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Patrology — Topic 6

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Patrology — Topic 6

6.1 Gnostics

Gnosticism is so called because the basic premise of its teaching was the

notion of mystical knowledge (“Gnosis”), which its representatives supposedly possessed and in which the main content of their teaching lie.

At the same time, the Gnostics strove for syncretism, i.e. the mixing of various religious and worldview elements in their teaching, the main of which were: the religiosity of Middle Eastern cults, Greek philosophy, Greek mysteries, and all this in a mixture with New Testament and Church vocabulary in general. Gnosticism, with its universalism, tried to create a synthesis that would find room for Christ, Revelation, Scripture, the Church, secret knowledge, as well as for Greek myths, philosophy and secret cults of the East. Gnosticism as a whole was very variegated, diverse and difficult to classify.

The preconditions of Gnosticism began to take shape in pre-Christian times, in Hellenistic epoch, when Alexander the Great conquered a huge territory of the East and the Greek culture poured out to the vast expanses of the Orient - Egypt, Syria, Persia, Judaea - and here it entered into complicated interaction with Oriental cultures and religions, including Judaism and Zoroastrianism. The process of religious, cultural, philosophical synthesis and blending began, which was then reflected in Gnosticism. Gnosticism was extremely literary prolific: its representatives created apocryphal Gospels, acts and apocalypses, which overshadowed the canonical books of the New Testament in their number.

A) Simon the Magician

The first prominent Gnostic is considered to be Simon the Magician, a contemporary of the apostles. He lived in the first century, was a native of Samaria, and is mentioned in the book of Acts (Acts 8:9-24). Simon’s teacher was Dositheus, who, according to some reports, claimed to be the Messiah, and his disciple was Menander. Simon himself developed the doctrine of the progressive fall of the spirit into matter and the necessity of its subsequent deliverance from this material power.

B) Basilides

Basilides is the first major representative of Gnosticism. He was a teacher at Alexandria, lived at the time of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, i.e. in 120-145, and wrote a “gospel”, of which only a fragment has survived, and a commentary on this “gospel”, of which also only a fragment has survived. St. Irenaeus of Lyon gives a brief description of Basilides’ system.

He conceived that from the unborn Father was born the Mind, from the Mind the Word, from the Word the Mind the Wisdom and Power, from them the rulers and angels, these angels successively created 365 heavens according to the number of days in the year. The angels occupying the lower heaven, visible to us, arranged our visible world. After creating this world and people, the angels divided these nations among themselves and began to rule. But the unborn Father, seeing the sad fate of these nations of this last peripheral world - sends his original Mind, Christ, into it to deliver those who believe in him from the power of the world’s creators, the rulers of the world.

Basilides also had a peculiar Christology - this “Gnostic Christ,” without actually being incarnated, appeared in the form of a man, performed miracles - but did not suffer on the cross, and made Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross, suffer on the cross. “The Gnostic Christ” created the appearance of himself in Simon, but meanwhile he himself took the form of Simon of Cyrene, and stood there, seeing Simon of Cyrene being crucified, and laughed to himself. Thus we can see the completely anti-Christian conclusions - the denial of the Incarnation of God and the prohibition against honoring the crucified Lord.

It follows from such doctrinal Christology that, if Christ did not suffer, then martyrdom is also futile, its adherents, Basilides says, can avoid and do not suffer for confessing Christ. From this attitude towards martyrdom stemmed a corresponding attitude towards the pagan sacrifices to which the pagans compelled Christians. Basilides had the rule that pagan sacrifices to idols were nothing, and therefore could be done without much harm to salvation.

C) Valentinus

Valentinus was a more significant Gnostic. Irenaeus says in his “Against Heresies” that Valentinus came to Rome, flourished under Pope Pius (150-155) and stayed there until Pope Anicetes (155-160). He was born in Egypt and studied in Alexandria. Like some other Gnostic teachers, beginning his activity in the East and gaining fame there, he arrived in the West, in Rome. From here, after organizing his school and staying for some time, Valentinus left for Cyprus.

