basic statement See FOUNDATIONALISM. Basilides (A.D. c.120–40), Syrian Christian gnostic teacher in Alexandria who rivaled Valentinus. He improved on Valentinus’s doctrine of emanations, positing 365 (the number of days in a year) levels of existence in the Pleroma (the fullness of the Godhead), all descending from the ineffable Father. He taught that the rival God was the God of the Jews (the God of the Old Testament), who created the material world. Redemption consists in the coming of the first begotten of the Father, Noûs (Mind), in human form in order to release the spiritual element imprisoned within human bodies. Like other gnostics he taught that we are saved by knowledge, not faith. He apparently held to the idea of reincarnation before the restoration of all things to the Pleroma. See also GNOSTICISM , VALENTINU. L.P.P.