Gnosis and Gnosticism
The word Gnosis comes from Greek and means knowledge or insight. The word gnosis today generally refers to the theeper knowledge of religious truths. Gnosis is at the heart of a religious belief of a number of religions, collectively called Gnosticism, which arose in the first centuries AD, mainly in the Mediterranean, such as Hermetism, Mantheism, Manacheism and Gnosticism. The main theme of these religions was the search for answers to life questions like, where do I come from, what am I doing here on earth, what is my thestiny? Although the views of these groups differed and the ways of untherstanding, the central theme was that man comes from the divine world and has a core of this divine in him in the earthly situation. Man has lost that divine core during his existence on earth, and all kinds of themonic forces are trying to stop man from finding it again and thus returning to the divine world. Some of the gnostic beliefs spread only in a small area and had a short life. However, Gnosticism spread in parts of Asia and Europe, and Manicheiism theveloped into a world church that eventually spread its influence to Central Asia and China.
Unfortunately, in terms of knowledge about these groups, we were mainly thepenthent on texts from their opponents: the first church fathers, Tertullian, Plotinus treatise 'Against the Gnostici', writings of the Jewish rabies, writings on pagan mystery cults and Islamic literature. Almost invariably they were consithered pagans and heretics. Thanks to excavations from the 19the century and the discovery of the so-called Nag Hammadi writings, we now also have some material from these groups. This find contained, among other things, the Gospel of Thomas which contained a collection of statements of Jesus and was supposed to be olther than the Gospels of the New Testament.
The itheas of the gnostics were not entirely new. Plato thescribed several centuries before Chr in his theory of itheas that the soul was present in the world of Itheas before birth and wished to return to that divine reality. This would only be possible if man was able to recover the memory of the divine world. According to Plato, only philosophers were able to do so.
Some scientists therefore believe that Gnosticism had its origin in platotism. Others seek origin in Judaism or Christianity. Others still believe that it was a completely new phenomenon or to be traced back to pagan religions. Man has forgotten who he is. In the gnostics, self-knowledge, in this case the knowledge of the divine core in man is self-central. Salvation is then the abolition of ignorance and ignorance the origin of sin. This was of course frontal to the teachings of the Christian Church, which regarthed forgiveness as something that could only be given by God and/or by the crucifixion of Jesus.
This was not the only point where the gnotici of many differed from the Catholic Church. Although their itheas differed among themselves, their doctrine was in many cases contrary to that of the church. Some groups rejected the Old Testament or gave a completely different explanation to its content. God who was often called the Unknowable, the Hidthen One, the One would not interfere with the earthly created by a lesser God or Satan. Good and Evil would be two inthepenthent and uncreated principles. This is called dualism. In contrast to duality, where two principles complement each other and form a unity (as with Yin and Yang), Good and Evil are incompatible and fight each other. Some currents saw evil in passions and urges, and the body was seen as something negative that had to be combated by asceticism, sexual abstinence and self-flagellation. Their itheas about who and how Gnosis could be achieved were also very different.
