Gnosticism, << NOS tuh sihz uhm, >> was a religious and philosophical movement in Europe and the Middle East that flourished from about the A.D. 100’s to the 700’s. There were many Christian and non-Christian Gnostic sects. However, they all believed they had secret knowledge about the nature of the universe and the origin and destiny of humanity.
Gnostics believed that people could attain salvation only by acquiring gnosis, a Greek word meaning knowledge. Most Gnostics believed in an unknown and remote Supreme Being. An evil and subordinate supernatural being called the Demiurge created the world, which was ruled by evil spirits. Gnostics generally taught that selected individuals had a divine spark imprisoned in their material body. Through gnosis, that divine spark would be liberated from the basically evil world and united with the Supreme Being.
Most Christian Gnostics believed that Jesus was a divine messenger who brought gnosis to ordinary Christians. They claimed Jesus only inhabited a human body temporarily. They thus denied His death on the cross and Resurrection as described in the New Testament.
Many philosophies and religions of the ancient world contributed to the origin of Gnosticism. Such early Christian leaders as Saint Irenaeus attacked the movement for heresy. These attacks stressed the pagan elements in Gnosticism and the Gnostics’ unorthodox views about the nature of Jesus.
