Gnostizismus
Gnostizismus Gnosis
Gnosticism[1] is a collection of different religious and philosophical ideas and systems that fully developed by the mid-second century among sects of early Christianity and other faiths.[2][3] It is not a singular, homogeneous tradition or religion, but an umbrella term used by modern scholars to describe different groups and beliefs that shared certain characteristics.[4]
These diverse Gnostic groups generally emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the authority, traditions, and proto-orthodox teachings of organized religious institutions.[5] The Gnostic worldview typically distinguished between a hidden, uncorrupted supreme being and a flawed demiurge responsible for creating material reality. Gnostics held this material existence to be evil and believed the principal element of salvation was direct knowledge of the supreme divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.[6]
Although the exact origins of Gnosticism cannot be traced,[7] Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean during the second century.[8] In the Gnostic Christian tradition, Christ was seen as a divine being that had taken human form in order to lead humanity back to recognition of its own divine nature. Judean–Israelite Gnosticism, including the Mandaeans and Elkesaites, blended Jewish–Christian ideas with Gnostic beliefs focused on baptism and the cosmic struggle between light and darkness. Syriac–Egyptian groups like Sethianism and Valentinianism combined Platonic philosophy and Christian themes, seeing the material world as flawed but not wholly evil. Other traditions include the Basilidians, Marcionites, and Thomasines. Manichaeism, which adopted Gnostic concepts such as cosmic dualism, emerged as a major religious movement in the third century, briefly rivaling Christianity.[9]
Early Church Fathers denounced Gnostic ideas as heresy, although early Gnostic teachers such as Valentinus saw themselves as Christians.[10] Efforts to destroy Gnostic texts were largely successful, resulting in the survival of very little writing by Gnostic thinkers and theologians.[11] After declining in the western Mediterranean, Gnosticism persisted in the Near East until at least the sixth century, remaining influential as far as China until the late ninth century. Gnostic ideas resurfaced periodically in medieval Europe with groups like the Paulicians, Bogomils, and Cathars. Islamic and medieval Kabbalistic thought also reflect some Gnostic ideas, while modern revivals and discoveries of Gnostic texts have influenced numerous thinkers and churches up to the present day. Gnosticism survives through Mandaeism, an ancient Middle Eastern religion sometimes described as a Gnostic sect or tradition.[12] The second contemporary religion that may be regarded as a continuation of ancient Gnosticism, particularly Sethianism and Ophitism, is Yezidism, originally practised in northern Mesopotamia, between Mosul, Mount Sinjar and Mardin.[13]
For centuries, most scholarly knowledge about Gnosticism was limited to the biased, anti-heretical, and often incomplete writings of early Christian figures such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome. There has been a renewed interest in Gnosticism since the 1945 discovery in Egypt of the Nag Hammadi library, a collection of rare early Christian and Gnostic texts. Surviving Gnostic writings, such as the Gospel of Thomas and the Apocryphon of John, reveal a very diverse and complex early Christian landscape. Some scholars believe Gnosticism may contain historical information about Jesus from the Gnostic viewpoint,[14] although the majority conclude that apocryphal sources, Gnostic or not, are later than the canonical sources or may have depended on or used the Synoptic Gospels.[15][16][17] Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Middle Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts.[11]
Since the 1990s, scholars have debated whether "Gnosticism" is a form of early Christianity; an artificial category created by early orthodox Christians to label heresies; or a distinct religious tradition in its own right.[18][19][20] Academic studies of Gnosticism have evolved from viewing it as a Christian heresy or Greek-influenced aberration to recognizing it as a diverse set of movements with complex Jewish, Persian, and philosophical roots. Consequently, modern scholars question the usefulness of "Gnosticism" as a unified category and favor more precise classifications based on texts, traditions, and socio-religious contexts.[4]
Etymology
Main article: Gnosis
Gnosis is a feminine Greek noun which means "knowledge" or "awareness".[21] It and the associated verb are often used for personal knowledge, as compared with intellectual knowledge (Greek verb εἴδειν eídein). A related term is the adjective gnostikos, "of or for knowledge",[22] a reasonably common adjective in Classical Greek.[23]