Valentinus’ teaching is more popular and more accessible than that of Basilides. Valentinus taught about the so-called “Pleroma” (fullness), consisting of “aeons” - divine beings arising from a process of “emanation,” that is, outpouring. God, in whom the aeons of Depth and Silence abide, separates from himself a series of differently sexed aeons, thirty in all. Pleroma is contrasted by Valentinus with kenoma, the emptiness that is beyond “fullness.” The last of the eons - Wisdom or Sophia - finds herself too distant from her Father, and generates a burning desire to know the Father closer, rushes towards the Father, but here she will inevitably perish, since the “deep” Father is unknowable and unattainable.

Valentinus divided people into three kinds: 1. carnal or material ones, 2. soulful ones and 3. spiritual ones. The soulful, if they believe and do good works, will be saved in a certain middle place together with the Demiurge, who is soulful; the material ones are doomed to perish together with the material world in the fire, but the spiritual, the pneumatics (Gnostics themselves) are predestined to salvation, entering Pleroma, where they will become angels, and possessing this secret saving knowledge in fullness.

D) Marcion

Marcion of Pontus was perhaps the most dangerous of all the other Gnostics to the Church. He was the son of a bishop from Sinope. While still in Sinope, he was apparently excommunicated by his father. Then he traveled to Rome, he began to preach his doctrine to Christians, he was again excommunicated, and then he founded his own “church”. The danger of Marcion’s teaching was that he did not create a “fantasy” about aeons. On the contrary, his teaching was closely related to the subject of the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament. By the middle of the fifth century there were still many Marconite communities in the East.

The basis of Marcion’s teaching is the doctrine of two Gods. The first God is a spiritual God, absolutely good, dwelling in the third heaven. The second God is a lower God, a Demiurge. This Demiurge is a belligerent zealot-God, who is narrated in the Old Testament, he, according to Marcion, arranges all kinds of wars between nations and performs very cruel “miracles,” commands the extermination of peoples, etc. Such commands could not be attributed to a higher, spiritual God.

According to Marcion, the apostles, being Jews, perverted the teaching of Christ by introducing Jewish elements into it, which are the influence of the Demiurge. This is why God called the Apostle Paul to renew this apostolic tradition. But, again, the Apostle Paul’s epistles were also distorted by the Jews, so he did not accept all of Paul’s epistles. In his work, Marcion rejected the Old Testament, collecting various negative expressions to prove that the God of the Old Testament was not the true God, but a demiurge.

6.2. St. Irenaeus of Lyon

Irenaeus was born in Asia Minor, and was most likely a Greek. He himself testifies that at an early age he heard Polycarp of Smyrna. Although he says about himself in his writings that he did not try to acquire an external, i.e. Hellenic education, nevertheless the texts of Irenaeus contain quotations from Homer, Hesiod, Pindar and Plato.

There were close connections between the churches of Asia Minor and the West - that is, Rome and Gaul. In 177-178, St. Irenaeus was sent to Rome to settle the question of the Montanists. The trip to Rome saved Irenaeus this time from execution, because Lyon Christians had become martyrs during the cruel persecution of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Upon returning to Lyon, St. Irenaeus became the bishop of that city. He is known to have sent a letter to Pope Victor exhorting him not to break Church peace with the Churches of Asia Minor over the question of the day of the celebration of Easter. It is generally accepted that St. Irenaeus died a martyr’s death between 202 and 203 under Septimius Severus.

The main work of St. Irenaeus is entitled “Denunciation and Refutation of False Knowledge” or “Against Heresies”. Other minor works by St Irenaeus have also been preserved. There is an ancient Armenian translation of his work “Proof of Apostolic Preaching” of an apologetic-catechetical character.

The treatise “Against Heresies” consisting of 5 books was written against heretics in Gaul - “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who “not only threatened to kidnap the sheep, but have already seduced many women ”.

The first book of the treatise contains a description of all the Gnostic doctrines of the time. In the second book St. Irenaeus refutes the heretical doctrines mainly in terms of common sense and the internal contradictions of these doctrines themselves, as well as the contradictions between them. In the third, fourth and fifth books, St. Irenaeus proceeds to refute the heretics from the standpoint of Christian Church teaching, which he sets forth here.

