Sometime in the early third century, historians begin to see evidence of a new

teaching spreading among some Christians. It was a movement of people who

believed that they had secret knowledge about Christianity.

“Gnosticism” is derived from the Greek word “gnosis,” meaning “knowledge.”

In the 19th century, a German ancient history scholar coined the term

“Gnosticism” and applied it to this Christian movement, and the name stuck

even though the ancient Gnostics had other names for themselves, like “ones

with knowledge.”

Gnosticism seems to have emerged from certain Greek, and especially

Platonic, philosophical ideas about the importance of the spirit over the

material or body. Central to Gnostic beliefs is the notion that the material

world, the body, and all things one sees are ultimately not real or important.

Rather, the spirit is real, and people must not let the “apparent” world dis-

tract them from that fact.

According to the Gnostics, this material world was created by a lesser god,

not the “true God of spirit and light.” This thinking, of course, is a direct chal-

lenge to the importance of the Hebrew Bible. (It’s similar to Marcion’s chal-

lenge but is more philosophically based.) Gnostics further believed that

death liberated the spirit and therefore wasn’t bad at all! Even more, some

Gnostics also believed that Jesus wasn’t a real physical person and only

appeared that way because someone from the higher God of spirit and light

could only be pure spirit, not involved in this dirty world. Gnostics were

deeply offended at the idea that Jesus really suffered like a human would, and

most important, Christian Gnostics believed that Jesus taught secret knowl-

edge to only the select, the spiritual elite. Gnostics had very secretive groups

and even wrote their own scriptures to defend their ideas (see Chapter 12 for

more on Gnostic writings)