By the Hellenistic period, it began also to be associated with Greco-Roman mysteries, becoming synonymous with the Greek term mysterion. Consequentially, Gnosis often refers to knowledge based on personal experience or perception.[citation needed] In a religious context, gnosis is mystical or esoteric knowledge based on direct participation with the divine. In most Gnostic systems, the sufficient cause of salvation is this "knowledge of" ("acquaintance with") the divine. It is an inward "knowing", comparable to that encouraged by Plotinus (neoplatonism), and differs from proto-orthodox Christian views.[24] Gnostics are "those who are oriented toward knowledge and understanding – or perception and learning – as a particular modality for living".[25] The usual meaning of gnostikos in Classical Greek texts is "learned" or "intellectual", such as used by Plato in the comparison of "practical" (praktikos) and "intellectual" (gnostikos).[note 1][subnote 1] Plato's use of "learned" is fairly typical of Classical texts.[note 2]
Sometimes employed in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible, the adjective is not used in the New Testament, but Clement of Alexandria[note 3] who speaks of the "learned" (gnostikos) Christian quite often, uses it in complimentary terms.[26] The use of gnostikos in relation to heresy originates with interpreters of Irenaeus. Some scholars[note 4] consider that Irenaeus sometimes uses gnostikos to simply mean "intellectual",[note 5] whereas his mention of "the intellectual sect"[note 6] is a specific designation.[28][note 7][note 8][note 9] The term "Gnosticism" does not appear in ancient sources,[30][note 10] and was first coined in the 17th century by Henry More in a commentary on the seven letters of the Book of Revelation, where More used the term "Gnosticisme" to describe the heresy in Thyatira.[31][note 11] The term Gnosticism was derived from the use of the Greek adjective gnostikos (Greek γνωστικός, "learned", "intellectual") by St. Irenaeus (c. 185 AD) to describe the school of Valentinus as he legomene gnostike haeresis "the heresy called Learned (gnostic)".[32][note 12]
Origins
The origins of Gnosticism are obscure and still disputed. Alexandria was central to the birth of Gnosticism. Gnosticism is strongly influenced by Middle Platonism and its theory of forms.[34][35][36] Elaine Pagels has noted the influence of sources from Hellenistic Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Middle Platonism on the Nag Hammadi texts.[11] The Christian ecclesia (Ancient Greek: ἐκκλησία, lit. 'assembly') originated within Jewish Christianity, but also attracted Greek members, and various strands of thought were available, such as "Judaic apocalypticism, speculation on divine Wisdom, Greek philosophy, and Hellenistic mystery religions."[37] The proto-orthodox Christian groups called Gnostics a heresy of Christianity.[note 13][39]
While rejecting the underlying framing that proto-orthodox Christianity is the 'original' and 'true' Christianity from which Gnosticism and other so-called 'heresies' then deviated, scholars such as Simone Pétrement[40] and David Brakke[41] have argued that Gnosticism originated as an intra-Christian movement, being one of several responses to the life, death, and presumed resurrection of Jesus, with Pétrement tracing it specifically to tendencies in the letters of Paul and the Gospel of John.[42] Within early Christianity, the teachings of Paul the Apostle and John the Evangelist may have been a starting point for Gnostic ideas, with a growing emphasis on the opposition between flesh and spirit, the value of charisma, and the disqualification of Jewish law (Halakha). The mortal body belonged to the world of inferior, worldly powers (the archons), and only the spirit or soul could be saved. The term gnostikos (γνωστικός, 'knowing') may have acquired a deeper significance here.[37]
Other modern scholars hold that Gnosticism arose within Second Temple Judaism and later incorporated stories about Jesus into pre-existing speculation about a cosmic savior and Philo's contemporary Jewish interpretation of Middle Platonic thought about the demiurge and the logos.[43][44][45][46][47][note 14][48] A small minority of scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Buddhism, given some similarities in beliefs.[49]
Some scholars prefer to speak of "gnosis" when referring to first-century CE ideas that later developed into Gnosticism, and to reserve the term "Gnosticism" for the synthesis of these ideas into a coherent movement in the second century.[50][51] According to James M. Robinson, no Gnostic texts clearly predate Christianity,[note 15] and "pre-Christian Gnosticism as such is hardly attested in a way to settle the debate once and for all."[52]
