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Gnosis Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2011

Robert M. Grant
Robert M. Grant
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

Two problems are involved in the analysis of gnosticism. First comes the criticism of the sources. Since most of our information about gnosis still comes from the church fathers, we must try to determine how reliably such writers as Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Epiphanius have reproduced their sources. In this connection Sagnard's La gnose valentinienne et le témoignage de saint Irénée (Paris, 1947), is especially useful since it establishes Irenaeus' essential trustworthiness. Second comes the interpretation of the gnostic text once it has been established. At this point there is much disagreement among modern scholars. In general the older way of looking at gnosticism, set forth by such scholars as De Faye, Leisegang, Casey, Nock, and most recently Sagnard, is based on description and historical investigation, with emphasis laid on the search for sources and interrelations. Ideally, proof of the existence of these sources and interrelations is offered, and the proof is based on historical probabilities.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , March 1954, pp. 36 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1954

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References

1. See “The Earliest Christian Gnosticism” in Church History for June 1953.

2. In Maniehaeism the second of the twelve zodiacal “virgins of light” is sometimes called Wisdom (= Achamoth); cf. Jackson, A.V.W., Researches in Maniehaeism (New York, 1931), 241Google Scholar, and Puech, H.-C., Le manichéisme (Paris, 1949), 79.Google Scholar Compare also the twenty-four deities made by Ahuramazda (Plutarch, De Iside 47) and the twenty-four stars of the Chaldaeans (Diodorus Sieulus 2, 31, 4).

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