Gnosticism

In Gnosticism, the content of gnosis , secret knowledge, is precisely a person’s awareness of his divinity, and gaining gnosis in itself is salvation ^[1] .

Basic terminology

Aeons

In Gnosticism, Valentine has a central place in the concept of self-generated aeons. In the beginning was the Origin, from which the Mind (Only Begotten) and Truth descend, from the Mind the Logos and Life came, and from those the first Man. Aeons form gender pairs and multiply. Their number reaches 30, and the totality is called the Pleroma . Our world is connected with the activities of the aeon-angels of the Demiurge and Achamoth . The source of knowledge about the eons is the epistle of the Apostle Paul ( Eph. 3:21 - in the Slavic translation: “century”) ^[4] .

Aeon is also identified with the penis of Kronos ^[5] . The image is found in Heraclitus (fr. 93 Markovich), who calls him "a playing child on the throne."

Archons

In Gnosticism: perfume world rulers. In Gnostic representations, archons are considered as creators of the material cosmos, and at the same time, systems of drives and emotions that make a person a slave of matter .

Abraxas

Abraxas or, in an earlier form, Abrasax is a Gnostic cosmological deity, the Supreme head of Heaven and Aeon, personifying the unity of World Time and Space. In the Vasilida system, the name "Abraxas" has a mystical meaning, since the sum of the numerical values ​​of the seven Greek letters of this word gives 365 - the number of days in a year.

Abraxas was depicted in ancient Indian, Persian, Egyptian art, on ancient gems in the form of a creature with a human body, the head of a rooster and snakes instead of legs. In one hand he holds a knife or a whip, in the other - a shield on which the name Yah is inscribed (Egypt. Jah is a prayer exclamation that in the Eleusinian Mysteries has turned into the name of the deity of the Sun).

Other emanations of this deity are Mind, Word, Wisdom, Strength. It is believed that Abraxas owes its origin to the most ancient images of the serpent, dragon.

Demiurge

Demiurge (dr. Greek. Δημιουργός - "master, artisan, creator" from dr. Greek. Δςμος - "people" and ἔργον - "business, craft, craft"). The first in this meaning was used by Plato. In Gnosticism, the Demiurge is one of the key figures. The right hand of the creator of immortal souls, unable to understand love. He seeks to show what a better world can create than the First God.

The demiurge creates matter and encloses souls in material bodies. Its incompleteness is considered the cause of all the troubles and imperfections of the world.

The imperfect spirit-creator of the world, the "evil" principle, in contrast to God, the "good" principle. In the Gnostic texts, both the early ones (Apocryphon of John) and later ones (Pistis Sophia) was designated by the name Yaldabaoth (Ialdabaof); descended from the aeon of Sofia , who desired to create without the spiritual half, which led to the appearance of the Demiurge. Described as a vicious, ignorant, limited demon, one of the epithets of which was “Saklas” (“stupid”, “fool”). Yaldabaoth, according to the Apocrypha of John, became a god over matter, created angels and authorities, together with them created a human body from matter in the likeness of the divine eon of Man, which was much higher than matter.

In the Gnostic teachings, the Demiurge was perceived as an “evil god” who created an imperfect and sinful material world. As a rule, it was identified with the Old Testament Yahweh , sometimes with Satan.

Gnosis

Special spiritual knowledge and knowledge, available only to the consciousness of the enlightened.

Pleroma

Pleroma - a set of celestial spiritual beings (eons). According to the Gnostics, Jesus Christ was an Aeon who transmitted secret knowledge (gnosis) to people so that they could reunite with the Pleroma.

Sofia

Main Features of Gnostic Esoteric Teachings

The Gnostics believed that they had sacred knowledge about God , humanity, and the rest of the universe , which the rest did not own; the belief that salvation is achieved through intuitively comprehended Knowledge.

Also to the features of Gnosticism include:

• The idea of ​​the pleroma , known mainly from the texts of the followers of Valentine ^[6] .
• the concept of the Demiurge ^[7] . The demiurge is the creator of the material Universe, which is controlled by his servants - Archons .
• Doketism is the doctrine of the illusory nature of matter. The Gnostics went even further than ancient skepticism and their “doctrine of the pure appearance of matter is not skeptical, but absolutely dogmatic in its denial of the existence of matter” ^[8] . A. F. Losev called the Gnostic docetism "the destruction of ancient thought" ^[8] .

