T
Riders of the Wrecking Machine: Alexandarian Gnosticism and the Westcott-Hort Text
In order to determine the extent to which there are gnostic influences
in the particular
wordings of the Westcott-Hort Greek text, and in its recent English
translations, some knowledge of the gnosticism of the second and third
centuries A.D. is necessary. Often the omission of words and parts of
sentences in the Westcott-Hort Greek and in its English translations -
as compared to the Textus Receptus and the KJV - is consistent with
gnostic teachings.
There were different versions of gnosticism that made some use of
Christian terminology and which deceived some Christians in the
second and third centuries. And even a few early church fathers like
Origen of Alexandria, Egypt may have been in part influenced by
gnosticism. The effect of believing gnostic teachings is to bring
doubt about the basic doctrines of the Bible, which must have been
Satan's reason for inspiring the gnostics to hold forth as they did.
Gnostics thought that the Supreme Father is remote and unknowable.
He/she created supernatural beings called Aeons. One of the Aeons was
Sophia - wisdom in Greek - who gave birth to the "inferior" creator
being gnostics call the Demiurge. The Demiurge then created the
material world gnostics said was evil, corrupt and flawed. To
gnostics, the demiurge is the God of the Old Testament, seen by them
as evil, rigid, and lacking in compassion. Many gnostics said the
pride, ignorance and incompetence of the demiurge caused the sorry
state of the world as we know it.
Valentinus, a gnostic leader in Alexandria, Egypt taught that the
supposedly evil physical universe was created because of a mistake by
Sophia.
But in Genesis 1: 4-25 God says several times that the material
universe and the earth which he created was good, not evil. For the
gnostics to say the physical earth and material universe are evil is
an insult to God. One of the major gnostic movements was founded by
Valentinus whose dates are about 100 to 153 AD. Tertullian (about 155
to 230) AD wrote a book opposed to the teachings of Valentinus,
Adversus Valentinianos.
Irenaeus (about 130 to 200 AD) writes about the gnosticism of
Valentinus in his book Against Heresies. See
Early Church Fathers for online texts of the five
books of Against Heresies. Irenaeus' Against Heresies contains a
number of quotes from the New Testament, many of which are identical
or almost exactly the same as wordings in the King James Version.
Scholars say he wrote this book in about 180 AD. Only fragments of the
original Greek text of Against Heresies have survived, though one web
site claims much of Book One has survived. A complete Latin
translation from 380 AD has survived. There are more than one English
translations of the Latin, such as that by Alexander Roberets and
James Donald (1867). Esoteric or secret teachings were passed on in
private by Jesus to his apostles, so says Valentinus. Valentinus
quotes Luke 8: 9-10 "The knowledge about the secrets of the kingdom of
heaven has been given to you, but to the rest it comes by means of
parables so that they may look but not see and listen but not
understand."(Luke 8:9-10 See. Ireneus Against Heresies 1:3:1). This
information is found at:
Brief Summary of Valentinian Theology - Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition
Also, Valentinus claims that when Paul met the risen Christ on the
Road to Damascus (Acts 9:9-10), he received this secret knowledge from
Jesus. Valentinus says Theudas gave Valentinus the secret knowledge
and that Theudas received it from the Apostles. The gnostic Valentinus
taught that the scriptures are not easily understood and their truth
can only be had by those who have the secret gnostic knowledge
(Irenaeus Against heresies Book Three, Chapter Two, paragraph One).
Valentinian gnostics thought that the secret knowledge is understood
only by those who are spiritually mature. The Valentinians claimed
that the gnostic knowledge is nonsense to those who are not ready to
receive them. They said Paul and other Apostles only gave these
teachings to those who were spiritually mature.
What Valentinus and his followers created was a false religion which
stole some of the terminology of Christianity. The gnostics tried to
make themselves an elite caste who were the only ones having the
correct knowledge which was said to be necessary to be saved at death
from the evil material world. Since they were not spiritually
regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they were arrogant in their assumed
elite status as the sole bearers of the truth.
In Revelation 2: 15 Christ says the church at Pergamos held to the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which he hates. It may be that Christ
hated the doctrine of the Nicolaitans because they engaged in pagan
ceremonies and orgies and because they were proud in their assumed
status as a religious ruling elite.