Jewish Christian origins
See also: Origins of Christianity and Split of Christianity and Judaism
Recent scholarship has emphasized the origins of Gnosticism within Judaism rather than in Persia.[53][46][47][note 14] E. S. Drower argues, "heterodox Judaism in Galilee and Samaria appears to have taken shape in the form we now call Gnostic, and it may well have existed some time before the Christian era."[54]: xv
Many heads of Gnostic schools were identified by the Church Fathers as Jewish Christians, and Hebrew words and names of God were used in some Gnostic systems.[55] The cosmogonic speculations among Christian Gnostics had partial origins in Maaseh Breshit and Maaseh Merkabah. This thesis is most notably put forward by historians Gershom Scholem (1897–1982) and Gilles Quispel (1916–2006). Scholem detected Jewish gnosis in the imagery of merkabah mysticism, which can also be found in certain Gnostic documents.[53] Quispel viewed Gnosticism as an independent Jewish development, tracing its origins to Alexandrian Jews (to whom Valentinus was also connected).[56]
Many of the Nag Hammadi texts make reference to stories and characters from the Hebrew Bible, in some cases with a violent rejection of the Jewish God.[47][note 14] Gershom Scholem once described Gnosticism as "the greatest case of metaphysical anti-Semitism",[57] though modern Jewish scholar Steven Bayme argues Gnosticism would be better characterized as anti-Judaism.[58] However, recent research into the origins of Gnosticism shows a strong Jewish influence, particularly from Hekhalot literature.[59]
Angel christology
Regarding the angel Christology of some early Christians, Darrell Hannah notes:
[Some] early Christians understood the pre-incarnate Christ, ontologically, as an angel. This "true" angel Christology took many forms and may have appeared as early as the late First Century, if indeed this is the view opposed in the early chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Elchasaites, or at least Christians influenced by them, paired the male Christ with the female Holy Spirit, envisioning both as two gigantic angels. Some Valentinian Gnostics supposed that Christ took on an angelic nature and that he might be the Saviour of angels. The author of the Testament of Solomon held Christ to be a particularly effective "thwarting" angel in the exorcism of demons. The author of De Centesima and Epiphanius' "Ebionites" held Christ to have been the highest and most important of the first created archangels, a view similar in many respects to Hermas' equation of Christ with Michael. Finally, a possible exegetical tradition behind the Ascension of Isaiah and attested by Origen's Hebrew master, may witness to yet another angel Christology, as well as an angel Pneumatology.[60]
The pseudepigraphal Christian text Ascension of Isaiah identifies Jesus with angel Christology:
[The Lord Christ is commissioned by the Father] And I heard the voice of the Most High, the father of my LORD as he said to my LORD Christ who will be called Jesus, 'Go out and descend through all the heavens...[61]
The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian literary work considered as canonical scripture by some of the early Church fathers such as Irenaeus. Jesus is identified with angel Christology in parable 5, when the author mentions a Son of God, as a virtuous man filled with a Holy "pre-existent spirit".[62]
Platonic influences
See also: Platonic Academy, Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism and Christianity
In the 1880s, Gnostic connections with Platonism were proposed.[63] Ugo Bianchi, who organised the Congress of Messina of 1966 on the origins of Gnosticism, also argued for Orphic and Platonic origins.[56] Gnostics borrowed significant ideas and terms from Platonism,[64] using Greek philosophical concepts throughout their text, including such concepts as hypostasis (reality, existence), ousia (essence, substance, being), and demiurge (creator God). Both Sethian Gnostics and Valentinian Gnostics seem to have been influenced by Plato, Middle Platonism, and Neopythagorean academies or schools of thought.[65] Both schools attempted "an effort towards conciliation, even affiliation" with late antique philosophy.[66]
The Gnostics were strongly opposed by Plotinus and later Neoplatonists, who rejected their radical dualism and pessimistic view of creation. In his work Against the Gnostics (Enneads II.9), Plotinus criticized Gnostic cosmology, arguing that the material world was not inherently evil but rather a reflection of the One through a series of divine emanations. Neoplatonists such as Porphyry and Proclus continued this critique, defending the Demiurge as a benevolent force and emphasizing the soul's ascent to the divine through intellectual and contemplative purification, rather than through esoteric knowledge (gnosis) alone. While Neoplatonism retained some mystical and hierarchical elements that paralleled Gnostic thought, it ultimately positioned itself as an alternative, philosophical path to transcendence that was rooted in classical Greek rationalism rather than Gnostic revelation.[67]
