Much attention has been given to Gnosticism in Bart’s recent posts. And there has been much commentary on the Gospel of John and the Johannine Community. In What is Gnosticism (August 2) we read that some of the Nag Hammadi texts were not Christian. This was news to me, I had previously been led to believe that Gnosticism was the ‘esoteric’ form of Christianity. In Bart’s explanation its dualism is clear: there is a good God (Original Spirit) and a bad God (Ialdabaoth) who is the offspring of the Original Spirit. Sounds like an adaptation from Zoroastrianism, and this is what some people think: Gnosticism is a form of Zoroastrianism.
I have read elsewhere thanks to a link in Agaposopher’s recent post on John’s gospel that ‘all one would need to come up with Gnosticism is the early narratives of Genesis and a wild imagination!’ – so Gnosticism ‘grew out of a disappointed apocalyptic Judaism’. This same article by Robert Price draws attention to the extremely close parallels between the ‘I am’ discourses in John’s gospel and similar discourses in the Mandean Book of John the Baptist – earliest sources 3rd century CE but thought to long predate that. John’s gospel, if it were written by a Mandean, would explain the putative authorship: Mandeans revere John the Baptist.
Others talk about Buddhist and even Hindu influences on Gnostic thought. But it’s clear that some Gnostics, Buddhist-influenced or not, were not Christians. How is that possible unless Gnosticism were a fully-fledged spiritual tradition with a well-developed model and terminology that was well established by the first century CE. Christian Gnosticism would then have come from a number of Gnostics adopting the figure of Jesus into their doctrine of salvation.
‘…it is the Gnostic elements not embraced by the Great Church (and eventually repudiated by it) which may be the most authentic, including the doctrine of salvation by gnosis (rather than by ‘faith’), the fusion of man with the divine (anathema in normative Judaism and Christianity), the concept of spiritual resurrection before death (the Gospel of Philip), the need for the repudiation of pleasure (encratism), and the efficacy of personal effort unaided by any divine agent (thus, the denial of atonement and of a vicarious redeemer).’ (Renee Salm)
OK this is from a mythicist (i.e. a modern day docetist) and Bart doesn’t hold with that position. But that is not to say that the above comments are not correct.
What we would have then in the otherwise problematic gospel of John is a syncretism of Gnostic thought with stories and sayings of Jesus, some of which are taken from the synoptics, in order to successfully smuggle the doctrines of Gnosticism into ‘orthodox’ (from the Gnostic point of view ‘ignorant’) Christianity.
I would love to know what the Gnostic organisation consisted of. For such a widespread and well-established community it must have had an organisation that was able to hold meetings and write, copy and distribute its texts, both Christian Gnostic and other variants. Maybe they deliberately avoided nailing themselves down. ‘Whatever has form is not spirit’, and they were trying to get away from form towards spirit. It’s a little frustrating that we can never know who they really were.
Robert can the literary remains of the Enoch Seminar be found in some repository? Academia or JSTOR, perhaps? I would love to inquire after them.
I am fascinated by the Mandeans. I’ll have to investigate McGrath’s work. Thanks!
As far as the general subject of “Gnosticism” everyone should include ** you do not have permission to see this link **‘ work in their library.
Stephen said
I am fascinated by the Mandeans.
Read Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms by Gerard Russell, a former middle East diplomat fluent in Arabic and Persian and very interested in the disappearing religions of the region. He interviews some of the last Mandeans and reveals much about their beliefs and practices.
…those types of books of conference proceedings are typically very expensive…
Oh yes. I am aware. But I have a constitutional aversion to paying full price for books and I am patient. I searched for several years before I found a reasonably priced copy of Yarbro-Collins’ commentary on Mark. Of course it’s amazing what you can find online. And I am not shy about approaching the authors themselves.
Read Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms by Gerard Russell…
Yes thanks I am familiar with Russell’s book. For the last couple years I have been trying to collect as many of the Mandaean texts as possible. On a visit last year with some friends living and working in Amsterdam I was fortunate to find a copy of the Ginza Rabba , “Great Treasure”, the chief Mandaean holy book translated and published privately in Germany. It was produced by Mandaean scholars with the support of the community.
The problem is not just that they are a minority community who reject conversion. It’s that knowledge of their original language, Mandaic, is slowly dying out. The majority of the community resides in the West now and most of them have no opportunity to learn. The community supports translation to keep their traditions from dying out. The Ginza Rabba was first translated into Arabic and then into English. All of this since the Iraqi invasion.
The Mandaeans have a very unique and complicated symbol system. Their writings are striking and poetic.
What began my own interest was the discovery that they practice baptism as a sacrament rather than as an initiatory rite as in Christianity. I was raised by rural Georgia Baptists which meant total immersion in the river. For whatever reason my baptism was a much more powerful and meaningful experience to me than any other religious ceremony or observance I’ve ever participated in. While I have no religious beliefs now the interest remains.
Well they claim John the Baptist as a prophet although the claim is not that he founded the group. Historians can trace them back to at least the third century. They appear to be related to the historical group known as the Sabians who were pre-Islamic.
** you do not have permission to see this link ** is a video lecture by James McGrath, the scholar Robert mentioned, talking about these issues.
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