Irenaeus and some other early Fathers said some of the gnostics
engaged in pagan practices and did not follow Christian morals. As a
movement that claimed to be a religious elite possessing secret
knowledge, the gnostics were probably like the Nicolaitans in trying
to rule as an elite group over others as. The lesson for us from this
is that there should be no elite, no priesthood, among Christians.
Valentinian gnostics made a distinction between the human Jesus and
the divine Christ. They thought the human Jesus was born as the
biological son of Mary and Joseph. When he was baptized by John the
Baptist, the "Spirit of the Thought of the Father" descended on him in
the form of a dove, He was born of the Spirit.
Brief Summary of Valentinian Theology - Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition
This account seems to suggest that the gnostics thought Jesus became
fully spiritual as a savior at his baptism.
Other gnostics said that the savior, who came from the spiritual world
of the Eternal Father, could not have entered the material world and
taken on human flesh because the material world and human flesh are
evil. See: Gnostic Corruptions in the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament
The gnostics differentiated between the human Jesus and the spiritual
Christ. Some said that the evil material world causes a corruption of
the spiritual state and so Christ as pure spirit could not become
human flesh in the material world. Those of the gnostic movements who
followed the Docetism of Julius Cassianus believed that Christ was
pure spirit and only appeared to be in human flesh.
Arianism, as taught by Arius, said that Jesus was a created being and
not God. These false teachings about Jesus Christ are also blasphemy,
as is the teaching that salvation is not by the blood atonement of
Christ, but by obtaining secret knowledge. And remember, for the
gnostics, salvation is not being set free from the domination of sin
and given eternal life with Christ. For them, salvation is liberation
at death from the bondage to the material world. This implies a form
of reincarnation which some gnostics taught.
There is some hint that Origen (184–253 A.D), the Alexandarian
Christian theologian who influenced Augustine, and the Catholics,
elevated the immaterial or spiritual world far above the material
world, and his opposition to the Chiliasm, or belief in a thousand
year reign of the saints with Christ on the material earth, is part of
this regard for the material world as being "crude." Its possible the
Alxandarian gnostics influenced Origen to reject the material world
more than did the earlier Church Fathers who generally held to the
view that Christ would reign on the physical earth following the end
of the age.
Marcion (about 85 to 160 AD), another important gnostic, said Jesus
was a spirit and was not in the flesh. Marcion rejected the baby
stories about Jesus and on his crucifixtion and resurrection. Marcion
thought the Eternal Father took pity on humanity and sent Christ, as
spirit alone, to rescue some men from the material world and from the
God of the Old Testament. Gnostics did not want to acknowledge that
Jesus Christ took on human flesh in the material world. If it was some
of the gnostics who removed words and phrases from some verses of the
Greek New Testament, in the copies associated with Alexandria, Egypt
then this rejection of the teaching that Christ took on human flesh
could account for some of these omissions on the topics of the deity
of Christ and his incarnation. The omission of some words and parts of
sentences from the Alexndarian Greek texts, the Sianaticus and
Vaticanus could have been the word of Christian scribes who might have
been influenced to some extent by the Gnostics. But the shorter
wordings of the Alexandarian type Greek manuscripts, and the omission
of certain key words that is consistent with gnostic theology occurs
earlier than the fourth century as shown by earlier Papyri fragments
of the New Testament.
See http://www.uv.es/~fores/programa/majorityvscritical.html
Many Papyri fragments of the New Testament contain Byzantine readings,
that is, the verse wordings are more similar to the Byzantine Greek
text than to the Alexandarian text, used by Westcott and Hort. "Harry
Sturz discusses these "distinctively Byzantine" readings in his
book, The Byzantine Text-Type and New Testament Textual Criticism."
"The most important of these discoveries was several Egyptian papyri.
Sturz lists "150 distinctively Byzantine readings" found in these
papyri. Included in his list are papyri numbers 13, 45, 46, 47, 49,
59, 66, 72, 74, and 75 (pp.61, 145-159)."
What Sturz is saying is that many early Papyri Greek texts agree with
the verse wordings of the Byzantine or Textus Receptus type Greek text
more than with the Alexandrian or Westcott-Hort type Greek text.
"Sturz concludes, "In view of the above, it is concluded that the
papyri supply valid evidence that distinctively Byzantine readings
were not created in the fourth century but were already in existence
before the end of the second century and that, because of this,
Byzantine readings merit serious consideration" (p.69)."
"Aland says all but one of the these early papyri, "... are from Egypt
where the hot, dry sands preserved the papyri through the centuries."