Common to Gnostic systems is dualism (the opposition of spirit and matter). The basis of the Gnostic myth was the idea that the world is in evil and this evil could in no way be created by God. It followed that the world was created either by evil or limited in its power power, which the Gnostics call the Demiurge (the Gnostic Demiurge has nothing to do with the Demiurge (artisan god) of Plato ), and the Supreme God lives in a non-heavenly area, but out of compassion for he directs humanity to the people of his messenger (or messengers) to teach them how to free themselves from the power of the Demiurge. Also at the heart of belief systems is the reconciliation and reunion of deity and the world, absolute and relative being, infinite and finite. The Gnostic worldview differs from all pre-Christian philosophy by the presence in it of the idea of ​​a definite and uniform expedient world process. The life of the material world is based only on a chaotic mixture of heterogeneous elements ( Greek σύγχυσις ἀρχική ), and the meaning of the world process consists only in the separation ( Greek διάκρισις ), in returning each to its own sphere.

The world is not saved - it is saved (that is, it returns to the realm of divine, absolute being) only a spiritual element that is inherent only to some people (pneumatics), originally and by nature belonging to a higher sphere.

There was also a libertinist trend in Gnosticism ^[9] , which A. F. Losev considered (along with Doketism ) “a monstrous symbol of all the ancient philosophical and aesthetic death” ^[8] . The aim of the Gnostics was to achieve knowledge, but since knowledge about things is not a thing at all, therefore, one who possesses knowledge is thereby free from submission to things, and therefore, from submission to any prohibitions - that including social and moral . Some Christian sources claimed about the debauchery among some Gnostics, while John Chrysostom wrote about the Gnostics: “ Although the efforts on virginity are the same with us and heretics, but maybe they have much more, but the fruit of these works is not the same: for bonds (tears), sorrows and eternal torment (they are being prepared), and for us - the fate of the angel, the brilliant lamps and the most important of all blessings - communication with the Bridegroom ... neither Marcion , nor Valentin , nor Manes kept within (limits) of such moderation; for it was not Christ who spared His sheep and laid down His life for them, but a murderer, the father of lies (John 10:11; 8:44). Therefore, they destroyed all those who believed them, here burdening them with useless and unbearable labors, and there they carried them along with them into the fire prepared for them ” ^[10] .

The "Chosen" Perfect Gnostic Living in an "Illusory World" of Secret Knowledge

In the world, according to the Gnostics, particles of otherworldly light are scattered, which must be collected and returned to their origins. Redeemers are enlightened forces who know the secret meaning of being, first of all Christ, but only “spiritual” people (“pneumatics”) follow their call, while “spiritual” people (“psyche”) who have not accepted the Gnostic initiation reach the true “cognition” only “faith”, and “carnal” people (“somatics”) generally do not go beyond the sensory sphere .

Gnosticism is based on the doctrine of the illusory nature of matter. The Gnostics went even further than ancient skepticism and their "doctrine of the pure appearance of matter is not skeptical, but absolutely dogmatic in its denial of the existence of matter." Gnosticism is characterized by the idea of ​​the steps, or spheres, of the world and their demonic rulers that impede redemption.

Thus a perfect “Gnostic” arises, as a person who has detached himself from the world, owns a spirit, lives in God and prepares for eternity. The rest of the people are “geeks”. But there are outstanding teachers (Valentin’s schools) that distinguish “geeks” from “psyche”, calling the last people who live by law and faith, for whom the faith of the community is sufficient and necessary. The center of gravity of the Gnostic systems was not in the changing, unreliably known to us details, but in their purpose and basic assumptions. Higher speculation was communicated only at the end and, obviously, not to all; about the various levels of teaching can be concluded from a letter from Ptolemy to Flora ^[11] .

Gnostic Magic

A magic hermetic prayer-spell is known for invoking creatures from the spirit world (it describes a number of principles and creatures borrowed by the Gnostics) with a note: “When God comes, look down and write down what he said and the name that he will give you. And he will not leave your tent until he tells you in detail what concerns you as well ” ^[12] .

Hellenic Origins

The philosophy of Gnosticism is associated with the ancient philosophical schools ( Hermetism , Orphism , Pythagoreanism , Platonism , Neoplatonism ). Of course, the role of the interpenetration of philosophies and religions of the West and East ^[13] as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great (long before the birth of Christianity ) is also important.

The ideas of pre-Christian Gnostics are based on "a complex of specific interpretations of reality, claiming a secret character and confirmed by special psycho-spiritual practices." Adept perceived himself already at a higher stage of personality, initiated into the secrets of a society or teaching, open only to the elect.

