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 GNOSTICISM

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GNOSTICISM

sought to account for the rise of Gnosticism by the in- fluence of Greek Platonic philosophy and the Greelc mysteries, while Ilarnack described it as "acute Ilel- lenization of Christianity. For the last twenty-five years, however, the trend of scholarship has steadily moved towards proving the pre-Christian Oriental origins of Gnosticism. At the Fifth Congress of Ori- entalists (Berlin, 1SS2) Kessler brought out the con- nexion between Gnosis and the Babylonian religion. By this latter name, however, he meant not the orig- inal religion of Babylonia, but the syncretistic religion which arose after the conquest of Cyrus. The same idea is brought out in his Mani" seven years later. In the same }-ear F. W. Brandt published his "Man- daische Religion". This Manda?an religion is so un- mistakably a form of Gnosticism that it seems beyond doubt that Gnosticism existed independent of, and anterior to, Christianity. In more recent years ( 1897) Wilhelm Anz pointed out the close similarity between Babylonian astrology and the Gnostic theories of the Hebdomad and Ogdoad. Though in many instances speculations on the Babylonian Astrallehre have gone beyond all sober scholarship, yet in this particular in- stance the inferences made by Anz seem sound and reliable. Researches in the same direction were con- tinued and instituted on a wider scale by W. Bous- set, in 1907, and led to carefully ascertained results. In 1898 the attempt was made by M. Friedliinder to trace Gnosticism in pre-Christian Judaism. His opinion that the Rabbinic term Minniiyi designated not Christians, as was commonly believed, but An- tinomian Gnostics, has not found universal accept- ance. In fact, E. Schiirer brought sufficient proof to show that Minnim is the exact Aramaean dia- lectic equivalent for eSvT). Nevertheless Friedlander's essay retains its value in tracing strong antinomian tendencies with Gnostic colouring on Jewish soil. Not a few scholars have laboured to find the source of Gnostic theories on Hellenistic and, specifically, Alexandrian soil. In 1880 Joel sought to prove that the germ of all Gnostic theories was to be found in Plato. Though this may be dismissed as an ex- aggeration, some Greek influence on tlie birth, but especially on the growth, of Gnosticism cannot be denied. In Trismegistic literature, as pointed out by Reitzenstein (Poimandres, 1904), we find much that is strangely akin to Gnosticism. Its Egyptian origin was defended by E. Amelineau, in 1887, and illustrated by A. Dietrich, in 1891 (Abraxas Studien) and 190.3 (Mithrasliturgie). The relation of Plo- tinus's philosophy to Gnosticism was brought out by C. Schmidt in 1901. That Alexandrian thought had some share at least in the development of Christian Gnosticism is clear from the fact that the bulk of Gnostic literature which we possess comes to us from Egyptian (Coptic) sources. That this share was not a predominant one is, however, acknowledged by O. Gruppe in his "Griechische Mythologie und Religions- geschichte" (1902). It is true that the Greek mys- teries, as G. Anrich pointed out in 1894, had much in common with esoteric Gnosticism; but there remains the further question, in how far these Greek mysteries, as they are known to us, were the genuine product of Greek thought, and not much rather due to the over- powering influence of Orientalism.

■Although the origins of Gnosticism are still largely enveloped in obscurity, so much light has been shed oil the problem by the combined labours of many schol- ars that it is possible to give the following tentative solution: Although Gnosticism may at first sight ap- pear a mere thoughtless syncretism of well nigh all religious systems of antiquity, it has in reality one deep root-principle, which assimilated in every soil what it needed for its life and growth ; this principle is philosophical and religious pessimism. The Gnostics, it is true, borrowed their terminology almost entirely from existing religions, but they only used it to illus- VI.— 38

trate their great idea of the essential evil of this pres- ent existence and the duty to escape it by tlie help of magic spells and a superhuman Saviour. Whatever the}' borrowed, this pessimism they did not borrow — not from Greek thought, which was a joyous acknowl- edgment of and homage to the beautiful and noble in this world, with a stmlied disregard of the element of sorrow; not from Egyptian thought, which did not allow its elaborate speculations on retribution and judgment in the netherworkl to cast a gloom on this present existence, but considered the universe created or evolved under the presiding wisdom of Thoth ; not from Iranian thought, which held to the absolute su- premacy of Ahura Mazda and only allowed Ahriman a subordinate share in the creation, or rather counter- creation, of the world; not from Indian Brahminic thought, which was Pantheism pure and simple, or God dwelling in, nay identified with, the universe, rather than the Universe existing as the contradictory of God ; not, lastly, from Semitic thought, for Semitic religions were strangely reticent as to the fate of the soul after death, and saw all practical wisdom in the worship of Baal, or Marduk, or Assur. or Hadad, that they might live long on this earth. This utter pessim- ism, bemoaning the existence of the whole imiverse as a corruption and a calamity, with a feverish ci iving to be freed from the body of this death and j mad hope that, if we only knew, we could by some rr stic words undo the cursed spell of this existence — is i.s the foundation of all Gnostic thought. It hi tue same parent-soil as Buddhism; but Buddhism i: eth'- cal, it endeavours to obtain its end by the extinct' of all desire; Gnosticism is pseudo-intellectual, ; trusts exclusively to magical knowledge. Moreo\o. , Gnosticism, placed in other historical surroundings, developed from the first on other lines than Buddhism. When Cyrus entered Bab^-lon in 539 B.C., two great worlds of thought met, and sj-ncretism in religion, as far as we know it, began. Iranian thought began to mix with the ancient civilization of Babylon. The idea of the great struggle between evil and good, ever continuing in this universe, is the parent idea of Maz- deism, or Iranian dualism. This, and the imagined existence of numberless intermediate spirits, angels and devas, was the conviction which overcame the contentedness of .Semitism. On the other hand, the unshakable trust in astrology, the persuasion that the planetary system had a fatalistic influence on this world's affairs, stood its ground on the .soil of Chaldea. The greatness of the Seven — the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn — the sacred Hebdomad, symbolized for millenniums by the staged towers of Babylonia, remained undiminished. They ceased, indeed, to be worshipped as deities, but they re- mained dpxovTfs and Svvdfieis, rulers and powers whose almost irresistible force was dreaded by man. Prac- tically, they were changed from gods to devas, or evil spirits. The religions of the invaders and of the in- vaded effected a compromise: the astral faith of Baby- lon was true, but beyond the Hebdomad was the infinite light in the Ogdoad, and every human soul had to pass the adverse influence of the god or gotls of the Hebdomad before it could ascend to the only good God beyond. This ascent of the soul through the plane- tary spheres to the heaven be,\'ond (an idea not un- known even to ancient Babvlonianspeculations) began to be conceived as a struggle with ad\-erse powers, and became the first and predominant idea in Gnosticism. The second great component of Gnostic thought is magic, properly so called, i. e. the power ex opere operato of weird names, sounds, gestures, and actions, as also the mixture of elements to produce effects to- tally disproportionate to the cause. These magic formulse, which caused laughter and disgust to out- siders, are not a later and accidental corruption, but an essential part of Gnosticism, for they are found in all forms of Christian Gnosticism and likewise in Man-