Early Gnostic Christianity?

Question

Can someone give me good information about the various Christian sects in the first 4-5 centuries CE that were considered heretic and thus exterminated by Pauline Christianity (The form of Christianity prevalent in today's world)? I read some of them had ideas that would make fundamentalist heads spin, like the Old Testament God being an evil deity equivalent to the Devil and Jesus being the new God to triumph over it.

Answer 1

The Gnostic religion was around before Christianity. There were also Gnostic Jews and Gnostic Kabbalists before and after the beginning of Christianity. I don't know the names of many of those sects (there may be also be a sect called the Marcionites), but I know that the Gnostic Docetists believed that the God of the Old Testament was inferior, and thus the entire material world He created was evil. They believed that a new God of love came to replace Him. Since the material world was supposedly evil, they believed Jesus was a spirit being of some sort who only *appeared* to have flesh. They believed Jesus started as a man, but the ''divine Christ'' of docetism came upon Him at His Baptism and left Him at the cross, so that it was only the man Jesus who was crucified. The Docetists insisted that the teachings of the Apostles was to be supplemented with a ''higher knowledge'' they claimed to posess, and their own version of Jesus states in one of their texts that there is no sin (Gnostic Gospel of Mary, if I remember correctly). Although many of the Gnostic texts weren't yet comitted to writing at the time (all the Gnostic texts I've read were written in the mid-second century, whereas 1 John was written around 85-95 AD), it has long been thought that 1 John 1:10, 2:27, 4:2 were written as a reaction to Gnostic teachings. The Gnostics as a whole were fond of taking one or two ideas from Christian oral tradition and creating their own stories out of those ideas to write texts better suited to their own beliefs. You can read some of those texts, as well as some criticisms of them at the link I've provided.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com

Answer 2

Just go to wikipedia and type in "gnosticism" for a start.

also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_...

Answer 3

I know that there were many heretical sects in the early church, almost all of whom were completely wiped out during the Inquisition era of the Middle Ages.  Unfortunately, I cannot recall the names of any at this point, and a quick look into the internet has not netted any.  I know the biggest was the idea that Jesus was Not God.  There was also the idea, as you mentioned, that  the God of the OT was not the same as the God of NT.  I know there were many, many others, but I honestly can't recall them now.

Answer 4

By the grace of our wonderful Savior copies of many original 4th Century Gnostic texts were found in Nag Hammadi in 1945.  We are blessed to have these texts to add to our understanding of this early period of Christianity.  The second century Gnostics traced their teachings in a direct line back to Paul. They believed these to be advanced concepts only taught to those who theologically mature. I would suggest The Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the writing of Valentinius and Marcus his disciple. Elaine Pagels has written important ground breaking books which I highly recommend.

Answer 5

The Nag Hammadi library is the foremost collection of Gnostic writings...it should be available at your library...

It's got a lot of really weird stuff, but all of it post-dates the regular writings of the New Testament...it's pretty safe to assume it is therefore derivitive...

You'd get a lot more valuable info if you just spent some time reading the Early Church Fathers, if you're interested in the historical time frame you've mentioned...

EDIT...the word "gnostic" doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible...we have no proof that any form of Christian gnosticism existed during the time of the formation of any book in the Bible...people shouldn't tell lies to someone who is looking for sincere information...

Answer 6

This site may interest you...

http://usminc.org/gnostic

Answer 7

There never was and never will be any such thing as "gnostic Christianity".

1 John in the Bible exposes gnosticism as satanism.  So those that into gnosticism, are into satanism.  That means that "gnostic Christianity" is an oxymoron.