Orthism is also the forerunner of this esotericism - a mystical doctrine in ancient Greece and Thrace , associated with the name of the mythical poet and singer Orpheus . The Eleusinian mysteries are more studied, in which the creed, rituals, cult actions were kept secret from the uninitiated, and the initiation united man with God, up to immortality and possession of divine power in the other world. According to some sources, Plato was consecrated to the Eleusinian mysteries, which affected the nature of his philosophizing, since he did not directly have the right to speak under pain of death.

Ancient Egyptian Origins

In Egypt, pre-Christian Gnosticism was seriously influenced by the cult of Isis and the mysteries associated with it. The most solemn and magical were, without a doubt, those that were performed in Egypt by a "group of keepers of secrets."

Maurice ^{[ who? ]} very clearly describes their nature in several lines. Speaking of the Mysteries played out on Philae (an island on the Nile), he says: “It was in these gloomy caves that the secrets of the goddess (Isis) were revealed to the worshiping disciple when the solemn hymn of initiation floated, reflected in long strings of stone niches” .

The emergence of Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a product of the great syncretic movement in the Roman Empire (the rudiments of the movement even before it were the short-lived empire of Alexander the Great , connecting East and West ^[13] ), which began as a result of the transition of religion from one nation to another, due to the contact of the east (ancient Babylonian religion) with the west and due to the influence of Greek philosophy on religion ^[11] .

The writings of the Gnostics have come to us mainly in the form of separate quotes cited in the writings of Christian theologians who fought against Gnosticism. The first known Gnostic is Simon the Magus of Samaria , mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles . Gnostic tendencies reach their highest development in the II century.

In addition to the influence of Judaism and the Eastern religious mysteries, Gnosticism is characterized by the assimilation of a number of ideas of late antique philosophy, mainly Platonism and Neo-Pythagoreanism. Gnosticism is based on the idea of ​​the soul falling into the lower, material world, created by the demiurge - the lower deity. In the dualistic mysticism of Gnosticism, matter is considered as a sinful and evil principle, hostile to God and subject to overcoming. Particles of otherworldly light are scattered in the world, which must be collected and returned to their origins.

The Redeemer is primarily Christ (however, there are such Gnostic schemes in which he is absent), but only “spiritual” people (“pneumatics”) follow his call, while “spiritual” people (“psyche”) who have not accepted the Gnostic initiation, instead true “knowledge” is achieved only by “faith”, and “carnal” people (“somatics”) do not go beyond the sensory sphere at all. As A.F. Losev noted, "Gnosticism is characterized by the idea of ​​the steps, or spheres, of the world and their demonic rulers that impede redemption."

The Influence of Gnosticism

The development of Gnosticism at the beginning of our era received:

• in religious philosophy (many ideas of Gnosticism are widespread in Neoplatonism and neo-Pythagoreanism , etc.);
• in religions (in Manichaeism , in various heresies in Christianity, modern mendism , etc.);
• in occultism, and in mysticism, etc.

Its easy penetration into any nearby religions is justified (that is, supra-religiosity, since Gnostic teachings have successfully borrowed the main ritual forms and mythological images of neighboring religions). However, this does not mean that Gnosticism should be regarded as a religion that has a positive attitude towards all other creeds. It is important to understand that Gnosticism as a phenomenon is heterogeneous, and if Egyptian Gnosticism saw in the Demiurge only a limited God, who in itself is not evil, then Chaldean Gnosticism held the opposite opinion. So Gnosticism characteristic of Simon Magus and Menander presents this world as a malicious creation of the evil God, which is directly related to the Jewish Yahweh. Thus, we can argue about the harsh rejection by the Chaldean Gnostics of the Jewish religion as a form of worship of the evil God ^[14] .

At the same time, Gnosticism also claimed to be a "higher", dominant religion over all existing religions and philosophical movements. Именно это устремление гностицизма переросло в отпочкование манихейства из недр Гносиса в более распространившуюся сформировавшуюся религию.

Гностицизм I—III века, конкурировавший с ранним христианством

• Каиниты
• последователи магии и учения Симона Волхва , современника апостолов
• Докеты
• Николаиты

Сиро-халдейский гностицизм

Персидский гностицизм

В начале III века гностические системы начинают терять своё значение. На смену им является новое еретическое учение, по началам сходное с гностицизмом, но отличающееся от него тем, что, при полнейшем отсутствии идей греческой философии и учения иудаизма , оно представляет собой смесь христианства с началами религии Зороастра.

• Мандеи — название происходит от арамейского «знание». Основана в II веке н. e. Представители этого течения считали себя последователями Иоанна Крестителя . До сих пор существуют небольшие группы мандеев в южном Ираке (ок. 60 тыс. чел.), а также в иранской провинции Хузистан .
• Манихейство — составленное из вавилонско - халдейских , иудейских , христианских , иранских ( зороастризм ) гностических представлений синкретическое религиозное учение перса Мани ( III век ).

