Gnosticism

Gnosticism is a term used to describe systems of religion, often within Christianity but sometimes outside it, in which knowledge (Greek gnosis) is a key feature in human redemption. The world is seen as evil, created by another god than the supreme God, and humanbeings are imprisoned in it.

But there is a divine spark within them and knowledge of this can liberate them.

Key Gnostic teachers during the second century, when Gnosticism begins, are Basilides and Carpocrates in Alerxandria, Marcion and Valentinus in Rome and Cerinthus in Asia Minor.

Their precise dates are not known, nor have their writings been preserved . There are also groups with names such as Sethites('people of Seth', the son of Adam) and Ophites ('snake people'). Gnosticism proves to be a major rival to the mainstream church and is apposed by Irenaeus of Lyons (,c.130). Clement of Alexandria (..c.150), Origen(.c.185), Hippolytus of Rome (>c.170) and Epiphanius of Salamis (>c.315),who quote Gnostic works, albeit in a hostile context. In 1945 a library of Gnostic text from the third and fourth centuries is found at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egipt.