Gnosticism taught that salvation came from gnosis, secret knowledge, and Gnostics did not see Jesus as a savior but a revealer of knowledge.

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 ).

" But like the Gnostics, Marcion believed that the Jewish God Yahweh had created the world, was lesser in status to the unreachable higher God, and was evil, see also Dualism.

The text is thought to be from the Sethian sect of Gnostics ( the sect that viewed the biblical Seth as their hero, who was reincarnated as Jesus ).

The text is thought to be a 3rd century development of the Sethian Gnostics, as they became more separated from Christianity, and closer to Platonism.

The text is thought to be from the Sethian sect of Gnostics, the sect who view biblical Seth as their hero, who was reincarnated as Jesus.

In 1818, the name Baphomet appeared in the essay by the Viennese Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, Mysterium Baphometis revelatum, seu Fratres Militiæ Templi, qua Gnostici et quidem Ophiani, Apostasiæ, Idoloduliæ et Impuritatis convicti, per ipsa eorum Monumenta (" Discovery of the Mystery of Baphomet, by which the Knights Templars, like the Gnostics and Ophites, are convicted of Apostasy, of Idolatry and of moral Impurity, by their own Monuments "), which presented an elaborate pseudohistory constructed to discredit Templarist Masonry and, by extension, Freemasonry itself.

The fragmentary quotation is given by Hippolytus as expressing the fundamental ideas of the Naassene Ophites, and possibly of all Gnostics.

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.

Examples include the Gnostics ( who had believed in an esoteric dualism called gnosis ), the Ebionites ( who denied the divinity of Jesus ), and the Arians ( who subordinated the Son to the Father by denying the pre-existence of Christ, thus placing Jesus as a created being ).

Gnostics believed that since the world was intrinsically evil, so was anything the human body did.

Central to all Gnostic philosophy was an individual attainment of spiritual understanding and experience rather than one based on dogma, they often had decentralized church structure and given that Gnostics believed we are all divine and one within the " fullness " they had a strong emphasis on equality.

Following the Platonic view analogous to Plato ’ s Allegory of the Cave, the Gnostics believed that there was some type of higher truth and higher being of themselves.

Although Jesus himself preached that he was the son of the God in the Old Testament, the Gnostics believed that he was the son of the True Divine Father and his consort Barbelo.

The central point of Irenaeus ' theology is the unity and the goodness of God, in opposition to the Gnostics ' division of God into a number of divine " Aeons ", and their distinction between the utterly transcendent " High God " and the inferior " Demiurge " who created the world.

To other Gnostics, the emanations are akin to the Sephiroth of the Kabbalists-description of the manifestation of God through a complex system of reality.

Mainstream Christian theology sees these as references to Satan (" the Devil "), but Gnostics, Marcionites, and Manicheans saw these as references to Yahweh ( God ) himself.

Nicolai " attached to it the idea of the image of the supreme God, in the state of quietude attributed to him by the Manichean Gnostics ", says F. J. M.

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.

* Simon Magus, a Gnostic who claimed to be an incarnation of God ( as conceived by the Gnostics ), reportedly had the ability to levitate, along with many other magical powers.

Gnostics also referred to the demiurge as the mediator between God ( whom they considered the only being to be singular and whole, and thus also referred to as Monad ), and creation ( which they considered intrinsically evil, rather than evil as the consequence of some human error ).

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.

# Historical problem: The Gnostics Basilides and Valentinus first proposed creatio ex nihilo on the basis of assuming the inherently evil nature of creation, and in the belief that God does not act in history.

Like Marsenes and Allogenes, the text concerns a vision received by a man named Zostrianos and explains and enumerates, in great detail, the emanations that the Gnostics said are produced by God ( the true, highest, god ), in the Gnostic's esoteric cosmology.

Allogenes proceeds to describe how he overcame fear and ignorance, and ascended to the esoteric realm of the God of the Gnostics.

Irenaeus characterizes the Gnostics as the pneumatici who have a perfect knowledge of God, and have been initiated into the mysteries of Achamoth.

* Abrasaxtes, or stones originating in ancient forms of worship, and adapted by the Gnostics

It was used as a magical formula by the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune.

" Their doctrines have numerous resemblances to those of the Bogomils and the earlier Paulicians as well as the Manicheans and the Christian Gnostics of the first few centuries AD, although, as many scholars, most notably Mark Pegg, have pointed out, it would be erroneous to extrapolate direct, historical connections based on theoretical similarities perceived by modern scholars.

The term was subsequently adopted by the Gnostics.

When it is employed by other Gnostics either it is not used in a technical sense, or its use has been borrowed from Valentinus.

Jesus is identified by some Gnostics as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the earth.

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.

In the passage of Adversus Haereses under consideration, Irenaeus is clear that after receiving baptism at the age of thirty, citing Luke 3: 23, Gnostics then falsely assert that " He preached only one year reckoning from His baptism ," and also, " On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age.

" Irenaeus argues against the Gnostics by using scripture to show that Jesus lives at least several years after his baptism by referencing 3 distinctly separate visits to Jerusalem.

The concept of original sin was first alluded to in the 2nd century by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in his controversy ( written in Greek ) with the dualist Gnostics.

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.

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

The Church has always fought against this idea, beginning with its 1st and 2nd century controversies with the Gnostics of that day, including the assertion that Jesus is identified as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gnōsis to the earth, as held by some Gnostic sects.

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:

In the system of the Gnostics mentioned by Epiphanius we find, as the Seven Archons,

In addition to the doctrine of the Sefirot and the letters, the theory of contrasts in nature, or of the syzygies (" pairs "), as they are called by the Gnostics, occupies a prominent place in the Sefer Yetzirah.

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.