Gnosticism 1 2 3 4 Discovery in Nag

Gnosticism 1. 2. 3. 4. Discovery in Nag Hammadi Gnosticism: main features Valentinus & his system Modern Gnostics

Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library • Discovered in 1945 in a jar in Egypt • 12 codices containing 52 writings • Major source of Gnostic texts Coptic Museum in Cairo

Main Features of Gnosticism 1. Intricate and obscure cosmology. 2. Syncretism: blending various religious world-views. 3. Fundamental questions of human existence. 4. Gnosis: secret knowledge as means of attaining salvation. 5. Dualism: spiritual/ material; soul/ body. 6. Docetic christology (some Gnostics). 7. Sense of non-belonging to the world. 8. Ethics: world-denying asceticism or extreme libertinism. 9. Three groups: spiritual (initiated Gnostics); psychic (ordinary believers); fleshy (unbelievers, those who will perish).

• Ungenerated Father (= Profundity= first aeon) • Sophia (= Wisdom = Mother) gave birth outside of the Pleroma to the imperfect creator (= Demiurge = Craftsman = Yaldabaoth) Valentinian ‘Pleroma’ = Fullness (see ANF 31, pp. 198 -201) 30 divine beings called aeons

Seminar. Ptolemy’s letter to Flora. • Study questions: • 1. Identify the two positions against which the author’s argument is directed (par. 1 -2)? • 2. To what sources does the author attribute the Law? What theological rationale does he offer for his attribution. • 3. What subdivisions does the author propose for the Law of God [the Demiurg]? • 4. According to Ptolemy, what is the relationship between the God of the Law and God the Father of Jesus? • 5. Do you agree with the author’s view of the Old Testament?

Gnosticism today • Christian science • New Age movements • Neo-Pagan religions