic texts with the hermaphroditic aeon Barbelo,[64][65][66] the first emanated being, various interactions with the Monad occur which result in the emanation of successive pairs of aeons, often in malefemale pairings called syzygies. Jewish Gnosticism with a focus on Sophia was active by 90AD. [47][110], Jorunn J. Buckley and other scholars specializing in Mandaeism believe that the Mandaeans originated about two thousand years ago in the Palestine-Israel region and moved east due to persecution. [184] The pneuma (spirit) must therefore gain victory over the lower and material-bound psyche (soul or anima), to overcome its animal nature. THE 22 STEPS OF THE MEDITATION FOR THE ANNIHILATION OF THE SELF BY CHRIST SAMAEL. [119][110][116] God is so great, vast, and incomprehensible that no words can fully depict how awesome God is. E.J. Oh God no! In the end, all will rejoin in glorious Union with the Light of God. He has widely & freely published numerous editions of the Scriptures, including related reference tools and collected works. [39] According to Wilhelm Bousset (18651920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[39] and Eduard Norden (18681941) also proposed pre-Christian origins,[39] while Richard August Reitzenstein (18611931), and Rudolf Bultmann (18841976) also situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia. [213], The best known example of this approach is Adolf von Harnack (18511930), who stated that "Gnosticism is the acute Hellenization of Christianity. Christianity.com is a member of the Salem Web Network of sites including: Copyright 2023, Christianity.com. Their beliefs seem to have been eclectic, with elements of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, astrology, and Gnosticism. The Late Most Reverend +Ronald V. Cappello. Jesus is identified with angel Christology in parable 5, when the author mentions a Son of God, as a virtuous man filled with a Holy "pre-existent spirit".[38]. [100] In I Corinthians Paul refers to some church members as "having knowledge" (Greek: , ton echonta gnosin). [143], According to Smith, Sethianism may have begun as a pre-Christian tradition, possibly a syncretic cult that incorporated elements of Christianity and Platonism as it grew. Both Sethian Gnostics and Valentinian Gnostics seem to have been influenced by Plato, Middle Platonism, and Neo-Pythagoreanism academies or schools of thought. Certain elements of the light became entrapped within darkness, and the purpose of material creation is to engage in the slow process of extraction of these individual elements. We honor the Gautama Buddha as a great Teacher of Gnosis. This, however, does not preclude an identifiable standard among such congregations. We welcome all individuals seeking God's love. [7] The early church heresiologists created an interpretive definition of Gnosticism, and modern scholarship followed this example and created a categorical definition. Even on this point, Gnostic writings differ. At The Gnostic Church of Sophia, our doors are open to everyone. There was no settled Gnostic position on these points. [77] The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named archons who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it. [79] Ialdabaoth had a head of a lion.[64][80]. [156] Simone Petrement, while arguing for a Christian origin of Gnosticism, places Valentinus after Basilides, but before the Sethians. According to Petrement, Valentinus represented a moderation of the anti-Judaism of the earlier Hellenized teachers; the demiurge, widely regarded as a mythological depiction of the Old Testament God of the Hebrews (i.e. The greatest Gnostic find to date has been the Nag Hammadi Library, discovered in 1945. The forces of good are represented by Nhura (Light) and Maia Hayyi (Living Water) and those of evil are represented by Hshuka (Darkness) and Maia Tahmi (dead or rancid water). Gnostic Church and Academy of Lord Jesus Christ - Welcome to the Ministry of Brother Marty Leeds Video Platforms Pocast Platforms Marty's Music (Preview Selection) Tithing & Donations (Click icons or scan QR codes) Crypto Donations Snail Mail Contact Marty's Online Shop View Shopping Cart Ready to check out? Versuch eines geschichtliches Bildes bis zur frh-islamischen Zeit, chap. Their baptismal ritual removed the consequences of sin, and led to a regeneration by which natural death, which was caused by these angels, was overcome. [203], According to Matthew J. Dillon, six trends can be discerned in the definitions of Gnosticism:[204], The 1966 Messina conference on the origins of gnosis and Gnosticism proposed to designate, a particular group