Meanwhile, in Asia Minor and Greece (eastern areas), "... the climate
in these regions has been unfavorable to the preservation of any
papyri from the early period" (pp.59,67)."
The writer of this site then says "So it is not surprising many early
papyri have been found which reflect the Alexandrian text since this
text existed in Egypt. But even some of these Egyptian papyri, as
mentioned above, contain Byzantine and even Western readings."
The Papyri fragments indicate that Alexandarian wordings existed prior
to the fourth century - and importantly, the more recently discovered
papyri going back as far as the second century show Byzantine or Textus
Receptus type wordings, something which Westcott and Hort did not know.
The second and third century gnostics did not accept the Genesis
account saying that man and the earth degenerated as a result of the
sin of Adam and Eve. For the gnostics, the material world was evil
from its creation. Again, this insults the Lord. There may have been
some gnostics around during the first century when Paul, John and
other apostles wrote. Irenaeus in Against heresies, Justin Martyr in
Apologies and Hippolytus in Philosophemena all wrote abut a Simon
Magnus who was a heretic and perhaps an early gnostic. Irenaeus in
Against Heresies (wrote about 182-188 A.D.) devotes all of chapter 23
of Book One to Simon Magus. He said that Emperor Claudius honored
Simon Magus with a statue because of his magic. Irenaeus says that
Simon taught that he appeared to the Jews as the Son, to the
Samaritans as the Father, and to other nations as the Holy Spirit.
Tertullian in Against All Heresies (200-210 A.D) also devotes the
first chapter to discussing Simon Magus. Tertullian says that Simon
called himself "The Supreme Virtue", and that his successor was
Menander.
Tertullian also says in A Treatise on the Soul ch.34, that Simon
devoted his energies to destroying the truth after Peter rebuked him.
Hippolytus in The Refutation of All Heresies book 6 chapters 2-7,
(225-235/6 A.D.) goes into Simon's pseudo-Platonic nonsense. In Book
One Chapter 23 of Against Heresies, Irenaeus has a lot to say about
Simon Magnus. He said: "Simon the Samaritan was that magician of whom
Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, says, "But there was
a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime used magical arts in that
city, and led astray the people of Samaria, declaring that he himself
was some great one, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the
greatest, saying, This is the power of God, which is called great..."
Irenaeus goes on to say " In fine, they have a name derived from
Simon, the author of these most impious doctrines, being called
Simonians; and from them "knowledge, falsely so called," received its
beginning, as one may learn even from their own assertions." "They"
are the followers of Simon. Here Ignatious is quoting part of I
Timothy 6: 20. Irenaeus ends his discussion of Simon in saying "The
successor of this man was Menander, also a Samaritan by birth, and he,
too, was a perfect adept in the practice of magic. He affirms that the
primary Power continues unknown to all, but that he himself is the
person who has been sent forth from the presence of the invisible
beings as a saviour, for the deliverance of men.
The world was made by angels, whom, like Simon, he maintains to have
been produced by Ennoea." Hasting's Dictionary of the Apostolic
Church, Vol. 2, p. 496: "But it need NOT be supposed that when Simon
broke with the Christians HE RENOUNCED ALL HE HAD LEARNED. It is more
probable that he carried some of the Christian ideas with him, and
that he wove these into a system of his own. This system did contain
some of the later germs of Gnosticism. Thus he became a leader of a
retro-grade sect, perhaps nominally Christian, and certainly using
some of the Christian terminology but in reality anti-Christian and
exalting Simon himself to the central position which Christianity was
giving to Jesus Christ" I Timothy 6: 20 and I John 4: 3, at least,
seem to deal with the problem of gnosticism. I Timothy 6:20 says "O
Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane
and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called."
"Science" is from "gnosis" and could have been translated as
"knowledge." Paul might be warning Timothy to stay away from
gnosticism which promotes a kind of "knowledge" that is false. Then, I
John 4:3 could be warning about the gnostic teaching that Jesus Christ
could not have taken on the flesh of man in the incarnation. John says
"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh is not of God: and this is the spirit of antichrist..." The
gnostics of the second and third centuries had the spirit of
antichrist.