Поздний гностицизм

• Офиты
• Борбориты
• Каиниты
• Сифиане
• Евтихий (ересиарх)
• Павликиане
• Тондракийцы
• Богомилы
• Катары
• Каббала
• Теософское общество

Проблема интерпретации теоретиков гностицизма

Маркион

По мнению Г. Йонаса ^[15] , несмотря на полемику отцов церкви, Маркион не может быть с полной уверенностью причислен к гностикам, как Василид и Валентин , чей гностицизм бесспорен, ибо:

• им руководили не метафизические и не апологетические, а чисто сотериологические интересы;
• он ради этого придавал главное значение чистому Евангелию и вере (а не познанию);
• он для своего понимания христианства не использовал философию — это был, по крайней мере, его принцип;
• он старался не основывать школы знающих (не было тайного учения), а преобразовывать соответственно Евангелию ап. Павла все общины, христианство которых он признавал законническим (иудействующим) и исключающим свободную благодать (у Маркиона не было различия между пневматиками и гиликами: Евангелие для всех, а не тайное знание) ^[16] .

Маркион, в отличие от гностиков, признавал Спасение верой, а не знанием и признавал буквальное, а не аллегорическое толкование Библии .

Исторических памятников, отражающих картину дохристианского гностицизма, сохранилось немного. В основном это отрывки космогоний и гимнов из мистических культов, а также гермесианская литература. Определить время происхождения этих документов очень сложно так как многие из них подверглись разным наслоениям, особенно трактаты герметики ^[17] .

Более 40 арабских, а также латинских трактатов I века, содержавших платоническо-пифагорейские элементы учения и мистические взгляды на гносеологическую теорию возникновения мира и сотериологию (учение о спасении), в частности заимствованные из работ Поседония . Авторство герметических трудов приписывалось Гермесу Трисмегисту , греческому богу наук и покровителю магии, который считался посредником между богами и человеком ^[17] .

Терапевты

Терапевты ^[18] представляют собой своего рода монашеские общины, ведущие аскетический образ жизни и состоящие в основном из евреев египетской диаспоры. Жили терапевты уединённо недалеко от Александрии. Вся информация, которой мы располагаем, исходит от Филона Александрийского, из его трактата «О созерцательной жизни» ^[19] .

Терапевты посвящали себя созерцательной и благочестивой жизни, они отрицали всякую собственность и жили уединённо в пустыне, проводя время в изучении Св. Писания и посте. В толковании Ветхого Завета у них доминировал аллегорический подход. Тору они уподобляли живому существу, телом которого были буквальные предписания, а душу составлял невидимый смысл, скрытый в словах. По всей видимости, основное содержание их деятельности сводилось к синкретическому примирению иудаизма и эллинистической мысли, при помощи аллегорического толкования. Они отличались воздержанием от семейной жизни и строгим аскетизмом.

Ессеи

Сведения о ессеях (с конца II века до н. э. по конец I века) мы встречаем у Филона , Иосифа Флавия и Плиния Младшего .

Все источники по ессейству в основном согласны между собой в основных характеристиках этого движения. Ессейские общины строились отчасти на иудейской основе. В то же время многие из их особенностей нельзя вывести из чистого иудейства. Почитание солнца, чрезмерный аскетизм и безбрачие, знание тайных имён ангелов, мистерии посвящения и трапез, особые омовения, отрицание помазания маслом, иерархическая четырёхступенчатая структура, дуалистический взгляд на человеческую природу, выделение особых людей, выполняющих роль медиумов для предсказания будущего, отрицание рабства и принесения клятв, — все это и многое другое никак не вытекает из иудейских воззрений и социально-религиозной структуры еврейской жизни.

Внешнее влияние очевидно, хотя какое влияние — неопифагорейство, средний платонизм или парсизм , — было доминирующим, судить затруднительно. Однако, гностический характер наглядно представлен, во-первых, религиозной сотериологической направленностью ессейства, во-вторых, дуалистической антропологией и исходящим из неё аскетизма , иерархическим устройством общины, особым сроком послушничества, специальными обетами при поступлении и т. д. По всей видимости, вероучение ессеев отражалось в особых тайных книгах.