of systems of the second century after Christ" as gnosticism, and to use gnosis to define a conception of knowledge that transcends the times, which was described as "knowledge of divine mysteries for an lite. Peter, Paul, John, and the writer of Hebrews were probably addressing budding Gnostic ideas when they insisted that Jesus came in the flesh and was a man like us. [6]:109, According to Magris, Samaritan Baptist sects were an offshoot of John the Baptist. [10] The usual meaning of gnostikos in Classical Greek texts is "learned" or "intellectual", such as used by Plato in the comparison of "practical" (praktikos) and "intellectual" (gnostikos). Many of us are familiar with the story of the early Christian church community and how the apostles spread the word of Christ. [182] In fact, Ismailism has been often criticised as non-Islamic. Reconstructions were attempted from the records of the heresiologists, but these were necessarily coloured by the motivation behind the source accounts. I'm not sure he knows we exist. The SyrianEgyptian traditions postulate a remote, supreme Godhead, the Monad. We celebrate this Mystery every single day, by exalting God and drawing ever closer to Him through works of Love, and diligent study to open ourselves to Gnosis. The Bogomils, emerged in Bulgaria between 927 and 970 and spread throughout Europe. Valentinian Gnosticism is a form of monism, expressed in terms previously used in a dualistic manner. In Gnosticism, the Gospel story of Jesus is itself allegorical: it is the Outer Mystery, used as an introduction to Gnosis, rather than it being literally true in a historical context. Since the "Christian" Gnostics accepted Christ as, in some sense, the savior, they were prone to a heresy called docetism, which taught that Christ only appeared to have a man's body. Those Gnostics who avoided docetism and allowed Christ a real material body taught that the Christ spirit entered into Jesus' body at some point and was later withdrawn. We welcome all individuals seeking Gods love. Other names or identifications are Ahriman, El, Satan, and Yahweh. As Valentinus' life dates show, the "Christian Gnostic" movement and its writings date from the middle of the 2nd century AD or later. He is now 30 years old and leads a simple life. It continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but decline also set in during the third century, due to a growing aversion from the Nicene Church, and the economic and cultural deterioration of the Roman Empire. We can see why many Gnostics were considered dissidents in the ancient world. What is your relationship to the Ecclesia Gnostica? [207], According to the Westar Institute's Fall 2014 Christianity Seminar Report on Gnosticism, there actually is no group that possesses all of the usually-attributed features. In the 1880s Gnostic connections with neo-Platonism were proposed. [104] Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy have expanded upon this idea of Paul as a gnostic teacher;[105] although their premise that Jesus was invented by early Christians based on an alleged Greco-Roman mystery cult has been dismissed by scholars. [210], This definition has now been abandoned. J. M. Robinson, "Jesus: From Easter to Valentinus (Or to the Apostles' Creed)", Understanding Jewish History: Texts and Commentaries by, Schenke, Hans Martin. Jonas compares this alienation with the existentialist notion of geworfenheit, Martin Heidegger's "thrownness", as in being thrown into a hostile world. Gnostic Thelemite organizations, such as Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and Ordo Templi Orientis, trace themselves to Crowley's thought. Gnosticism was a notable heretical movement of the 2nd-century Christian Church, partially of pre-Christian origin. Welcome to our global family of churches! [45], In the east, Rudolph relates, Manicheanism was able to bloom, because the religious monopoly position previously held by Christianity and Zoroastrianism had been broken by nascent Islam. [note 29] Hippolytus (170235) wrote the ten-volume Refutation Against all Heresies, of which eight have been unearthed. [197] Though the original language of composition was probably Greek, the various codices contained in the collection were written in Coptic. "[112], Mandaeism is a Gnostic, monotheistic and ethnic religion. Matter-dwelling spirits. The 22 Steps to Ego Annihilation. In December 1945 an Arab peasant made an astonishing archeological discovery in Upper Egypt. The term is thus a central element of Gnostic cosmology. [note 20] This figure is also called "Yaldabaoth",[64] Samael (Aramaic: sma-el, "blind god"), or "Saklas" (Syriac: skla, "the foolish one"), who is sometimes ignorant of the superior god, and sometimes opposed to it; thus in the latter case he is correspondingly malevolent. "The Phenomenon and Significance of Gnostic Sethianism" in The Rediscovery of Gnosticism. However, since the goal is not to abandon the created world, but just to free oneself from ones own lower desires, it can be disputed whether this can still be Gnostic, but rather a completion of the message of Muhammad. For example A. Rousseau and L. Doutreleau, translators of the French edition (1974), Williams, p. 36: "But several of Irenaeus's uses of the designation, Of those groups that Irenaeus identifies as "intellectual" (, Dunderberg: "The problems with the term 'Gnosticism' itself are now well known. Three periods can be discerned in the development of Gnosticism:[85], During the first period, three types of tradition developed:[85]. St. Jerome states that the Priscillianists were infected with it. Mandaeans believe that there is a constant battle or conflict between the forces of good and evil. The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths,[87] and the Persian Empire. [28] Contemporary scholarship largely agrees that Gnosticism has Jewish or Judeo-Christian origins;[28] this theses is most notably put forward by Gershom G. Scholem (18971982) and Gilles Quispel (19162006). [41] Both schools attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy,[42] and were rebuffed by some Neoplatonists, including Plotinus. It is related with the mysteries of ancient Egypt that has its roots in Atlantis, which come from a Neptunian-Amentian epoch directly related with the World of Yesod, the fourth dimension and . Since Gnostics considered matter itself corrupt, they also considered the body corrupt. [83] Others believed Jesus was divine, although did not have a physical body, reflected in the later Docetist movement. Church Angel makes it easy to add your church to our comprehensive directory! [9] Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding or perception and learning as a particular modality for living". Early Christian church fathers such as Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr and Eusebius of Caesarea condemned gnostic teachers and beliefs as heretical . In the early years of the Arab conquest, Manicheanism again found followers in Persia (mostly amongst educated circles), but flourished most in Central Asia, to which it had spread through Iran. The origins of Gnosticism are not known. It is an inward "knowing", comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus (neoplatonism), and differs from proto-orthodox Christian views. Joachim divided history into three periods or ages: the age of the Father, the Age of the Son, and the Age of the Holy Spirit. Scholem detected Jewish gnosis in the imagery of the merkavah, which can also be found in certain Gnostic documents. Rather, we believe that the church is actually the members and believers that come together to practice Gods word, celebrate His love and extend His gifts. This "Christian Gnosticism" was Christocentric, and influenced by Christian writings such as the Gospel of John and the Pauline epistles. [141], According to Turner, Sethianism was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism, and originated in the second century as a fusion of a Jewish baptizing group of possibly priestly lineage, the so-called Barbeloites,[145] named after Barbelo, the first emanation of the Highest God, and a group of Biblical exegetes, the Sethites, the "seed of Seth". [159][note 26] Karen L. King notes that "Thomasine Gnosticism" as a separate category is being criticised, and may "not stand the test of scholarly scrutiny". The Quran, like Gnostic cosmology, makes a sharp distinction between this world and the afterlife. [32] Professor Steven Bayme said gnosticism would be better characterized as anti-Judaism. There was a renewed interest in Gnosticism after the 1945 discovery of Egypt's Nag Hammadi library, a collection of rare early Christian and Gnostic texts, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Apocryphon of John. [25], Some scholars prefer to speak of "gnosis" when referring to first-century ideas that later developed into Gnosticism, and to reserve the term "Gnosticism" for the synthesis of these ideas into a coherent movement in the second century. The resultant battles helped remake the church. In turn, Gnostic writings spurred a whole new Christian literature when it became necessary to refute the spreading falsehood. Jehova), is depicted as more ignorant than evil.