And - though there are many different kinds of gnosticism -the
contemporary New Age Occult Movement is a continuation of aspects of
that early gnosticism. And so it too is the spirit of antichrist. It
has infiltrated some of the churches as a kind of religious mysticism
that is not authentically led by the Holy Spirit. Here is the link for
all five of the Irenaeus Books of Against Heresies:
Early Church Fathers
In order to determine the extent to which there are gnostic influences
in the particular
wordings of the Westcott-Hort Greek text, and in its recent English
translations, some knowledge of the gnosticism of the second and third
centuries A.D. is necessary. Often the omission of words and parts of
sentences in the Westcott-Hort Greek and in its English translations -
as compared to the Textus Receptus and the KJV - is consistent with
gnostic teachings.
There were different versions of gnosticism that made some use of
Christian terminology and which deceived some Christians in the
second and third centuries. And even a few early church fathers like
Origen of Alexandria, Egypt may have been in part influenced by
gnosticism. The effect of believing gnostic teachings is to bring
doubt about the basic doctrines of the Bible, which must have been
Satan's reason for inspiring the gnostics to hold forth as they did.
Gnostics thought that the Supreme Father is remote and unknowable.
He/she created supernatural beings called Aeons. One of the Aeons was
Sophia - wisdom in Greek - who gave birth to the "inferior" creator
being gnostics call the Demiurge. The Demiurge then created the
material world gnostics said was evil, corrupt and flawed. To
gnostics, the demiurge is the God of the Old Testament, seen by them
as evil, rigid, and lacking in compassion. Many gnostics said the
pride, ignorance and incompetence of the demiurge caused the sorry
state of the world as we know it.
Valentinus, a gnostic leader in Alexandria, Egypt taught that the
supposedly evil physical universe was created because of a mistake by
Sophia.
But in Genesis 1: 4-25 God says several times that the material
universe and the earth which he created was good, not evil. For the
gnostics to say the physical earth and material universe are evil is
an insult to God. One of the major gnostic movements was founded by
Valentinus whose dates are about 100 to 153 AD. Tertullian (about 155
to 230) AD wrote a book opposed to the teachings of Valentinus,
Adversus Valentinianos.
Irenaeus (about 130 to 200 AD) writes about the gnosticism of
Valentinus in his book Against Heresies. See
Early Church Fathers for online texts of the five
books of Against Heresies. Irenaeus' Against Heresies contains a
number of quotes from the New Testament, many of which are identical
or almost exactly the same as wordings in the King James Version.
Scholars say he wrote this book in about 180 AD. Only fragments of the
original Greek text of Against Heresies have survived, though one web
site claims much of Book One has survived. A complete Latin
translation from 380 AD has survived. There are more than one English
translations of the Latin, such as that by Alexander Roberets and
James Donald (1867). Esoteric or secret teachings were passed on in
private by Jesus to his apostles, so says Valentinus. Valentinus
quotes Luke 8: 9-10 "The knowledge about the secrets of the kingdom of
heaven has been given to you, but to the rest it comes by means of
parables so that they may look but not see and listen but not
understand."(Luke 8:9-10 See. Ireneus Against Heresies 1:3:1). This
information is found at:
Brief Summary of Valentinian Theology - Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition
Also, Valentinus claims that when Paul met the risen Christ on the
Road to Damascus (Acts 9:9-10), he received this secret knowledge from
Jesus. Valentinus says Theudas gave Valentinus the secret knowledge
and that Theudas received it from the Apostles. The gnostic Valentinus
taught that the scriptures are not easily understood and their truth
can only be had by those who have the secret gnostic knowledge
(Irenaeus Against heresies Book Three, Chapter Two, paragraph One).
Valentinian gnostics thought that the secret knowledge is understood
only by those who are spiritually mature. The Valentinians claimed
that the gnostic knowledge is nonsense to those who are not ready to
receive them. They said Paul and other Apostles only gave these
teachings to those who were spiritually mature.
What Valentinus and his followers created was a false religion which
stole some of the terminology of Christianity. The gnostics tried to
make themselves an elite caste who were the only ones having the
correct knowledge which was said to be necessary to be saved at death
from the evil material world. Since they were not spiritually
regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they were arrogant in their assumed
elite status as the sole bearers of the truth.
In Revelation 2: 15 Christ says the church at Pergamos held to the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which he hates. It may be that Christ
hated the doctrine of the Nicolaitans because they engaged in pagan
ceremonies and orgies and because they were proud in their assumed
status as a religious ruling elite.
Irenaeus and some other early Fathers said some of the gnostics
engaged in pagan practices and did not follow Christian morals. As a
movement that claimed to be a religious elite possessing secret
knowledge, the gnostics were probably like the Nicolaitans in trying
to rule as an elite group over others as. The lesson for us from this
is that there should be no elite, no priesthood, among Christians.