Persian origins or influences
Early research into the origins of Gnosticism proposed Persian origins or influences, which spread to Europe and incorporated Jewish elements.[68] According to Wilhelm Bousset (1865–1920), Gnosticism was a form of Iranian and Mesopotamian syncretism,[63] and Richard August Reitzenstein (1861–1931) situated the origins of Gnosticism in Persia.[63]
Carsten Colpe (b. 1929) has analyzed and criticised the Iranian hypothesis of Reitzenstein, showing that many of his hypotheses are untenable.[69] Nevertheless, Geo Widengren (1907–1996) argued for the origin of Mandaean Gnosticism in Mazdean (Zoroastrian) Zurvanism, in conjunction with ideas from the Aramaic Mesopotamian world.[56]
However, scholars specializing in Mandaeism such as Kurt Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macúch, Ethel S. Drower, James F. McGrath, Charles G. Häberl, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, and Şinasi Gündüz argue for a Judean–Israelite origin. The majority of these scholars believe that the Mandaeans likely have a historical connection with John the Baptist's inner circle of disciples.[54][70][71][72][73][74][75][76] Charles Häberl, who is also a linguist specializing in Mandaic, finds Palestinian and Samaritan Aramaic influence on Mandaic and accepts Mandaeans having a "shared Palestinian history with Jews".[77][78]
Buddhist parallels
Main article: Buddhism and Gnosticism
In 1966, at the Congress of Median, Buddhologist Edward Conze noted phenomenological commonalities between Mahayana Buddhism and Gnosticism,[79] in his paper Buddhism and Gnosis, following an early suggestion put forward by Isaac Jacob Schmidt.[80][note 16] The influence of Buddhism in any sense on either the Gnostikos Valentinus (c. 170) or the Nag Hammadi texts (3rd century) is not supported by modern scholarship, although Elaine Pagels called it a "possibility".[84]
Characteristics
Cosmology
The Syrian–Egyptian traditions postulate a remote, supreme Godhead, the Monad.[85] From this highest divinity emanate lower divine beings, known as Aeons. The Demiurge arises among the Aeons and creates the physical world. Divine elements "fall" into the material realm and are latent in human beings. Redemption from the fall occurs when humans obtain Gnosis, esoteric or intuitive knowledge of the divine.[86]
Dualism and monism
See also: Nontrinitarianism
Gnostic systems postulate a dualism between God and the world,[87] varying from the "radical dualist" systems of Manichaeism to the "mitigated dualism" of classic Gnostic movements. Radical dualism, or absolute dualism, posits two coequal divine forces, while in mitigated dualism one of the two principles is in some way inferior to the other. In qualified monism the second entity may be divine or semi-divine. Valentinian Gnosticism is a form of monism, expressed in terms previously used in a dualistic manner.[88]
Moral and ritual practice
Gnostics tended toward asceticism, especially in their sexual and dietary practice.[89] In other areas of morality, Gnostics were less rigorously ascetic and took a more moderate approach to correct behavior.[citation needed] In normative early Christianity, the Church administered and prescribed the correct behavior for Christians, while in Gnosticism, it was the internalized motivation that was important.[citation needed] Ptolemy's Epistle to Flora described limited fasting, but maintained that true "spiritual" fasting would be to refrain from everything bad.[note 17] For example, ritualistic behavior was not seen to possess as much importance as other practices, unless it was based on a personal, internal motivation.[91]
Female representation
The role women played in Gnosticism is still being explored. The very few women in most Gnostic literature are portrayed as chaotic, disobedient, and enigmatic.[92] However, the Nag Hammadi texts place women in roles of leadership and heroism.[92][93][94]
Concepts
Monad
Main article: Monad (Gnosticism)
In many Gnostic systems, God is known as the Monad, the One.[note 18] God is the high source of the pleroma, the region of light. The various emanations of God are called æons. According to Hippolytus, this view was inspired by the Pythagoreans, who called the first thing that came into existence the Monad, which begat the dyad, which begat the numbers, which begat the point, begetting lines, etc.
