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Naassenes
(1,719 words)
The Naassenes were adherents of a 2nd-century Gnostic sect that is only known through an extensive report by Hippolytus,
…
Borborites
(1,708 words)
The Borborites or Borborians were adherents of a Gnostic sect that flourished in the 4th century and reportedly continued its existence at least until the 6th century. Epiphanius of Salamis, who has left us an extensive report on the Borborites (
Panarion, 26), says that they were influenced by the teachings of the → Nicolaitans (
Pan., 26, 1, 3), who are discussed in
…
Menander
(714 words)
Menander, ca. 80 According to the Christian heresiologists, Menander was an early Gnostic [→ Gnosticism] magician and teacher, a pupil of → Simon Magus. He came from Capparetaea in Samaria and worked in Antioch, where he, ‘inspired by the demons, deceived many by his tricks of magic’. Justin Martyr (ca. 150), our first source about Menander, to whom we owe this information, adds that ‘he even convinced his followers that they would never die, and there are some alive today who, inspired by him, still believe this’ (
…
Hermetic Literature
(48,072 words)
Hermetic Literature I: Antiquity 1. Introduction The literary works attributed to → Hermes Trismegistus reflect the various activities he was thought to have deployed. In accordance with his function as a teacher of → magic, → astrology, → alchemy
Satornilus
(715 words)
Satornilus, ca. 120 Satornilus (Gr. Satorneilos, in Lat. sources Saturninus) was a Christian Gnostic [→ Gnosticism] active in Antioch. Our knowledge of Satornilus derives almost exclusively from the information provided by Irenaeus of Lyons in his
Adversus Haereses I, 24, 1-2 (ca.180). According to Irenaeus and other anti-Gnostic writers Satornilus was a pupil of → Menander, but this view is based more on the assumption of a Gnostic “genealogy” than on a correspondence between their essential doctrines. He taught that there existed…
Clement of Alexandria
(1,372 words)
Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), † before 215 Clement was a Christian teacher who worked in Alexandria and left us some important writings, but about whose life only little is known. He was born in a pagan family, probably in Athens. After his conversion he studied with Christian teachers in Greece, Southern Italy, Syria and Palestine, and finally settled in Alexandria (ca. 180), where he became a pupil of Pantaenus, a non-Gnostic Christian teacher. According to Eusebius,
…
Prodicus
(957 words)
Prodicus, 2nd cent. Prodicus was a Gnostic teacher [→ Gnosticism] of whose life nothing is known. → Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian, who are our primary sources (both about 200 A.D.), almost exclusively speak about the ‘followers of Prodicus’, and when they mention his name it is only as the representative of the movement that was called after him. This might be an ind…
Monoimus
(848 words)
Monoimus,, 2nd cent. Monoimus was a Gnostic teacher [→ Gnosticism] of whose life and career nothing is known. Hippolytus (ca. 230), who has left us a summary of his teachings, including a fragment of one of his letters (
Refutatio, VIII, 12-15; X, 17, 5) calls him ‘the Arab’, which means that he came from the Roman province of Arabia. According to Monoimus, there is a twofold principle of the All, Man and the Son of Man, of whom the former is unborn and immortal and the latter born, albeit independently of time, will…
Elchasai/Elxai
(1,806 words)
Elchasai/Elxai, ca. 100 According to Early Christian and Manichaean sources, Elchasai or Elxai was the founder of the sect of the Elkesaites and the recipient of a book of revelation. The main Christian sources about Elchasai are Hippolytus of Rome, who speaks of “Elchasai”, and, independently, Epiphanius of Salamis, who always calls him “Elxai”. Additional information comes from the Cologne Mani Codex and the Arabic writer Ibn an-Nadim. According to Epiphanius,
Panarion 19, 2, 2, the name Elchasai means “Hidden Power” (Aramaic:
ḥail kesai…
Gnosticism
(24,815 words)
Gnosticism I: Gnostic Religion 1. The Problem of Definition The term “Gnosticism” is a scholarly invention, coined by the Cambridge Platonist → Henry More (1614-1687), who used it in a pejorative sense (Layton 1995). In Antiquity, the religious phenomenon it designates was simply called “Gnosis” (Gr.
gnōsis, “knowledge”) or, by its opponents, “the Gnosis falsely so called” (already in 1 Timothy 6:20). In this connection, the word Gnosis does not refer to rational, philosophical knowledge, but to religious, spiritual insight, based on revela…
Justin the Gnostic
(1,442 words)
Justin the Gnostic, 2nd cent. Justin was a 2nd-century Gnostic of whose life nothing is known, but whose ideas have been preserved in a rather extensive report by Hippolytus,
Refutatio V, 23-27 (summary in X, 15, 1-7). Hippolytus' report was based on Justin's most famous book, called
…
Hermetism
(10,432 words)
1. The Unity of the Universe The term “Hermetism” is used here to indicate the specific religious worldview of the so-called philosophical Hermetica [→ Hermetic Literature I]. Its most characteristic feature is the idea of an indissoluble interrelationship between God, the cosmos and man, which implies the unity of the universe. Its final aim is to lead its adepts to the worship of the supreme God as the source of being and eventually to union with him. However, the hermetic writings show a great divergence with respect to the philosophical and religious ideas that were used to argue in favour of these fundamental tenets. Hermetism never knew a coherent doctrinal system, as will become abundantly clear from th…
Cerinthus
(1,402 words)
Cerinthus, ca. 100 Cerinthus was a Christian teacher who lived in Asia Minor at the end of the first or the beginning of the 2nd century. The reports about his teaching are contradictory, and as a result modern scholars have described him either as an early Gnostic [→ Gnosticism] or as a primitive Christian who had been strongly influenced by Judaeo-Christian ideas. Cerinthus appears as an arch-heretic in the first document that mentions his name, the so-called
Epistula apostolorum, which was written ca. 150, most probably in Asia Minor. It claims to have been composed ‘because of the false apostles Simon and Cerinthus’ (1), who are ‘enemies of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in reality alienate those who believe in the true word and deed, namely Jesus Christ’ (7). That Cerinthus is mentioned here together with → Simon Magus does not necessarily imply that Cerinthus was considered a Gnostic too. But that h…
Simon Magus
(3,418 words)
Magus, Simon, ca. 50 1. Introduction Simon was a Samaritan magician who lived in the first half of the 1st century A.D. and is first mentioned in the biblical book of Acts (8:9-25). The early Christian anti-heretical writers considered him the founding father of → Gnosticism, the arch-heretic, ‘from whom all heresies derived’ (Irenaeus,
Adversus haereses I, 23, 2). The various and sometimes contradictory traditions about his vicissitudes and teachings make him an elusive and legendary figure. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries there were Gnostics who call…
Aristides
(355 words)
[German Version] (“the philosopher,” 2nd cent. ce, from Athens) was the author of a Christian apology, reckoned by Eusebius (
Hist. eccl. IV 3.3) to be among the oldest. The structure and contents of the work must be reconstructed from a Syriac translation (S; 4th cent.), two Greek papyrus fragments (4th cent.), Greek excerpts in chs. 26f. of the early-Byzantine novella “Barlaam and Ioasaph (Josaphat)” (GB…
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Religion Past and Present