Valentinian gnostics made a distinction between the human Jesus and
the divine Christ. They thought the human Jesus was born as the
biological son of Mary and Joseph. When he was baptized by John the
Baptist, the "Spirit of the Thought of the Father" descended on him in
the form of a dove, He was born of the Spirit.
Brief Summary of Valentinian Theology - Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition
This account seems to suggest that the gnostics thought Jesus became
fully spiritual as a savior at his baptism.
Other gnostics said that the savior, who came from the spiritual world
of the Eternal Father, could not have entered the material world and
taken on human flesh because the material world and human flesh are
evil. See: Gnostic Corruptions in the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament
The gnostics differentiated between the human Jesus and the spiritual
Christ. Some said that the evil material world causes a corruption of
the spiritual state and so Christ as pure spirit could not become
human flesh in the material world. Those of the gnostic movements who
followed the Docetism of Julius Cassianus believed that Christ was
pure spirit and only appeared to be in human flesh.
Arianism, as taught by Arius, said that Jesus was a created being and
not God. These false teachings about Jesus Christ are also blasphemy,
as is the teaching that salvation is not by the blood atonement of
Christ, but by obtaining secret knowledge. And remember, for the
gnostics, salvation is not being set free from the domination of sin
and given eternal life with Christ. For them, salvation is liberation
at death from the bondage to the material world. This implies a form
of reincarnation which some gnostics taught.
There is some hint that Origen (184–253 A.D), the Alexandarian
Christian theologian who influenced Augustine, and the Catholics,
elevated the immaterial or spiritual world far above the material
world, and his opposition to the Chiliasm, or belief in a thousand
year reign of the saints with Christ on the material earth, is part of
this regard for the material world as being "crude." Its possible the
Alxandarian gnostics influenced Origen to reject the material world
more than did the earlier Church Fathers who generally held to the
view that Christ would reign on the physical earth following the end
of the age.
Marcion (about 85 to 160 AD), another important gnostic, said Jesus
was a spirit and was not in the flesh. Marcion rejected the baby
stories about Jesus and on his crucifixtion and resurrection. Marcion
thought the Eternal Father took pity on humanity and sent Christ, as
spirit alone, to rescue some men from the material world and from the
God of the Old Testament. Gnostics did not want to acknowledge that
Jesus Christ took on human flesh in the material world. If it was some
of the gnostics who removed words and phrases from some verses of the
Greek New Testament, in the copies associated with Alexandria, Egypt
then this rejection of the teaching that Christ took on human flesh
could account for some of these omissions on the topics of the deity
of Christ and his incarnation. The omission of some words and parts of
sentences from the Alexndarian Greek texts, the Sianaticus and
Vaticanus could have been the word of Christian scribes who might have
been influenced to some extent by the Gnostics. But the shorter
wordings of the Alexandarian type Greek manuscripts, and the omission
of certain key words that is consistent with gnostic theology occurs
earlier than the fourth century as shown by earlier Papyri fragments
of the New Testament.
See http://www.uv.es/~fores/programa/majorityvscritical.html
Many Papyri fragments of the New Testament contain Byzantine readings,
that is, the verse wordings are more similar to the Byzantine Greek
text than to the Alexandarian text, used by Westcott and Hort. "Harry
Sturz discusses these "distinctively Byzantine" readings in his
book, The Byzantine Text-Type and New Testament Textual Criticism."
"The most important of these discoveries was several Egyptian papyri.
Sturz lists "150 distinctively Byzantine readings" found in these
papyri. Included in his list are papyri numbers 13, 45, 46, 47, 49,
59, 66, 72, 74, and 75 (pp.61, 145-159)."
What Sturz is saying is that many early Papyri Greek texts agree with
the verse wordings of the Byzantine or Textus Receptus type Greek text
more than with the Alexandrian or Westcott-Hort type Greek text.
"Sturz concludes, "In view of the above, it is concluded that the
papyri supply valid evidence that distinctively Byzantine readings
were not created in the fourth century but were already in existence
before the end of the second century and that, because of this,
Byzantine readings merit serious consideration" (p.69)."
"Aland says all but one of the these early papyri, "... are from Egypt
where the hot, dry sands preserved the papyri through the centuries."
