While it would be rash to assert positively that no existing gems were the work of Gnostics, there is no valid reason for attributing any or all of them to such an origin.

In his writing against the Gnostics, who claimed to possess a secret oral tradition from Jesus himself, Irenaeus maintained that the bishops in different cities are known as far back as the Apostles — and none were Gnostic — and that the bishops provided the only safe guide to the interpretation of Scripture.

During this period the doctrines of human depravity and the inherently sinful nature human flesh were taught by Gnostics, and orthodox Christian writers took great pains to counter them.

They had accepted the teaching of Paul of Samosata, though at a later period the name of Paul was believed to be that of the Apostle ; and they were not quite free from the Dualistic principle of the Gnostics, at a later period too much identified with the teaching of Mani, by Photius, Petrus Siculus, and other authors.

In this Baur attempts to prove that the false teachers mentioned in the Second Epistle to Timothy and Epistle to Titus are the Gnostics, particularly the Marcionites, of the 2nd century, and consequently that the Pastoral Epistles were produced in the middle of the 2nd century in opposition to Gnosticism.

Bookseller, Freemason and Illuminist Friedrich Nicolai ( 1733 – 1811 ), in Versuch über die Beschuldigungen welche dem Tempelherrenorden gemacht worden, und über dessen Geheimniß ( 1782 ), was the first to claim that the Templars were Gnostics, and that " Baphomet " was formed from the Greek words βαφη μητȢς, baphe metous, to mean Taufe der Weisheit, " Baptism of Wisdom ".

Following Nicolai, he argued, using as archaeological evidence " Baphomets " faked by earlier scholars and literary evidence such as the Grail romances, that the Templars were Gnostics and the " Templars ' head " was a Gnostic idol called Baphomet.

Such deviations from the moral law were criticized by proto-orthodox rivals of the Gnostics, who ascribed various aberrant and licentious acts to them.

Ritual ceremonies around an altar are common in paganism, and ritual prayer dances around an altar were practiced by early Christians, especially Gnostics, before the practice was condemned as a heresy by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 A. D. ( See Nibley, " The Early Christian Prayer Circle ", page 41.

His beloved expressions were Gharib غريب and Mutawahhid متوحد, two approved and popular expressions of Islamic Gnostics.

The Gnostics were a rather diverse group of early movements finding a basis often in Christianity or Judaism.

In 1 Corinthians 3: 2, Paul goes on to state ' I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it, for you are still of the flesh, which Gnostics interpret as the suggestion that the Corinthians were still Hylic ( i. e. had not passed even the first level of understanding ).

The doctrines of Marcion were so similar to the Gnostics that the church father Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp in the 180s regarded him as one of them.

Although the Christians and Jews state that only Noah was saved, the Gnostics stated that “ THEY hid themselves in the ark ”, implying that there were more people than just Noah ( 29: 6 ).

Therefore, the Gnostics with the Apocryphon of John are trying to state that Moses basically got everything wrong and everyone else ( the Christians and Jews ) were being duped by the demiurge and not the true Divine Father.

A noteworthy point is that in the 1st to 4th centuries, Gnostics were not called Gnostics nor did they believe that they were not Christian.

So prominent was her place amongst some Gnostics that some schools were designated as Barbeliotae, Barbēlō worshippers or Barbēlōgnostics.

A Christian concerned to emphasize that people would be physically resurrected rather than merely spiritually forged 3 Corinthians to counter what the Gnostics were saying, presumably because their argument was gaining much ground.

Gnostics were condemned as heretics, and prominent Church fathers such as Irenaeus of Lyons and Hippolytus of Rome wrote against Gnosticism.

In the absence of other evidence to show the origin of these curious relics of antiquity the occurrence of a name known as Basilidian on patristic authority has not unnaturally been taken as a sufficient mark of origin, and the early collectors and critics assumed this whole group to be the work of Gnostics.

Against the Gnostics, who said that they possessed a secret oral tradition from Jesus himself, Irenaeus maintained that the bishops in different cities are known as far back as the Apostles — and none of them was a Gnostic — and that the bishops provided the only safe guide to the interpretation of Scripture.