The Gnostic anthem, associated by researchers with Isis, found in the Nag Hammadi library under the name “Thunder, a perfect mind”: “May there be no one who knows me nowhere and never! Beware, do not be not knowing me! For I am the first and the last. I am revered and despised. I am a harlot and a saint. I am a wife and a maid. I am a mother and daughter. I am members of my mother’s body. I am infertility, and there are many of her sons. I am the one whose marriages are many, and I have not been married. I am facilitating childbirth and the one that did not give birth. I am comforting in my birth pangs. I am newlywed and newlywed. And my husband is the one who gave birth to me. I am the mother of my father and the sister of my husband, and he is my offspring. "

Until the middle of the 20th century, Gnostics were known only from the writings of the Church Fathers , and above all - Irenaeus of Lyons , Tertullian , Hippolytus and Epiphanius . Only in 1945 a whole library of Coptic Gnostic texts was discovered, which was found in a large clay vessel, buried in a field near Nag Hammadi ( Nag Hammadi Library ) in Egypt (about 500 km south of Cairo, 80 km northwest of Luxor).

Sources

• Gnostic writings
  • Mendean texts
  • Texts of the Valentinian school in the Coptic language :
  • Nag Hammadi Library , from Upper Egypt
  • Manichaean Papyrus
  • Scrolls of the Dead Sea
• Polemic writings of the Church Fathers
  • Justin Philosopher Syntagma
  • Irenaeus of Lyons Against Heresies
  • Hippolytus of Rome Refutation of all heresies
  • Clement of Alexandria Stromats
  • Epiphanius the Cyprus Panarion
  • Aurelius Augustine On heresies
  • John of Damascus Source of Knowledge
  • Tertullian On the challenge of heretics

in Russian

• Afonasin E.V. Gnosis. Fragments and evidence. - St. Petersburg: Publishing House of St. Petersburg University , 2008. - 318 p.
• Gaidenko P. P. Temptation by dialectics: pantheistic and Gnostic motifs by Hegel and Vl. Solovieva // Questions of philosophy . - 1998. - No. 4. - S.75-93.
• Gnosticism // Collier's Encyclopedia . - M.: Open Society , 2000.
• Dyakov A.V. Gnosticism and Russian philosophy. The experience of historical and philosophical analysis. - M.: Publishing House of the RSUU "Union", 2003. - 328 p.
• Jonas G. Gnosticism. (Gnostic religion) . - Jonas H. The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958 - St. Petersburg: Doe, 1998
• Kozyrev A.P. Soloviev and the Gnostics M .: Publishing House. Savin S.A., 2007 .-- 544 p. ISBN 978-5-902121-12-1
• Losev A.F. Gnosticism / History of Ancient Aesthetics. The results of the millennium development. // History of Ancient Aesthetics, Volume VIII, Books I and II. M .: " Art ", 1992, 1994
• Orenburg M. Yu. Gnostic myth: Reconstruction and interpretation. Ed. 2. - M .: Librocom , 2013
• Monuments of literature in the Coptic language. Introduction, translation from Coptic and comments by A. I. Elanskaya. SPb: Publishing House of Chernyshev, 1993. - 316 p.
• Gnosticism / Ponomarev A.V. // Hermaphrodite - Grigoryev. - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2007. - S. 274—276. - (The Big Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 7). - ISBN 978-5-85270-337-8 .
• Ponomarev A.V., Tkachenko A.A. (worship). Gnosticism // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2006. - T. XI. - S. 627-638. - 752 s. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89572-017-X .
• Sidorov A.I. Gnosticism // Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1983. - S. 118-119. - 840 s.
• Solovyov V.S. Gnosticism // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Stefanov P., archim. Yaldavaot: History and doctrine of the Gnostic religion. . - Sofia: Omofor, 2008, 504 p.
• Trofimova M.K. Historical and philosophical issues of Gnosticism (Nag-Hammadi, II, Op. 2, 3, 6, 7). M., 1979.
• Khosroev A.L. Alexandrian Christianity according to texts from Nag Hammadi (II, 7; VI, 3; VII, 4; IX, 3). Executive editor K. N. Yuzbashyan . - M .: Science . The main edition of oriental literature , 1991. - 276 p.
• Shokhin V.K.Sankhya yoga and the tradition of Gnosticism. // Questions of philosophy . - 1994. - No. 7-8.

in other languages

• Massimo Introvigne Il ritorno dello gnosticismo (Nuove spiritualità), SugarCo, Carnago (Varese), 1993 pp. 266. ISBN 88-7198-216-9

• Valentine and Valentians (sects of the early Gnostics) // Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia . Volume 3. Edition of Petrograd. Appendix to the spiritual journal "Wanderer" for 1902
• Gnostic archive . Sources on Gnosticism.
• Russian Apocryphal Studio
• Researcher Eugene Rodin's Page
• Rodin E.V. Syrian reconstruction of Gnostic texts
• Gnostic myth . Page of researcher Eugene Afonasin.