Meanwhile, in Asia Minor and Greece (eastern areas), "... the climate
in these regions has been unfavorable to the preservation of any
papyri from the early period" (pp.59,67)."
The writer of this site then says "So it is not surprising many early
papyri have been found which reflect the Alexandrian text since this
text existed in Egypt. But even some of these Egyptian papyri, as
mentioned above, contain Byzantine and even Western readings."
The Papyri fragments indicate that Alexandarian wordings existed prior
to the fourth century - and importantly, the more recently discovered
papyri going back as far as the second century show Byzantine or Textus
Receptus type wordings, something which Westcott and Hort did not know.
The second and third century gnostics did not accept the Genesis
account saying that man and the earth degenerated as a result of the
sin of Adam and Eve. For the gnostics, the material world was evil
from its creation. Again, this insults the Lord. There may have been
some gnostics around during the first century when Paul, John and
other apostles wrote. Irenaeus in Against heresies, Justin Martyr in
Apologies and Hippolytus in Philosophemena all wrote abut a Simon
Magnus who was a heretic and perhaps an early gnostic. Irenaeus in
Against Heresies (wrote about 182-188 A.D.) devotes all of chapter 23
of Book One to Simon Magus. He said that Emperor Claudius honored
Simon Magus with a statue because of his magic. Irenaeus says that
Simon taught that he appeared to the Jews as the Son, to the
Samaritans as the Father, and to other nations as the Holy Spirit.
Tertullian in Against All Heresies (200-210 A.D) also devotes the
first chapter to discussing Simon Magus. Tertullian says that Simon
called himself "The Supreme Virtue", and that his successor was
Menander.
Tertullian also says in A Treatise on the Soul ch.34, that Simon
devoted his energies to destroying the truth after Peter rebuked him.
Hippolytus in The Refutation of All Heresies book 6 chapters 2-7,
(225-235/6 A.D.) goes into Simon's pseudo-Platonic nonsense. In Book
One Chapter 23 of Against Heresies, Irenaeus has a lot to say about
Simon Magnus. He said: "Simon the Samaritan was that magician of whom
Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, says, "But there was
a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime used magical arts in that
city, and led astray the people of Samaria, declaring that he himself
was some great one, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the
greatest, saying, This is the power of God, which is called great..."
Irenaeus goes on to say " In fine, they have a name derived from
Simon, the author of these most impious doctrines, being called
Simonians; and from them "knowledge, falsely so called," received its
beginning, as one may learn even from their own assertions." "They"
are the followers of Simon. Here Ignatious is quoting part of I
Timothy 6: 20. Irenaeus ends his discussion of Simon in saying "The
successor of this man was Menander, also a Samaritan by birth, and he,
too, was a perfect adept in the practice of magic. He affirms that the
primary Power continues unknown to all, but that he himself is the
person who has been sent forth from the presence of the invisible
beings as a saviour, for the deliverance of men.
The world was made by angels, whom, like Simon, he maintains to have
been produced by Ennoea." Hasting's Dictionary of the Apostolic
Church, Vol. 2, p. 496: "But it need NOT be supposed that when Simon
broke with the Christians HE RENOUNCED ALL HE HAD LEARNED. It is more
probable that he carried some of the Christian ideas with him, and
that he wove these into a system of his own. This system did contain
some of the later germs of Gnosticism. Thus he became a leader of a
retro-grade sect, perhaps nominally Christian, and certainly using
some of the Christian terminology but in reality anti-Christian and
exalting Simon himself to the central position which Christianity was
giving to Jesus Christ" I Timothy 6: 20 and I John 4: 3, at least,
seem to deal with the problem of gnosticism. I Timothy 6:20 says "O
Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane
and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called."
"Science" is from "gnosis" and could have been translated as
"knowledge." Paul might be warning Timothy to stay away from
gnosticism which promotes a kind of "knowledge" that is false. Then, I
John 4:3 could be warning about the gnostic teaching that Jesus Christ
could not have taken on the flesh of man in the incarnation. John says
"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh is not of God: and this is the spirit of antichrist..." The
gnostics of the second and third centuries had the spirit of
antichrist.
And - though there are many different kinds of gnosticism -the
contemporary New Age Occult Movement is a continuation of aspects of
that early gnosticism. And so it too is the spirit of antichrist. It
has infiltrated some of the churches as a kind of religious mysticism
that is not authentically led by the Holy Spirit. Here is the link for
all five of the Irenaeus Books of Against Heresies:
Early Church Fathers