Irenaeus pointed to Scripture as a proof of orthodox Christianity against heresies, classifying as Scripture not only the Old Testament but most of the books now known as the New Testament, while excluding many works, a large number by Gnostics, that flourished in the 2nd century and claimed scriptural authority.

Marcionites held maltheistic views of the God of the Hebrew Bible ( known to some Gnostics as Yaltabaoth ), that he was inconsistent, jealous, wrathful and genocidal, and that the material world he created was defective, a place of suffering ; the God who made such a world is a bungling or malicious demiurge.

Gnostics also took to a more gnostic interpretation the phrase though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more in 2 Corinthians 5: 16 as indicative of Paul's progress from Hylic, rather than the understanding of Christ's time being in the past.

However, later in the work, he argues against the Gnostics that faith, not esoteric knowledge, is required for salvation.

He also attacks them as elitist and blasphemous to Plato for the Gnostics despising the material world and its maker.

Plotinus, for example, attacked the Gnostics for vilifying Plato's ontology of the universe contained in Timaeus, and the universes ' creation by the demiurge.

Gnostics suggest that Jesus kept some of his teachings secret within the circle of his own disciples, and deliberately obscured their meaning by the use of parable, for example, Mark 4: 11-12:

A primary difference between Marcionites and Gnostics was that the Gnostics based their theology on secret wisdom ( as, for example, Valentinius who claimed to receive the secret wisdom from Theudas who received it direct from Paul ) of which they claimed to be in possession, whereas Marcion based his theology on the contents of the Letters of Paul and the recorded sayings of Jesus — in other words, an argument from scripture, with Marcion defining what was and was not scripture.

And finally at the very apotheosis of the literary-alchemical opus in which he delivers his three factors for determining truth, namely authority, reason and experience ; Vulcan here representing the demi-urge or " higher man " who, not unlike the Gnostics, " Man of Light ", uses his craftmanship and skills to aid, enlighten and liberate the Spiritual Man within.

Gnostics viewed scripture as allegory, only serving a literal meaning to Hylic ( i. e. uninitiate ) people, partly for the purpose of advertising.

Gnostics also took death to be symbolic for the death of the part of a person tied to the demiurge, and the consequential resurrection as a new entirely spiritual being, understanding resurrection as an awakening of spiritual enlightenment.

It is not mere thirst for knowledge that impels the Gnostics, but essentially a concern of salvation ; because the Gnostic's salvation depends on the possession of the Gnosis respecting these things.

) They suggest that, at some point, groups of Christians who had only experienced the Outer Mysteries were split off from the elders of the religion and forgot that there had ever been a second initiation, and that, later, when they encountered groups who had retained the Inner Mysteries, the " Literalist Christians " attacked the " Gnostics " for claiming what the Literalists saw as false knowledge and false initiations.

The Gnostics considered the most essential part of the process of salvation to be this personal knowledge, in contrast to faith as an outlook in their world view along with faith in the ecclesiastical authority.

This is part of a belief held by some Gnostics that Jesus was not of flesh, but only took on the appearance of flesh ( see also Basilides and Irenaeus and Swoon hypothesis ).

The " Primal Man " of the Elcesaites, was also, according to the conception of these Jewish Gnostics, of huge dimensions ; viz., ninety-six miles in height and ninety-four miles in breadth ; being originally androgynous, and then cleft in two, the masculine part becoming the Messiah, and the feminine part the Holy Ghost.

Gnostics thus interpreted Paul's statements, that the Old Testament acts as our examples in 1 Corinthians 10: 6 and that For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life in 2 Corinthians 3: 6, as supporting this view, with understanding more important than rigid adherence.

In Epistle to the Galatians 1: 15 and 1: 16 Paul states of his conversion that God revealed his Son in me, rather than to me, which Gnostics interpret as a reference to Christ being the divine gnosis sent to save humanity, rather than a physical creature or person.

It is thought that the argument of the Gnostics won so much ground that some orthodox Christians felt the need to forge 3 Corinthians to counter them.

When Jesus is questioned further on this point, he becomes quite angry, suggesting that the pseudonymous author of the epistle found the Gnostics ' stance both offensive and infuriating.