Pleroma
Main article: Pleroma
Pleroma (Greek πλήρωμα, "fullness") refers to the totality of God's powers. The heavenly pleroma is the center of divine life, a region of light "above" (the term is not to be understood spatially) our world, occupied by spiritual beings such as aeons (eternal beings) and sometimes archons. Jesus is interpreted as an intermediary aeon who was sent from the pleroma, with whose aid humanity can recover the lost knowledge of its divine origins. The term is thus a central element of Gnostic cosmology.
The term pleroma is also used in the general Greek language, and it is used by the Greek Orthodox church in this general form, since the word appears in the Epistle to the Colossians. Proponents of the view that Paul was actually a Gnostic, such as Elaine Pagels, interpret the reference in Colossians as a term that must be understood in a Gnostic sense.[citation needed]
Emanation
Main article: Emanationism
The Supreme Light or Consciousness descends through a series of stages, gradations, worlds, or hypostases, becoming progressively more material and embodied. In time, it will turn around to return to the One (epistrophe), retracing its steps through spiritual knowledge and contemplation.[clarification needed][citation needed]
Aeon
Main article: Aeon (Gnosticism)
In many Gnostic systems, the aeons are the various emanations of the superior God or Monad. Beginning in certain Gnostic texts with the hermaphroditic aeon Barbelo,[95][96][97] the first emanated being, various interactions with the Monad occur which result in the emanation of successive pairs of aeons, often in male–female pairings called syzygies.[98] The numbers of these pairings varied from text to text, though some identify their number as being thirty.[99] The aeons as a totality constitute the pleroma, the "region of light". The lowest regions of the pleroma are closest to the darkness, that is, the physical world.[citation needed]
Two of the most commonly paired æons were Christ and Sophia (Greek: "Wisdom"); the latter refers to Christ as her "consort" in A Valentinian Exposition.[100]
Sophia
Main article: Sophia (Gnosticism)
In Gnostic tradition, the name Sophia (Σοφία, Greek for "wisdom") refers to the final emanation of God, and is identified with the anima mundi or world-soul. She is occasionally referred to by the Hebrew equivalent of Achamoth[dubious – discuss] (this is a feature of Ptolemy's version of the Valentinian Gnostic myth). Jewish Gnosticism with a focus on Sophia was active by 90 AD.[101] In most, if not all, versions of the Gnostic myth, Sophia gives birth to the demiurge, who in turn brings about the creation of materiality. The positive and negative depictions of materiality depend on the myth's depictions of Sophia's actions. Sophia is described as unruly and disobedient, which is due to her bringing a creation of chaos into the world.[94] The creation of the Demiurge was an act done without her counterpart's consent. Because of the predefined hierarchy between them, this action contributed to the narrative that she was unruly and disobedient.[102]
Sophia, emanating without her partner, resulted in the production of the Demiurge (Greek: lit. "public builder"),[103] who is also referred to as Yaldabaoth and variations thereof in some Gnostic texts.[95] This creature is concealed outside the pleroma;[95] in isolation, and thinking itself alone, it creates materiality and a host of co-actors, referred to as archons. The demiurge is responsible for creating humanity, trapping elements of the pleroma stolen from Sophia within human bodies.[95][104] In response, the Godhead emanates two savior aeons, Christ and the Holy Spirit; Christ then takes on material form in the figure of Jesus, in an act of divine embodiment, in order to teach humans how to achieve gnosis, by which they may return to the pleroma.[105]
Demiurge
The term demiurge derives from the Latinized form of the Greek term dēmiourgos, δημιουργός, literally "public or skilled worker".[note 20] This figure is also called "Yaldabaoth",[95] "Saklas" (Syriac: sækla, "the foolish one"), or "Samael" (Aramaic: sæmʻa-ʼel, "blind god"), who is sometimes ignorant of the superior god, and sometimes opposed to it; thus in the latter case he is correspondingly malevolent. Other names or identifications are Ahriman, El, Satan, and Yahweh.
The demiurge creates the physical universe and the physical aspect of human nature.[107] The demiurge typically creates a group of co-actors named archons who preside over the material realm and, in some cases, present obstacles to the soul seeking ascent from it.[95] The inferiority of the demiurge's creation may be compared to the technical inferiority of a work of art, painting, sculpture, etc., to the thing the art represents. In other cases, Gnosticism takes on a more ascetic tendency to view material existence negatively, which then becomes more extreme when materiality, including the human body, is perceived as evil and constrictive, a deliberate prison for its inhabitants.
