{"id":4657,"date":"2026-05-07T08:57:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T08:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iwell-guard.com\/gnosis\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:27:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:27:56","slug":"gnosis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iwell-guard.com\/en\/gnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Gnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Gnosis\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Gnosis, the path of knowledge between Pleroma and Demiurge<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Gnosis<\/span> denotes the late antique path of knowledge<\/strong> between the divine Pleroma<\/strong> and the material world of the Demiurge<\/strong>, a dualistic cosmology<\/span> with a redemptive myth<\/span>.<\/p>

Gnosis<\/span><\/strong>, Greek gn\u014dsis, knowledge, denotes a late antique<\/span> religious-philosophical current, at whose centre stands the conviction that a person can be redeemed from their cosmic entanglement through a hidden inner knowledge.<\/p>

The world is not regarded as the good creation of the highest God, but as the work of an imperfect Demiurge; the true, transmundane God remains beyond, and only the divine spark-soul slumbering within the human being can recall itself to him in knowledge.<\/p>

Sources and Textual Finds<\/h2>

Until the 20th century, scholars knew the Gnosis<\/span> almost exclusively from the polemical writings of the Church Fathers Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian and Epiphanius, who combated it as heresy<\/span>.<\/p>

In 1945, an Egyptian farmer found 13 Coptic codices at Nag Hammadi containing 52 original Gnostic texts: the Apocryphon of John<\/em>, the Gospel of Truth<\/em>, the Gospel of Thomas<\/em>, the Gospel of Philip<\/em>, the Thunder, Perfect Mind<\/span><\/em>, the Pistis Sophia<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>

Only this find allowed an inside view of Gnostic self-description.<\/p>

Core Teachings<\/h2>

Despite considerable diversity, most Gnostic systems share a core complex. At the summit of being stands the ineffable Father, and the Pleroma of Aeons unfolds from him. Through a fall in the lower Sophia the Demiurge arises, often bearing the name Jaldabaoth or Saklas, who creates the material world as a prison.<\/p>

Human beings carry the divine spark, but are not aware of it. A messenger from the Pleroma, Christ among the Christians, Seth or Sophia herself in other systems, brings the saving knowledge. Whoever receives it frees their spark from the bodily shell and returns to the Pleroma after death.<\/p>

Schools and Currents<\/h2>

The ancient<\/span> Gnosis<\/span> is not a unified movement. The Valentinians around Valentinus (2nd century) develop an elaborate doctrine of Aeons and move close to the great Christian church. The Sethians work with the figure of Seth as bringer of salvation and draw heavily on Jewish writings.<\/p>

The Manichaeism of Mani (3rd century) becomes an independent world religion<\/span> that reaches from North Africa to China. The Mandaeans in the south of present-day Iraq are the only Gnostic community surviving to this day; they venerate John the Baptist and regard Jesus as a pseudo-prophet.<\/p>

Dualism and Its Shadings<\/h2>

Characteristic of the Gnosis<\/span> is a metaphysical dualism. It ranges from the sharp separation of God and Demiurge, spirit<\/span> and matter, to the more radical Manichaean teaching of two eternally opposed principles.<\/p>

These dualistic structures continue to operate in the religious history of the West, among the Bogomils of Bulgaria, the Cathars of southern France (12th and 13th centuries), and in part within the Protestant theology<\/span> of the depravity of the world.<\/p>

Modern Reception<\/h2>

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Gnosis<\/span> was taken up from various quarters. C. G. Jung saw in it a precursor of depth-psychological self-knowledge and commented extensively on the Pistis Sophia<\/em>.<\/p>

With Gnosis<\/span> and the Late Antique Spirit<\/em> (1934), Hans Jonas presented a standard study in the history of philosophy and highlighted an elective affinity with the existentialist experience of existence in the 20th century.<\/p>

In