Chapter I - PHILO BETWEEN JEWISH ORTHODOXY AND HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY

Philo was a Jew who lived in Alexandria between ca. 20 B.C. and A.D. 50. As a philosopher he tried to reconcile Jewish orthodoxy and Hellenistic philosophy, with the Jewish faith usually on the losing side. What he wanted was to make Judaism acceptable to pagans. He described God in the terms of Hellenistic philosophy, not in the personal terms of the Old Testament. God was to him immutable Being. In § 8 I called him an `unbiblical prophet'. Philo evidently abhorred the material wordl; there is a marked distance between God and his creation. He takes a low idea of women. Knowledge and wisdom are essential, not faith. In many respects this Jewish philosopher comes close to the Gnosis. (Length of this chapter, with notes, = 44 pp.)

Chapter II - HERMETIC SECRETS

There is a body of writings, which are called `hermetic', after the divinity Hermes Tresmegistos. For many people at the end of the era B.C. the Olympian had ceased to be important. They wanted a more individual, personal form of religion. The great trole was now played by the Egyptian god Toth, whom the Greeks called Hermes, a god of mysterious and redemptive wisdom. The texts described in this chapter, the Poimandres and the World Girl, are sometimes, not always, pessimistic and even dualistic, and often come close to the Gnosis. (Length of this chapter, with notes, = 39 pp.)

Chapter III - A LIBRARY IN A JAR

This chapter relates the fascinating story of the discovery, the subsequent vicissitudes, and the composition of the Gnostic library, found in Nag Hammadi in Egypt in December 1945. (Length of this chapter, with notes, = 8 pp.)

Chapter IV - SETH`S PROGENY

The Sethians formed a wide-spread, Egypt-based Gnostic sect of the first centuries A.D. They consider Adam's and Eve`s third son Seth as their ancestor. This sect displays the usual dualism of the lower and higher worlds. There is a divine Redeemer, who is not Jesus, but Derdekeas. The lower world is pictured in the darkest of terms; there is no good in it. According to one important text, mankind has dark and chaotic origin. According to another, in every man there is a spark of the divine light, bad though man may be. There is no original sin. That things went wrong is the fault of the world-maker, the Demiurge (who is not the supreme godhead, who does not occupy himself with the creation and with mankind).

The Sethians are inimical to Judaism and the Old and New Testaments. The soul, not the body, may ascend to the higher world by means of the Knowledge, which is only sparsely imparted to human persons. The majority, together with the world, is doomed. (Length of his chapter, with notes, = 47 pp.)

Chapter V - THE SERPENT AND ITS RETINUE : THE OPHITES AND RELATED SECTS

The patron of the Ophite sect is the snake, an animal that is supposed to be possessed of a supernatural Knowledge. Their ideology has strong sexual overtones. The divine Light follows a downward course, until is finally becomes uncapsulated in matter, from which it wants to escape. In this it succeeds, but during her return it has to shed every trace of matter. It is impossible to shortly describe the complicated mythology of the Ophites: suffices it to say that there is fight between Light and Darkness, between Good and Evil. There is a Christ, a divine Redeemer, but he is not Jesus of Nazareth.

The Ophites and the sects related to it, the Ophians, the Cainites, and the Archontics, are all plainly dualistic. The Cainites revered Cain as their idol. (Length of this chapter, with notes, = 46 pp.)

Chapter VI - THOSE OF BARBELO

Fundamentally all Gnostic sects may be based on the same tenets, but they differ very much from each other in their ideologies; sometimes they even combated one another. In Barbelo-Gnosis there is, as in all sects, a primal godhead, who is unapproachable. The creational work is done by a female entity, Barbelo. From her Christ emanated, who, once again, is not Jesus of Nazareth. Christ brings forth the first Man, who is not the biblical Adam, but Adamas. To him the power of Knowledge is given. As always, this Knowledge is the key to the higher world. Yet there is also a Demiurge, who is responsible for the Evil in the cosmos. The created world is utterly bad. Although almost all Gnostic sects are ascetic, vegetarian, and anti-sexual, the Barbelo sect was infamous for its libertinism. (Length of this chapter, with notes, = 31 pp.)

Chapter VII - THE BASILIDIANS

The founder of this important and numerous sect was probably a Palestinian or a Syrian, who lived around A.D, 130/140. Two Fathers of the Church, Irenaeus and Hippolytus, present descriptions of his ideology, which differ from eachother. But both are plainly dualistic. The supreme godhead did not make the world, there are two worlds, the lower one is utterly deficient. The lower world is made by an evil-intentioned Demiurge. Fortunately, but only for the happy few, there is a Gospel, which, however, does not bear the slightest resemblance to the Gospels of the New Testament. This Gospel is the source of an illuminating and redeeming Knowledge. (Length of this chapter, with notes, = 23 pp.)

Chapter VIII - THE VALENTINIANS

Valentinus, the founder of yet another important sect, lived around A.D. 100, in all probalitity in Egypt. He was a very intelligent man, who attempted to make a coherent body out of the fragmented Gnostic ideologies. As in all other sects, the supreme godhead, the Father, is incomprehensible and ineffable. From him the Son, the Logos, who is Christ, emanates. From the Logos-Son supernatural entities emanate, the aeons.

The lower world has its own father, the Demiurge, who created matter, and, as in all Gnostic systems, matter is bad. He made bodies, human bodies, in which he enclosed the divine spark of light. There is a divine Saviour, called Christ, who descended into the body of Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus received the Knowledge at the moment of his baptism in the Jordan. (Length of this chapter, with notes, = 66 pp.)

Chapter IX - GNOSTIC POLEMICS AGAINST JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY

The Gnostics were strongly anti-Christian and anti-Judaism. They denigrated and vilified Judaism and the Bible often in the most insulting terms. (Length of this chapter, with notes, = 6 pp.)

This volume contains fifteen graphs of Gnostic systems, a Bibliography and a General Index. It is impossible to do justice in these short summaries the full extent and significance of the Gnostic systems, with all their variations and different versions.

Published in 1993 by J.C. Gieben, Publisher.
ISBN 90 5063 093 6