The main task of St. Irenaeus was, firstly, to “uncover”, that is to say, to tear off the veil of mystery from Gnostic teaching and show its true content, and secondly, by comparing this teaching with the Apostolic Tradition, preserved in the Church, to refute it in the light of the Gospel and Church teaching. St. Irenaeus, who wrote his work for 10 to 20 years, collected a great deal of material on the Gnostic sects. Irenaeus shows the essence of the “sacraments” of the Gnostics, how and what they actually believe. Irenaeus criticizes the Gnostic views from various points of view: on the basis of principles of sound reason and on the basis of the Apostolic Tradition and Church teaching.

St Irenaeus indicates the sources of Gnostics’ views as Pagan myths and philosophy. In them he sees the main component of Gnosticism. On the contrary, Irenaeus asserts that nothing can be accomplished in the world apart from God. Nor could any change or development take place in the being of God apart from His will, as is the case in Valentine’s pleroma. He contrasts the orthodox Christians and the Gnostics and comes to the paradoxical conclusion he writes that Christ, of whom the Church teaches, leads his disciples by the way of knowing the Father, while the Gnostic Christ made the aeons perfect by commanding them not to seek the Father.

The Gnostics recognized the church sources of doctrine partially, and considered their own secret Gnostic tradition, which was allegedly transmitted by Christ to some of His disciples, as their highest sources. Therefore, a clear criterion was required in the antignostic polemic as to what did and did not count as gospel:

“It is impossible that there are more or fewer gospels than there are. For since the four countries of the world in which we live, and the four great winds, and since the Church is scattered over the whole earth, and since the pillar and establishment of the Church is the Gospel and the Spirit of life, it must have four pillars, broadcasting incorruption and reviving people from everywhere”.

Irenaeus not only lists the four Gospels and proves this obligatory quaternity, but also links the Gospels closely to the person of Jesus Christ. Irenaeus also clarifies the Church’s view of the Old Testament, according to which there is complete agreement in both Testaments and both lead Christians to salvation. The foundation of the unity of the two Testaments is the unity of God and His Revelation. The same God is revealed in both Testaments, for in His essence He is always the same. However, according to St. Irenaeus, the Old Testament contained the image of the New Testament, the image of the future in the establishments of the Law, which had also an educational value. The New Testament abolishes the Old Testament’s rites, but it does not abolish the essence of the Old Testament, for the moral commandments remain essentially the same. Therefore, the moral freedom inherent in the New Testament, which the Gnostics stumbled over in attributing the New Testament to a different God than that revealed in the Old Testament, from Irenaeus’ point of view requires even greater responsibility and fear of sin than in the Old Testament.

But in order to understand Scripture properly, one needs Holy Tradition, and here St. Irenaeus expounds on the doctrine of the Church. Since the Gnostics, like the Christians, relied on Scripture and Tradition, it is important for Irenaeus to distinguish clearly the sources of Christianity from the sources of Gnosticism. Here, too, St. Irenaeus appeals to the principle of antiquity: “The Apostles are older than all these heretics, for there were no Valentinians before Valentine, and no Marcionites before Marcion”. Irenaeus lists the entire succession of bishops of the Roman Church from the apostles to the days of St. Irenaeus. “In this order and in this succession from the Apostles, the tradition of the Church and the preaching of the truth have come down to us. And this is the most complete proof that the same life-giving faith has been preserved in the Church from the Apostles until now”. St. Irenaeus understands the transmission of the undistorted Tradition of the Church through the generations as both the transmission of the Tradition from the Apostles through the bishops and the successive transmission of the gifts of the Holy Spirit for the undisturbed preservation of truth in the Church.

As for the Gnostics, St. Irenaeus attributes them all to Simon the Magician, and therefore they are not related to the apostles of the Church.

In order, however, to prevent the Gnostics from mentally distorting the meaning of the baptismal creed, as they attempted to penetrate into the church milieu, St. Irenaeus elaborated the “rule of faith”. Thus the Church, though scattered throughout the universe, is one, united in virtue of the truth which she possesses in her tradition and in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The heretics have no such unity, “the traces of their doctrine are scattered here and there without any agreement or connection. In the Church, on the other hand, there is the same firm tradition from the Apostles, the same faith… all accept the same God the Father, and believe in the same Mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, and know the same gift of the Spirit, keep the same commandments, and maintain the same pattern of the Church, and expect the same return of the Lord, and allow the same salvation of all man, i.e. of soul and body”.

