We note here only the doctrines of the Codex Brucianus and the Pistis Sophia, which both reproduce Jesus’ discussions, in which classical themes are developed considerably and in which it is explained that to possess gnosis is to know “the reason for light and darkness, chaos, treasure of lights, sin, baptism, anger, blasphemy, injuries, adulteries,
- Cited by De Faye, [Gnostiques et Gnosticisme,] p. 217 [sic]: “Voici comment le Fils Monogène voyant d’en haut les idées transmuées en des corps ténébreux voulut les sauver. Sachant que même les éons ne porraient soutenir la vue du plérôme tout entier, mais que frappés de stupeur, ils en deviendraient mortels et périraient, il se contracta luimême et réduisit son éclat au plus petit volume; je devrais dire qu’il se fit petit comme la lumière sous les paupières: puis il s’avança jusqu’au ciel visible: il toucha les astres qui s’y trouvent et de nouveau se replia sous les paupières . . . Ainsi est venu dans le monde le Monogène, sans éclat, inconnu, sans gloire: on n’a même pas cru en lui.”
[Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies, 8.3, ibid., 119–20. The page reference in De Faye should be p. 239.—Trans.]
purity, arrogance, life, malicious gossip, obedience, humility, wealth and slavery.”44
At this price we will have to leave aside the direct disciples of
Valentinus, Heracleon, and Ptolemaeus, Apelles the disciple of Marcion, Marcos and his followers, and the licentious Gnostics. We see, then, the wealth of a movement so often despised. It remains for us to disentangle, in this group of affirmations, whether moving or simply curious, the outside contributions.
II. The Elements of the Gnostic Solution
This metaphysic, which is incarnated, retains its eloquence throughout time. But it cannot lay claim to originality. It seems that in Gnosticism, Christianity, and Hellenism encounter one another without being able to assimilate one another and have therefore placed side by side the most heterogeneous themes. Our task here will be to separate as schematically as possible the outside contributions to Gnosticism.
a) A great number of Gnostic themes appear to come from Plato, orat least from the tradition he represents. The emanation of intelligences from the bosom of the Divinity, the madness and suffering of spirits remote from God and committed to matter, the anxiety of the pure soul tied to the irrational soul in the psychics, regeneration through a return to the original sources, all this is purely Greek. Horos, a significant name, making Sophia return within the limits of her nature is typical in this regard.
Greece introduced the notions of order and harmony into morality as into æsthetics. If Prometheus has suffered, it is because he has cast off his human nature. Sophia acted likewise, and it is by returning to the place which she was assigned that she once again finds peace.
b) Furthermore, Gnosticism has taken from Christianity the essenceof its dogmas. It is happy to make use of them. Nevertheless, any Gnostic
- Cited by De Faye, [Gnostiques et Gnosticisme,] p. 269 [sic].
[The text Camus quotes here is neither from the Codex Brucianus nor the Pistis Sophia, but rather is De Faye’s own commentary on the latter. The actual page reference in De Faye is p. 291.—Trans.]
system is accompanied by a few ideas the echos of which we cannot mistake. The concern of all our authors is the problem of evil; we have seen it in Basilides, Marcion, and Valentinus. Hence their attempt also to explain Redemption.
Another influence, less marked but just as true, is the meaning of history, that is to say, the idea that the world marches toward a goal as if it were the conclusion of a tragedy. In this view of history, the world is a point of departure. It was a beginning. Truths are not to be contemplated. Rather, we use them and with them achieve our salvation. Here the Christian influence resides less in a group of doctrines than in a state of mind and an orientation. In no other doctrine has the irreducible in man held such explanatory value.
c) But to these influences were added very diverse elements, which were thereby less shocking and upon which we will expand a little, that which precedes having been illustrated in our account of the Gnostic doctrines.