Moral judgments of the demiurge vary from group to group within the broad category of Gnosticism, ranging from viewing materiality as inherently evil to seeing it as merely flawed, as good as its passive constituent matter allows.[108]
Archon
Main article: Archon (Gnosticism)
In late antiquity, some variants of Gnosticism used the term archon to refer to several servants of the demiurge.[104] According to Origen's Contra Celsum, a sect called the Ophites posited the existence of seven archons, beginning with Iadabaoth or Ialdabaoth, who created the six that follow: Iao, Sabaoth, Adonaios, Elaios, Astaphanos, and Horaios.[109] Ialdabaoth had a head of a lion.[95][110]
Other concepts
Other Gnostic concepts are:[111]
sarkic – earthly, hidebound, ignorant, uninitiated. The lowest level of human thought is the fleshly, instinctive level of thinking.
hylic – lowest order of the three types of humans. They cannot be saved, since their thinking is entirely material and incapable of understanding the gnosis.
psychic – "soulful", partially initiated. Matter-dwelling spirits
pneumatic – "spiritual", fully initiated, immaterial souls escaping the doom of the material world via gnosis.
kenoma – the visible or manifest cosmos, "lower" than the pleroma
charisma – gift, or energy, bestowed by pneumatics through oral teaching and personal encounters
logos – the divine ordering principle of the cosmos; personified as Christ.
hypostasis – literally "that which stands beneath" the inner reality, emanation (appearance) of God, known to psychics
ousia – the essence of God, known to pneumatics. Specific individual things or being.
Jesus as Gnostic saviour
Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the earth,[112][105] while others adamantly denied that the supreme being came in the flesh, claiming Jesus to be merely a human who attained enlightenment through gnosis and taught his disciples to do the same.[113] Others believed that Jesus was divine but did not have a physical body, reflected in the later Docetist movement. Among the Mandaeans, Jesus was considered a mšiha kdaba or "false messiah" who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist.[114] Still other traditions identify Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, and Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, as salvific figures.
Development
Perkins suggests a tripartite periodization for the development of Gnosticism.[115] Perkins argues for a late-first to early second century development of Gnostic ideas contemporary to the New Testament, but while some scholars still claim Gnostic tendencies in John, such a paradigm is likely flawed given that the oldest text certainly known to be Gnostic, the Apocrypha of John, is from the mid-second century.[2] Christian Gnosticism did not fully develop until the mid-2nd century, when 2nd-century Proto-Orthodox Christians concentrated much effort in examining and trying to refute it.[116] The mid-second century to early third century saw the high point of the classical Gnostic teachers and their systems, "who claimed that their systems represented the inner truth revealed by Jesus."[115] From the end of the second century to the fourth century, a reaction by the proto-orthodox church and condemnation as heresy led to a subsequent decline.
During the first period, three types of tradition developed:[115]
Genesis was reinterpreted in Jewish milieux, viewing Yahweh as a jealous God who enslaved people; freedom was to be obtained from this jealous God;
A wisdom tradition developed, in which Jesus' sayings were interpreted as pointers to an esoteric wisdom, in which the soul could be divinized through identification with wisdom.[115][note 21] Some of Jesus' sayings may have been incorporated into the gospels to put a limit on this development. The conflicts described in 1 Corinthians may have been inspired by a clash between this wisdom tradition and Paul's gospel of crucifixion and resurrection;[115]
A mythical story developed about the descent of a heavenly creature to reveal the Divine world as the true home of human beings.[115] Jewish Christianity saw the Messiah, or Christ, as "an eternal aspect of God's hidden nature, his "spirit" and "truth", who revealed himself throughout sacred history".[37]
The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths,[118] and the Persian Empire. It continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but decline also set in during the third century, due to the rise of proto-orthodoxy and the economic and cultural deterioration of the Roman Empire.[119] Conversion to Islam, and the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though Mandaean communities still exist in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities. Gnostic and pseudo-Gnostic ideas became influential in some of the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier Gnostic groups.