It is important for St. Irenaeus to affirm the truth that all three Persons of the Holy Trinity participated in the creation of the world and that God is not divided into Creator (demiurge) and Savior, but the same One who both creates and saves.

In his anthropology St. Irenaeus polemized with the Gnostics, who proclaimed the doctrine of three kinds of men - spiritual, psychic and bodily. But St. Irenaeus teaches that there is no such distinction, that all men have the same soul, that the soul animates and moves the body, the body is a tool, but the soul is the master, the soul is the vital principle in man. Neither the body, nor the soul, nor the spirit of which man is composed, are self-sufficient, but only their union forms the perfect man. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the spirit is the Spirit of God dwelling in man, the soul can either follow the spirit to God and to spiritual perfection or down to the body. The cause of bodily death is the original sin. According to St. Irenaeus, death cannot be regarded as the world’s greatest evil, but is instead a work of God’s mercy. According to St. Irenaeus, “God cursed not Adam himself, but the earth in relation to his works, as one of the ancients said: “God transferred the curse to the earth, lest it should not touch man,” in punishment man received the tedious labor of tilling the earth, lest men should perish entirely, having been cursed by God, and become despised by God, and become despised by God, being left without reproach.”

Christ passed through all the stages of human life, sanctified them, and when He died He conquered death and became the Prince of Life, His soul went down to hell as an ordinary man. Christ disobeyed the devil and yet perfectly obeyed the Father, thereby restoring man’s moral unity with God, which had been broken by Adam’s sin. In addition, the Incarnation of the Son of God re- united man with the incorruptible Divine nature.

St. Irenaeus speaks about the essential importance of the Church Sacraments for the salvation of man as follows:

“For just as dry wheat cannot be made into one mass and one bread without moisture, so we, being originally a dry tree, would never have produced the fruit of life without the voluntary irrigation from above. For our bodies have received unity through the bath leading to incorruption, and the soul through the Spirit”. St. Irenaeus sees a clear connection between the Church’s Sacrament of the Eucharist and the dogma of the Resurrection rejected by the Gnostics: “Our doctrine is according to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist, in turn, confirms the doctrine. For we offer to Him that which is His, consistently proclaiming the communion and unity of flesh and spirit. For just as the bread of the earth, after the call of God upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two things, earthly and heavenly, so our bodies, receiving the Eucharist, are no longer perishable, having the need of resurrection”.

Irenaeus’ eschatology is as follows. After death, the souls of the righteous and spiritual men are sent to paradise, where they will remain until the end of the ages, the same place Apostle Paul was also taken to. The end of the world will be preceded by world tribulation and the coming of the Antichrist. “Tribulation is necessary for those who are saved, so that in some way those who are rubbed out, refined, and through patience imbued with the Word of God and purified by fire may be fit for the royal feast”.

The resurrection must be preceded by the coming of the Antichrist. As Christ accomplished recapitulation, i.e. became the Head of all the blessed, so the Antichrist will serve as a recapitulation of all the evil. The Antichrist will be of the tribe of Dan and therefore will sit in the rebuilt Temple of Jerusalem. The Antichrist will unify all evil, and will abolish idolatry so that he himself will be worshipped as God, but after three and a half years “the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds in the glory of the Father, and the Antichrist and all who obey him will be sent into the lake of fire”. After that, there will be the resurrection of the righteous and the millennial reign of Christ on earth. The righteous will be resurrected and will remain 1000 years in the Kingdom of Christ on earth, which Irenaeus sees in the Gospel: blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, Christ with his disciples will drink new wine in the Kingdom of the Father - hence the inheritance of the earth and the Resurrection of the disciples. Jerusalem will be rebuilt, the land will show amazing fertility, and the animals will be peaceful and meek. After the end of the 1000-year kingdom there will be a general resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment. (This eschatology is called ‘millenarist’ or ‘chiliastic’, and was not approved by later Fathers, even inspite of the authority of Saint Irenaeus.)

Gnosticism is so called because the basic premise of its teaching was the

notion of mystical knowledge (“Gnosis”), which its representatives supposedly possessed and in which the main content of their teaching lie.

A) Simon the Magician

B) Basilides

C) Valentinus

D) Marcion

  • 6.1 Gnostics
    • 6.2. St. Irenaeus of Lyon

Church Authors against Gnostics

Irenaeus of Lyon

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