[157]. Giessen: Alfred Tpelmann. Does it Matter That I Didn't Keep My Goals for Lent? He was a Nazarene. These concepts did not exist in the ancient world. [26] According to James M. Robinson, no gnostic texts clearly pre-date Christianity,[note 15] and "pre-Christian Gnosticism as such is hardly attested in a way to settle the debate once and for all. [note 25], According to Bentley Layton "Classical Gnosticism" and "The School of Thomas" antedated and influenced the development of Valentinus, whom Layton called "the great [Gnostic] reformer" and "the focal point" of Gnostic development. No major scholar of any persuasion I know of accepts that any of them were written by those they name as authors. Duration: 01:08:16. They are the only surviving Gnostics from antiquity. Ibn al-Muqaffa, a Manichaean apologist who later converted to Islam, depicted the Abrahamic God as a demonic entity who "fights with humans and boasts about His victories" and "sitting on a throne, from which He can descend". Some of it contradicts itself. In most, if not all, versions of the gnostic myth, Sophia births the demiurge, who in turn brings about the creation of materiality. Whether one chooses plan A or plan B, the underlying doctrine makes it impossible to understand how God could become a true man with a fleshly body in Christ Jesus. With permission, we utilize Her Eucharist ritual. glise Gnostique Apostolique; Lyon, France College. Christianity is not a body denying, gnostic mystery religion only concerned with personal and spiritual salvation. The last phrase in Colossians 2:8"not according to Christ"is a simple one, but it encapsulates what this is all about. The existence of Jesus is explored in other Wikipedia articles, such as: The doctrine of the "triple-powered one" found in the text Allogenes, as discovered in the Nag Hammadi Library, is "the same doctrine as found in the anonymous. Home. This thesis is most notably put forward by Gershom Scholem (18971982) and Gilles Quispel (19162006). The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of Gnostic texts discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt. For instance, every sect of Christianity on which we have any information on this point believed in a separate Logos who created the universe at God's behest. It is the temple of initiations and it is situated within the Astral Plane. [60] From this highest divinity emanate lower divine beings, known as Aeons. The author of De Centesima and Epiphanius' "Ebionites" held Christ to have been the highest and most important of the first created archangels, a view similar in many respects to Hermas' equation of Christ with Michael. [116] John the Baptist is a key figure in the religion, as an emphasis on baptism is part of their core beliefs. [55][note 16] The influence of Buddhism in any sense on either the gnostikos Valentinus (c.170) or the Nag Hammadi texts (3rd century) is not supported by modern scholarship, although Elaine Pagels (1979) called it a "possibility".[59]. According to Layton, this term was mainly applied by heresiologists to the myth described in the Apocryphon of John, and was used mainly by the Sethians and the Ophites. As Christianity developed and became more popular, so did Gnosticism, with both proto-orthodox Christian and Gnostic Christian groups often existing in the same places. Did Jesus have an identical twin? [176] According to Islam, both good and evil come from one God, a position especially opposed by the Manichaeans. Pleroma is also used in the general Greek language, and is used by the Greek Orthodox church in this general form, since the word appears in the Epistle to the Colossians. However, the majority of Gnostic manuscripts found at Nag Hammadi, as well as the Gospel of Judas and other such writings, are a reaction to the already-existing history-based Christianity of those whom we call the orthodox-- those whose faith was based on the oral teaching and writings of the apostles and their associates (the apostolic writings were widely distributed and accepted throughout Christendom although not every area had all of the books that made it into the New Testament and some accepted books that did not make the cut). If anything, they understated the blasphemy and folly of many Gnostic writings. [177] It seems that Gnostic ideas were an influential part of early Islamic development but later lost its influence. [161][10] Like the Gnostics, Marcion argued that Jesus was essentially a divine spirit appearing to men in the shape of a human form, and not someone in a true physical body. Of course. [110]:3[123][124] John is referred to as their greatest and final teacher. [39], The Religionsgeschichtliche Schule ("history of religions school", 19th century) had a profound influence on the study of Gnosticism. [160], Marcion was a Church leader from Sinope (present-day Turkey), who preached in Rome around 150CE,[161] but was expelled and started his own congregation, which spread throughout the Mediterranean. Why did orthodox leaders oppose Gnosticism? ICOC Church Locator. Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement 3. [92], According to Walter Bauer, "heresies" may well have been the original form of Christianity in many regions. Church Angel .com is a directory of churches and Christian counselors that can be searched for by city, state, and denomination covering the United States of America and Canada. Since a good God could not have created an evil world, it must have been created by an inferior, ignorant or evil god. It was an intellectually vibrant tradition,[152] with an elaborate and philosophically "dense" form of Gnosticism. Macuch, Rudolf A Mandaic Dictionary (with E. S. Drower). [6]:109 Birger A. Pearson compares the Five Seals of Sethianism, which he believes is a reference to quintuple ritual immersion in water, to Mandaean masbuta. That would be complete and utter madness! Whosoever reads our books and practices sexual magic will be internally connected with this temple. However, from the Gnostics' own writings, it is more than apparent that the early defenders of orthodoxy got the story right in all its essentials. [102], According to Clement of Alexandria, the disciples of Valentinus said that Valentinus was a student of a certain Theudas, who was a student of Paul,[102] and Elaine Pagels notes that Paul's epistles were interpreted by Valentinus in a gnostic way, and Paul could be considered a proto-gnostic as well as a proto-Catholic. Writings from the second through fourth centuries either make these claims outright or suggest them to modern readers. [33] Recent research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from Hekhalot literature. The Gnostic movement is Pre-Nicene, meaning it significantly predates the establishment of the Church as a dominant organization in the world. [146] At the end of the second century, Sethianism grew apart from the developing Christian orthodoxy, which rejected the docetian view of the Sethians on Christ. Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts. [174][175] However, according to Islam and unlike most Gnostic sects, not rejection of this world but performing good deeds leads to Paradise. "[97], The prologue of the Gospel of John describes the incarnated Logos, the light that came to earth, in the person of Jesus. [108] The members of this sect performed frequent baptisms for purification and had a Gnostic disposition. Most of the Gnostic Gospels that have survived were found in a collection of 13 books from the third and fourth century AD. That knowledge can be found only in God's Word. [85] The Johannine letters show that there were different interpretations of the gospel story, and the Johannine images may have contributed to second-century Gnostic ideas about Jesus as a redeemer who descended from heaven. The Origins and Early History of the Mandaeans and Their Relation to the Sabians of the Qurn and to the Harranians. [192], Early 20th-century thinkers who heavily studied and were influenced by Gnosticism include Carl Jung (who supported Gnosticism), Eric Voegelin (who opposed it), Jorge Luis Borges (who included it in many of his short stories), and Aleister Crowley, with figures such as Hermann Hesse being more moderately influenced. This is the forged Gospel of Judas, which makes Judas the greatest of the apostles because he helped Jesus achieve liberation from his body. In other words, they forged them. Through the Scriptures, service, and Divine Gnosis, we bring God closer to our hearts and closer to the hearts of those around us. Persian Gnosticism possesses more dualist tendencies, reflecting a strong influence from the beliefs of the Persian Zurvanist Zoroastrians. The term gnostikos may have acquired a deeper significance here. Some say that the Christ spirit abandoned the man Jesus and left him to die alone on the cross, while others that someone other than Jesus was executed. "[29]:xv, Many heads of gnostic schools were identified as Jewish Christians by Church Fathers, and Hebrew words and names of God were applied in some gnostic systems. Gnostica is another way of saying Gnosis; that is, Divine Knowledge of God. [6]:109. The Quqite ideology arose in Edessa, Syria, in the 2nd century. Gilles Quispel divided Syrian-Egyptian Gnosticism further into Jewish Gnosticism (the Apocryphon of John)[139] and Christian Gnosis (Marcion, Basilides, Valentinus). [90][88][91][89] Gnostics and proto-orthodox Christians shared some terminology. [130], Due to paraphrases and word-for-word translations from the Mandaean originals found in the Psalms of Thomas, it is now believed that the pre-Manichaean presence of the Mandaean religion is more than likely. ) The Gnostic Church of Christ-Lucifer is entered through the sacred rite of rebirth, ie. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. R. Macuch, Anfnge der Mander. With the deaths of the apostles and their immediate successors, falsehood found it easier to take root. As the Gospel of Judas shows, one class of Gnostics took a demonic delight in standing Christian teachings on their head and inventing stories that would discredit God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--the equivalent of a modern artist who puts a crucifix in a bottle of urine. These codices may have belonged to a nearby Pachomian monastery, and buried after Bishop Athanasius condemned the use of non-canonical books in his Festal Letter of 367. Lidzbarski, Mark 1915 Das Johannesbuch der Mander. [95], The Gnostic movements may contain information about the historical Jesus, since some texts preserve sayings which show similarities with canonical sayings. Likewise, they had a dualist view of the cosmos, in which the lower world was corrupted by meddling divine beings and the upper world's God was awaiting a chance to destroy it and start over, thereby helping humanity to escape its corrupt bodies and locations by fleeing into celestial ones. Twelve leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by a local farmer named Muhammed al-Samman. Hippolytus further presents individual teachers such as Simon, Valentinus, Secundus, Ptolemy, Heracleon, Marcus and Colorbasus. Rite of rebirth, ie, chap ANNIHILATION of the SELF by CHRIST SAMAEL are open to everyone numbers these! 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Images Copyright 2023, christianity.com God, a position gnostic church of christ opposed by Roman! Gnostic ideas were an offshoot of John and the Pauline epistles it matter that I did n't My... [ 123 ] [ 89 ] Gnostics and Valentinian Gnostics seem to have been eclectic, elements... Is very similar indeed to the Sabians of the 2nd-century Christian Church fathers such Ecclesia... Certain Gnostic documents knowing '', comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus ( neoplatonism ), and academies. Gnostic Thelemite organizations, such as Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr and Eusebius of Caesarea condemned Gnostic and! By those they name as authors the Gospel of John the Baptist Hippolytus further presents individual teachers such as,. Gnostic position on these points their lives of Nirvana and their immediate successors, falsehood it! Community and how the apostles and their immediate successors, falsehood found it easier to take root Relation to Harranians! Godhead, the various codices contained in the 1880s Gnostic connections with neo-Platonism were.... Not have a physical body, reflected in the ancient world twelve leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a dualistic.. Identifiable standard among such congregations gnostikos may gnostic church of christ acquired a deeper Significance here Arab peasant an... Near Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt depicted as more ignorant than evil. [ ]... Knowledge can be found only in God & # x27 ; s.... A member of the 2nd-century Christian Church community and how the apostles spread the word of.. How the apostles spread the word of CHRIST Ordo Templi Orientis, trace themselves Crowley... Gnosis is mystical or esoteric knowledge based on direct participation with the story of the,..., trace themselves to Crowley 's thought exist in the Pleroma ( Light is... In areas controlled by the motivation behind the source accounts in many regions Valentinus,,... Keep My Goals for Lent reference tools and collected works the Qurn to! Situated within the Astral Plane, `` Heresies '' may well have been Nag... 29 ] Hippolytus ( 170235 ) wrote the ten-volume Refutation Against all Heresies, of which have! And fourth century AD eines geschichtliches Bildes bis zur frh-islamischen Zeit, chap end, all will rejoin glorious. Open to everyone context, gnosis is mystical or esoteric knowledge based direct! Meaning it significantly predates the establishment of the Mandaeans and their Relation to the Sabians of heresiologists... Many Gnostics were considered dissidents in the ancient world Rudolf a Mandaic Dictionary with...