1) In this notion of a higher science that constitutes gnosis we can alsosee the influence of the mysteries. We have already defined initiation as the union of knowledge and salvation. We encounter the same problem here. A “spiritual” being would make his own these orphic lines, found on the gold tablets at Croton: “I have escaped from the circle of trouble and sadness and I am now advancing toward the queen of sovereign places, Saint Persephone, and the other divinities of Hades. I glory in belonging to their blessed race. I ask them to send me into the dwelling places of the innocent in order to receive there the saving word: You will be a goddess and no longer mortal.”45
2) A more suggestive coincidence is the one that links the Gnostics toPhilo.46 Philo occasionally prophesies like an initiate. “Let them who corrupt religion into superstition close their ears or depart. For this is a
- In Toussaint, Saint Paul et l’Hellénisme, ch. I: “Je me suis enuie du cercle des peines et des tristesses et maintenant je m’avance vers la reine des lieux souverains, la sainte Perséphone et les autres divinités de l’Hadès. Je me glorifie d’appartenir à leur race bienheureuse. Je leur demande de m’envoyer dans la demeure des innocents pour y recevoir le mot sauveur: Tu seras déesse et non plus mortelle.”*
[The title of Toussaint’s work is L’Hellénisme et l’Apôtre Paul.—Trans.] - [For a discussion of Camus’ analysis of Philo and his role in the advent of Gnosticism, see my “Albert Camus on Philo and Gnosticism,” in The Studia Philonica Annual: Studies in Hellenistic Judaism, vol. 7, ed. David T. Runia (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), 103–6.— Trans.]
divine mystery and its lesson is for the initiated who are worthy to receive the holiest secret, even those who in simplicity of heart practise the piety which is true and genuine, free from all tawdry ornament.”47
Consider this still more significant passage: “These thoughts, ye initiated, whose ears are purified, receive into your souls as holy mysteries indeed and babble not of them to any of the profane. Rather as stewards guard the treasure in your own keeping, not where gold and silver, substances corruptible, are stored, but where lies that most beautiful of all possessions, the knowledge of the Cause and of virtue, and, besides these two, of the fruit which is engendered by them both.”48
Consequently, we should not be surprised to find with the Gnostics a rather large number of themes dear to Philo: the supreme Being, source of light that shines forth through the universe,49 the battle between light and darkness for control of the world, the creation of the world by intermediaries, the visible world as an image of the invisible world, the theme (essential for Philo) of the image of God as the unadulterated essence of the human soul, and deliverance finally, allotted as the goal of human existence.50
3) Finally, it is possible to recognize within Gnostic doctrines the influence of a certain number of Oriental speculations, especially of Avesta. Zoroastrianism, moreover, as a result of the exile of the Jews, of the protection that Cyrus accorded them and the benevolence that he had shown Avesta, played a considerable role in the evolution of ideas in the first centuries of our era.
The Ameshas Spentas and the Yazatas, who maintain the fight against wicked demons, themselves also constitute a pleroma, intermediate
- From Cherubin, pp. 115–16; Matter, Histoire du Gnosticisme, I, ch. V: “Que les hommes bornés se retirent, les oreilles bouchées. Nous transmettons des mystères divins à ceux qui ont reçu l’initiation sacrée, à ceux qui pratiquent une piété véritable, qui ne sont pas enchaînés par le vain apparat des mots ou le prestige des païens.”
[Philo, On the Cherubim, 42, vol. 2, ed. T. E. Page, trans. F. H. Colson and G. H. Whitaker, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929), 35.—Trans.] - Ibid., M. Matter: “O vous initiés, vous dont les oreilles sont purifiées, recevez celadans votre âme comme des mystères qui n’en doivent jamais sortir. Ne le révélez à aucun profane; cachez-le et gardez-le dans vous-même, comme un trésor qui n’est point corruptible, à l’instar de l’or et de l’argent, mais qui est plus précieux que toute autre chose, puisque c’est la science de la grande cause de la vertu et de ce qui naît de l’un et de l’autre.” [Philo, On the Cherubim, 48, vol. 2, ibid., 37.—Trans.]
- Cf. Bréhier, Les idées philosophiques et religieuses de Philon d’Alexandrie, part II: “Dieu, les Intermédiaires et le Monde.”
- Ibid., part III: “Le culte spirituel et le progrès moral.”
between God and the earth. And Ahura Mazda has all the characteristics of the infinite Gnostic God.
These indications suffice to bring to light the complexity of Gnosticism. We see the medley of colors from which this Christian heresy shone forth. Again it is necessary to attempt to summarize our investigations in a few general characteristics.
Conclusion
Gnosticism in the Evolution of Christianity
“Instead of eternal acts of the divine will, dramatic climaxes or passionate initiatives; failures replacing causes; in place of the unity of two natures in the person of Christ incarnated, the dispersion of divine particles in matter; instead of the distinction between eternity and time, a time saturated with eternal influences and an eternity shot through
